Henry and Lucy: The Meeting

A short story by Andhu* It began as an afternoon like so many others. Henry noted a tickling in his nose from what appeared to be the waft of an overly ripe armpit. To imagine this sensation, we must depict a purple-brown tendril of smoke forming a hand at the end, its index finger stroking the man's nasal lining. His brain, unwilling to receive such hideous impulses, sent the horrid sensations via neurons to the pit of the man's belly, as it is oft wont to do. The titanic struggle not to retch began, a colossal battle between good and evil. Just when the little man overcame the greater urge, the source of the pang advanced upon him. Enter the fat wife in all her beauty, performing what seemed to be a grotesque ballet. Bile rising to his throat, the man still could not avert his eyes from the wobbling mass of rippling flesh that was his spouse. In a moment of impulse, he stretched out his foot. The lady, never once having seen the floor since her youth, could not have had a chance against this devious cunning on her husband's part. The shocked man gaped at what he had done as his wife took to the air for the first and last time in her life, her mouth resembling a rather large cave, crashing down on her neck with a resounding crack. The man, getting up too quickly, stumbled over his own foot, and landed heavily. Then there was the sensation of being shoved off an airplane. 'Where am I?' The first question one asks when faced with new surroundings. But no, Henry feared that would be too clich? and therefore asked: "What the hell?" What he was concerned about was not his language, but the dull, bleary view of the present environs, which, for some reason, appeared to have lost all its colour. Yes, he thought to himself, I'm smack dab in the middle of a grey desert, in my boxers and a vest. Suddenly, a brief flash of wisdom bloomed in his brain. Or it could have been the sensation of blisters forming on his feet. He took the example of that certain curious desert lizard and began hopping from one foot to another, though he had two, whereas the lizard had four. It was a distinct advantage in these circumstances. But perhaps he was not so wise, he realized, for it came to him that he was performing a peculiar dance in the sweltering heat with an endless desert around him, and not a drop of water to be seen. The thought of water down his throat inflamed a terrible thirst, and the exercise had begun to severely wear him down, though it had been perhaps no more than three minutes since he had started jogging on the spot. With the sun beating his heat mercilessly down on him, the prospect of no water (or any refreshment stands), and his state of extreme unfitness, Henry collapsed. To a sleep-sodden mind already slow to take in anything, the sudden appearance of a hulking figure – muscled to proportions the eye had trouble adjusting to, with the skin as rough, dry and horribly cracked, never mind it being red – would be a bucket of cold water. As the sharp smell of sulfur pierced his nose, Henry's sanity lurched. That was when he looked at the being's face. With a thin bridge for a horrible nose that was more of a snout, the creature's scarred lips were slightly parted, revealing sharp teeth. Dark, burning orbs of amber stared back at Henry, studying him it seemed. Henry opened his mouth to scream, but his vocal cords did not comply. "Hullo," said the thing. Henry found his voice. "No, no, there's nothing to be gained from that," said the thing sadly. Without any visible effort, the creature picked Henry up by the shoulders and set him on his feet. There were burns on Henry's shoulders where the creature had touched him. Let us forgive Henry, for he could not have noticed the flowery dress at first, as he was in a state of shock. Now he took it in, and it calmed him somehow. If he was mad, then this was not real. "Where the hell am I?" he asked again, forgetting his manners. "Er, well, yes," said th