Sara's Story - by Jonathan Malory - Chapter III - Hole

It seemed like hours had passed while Sara had been inspecting the dark and intricate depths of the hole. Miniscule motes flirted their emancipation as they floated free into the outside air, taking with them none of the secrets that lay within. Vines of glistering bronze crept from the oily murk, writhing fondly over the surface for time immemorial. Whispers of enhancing inspiration caressed Sara’ eyelash, like the breath of a snake as it waits out the night in its desert dwelling.

She dipped an elfin hand gracefully into the silky pocket of her velvet jacket, where her salvation and re-entry to security lay gently cradled. She removed the key and set it lovingly into the hole, sending dust swirling majestically around the shaft. As Sara engaged the mechanism the oval bronze lock-plate came alive as the vine pattern writhed with excitement, the foliage within relented and the oak portal sighed inward. After what seemed an age, Sara was home; back on the island where everything made sense.

‘Such a panic overtook me; a fear I’d never thought possible.’ Sara was engulfed by the pleasure of her cool Lime Ricky; her hysterical encounter in the Melbourne park but a distant memory, hard to believe.

‘It’s the travelling without moving anywhere in normal space, it upsets your body’s chemical balance. But worse than that there is the disruptive influence to your equilibrium caused by your sudden relocation within the Earth’s magnetic field.’ Jonathan Arkansas spoke the last with a subtle hint of awe.

‘The Earth’s magnetic field,’ Sara mused, ‘I had a sensation that felt closely connected with the field as I entered the Door, before it all went… They are profoundly linked.’

Mister Arkansas creaked forward a little in his leather-bound chair. ‘For time beyond memory, the rhythm of life has evolved at an even tempo. All of us, everything, existing with a complex matrix of oscillating energies; a tiniest quiver or ripple in one set of energies carry over displacements into others…’

‘Yes, I saw it all,’ Sara politely interrupted, ‘Many occurrences per instant. Between the ionosphere and the Earth’s surface and beyond, pulses travelling completely around the world; sending coordinates to all living organisms.’ Mister Arkansas creaked back in his chair; sipping his own Lime Ricky, satisfied with his acolyte’s understanding of things.

‘Something else bothers me a little though…’ Sara began.

‘I know. You are wondering how your suddenly disturbing the flow of energies does not upset the equilibrium of the Earth. The truth is I do not know, maybe it does in a small way. We are very small compared to the Earth and the rest; yet it’s hard not to think of the butterfly and the hurricane, isn’t it?’
Jonathan stood then walked gently to the window with his hands behind his back, a crested grebe eyed him from the Amazon shaped lake. ‘It does get easier and less upsetting the more you go through the Door; perhaps the Earth becomes accustomed to your travelling too.’ He turned around to face Sara and smiled. ‘Besides; assuming you will travel forward and backward in time, which is of course impossible for obvious reasons, the Earth is already used to it and always has been.’

Sara walked over to look closely into his eyes; she wanted to see if there was any change when she said, ‘But there was something else I saw; not a disturbance in the magnetic field, but a hole.’ She perceived nothing in his thoughtful blue eyes. ‘I found myself reminded of it when I came to put the key in the front door; like there was something beyond it, whispering ambivalent intentions.’

‘A hole?’ Asked Jonathan ‘You mean like a tear in the fabric of the universe type of hole?’ He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Sara struggled for the right words, ‘Hole isn’t really the right word, it was a trou profond, deeper and darker than 'hole' could ever suggest.’ She tried to picture her feelings at the time of seeing the cavity; there was no fear involved in the recollecting, just a curious interest or puzzlement.