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Haven

Sunday, 4. January 2009, 10:00:07

I dreamt about it again. By that stage, it must have been at least a dozen times. Every one identical down to the last detail.

I didn't want to tell them. I knew how they'd react, but how long could I ignore the dreams? They were visions - I knew what I was looking for, and where to go. I can't explain it - I just... Did.

Enlightening them both would be hard. Perhaps impossible. I had to share it, but I had to pick the right time.

My father was out somewhere, talking with traders. He says that traders don't live anywhere, they just go from place to place. He swaps those weird pills my mother made for their food and tools.

My mother? Making weird pills. I don't know what they are, but she collects things from the area nearby and puts them all together in a pot and cooks them. The mixture looks sticky. I watch her as she rolls a tiny glob of it into small ball, then flattens it slightly.

Rolls...

Flattens.

Rolls...

Flattens.

I had asked her why we live out here in the sand. Why we're alone. Why I'm not allowed to go farther than the dune a few steps from our hut.

She doesn't like to talk about it, and dad, dad just gets all quiet and angry. I know that I wasn't born here. I think that we had to leave our old home and now it is too dangerous to find it again.

But I had to tell them.
When we sat together to eat that night, I swallowed my fear and approached the subject.

While my mother wept, my father yelled. He was not going to entertain childish fantasy, he said. I was not to ever, ever, leave the homestead, he said.

I went to bed early at the order of my father, but of course I could not sleep...

I was awake long enough to hear my parents talking about Haven. They agreed that a journey so perilous would be foolish to undertake. After all, nobody had seen it in ten years. They discussed my dreams, and came to the understanding that I was not to be told the shocking truth of my visions.

Well, of course, that made up my mind.

The following morning I watched my father strap on his boots and leave the hut, my mother rolling and flattening those acrid-smelling pills. I told her I was going to find some beetles, and for a moment I didn't think she'd allow me to leave, but, with an unsteady smile, she gave me the barest nod of assent.

I walked quickly then, to the dune, where I paused. It was a big thing for me to stand on this sandhill. I'd never been allowed to.

With a small glance back to the hut, I stepped forward into the unknown.

I don't know how long I had been travelling, but I was feeling sick, the small gourd of water I'd brought now filled with sand, my skin blistered from the heat, unable to see any signs of life around me.

I came to a rockface, then. I shielded my eyes as I peered upward to ascertain the size of the rock, and as I took in it's height my mouth unwittingly gaped open, forcing a coughing fit from my angry throat at this unwanted gift of sand.

I had not found a rock. I had found a mountain. And not just any mountain, no - the one from the vision!

My heart skipped a beat. I was almost there, I knew it! What lay over the rocks was something I only knew from an old picture book - fields and fields of green. And there would be daisies, pansies, tulips, daffodils, animals, trees! People! All these things known to me only by ink on paper were now so physically close I could barely contain myself!

This knowledge gave me strength I had lost days before. My jaw set, I scrambled up the hard, rough surface, tears coursing patterns down my filthy face. I was almost there! My family would be saved!

My parents never openly informed me about just how much we were struggling out there, but I knew. And now I had saved us all! They'd not be angry when they saw me next, no - because, behind me would be their old friends, ready to take them back to Haven, the green land.

These thoughts are what got me up that stony giant. Once atop, I collapsed, panting. I needed to rest before I began my descent to Haven, or surely I'd faint and fall.

A few minutes passed, and my heart would not slow. I guessed my excitement was too much to calm me, so I finally straightened up to peer over the other side.

I sobbed harder than I ever had, I think.

Below me lay acre after acre of emerald blades, dotted with yellows, pinks, blues, every colour so bright, brighter than anything I'd ever seen. I swear my eyes burned at the intensity of colour.

I fell to my knees, unable to blink, to slow my heart. I could see tiny droplets of water weighing down a petal, a leaf, a blade of grass. It was just as my dreams had shown me, exactly what'd been haunting my sleep.

I could've stayed on that mountain looking down forever. But I knew I was here for a reason - to bring my parents to our true home. Looking down, I saw that the rocks were not steep. In fact, I could easily make the jump down to Haven.

So, I jumped.

As Haven neared, the wind rushing up to meet me was like no other I'd ever felt. It was cool, soft, refreshing... Free of sand...

I was seconds away from the colours, the smells and sights... My parents would weep with joy. I did it! Me! And they didn't think I could! I found Haven! Maybe we'd have a bigger house, a soft bed, a garden! Mother wouldn't make those pills anymore, dad would leave to help grow delicious things for us all to eat...

Perhaps there'd be other children to play with! Would there be books? Toys? Dogs? Oh, I've read about dogs! I want the yellow one like in my book! I'd have a yellow dog with a brown-tipped tail and a bow in my hair... Oh, and a pond, with fish!

And then my brain alerted my to the time I'd spent airborne. Something wasn't right - the descent was supposed to be none more than a hop, really... Why did it feel as though I'd jumped from a cloud in the sky?

I turned my head back toward the place from which I'd jumped, then. It seemed so far away! How far was Haven?

As I craned to look, I expected my vision to be filled with expanses of green... But, with a loud snapping sound I'd never heard before, all I saw was black.

...I've got a little brother now. He's almost a year old. They love him very much, but I'm not jealous, because they love us both the same.

Every night they tell him a story. Every night, with tears in their eyes.

They tell him about a little girl who was once lost in the desert and made it past all these obstacles to find her way back to her family.

Every single night, as the sandstorms beat at the hut.

And every morning, someone in Haven lays a fresh flower next to the stone above my head. They don't know who I am, but they talk to me sometimes.

Everyone is nice in Haven.

Copyrighted Kimmie 2008

BoredFalling Out Of Love

Comments

Cois 4. January 2009, 10:18

You moved it?

Moesring 4. January 2009, 10:19

I've missed your stories. awww

When I first read the title, I immediately thought of those holiday parks. :o:

:sst: And I must confess that for the first half or so of the story, whenever I read of references to sand and whatnot, I imagined it to be irradiated wasteland in my mind's eye. Homer: Doh!

Once I got my mind out of a Fallout mindset though, I came to appreciate the story a lot. I hope you will post more in the near future. :happy:

qlue 4. January 2009, 10:28

That's beautifull and sad, all at the same time. :cry:

Spaggyj 4. January 2009, 10:32

Clint - yes I did.

Moe - you've seen this one before, haven't you?

Aadil - good! Then I've achieved my goal :D

qlue 4. January 2009, 10:43

I was double squirreled!?!? :yikes:

Dacotah 4. January 2009, 11:13

Sorry, I want to read it but the font is too small and the color makes it hard on my eyes to read it with the black and star background.
:frown:

theoddbod 4. January 2009, 11:16

Try highlighting the text, Carol - worked for me :smile:

rose-marie 4. January 2009, 13:23

Ah yes, it's still a great story :D.

Zaphira 4. January 2009, 13:56

I remember it, and I still like it. :up:

Everyone is nice in Haven. :happy:

Spaggyj 4. January 2009, 13:58

You're having problems reading the text? Oh noes.

And thanks, girls x

H82typ 4. January 2009, 14:26

Wow! :eyes:

H82typ 4. January 2009, 14:26

:eyes: Wow!

gdare 4. January 2009, 16:01

Beautiful story :up:

H82typ 4. January 2009, 16:21

Mart! You better start scribblin'! This kid could give you a run for your money! :lol:

Spaggyj 4. January 2009, 16:35

I take it you like, Dennis? :lol: . Actually it's probably the best thing I've written, in my opinion.

Thankee Dark :heart: .

qlue 4. January 2009, 16:42

Thanks for changing the text color. :up:.

Spaggyj 4. January 2009, 16:46

I just changed it like one second ago from green to pink!

H82typ 4. January 2009, 16:50

I do like it, Kim! :up: :sst: Change colors all you want, I see all in Vibrant Opera White and Opaque Opera Black! :lol:

qlue 4. January 2009, 16:59

I'm using 4.2 now so Text colour makes a big difference. Also, the screen of my new phone is the same size but a higher resolution. That means that everything is half the size and harder to read. :faint:.
But I still wouldn't in back. :up:

Spaggyj 4. January 2009, 16:59

Glad you like p: . You only see black text? :left: how old is your cell?

Spaggyj 4. January 2009, 17:01

Yeah, I know what you mean :lol: . Is the pink better than the original green then?

qlue 4. January 2009, 17:04

Much better for reading. :up::happy:

Spaggyj 4. January 2009, 17:22

Good-o. Thanks :happy: I'll remember that pink works.

H82typ 4. January 2009, 18:07

a couple of years. It's an lg cu400. Can't see allas banner, or any banner, really.:frown: Comments are black text on white/blue alternating background, in mobile or pc view.

Spaggyj 4. January 2009, 18:11

You need a new phone, dude! :frown:

theoddbod 4. January 2009, 19:52

I hope to do some more scribbling of my own in the next few days, maybe even tonight :sherlock:

H82typ 4. January 2009, 20:16

Ya tink?, @ bouff ob you.

H82typ 4. January 2009, 20:22

The f'in' text changed to f'in' pink. PINK. On a white background. :irked: Jesus! *sigh*

qlue 5. January 2009, 08:14

Dennis, buy yourself a Nokia. I was dead set against Nokia when I bought my LG but now that I've bought a Nokia, 90percent me the issues I had are gone! :up:

H82typ 5. January 2009, 08:31

:sherlock: I'll think on that, Aadil. :smile: Glad you got away from your lg. I know it gave you a heap of trouble.

qlue 5. January 2009, 09:50

I think the problem with LG is that they're just not that dedicated towards mobiles. So they make something that sort of does the job but it's not quite cutting edge. awww.
I've never had problems with any other LG product that I've owned.

H82typ 5. January 2009, 12:07

Well, this thing with mine not being able to see blog banners in pc view and color combos and such is recent- like the past 2 weeks or so.

H82typ 5. January 2009, 12:10

Just to confirm- I've got pink text, white background.

Spaggyj 5. January 2009, 13:21

Me too, that's how it looks on Mini 3.

H82typ 5. January 2009, 14:04

Really? I'm using 4.2.13337 . I wonder if this is a phone bug :sherlock:

Spaggyj 5. January 2009, 14:50

On four, you should be able to see like almost what a monitor would see.

H82typ 5. January 2009, 15:54

Odd.
  I've got a couple of other issues going on also. 4.2 will change randomly from pc to mobile view. Sometimes it won't change from one to the other. Very odd.

qlue 5. January 2009, 16:16

The kind of problems you're describing are some of the issues I had whenever I tried using 4.2 on my other phone. Another issue I had is that sometimes it would load only parts of larger images instead of whole images. And then there was the phone freezing after fifteen minutes or so. :left:.
So I only used to use 4.2 when I needed to access something that I couldn't access with mini 3.
Now I can use 4.2 just fine. I still have issues, but I'm pretty certain they have nothing to do with the phone since it's the same issues that I had on my old phone. The wierdest one is the GPRS that vanishes at sunset everyday. Clearly it's network related but the mobile network denies that such a phenomena exists. :lol:

H82typ 5. January 2009, 16:43

:eyes: Man! I've had a couple of phones where I'll be using Mini, my native browser or making a call- all of a sudden the warning tone will sound, the signal strength meter goes to "0". The phone then proceeds to shut. it. self. off. It turns right back on,too. :insane:
 My provider, too, denied that that was possible.

qlue 5. January 2009, 16:59

That's a known issue usually (but not exclusively) caused by insufficient memory. It can also be caused by firmware glitches and hacking attempts though. :left:.

Spaggyj 5. January 2009, 17:08

What Aadil said. Everyone's turns itself off if they use it a lot - it's just general overuse and memory problems.

H82typ 5. January 2009, 17:18

It's never happened with this one. Mini'll lock up now and then, and I have to exit with the red button. :eyes: *shrug* I'll look at Nokias and Motos next time. I'd like an HTC. :drool:

qlue 5. January 2009, 18:15

Nokia won on price. HTC looks good but it's a tad pricey. I'm also concerned that it might not have staying power. :left:.

H82typ 5. January 2009, 18:27

Really? hmm... which Nokia did you buy?

qlue 5. January 2009, 20:11

Nokia E65 it cost ZAR3200 while the HTC TYTN II Cost twice that. :smile:

theoddbod 6. January 2009, 01:30

Creepy - a whole thread mutated into a discussion on phone's, and Mik's nowhere to be seen :alien:.
Not had any reset problems with the G900. However, the W890's the most unstable phone i've ever had - it'll be quiet for weeks at a time, then suddenly have a day where it'll reboot randomly anything up to a dozen times, sometimes without me even touching it.
Of course, my phone's only get turned off when i'm checking for new firmware with SEUS.
Even if i liked Nokias, i think the recent security issues with the Series 40 and Series 60 would put me off now. But i'm quite happy with what i have - nothing new's appearing that takes my fancy.

huyenthuongyb 6. January 2009, 03:13

I AM VIETNAMESE.
I WANT TO MAKE FRIEND WITH YOU

H82typ 6. January 2009, 04:14

Hi, Huyen! :smile: Please turn off your caps lock. Welcome to Opera.


@Mart: Lord Furie is all around us. I think he's Kims alter-ego. :whistle:
 I read the mini forum Mart. I'm scared of Samsungs, don't want to get the wrong model- you know? Although that could be said of any brand, today. I think alot of that has to do with the way the phones are locked and branded though. *shrug* I could be wrong.

qlue 6. January 2009, 05:53

The whole industry is 4Q'd as far as I can tell. :insane:.
Perhaps Mik has taken a sabbatical?

Spaggyj 6. January 2009, 09:21

Mik's not watching this post.

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