What if reality were reversed?
You are the woman I met on the top of that hill on a summer that was too long, dancing little under the ancient tree that feels like it's been alive since the planet was created.
You, the woman on my hill, who refuse to age with time, who often cut your thin, coppery hair short, who look at everything with your round, shining eyes. The two of us sitting leaning against the sturdy trunk of our tree, looking at the scorching sun up there.
"If we die, we will return to a pure form and join the cosmic ocean," you said while playing with the fingers of my hand that you held gently.
"What is the cosmic ocean?" I asked. She indeed has a lot of crazy thoughts about all forms of life.
"It's the place before everything had time. The place of eternity. We all come from there. Sometimes, we fall and are dragged towards life unintentionally or because of a certain algorithm, and then we know time and space."
You use your fingers and my fingers to ward off the scorching sun up there.
"I like how you see the sun through the gaps in our fingers," I said, while you play with our fingers so that their shadow dances on your face and mine.
"Why?" you whispered.
"No particular reason." I answered, while I know you grinned on your face.
"This summer will be long, huh," you said. Yes, I remember you talked about this at the beginning of the season.
"Yes."
"Do you still remember why?" You released my fingers, rushed to curl up hugging my arm with your head leaning on me. The fragrance of lavender flowers that is always characteristic of your hair wafts warmly.
"Every ten years, the drought will be longer than the rain."
"So you remember," you replied. "But have I told you about the disaster that will happen during the rainy season?"
"Not yet." I answered. "Is there a disaster that will happen?" I asked.
You nodded gently.
"Like a new type of flu virus that will be a global pandemic, for example,"
"Really?" I was surprised.
"Like in the novel Inferno, right?"
"Will that really happen?"
You laughed after you said that. "No. Not a disaster like that." You tightened your hug on my arm. "Just like a sudden break in the heart."
Silence after that. I looked at your face that still wore the remnants of a smile while you closed your eyes. Yes, I understand what you mean, my dear. About the heart you're talking about. About the disaster you meant that was related to me too.
But let it be, after all, as you said, the drought will last very long this year.
You released my arm, smiled widely at me, and then said softly, "I want to dance now," your smile widening.
Before I nodded, you stood up, jumped and jumped until your summer dress in brown fluttered. You danced, sang an old song about the city and its sky, spinning and occasionally smiling at me, then letting the gust of wind blow through your lavender-scented hair.
You really enjoy dancing on the top of our hill, in the scorching summer, under the sturdy tree, and in the midst of the dry and hot wind gusts.
"I want to live forever!" You jumped happily.
Yes, My Dear. You will live forever.
The seasons changed after that.
***
You still had long hair when we first met in the first season. It was also summer, when I introduced myself as Lara, someone from the distant hill who was passing by. You, the woman with your summer dress, introduced yourself as Little Queen, whether that was your real name or not, I didn't really care at the time.
You offered me to rest under your tree, not forgetting to give me some apples that you brought in a basket made of rattan.
I accepted your offermy dear. Sitting next to you under the tree on the hill and under the scorching sky.
The dry wind blows and it was the first time I smelled the fragrance of lavender from your hair.
"Why are you alone here with a basket of apples?" I honestly asked out of curiosity.
You smiled in a very amazing way. "You will be surprised if I tell you the truth."
"Like what for example?"
You looked up at the dry branches of the tree above us. "This tree was planted by a reality explorer. This tree has roots that reach across multiverses. The reality explorer used this tree as a tool to explore."
I thought you were joking then. "And you want to explore reality?"
You shook your head gently while reaching for an apple in your fruit basket, showing it right in front of my face. "For this."
"This apple?" I asked.
You nodded. "This tree bears apples."
I wanted to laugh out loud but I held it as much as possible because I saw a serious expression on your face.
"Are you laughing?" you asked.
"No,"
"You're holding it."
Okay I was caught. But who wouldn't laugh when hearing about a tree with branches to multiverses and bearing apples?
"It's not bearing fruit now. One day if you pass by this hill again, I'll make sure it bears fruit and I haven't picked it yet."
You quickly stood up and approached me with your hands holding your fruit basket. You bowed to me while wearing a faint smile. "Until next time, Mr. Lara." You quickly ran down the hill leaving me.
I was still stunned by all your actions. I watched your body moving further down the hill while your hair danced in the summer wind.
You left the apple that you said came from the tree, which I then looked at carefully in my hand after your figure slowly faded down there. The apple in my hand was red on one side while the rest was brown like the dry skin of the tree behind me.
I brought it to my mouth, hesitated to take a bite. The aroma of the dry apple wafted. It's not clear if it's still edible or not, but out of curiosity I took a bite in the end. I chewed. I swallowed.
The multiverses exploded after that.
***
It was late afternoon when I climbed hill after hill with a dry fig tree growing on top. My mind was crazy. My legs were tired. My sweat was pouring. I stood on top of the hill for the umpteenth time, leaning against the dry trunk of the fig tree, looking around and seeing nothing but dry hills and dry fig trees. The red sky blinded in the background at every end of my sight.
Damn, where am I? How did I get lost?
Shortly thereafter, or perhaps a long time thereafter, I saw you, Little Queen, appear on top of one of the hills, picking apples that emerged on the dry branches of the fig tree. You with your summer dress and hair dancing in the dry wind.
I decided to come to you.
I climbed hill after hill towards you, passing fig tree after fig tree. Several times my head was hit by apples falling from the dry branches of the fig tree. I took one by one the apples that fell on me for no reason, I just suddenly wanted to do it.
I tried to come to you, which felt like it took forever. On the other side of the sky, it was getting redder up there. The afternoon disappeared, but the night was red and sparkling. The sky was ablaze for some reason, filled with bird-like figures spread over everything.
I finally arrived on your hill. The wind blew and the aroma of lavender wafted from your hair.
"I brought you apples." I handed over a basket of full apples made of rattan. I don't know how I had the rattan basket.
"I told you, didn't I?" you said as you accepted my basket of apples. "The apples will change a new world."
"Is that true?"
You nodded. "Later I will make one of these apples forbidden to eat."
"Why?"
"To punish."
"Who?"
"There will be sinless holy people. I want to incite two of the holiest of them to eat this apple, then banish them to a new life."
"Why banish them?"
"New worlds must be inhabited."
"Is that your first apple?"
You nodded. "Then there will be an apple that becomes the beginning of the birth of knowledge."
"By eating it?"
You shook your head. "By dropping it in front of someone who thinks too much."
"Then the next apple?"
"It will give birth to the most advanced technology in the coming times."
"And there are still many apples left?"
"Yes." You nodded. The sky was getting redder and sparklier up there. "One of them to end the world."
"End the world?"
"Everything has to return to the cosmic ocean."
"What is the cosmic ocean?"
"I will explain it to you sometime later."
Then you took me down the hill, following the direction of the wind, continually down the hills until finally you and I arrived at a field of dry grass up to waist height, bent down by the wind. You took me through the field that stretched across the universe, heading towards somewhere, while the sky became brighter and appeared closer to our heads. The more we walked towards an unknown destination, the brighter the sky became and the lower it appeared.
At the end of the journey, we both found the sky merged with the field of grass. It was bright and full of excitement.
"Let's go in,"
You invited me to enter a large wooden house polished to a fine shine, reflecting the bright red glow of the sky merging with the field of grass.
As soon as we both entered, we were greeted by the cosmic ocean where the most devastating supernovas were created in all corners, roaring loudly and shaking everything.
You dragged me through the newly created universes, passing through star-forming nebulae, circling various galaxies, and even orbiting a solar system, towards a bed near a half-open window. From the window, I could see the hills of dry grass with a jati tree at the top of each hill.
The wind blew in from the window, bringing in the dry grass as you invited me to sit down.
You placed some apples in front of the window for some reason, and the rest that were still in the basket you placed on a small table not far from us.
"Would you like to spend the night with me here?" you asked.
I nodded in agreement. "Tell me about the universe in your mind, please,"
And I remember exactly what happened next. It only took a few moments for us to exchange kisses on the lips, tasting each other, and undressing each other.
I clearly remember every expression of your moans as we made love, how you tried to hold back your moans by biting your lips a few times, but your voice still sounded loud, while around us, within this house, the cosmic ocean became more tumultuous.
***
You once said that if a new world were to emerge with a teak tree that bears apples, then disaster would soon follow. I'm not worried. After all, the new world hasn't emerged yet, and this world is still the same as it was when it was first created.
The seasons have changed as I returned to climb the hills where you live. The drought has become a rain, changing many things. I almost got lost in the hills, which are no longer dry but full of lavender flowers and mahogany trees everywhere. I'm not too surprised by the lavender, I'm sure your hair aroma comes from those flowers. But what about the mahogany trees? Last season there was only one mahogany tree on top of each hill, but the season after that there were many mahogany trees everywhere. Well, maybe you have the answer, Little Queen.
I visit you on top of the hill, you who have since cut your hair short and are sorting apples in a basket. You who then realized I came.
