'A story' about Atalanta's adventures in the Woods after she had been thrown out of her father's house on account of a rumour that she was a girl and therefore useless.
When Atlanta finally did snap out of her unusual daydreams … it was not in the surrounds she had always imagined. The feathery white drapery … luxurious white feather bed and voluminous white pillows … were notable … only by their absence …. as was the clarinet quartet.
Instead she woke up face down in a patch of moss. She woke with a start, the moss had got right up her nose. Not only that, she had inhaled some of it and nearly choked to death. For the longest time she could hardly breathe. Close to death and groping in the dark she found a cigarette packet … with one cigarette in it … and one small battered blue lighter from a previous epoch with just enough gas in to light it … and illuminate … for just a moment … the dark cave where she had lain for all these years.
Far away in another era a bomb exploded and she heard the howling of the wolves and the screeching of the owls for the first time. She remembered the last time she had been scared. The night the lions escaped from the zoo and went on a killing rampage in Queenstown. She could still hear the screams of the women … when she put her mind to it … which she didn’t ... because it reminded her of that terrible night when they had come scratching at her door.
She blew smoke rings and watched them as they faded into nothing like cinder from a heat haze … ‘The air icy and oblique … reclaims what was never mine to keep … the same scene replaying itself over and over again’. Did I write that?
Now … she remembered … the last three lines of a poem written by a dead person about stormy seas and jagged rocks … and railway tracks covered in blood.
It was not a poem about an affair of the heart or even a romance that had gone terribly wrong. It never was about her or about him and his pathetic attempts to woo the forest nymphs with tawdry Valentine’s Day Cards and empty promises.
The nymphs had been around long enough to know that is it better to hide in the shadows on Valentine’s Day.
In Atalanta’s world, Valentine’s Day is the day the forest children send their demons out into 'the world of deluded fantasies' to lure the lovelorn 'gentlemen callers' far away from them ... even if it means they had to slop around looking like Hobblers for a while.
By the time Atalanta had taken her last drag … the wolves had ambled off ... disgruntled to discover that the white plastic bag flapping on a fish hook sticking out of a tree was not the yummy white rabbit that they had supposed it was.
Later that evening Atalanta buried the cigarette but and the lighter under a heavy rock with a Kimono Dragon type of aspect to it … and said a wistful goodbye.
Goodnight Panther Puss! … Goodnight Blue Flame … Goodnight Kimy … Goodnight Kitty Kat … Goodnight Mizz WebWing … Goodnight Dickheads … Goodnight Stagger Lee … Goodnight Construction Agent 101 … she said sorrowfully. It was a solemn occasion that demanded nothing less than utmost solemnity.
Regardless of the fact that she had been asleep for such a bloodthirsty long time … Atalanta soon drifted off again … back to that other realm … the one she knew almost nothing about … the one she would return to again and again.
Sometimes she was there in disguise … as Adorabella … the Mystery Queen of the Black Sea for instance … or as Snippy … the scruffy little dog and sole companion of the scullery maid who worked in the kitchens of the Robber Barons Palace.
Once … and only once … Atalanta chased after a boy … not because she wanted to catch him and kiss him … because she wanted to catch him and kill him … and she almost did … chasing him down an alleyway late one night … she took a swipe at his foot and bit off his shoe.
The very next day, she went back down that very same alleyway … ostensibly to catch and eat some rats … and with any luck … find and eat the foot that belonged to the shoe … and stepped on wet cement.
A lioness saw a paw print that very next day and next to it … a splotch of pink paint.
Another night … another lion noticed the paw print and a shoe with tooth mark of a sabre tooth tiger on it… half buried in the sand.
A late at night visit to a psychiatric Clinic
A psychiatrist from one of the psychiatric clinics that was not completely in ruins had to arrange an emergency appointment when Atalanta’s situation re … the wolves grew ever more dire and serious.
“I know about these wolves Atalanta,” he said. "They are very, very dangerous".
“So am I” she says .
"I am warning you Atalanta" … he reiterated. "Do not have a nonchalant attitude about this situation Atalanta. This is a very, very serious situation. I have to tell you … I am quite scared for you Atalanta. You could be in danger”.
“Uh Uh … OK I promise I will be extremely careful … so as not to offend any criminals OK”
“They are not ordinary criminals Atalanta!" … he exclaimed loudly, banging his fist on the table and rearing up out of his chair. "They are the most depraved bloodthirsty creatures that you could ever imagine. I should know I was attacked by one when I was only a little baby boy. It was terrible".
“Yep.. uh …That would have been awful”, said Atalanta genuinely shocked by the thought of it … "no wonder you are so scared about my extremely dangerous situation".
'Yes I am scared about it Atalanta . It’s very serious and a very, very dangerous'.
Naturally Atalanta was scared walking all night through the forest after what the psychiatrist had said. …. and it was extremely dark and extremely menacing. ‘I know I should be a lot more scared about this than I am… she thought. The wolves were howling and howling and snarling terribly. She tried to remember the last time she had to run away from some dangerous criminals. It was in a city.
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