JoKoKo

   5 A Dream     Moon slept for what seemed like ages before she began dreaming. The dark enveloped her mind, and she floated in a vast pool of silence. It was a refreshing feeling. It was very much like things had been before the birth of Sun. The peace and the quiet rejuvenated her, and she could feel herself growing more calm and more centered as each moment passed. As she let the world drift away, her mind would wander, and her dream began to take form.     In her dream, she placed an island of calm between herself and Sun. It was a place of cold stone, much like herself. She placed it right in the middle, where she and Sun could both observe and enjoy. As soon as it began to float before her, it started to change. Her side was dark and cool and calm, and reflected her own temperament. The side facing Sun became hot and wild. The very stone began to melt, and pulse, and flow. Moon was quite alarmed by this, and set the orb to spin slowly so the hot side could have a chance to cool

 4 The Sandy Place Rian didn't feel groggy, but he was very disorientated. He seemed to be floating. The weight of his body was almost imperceptible. He was more curious than alarmed. Nothing indicated he should be concerned, no pain, no obvious danger, just a strange floaty feeling that was as curious as it was comforting.  Opening his eyes helped bring those sensations into context. He found himself in a longboat, in a copse of maple. The boat was suspended in the crotch of the oldest tree he could see within the small wood. Even from this elevated vantage, he couldn't see the sound, nor any rivers or lakes through the thicket of trees. The boat was full of water, which explained his floating feeling. The sun was warm, the water comfortable, and he was reluctant to climb out, but it occurred to him that he had better find his uncle Conny and their client Kiki. He remembered preparing for Conny's cockamamie plan to send Kiki home. He remembered singing, reaching out li

 1 Naming “Grizz! Wake up! It’s time to go!” Grizzly Baby could hear her mother calling from inside the longhouse, and laughed out loud. She had already been up for hours. She awoke before the dawn, and waded down to the clear, cold salt water. She bathed, and said a little prayer to her long line of ancestors, naming each in the line until she got back to the beginning of the Saltwater People. She dressed, and gathered some nearby camas bulbs, devil’s club buds, fiddleheads, and a few gumboots from the base of the seaweed covered rocks. She thanked them all for the sustenance they would provide, and promised each one that their spirit would grow and flourish once it joined her own. It was not until she had prepared everything for the coming day, or perhaps days, that she heard her family begin to shuffle out of bed.  She whistled a loud, high pitched hummingbird call in response to her mother’s summons. Her mother gave a high “yew-uup” of celebration in response. There was a first

  2 The Moon It was dark, but that was okay. It was always dark. It had always been dark. The dark was the natural state of things. She couldn't even imagine something other than the dark. 'What else could there be? " she wondered, and then, startled, asked, "Who just thought that?" She knew herself. She had memories of the long, dark silence, recollections of the quiet solitude. She did not remember when she became aware though. She had always been, and, at one point she suddenly knew it. Knowing came with a host of questions and feelings.     "Where am I?" "What am I?" "Why?" "How?" "Who am I?"     The Who came easily. She was herself. She was the one who thought and existed and experienced. She knew all of her properties: her mass, her dimensions, her reflective index (though there was nothing to reflect, she reflected) She tried on different properties as well, assuming the affect that suited her best. Was she

  1 The Sinking Ship “They don’t build them like they used to,” Rian said jovially. Conny bit his tongue. This concrete brutalist monstrosity was also not built like they used to. They never built them like this, and that was the only reason they had come to this horrible, bland, and unholy place. The hulking edifice was sunken into the triangular lot at the lower slope of Yesler Way at a dangerous angle. Its highest point, some sixty feet above the sidewalk, was at the apex of the triangle. The decks had been adorned with nautically-themed railings and filigree. This had garnered it the nickname “The Sinking Ship” and, while its aesthetics were frequently derided by locals, the hoi polloi took it for what it seemed: a quirky parking garage in the heart of the city. Unlike most parking structures it had no ramps, elevators or stairs. Rather, motorists were forced to use the busy street to travel from deck to deck. When seeking refuge for their beleaguered jalopies, drivers would cross

  Disclaimer The following is a work of complete fiction. Though the names of real places, towns, geographic features,  nations of people, species of cetacean, and in some cases individuals are used herein, in this work they are  entirely the product of the mind of the author, and should not in any way be misconstrued to represent the real life entities documented by naturalists, geographers, colonizers and Wikipedia. Any inaccuracies, misrepresentations,  and other measurable failings within this work are the sole responsibility of the author, who is a well meaning dolt  who never learned how to properly research or study.