The Way Back Home
Flash Fiction
The thing that Jenny noticed first was the extreme cold. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up into the clear blue sky.
Where am I?
Jenny slowly sat up and took in her surroundings. She was on an ice plain; a blue hue running through it. The white-blue ice stretched out as far as she could see.
What place is this?
Jenny rose on unsteady legs and began to walk. She could see that the ice plain met with a row of mountains far away, their craggy surfaces encrusted with a thick coating of blue ice. They stood quietly majestic, the ice glowing like turquoise from the light of the sun that hung low in the blue sky.
How did I get here?
Jenny tried to remember but her head hurt so much. A deep throbbing pain in the centre of her brain, like tentacles radiating out to the sides of her skull and pushing outwards, threatening to crack the bone open.
She stopped walking and looked down. She was bare footed the soft pale skin turning blue. Jenny noticed she was wearing a dressing gown, its fleecy material baby blue. She gripped the dressing gown tighter around her frail frame but it gave no comfort, the cold spread through her body like a blue ink stain.
Jenny stumbled on, her feet becoming numb from the cold. She saw a frozen sea and as she reached its edge and looked down through the blue ice and into the deep aquamarine depths Jenny saw movement.
She looked closer, trying to make out what it was. Huge bodies cruised through those frigid blue depths, colossal tails lazily moving up and down. As the dark titanic bodies swam closer Jenny began to see the various blues from their long, slender bodies as they swam.
Blue whales?
Jenny tried to remember how she got there. She remembered leaving a New Year’s Eve party a bit worse for wear and getting into a friend’s car. They had skidded on ice and crashed.
Am I dead?
Jenny looked at her hand, the veins blue against the skin. She could see the tips of her fingers turning blue. Feeling sleepy she lay down above the swirling blue-grey mammoth shapes of the whales. She shut her blue eyes against the cold sapphire land scape.
Is this Hell?
As Jenny lay on the ice she heard her Mother’s voice and waited.
*
Linda looked at her daughter laying on the hospital bed, prone body hooked up to various machines that were monitoring and keeping her tethered to life.
Linda held Jenny’s cold hand. The doctors said she was in a coma but the patient may still be able to hear. Linda sat by the bed and whispered to Jenny how much she loved her and prayed she would find her way back home.
Jason Duck 2023.
This was originally published in Candle Lit Magazine Issue 2 -April 2023.
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