The Journal of Chindi Acteul - By Skye
A story in many parts
Part 2.
I open my eyes to see a blinding light shining in my face. Am I dead? Are these the pearly gates? No, it can’t be. I can’t see any gates. I’m just sitting in a luminous room. It doesn’t look like my room at all, though. Where am I?
I decide to take in my new surroundings. I am in a near-empty room. There are no pictures on the walls, except for one that I can’t see. It’s too far to the side. I try to move to see it, but everything hurts when I do. It feels like thousands of needles, and a few hundred splinters are pressing into me, all over my body. But, I push through the pain, to see what the painting is. Strange. It looks like a bunch of birds of many kinds, all standing around a winged trident. The birds look like something out of a really strange dream. Maybe this is what it all is. Just a dream, only an illusion of what I think is happening. I go back to my comfy position, where I was before. I lift off my blankets, and I dare to look at myself. I see that I am surrounded by blood, probably my own. I am covered with bandages, mostly on my legs. I lift one up, to see a gaping hole in my arm, with a sharp-looking rock stabbed into it. I yelp with surprise, but then, realizing that there could be anyone in the house, I decide not to make any more noise. I put the bandage back on, and then turn to my other arm. It looks like it is plugged into something. It seems to be feeding me orange gloop from a big plastic bag. I must have been really hurt. I put my blankets back on, and lay back down. What a strange room I am in. There are some blue and yellow lights shining on my face. I then focus on the furniture. There is the bed I am laying on, and a couch to my right. There is also a bedside table to the left of my head with a lamp and—
I gasp. There, on the bedside table is my beautiful, yellow, parakeet shirt and my blue shorts with purple llamas, ripped to shreds. Tears start to well up in my eyes, but I blink them back before they run down my face. I can always order some more on Amazon. They are pretty cheap! But then, I hear footsteps in the halls, and that immediately startles the tears out of my eyes.
Oh no, was my yelp too loud? I wonder. I listen hard. They seem to be getting closer and closer to where I am. I stiffen up. I hear my door open. I brace myself for monsters, but instead I see a short, young woman come in. I would guess she is about 31 years old. She is wearing what looks like a cross between a purple tuxedo and an emperor’s robes.
“Oh, good! You’re awake! You were just lying there, by the beach, and we saw you fall out of the sky. Is everything alright?” she asks.
“I fell out of the sky?” I groan.
“Yes, you did. It was quite strange, to see this young girl, wearing weird looking clothing fall out of the sky, and get carried down on a cloud of blue mist, then at about 60 kalubs up, the mist disappears and you come tumbling down. Oh, thank goodness you are all right!” she recounts. “Oh, here, drink this,” she adds, handing me a glass bottle with a cork in the top, which was filled with sparkly purple potion. It shines as she shakes it in my face. I reach out with the hand that is being fed with orange stuff up and take the bottle. I uncork it, put it to my lips, and drink. It tastes amazing, like cinnamon buns, but with a tiny zing of lemon.
“What’s in this?” I ask her.
She giggles. “It is just gyok’d juice mixed with yukul bark! Why couldn’t you recognize it?”
“What are gyok’d and yukul?”
“You seriously don’t know what gyok’d and yukul are? Are you even from this planet?”
“It depends. What planet are we on?”
She laughs for a good minute. “Haha, nice joke!”
“I am not joking, though. What planet are we on? It definitely doesn’t feel like Earth.”
Her face tightens, and she seems to stiffen. “So, you are an alien?”
“Or are you an alien?” I joke.
She giggles again. “We are on Castello. Also, what is Earth? You mentioned that earlier.”
“Earth is my home planet,” I explain. I feel like I was ET, trying to explain to aliens that I came from a distant planet. Although, I kind of was. I just wasn’t ET. I can feel my face burning, and I adjust my sheets so that they cover the lower half of my face.
“Now, now, don’t be ashamed,” she says, patting my sheets.
“Also, what’s your name? My name is Chindi. Chindi Acteul.”
“Cool! My name is Himip Barxem. I am a healer here on Castello.”
“Well, hi, Himip! Hey, I have a couple questions.”
“Sure! I mean, that’s to be expected when you fall out of the sky and arrive on a strange planet.”
“Strange is right! This place is nothing like Earth.”
Right after I say that, I hear a bird chirp. It sounds like dripping water, almost like a song sparrow. But, then again, there probably aren’t any sparrows here…
“What was that sound?” I ask.
“That was a parolia. Their feathers are sometimes used for medicinal purposes.”
“It sounded so much like a sparrow! For a second there, I started to think maybe I just hit my head really hard and was really at home, imagining all of this.”
“Well, unfortunately not. You’re stuck here now! But wait, what is a sparrow? That’s something back on Earth, right?”
I sigh. “Yes. They are little brown birds that sing such beautiful songs. Ah, I remember them well.”
Her expression softens. “You must really miss Earth.”
“Yeah, I do. Anyways, what are gyok’d and yukul?”
“Sorry, I guess I still haven’t explained. Gyok’d is a yellow fruit that is very sour, but with a tiny hint of sweetness, and yukul is a type of tree, who’s bark tastes a bit spicy, but still sweet.”
“Gyok’d sounds a bit like a fruit we have on Earth called a lemon, and yukul sounds like cinnamon!”
“Interesting! Now I know some of your Earth terms!”
There is a long pause as we both think up the right thing to say.
“Well, it is starting to get pretty late. I’d better get into bed. If you need me at all, my room is right down the hall. Or, you can just yell. Just, try not to wake my husband. He does not like being woken up to my patient’s screams.”
We both giggle.
“Good night!” I call out.
“Oh, and your bag is empty,” she says, gesturing to the bag that was feeding me the orange glop. “Here, let me remove it for you.”
Himip unplugs me, and takes the large stand out of the room.
A few minutes later, she pokes her head back through the door. “Good night!”
I stay awake for a few minutes before falling asleep. When I do, I imagine my parents, who think they would never see me again. I think that I might never see them again.
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