Halves of a Whole
If there was, in fact, such a place as the middle of the desert, Ignacio thought he must be there by now.
If there was, in fact, such a place as the middle of the desert, Ignacio thought he must be there by now. Not that his tracker or phone could have helped, they’d died ages ago. He laughed. He was laughing a lot, and whilst he was definitely the sort of person to make light of any situation, he thought the dehydration might have something to do with his current state of mind.
He rolled onto his back and immediately felt the glare of the sun on his face and chest. Was he ready for Death? He wasn’t sure. Although, if the afterlife was cooler, he’d take it, he thought, and laughed once more.
It had been the necklace’s fault, he knew. It was obvious to him. Had been obvious to him the moment he’d seen it. The desire for some things was indeed supernatural, beyond reason.
He felt for it around his neck and was both pleased and annoyed he found it still there, hanging onto him tenaciously, like a rabid dog. He clenched his hand around the sharpened sides but knew he wasn’t going to remove it. Instead, he lifted it up and used the pendant to cover the sun, in such hope that if he did that, the heat would also be blotted out. It felt hotter than ever.
When he next opened his eyes it was dark, and his clothes were wet. The ache in his head could shatter mountains, but he had the sense to raise the tatters of his shirt and squeeze the water caught within it into his cracked mouth.
It must have rained, he thought. Rain in the desert, it sounded like a miracle.
He drank again from the other side of his shirt and turned over. Could that be? Below him he saw a large pool of water collected in the dip between the dunes. He moved, adjusting his body in tiny increments to appease the pain in his skull, edging ever closer to the liquid.
Finally, he was close enough to touch the surface of the pool, and he watched as ripples radiated from his fingers as if he’d cast a spell over it. He inched closer, cupped the water in his hands and drank. If this was a mirage, it tasted good.
Ignacio sipped slowly at first but ended up gulping mouthfuls of it down. Afterwards, he lay on his front, fighting the urge to vomit it all back up. That would be ironic, he thought.
The nausea subsided and he struggled up onto his blistered knees and looked across what he could see of the dunes. His wasn’t the only pool. In every dip shimmered the miracle water. He wondered how long it would last. Perhaps longer than him.
He closed his eyes, crawled towards the pool until the tops of his hands were submerged, and opened them again. His face was unrecognisable, not that there was anyone to recognise it. He smiled; his laugh had vanished with the blazing sun.
Ignacio was certain he’d only ever been this weight once, somewhere in his early teens. He had grown into a man who’d loved his food, and then grown some more. He didn’t just like food, however, and his appetite for collecting was almost insatiable. Uninterested in people, he’d go to the ends of the Earth for an object he truly desired.
He saw the necklace, the pendant, reflected under his gaunt face. It still looked pretty, and he still didn’t know why. He’d made his fortune collecting and selling gold and precious stones, paintings and antiques unique and dark. The necklace was none of these.
A simple silver chain at the bottom of which hung one half of a small clam shell. It was nothing, a trinket sold in a thousand seaside tourist shops. Yet, the sight of it had gripped him and, in some way or other, led to him being there.
There was a cough from nearby. Such had been his previous delirium, Ignacio ignored it thinking it’d come from him, but when it came again, louder this time, he looked up. Across the other side of pool sat a woman in robes. It was difficult to see what she looked like. With each movement of his head, she changed appearance, ethnicity, size and shape.
“Thank you,” she said.
“I… I don’t understand,” he rasped, his voice a razorblade in his throat.
“I know,” she replied. She stood in one smooth motion and walked around the pool her gaze fixed on him the whole time.
“Am I dead?” he asked.
The woman laughed, but not unkindly.
“No. You’re the most living thing out here.”
She stopped and held out her hand. Ignacio raised his, thinking she wanted to help him up, but the woman shook her head.
“You mustn’t touch me,” she said. “I am here for the shell.”
He frowned, thinking how odd all this was. The woman, or women, were so serene. He looked at her hand, unlined, yet full of lines, and wondered if he’d reached the edge of sanity, and this vision was the fall.
“The shell, please,” the woman repeated. “It’s waited a long time.”
Ignacio reached behind his neck and undid the clasp. He took the chain with half a clam shell and placed it in the woman’s hand. She smiled and nodded a thank you.
“Everything is alive,” she said. “Once.”
The man watched as she held her other arm aloft. Ignacio thought he heard a whisper, the breath of wind on the dunes, but he couldn’t be certain. Something moved in the woman’s hand, catching his attention. Slowly, the other side of the shell reformed, a grain of sand at a time.
When both halves were together once more, it closed.
The noise became louder, and more defined. The wind whipped the sand up, and in the ensuing mini storm, the woman vanished, to be replaced by a helicopter searchlight.
Ignacio smiled, and then he laughed.
I hope you liked the story! Happy holidays to all. If you have a moment, and are a Goodreads user, and would like to review some of my books, use the link below!