That time — Hive

"Do you remember that time you left?"

"I do."

"Where did you go?"

"To forever."

Tell me about that day?

Person cutout from walking on road scene

The River

"I stepped outside into the road, and fell into the water..."

Dark and deep, the tar and asphalt decided to be water. Many years of layer upon layer, for repair, for renewal and strength now pulling me under.

I let out a cry as I surfaced out of the depth, reaching at the sky. I briefly glimpsed the stars before water washed over me again. The underlying current pulling me adrift, I laid back and looked up.

Winter came and the current slowed. The surface froze over and the tar and asphalt became hard again. Hard and cold. I let the stars be and sank.

At the bottom of the river, the water stopped, and there I lived. I learned to live. I survived.

The years passed by and I kept surviving. Not staying long in one place I went forward, or it could have been back. The world beneath the river seemed to have been made for survival.

I found nutrients in almost everything, nothing tasted particularly good. The bigger surprise was that nothing tasted particularly bad either. This world beneath the river reflected my trudge.

Sometimes, someone would fall in very hard. Once I saw the image of a bridge refracting in the light. The world beneath, or is that inside. Well, it always had an eerie light, not from the day or any sense of night.

At the times when others would fall, there is a moment of light from above. It is not a lot and maybe only the absence of it makes it known, but it is there.

Whether the images are from memories and my senses were playing tricks on me. I cannot know. What happened to the people that fell. I do not know.

One day I was not particularly enjoying a rather bland carrot-like thing I found. I almost immediately washed my mouth out, but I was interrupted. A thought struck me, I picked it up. I never learn, and instead of leaving the thought puddle on the ground to try see it clearly, I grasp at it. The thought then just trickles through my fingers leaving but a drop in my palm.

I stared at the glint in my hand for a moment, then jumped up and washed my mouth. As my face emerged into the river, I decided that the carrot thing was more on the, particularly bad scale.

Landing on the damp surface beneath, I looked around me then down at the dark wet area where the thought puddle was absorbed to be part of this eerie world.

Jumping up again, higher. I felt the current of the river pull me, but where. I gathered a large mound of dirt, my height. I always wondered with the river so close to my head, what would have happened if I were taller.

Pushing into the river from my mound, I immediately got carried downstream. Then. I started to swim, letting the river know where I wanted to go. I could feel it responding. The downforce I felt before and have felt since the day I entered. Gone. Something new but old, a memory, a need, life; carried me.

I emerged where I entered, different in every way. I stood at the edge of the road, my old eyes tearing at the sight of our derelict home. The thought of repairing it and eating a real carrot alone, making me smile.

I stepped inside and quietly fetched the broom. Glancing at all your photos as I passed my smile broadened and soon tomorrow came. I lived. Then the day after came, I remembered. Then I died.

"That my dear. Is how I found forever"

_{All composite images in this post are mine and CC0, so do as you wish.

Image sources:

Man walking | Galaxy | Nebula | Other Nebula | Clouds | Stars}