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ursulaThe story continues. Nothing like Honors for one's motivation. Extra points if you can detect the stolen Aeneid simile.
If you go without sleep long enough, it starts sneaking up on you; you’ll open your eyes as your head hits the desk, or snap awake in the shower, leaning against the wall, sucking in rain. Theo and Prue started out in darkness. Closing their eyes meant more darkness, and they might have been asleep before their faces hit the water. Maybe they forgot to breathe. Maybe they started too late, sucking cold water past their sinuses in high red pain, coughing, but sleepy, slowly, all too late. It was dark. It was dark for a long time.
Light came back slowly, half-heartedly, in fits and flickers, the way headlights sweep past a bedroom, flashing shadows along the far wall. Theo and Prue were sitting on the ground. Prue was all black, though silver glinted off her glasses; Theo’s pale skin shone like the moon.
They glanced at each other and started walking.
***
The walk was interminable, and gray, and dry. Prue coughed once or twice. Otherwise the air was still. At least, it began still. After an infinite while they began to feel wisps against their faces, brushing lightly, gray against the gray. Another unmeasurable span, and the wisps started to thicken, showing an eye, a mouth, a hand; and then they saw a great gray cloud, close upon the plain, which formed into bodies and faces and a great crowd of ghosts as they grew nearer.
“We’re almost at the river,” Theo said.
Prue looked at her, startled.
They had to push their way through the crowd. The ghosts pulled at their clothing, whispering, begging in half-heard voices for pennies, dimes, a cigarette.
“I don’t smoke!” cried Prue, made uneasy by the press. “Go away!”
“They are smoke,” said Theo. She turned her head suddenly; that face might have been her mother’s, but it was gone now, had smudged back into the crowd.
The dull black river came as a relief.
If you go without sleep long enough, it starts sneaking up on you; you’ll open your eyes as your head hits the desk, or snap awake in the shower, leaning against the wall, sucking in rain. Theo and Prue started out in darkness. Closing their eyes meant more darkness, and they might have been asleep before their faces hit the water. Maybe they forgot to breathe. Maybe they started too late, sucking cold water past their sinuses in high red pain, coughing, but sleepy, slowly, all too late. It was dark. It was dark for a long time.
Light came back slowly, half-heartedly, in fits and flickers, the way headlights sweep past a bedroom, flashing shadows along the far wall. Theo and Prue were sitting on the ground. Prue was all black, though silver glinted off her glasses; Theo’s pale skin shone like the moon.
They glanced at each other and started walking.
***
The walk was interminable, and gray, and dry. Prue coughed once or twice. Otherwise the air was still. At least, it began still. After an infinite while they began to feel wisps against their faces, brushing lightly, gray against the gray. Another unmeasurable span, and the wisps started to thicken, showing an eye, a mouth, a hand; and then they saw a great gray cloud, close upon the plain, which formed into bodies and faces and a great crowd of ghosts as they grew nearer.
“We’re almost at the river,” Theo said.
Prue looked at her, startled.
They had to push their way through the crowd. The ghosts pulled at their clothing, whispering, begging in half-heard voices for pennies, dimes, a cigarette.
“I don’t smoke!” cried Prue, made uneasy by the press. “Go away!”
“They are smoke,” said Theo. She turned her head suddenly; that face might have been her mother’s, but it was gone now, had smudged back into the crowd.
The dull black river came as a relief.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-13 02:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-13 03:11 pm (UTC)"sim·i·le
n.
A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as."
The word like appears once in this piece, in "Theo’s pale skin shone like the moon." As appears once in a comparison, in "The dull black river came as a relief."
I will stick with my original guess, that the former was stolen.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-13 03:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-13 03:25 pm (UTC)This opens too many options, and given my lack of knowledge of the Aeneid I will decline to guess again.