I fell asleep in my bed, and woke up on Snake’s back. He was moving through an old forest. One I used to come to often. When she went away, the season finally changed, and the cold rains began. It’s been raining here for four human years. The rain didn’t bother me. Knowing I would not see her again, and the matter of our encounter at the temple entrance, pained me more than the mere discomfort of rain.
It’s not raining. The seasons have changed again. I clutch to Snake’s neck and realize I’m in the form of a young child. The sound of my younger self’s voice sounds strange to my ear. “Ya know… normally, I’d be throwing a temper tantrum about the visual regression by now. Instead, I’ll just ask: Why here? Why now? And why a dress?”
Snake’s lower arms held me securely, while his upper arms pushed foliage out of the way. His snake body moved like ribbon over the dry ground. It hasn’t rained for several days. I wonder when it stopped.
“Because you deal with pain by burying it, even when it is very much alive. Because this place misses you. Because you make a very adorable little girl.” I play kicked him in mock anger. He only laughed. “I did not set your apparent age. This is how you feel when here. You have matured in some places, but not in others.”
He sets me down on a granite boulder overlooking a bend in the now gentle river. This is where she would meet me. There is no evidence that her or I have ever been here.
“I was adult when she came to me. So why am I a child again? And a very young one, at that?” I sat on the boulder, not caring about dirtying my shiny black shoes, my little white tights, or my red & black dress. I sat down and realized the boulder was clean.
Snake leaned over and rested on the boulder beside me. “Since you didn’t play with the last puzzle I gave you, puzzle this one.”
I thought about how I was when I encountered her. So full of fear. So timid. In need of help in deciding even the simple decisions of my life. So much like a child.
He read the look in my face and kissed my forehead in agreement. We listened to the river for a while. “Other than the temple and the village, there is none here. Well, there are those other cranky bastards downstream, but I doubt they wish I was here.”
He sighed. “Knowing what you know now, are you sure that is all to this place?”
Oh. Well then. I had assumed this place would never change. And in a way, it hasn’t. I just haven’t learned to see.
“I don’t know. How do I find out?”
“For now, just be here. Like you used to. Before your heart was broken.”
He coils his snake body around the boulder in a gesture meant to project protection. But he leaves his four-armed torso beside me. I lean against him and try to relax.
The sound of the steady river lulled me into deeper sleep.