The Pole Shift

Lett's Crystal

Lett lay alone in the dilapidated house. An envelope had been on the floor for days. The bodies had been taken away. Men came into the house and didn't say a word to her. They gathered them up without ceremony and left. She doubted they were the usual authorities.

                 She had taken Clarky to his bed  after the hedonists left,  differently macabre to how she had dragged his live one in. Then it was for passion, this time she gently tucked him in and brushed his blonde locks with long fingers. Her deep feelings had been contained,  cast into her vault to vie with other tragedies. She had whispered:

                "You'll live on."  Touching her stomach.

                She didn't watch when they untucked the body, put it in a bag and left. Instead she took up his creation, Mr Spooky. The crayon scrap book flopped open and Mr. Spooky said:

                "Are you afraid of spiders? Can you imagine a spider climbing up your leg right now?" She could not help but smile.  She turned the page, Mr Spooky was peering into a window, he was cleverly lit, as if a candle glowed upon his face from within the room. Mr Spooky said:

                "Are you afraid of a dracula? What if a dracula was looking through your window right now?" Lett sighed, a Dracula. Clarky's mistake threatened to overwhelm her.

                 Another day passed, the earth rumbled, and once there came an enormous crack that stunned her. A series of smaller cracks followed. She had been sure the Pole Shift had begun, and did not make a move.  She should have got in the truck, headed up into the hills, shouted for Macka. Instead she sat back with the scrap book and read it again.

                On Thursday she awoke. Her funk deep. She hurt herself to jolt her mind, like you bump an old record player that has found a scratch that it cannot escape. She watched her blood trickle, she hadn't done that for years.  She wrote her name with the scarlet, then disinfected and bound the wound. She closed her eyes for a moment then picked up the envelope and walked outside to a bright dawn.  She  looked up at the hills, they looked like they were shaking, everything was,  as if the whole universe was vibrating. She wondered if Mars was shuddering too . She opened the envelope and read:

                "Here is your help, put it in your earlobe." She held the crystal up to the light, it beamed, she could feel some sort of vibrating or was it the earthquake? She produced a very sharp finger nail blade from a hidden pocket, precisely she cut a small slit in her right earlobe then forced in the crystal with a grunt. She pinched  the wound shut until the bleeding stopped , she would tape it later. She waited. She could feel an electrical sensation, then a static noise. Finally an androgynous voice said:

                 "Hello Lett, this is Prophet."