He stepped into the hall and closed the door behind him. He made his way
into the living room. The two chairs were gone, and so was the coffee
table. He walked through the living room and into the library; through
the library and into the dining room. The gasoline lantern burned
brightly on the dining-room table, its harsh white light bathing bare
floors and naked walls.
The breeze was stronger here, the scent of roses almost cloying. He saw
then that the double door that had thwarted him that morning was open,
and he moved toward it across the room. As he had suspected, it gave
access to the kitchen. Pausing on the threshold, he peered inside. It
was an ordinary enough kitchen. Some of the appliances were gone, but
the stove and the refrigerator were still there. The back doorway had an
odd bluish cast that caused the framework to shimmer. The door itself
was open, and he could see starlight lying softly on fields and trees.
Wonderingly he walked across the room and stepped outside. There was a
faint sputtering sound, as though live wires had been crossed, and for a
fleeting second the scene before him seemed to waver. Then, abruptly, it
grew still.
He grew still, too--immobile in the strange, yet peaceful, summer night.
He was standing on a grassy plain, and the plain spread out on either
hand to promontories of little trees. Before him, the land sloped gently
upward, and was covered with multicolored flowers that twinkled like
microcosmic stars. In the distance, the lights of a village showed. To
his right, a riotous green-rose bush bloomed, and beneath it Zarathustra
sat, wagging his tail.
Philip took two steps forward, stopped and looked up at the sky. It was
wrong somehow. For one thing, Cassiopeia had changed position, and for
another, Orion was awry. For still another, there were no clouds for the
moon to hide behind, and yet the moon had disappeared.
Zarathustra trotted over to where he was standing, gazed up at him with
golden eyes, then headed in the direction of the lights. Philip took a
deep breath, and followed him. He would have visited the village anyway,
Zarathustra or no Zarathustra. Was it Pfleugersville? He knew suddenly
that it was.
* * * * *
He had not gone far before he saw a highway. A pair of headlights
appeared suddenly in the direction of the village and resolved rapidly
into a moving van. To his consternation, the van turned off the
thoroughfare and headed in his direction. He ducked into a coppice,
Zarathustra at his heels, and watched the heavy vehicle bounce by. There
were two men in the cab, and painted on the paneling of the truckbed
were the words, PFLEUGERSVILLE MOVERS, INC.
The van continued on in the direction from which he had come, and
presently he guessed its destination. Judith, clearly, was in the midst
of moving out the furniture she had been too sentimental to sell. The
only trouble was, her house had disappeared. So had the village of
Valleyview.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account