The Star

I was on a deserted piece of land. I slowly turned around. Wherever I looked, there was this dry earth and the empty grey sky. The bleak landscape stretched to the horizon, flat and neutral. A man was walking towards me. Tall and slim, he was dressed in an elegant black suit over an immaculate white shirt. His silk tie, also black, swayed slightly to the rhythm of his measured steps. As for his dark shoes, they shone with the same brilliance as his hair, which was neatly slicked back. His skin was smooth and white, and his features were sharp but not extraordinary; his thin, manicured fingers clutched a common briefcase, such as one finds on the arm of every businessman.

He stopped a few steps away from me and took a watch out of his pocket, which he consulted carefully before laying his briefcase flat on the floor. Ignoring my presence, he crouched down and popped the latches. He glanced up at the empty sky and reached into his briefcase for a moment to pull out a syringe containing a thick, dark blue liquid, then straightened up and held his arm up, as if he wanted to touch the sky with the needle. His fingers slowly pressed the plunger and a small dark hole appeared in the gray expanse. He continued to press and a midnight blue halo formed around the hole, spreading like a drop of dye in water. The liquid tinted the sky a dark blue that flowed to the horizon. When the contents of the syringe were exhausted, the sky was uniformly dark blue.

The man reached into his suitcase again and pulled out a small jar so bright that I could see the bones in his hand through his skin. He lifted the lid and put some of the glowing powder in his palm, being careful not to drop anything, and then threw the contents towards the dark surface that now stretched above our heads. The powder scattered, forming the stars. The sight was soothing. It was as if he was giving hope to his surroundings. The man whistled, absorbed in his task.

- “Who are you?" I asked, fascinated. A deity? He didn't answer, just laughed, as if I had just had a stroke of wit.

-”Be careful, back up”, he said suddenly. I complied, watching him pull a rope from his suitcase. A cloud came out with a little pop and soon rose limply, still attached to the rope. When it was high enough, the man cut the rope and the cloud rose, forming a trail in its trajectory. He took out a few of them and then started working on the ground, taking out a thick green roll.

-”Back off," he repeated, pointing to the grass, shaking it several times like a carpet before unrolling it at our feet. He gave the strange impression of setting up a picnic. I sat in a corner and watched as he unfolded the trees like long vistas and dotted the land with small rocks and flowers.

-”Can I help you?”

-”Yes, of course," he said, dusting off his suit and straightening a lock of hair that fell across his forehead. Here, here," he said, throwing me a huge bag that I barely caught.

-”Where do I put this?” I asked.

-”Wherever you want as long as you do it in a more or less linear way.” He answered.

I opened the bag and lifted it painfully. I oscillated a moment under its weight then dumped it at my feet while moving back quickly. Water poured out of it, splashing my feet. I ran backwards to avoid being flooded as I saw a shimmering river forming in my wake. I was almost done when I felt myself stumbling against a rock. I saw myself falling in slow motion into the water, as if sucked in. It made a terrible noise.

I was in the green water. An armful of multicolored bubbles was rising to the surface, far, far above me. I could hear the sound of my own breathing, as if it were that of another person who was not far from me. The sounds were muffled underwater, distorted, as if slowed down. I was very calm, soothed. I turned my head slightly. Translucent and slightly opaque cubes were floating around me. Of different sizes, each one seemed to contain something: I could vaguely see the indistinct outlines.

I approached the nearest cube and shook off the bubbles that were escaping from my nose and blurring my vision. I could see a silhouette through the frosted wall: it was R. Curled up in the cube, he seemed to be sleeping. His eyes were closed and I could see his rib cage rise and fall slightly with his breathing. I placed my palm on the front of the cube and struck it a few times, but instead of shattering the surface, I just threw the volume a little further. I watched as R gently whirled around.

I crossed the path of other cubes, each containing a different object or person. I was following R's progress when he suddenly collided with a rose. Instead of propelling each other as I expected, the two cubes merged, until the rose slid completely into R's lap. Curious, I grabbed a sketch of a little man floating a few feet away and placed it on R's volume. I tried to get closer, but I felt more distant all of a sudden: the water was gradually fading away. Rational thoughts were intruding: I was waking up.