Eyeland, part 3

Eyeland, part 3
Link to part 2

By the time I’d wrestled through the waxy thicket, I felt washed out again. My brain told my eyelids to lie down even as I struggled to keep them open. The warm soft sand on the shore beckoned me to rest some more.



What the hell’s going on here? This was my last lucid thought before I stretched out on the inviting warmth of the shore.


As I slept, strange eyes watched me from everywhere, plagued and tormented me. Like a hermit crab, I clambered restlessly trying to escape the eyes. Everywhere I hid, another eye opened and peered curiously into my dream. I awoke with a start expecting to find eyes, like stuffed olives, floating on the horizon. Luckily, I was quite alone. In the distance, I could see my house perched on the shore and was thankful that the island had stayed put while I slept. I couldn’t imagine falling asleep in this strange place. Usually I can’t sleep well anywhere but in my own bed.


Marilyn would be out of her mind with worry.


What was I saying? Marilyn worry? She’d probably headed off for work this morning glad not to have me underfoot. She was always after me to get out more. Could I help it if I liked staying home? Enjoyed the solitude of my castle? Wistfully I gazed over the river at my house. If I couldn’t find the boat, I’d have to swim for it, weak and tired or not. My muscles screamed at the thought, while my stomach rumbled and my mouth felt like the desert after a drought.


I had to find that damnable boat.


After searching the entire strip of sand, I concluded that I mustn’t have moored it securely enough.


Washed downstream, I mused, striping out of my shoes and socks and stuffing them into my pockets. Not the ideal weather for swimming but that’s what I got for larking out on an adventure instead of working.


I expected the bite of cold water on my toes. What I got instead was, knocked on my butt. As I approached the river—I swear I could smell river water—my face slammed into . . .


Into . . .


Nothing . . .


Don’t get me wrong, I slammed into something hard, but nothing was there. The horizon stretched before me, across the river and into my back yard. Yet, as I neared the river, I smashed into an obstruction: a barrier of some sort I discovered as I traveled down the beach and tried to get off the island at different points.


I could run my hands over the river view, like it was an artist’s picture. Stronger than mere canvas, I found as I bounced a rock off it with a sharp ping. The barrier holding me in place was smooth and cold. Little currents pulsated beneath my groping fingertips.


Madness edged across my cranium, as I pounded on the perfectly replicated waters of the Rainbow River. When my pummeling fists were raw, I slid dejectedly into the soft sand. My mind refused to accept this situation. How could this be? How could I gaze at these familiar scenes of home and be as far removed as if jailed?


As I watched, the river raged, clouds rolled, and the sun went down just like any spring day in Maine.
Continued in my next post

Eyeland, part 3

Eyeland, Part 2

Eyeland, Part 2
Link to part 1

Cupping my hands over my mouth, I shouted, “Hullo-o anybody home?”



Silence.


Cautiously, I put my boot on the first step—not even a creak. The cabin smelled new, like fresh cut pine. Its outer walls held the same waxiness of the trees and bushes that I’d encountered earlier. Inside, it was a Real Estate treasure: the kind of cabin rich out-of-staters would pay up the nose for, with a healthy commission for yours truly.


As I browsed through the kitchen, I noticed that along with a fully stocked ‘fridge, the cupboards contained enough food to feed a small army. Someone must live here or was planning to move in soon.


Ha, imagine the poor dude’s surprise when he went looking for his new island paradise and it was gone: washed away with the spring rains. It could only happen in Maine!


Before I left, there were some temptingly familiar brown bottles in the fridge. I was sure nobody would miss one beer, but just to be on the safe side, I tucked a dollar bill under the remaining brown soldiers.


The beer was cold, sharp and bitter and as I headed for the boat, I speculated on how long that ‘fridge had been without power.


Worries about the power situation soon faded when I couldn’t find the boat. Although I was sure about where I’d left it, the damn thing had vanished. It seemed like I’d been on the island only a few minutes, but the sky was darkening rapidly.


I was tired, so tired that finding the boat seemed like an insurmountable task. My mind wanted to worry about it but the tiredness seeped in and pushed the worries aside.


In the beautiful cabin, I stretched out on a soft bed and drifted.


Drifted?


~~~~~~~~~~


I awoke feeling fuzzy and disoriented. I’d sensed movement in the night and remembered some vague worry about the island moving downstream, better find out. Food first, I was starving. Dude that owned this cabin wouldn’t miss a few Pop-Tarts, I thought, parting with another dollar. The pastry was almost as bitter as yesterday’s beer, but it stopped the hungries as I headed toward the island’s shore in search of my boat.

Continued in my next Post

Eyeland, Part 2

Eyeland

Eyeland
By
Louise Dragon

With mounting sensations of dread I watched the spring rains gush over the Maine countryside—cropping the banks of the Rainbow River with each surge. Flooding became more eminent as the minutes ticked by.


Returning to my desk, I forced myself to concentrate on the briefs before me. My wife Marilyn had left for work an hour ago.


“Children have to learn, Gary, even if it’s raining.”


Worrying was my bag. I worried about Marilyn out during the flood watch, I worried about the river overstepping its banks and flowing into our living room.


I’d be worried about selling another house, or people watching me if it wasn’t raining.


Marilyn, forever scientific, never worried about anything.


“Nobody’s watching you,” she’d admonished me often, “why would anyone be watching you? Do you think you’re the center of everyone’s universe? Or possibly you’re slated to become the next alien abductee?”


Sarcasm was another of Marilyn’s traits.


As I glanced out at the turbulent waters, for about the tenth time, I felt familiar stress building behind my eyes.


What if our house washed away?


Where would we go? People would come and look. Complete strangers looking, watching.


It’s happened before, why back in ‘eighty-seven . . .


As if to punctuate my thoughts, an island drifted down the Rainbow River headed for shore at breakneck speed.


Islands don’t float, do they?


This one hovered about thirty feet offshore. It was quite large, about the size of a baseball diamond, and sported spindly growth, like pins and needles, over its surface.


I tried to go back to work, but the island drew me to the back door repeatedly. Against my better judgment, I walked along the Rainbow’s shore in my yellow slicker trying to get a better look at the island. As the rain turned to a drizzling patter on my face, I decided that with the flooding possibilities dropping: I could probably row over and check it out.


But what if . . .


The “Tom Sawyer” hidden inside me took over, shoving Gary Denton—shy, mild mannered Real Estate Agent, to the back of the boat.


I should be working, but the island loomed before me.


Like an amusement park waiting for patrons, it was silent and ominous with little tendrils of ground fog rising toward the swollen sky. Not an expert rower, I counted on the current to help with the work and wasn’t disappointed.


Oh, hell, I’ll just explore it quickly and then go back to work.


I knew the rain could pick up anytime and wash the island away, so I wasn’t planning to stay long.


A ribbon of sand, three feet wide, circled the island. Fifty yards along, I picked up a path leading into tangles of brush in the island’s center. A nugget of worry slid down my spine like an ice cube. Where were the animals and birds? Not a twitter of sound could be heard. The island seemed clean, no dried leaves, no insects; the branches and brambles had a waxy feel, almost synthetic.


When I reached the center I was surprised by a cabin, tucked neatly away in the brush. It held an air of newness as if it had grown there: not your everyday Maine shack.


Could someone live here?
Continued in my next post

Eyeland