Though my hands couldn’t help my mind was in full motion.
“Hmm poisons. If only…”
Then it happened my mind scrolled to a symposium I had sat in with a woman who was an expert on poisons. She had an interesting story really. She was a physician who had done an internship in Mozambique. She had purchased jewelry for friends and family. When one of her friends got deathly ill, she realized it had been the jewelry; a beautiful seed that had a residue of the poison inside the shell. It had gotten into a small cut she had on her neck. Something so beautiful could unknowingly kill. So Doc started doing her research on innocuous things that could be poisonous to her patients.
I started thinking about things I had done, things I had eaten. The strangest thing happened. My mind went into a chamber – beautiful with velvet hangings on stone walls. I looked down at my hands; they were covered with rings. My bejeweled hand and wrist alone was worth millions of dollars. I heard an odd language; I understood what the servant was saying.
“You must rest princess tomorrow you must meet meet with Viceroy’s son. They say he is very handsome.”
I did NOT want to get married but my country was on the edge of a war.
“Yes you are right. Please bring me something to eat in an hour.”
I woke to food laid out but no Awala. “She must be busy preparing my garments for tomorrow.”
I ate slowly. The food had an odd taste. Must be my imagination.
My mind was trying to configure the taste or smell.
“Olepheride” Where did that name come from? It wasn’t part of our element table. But it was an element in the alternate world. A slow deadly poison with no antidote in “that” world. But apparently an antidote here.
“So how did I get here? I mean how did she get here?”
“Stop getting side-tracked. Focus!!!”
I rummaged through all the antidotes I had heard about in the symposium. I had chosen one for a story ; it sounded romantic – Prussian Blue. It was easy to take and you could take a fairly large amount of it. Blue paint pigments were also derived from it.
“Ha” I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Even if I had a handful of the capsules or paint, there would be no way to injest the stuff. I am afterall a lifeless princess. A kiss will not eradicate this problem.
“But…”
“No that’s crazy”
“what if???”
“No. Reason think logically.”
“This princess could have powers…”
(I hate it when I start dialoging with myself.)
“…. a princess with powers from another world”
sounds like your average dream sequence
“WHEN _AM __I _GOING _TO _WAKE_ UP???????????”
***
Please forgive the double book on the letter “P”. Todays 1st post I had auto posted a month ago before I configued this serial short story. In order to give each some room I will post the dreamer story in the late part of Wednesday. Part 1 “Dreamer” and Part 2 “Jolted Asleep” are part of this dream sequence a four part story that may resolve next week with the letter “V”
Happy A to Z all!!!!!
Many thanks to the very talented artist Arna Baartz for allowing me to use her watercolor as my “Dream girl”
penned in moon dust 