Bohemians of Sesqua Valley by W. H. Pugmire Read Free Book Online Page A

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    New longing was not satisfied.
    The pale thing called me brother, said,
    ‘I am the Dreaming and the Dead,
    Fallen from distant vortices,
    From whirling far-off galaxies,
    Past dying suns and chilly stars.
    I come to kiss thy psychic scars.’
    Looking down I was perplexed
    To see the beast was double-sexed.
    ‘Kiss me there,’ it spoke to me,
    ‘And penetrate my mystery.’
    I did not heed its queer command;
    Instead I took its pale hooked hand
    And with its talons pierced my eyes.
    Through blood and tears I scanned the skies.
    I saw the crawling stars that named
    Me as their own. Thus I am claimed.”
    This was like nothing he had written before, and although it was too strange to be understood, its imagery whirled within her skull. Sarah set the notebook onto the wooden floor and shut her eyes. When the pale antique thing crept to her from its secret lair, she struggled mentally to awaken. Instead, she felt the hooked hands that pressed her mouth unto a marbled breast.
    II
     
    Soft light filtered through morning mist and illuminated the valley. Sarah raised her face to it and shut her eyes, letting the texture of her skin drink in the subtle warmth. This was a nice alternative to the dark troubled dreaming she had experienced during the night. She inhaled the fragrant air of Sesqua Valley as her toes, curling, pushed into yielding earth. The air, as Sarah sucked it in, tasted sweet, almost cloying, as if composed of elements that were of a different nature than that with which she was familiar. As she scanned the surrounding sights, it felt almost as if she had entered into a fairyland. The place was so different from Providence, had such a singular atmosphere. There was an impression of agelessness in the region, and to have entered it was to fancy that one had stepped out of time, stepped into some province that was unspoiled by modernity, although it contained aspects of human dwelling. But even that seemed queer to her: each dwelling that she had looked upon possessed its own queer personality, its own peculiarity of design.
    Sarah stared past the woodland, to the distant twin-peaked mountain. The stone of which the mountain was composed sparkled in the soft morning light. Like everything else in the valley, this titan of white rock contained its own distinct and curious personality. The tall twin peaks resembled arched pointed wings that sprouted from daemonic shoulders. To gaze at the mountain was to feel that it could rise at any moment and stalk toward one, crushing one’s puny shell of flesh and bones beneath a mammoth hoof. As she gazed at it some shapeless blurred thing, black and winged, rose from it and then descended into the mist that covered much of the woodland.
    A hand touched her shoulder. Sarah looked at Akiva and returned his smile. “Enchanted by our local beauty?”
    “That is exactly right. Utterly mesmerized. I’ve never seen so many trees. It’s a wonderland of beauty. You’re up early.”
    “I have a new thing I’m anxious to continue working on.”
    She nodded. “I read some of your new work. I found it rather odd. It has a quality that I can only describe as ‘sinister.’ Why does that make you smile so broadly?”
    “Because I call these new things the work of my left hand. Living here, in Sesqua Valley, has had an effect on my imagination. I dream differently. Instead of the human noise that I had grown so used to in the city, I now listen to the whisperings of nature, its secret sounds. New sensations have resulted in new poetic visions, an innovative form of expression. Coming here has invigorated me as an artist. I thought, perhaps, it may have a similar effect on you.”
    The woman laughed lightly. “Ah, because of my taking a break in writing. You think I need a little kick in the aesthetic derrière. No, no. The truth is, I’ve been much too active, especially since Wilus died. I had no idea that he, too, had a heart condition, he never told any of us. He was my