I lie on the wet grass and watch the moon, bright against the sky like a white sun. My friend returns from the beach with a fish in his hand. He tosses it on the grass.
“There’s a whale down there,” he says.
He stands with his hands on his hips, staring toward the sea like an explorer. I imagine the whale, big with a blockhead, like a foot without toes, shooting water from its blowhole.
“It looks like a deflated balloon,” my friend says. “One of those thick balloons with the ridges and the band attached to it.”
I turn my eyes to the sky, where they settle on Orion. The stars seem alien to me, as if I’m seeing them for the first time. The pinpoints of light stand on their own, pushing their own indentations of existence, without the need for my perception of them. My mind opens like a flower, and truth, like dew, collects on the petals. My friend notices. He says I look like I’m dying.
“How much do you think I could get for a whale tooth?” he asks me.
“Don’t do it,” I say.
“I’ll get two teeth,” he says. “One for me and one for you.”
Before I can protest, he is off again, leaping over the bluff. When he returns, he has a fish in each hand and drops them next to the others. He grabs his pack and rifles through it.
“What are you looking for?” I ask. I’m shivering now. My throat is dry, and I stare at the stars, trying to remember what they are, and how I’m supposed to see them. In my peripheral I see my friend pull a thin rope from his bag and fasten a slipknot to the end of it. Then he’s gone. I close my eyes and sleep.
When I awake, dawn touches the sky, making it ring with a bluish tinge. The stars fade, and the sky no longer seems threatening. I focus on the few stars I can still see, and wonder why I had been so frightened of them.
My friend returns empty handed. He stuffs the wet rope into his bag and sets off for the car. I want to follow him, but I can’t stand up! I’m too comfortable. I can’t stand up because I have no legs, no arms, no body. I imagine my friend at the waters edge, trying to lasso the tooth of a whale. I laugh! The sky grows brighter and my thoughts begin to fade.
