Page 66 - November 2020

November 2020 66
Litterateur

THE CHARCOAL GARDEN

Very often while it is making its escape it finds itself hemmed in by a rocky trap—
places where there are no seams, narrow spots where it is impossible to pass. The
water underneath lifts it up and hems it in; it comes to regret not moving more
carefully when it fell into this trap. Up above, the diggers keep hovering around
overhead, sending down waves till they identify its location precisely and come
into contact with it. From that point on the journey towards oblivion at the surface
begins, far removed from the earth’s interior. But even then it does not give in.
Even though it is refined, purified, and distributed in many different countries, it
still has an internal agreement to assemble again in the sky. It flies through the air
in the form of smoke emitted from machines, cars, and factories and collects in
smoky clouds carried on the wings of strong breezes and inserted into factories in
the sky. Once there, they are pumped into helix-shaped beams that spread through

the atmosphere, plentiful enough to pollute countries and continents and
destroying all their greenery. It is all simply an inevitable reaction to the layers of
smoke that catch fire in recompense for those who choose to burn in the first
place. Its tongue becomes a raised flag, gathering to itself segments of the
homeless and those who have wandered afar. Eventually the waving flag reached
the realms of space where it burns the ozone in an attempt to bore out of the globe
and dissipate in the boundless expanse of the universe.

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Then, all of a sudden we were out. From sticky fluids we emerged into warm
water. When we moved our arms, they waved; whooping with glee, we did the kind
of butterfly-strokes that swimming champions use. After we had swilled off all the
stuff that had stuck to us, we shouted to each other, as though to test the strength
of our voices that we had completely overlooked. There was no way up, so we
swam downwards till we emerged from the water pit. When we tested the surface
directly beneath us with our hands, we discovered that the soil was wet in some
spots but dry in others. In the dry part we found some trees with enormous roots,

carbonized and spread out in an almost infinite forest that formed veritable cities of
coal.

No exit was visible, so we continued downwards, following the veins of coal. We
entered a number of large halls with horizontal layers branching downwards, not
exactly sure whether it was our hands, legs or heads we were using to make our
way; all we were doing was to follow the breaths emerging from our mouths.
Eventually we were exhausted; both of us fell asleep just at the very moment when
we could finally see each other.