Jerry's Question

Sanderson lay on his back in the sun. He had taken off his shirt and pants and was enjoying the freedom of solitude. There was no one to offend with his nudity. And feeling the wind blow between his legs unfettered by pants or underwear or swim suit was new to him, something he had never felt before. He liked it. He had lain down close enough to the water so that the tide came up over his feet and ankles, but not much further, and then went away. He was enjoying the feeling of the sun almost drying his feet before another cool wave washed over him and returned him to wetness. Sanderson smiled.




Voices. Jerry heard voices and opened his eyes. He saw no shoes. Just the door before him, large and metallic, slimy and green. Were the voices outside the door? Or were they coming from above him? He couldn't understand them. They were muffled, as if they were far away. Sometimes the board on his back made the voices sound muffled that way. Sometimes, he heard a ringing in his ears, low and soft, which muffled sounds outside of his body. He was pretty sure the voices were speaking English, and Jerry could understand English. But he couldn't quite understand what the voices were speaking about. One of them was higher in pitch than the other one. Jerry recognized this as the timbre and cadence of Black Shoes. The other voice was lower, steadier, more deliberate. Jerry thought this voice should have a face with a white beard attached to it's chin. This was the voice of Brown Shoes. The voice of Brown Shoes was slidy and sounded friendly. Black Shoes had a voice that was more choppy and sent a chill along Jerry's back whenever he heard it. It was a voice Jerry wanted to avoid.

The door opened, and the small damp illumination of light that almost isn't oozed across the threshold. Brown Shoes and Black Shoes stepped closer to Jerry. They spoke. Jerry knew they were speaking in English. He understood the words, but some where between his ears and his brain they got all jumbled, like playing cards being shot into the air and landing randomly on the floor. It didn't make sense. Brown Shoes was slidily saying something to Jerry now. It was patient. Something about "your rhine". Jerry made a grunt, trying to let Brown Shoes know that he could hear him and he wanted to respond, but he didn't understand. Brown Shoes inched closer, and his slidy voice slowed down a little. "You. Rhine? Ohm. Ya. Face?" Jerry jumped a little as he put the pieces together. Brown Shoes was asking if there had been urine in his face! Jerry hadn't noticed Brown Shoes having an accent before now, but he was so happy that he understood what was happening that he almost was unable to get his words out. "Yes, yes, there was urine in my face!" Brown Shoes turned to Black Shoes. There was silence, and Jerry wondered if that was the right answer. He thought he understood the question, but maybe he hadn't. Brown Shoes said something to Black Shoes, and Black Shoes turned away from Jerry, and his voice became a little more quiet, but Jerry could still hear the muffled voice say something like "lion" and "typo beer son tuba leave." Jerry worked hard to put that together. Could Black Shoes be saying that he was a liar? And not the type of person to believe? That didn't really make sense, either. Before Jerry could figure it out, the door opened and Brown Shoes lead Black Shoes away. There was a moment where Jerry could see the wetness of the light that almost wasn't, before the door closed and stopped the oozing from entering. Lion typo beer son tuba leave? This hurt Jerry's brain. He could feel the effort of thought and that didn't do him any good at all.

Sanderson relaxed into the beach, and it felt as if any pain that he held in his head melted away, as he sunk into the receptive earth. He might have worried about getting sand in hard to wash places when he wasn't on the island, but he figured he would be able to go into the ocean for a moment and it would all be washed away, almost without effort. This was truly a place for Sanderson to let all of his worries dissipate into a calm and deep sky. They weren't his worries anymore. They belonged to some one else who no longer existed.