To Shout Fire From The Heart

Chapter VII

The warmth of the sun covers my back with its blanket glow. The cooling ocean water hits me with each wave. The grinding sand trying to get in every nook and cranny into my body. I open my eyes to the world being sideways. I washed up on a beach, to me it looked like a normal beach. Though I have never been to the ocean it looks like the ones you would see in movies with the young beautiful teens showing their youth and sharing their smiles.

"Hun are you alive. please be alive?" I heard the voice of a middle-aged woman. Soft and with the hint of a southern charm.

I get to my feet to meet this woman's gaze and try to introduce myself. I turned around and there was no woman. A huge eye that meets me. Locked in a stare, the voice breaks the seconds of silence

"Can I help you Hun." I can tell that the voice is attached to the eye. Knocked out of my trance with each word. I get to see that the eye is attached to a cow's head in the middle of its forehead. It had no eyes on the side, but one huge one in the center. Everything looks like a normal cow should look; black, and white spots covering its face and body. The only thing that I noticed and would not really be questioned, is that the cow had a nose ring. With a gap in the middle of it and two beads covering the ends, it was made of gold.

"Hello I'm Brenda." In a kind and assertive way.

I closed my mouth and swallowed the dry sand the found my mouth.

"Hi I'm Abby." I was still dazed by her eye and my brain was bleached by the sun.

"Well hello Abby. Nice to meet your acquaintance." She closes her eye and lowers herself in a kind of bow.

"I am too." I was confused by her jester.

I look around and the beach curves and winds out of my site. The ocean is endless, but the water a beep blue with a salty taste to it. A forest meets the sand, its trees green and big. the dried dirt, sand, and salt panted the bark with a crusty texture.

I cleared my throat to ask the cow a question. "Where am I?"

"Oh, will Hun you're on my beach. You washed up this morning. I only noticed you after taking my daily walk." she says as she moves forward.

"Okay, but where is that, like what is this place called." I say following her as she walks along the side of the beach.

"Well, we never named are family property. You see it has been in are family's name for a long time. Ever since we came and tried to help settle this land." She says as her head was pointed to the sky. "My grand dads grand dad was the one that had the idea. Move away from the island to make sad sider wine. No one asked about it because back then no one questioned my granddad or his motives. The land was dirt cheap and prime real estate since it was next to the sea of mad sadness." She says, looking out onto the horizon. I follow her gaze at the sea, both endless and mysterious.

"Sea of mad sadness? Why do they call it that?" I ask

"Oh well that's simple. Usually, the sailors that go fishing on that sea that are not protected come back warped in an emotional turmoil that will make you as crazy as a bat with coffee and let me tell you if you have ever met a bat that did not have their morning coffee then you are a poor soul indeed. Sometimes the sailors never left their beds, not eating, speaking. Some have burst of anger resulting in domestic disputes. Others cried, none stopped for twenty-four seven. That sea takes no hostages and leaves only victims. Thus, the locales give it the name of a sea of mad sadness. It caught on and now everyone calls it that. Are you sure your around here?" As she turned around.

"I'm not." I say in response. The words felt cold and dead when it fell out of my mouth.

"Oh. Then where are you from?" She stopped in the middle of the way looking at me, confused.

"I'm from The United States, you know USA." I say, looking at her, trying to explain it.

"Weird I've never heard of such a place must be an island off the cost." She turns around and continues to walk in the same direction. "Anyways I'm guessing you don't have a place to sleep for the night. You can sleep in the guest room at the farm."

I thought for a minute. I did not have a place to stay. I was a stranger in a strange land. We continued to walk; the tree line started to rise. The forest was now on top of the cliff and the beach laid beneath. The cliff was filled with holes by some creatures. The earth itself was striped, showing the past of time with assorted colors of sand. My wet clothes had dried by now and the sun neared close to the horizon. During all the site seeing my stomach interrupts me admiring the view.

"You must be hungry no worries dinner is all most done when we get home ill fix you a bowl." Brenda states.

"Thank you." I am relieved for not having to find something to eat.

We kept walking and the cliff started to turn inward. The first thing I saw was a huge red barn. With windows and lights. To my side I see an orchard of vines drooping on a wire held up by stakes in the ground. The vines held a small fruit doting it like chickenpox to a child, some of them were black and some were blue.

We get to the barn and the large doors open by them self. Instead of the smell of livestock it was replaced by the smell of fresh bread and lilacs. The barn was mostly one spacious room, with a kitchen to the corner and a dining table on the other side. Over the dining table there were stairs leading to a cliff, with what looked like a bed on top, sheets and pillows were all bundled together. There was a couch on the other side of the wall with books and a radio surrounding it. A coffee table lay in front of the couch on top of a Persian rug. I smelled cooked food stirring and brewing. I followed the smell and I saw utensils, pots, and pans moving on their own.

"How do you do that?" I asked, confused about the physics of floating iron.

"Do what?" She says as she looks at me. I point to the moving kitchen.

"Oh!" she says, "well that's easy it's just stirred fry." She walks over to see the food. "Looks good to me." A plate lifts out of a cabinet that was underneath the counter, a wooden spoon picks up the food and puts it on the plate.

"Are you going to eat or just stand there Hun." Her voice was soft and bright, still having its country flare to it. I walk over to her and grab a plate lift the spoon and slop the noodles on to the china. A fork peaked out of a drawer and Brenda's plate lowered to give the fork a platform to land on. I grabbed a fork from the same drawer and kept it in my hand. I followed Brenda to the dining room table and lay down. The table had no seats, and it was not very tall. I went to the other side to sit, cross my legs, and started to eat.

The food was nothing like I remembered stir fry to be. It exploded with flavor. Every bite was not like the last one, sometimes sweet, sometimes salty, and even spicy. With each bite it satisfied my hunger. The filling warmth hits my stomach relaxing my body. I had not noticed but my body was getting heavy with each second, with each move I made my bones and muscles scream for sleep.

When I finished my plate, I could barely keep my eyes open. The dryness in my mouth slowly moved and spread. I got up from my cramped position to get a glass of water. When I stood my head felt light, I fought the feeling for the reward of water. I managed to ask where she kept her cups.

"Oh, sweetie don't worry. I can fetch you some." A glass cup came slowly flying out of one of the cabinets, hovered over the sink facet and filled with cold fresh water. It made its way to my open palm, and the edge of the cold glass touched my lips.