Darkness Falls
Their brilliance was unbeatable colors, shapes, their awkward movement with elegant plumes fanned. My friends and I watched the peacocks, completely absorbed. Franchesco and I started when we heard my father clear his throat, but Juliet whirled around with a smile on her face. "Allo", she said, her Swiss accent and lack of English affecting her speech, though not in a bad way; it was light and airy. My father returned the greeting, and bowing low, announced the beginning of dinner. We raced back through the flowers on the twisted stone pathway, laughing gaily. I paused, looking intently at some misplaced shrubbery, but continued on without second thoughts.
The farm courtyard appeared before us, the dining room door aglow with golden light. We seated ourselves, smiling knowingly, and then the kitchen doors opened. Out came one of the farmer's daughters in a smock, carrying a huge plate in each hand. Gently, she placed it like a babe on the thick oak table. Then came more, and more, and more. Sweet butter rolls with unsalted butter and jam, tarts filled with fruit, rice rolls with pork, salads of every kind, beef, pork, goose, chicken, lamb, all golden morsels of food waiting to be consumed. Then came dessert, cake, cookies, crumpets, fruit, and any sweet possible. Finally, dinner ended.
As my family headed back to the house, I started walking back towards the peacocks. Halfway there, I looked again at the shrubbery, but that time I noticed a faint trail curving off in a bend. Naturally, I went down it. Leaves and branches slapped my face as thorny bushes scrapped my legs. It was as if nature was trying to hold me back. I shoved my way around the bend and, suddenly, I was on a stone walkway, lit with torches. At the end was a thick – not as in five inches thick, more like five feet thick – bolted door. There were impassible adobe walls all around. No light could escape, or even make it half way up those walls.
I went up to the door, grabbed the bolt, but drew back quickly. It was piercing and cold. No one had touched that door in a very long time. After vigorous shaking to warm my hand, I grabbed the bolt and slid it across the door. With a grinding and a thunk, the door released itself from the wall and slid open noiselessly. On the other side was another world.
The sky was dark and sprinkled with stars. The moon was full, white and so very close. The grass was like wheat only a dark green. It rose up to my knees, swaying and rustling with the wind. There were giants in this meadow. They had gnarled trunks that rose up into slender boughs decorated with silvery green leaves. At their base, huge roots protruded from the ground.
The olive grove rose before me in its full splendor.
Standing there for a while and soaking all this in, I began to notice goose bumps all over my body. Looking deep into the shadows, I saw a shape darting in and out between the trees. It was quick, sly, trying to hide and yet advancing. As it darted through the grasses, I could hear it swoosh. Unsure yet what it was, I looked harder. My eyes strained to catch a glimpse of a tail, a head, or anything. But any time I got to recognize part of it, it disappeared into the shadows, only to reappear closer to me. I began to feel cold, not the kind of cold you feel when it is snowing out, but the kind of cold that comes from the inside, the cold grip of fear.
I whipped around and raced back through the door, took one glimpse at the field, the shape lost to sight. Then I slammed the door behind me and threw the bolt into its place. I sprinted down the path. But just as I was about to round the bend, I stopped short - completely paralyzed. Slowly I turned around and looked back at the door. I watched as it shook ever so slightly with a thick, dull, thud. It sounded again and again. Without another thought, without me really having control, I turned and ran, not once looking back. I ran down the path, out through the courtyard, into my house and slumped on my bed, instantly asleep.
In my dreams, I saw the shadow, heard the thump, and remembered the fear. But I also remembered the mystic aura that surrounded the trees, the moon and the stars.
I dreamed of all of this as darkness fell around me.