seshat's blog post - The ice factory - part 1

Sunday, July 1, 2012, 12:50:10 PM
So I managed to finish my story in French and enter it into the competition. I've decided to (try and) translate it, here's the first part.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Despite the hustle and bustle around him, the newborn sleeps quietly in his white cradle, his eyelids all but trembling in the daylight and his small fists gripping sleep tightly.
John is standing a few feet from the crib, in contemplation, and is wondering whether the infant is dreaming of his mother’s womb, her rounded breast or, simply, of nothing at all. He can’t help stepping closer and softly caressing the baby’s glowing cheeks. When he withdraws his hand, his fingers are cold and wet. The illusion shatters.
“Ah, Emily, there you are! Congratulations to you and to Vincent on the new baby. Little Jonathan is lucky to have you as parents, I hope he makes you very proud. By the way, this ice sculpture is astonishing, remarkably realistic. Who created it?”

---

Don’t touch me, I don’t belong to you, not yet. I won’t let you take my thoughts, transform my mind into a waiting room for the inevitable end. You used to hide behind the trees, behind the door, behind the mirror. Now you’re here facing me. The tick tock of your silence haunts me. I cry out, throw stones, plead as I fall to my knees, but you never waver.
What good is it fighting the void that gave birth to me and will consume me? I’m lost, I can only envelop myself in oblivion, as a child hides from monsters under the bed sheets.
The sun is black, the sky empty, but it rains inside me. Won’t you let me forget, rebuild that wall protecting me from the flood? Such a struggle to gaze into the emptiness and not falter, I feel myself slipping. Around me, people are running, head down, attempting to escape their inexorable fate, but they’re pushing deeper into the storm. I lift up my eyes and see the thunder clouds reaching beyond the horizon. The heavens will destroy us all.
No one imagines the darkness behind my smile, the shadows that dwell in my eyes. She who makes the ice come alive, will she be the first to see?

Comments

Others Have Said: 
T4Texas on 1-Jul-12 16:44:07
You really are a great writer, I look forward to the next part! Thanks for sharing....