Hannah Vergult
Long Distance
Hannah Vergult
“
C an I tell you a story ?”
“ Right now ?” “ Yes . It ’ s one my grandmother used to tell me .” “ Lily , we ’ re in the middle of a serious conversation .” “ It ’ s related , I promise .” “ Okay , go .” “ My grandma would start by saying ‘ Once upon a time there was nothing ’ and it would always confuse me . She would tell me to shut my eyes closed as tight as I could and if I couldn ’ t feel wrinkles coming out of the corner of my eyes , then I wasn ’ t closing them tight enough .”
“ Like this ?” Isaac scrunched up his face in a way that Lily thought made him look like a child .
“ Just like that .” She smiled . “ That ’ s what nothing is supposed to look like .”
They lay together on a mildly stained comforter under a flickering fluorescent light , both tired from a long drive . Lily played connect the dots on the freckles , moles , and other markings which sprinkled Isaac ’ s arm .
“ So , in the creepy , swirling sea of darkness and nothingness , there was the lonely thinker . This is where I start to forget parts of the story by the way , but somehow the sun rises one day and then the thinker decides to create a being with two minds , because it understands the solitude of one alone . The being is half-male , half-female and its body is squished together , like an eternal embrace or something . But there ’ s chaos in the universe because everything is mushed together and nothing is in order , so the thinker tears the being apart and separates them into the sky and the earth for balance . The sky is pushed up and she stretches herself over the earth like she ’ s always trying to reach for him and they can ’ t really ever be together again in the same way .”
Isaac sighed , eyes still closed .
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