Curious

Chapter 6: The Mundane Terrain

CHAPTER SIX: The Mundane Terrain

My sudden appearance in Simon's life caused his world to tip off balance. As he did not yet know who I was and the role I played in his life, he did not yet realize the full extent of the damage. To Simon, it was as if his phone vibrated with an incoming call, a sudden shaking that would momentarily disturb his existence until he pressed 'answer' or 'ignore.' Only I knew the truth. My corporeal entrance into Simon's life—and his story—would radically transform the way he saw the world. There was no going back. Even if the words could be erased, the story would remain forever, engraved in my mind.

After I left him outside the lighthouse, Simon stood in place, his hands hanging at his sides. His gaze was still focused in the direction of my departure but his eyes were blank, not looking out into the world around him, but focusing only on what was inside his mind. 

I had unnerved Simon. He no longer was so confident about the door and the world he was now in. He didn't want to explore it—any adventurous spirit had flown out of his body the moment I shattered the door. I was the bucket of icy water in the morning, making sure he woke up stone cold sober.

All he wanted to do now was go back to his bookstore on Seventh Mile. Of course, I couldn't allow him to return. After all, I had a story to tell and Simon going back to Seventh Mile was not included in the plot.

His spirits plummeted and he felt irritated at the sudden change in his demeanor. He had been enjoying himself so much before I began to make ambiguous remarks. Who was I to disturb him in his enjoyment? Wasn't I aware that he despised human interaction?

According to Simon, I had ruined everything.

(Between you and me, I wasn't very apologetic.)

No, he amended, not everything. There was still a possibility that there was another way out of this world. He couldn't lose hope so quickly. He turned back on his heel and walked back up the cliff to the lighthouse. He had to retrace his steps; somewhere along the way he would find the exit. He was sure of it. Simon climbed the stairs to the light room on the top. He had to take a break two times—one on the third landing and one on the fifth. He was so out of shape. It was obvious he'd been spending too much of his time lately sitting in the Booktique and just being idle.

Once he reached the room and the top, he searched for the cardboard box that he had climbed out before. There was no cardboard box in the room large enough to fit him but on locating it on the top of a precarious pile of paper, he saw that it was roughly the size of a ring box. There was no way he could shrink back to crawl through it at least without knowing the mechanics of shrinking.

Damn it. 

With the intent of vengeance, Simon passive-aggressively grabbed a stack of paper and opened the door to the lighthouse's balcony and threw the papers down into the blue ocean. He continued this irrational revenge until his temper had gone down and half the room's papers were floating somewhere in the sea. Three perfectly good manuscripts destroyed, just like that. Oh well. It was a good thing I had it all backed up on my hard drive in reality. 

Before he desecrated another piece of beautiful prose, he tried to get a hold of himself. [Should a specific thought/feeling make Simon stop and think about what he's doing. Something that reminds him he's an adult] Letting his anger control him like an angry toddler was not the best way to behave. He purposely put the manuscript back in its place. He was still angry but he was going to try control it. He went back out on the balcony and looked out into the ocean, the wind blew around him, sending goosebumps up and down his arms. He stayed out until he had calmed down then he came inside.