Lost and Found

Lotus walks along a wooded glade searching ever for something, something she knows not what but something she is sure she has lost long ago. Her feet step lightly as she passes through deeper still within the pine-scented forest, the light fading slightly.

Occasionally she catches the glimpses of movement out the corner of one eye or the other but she has no fear. She left her shoes far behind, her long light hair flows out behind her as she moves easily over roots and ducks beneath branches. The air is still and calm about her and it is sweet and clean and smells of damp earth and a mother’s breast.

Her dress swirls about her knees and her light cape billows and curls. She feels as much a part of the earth as she ever has. Pausing for a moment, Lotus places her ear to a young birch and listens. Deeper, further, come deeper, she hears whispered. Nodding she continues along, ever immersed, peace creeping in around the edges of her troubled heart.

An impish giggle wriggles into the edges of her hearing and then echoes to her right followed closely by another to her left. A flash of color. She calls, please don’t hide your face from me. First one and then the other step out seemingly from nowhere. Lotus’s eyes flash wide with the edge of sudden knowledge and memory and she hears the calls of a pair of ravens nearby.

Two young women perhaps her age. The one has yellow-blonde hair which falls in waves around her shoulders, her sheer dress in shimmering blue which almost looks like the waves of the ocean as it moves. Her shoulders are wide and her hips narrow and Lotus immediately envisions her easily slipping amongst the waves.

The other with her brown almost red hair in soft wide curls that seems to move on their own and wearing only a deep green skirt with a long high slit up one thigh. Her skin is tan and her breasts are round and perfect for suckling babes or lovers. She has voluptuous curves which created a desire for Lotus to run her fingers and then lips across every dip and valley. A bright white flower is tucked above one ear and she is the one who reaches her hand out first.

Lotus easily takes her hand and then the ocean-woman’s hand and together the three continued on nary a word uttered except small laughs as they skip ever deeper into the wood. Within minutes the earthy woman stops in a clearing, one that Lotus could tell was sacred. Are my answers here? she wonders.

The other two kneel down in the soft raw dirt and gently pull her down with them. Then the pair begin to sing a wordless song which is the most beautiful thing she has ever heard. It paints pictures of rich emerald hills and steep sea cliffs, thousands of years worth of rocks at their base where the water foams and swirls. It draws images of molten red rock flowing and pouring into the waves of an ocean island and of cool breezes lifting and teasing her long locks.

She realizes with a start that more voices joined as into the clearing step two more women whose faces are almost identical but that’s where their similarities end. The one has a deeper husky voice and her bright red hair is spiked wildly and worn short. She is the shortest of the four but her athletic frame is lithe and strong. She wears an incredibly short black skirt that hardly covers anything and a tight black sleeveless top covers her tiny breasts.

Her twin on the other hand is tall, very tall and curvy, with wide hips and a soft belly. Her long white dress is billowing all around her dark chestnut flesh in waves and curls and her voice is high and light. She has a wide beautiful mouth and her tight black curls are packed very short and close to her skull.

Together the four sing around this woman who has lost something, though she doesn’t know what. They sing and as they do, they draw a circle around her with strange symbols marked out here and there.

Gently guiding her to lay down on her back, Lotus looks up into her small patch of sky with its border of evergreen trees. Abruptly on one final note, their song ends and each takes up a new position. Earth kneels at Lotus’s head and holds her gently, one hand on each cheek. Ocean kneels and holds her left hand while Fire holds her right. Sky holds her ankles lightly, massaging gently with her thumbs.

Lotus is almost giddy in her peace. She is sensual and alive. She smiles and laughs. Earth leans over and kisses her softly on the lips. Lotus’s left hand feels cool and wet and her right feels as if it is burning. Her feet and legs sense a cool breeze. She closes her eyes.

One at a time, each woman lays down across her, feet to feet, hands to hands, face to face, and Lotus absorbs them each in their turn, one by one. She finds what she has lost: it is her voice.

And so opening her eyes, no longer alone, never alone again, she stands and looks and there she’s transported to the very edge of a cliff and she knows she can fly, so she opens her arms wide and fly she does. With her pen, her new voice, she flies to worlds never explored. She flies to the deepest parts of herself and the tallest peaks of passion. She finds her voice. And no one will ever take it from her again.

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tara caribou | ©2018