The juice runs down my chin. It's sticky already, I can feel it. More juice is covering my hand, a small pool of it forming in the crook of my palm. It seems to be the only thing I can concentrate on. The rest of the world is slipping away. I realize I'm falling only just before I crash into the ground. The apricot slips from my grasp and rolls away lopsidedly. I just keep staring at my hand, though, amazed that I can't seem to feel my fingers anymore. Maybe this was a mistake.
* * * * *
I wake up after what feels like hours, maybe even days. There is a strong pain in my head that feels like someone's been hammering on it for a while. Another sharper pain flares to life when I try to sit up. I must have hit my head on something when I fell. I press my palm to my head automatically, as if it could cure the pain I feel.
Finally, I look around, expecting to see the same place I was in before I took a bite of that apricot. Nothing is familiar. I'm somewhere completely new. There are no buildings, no furniture...nothing I recognize. The ground looks like it is made of precious gems, shining in the ambient light coming from some unseen source, but when I reach out to touch the glittering ground, it transforms before my eyes, turning into dust.
The handful of dust I picked up slips through my fingers, and as it reaches the ground, appears to turn back into shining jewels. I stand with caution, my hand no longer pressed to my head. The pain is the least of my worries.
The land is flat in every direction. There is nothing to see. I turn to the left, surveying the strange dream-like world around me. Nothing. I turn to the right, expecting to see the same nothingness, but as I turn, the world changes around me. I whip back to the left, and everything is gone. I can't help but wonder where I am, what's going on. Why did I take a bite of that fruit?
Slowly, I turn to the right again, the world coming to life around me. I stop when I see something in the distance. I recognize the shape, but I can't put my finger on why. Something about it draws me towards it, and I begin walking slowly, as though something could jump out at me at any moment.
As I walk towards the shape in the distance, the wind starts. At first, I think nothing of it. It's just a little wind. I keep going, but my steps have more conviction behind them now. I know that if I can just reach that shape, I'll have some answers. I don't know how I know this, but I know it's true nonetheless.
With each step I take, the wind blows more and more, harder and harder. Against me. It's as though the wind doesn't want me to get to that shape. Can the wind even have a mind of it's own, I wonder. I figure it's impossible, but I seem to be in an impossible place. Everything I knew about the world seems to be a lie here, so maybe, just maybe, the wind really does have thoughts and secrets like the rest of us.
I push forward against the wind. I have to lift my arm up to shield my eyes against it now, though. It's vicious, this wind, and it wants me gone. The shape in the distance doesn't seem to be getting any closer, but I don't trust my eyes anymore. Perhaps it is just the wind playing with my perception. I clench my teeth, duck my head, and push onward.
The wind is incredible. It's at least ten times as strong as anything I've ever experienced before, and I can hardly keep going. But I have to. I can't just give up now, I can't. Each step seems to take an hour as I struggle against the wind. I try to glance up, to see if I'm any closer to the shape I've been so desperately trying to reach, but the wind strings my face and forces me to keep my eyes shut tight. I feel like I've been walking against the wind for days now, so I have to be close. I must be close. If I'm not close, I don't know what I'll do. I pick up my foot to take another step forward and the wind seems intent on destroying me. It's strength is like nothing I ever could have imagined, and before I know it, I can no longer feel the ground beneath my feet. I'm being blown away. I suppose this is what leaves must feel like being tossed about by the wind. Still, I cannot open my eyes, and I have no idea where the wind might be taking me.
* * * * *
There is nothing I can do. I belong to the wind now. I can't even open my eyes. All I know is that I have been sailing in this wind forever. I am lost. Why did I ever bite into that apricot? I hope the wind will stop some day, that I'll be free, but I'm beginning to doubt. I am the wind's, and there is no escape.
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