Götterdämmerung (Part 2 of 7)

Götterdämmerung (Part 2 of 7) 16 Aug 2009

Posted by lupinejohn in Uncategorized.
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“You’re right. This is a really nice spot.”

The cool night breeze, lighter than he had expected, blew in off the ocean and lightly pushed at John’s hair before letting it settle mostly where it had started. He tossed small stones into the still water, not really thinking about where they went, not so much seeing their flight in the dark lit only by distant stars as hearing them splash once, then silently slip to the bottom. He’d never been able to get them to skip, not even once that he could remember, and in some strange way it had always bothered him.

Irene sat next to him, just listening to the wind, the water, the vast ocean at night as it, along with most of the island it surrounded, slumbered. She often thought of herself as an island, surrounded only by dark and roaring natural forces, protected by nothing, exposed to all the fury that nature and fate and an indifferent God could summon. It fell to her, and her alone, to break up the great waves of malice that swamped towards those behind her, to stand alone against an onrushing tide, at the expense of little bits of herself gradually being chipped away. One did not stand up to the tide, not even one as monumentally powerful as her, without being shaped by it.

Well, no more. No one could be an island forever, or a breakwater, a seawall, whatever other metaphor you wanted to think of. She had sacrificed enough. She had done more than her share, more than anyone’s share, to keep the rest of her island, and all the other islands safe, even the giant ones called continents which we like to pretend are not similarly surrounded by the great oceans which control this world. She would move inland. She would rest. She would be an island no more.

“It is. It helps me think.”

John raises an eyebrow quizzically, still flicking stones into the water with his right hand as he does.

“Is that why you invited me to the beach? Do we have something to think about?”

Irene doesn’t answer right away. For her part, she’d already done the thinking she needed, now she just wanted to see if John was on board. She’d drank the potion, of course, cautiously at first, just a sip. Part of her superpowers, however, entailed an immunity to most poisons, so when she could wait an hour and wasn’t in pain, saw no ill effects, and had time to meditate more on her decision, she was able to drink the whole thing. She had a hard time telling exactly when and how quickly it had taken effect, but by the end of the day she could tell – she was no longer stupendous.

Oh, she was still strong, still in excellent shape, still agile and robust. But the things she could do, she felt instinctively and confirmed by testing, were distinctly human, no longer superhuman. She was surprised at how hard it was to move the refrigerator. She had to shuffle it bit by bit. She certainly couldn’t lift it, not even with both arms wrapped around it, knees bent deeply, all her muscles coiled to give her maximum strength. 24 hours before, she could have picked it up with a single hand and, had she wanted, tossed it through the window.