ECLIPSE

“When does an eclipse happen, Eli? Have you ever seen one?”

“It’s when…”

My crooked tongue tried to fetch some words from the well of my throat, but it couldn’t seem to find any, for the words were leaking in rivulets on my back. My eyes were orbiting the dusty ceiling dredging for lucidity, and my body… my body parts were about to disintegrate any minute.

I gripped my right arm, and I felt the weight of a promise—an oath interlaced with my quivering fingers.

I released my frustration in a sigh. I closed my eyes firmly, and started to compose myself. The words came in backflows from my back to my throat, and my lips were so loose.

“It’s when… It’s when the sun finally gets to kiss the moon after aeons of waiting, when galaxies of stars appear like sparkling baby’s-breaths and the sky is an enchanting altar. As Earth witnesses them becoming one with its mouth half open, as if time were frozen forever to a glimpse of heaven on their telescopic eyes. But you know what the White Rabbit said to Alice when she asked him of how long is forever?”

“Sometimes, just one second.”

My voice flowed not from the mouth but from the rim of my eyes.

“Eclipse is a perilous thing, you see!” I screamed.

“What? Eli?”

I woke up from my phantasm, my consciousness slapping my face. I’m still confined in these four white walls, knotted with a jacket of white lace memories.

“This isn’t wonderland, there’s no eclipse and there will never be.”