Thad Awakens

Flowers.
Thad smelled flowers.
What was that material? Felt? no. Satin? Taffeta? He was worse at telling what a material was by the feel than he was at differentiating fine changes in color. It was in fact a composite material of various man made and natural fabrics.

Slowly he opened his eyes. The light was overpowering so he immediately shut them again. He tried again.
*blink*
*blink blink*
Slowly the light grew less and less painful. After some time he could even make out shapes. before the shapes came the colors. Pink! Red! Yellow! he had never seen colors so bright. In time came some soothing green. Flowers! So he had smelled flowers. He had no memory of flowers like this, but he wasn't really a flower enthusiast so this did not surprise him.

He looked around the room. It was unfamiliar as well. At this point he had gained enough of his self awareness to wonder where he was. Despite his experience earlier with the seemingly blinding light, the room had actually turned out to be quite dimly lit. It was a small room, with a small window to his right and small stone fireplace in the direction of his feet. There was also a small oak table to his left on which sat a vase of bright flowers. The flowers appeared fresh, but that was the only thing in the room that looked like it had been touched in quite a while. Now that he was looking around he could even see that the posts on his bed were dusty. Even the table the flowers rested on was dusty. With the dust only disturbed where the flowers had been placed. This was certainly a mystery to him and one he felt was not going to be answered by continuing to lie on this dusty bed. He sat up, but with remarkable difficulty. He looked at his arms and they were emaciated, as he looked down at himself he saw that it wasn't just his arms. He had never seen someone look so diminished and yet still alive. With even greater difficulty he got to his feet. Looking back he did see clothes laid out on his bed. He put them on but they were very large on him. Now fully dressed and full of curiosity he made his way out the door.

The door opened up into a great hall. Curiously there were several people sitting there chatting. Some he recognized as if they were from a dream, others he felt he should know but could not place. At last one of them looked up and yelled "Thad!" Thad instantly recognized this woman. She was just a girl when he knew her but she was still clearly Beth. The girl he had loved what seemed like so long ago. He walked over to her. By this time the others were looking up and saying things like "Thad? Wow! I haven't seen you in like over ten years! Where have you been?" Thad could only answer "Not so far away, I've been sleeping. It's very nice to be awake again."

Turn the Page.
To Table of Contents
To Book Cover

© 2003 - Jonathan Gardner