Above

Chapter 3.

          "In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true." -Buddha   

             Back in the car, nothing had changed, except for the fact that Euphoria was absent.

            "What happened to her?" My mouth and mind felt sluggish, coated with honey.

            "It's night." Felicity shrugged, her eyes fixed on the beach in the distance.

            "Will she be alright?" I asked finally.

            Felicity nodded carefully. "Of course. And so will I."

            However, there were other unanswered questions. What had happened to me on the beach when everything had gone blank? Why couldn't I touch or communicate with anyone but Felicity and Euphoria?

            Where had I come from? Maybe that question could explain the rest.

            As I wondered idly, observing the landscape flying past us in the dark, I realized that I did know where I'd come from.          

            I just didn't want myself to know.

            A small memory appeared - a laugh, a smell, a sight, foreign to this place - and I would brushed away, like a horse's tail flicking away flies. It was an involuntary response, and the harder I tried to remember, the more my mind blocked me.

            "We're here!" Felicity announced. She rose as the car slowed next to a loud restaurant with light streaming through the windows.

            "Aren't you coming?" she asked brightly, offering her hand.

            Felicity's cheerfulness, no matter how forced, was contagious, and my worries were forcibly ripped from my mind.

            I had not known the girls for very long, certainly not a day, but already they felt comfortable to me, sisterly. When I wandered too far from Felicity, my senses were more alert and my questions were commandingly insistent. I was free to worry about Euphoria and wonder about the ghost-people and my past. My overwhelming curiosity made me nauseous.

            When Felicity wasn't near, sometimes the city would fall into nothingness, as it had on the beach. These times were the most frightening. I couldn't close my eyes, for I was bodiless then. The only thing that existed then was infinity. I could not think of anything more terrifying.

            Despite Felicity's strange words, her blindingly bright attitude, she made me feel completely carefree.

            We explored their city that night. It felt like them: confusing and bright and subtly sleepy. We visited stores and mountains and restaurants and lakes, each as incredible and unique as the next. We never bought anything, not even food, for I did not feel hunger here.

            The first rays of morning were just glinting off Felicity's hair when she stopped in the middle of the quiet city park. The early-morning visitors moved drowsily around us, keeping their distance, and I wondered if they were only ghost-people, as I'd encountered on the beach. But Felicity interrupted my thoughts.

            "We are going to the beach now," she told me, and her eyes were bright and alert.

            We got back into the orange vehicle. I sensed Felicity's excitement in her movements.