By Mark Tremble
‘Joe, have you brought your crystal?’ she asked.
‘Uh, no, I didn’t know we had to. I signed up late,’ he replied.
‘Perfectly acceptable. We’ll just have you re-enter the forest. You can select one from the provider there.’
‘Will I have to pay anything because I already —’
‘No talk of money,’ she said, holding up a hand to reinforce the command. ‘This is where you — we — cleanse ourselves, both without and within.’
Joe watched her hand gestures suggest the two realms.
‘Okay,’ he said and followed her to the forest entrance.
Around him, he saw for the first time since arriving, others — all dressed in similar robes as he, but, somehow, unburdened. It must be the crystals they wore around their necks, he thought.
Then Joe saw something else catch the sun’s pale light, much farther away, almost beyond the forest. He stopped to get a better look.
‘That’s the Leader’s retreat,’ she said.
‘Looks nice,’ Joe said.
‘Only as the Leader requires.’
Joe nodded.
‘Come on.’
Joe went on again.
A few months back, when he first mentioned to Toni that he was thinking about going to the forest, she laughed. Then, she grabbed his arm, giving him that wide-eyed expression that he could never read properly but was best interpreted as taking the piss.
‘Oh, you’re serious,’ Toni said.
‘Yeah, I am. Thanks for your unqualified support. I heard from someone that it worked for them,’ he said.
‘What worked?’
‘The cleanse.’
‘The cleanse?’ she asked.
‘Yes, the cleanse, smart-arse.’
‘Listen, I can get you one of those from Terry White. About ten bucks, I reckon.’
‘Funny. You know what I mean. Clear my mind,’ Joe said. He paused. ‘After everything.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ Toni said. ‘Just, don’t let the retired dot-com guru wannabe clear your bank account for you.’
‘I won’t.’
‘Good. Because he doesn’t need the money, and if he really wanted to open a wellness retreat, he could’ve done it in the States. Maybe cleanse the President,’ Toni said, her deadpan returning.
‘Thanks, Tone. I’ll shout you dinner when I get back, okay?’ he said.
‘No, you won’t,’ she laughed and added, ‘Just be careful.’
Joe nodded.
***
Another glorious day began in the forest in such a way that Joe could not tell which was the clearer — his mind or the sky above him. He, with crystal, breezed along the paths, carried by the fresh morning breeze itself: greeting, talking, laughing. Those previous stresses of time and money — gone. It was as if they had never existed. So, too, his burden of sorrow. Replaced by an accepting peace — comfort.
But, somewhere, dripping steadily, like water in a cave, was the worry that he could not remember his late wife. And their children. Their faces. Or that of his close friend.
Gone was his address, the dog’s name, what job he had in his previous life, phone number, year, month, day of the week.
And his name.
‘My name,’ he mumbled, ‘What is my name?’
About The Author
Mark Tremble
Mark Tremble is a teacher and sometime writer. He loves being at home with his wife and, now, two daughters.
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia’s longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998, and conceived back around November 2007. He has been a zealous reader and occasional writer of SF since his childhood in the 1960s, and even sold a few stories here and there back in the '90s.
Mark Webb's midlife crisis came in the form of attempting to write speculative fiction at a very slow pace. His wife maintains this is a good outcome considering the more expensive and cliched alternatives. Evidence of Mark's attempts to procrastinate in his writing, including general musings and reviews of books he has been reading, can be found at www.markwebb.name.
Timothy Gwyn is a professional pilot in Canada, where he flies to remote communities. During a lull in his flying career, he was a radio announcer for three years, and he is also an author.
Pixie is a voice actor, cabaret performer & slam poet From the Blue Mountains in NSW.
Garry Dean lives on the Mid Coast of New South Wales Australia, and has been a fan of SF for most of his natural life. Being vision impaired, he makes good use of voice recognition and text to speech in order to write. Many of his stories have appeared in AntipodeanSF over the years, and his love of all things audio led him to join the narration team in 2017.
David Whitaker is originally from the UK though has travelled around a bit and now resides in India. He has a degree in Journalism, however decided that as he’s always preferred making things up it should ultimately become a resource rather than a profession.
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She was that girl you found with her nose always buried in a book. She has been writing ever since she was a little girl and first picked up a pen. From books to short stories, radio plays to snippets of ideas and reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
Margaret lives the good life on a small piece of rural New South Wales Australia, with an amazing man, a couple of pets, and several rambunctious wombats.