Crashing Tides

by Gwendolyn Marie

She opened the book as if unlocking a treasure containing untold secrets—as if it was about to erupt with demons as a volcano spews lava when the cover folds over. Each picture she looked over with unabated curiosity, amazed by the tale the child’s book wove. One by one she turned the pages, hungry for knowledge. She read of a young boy’s punishment. His journey over the sea. Meeting the wild things. They had wanted to tear into him, but instead they found him to be the most wild thing of all, and dubbed him the king of the wild things. ​Tame them. Look into their wild eyes, without blinking once. ​Thud. ​The noise halted her rapture with the book. Her moment’s peace broken as the fanciful stories of nevermore shrank back into the pages. No longer white but tattered, burnt pages were in her hands. The pictures were faded and the words illegible, even though to her they had existed only moments before. She threw the book away from her. Hallucinations. No, memories, a voice whispered. From a time forgotten.