Tangents, vol 1

by Rae Agatha

  Matylda was already sleeping but Anna was thinking about everything that had been happening to all of them for the past, she looked at her watch, thirty-seven hours. It was madness. It was, so bonkers, it was pretty much impossible to comprehend, but apart from all this craziness, there was one thing that did not want to leave her alone, it kept returning and eroding a hole in her mind - the notion of them coming from different years. The freaking idea of time traveling. What was that about? Did it matter? Was it a sign of some sort or was it only a coincidence?

  She looked at her watch again. It was almost 7:30 p.m. She covered herself up with a quilt and closed her eyes hoping she would eventually fall asleep and get some sleep.

  Chapter 12

  Delicate sun rays coming from the outside gently woke Dan up. They were timidly stinging his cheeks, making him lazily open his eyes. He blinked a few times and covered his face with his hand. Still quite groggy, at first he had no idea where he was. Dan rubbed his chin, feeling the rough five o’clock shadow on it and the cheeks, and thought it was high time for him to shave. He opened his eyes wider and looked around. Rick was sleeping on his bed, there was a complete silence around. Finally, Dan realized where he was and what was happening; he remembered everything. He sat on the bed, glanced at Rick’s foot thinking the ankle really did look nasty, and looked at the window again. It occurred to him that it was a day outside. A day!

  Dan got up, stretched, put his shoes on and walked out of the room. The floor was creaking a bit, but Rick didn’t wake up. When Dan was already in the hallway, he heard someone was in the kitchen. He quietly went there and saw Matylda.

  “Good morning,” he said.

  “Good morning,” she replied. “I’m making breakfast, sort of,” she said. Dan looked at the table and spotted a bowl of wet strawberries in the middle of it. Matylda was standing by the working surface and was washing the strawberries from a basket in another bowl.

  “Where did you get them from?” he asked surprised.

  “I found the basket in the third room, went out and I picked the strawberries up. I told you there were fields all around the house and the lake.”

  “And the bowls?”

  “They were here in one of the cabinets. I washed them both in the lake.”

  Dan looked around and spotted the cabinets no longer had any doors on them.

  “You took the cabinet doors off?”

  “Yes, they were dangerous; they could have fallen on our heads at any minute. I put them in the storage room.”

  “When did you get up?”

  “About two hours ago, I think.”

  “What time is it now?”

  “When I got up it was half past 4:00 a.m.”

  “Was it already light out?”

  “It was dawn. But the sun appeared very fast, about an hour later it was already exactly above us, like during noon time. Like – now,” she snapped her wet fingers making single drops of water from her hands spread around a little bit.

  “So the mornings and evenings are extremely short, but the days and nights seem like they never end. And now we know that a day here lasts about forty-eight hours.”

  “Apparently so.”

  Dan sat on one of the chairs. It seemed quite rotten, so he did that slowly and very carefully. He spotted two savoy cabbages on the working surface.

  “Is that also for breakfast?” He said pointing at them and smiled.

  “No, that’s for Rick,” Matylda replied.

  “He likes cabbage that much?” He asked still smiling, hoping she would reciprocate it.

  Matylda looked at him seriously, “It’s for his leg.”

  Dan looked at her and thought she was joking, but she didn’t laugh.

  “Do you need any help with the strawberries?” He asked.

  “No, I’m almost done,” she replied and they heard someone walking out of the room. Anna walked into the kitchen.

  “Good morning,” she said cheerfully.

  “Good morning,” they both replied.

  “It’s a day, finally!” She said. “What a relief, huh? Oh my God, the strawberries look amazing!”

  “That’s what we’re eating for breakfast, courtesy of Matylda,” Dan said friendly.

  “Where’s Rick?” Anna asked.

  “He is still sleeping.”

  “Are you sure? I thought I heard a creaking sound coming from your room, like a minute ago.”

  “Maybe he’s up,” Matylda said.

  “I’ll check it out, if he’s up, he’ll need help to join us,” Dan got up and walked toward the bedroom.

  ***

  Rick heard Dan walking out of the room and as soon as Salinger closed the door, he opened his eyes. Relieved to see the sunlight coming through the shutters, he sat on the bed and immediately looked at his foot the pain still nagging him. In the daylight, the assessment was even worse; he was able to see the swelling clearly, all shades of purple and pink were beautifully visible, as were the harsh red lines and micro effusions. Through the walls he heard Dan talking with Matylda, but decided he needed to see, to check himself first before trying to leave the room.

  Rick got up with an effort and put his healthy leg on the floor. The twisted ankle did not allow him to even cautiously step onto it with the tiniest bit of weight bearing. With the wince of pain on his face, he hopped clumsily toward the mirror hanging on the wall behind a small table with a bowl and a jug on it. He cleared the dust off it, put the bowl and the jug aside to see the reflection better. It was the very first time he saw himself since the whole craziness around him had begun. The first thing that Rick spotted was that he was pale and his face reflected tremendous fatigue. A few days’ stubble was well-visible on his cheeks and chin, there were shadows under his eyes, his hair was in mess. He provisionally combed it with his fingers, and carefully took off his checkered shirt, slightly puffing out his cheeks and gritting his teeth from pain with every move.

  His whole body was covered in bruises, especially his chest, which had been seriously squeezed twice only some hours before. There were purple and violet lines on it, situated in exactly the same places where the roots and stems had been holding him tight. His stomach had red hin tracks of the stalks too. Rick turned around and saw his back looke the same except for the gigantic bruise between his shoulder blades, the one he got when the root took him down the first time. He remembered the fall hurt like crazy, so he wasn’t the least bit surprised. Rick also had bruises on his arms and shoulders. The moment he touched them, the pain blossomed, reminding him of every terrifying thing that had happened the night before in the woods. He only hoped he had no broken bones; he thought that if it was a matter of bruises only, it would be bearable.

  As he was looking at his reflection, he thought of Monica. It struck him that only a few months before, she was also looking at herself in the mirror, examining her body covered with bruises and swelling. He sighed.

  He was about to get dressed when Dan walked into the room.

  “Damn,“ he whispered as he saw Rick. “They got you really bad.”

  Rick looked at him and put on his t-shirt.

  “Do you need help?”

  “Yeah, I still can’t put my foot on the ground.”

  “Okay, come on,” Dan said and allowed Rick to lean on him so they both could walk out of the room. “Look who’s up,” he said as they walked into the kitchen.

  “Good morning, Rick,” Anna smiled.

  “Hi,” Matylda said.

  “Hi,” Rick grunted as Dan was helping him sit.

  Matylda looked at his foot. “We’ll deal with this after breakfast.”

  “Okay,” Rick replied.

  “The sun came up around 4:00 a.m. meaning the nights and days are about twenty-four hours long,” Dan said.

  “Well, I’m glad we managed to establish that, it’ll be easier to plan anything. Was the sunrise as rapid as the sunset?”

  “Yes,” Matylda said. “Okay, I’ve washed all the strawberrie
s, let’s eat,” she said as they all sat on the chairs.

  For a few minutes nobody said anything, they were too busy eating. It was the first real meal they all had had since they woke up in the forest. The strawberries were delicious, aromatic, ripe, juicy and very, very sweet. When the bowl was empty they all felt full. Anna put it aside.

  “I’d like to go out, check out the area,” she said. “Now that it’s finally daytime, I want to see what it all looks like,” she got up.

  “Good idea, I’m coming with you,” Dan said. “Are you coming?” He asked Rick and Matylda.

  “Rick, I’ll check out your ankle now, okay?” Matylda said.

  “I’d appreciate it,” he replied.

  “Okay, just let me prepare the cabbage,” she got up and walked toward the work surface.

  “Cabbage?” he asked, surprised.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you going to be okay here or do you need our help?” Dan asked.

  “We’ll be fine,” Matylda said and started tearing off the cabbages’ leaves. Dan and Anna walked out of the hut and Matylda, once the was a pile of leaves lying in front of her, took a rock from the floor and started smashing them.

  “What are you doing? Where did you get the rock from?” Rick asked.

  “Found it outside. No worries, I know what I’m doing,” she replied and kept on banging the leaves until they became moist pulp. Matylda dried her hands and took one of the empty wine bottles. She came closer to him.

  “It will hurt, I won’t lie,” she said.

  “Um, okay,” he said looking at her attentively. “As long as you’re not coming at me with that rock, I’m fine,” he smiled weakly.

  “Show me your foot.”

  Rick straightened the injured leg. Matylda squatted, put the bottle on the floor and took a closer look at the foot again. She touched it, moved it gently. Rick hissed.

  “Can you move it yourself?” She asked.

  “Yeah, but it hurts like a motherfucker.”

  “Okay, but can you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Show me.”

  Rick delicately and very slowly moved his foot. The swelling was seriously limiting the movement but it wasn’t impossible.

  “Okay,” she looked at him. “It’s not broken, only twisted. Dislocated.”

  Rick smiled, relieved.

  “Now what?” He asked her.

  “Now I want to you put your foot on this,” she said and laid the bottle on one side, right in front of his foot. “You need to roll your foot on the bottle, it’ll help to put the joint back on its place.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes, I’ve had my ankles dislocated numerous times. It works, and we have no other way to help you. By the way, that’s the really painful part,” she pointed at the bottle and looked at him.

  “Great,” he whispered.

  “But it’ll be much better the minute it re-seats itself, trust me. There,” she reached out to him, “you can grab my hand if you want, it can help you deal with what you’re about to experience.”

  “Okay, well, I’ll try by myself first,” he said, “just make sure the bottle doesn’t move aside, okay?”

  “Sure,” she replied and put her hands on it, to prevent it from moving in any other direction while being rolled. “Ready?” Matylda looked up at him.

  Rick nodded and put the foot on the bottle, delicately rolling it. It felt very uncomfortable.

  “You’re not doing it right,” Matylda said.

  “What are you talking about? I’m rolling, ain’t I?”

  “No, you’re not rolling, you’re wasting our time. You’re doing it so delicately, it won’t work.”

  Rick puffed, “It’s not exactly pleasant,” he said.

  “It’s not supposed to be. Look, the longer you procrastinate, the longer it’s going to hurt. Come on, Rick, put some damn weight on it and roll it!”

  He took a deep breath and started pushing the foot onto the bottle, rolling it slowly. The pain was excruciating, he was able to feel it in absolutely every cell of his body, it made him queasy. Rick grabbed the edge of the table and was now squeezing his palm so hard his fingers were becoming white.

  “That’s it, now you’re doing it right,” Matylda said.

  He was red with effort, of pain; he was hissing the air out of his lungs, felt drops of sweat on his forehead dripping onto his shirt as he was rolling the bottle back and forth. Then suddenly he felt something like a click. It was difficult to describe it any differently, but the moment it happened, he felt deeply, profoundly relieved. He lifted his leg and looked at Matylda.

  “I think it worked,” he said breathing heavily. “I can feel the pressure is smaller.”

  “Good. Can you move it?”

  Rick moved his foot and, to his surprise, it was still horribly painful, but at the same time, much easier.

  “Better?” Matylda asked.

  “Yes, I think so,” he sighed with relief.

  “Okay, time for the cabbage,” she said and left the kitchen. “I’ll be right back.”

  Matylda went to the bedroom, picked up her backpack and took out the first-aid kit. She opened the box, took a roll of an elasticated bandage and went back to Rick. She smashed the cabbage leaves some more, took them with her and squatted next to him.

  “I checked the first aid kit and there are some painkillers, although I have no idea how old the box itself is, it might be, and most probably is, expired, so it’d be dangerous to take it. Now, cabbage, and its juice especially, helps to decrease swellings and bruises. I smashed the leaves to make them moist so that there’s more juice applied directly on your injury,” she was explaining while putting the leaves around his ankle and wrapping it with the bandage. “Now that the joint is back on its place, the swelling will decrease, but the cabbage will make it happen a bit faster. You should have new compress every six to eight hours.”

  Matylda finished, Rick looked at his foot. The bandage made it a bit stiff, but it felt good.

  “Thank you,” he said and smiled to her. “That really helped me a lot,” he admitted.

  “No problem. I don’t think you should walk much today, though.”

  “Trust me, it wasn’t even at the end of my list of things to do today,” he laughed. “Do you think you could fetch me some water in the jug which I have in the room? I really need to refresh myself a bit.”

  “Sure.”

  Matylda helped Rick go back to the room and sit on the bed. She took the jug and walked out to get some water from the lake.

  ***

  Dan and Anna were sitting at the end of the pier which looked pretty old but solid. It was quite low, they had their feet in the water drawing small circles on the lake’s surface. It was very peaceful around; the sun was shining, there was a pleasant, warm wind blowing delicately through their hair and grass and they could hear birds chirping somewhere in the distance.

  At first they walked around the area, discovered there were endless fields of strawberries, lettuces, cabbages and potatoes, so vast they reached the horizon. They also found many fruit trees with sweet cherries and peaches. The water in the lake, which was about two miles wide and one mile long, was crystal clear. It wasn’t too deep, they were able to see the bottom even though they were sitting about twenty yards away from the shore.

  They talked about life, about families, about their relationships. Then, Anna told Dan she was really worried by the fact that they were all from different times and she kept on feeling it had a meaning, that it was not a coincidence. Dan said he was puzzled by the fact that there were no other people apart from them. She figured there probably were people somewhere, there had to be, and it was a matter of time before they found them. After all, the plane, the hut, and the road they walked, those were all signs of human activity, so she was positive there were people around.

  “So, where are they hiding?” Dan asked.