The Origins of Taftka, or How I Got My Memory Back
I apologize, it has been a few days, and SOME of you may have been itching to know how the end of this escapade went.
So I walked into the blue marble building, Harth Home Hospital. The walls curved up on either side, and I was lost in the wonder of the mirror-like qualities they had.
“You sit,” said Sissy, standing by my side. “I’ll find out where Rhiannon is, then I’ve got to go.
“Okay,” I said to the girl, and found a bench not to far from the entrance. My eyes had made it all the way up the domed walls to the blue glass ceiling at the top. The sun shown through giving the light of the hospital the tranquility of being underwater.
I felt something press into my lap. I looked down, and a small money-cat – no older than a few weeks – kneaded my thigh with it’s paws for a moment, before falling asleep. I began to idly pet her as I continued to gaze around me. Then the flashes came.
I remembered my first day of show choir in high school. It was one of the happiest days of my life. First getting assigned tenor one, then meeting this funny girl – who was a soprano, but really shouldda been an alto. Weeks later, we were sitting next to each other, because the tenor between us was tired of the crossfire.
Years passed, and I remembered Salem State College. She’d been there a year and a half already, and I was determined to catch up with her. And then we fought. There was so much we didn’t understand. Not only things about each other, but things about how life was lived. Then I did the stupidest and smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I joined the Marines, and I left everything I’d ever known behind.
Years passed again, I was no longer in the Marines and I had finished writing my first novel. It was crap, I didn’t want to admit it then, because I was so proud of my accomplishment. I had a friend who cared enough to tell me how bad it really was. We’d been through a lot together. That’s when I asked her if she’d be my partner in crime. I asked her if she’d write the book with me.
Together we discovered a world filled entirely with magic. It was a place where dragons still flew in the skies above, and there were people there – people like us – people who had faith enough in their world to make it into anything they chose it to be. Taftka.
I was in Taftka now. Harth Home Hospital was in Taftka! Rhiannon, my friend of so many years, she was hurt! I looked down at the kitten on my lap. I wanted to bolt to my injured friend’s side, but kitty looked so peaceful. Sissy was looking for her. I could wait until then.
“Dude,” I heard the man say beside me. I recognized him.
“Hi, Ryan.”
“Yo. I don’t mean to be a jerk, but…could you stop petting my girlfriend,” he said. “It’s just a bit awkward.”
“Rhiannon?” I looked down at the kitten, who was still peacefully asleep on my lap. “Is that what happened?”
“No,” said Ryan. “Horqumus hurt her pretty bad. She was full of poison and stuff.”
“Jeez.”
“Yeah, first they morphed her into a tree…to slow down the poison while they extracted it. Then into a kitten so she could sleep it off.”
“Wow.”
“Cheah.”
“When are they going to turn her back?” I asked, almost petting the kitty-Rhiannon again. “Sorry, force of habit.”
“So you pet my girlfriend regularly?”
“Hah!”
“She should be better tomorrow,” said Ryan. “Or so they said.”
Sissy was fast approaching. “Oh, good. You found her.”
“And I got my memory back,” I said. “I think it was a combination of this place and Rhiannon. It’s just so beautiful here.”
“It is, isn’t it?” said Sissy.
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Tags: Pure Imagination, Taftka, Writing
Joeysan's Head, The Taftkan Dailies | Joey | 
16 September 2009 10:56 PM
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