Only Endless Memory

Monday, September 22, 2008

Salem and a Writing Exercise

I went to Salem, Massachusetts on Saturday and spent the day walking (painfully) around town and doing some shopping at the pagan shops. In the evening, we went to a Mabon ritual held by Temple of the Nine Wells in town there. I was there with friends from the pagan group that we have running at our church, and we all seemed to have a good time. I had the money to spend on one of my pastimes of collecting tarot decks.

Yes, I do collect tarot decks. I have 44 separate tarot decks not counting the various other sets of divination cards or tools (i.e. The Visual I Ching, Throwing of the Bones, Rune Cards and Runes, Medicine Cards, Animal Cards, etc). If you are also wondering whether or not I do tarot readings, I do. I do not use all of my decks for readings. Some of them are only for art and I would not be at all comfortable doing readings with them. I use various decks depending on intent or the person I am reading for. I have been sticking with one deck more then another recently as I have found that I am working towards reading in a different manner then I used to (which was always using the cheat sheet that came with the deck). I am now working on reading cards intuitively mostly by what I see or feel from the cards.

I also mentioned a writing exercise in the title. It has been a while since I have posted a writing exercise, at least partially to the fact that I have not been writing as much as I had been. Well, in the effort to get into writing more, I am also working on writing more in general again, so it is time to do a writing exercise. I am not sure who, if anyone reads my posts regularly, or even irregularly, but if there is something they would like as a writing exercise or suggestion, I would be happy to take suggestions. Until then, I will stick with my old methods.

For my inspiration for this story, I used the Speculative Fiction Muse.
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On the Dangers of Dune Migration

Todd looked out across the sand. Well, there was not much to look at but sand. Some of the sand dunes were rather impressive, but it was still sand. There was also the sun, but Todd preferred not to think too much about that cause it made him think about things like being thirsty and how nice a glass of iced tea would be on a nice sunny day and how unlikely that would be about now out here with all the sand.

Instead he thought about sand dunes. Sand dunes were, on the whole, unappreciated by most people. They would think that a sand dune was a sand dune was a sand dune. There actually was more to a sand dune then just being a sand dune though. There were actually types of sand dunes. Sand dunes could be tranverse, linear, or star dunes and could be simple, compound or complex. Then there were whalebacks and, of course, the often misconstrued quicksand. He knew a lot about sand dunes alright.

He walked some as he thought about sand dunes and their migration patterns, starting to think of his own movement in a similar way. Being pushed by the wind until it was eventually forced over by the weight of time or some other outside force to then become the lower edge of a dune and continue the migration pattern. He was not sure his migration would go much further other then to become part of the dunes, which would not be an altogether bad thing in the big picture he supposed.

A light flashed off to his left and he turned to see more sand. What would cause a flash of light out here? Reflections of the sun off from some object. Some object that was not sand. Could he have a hope that it was water? He altered his course slightly, and headed off to the left. That would be the west, toward the setting sun. If the sun ever set around here. Of course the sun set around here. Another flash of light caused him to hurry his step slightly, and he stumbled. The first flash of light had not been his imagination.

Gathering himself, he continued on. Forcing himself to keep from trying to rush too much and waste his already waning strength. He still saw no real signs of actual water, just those brief flashes. None of the signs of trees or other plant life that generally surround an oasis, but perhaps it is one of the springs that comes to ground during certain times of the year. This would in ways be better then seeing the picture perfect oasis then he might start think he was seeing things. Even better when the flash came again, it was much closer.

He made his last push up the windward face of one of the larger dunes and that is when he saw Skye. He sat down and stared at the uncomprehending face staring back at him. "What? What are you doing out here all alone?" he cried out in confusion.

"I could ask you the same thing," her voice answered in return, sounding rather husky from emotion.

"I came out here to study sand dunes, and things were going so well, so I, well, anyways, I got caught in a sandstorm and lost my equipment and my bearings. I figured if I kept heading north, I would find something, I may have miscalculated. Who are you?"

"I'm Skye. I got lost, too. I figured I was going to die here all alone in this wasteland with nothing but sand for miles, but now you are here."

"I'm Todd." He looked around. He had not found an oasis or water. He had found another person who was lost. What were the chances of that? His mind was trying to come up with the rather astronomical odds when she spoke again.

"You don't know a way for us to get out of here either do you?"

Todd shook his head sadly, numbers still spinning in his head.

"It is better then being alone though. Will you stay though, Todd? I don't think I have the strength to keep walking on forever through the sands. Even if I count all the different types of dunes or sand flats."

"Yes, I can stay here with you, Skye. I don't want to be alone either. After all the walking I did, I think the think I was most afraid of was that I would die here alone in the sand and be forgotten by all but the sand.

Skye smiled, "I was feeling the same way. I did not want to die alone out here, but now we are together, and it won't be so bad. You will have more then just the sand to remember you. You will have Skye."

And so Skye and Todd was not alone when death claimed them in the cold of night. In the morning, the winds blew, already forming a new dune over Todd and the mirror he held in his lap.

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