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**
Tropical Paradise **
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Vanishing Point ***
by
Barry R. Long
part 4 of 12 (vanishing point)
Advancing
towards the door, I notice sand scattered across the floor. Paying
it no mind, I proceed to greet the visitor. The visitor was Tom,
the mate who introduced me to lover's beach. Sporting a massive
grin, he asks me “where the heck I'd been for the last
months”. “What was her name?”, he also inquired,
implying that for me to be away from my business for so long that
a woman must have been involved. I was just about to slip in a “Hi
Tom”, when he spurted out “Wow, where did you get that
rock ?”, pointing to my exposed chest. Looking down I see a
magnificent pendant with golden wings and the biggest diamond I
have ever seen nesting between them. Reaching to hold it out from
myself to get a better view, I suddenly become aware that the
pendant was fused to me, becoming part of my chest.
Gesturing
Tom to come in, I race to the bathroom and the mirror, nothing
could of prepared me for the vision I was about to behold.
Although the reflection was indeed me, it was a different me. The
odd grey hair had completely vanished, and my face had a more
youthful appearance, the skin even felt softer. And as for my
body, my skin wore a perfect olive tan and even more surprising I
now possessed washboard type abs with muscular arms. And right in
the middle of my chest shone this pendent, which sparkled like a
multitude of stars.
As one might imagine, I was left speechless
and very much puzzled, perhaps the visit to the beach wasn't a
dream after all. Recalling the comment Tom made asking where had I
been for two months, which added to the confusion, I returned to
the lounge. Tom had already fixed us both a coffee, and still
sporting a massive grin, demanded I tell him everything. As it
turns out I had a few questions of my own. First of which, where's
Barrett, my son.
Apparently Barrett had moved in with his half
brother Kethler, in a neighbouring town, after I had vanished out
of sight two months prior. Tom related that my boy was doing ok,
and still doing his studies, that was a relief. He also related
how absolutely no one had had any idea what happened to me. To add
to the mystery, I vanished at the same moment a extremely bright
light was seen in the direction of the beach. And that in fact the
beach itself had simply disappeared at the same time, leaving
cliffs which drop straight down to the ocean. Hearing this, I just
had to check it out for myself. How can a whole beach just
disappear?, for that matter, how can I of just vanished?. A heck
of a magician's trick !.
On my way to the bedroom, as I passed
my desk, I realised the photo of the lady in the bottle, had been
changed. In it's stead was a photo of her and me seated upon two
magnificent thrones, The thrones looked as though they were
constructed from pure crystal or diamond. Sitting between us and
above our heads was a singular gigantic diamond, the same size as
my chest, and upon our heads we both wore highly decorative
diamond and ruby encrusted crowns. I scarcely believed it
possible, yet she looked even more outstanding than she did in the
first picture that I had fallen for, that day back at the beach.
She radiated beauty out of every pore, with an aura that glowed as
that of an angel. Tearing my eyes away, which wasn't easy, I carry
on to the bedroom. Grabbing a shirt, and returning once again to
the lounge.
Even more perplexed as ever, Tom and I cruise off
to what was, lovers beach. When we arrived my eyes popped as the
whole beach, the lot, had vanished, just vertical cliff faces
leading straight down to the sea. Surely this isn't possible,
'beaches just don't disappear'. Still, it had, and I was looking
at the proof. With nothing more to gain by being there, we decide
to head back home. Curiously as we were leaving literally hundreds
of birds line the fences, not only that, all of them had their
heads bowed, accompanied by an eerie silence, the sea included.
Brushing the occurrence aside we return home.
Walking through
the gate we were greeted by birds everywhere, on the roof, in the
trees, across the lawn, everywhere. Though strangely enough, there
weren't any on the paths or inside the house. Starting to feel a
bit spooked by the new found popularity with our feathered
friends, we go inside and make a coffee, there was a lot to
discuss and fathom out. What the heck was this bird thing all
about?, for that matter, where's the beach?, plus what happened in
those two months?, let alone the pendant and my bod.
After
around half an hour of talking in circles, a solitary bird swoops
in, landing on the window sill, tweets, and then flies off. At the
same time as the bird was tweeting, I could hear a woman saying
there was a visitor coming. “did you hear that ?”, I
asked. “The bird?”, asked Tom. “No, the woman
saying we had a visitor coming”, I retorted. Tom looked at
me strangely, repudiating with “What woman?, you must be
hearing things”. At that we decided to indulge in another
coffee. Five minutes or so later, we were sitting down to enjoy
the coffees, when there was a ruckus of birds chirping followed by
a knock at the door. “Apparently she was right !”, Tom
exclaimed, as we both broke into laughter.
*****
Copyright:
Barry R. Long, 30th. April 2004
Published:
www.tardemstudios.co.nz - 1st. May 2004
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