A woman wrapped in ratty, sunbleached rags adorned with dried bits of colourful seaweed slowly approached the door of a hut made of straw and tree bark. Her mess of hair was riddled with intricately woven braids, white feathers and gray mud-sealed dreadlocks.
She hesitated before her knuckles rapped against the door frame, then stood still as the sounds of an old man rousing from a deep sleep came from inside. When the door finally opened the man looked the woman up and down, his hair was just as long and ornamented, though it had lost all pigment long ago and it mingled with an equally decorated beard.
"Marika," the man said, "why be wakin' I 'fore the light comes?"
"'Pologies, Cap'n." Marika bowed her head and put her hands together in front of her. "Rifters be comin' back, gotta catch be intristin' ya, Cap'n."
"Kinda catch?" The old Captain stood up a little straighter.
"Catch you been huntin' 'fore I bin born." Marika bowed a little lower and Captain closed his eyes with a long sigh.
"Praisin' the days and the light!" The man raised his hands into the sky, even though it was still dark. "I knowed it'd come. You be takin' I?" He looked down at Marika and she stood up straight.
"Yessir, Cap'n, sir." She turned and made her way down the beach, sure footed even in the loose dunes of soft sand.
Captain followed behind Marika, moving a little slower than she was. He looked out over the ocean and into the night sky, his eyes full of tears and dreams. The rift seemed especially beautiful to him that night, as if its brightly colored borders had been electrified.
"Delgen's hut's da place." Marika nodded over her shoulder. "closer'an a hydro glider flies."
When they reached Delgen's hut, he was waiting at the door for them. Without a word exchanged, Delgen led the Captain right to the back of his home, to the bed of palm fronds on which a rather clean looking man lie quite unconscious and mumbling to himself.
"He said a thing?" Captain asked and Delgen shook his head.
"Dat's some kinda mumbo jumbo he got." Delgen put his hand against the clean man's forehead. "Troubled dreamin' since his findin'. Not a word other'an ta scream an'such.'"
Captain knelt beside the man and pulled back the covering of woven grass. The clean man was entirely naked and Captain inspected his body. There was a scar across the right side of the man's chest and Captain ran a finger along it, humming to himself.
The man's eyes opened and he sat up like a jolt of electricity had shot through his spine.
"What? Who? Oh God!" He noticed he was naked and pulled the grass blanket back over top of him. Captain and Delgen leapt backwards in shock and the man held a defensive hand out in front of himself. "Who are you? Where am I?"
Marika almost instantly came forward with a bowl of steaming soup. Captain stopped her and took the food, then stepped forward and grabbed hold of the man's hand, putting it against his own chest and making prolonged eye contact before saying, "Cap'n," and thrusting the bowl towards the man.
"Uh. . . Okay." The man said and accepted the offer. Captain then put his own hand on the man's chest.
"You be. . . ?"
"Jericho, Hugh Jericho."
Captain laughed out loud and slapped his knee, then gestured towards Delgen, "He be Delgen. She, Marika."
"Delgen. . . Marika. . . Cap'n. . . Now, where am I?"
"Jericho," Captain said and moved a little closer, "'memberin' a thing from 'fore bein' riftside?"
YOU ARE READING
The Rift
Science Fiction"Maybe we'll start with the day the sky split open. There was this sound, like a vicious explosion that shook the building and threatened to split our eardrums. I was the first to my feet, I raced the others to the deck and we gawked at the scene be...
