|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- WEAVER--CUP 18--"THE BEST NAP" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Weaver  ||  -------> (Cup SRwv018, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = I don't know. I just wasn't with it after I put the Greatcoat on. Granticaine was explaining it all to them, how we'd leave them with a Warhome when we left and everything. But I know what I wanted to do. I didn't eat a thing, and about fifteen minutes after we sat down, I excused myself without concern for decorum and went up to the deck. Looking up, I saw that even grid of stars in the sky, and a few shapes floating here and there. And I knew I wanted to rise up, to be up there with those things. I extended my arms outward at my sides, and willed myself to rise, which I did. Cool, I thought--now I can fly. I remember all those dreams I used to have--about gaining the ability to fly, and the big let-down when I'd wake up and realize it was only a dream. But now--now I was flying. Flying straight up, my head tilted back, looking up. Soon the galleon and the two Warhomes were barely-visible specks below me. The air pressure began to thin considerably, but it didn't bother me--somehow, the coat was protecting me, as I knew it would. I rose faster and faster, and soon it was apparent that these stars weren't millions of light years away, but only a couple hundred miles above the surface. And before I knew it, I was at the level of the plane of the stars--which shone in a straight line all around me. I headed for the nearest one, and got to it in a few minutes. Maybe the size of a golf ball the thing was--a brilliant little light burning oh so bright. I reached out to touch it, but knew that wouldn't be possible. Every time I got half the remaining distance to it, I kept going slower and slower. So I forgot about touching it and looked upward at the firmament, the dome which covered Daptin's Land. I rose, and it was only about a mile before I got to it. I was black, deep black, with very little texture--but enough so that I could see it in the light of the stars from below. It was right above me, and when I held my hand up, I touched it. It felt like stone, but infinitely more sturdy. It made me feel good to touch it. This was the vaulted ceiling above this world. I regarded with contempt the model of the universe I was taught in school--about the aching void of space, about how small our world was in the scheme of things. All nonsense, of course. There was a firmament just like this one over the Earth I came from. I knew about it, I knew it all. I was getting it from the coat. The coat was full of information. I looked down at Daptin's Land, maybe the only place left in all of everything. I could have flown back to the Center of Creation much faster than in my Warhome, but I didn't want to leave Granticaine stranded. But there was time. I floated up so that my back was to the firmament, and I rested there. I put my hands behind my head and relaxed all the muscles in my body, just hanging there, suspended by the Greatcoat, gazing down at Creation. And I had a little nap--the best nap I ever had. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----