TIMBACA/RUSLATIVER

PART 3:

A brown gooze flowed into the rhinocerous's eyes. Trembling, opening the paper sog with her cardboard fooves and twinkling her nose, she looked anxious. I tried to picture the rhinocerous as she looked before, in my nightstories, but all I could see in my memory was the image before me. Having been alone for such a long time now, I don't think I could have stopped myself from going over.

"Hello."

A silence stabbed at the air, clutching.
Not awkward however.

"Do you need a hand with that?"
"OH! Crikey, I didn't see you there. I, uh, am just trying to open this bloody sog, but my fooves are too bloody big," the rhinocerous coyly replied (cheeky).
"Sorry, don't you mean box and hooves?" I was perplexed. It seemed inbetween all the "self-exploration" and thinking I was doing, I realised I hardly ever stated anything. I needed to stop asking questions and start asserting myself but first, this puzzle.
"Ah, no no. I see you've only just arrived and made me. I knew I was going to exist soon, but I didn't realise that you'd given me birth. As I imagine when you were a human, you didn't remember your birth. As for my fooves," her hooves melted into strange rectangular brown fingers, "I can choose between fingers and hooves whenever I want, so this is a simple and efficient way of describing my limbs. And clearly, this isn't a box, it's far too wet, wouldn't you agree?"
Stumped, I nodded my head sheepishly. Clearly, I still had much to learn about this strange metaphysical reality, if that even is the correct terminology. If terminology is even relevant. If anything is even relevant.
"I want to know what I have to do here," I tried to assert. It's difficult not to ask questions when you don't know what is going on at all.
"If the trees line-up and the birds sing songs in an open space, can I paint my face?" was the ridiculous reply. She had sung it in a strange, strained way like something filled her body and control was lost. Nothing seemed to be making sense and it was so frustrating, so difficult to maintain logic and contact with any real thought. Bubbles formed out of the brown gooze that was still flowing into the rhinocerous and formed letters above me, forcing me to strain my neck looking up.

B E N I C E T O Y O U R F R I E N D S A N D

D O

N O T B E A F

R A I D T

O

D A N C E

The brown bubbles blupped and popped back into the fabric of nature and life and out of physical existence. Looking at the shy, clearly sad rhinocerous, I realised something extremely important.

"I'm sorry, let me help you with that." I said, offering her, (I assumed it was a her as she had a high pitched voice, red lipstick and beautiful ornate, pencil eyelashes, like the curls on exotic wallpaper, a hand with the brown sog. She handed it over with no fight and the wet paper fell apart in my hands, reminding me of a bad dance teacher who can't keep a class in check. Fell apart. Suddenly, I had a flashback to when I was alive (I had stopped questioning the xylophone, I was clearly dead and he was right) and a beautiful girl, with big gentle eyes and curly red hair wearing a denim dress with no sleeves and a thin belt, held my face. She then dissolved into sand and annoyingly, the flashback was over. Nothing seemed to last more than a fucking second in this damn place. I remembered who she was though, and a massive warthm came over me, just like when I had first woken up here. I vouched to be nice to the rhinocerous and not let jealousy or paranoia ruin the clearly fragile friendship I had already. Regardless of my thoughts, I now had the contents in my hands.

Predictably, it was a compass. It had three hands and instead of the expected N, E, S, W letters, it had eight points on the compass and clockwise they were:

                                                             LIFE

                                      WATER                           DEATH

                          FRIENDSHIP                                           JOY

                                        HER                              PAIN

                                                          CHAOS

I had no idea what this compass meant, but it looked boring.

"I think this is yours," I told the rhinocerous, who looked, all of a sudden, distinctly happier.
"No, I think it is yours. Take it and go to what you want. I'll see you at friendship."

Strange. Again, I stood alone in this vast expance, wishing I didn't exist.