Of Dust and Dreams
Newsletter 15: Discovering what lies beneath
The well was dry. Then again, they all were. The dust had swallowed up every raindrop in a matter of years. There was no end to the search for a fresh sip and rarely one to be found. We were on the edge of nothing and it would not be long. Not long and at all.
Our home was practically a pile of stacked wood beams but it kept the dust out. And the scorpions. One had to be grateful for such providence. Neighbors had fared far worse. I stood at the kitchen sink some mornings and looked out onto the land, almost hoping to see something I hadn’t the day before. Lauren would come from behind and hold me, staring out with me, keeping the silence.
We were out of fuel for the generator and I made the two-mile walk to the gas station. Dennis was never exactly happy to see me, more relieved. I could see his body relax when I approached.
“Good to see you, friend.”
“How you?”
I cocked my head quickly, the sign for Well, you know, as good as can be expected. Pretty much surviving out here.
“There might be something.”
My ears perked up. The only something worth mentioning was water. “Where?”
“30 miles east. ‘Round Blackburn.”
“Ehh…”
“Don’t smell right, though.”
“Mmm?”
“Folks go and don’t come back.”
“No coming back from paradise.”
“Or damnation.”
I filled my gas can and headed back home. If there was water somewhere, anywhere, we had to find it. Dennis didn’t let on how much ground water he had tapped but by the look of his flaked and gray skin, it seemed the time was short for him too.
I wondered if it was too much to hope, too much to think I’d be saved by sprays of lake water or a tall, sweating glass in the hot sun. But there was little use to withering in the shade.
“We need to go to Blackburn.”
“Something out there?”
“Dennis says yes. But he doesn’t trust it.”
“Why?”
“He said people don’t come back. Maybe he thinks there’s some chasm swallowing them up. Who knows.”
“How’d he look?”
“Weak. I think he’s running out.”
Lauren twisted the drawstrings of her pants, finally looking up. “So are we.”
“Then pack up. Let’s leave early tomorrow.”
The night was cool and dark with the new moon. But in my dreams, we caught handfuls from our faucets to douse our hair and walked across green grass and watched leaves change with the seasons.
“Ready?”
Lauren nodded and turned her face away, which was misty with the only water nature could muster. Our leaning home shrunk in the distance and disappeared as we drove the miles out the Blackburn amongst a flat and unfriendly landscape.
My eye caught and patch of green and I abruptly stopped just beyond Blackburn. We both climbed out of the car to see something in the distance that looked like life. We tore across a rocky field and got closer as the valley beyond a stone ridge opened up. A whole town below was buzzing and beaming with people among colorful homes.
“My god…” I said.
We came down the ridge into the valley, racing to the edge of the town with swelling delight. This was it. We collapsed onto the grass in ecstasy.
“Shit. Ray, this grass is pricking me!”
“What?”
“The grass…”
Lauren turned over and propped herself onto her hands. We picked at the grass to find it was… fake.
“Oh, well, sweetie, they can’t use all the water on the grass. Looks nice, though.”
Lauren gripped the grass and slowly pulled it up with a scowl. She shook her head and rose to her feet.
“Let’s just see if we can find someone,” she said.
We stepped onto the main drag lined with a row of colorful stone buildings. Through the doorways were slick and even tile.
“Ray. There’s no footprints. Just ours.”
“Seems like the wind blows rough through here.”
“No Ray, there’s no one here.”
“But we saw…”
“What did we really see?”
I looked out ahead and into every open doorway hearing just that rough wind whispering. We went deeper into the town, down to what looked like a town hall.
“Hello! Hello?” Lauren called out into the darkened lobby of the building.
A stocky man scurried out to greet us, wearing a power blue, linen suit and clear glasses frames with pink-tinted lenses.
“Hello, welcome to Valencia, a small community with a lot of promise!” He chuckled, jutting out his hand.
“Pleasure…”
“Hi. Uh, listen, there’s no one out there. Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Underground, of course!”
Lauren and I quickly cut our eyes at each other.
“I’d hate to be blunt, but do you have water here?” Lauren asked.
The man leaned in with sinister grin and clasped his hands together. “Come with me.”
So what happens next? What’s underground? I don’t know yet. I just know, that like Ray and Lauren, sometimes you have to just go and see where a journey will take you. Any movement is better than withering away.
Now, not sure what this pair will find, but that’s the beauty of going full speed ahead. Feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments or email theflare@substack.com.
There’s a lot of juggling with this craft, of trying to figure out when it’s time to be an engineer or a gardener. As a plant mom, I like the idea of cultivating a garden. While it seems much less structured than the engineer model, there are some basics to get down pat before making a commitment even though it feels fluid.
The engineer model is one that I usually starts before the story really gets moving. I want a world my characters move through organically. It’s what I’m planning for a serial I’ll hopefully release later this year called “Ithaka”. There’s lot to do, some of which might never end up on the page, but which will inform the action.
For now, let’s start off with this piece, a little flower in a patch of grass.
I hid a song reference in the last newsletter. This was a tricky one, but the clue was in the title! It’s a play off the lyric “make sure you’re connected” off the song “Connected” by Stereo MC’s. While we did not have a winner, there were some interesting guesses. I have a few tracks to check out now as an added benefit.
Dropping knowledge and jokes is just what I do on Twitter. Are you not following me yet?
There’s so much to see with The Sample, which delivers a variety of newsletters catered to your interests. Everyday is something new!
Definitely makes me want to read more!
This story is excellent - just caught up on all three! Great writing 😊