AOL Member Fiction Forum Spotlight Story 2-15- 1999

There was only one continent that crossed the planet's equator. Its surface was covered with a dark, springy soil which itself covered several feet of porous lava, hardened a thousand years past and since crumbled and mixed with decaying plants and animals and the flesh and bones of a people who had once lived and loved and laughed and died all across the tropical paradise.

A high, cone-shaped mountain stood sentinel over the great rift valleys and endless plains. It pointed toward the sky, its slopes snow-free and covered with verdant growth. It was to this mountain that Finn came, knowing that this was the last day he would feel solid ground beneath his feet for quite some time.

He put the steep slope to his back and stood looking out across the vast crater in front of him. The entire top of the mountain was filled with a sparkling lake, a deep blue-green cauldron, dotted with a collection of islands both large and small.

Finn, sweaty after his arduous climb, stripped off his shirt and untied his boots, sitting down to tug them off his feet. He pulled off his pants too, then carefully lowered himself over the lip of the crater, clinging to the vines as he made his way down, insects buzzing and fluttering about his head, curious about this unfamiliar entity that so carelessly shook the petals from their flowers.

He dropped the last five meters, his legs and arms akimbo, yelling at the top of his lungs as the cold water enveloped him, sending little stinging shivers from his head to his toes. He came to the surface gasping, then yelled again and swam for the nearest island where he collapsed in soft, sweet-smelling grass, the leaves of a large tree overhead dappling him with sunshine and shadow.

He lay on his back for a long time, warming himself in the sun, watching the clouds, at one and yet apart from everything surrounding him. He was the tiniest, most inconsequential speck on an ever expanding sphere of life. He was nothing compared to the endless blue sky and curving horizon, nothing compared to the sound of the wind moving through the grass or the scent of the flowers blooming beside him. At the same time, he was more than all these things put together because he was aware of each and every thing he could see and smell and touch and hear.

There was a power in nature that most people ignored. Finn had always been one to embrace it, letting his senses ride on the rippling waves of sight and sound.

The hum of a shuttle on a quest for a reluctant passenger echoed suddenly across the water. Finn took a deep breath and closed his eyes, wishing he could slow time and live in this moment forever. He would rather stay here with his solitude than return to the free-falling prison in space.

He could remain silent, hidden here in the grass. They would find his clothes on the lip of the creator, think he'd drowned.

But he didn't want that either. He wanted a paradise he could share. He pushed himself to his feet, and raised his arms to the air, waving his hands until the pilot dipped his wing and adjusted his course.