Autom Star Gazing

The day began like any other had done for so long that it became its own common place, the days went on in their standard monotony and the blending of one day to the next was more than obvious for any of us who worked here. Though, to say that every day was new and adventurous was an under sight to all who dwelled here. It was a simple same thing everyday type of life, there was nothing to change, and all would be as it had been. That was until the night of the Autom Star Gazing, that night was a night that changed all of us in every single imaginable way.

I was but a young man who watched over his charges as a Sheppard watches a herd of sheep that would lazily graze upon the Hill. It was common to see sheep and goats in every place and steep where they wanted to be, it was also common in the same avenue that the people here would be none the wiser to the idea, as I had become one of those myself, that the winds of time and change had abandoned us entirely and we were all fixated on the idea that the way things are is the way that they always will be, now and forever, a world that we loved and cherished without an end…

It was the night though; that long awaited night that brought about the worse possibility that we were to have ever faced and I was the one who invited the being (if that is what one would call it) into our midst.

Upon the Hill we gathered and flaunted our rhythmic drums and flutes, a lyre from yesteryear was about us as the band played their melodic tunes of hope and wellbeing, we held our breaths with the highest anticipation possible as we danced and frolicked beneath the paling sky as the day went to twilight and the moonless night would give rise. It was the first new moon that we were to receive in three-hundred years and it seemed as if it were meant for us, the moon, the new moon, as it were, or sounds, we here in our small cul-de-sac do not revel in the periodic phases that the world may be accustomed to, our moons phase and change every three or four-hundred years, it would then be said that when we get or grow accustomed to a certain series of events that a small change is terrifying, however, we are and were never afraid of the change as we knew that it was more than just a promise of a better harvest or a better tomorrow or that of anything else one would surmise from change, and yet as fearless as we were, the idea of it and the thought of a small change was somewhat fearful.

Still, that night alone is what made everything else pale in comparison.

We were all gathered, as I had spoke of earlier, upon the Hill, our jovial nature in abundance and we dined and danced to the tunes of the band and on the food that was over supplied. The smell of the food, ripe and voluptuous, the scent tantalizing all the senses and tastebuds as we dined and engorged ourselves on the fruit of passion. We ate and danced. We rolled in our festivities and when that hour to where we were to gaze through the porthole of our handmade telescopes, we were appalled by the glimmering light of what was not to be but was there altogether. It was not a new moon per say, as we were to at once be able to see the Star Dog varying and lifting from the external to the infernal or to the ethereal, nay, I do say the sight that we had seen was not of the Dog doing the bidding that needed to be done and our one time view of it, no, it was a light in that manner to which no one could have ever forecasted upon us. Even if we had been warned of the pale light that would phase in and out and when its eye cast itself upon us, we would be marveled by its sight and beauty, no, there was no foretelling of matters of these and no one, not one poor desolate soul here would have been the wiser.

I may be slightly getting ahead of myself, but still, all needs to be told in order to prevent this atrocity from happening again in the next or near future.

It was when upon my first glance to it that I heard a small and meek voice cry out for help. It was as if it were but a mere child calling off in the distance and only those with ears of mine could have encompassed the sound. It was painful and yet tranquil in its call; soft and alluring with just a small hint of malice and anger. It called out to me when I glanced its way whilst viewing it upon the finder. I pulled my head back slightly and looked around seeing that none other than I were doing such actions and that I seemed to myself alone in hearing the child calling for help. At first, I believed that a friend of mine, no more than nine and ten days at the time was trying to prank me in some way, yet there he was several hundred yard behind me standing firm upon the Hill nearest the Steep, he was there with Mary-Lu who was his beloved sister and soon to be wife of the mayor of our community, there beside her and he were but three and five others all in their best clothes available, top hats and bowlers atop flat and receding hair, the suits adorned in the finest brass and buckled in silver, the trees steady and firm, not a gust of wind to make them bend in any way, the dust or debris of the Hill was would be present on the night was not seen by anyone and yet it was I that appeared to have heard the child like cry for help, me and no one else, it was I who looked back in the telescope and heard the crying once more and it was I who decided to say yes to the call.

Let me not get too far ahead of myself for it was not all that fast as one would say. The call did come and continued throughout the time I looked upon the only star, as to what I thought it was, that anyone could hear. As the parting of my eyes once more left the view finder and walked along the path to my home where my mother and father wee to be waiting for me to arrive, it was then as the pathway darkened to the embrace of night and there was no firelight to guide my way, the pathway which was always lit with the most radiant light that hade never once dimmed or given way to the darkening world at one time in the past, but as I walked the way, the lights, every single torch went out one by one, first I found the lights from the fires dim and then as if it were blown out altogether, the first in front then the ones thereafter, then upon the glancing behind me there too they were all working their way toward me in maddening fright. It was a speed to which I had not seen and prayed to never see again. It was as if the dark was to overtake me and all man itself.

I did not drop to my knees, nor did I move or faulter my step in any provoking way, I stood still, fear was paralyzed my legs, and they did not want to move no matter how I begged my body to do so. It was then as the last night of the torch was gone that a shadow draped itself around me and all was black. Cold and pitch as the darkest of night that I had ever been in or had seen. I was not cold or shocked by the sudden dropping in temperature, nor was I made aware of the chill in the air, nor was there a single person near me that would or could have helped me move or relocate my legs to a more firming position whereas I were to be able to reengage my body in its own normalcy, no, there was nothing and no one around, only that of the night to which then and only then I were to see with my own eye the being that at once emerged from within and out of me.

She stepped out from within me as if she had snuck up from behind, as if she were an assassin of the night and pale as the moon that graced our sight, she was hauntingly beautiful, her hair was long and flowing, it seemed to have a life of its own as it moved and graced her body as if it too loved the sight of this young girl. She wore a small white bonnet upon her head and tied it around her chin in a small bowtie, pink and whites, satin as it looked and very soft upon her skin, her dress was just as pure as a winter snow and seemed to look to me as if a small blue line that had been fading away for some time was gracing itself nearest the bottom of her dress. Baren in the ways of sandals or any form of shoes upon her feet, bare feet that looked as if they had not touched the ground at all, not even once in her life. To say the word mesmerized would not be adequate enough. There was more to her and to the fact that I could not remove my eyes from her sight. I was more than captivated.

She smiled at me and whispered in the same hushed tones that only I could hear and repeated to me what it was that she had spoken and asked if there was a way, she could take me home or that I take her home with me.

Yes, I spoke to her and offered her my hand, not thinking that there was anything more to it or her than what there was in my presence. It was then that she was removed from my sight and all the lights that were out were at once relit with a fury that the gods would have smiled at. Everything at once seemed right and good in the world once more and all that there was and knew was all that I had nothing to fear, so what was it with the girl? I did not fear her but felt as if she was longing to find a friend or someone to at least gather Lillies and Heathers upon the Hill for her daily chores or to fetch water from the well as if she were too feeble to carry the weight, I knew nothing more than the fantasies that I was telling myself along the wayward path top my home.

The arrival of myself at the homestead was a normal thought, it looked like every other hand built home in the village and nay did it garner any form of regret or need of continuous work, it was in remarkable shape and size, a bedroom atop the stairway where that room was marked for me, a bathroom where the pipe led to the street and under, a family room where my mother and father and I would gather in the night, tell stories by the fire that warmed our home, eat our meals at the table where we dinned, a rocking chair in the corner and a sofa where my mother and father sat, a stool in the center of the room where I sat and listened. There was a small sowing section in the topmost right of the room and a door that I was to never enter under any circumstance.

It was when I entered the house and removed my shoes that the sudden cry of my dear mother behooved me in a way that I had not once knew that she could. Her arms were at once thrust upon me and I questioned the woman before me. Though I knew it was my mother, something about her seemed that she was more like my grandmother, she seemed to look frail and old, as if she too was on the verge of the entry with the departed whom left us day after day. She cried in babbles of joy and wonderment and asked me if it were her time and why it was not that I was to arrive, as if it was a haunting feeling that the day of my birth was the day, I returned to her or to collect her in my form as if I were to tease her and whisk her away from the world without ever once knowing that I was dead or alive. I tried to reassure my mother that I was only gone to Hill, and I came home directly, she heard none of it and kept the wondering and prying as if I were the phantom coming to take her. She spoke of my father and how it would have done him good to have been able to find me and that it was his death that spirted the girl to her and then to only dine with her and charge her to his estate and all the inheritance therein when it should have been mine, if it was only me whom he would have found.

Then she spoke of things sweet and of comfort, as if it was all that she had to give to me, as she believed me to be the specter of myself and I had come for her, she spoke of things that all mothers fear and love, the joy, sorrow and pain that I caused in my absence, and then I watched as she fell to the floor on hands and knees begging me to let her know that I was me and here for her, it was then that I knew what it is that I became upon agreeing to let the girl into my life and my home. I was to take her place as a guide to those departing. It was then that I were to succumb to the hardship of watching those I love to linger from life while I still had mine, mine until I pass it on to the next in line.

So, to you who hear my call in the night, gaze upon the new moon sky and look for me and you too shall have a life like mine.