Kookaburra (Photo: Wikipedia)
I entered the Heijira Earth Vision short story contest. The entries are now up for viewing.
It's a little bit different to some of my recent stories:
The Nature of Love
by Matthew Griffiths
A couple relaxed on a colourful picnic blanket. Their food was laid out around them; empty plates scraped clean of every morsel, glasses drained aside from a few lonely droplets, awaiting replenishment. The woman leaned back against the trunk of a towering gum tree and stared in wonder at the bush clad waterfall nearby, as it cascaded into the stream. The man lay down on his back; his head rested in her lap, eyes closed. Around them the myriad diversity of nature performed for their senses.
Water from the falls sprayed into the air, floated on the wind, hovered in space, defying gravity. The mist caught the light as it fell through the trees. A rainbow danced over the water. “The colours are amazing.” said the woman.
Without looking he knew. There was comfort in familiarity, knowing without thinking, the right answer easy to find. “I love this rug too.”
The man sang softly, pursuing images in his mind, patterns of notes and words on a page, sounds unconsciously drawn in by his ears, melodies and rhythms ingrained in his body from years of dance and play.
Birds chirped their mating invitations and enticements through the trees. Others warbled, shrilled, and crooned their messages and refrains. Insects chirruped in the undergrowth, conversing in their unique tongue, others buzzed from flower to flower, wings humming. “What a beautiful sound.” she said.
He smiled and sang louder, then whistled and hummed. Tunes proceeded, repeated, merged, transformed from one to another. “We should listen to music more often. When we get home I’m going to get my old records out of the basement.”
The warm wind gusted through the glade, nudging the tree tops into a gentle sway. Leaves rustled, swished, sighed, moaned, revelled in the motion, braches bending, curving, twisting, bowing, stooping, straightening, flexing. “I feel like the wind is speaking to me, whispering some secret message too quiet to hear.”
He listened and heard a steady vibration. A bellows action accompanied it, regular, repeated, a filling up and discharging, renewing and exhausting. “I can hear you breathing, slow and relaxed, like waves on a beach.”
The gentle thump of the water rose as it hit the rocks, a regular pulsing rhythm of alternating order and chaos as the water formed, splashed and dispersed then formed again below the waterfall. ”Listen to that beautiful rhythm.”
He felt a slow drumming in his ears, a gentle thump, thump, powerful in its regular, even, unvarying percussion, the timpanist softly beating out the very cadence of life. “I can hear your heart beat.”
She reached for a berry, slipped it into her mouth and chewed. The succulent juices spilled over tongue, swamping her taste buds in a burst of flavour. The sweet and the sour mingled, sparking separate, simultaneous, surges of electricity through her nervous system. “Mmm, tasty.”
He raised his head, pouting. She slid a hand beneath his neck, leaned down and kissed him. He laid back down on her lap and murmurs. “Yummy lips.”
The water in the steam rippled among the rocks, flowed around fallen branches, whirlpools spun, spirals formed and dissipated in a babbling, murmuring onrush of liquid energy. “Can your hear that gurgling?”
He grinned. “Your tummy, not mine.” he said.
The sun on her skin made it glow with the ancient energy of the cosmos burning with its incredible heat, dispersing its life force among the planets, bringing light to the beings on the blue green sphere drifting in the dark emptiness of space. She raised her face to absorb every glimmer within her reach. “I feel I’m glowing with energy.”
He felt her body against him, infusing his neck and shoulders with its heat. His skin was swathed with a cloak of contentment. “Nice and warm.”
Flowers opened to the sunlight and bathed in its rays. They unlocked their hidden secrets for the insects and birds. Their colours decorated the greenery, gleaming ornaments in a vibrant, verdant, floral spectacle. Their aroma drifted on the air, tempting, tantalising, and inviting all who lingered downwind. “I love that fragrance.”
He inhaled deeply, savoured the breath and the scent it carried as if immersed within it. Memories fused and jumbled, smiling, laughing, slow dancing, a kiss on the neck, silky bare skin. “I love your perfume too.”
The sunlight glinted off the stream, flashing, flickering on the moving swirling, rolling surface. The leaves dappled it; the swaying branches rearranged the spots and flecks, rocking back and forth in their lofty cradle. “I love how the light sparkles.”
The light on his eyelids moved. His eyes flickered open. He saw her head turn to follow a bird as it flitted among the branches. Diamonds twinkled in his vision. “Your earrings look beautiful.”
The breezes coiled around the glade, looping over them, playing with her hair, lifting, floating, tickling it against her soft skin. Zephyrs caressed her, embraced her, enfolded her in an invisible cage of silken strands. “Ohhh. This is so good.”
He felt her hands play over his scalp, stroking, combing, twirling. She drew up the strands and let them fall back in their own pattern, creating their own form outside of style, fashion or design. “That feels wonderful my darling.”
The trees, water, birds and animals seen and unseen, heard and silent, moving and quiescent, joined with her and she with them. She sensed the link, at one, united, bonded with the majesty that is the world. She was together with all that is, has been and will be. The breath in her lungs the product of the trees and plants, her exhalations nourishment for them. The nutrients inside her merely cycling through her from earth to body and body to earth. “I feel so connected right now."
He smiled and nodded. Their togetherness and intimacy permeated his veins, seeped into his very core, filling him, saturating his consciousness. “I love being close like this.”
The sun, water, birds, breeze surrounded her, enveloped her in a cocoon of peacefulness, swaddled her in a soft blanket of joy. Her spirit soared aloft, born by updrafts of delight, an upwelling of ecstasy, pure authentic, unalloyed pleasure. “This is bliss.”
His closed eyelids grew heavier, as if opening was no longer possible. As if a potion had infiltrated his defences and slowed his body and mind to a stupor. “I feel sleepy.”
A warm feeling came over him, floating, serene, secure. A paradise of joy and calm, a dreamlike cloud of affection, tenderness, caring, appreciation, gratitude, love. No end in sight, no other, no anywhere else. “I feel so safe and peaceful here with you.”
A kookaburra screeched out its mocking cry. Others answered raising a chorus of hysterical cackles that reverberated through the trees. Call and answer, warning and acknowledgment rang out around them. She laughed. “That sounds so funny.”
He frowned, his drowsy brain confused and perplexed, baffled and befuddled, unsure what the joke was. On him, on her, on them, on love? He spoke from his heart. “I want to be with you forever.”
The woman thought how much she loved being out here. Away from the incessant rumble of traffic, tooting of horns, screaming of sirens, barking, shouting, banging. She wanted to stay. It was time to live surrounded by nature, part of nature, always, constantly, permanently, not just a once in a while getaway, escape, a mere temporary respite. Time to truly be part of it all. Reconnect with this beautiful place, with all the beautiful places. It’s time for us to leave the city, she decided.
“I want out.” she murmured, half to herself.
He stirred in her lap.
“What?!”
Tell me what you think. Constructive comments welcome.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
********
MORE STORIES....
Under Development - A young idealist hunts for international development work in China. (6 Parts)
Under Development - A young idealist hunts for international development work in China. (6 Parts)
My Crazy China Trip - (Humour) A novice traveller gets more than he bargains for during 15 days in China. (10 Parts)
Love at First Flight - A foreign teacher arrives in China and falls in love with a local, but the path of true love is anything but smooth. (5 parts)
Trial by Fire - When a woman in Tibet self-immolates two witnesses face a dangerous dilemma. (4 parts)
Arrested Development - A development consultant in China finds life getting out of control. [Rated R] SHORTLISTED for the Lord Grimdark Award. See the list here.
Beijing Private Eyes - Drama, Romance, Karaoke, Kidnap! A foreign teacher in Beijing meets an attractive stranger and offers to help, then things get complicated. (A long story in 8 parts)
Tell him he's dreaming - An engineer has an environmental epiphany but things don't work out as planned. Gained 5th place in the New Zealand Writers College Short Story competition. See the list here.
Entries in the post-industrial / peak oil short story competition:
My story 'Promised Land' has been selected for the forthcoming anthology "After Oil 2: The Years of Crisis". You can read the other entries here.
A previous set of stories was published in 2012 in a book entitled After Oil: SF Visions of a Post-Petroleum World, available from Amazon (Amazon) or in Australia from Fishpond (Fishpond).
Stories set in China:
Winds of Change – In 2022 a migrant worker struggles to realise his dreams and fulfil his family obligations.
Outside In – It's 2050, the country and economy have changed. A recycler studies for an exam to improve his prospects, and an indentured servant plans her escape.
Seeds of Time – (Sequel to Outside In). In 2055 rural China prospers again after a period of dramatic changes, then things are complicated by a strange visitor and a hidden object.
Stories set in Australia: A North Queensland Trilogy
Robots on Mars – 2025. A space-mad city boy adjusts to life in the country and tries to solve a mystery. (Note: no actual robots or Martians involved)
Promised Land – (Sequel to Robots on Mars). It’s 2050 and development threatens the rural district. Is it what they really need and if not, how can they stop it?
Heart of Glass - (Sequel to Promised Land). The year is 2099, high school graduates prepare to step into adulthood and the community prepares to celebrate the turn of a new century.
Tell me what you think. Constructive comments welcome.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
Tell me what you think. Constructive comments welcome.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
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