gentledeepwaters's journal

"Sir Aus , eh?" " Hmmmmm, I am very distantly kin to St. George, according to the ancestor's "folk tales". Taking a long stream of the red out of his very wrinkled and smaller "skin", Sir Aus swallows and smacks his lips with obvious enjoyment, then turns to Sara with a kindly, calm demeanor

"Lass, I canna explain it, but......by all that's real......you are in your tank and I am either in surgery or recovery." "Hal...oo..sin..a.tion or de..lu..shun, you are mine or I am yours and this "land".....is ours." "We can either huddle in fear or have a bit o' fun!" "Wha' sae ye?"

Sara gazed into his blue smiling eyes for a long minute, then looked around at the assorted packs, cart, and very swaybacked nags being "whuffed' by the cud chewing donkey. Slowly she put up her palm up to her mouth and spit in it.......then offered said palm to him....."Okay, lets spit and shake on it. I'm game if you are?" Very seriously, Sir Aus spit in his palm and they grasped hands for a firm shake.

"The nuns say this area is expecting a Knight Protector, in fact has been expecting him for some time." "He was promised them due to some "cry for help" by the Abbess of a very large cloister about 3 days travel from here." "They, however, are expecting him here first, because this is approximately the center of the area he is to protect, so they are to outfit him and supply him and provide his housing, etc." Digging in the pack she brings out a rolled up parchment and a wood block carving, the carving is of a very large bearded male holding a helmet under one arm and a long lance stands at his side. The hilt of a great sword is seen jutting over his shoulder and, lo and behold......at his feet lies a crude picture of the baggy thing sprouting spikes from it.......very similar to the same thing that hangs down Sir Aus's back from the second strap. "This is what they received to identify the Knight Protector and the scroll confirms his "duties" and "rights" to be the arm of the law of the land for this area" "If you squint at the carving, just so, it could be you." "When I was first trying to sneakily gain information about where and what we could expect of this........this place......I mentioned my "traveling companion" described you, and they went crazy, convinced you are the "expected one." "They were listing food.......ah um......and supplies waiting for you....so I, uh ummm......said "yes".

Blushing, Sara hurried on......."I said I was your squire in training...they didn't turn a hair at a female for the job." "They, however, suggested I might be taken more seriously if I cropped my hair and.........uh.....bind......uh....disguise myself to be a young male." Grinning at Sir Aus, " It is pretty obvious already.......women's lib has not hit this area!"

"Food?" "There be food in these packs, somewhere?"

"Well, sorta, they let me have the run of the "kitchen", they had these jars of stuff that either was swimming in a vinegary smelling liquid or packed in salt. But, transporting stuff like that without snap on lids or at least screw tops, I couldn't see getting 'em here intact in a pack on the back of a horse." "I grabbed up nuts, oats, honey, currants, mixed them up and heated that in a kettle they had on the stove." "I found some potatoes, turnips, carrots, onions, salt, flour, honey, and dried figs and apples..........I think?" "If they are what I think they are, definitely hybrid and genetic manipulation has NOT hit this farming area, yet, either." "In the big pack over by the horses, is the armor, sword, an undersuit of sorts, the lance.......uh the lance I kinda broke or really, really bent to get it to pack correctly."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I smell......dirt and growing things and...sweat I think" Sara opens her eyes..she's laying on her side in a patch of tall green grass......at level with her eyes are two massive human knees and attached calves.....covered with thick red hair. They are obviously attached to someone or something laying in the same patch but above her. Raising her head a bit......she hears a crunching smacking sound....a shifting sound and a slight thud of something hitting the ground. A donkey!........A donkey is having lunch next to a wooden cart with solid wooden wheels...hay sticking up and out through the small poles that make up the sides of it.

A little experimental wiggling of toes and hands......"I can feel again, see again, smell.......but where am I?"

"Eh.....Eh......Lass?" "Wha' tha'!" A wild scrambling complete with torn grass and dust hitting her and now there are two massive feet shod in crude leather....pointing toward the donkey.

Jumping to her feet.......her companion proceeds to stomp around in a circle....a great mass of a male......long grizzly red hair shot with a bit of white here and there.....a full beard with more white than red....wearing a kilt...draped over a long shirt of very rough weave......two objects looped over his shoulder and riding on his left side.......a bulging bag obviously made from the skin of some animal......and a very odd looking sacklike thing with wooden spikes hanging from it.

Looking down at her own feet......the same crude leather "shoes" ........a loose fit shirt and very baggy pants .......ye God's .........tied with rope??
"Scratchy as hell."

"Eh......Eh..." a booming voice trying to be a whisper.."Lass.....where is tha' tank?" Sara detects a slight quiver in the question.

"If you are asking......if this is where I was.....I wasn't here by a long shot....I was in Manhattan.......this is not Manhattan.......by a long shot." "We have to be hallucinating, we have to be!"

"Lass". the quiver is more pronounced, "I was inna Hospital in Australia." "I mean, I AM in a hospital in Australia!" "I mean, I'm gonna WAKE up now" "NOW!!" "NOW??"

He suddenly collapses to the ground....sitting rigidly upright....his eyes glazed over....skin pale and clammy looking. The donkey, who has been watching us while chewing a mouthful, slowly ambles over, seemingly to join us in this effort to understand things.....he stands so close, bits of saliva and grass rain down across my companion's hands and slowly cocks his hip in the time honored equine message of "I'm here for a while."

"A bit o' the red........just a bit o' the red and I can.........deal with this..this...very real hallucination." comes a low booming statement from my human companion.

"Weel, I think it'sa just a matter of time."

"I just .......am scared out of my mind." "I do appreciate you being here"......."Uh.....are you?" "Here, I mean?"

"I canna see, or feel or hear a bluddy thing!" "So, I dinna know where ye be." "I ......think, I know, where I be?"

"Are you ........in the next tank, maybe?"

"Tank!!" "What is this tank?" "They said nae aboot any tank!"

"Well, maybe they called it something else?" "What did they .......say it was?"

"They said I would sae be waking up in the Recovery."

"RECOVERY???"

"Lass...........I should be waking up in a bit of pain......I went to sleep to have me knee operated on." "But there's nae pain........yet."

A tiny whisper comes to him. "I'm in a tank."

"Tank........tank?!" "Ye keep going on aboot tanks" "One of those high pressure tanks for tha' healing or are ye a diver?!"

"No....No....my daughter won this..........experience!" "She has claustrophobia.....so she said it would do me good.......center me....give me a mini-vacation" "Yeah, right" "Best sleep I have had in a while, but now I'm trapped till they get me out" "Of course..........since I did sleep...........I may have only been in here 5 minutes?"

"Your daughter put you in a tank?!" "Ye are nae hurt or operated somewhere?!"

"They put this very salty water in a tank.......pump in air....rig you up so you don't "wrinkle"....water n air warm to body temperature....put these funky goggles on you....lines are taped all over you to keep track of your heart....breathing...."things".....you can choose if you want a drug to relax you or not......I did......if I hadn't I'd be beating this thing open right now"

"Eh, Lass...exactly where and wha...... A long crystalline piercing sound.....the light flares and CRAAAAAAAAAACK.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Following is a present to myself and all here. It is a personal treasure....co-written by someone I will probably never hear from again...Two strangers passing in the "night". Basically two adults...playing.

It will come in bits and pieces...because the original was just messages passed back and forth over icq......................

The slight scraping hiss of the closing lid signaled Sara's first "electric" shiver.

Defying all the instructions and ...promises to herself.....she immediately started trying to "float".......a giggle escaped......" I can't NOT float"......"It is like being in a womb!"
"A very musty odorous womb"......."Relax.....concentrate.........NO!....."Whoa, my thoughts are loud".

"How do I talk myself into these things?"...... "Must be the "white" noise I hear" .... "Am I hearing?" ... "Okay, now relax....don't think.....just BE....feel the separation....flow down toward the center of earth" "Spread slowly out.......then up, up" A tiny change of temperature in the bend of her arm......"Ahhhh, oh yes, so much better.....does .....just leave the mind ......mmmm.....I could just drift forever.....should have slept better last nite.....should have....zzzzzz"

White opalescent light......"Aye.....tis alright, but a sip o' the red, would make it a wee bit more perfect".

Sara jerked awake, "Who's that?" "Anyone here?" "Is it over?" "My God, I slept through the whole experience!!" Suddenly Sara's tongue registered a very tangy fruity taste "Hic!"

"Who be ye?" "Where are ye?" "Where is anything!!!" "I dinna sae nae 'cept this bluudy white light!" "I nae feel nae pain ." "Tis it over?"
"Hmmmmm, I nae feel .............anything?" "Nurse, I nae feel anything!" "Is'nae what I was told I would be feeling when I woke up?!"

"PAIN???" "There's not supposed to be any PAIN??" "What nurse?" "You are not supposed to be feeling anything, anyway!" "Wait a minute......Who are you?........You do not sound like my proctor!! Did I sleep through your shift?? I'm not supposed to be in here that long!!!" "Why don't I feel anything yet??"

"Wha!?" "Proctor?" "Dinna ye mean, Doctor?" "Shift?!" "I dinna think this bit o' backless cloth has........WAIT a minute!!" "Where be ye?"

"Tank number............oh dear God.......I didn't look at the number.....LET ME OUTTA HERE!!! NOW!!!"

A long, long silence follows.........two people are struggling to gain control of their bodies, then to feel their bodies, then to understand .............anything.

This post was edited by gentledeepwaters on Dec 19, 2002.