His hand fell
through the crumbling book. Fragments of it spun in slow motion
away into the distances around him. Fascinated, he felt himself
drawn through the page into the vast shifting sea. There was
a slow swirl of blue-gold pierced by dappled sunlight. Then he
was swimming effortlessly though it, whirling in delight. Of
course he could breathe the water. It was a warm, supportive
medium. He felt the boundaries of his body dissolve until he
ceased to differentiate between himself and the huge blue ocean.
Any sense of time and distance was lost in the endless glimmering
depths.
After a while he noticed that his skin was becoming itchy. When
he scratched he felt great relief and gratification, yet the
itching would then intensify, causing him to scratch even more.
He saw that the skin was beginning to come away in a ragged translucent
film, yet he was still unable to stop. The almost sexual intensity
of these escalating sensations soon compelled him to scratch
all over his body in a frenzy until the entire surface of his
skin, even his scalp, became loosened. Then, with one swift tearing
movement, he swam free of it, turning to watch the pale film
as it slowly twisted, drifting down into the blue depths beneath
him.
He swam on with a tremendous feeling of lightness and relief. |
