The Dreamland

[Report Number: 51287305009]

“E’re since I was a lass, the water seemed to spake to me. I would enjoy most the times that we weren’t going anywhere and would find the most vibrant springs. One cloudy day, mom saw me laying in the water like a hand holding me up. She laughed, then cried…

She told me about her mother’s locket for the first time. In fact, she ne’re talked much about family…” this young woman seemed to stare at no particular place till she met my gaze. She looked quizzically through my face with her stunningly black eyes, then acknowledged my presence like a void becoming space as I sank into my metal seat as much as I could. I queried “Is there something wrong with the locket?”

“No-why would you think that?..” eyes tense, mouth and nose both working more.

“You sort of trailed off and stopped talking is all.” I gestured my face-up palm toward her waiting for her response.

“…I, uhmm..just don’t know what to think at first…she didn’t seem worried, but rather excoited. Uh, I just don’t know how to feel…” her Aussie accent sounded less Australian, so I lightly sigh and put my arm out to pat her on the back, but stopped just before touching her.

“It’s going to be alright though, your mom is in the other room being questioned as well, and we don’t have to worry about that because we are here talking now.” My words are soggy with optimism, and I make sure to shake it off and put on a lighter smile. She frowns slightly more and looks further away from me. “Really, it’s okay, we are just here to make sure you’re safe, we just need to know some of the difficult stuff…can you help me understand just what it is?” She feels my hand hovering and pushes me away with one motion of her arms as she scoots back.

“I won’t wanna tell you nothing. What would a westerner like you know about any of this?” shaking her head I follow and we stop and look at each other for once as she tries to glare, but keeps wanting to smile and I just smirk with my honest eyes. There she is. “I’m scared alrigh? I-I..don’t know what to do an-y-moorhorhorrrr…” There the young Aboriginal woman lay her head on the table and broke down. I did set my hand on her back. We sat there a while and she told me about the boy she was devoted to as she cried. She calmed quickly and then told me that he cared for her so much that they decided to not get married and just see what would happen. They would go to the spring that they considered a resting place because of something they were taught to look for as a sign for spirits “Met there, we played there, then we became one there and we made sure to check for the sign so they wouldn’t be there, but when we were leaving...I just saw the sign where it weren’t…” She stared and left her mouth ajar as if to say something.

I didn’t have anything to say so I rubbed her back and smiled when she looked at me. The young woman stood up and raised her voice “Well, what are you gonna do about it now?”

I haven’t the faintest idea as I stare into her pitted eyes “Well I know very little about your Tribe, but I have a decent understanding of the Dreamland, and if this all started here then it makes me wonder more about the spirits that you know about…Um, are you okay?” I ask intentionally calm.

“Well why am I locked up in this room and why can’t I see my mum?”

“You’re not locked in, we are just in a building that is safer from what’s going on outside…” I slowly stand up uncomfortably in my pencil skirt and suit jacket to meet her at eye level “We-” suddenly BOOM with a crash that shakes us so we have to hold onto each other for balance and then I sit right back down along with her “Your name is Adaliya, right?”

“Yes, and what was yours again?” she awkwardly smiles.

I chuckle slightly “My name is Shannon.” We slowly went from embrace till we met hands and shook each other’s. Her smile was so bright that it was as if her eyes lit up.

“Shannon, that’s pretty…my mom’s name is Kirra. She always told us that our names have meaning just like all living things, that’s what our job in life is to do. She named me because she believed that our spring was home to The Rainbow Serpent Spirit. We have always trusted in the powers that they give us and we don’t question when the rain is bad or when it’s good, it’s just as it’s supposed to be. If that’s why this is all happening then maybe it’s not anyone else’s fault, but our own..! I say that…this world is on fire, our land is thriving, but then it burns, and the spirits are fighting. That’s what all of this is, it’s nothing we can stop…” she stares again far beyond the wall and slowly brings her hands to her face, rubbing profusely.

I sort of stare blankly at her then the mirror in front of us and I mouth “tell them” and then I sigh and do the same with my face and begin to cry “You’re saying this is normal!? As I yank my head up in disbelief.

Adaliya just laughs and looks at me and then stands up as she sighs “wow, you know, I don’t even know..! Ha, I barely even understand your stupid Western getup to understand what we have to do with any of it…You don’t know anything, do you?!”

I frown and blink a few times as she just smiles irritatingly “Well what do you know? I’m here trying to make sense of it all and you tell me some lame brand excuse that it’s not your god’s fault, it’s us? Give me a break, if they were a god then they should have designed the world better! Please tell me you have a better reason..!” I smirk and chuckle with my arms crossed. I pause and get ready to open my mouth.

“Oh yeah, keep pretending shit don’t exist with what you’ve seen out there! You think that a bunch of nature would just randomly stand up and start fighting each other while destroying things?! Just get a brain then ask for the questions, or you just won’t hear the answer!”