Drabble 129 – L’Appel du Vide

Here’s something exciting – The Compendium of Magical Beasts has a cover, and it’s available for preorder!

I’m unbelievably excited about this book. The ‘unbelievably’ is as true as true can be, because I still don’t believe it. I’m aware I wrote a book, and that it has a cover, and that there’s still work to be done on it before it makes its way into the world. But I also don’t believe it, because I’m me, a person that I have lived with for almost thirty years, and I can’t have written a book that, later this year, can be bought in a store.

But I do believe it enough to worry about it, which I’ve been doing all day. Worry is seductive; if I listen to even one of the many nonsense concerns floating around my brain, I’ll listen to all of them. It’s like someone is talking in the next room, and I know they’re talking about me, and I know I shouldn’t listen because it’s none of my business. But I listen anyway, because I have to know. And once I start listening, I can’t stop.

Anyway, here’s a drabble.

L’APPEL DU VIDE

(n.) French, for the call of the void

An intrusive thought, often about leaping from high places or doing other dangerous activities.

Adelaide has a question, and when she has a question, she seeks an answer.

The answer is millions of light years away. She’ll never reach it, not if she left now, not if she left ten years ago. But she packs a bag anyway and boards a ship going somewhere far away. Maybe she’ll have to catch another ship somewhere else, but at least she’s going.

There’s no sunlight this far out, but there are lamps that make a decent enough substitute.. It’s hard for anything to flourish where there’s no sun, but her seedlings manage, stretching tendrils ever further.