Behind the Clouds and Upside Down

Forest feels tired today. Too much work, not enough rest is fast catching up to him. The drive home was an effort to stay awake. He arrived home and checked on Albert, the resident house plant and great sage. Then he went to bed early.

Now it is four in the morning and he is wide awake. Albert is probably still sleeping. Therefore, he decides to take a stroll around the yard in the moonlight. It is a full moon this evening, and the cool night air might help toggle sleep mode again.

As he steps outside, he notices a slight breeze blowing. It’s gentle, and seems to ebb, and flow. The moonlight is bright, and then it fades as clouds drift lazily by in the night sky.

There isn’t enough cloud cover to suggest rain, but the clouds are large and almost ominous. Furthermore, their shapes are random and strange. He turns the corner of the house and strolls down the side yard. He is taking deep breaths of the cool night air.

Behind The Clouds

Forest reaches the back corner of the house and turns left, entering the backyard. The horizon view from this perspective is similar to the rest of the sky. However, one particular cloud stands out among the rest.

He steps in a gopher hole and very nearly twists his ankle. Furthermore, he almost falls. The gopher hole was easy to miss because of what he just saw at the edge of that cloud. His skin breaks out in goosebumps, and he inexplicably feels a sense of dread. He shakes his head and blinks, looking again, but it isn’t there now.

He continues watching the oddly shaped cloud, as he rounds the corner of the house. Watching it gives him an uncanny feeling. As though someone watches him in return.

It is more than feeling. Something is watching him. Furthermore, his primal instincts are in a state of alarm. Therefore, he is barely able to resist the urge to run to the door. As fast as he can.

Albert’s Accident

Later that morning Forest still feels shaken. He napped the remaining hours of his sleep, because he kept tossing and turning. And the memory of what he saw behind the clouds, is still fresh in his thoughts.

Therefore he stumbles sleepily into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. What he saw, and that primal feeling of something watching him, had him feeling rattled. Likewise, he felt that maybe he stumbled onto something that wasn’t for him to know. Or see.

He pours the coffee and takes an eye opening sip. He could have imagined the whole thing. However, he couldn’t have imagined his instincts responding as they did. What the hell was that thing? And what the double hell was it doing behind the clouds?

Upside Down

Sipping his coffee, while he steps to the window and peers outside, he notices it is another cloudy day. The clouds are large and oddly distorted. He watches them drift lazily in the sky. He needs to get ready for work.

Setting his coffee down, he decides to get Albert his morning beverage. He fills a glass with water. At least Albert would understand this weirdness he experienced last night.

He stops cold when he sees his friend Albert’s condition. Albert had an accident. And he is now upside down. Planted upside down. Now Albert’s roots are where his leaves should be. Otherwise he is undisturbed in any other way. Except that Albert is now a houseplant grown upside down, and in reverse.

End chapter one.

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