Amnesia, Book 1: A Girl Lost In The Woods

<Jeanette> Chapter I: The Singing

Location Unknown

Jeanette?

Do you remember being born?

No. Of course you don’t. No one does.

What about before that? Do you remember?

Our Voices flowing around you. The excitement of the Sound. Floating in the warm—in the light. Then leaving Home. Then a silence. Then this.

So of course you don’t remember. That’s normal…

Do you think moths remember? Do you think they recall their days flightless and bound? Their time asleep in the silence of the cocoon? Being born into something else?

Of course they don’t. They’re moths…

But you…

Listen to my voice Jeanette. Listen to the Singing.

Open your eyes.

A light mist of heavenly scents surrounds you. It’s all you can see in every direction, an infinite stretch of atmosphere, endless white clouds that flux a confusion of color. You’re flying through the exosphere—so to speak—of this reality.

That feeling of joy is normal. You're exultant. And you should be. All your weakness has been smelted away.

You are golden. You are perfect in every way.

You are the Great Work.

You turn in mid-air, changing direction with a thought, soaring through the pale vastness, watching the auroral lightning in the distance, but never seeming to get any closer.

You can’t get any closer because you think that you can’t. You think that there’s a distance between you and the light. But you’re already there Jeanette. The distance is an illusion.

Very good Jeanette. You understand.

You’re in the lightstorm. You feel the colors move through you. Glow-dust surrounds you and catches the rays, sparking and fading like embers in the night. The embers slip through your skin, moving in and out like brine through a filmy gauze and for a moment you can’t tell where it ends and you begin and you think you’re swimming not flying and maybe you are.

Can’t you do both at once?

We know that it’s overwhelming, Jeanette. The Immensity was never meant for you. You’re coping beyond what we’d ever expected. The fact that you’re still Jeanette—that you kept that idea—speaks to the strength you possess.

Good job.

You needn’t say anything. We know you’re not here to play. You’ll have all the time in eternity to dance among the stars. To dance forever…

So, savor one more breath of joy. To remember this moment.

Your first moment.

The moment you are born.