remotefiction

Chapter Two – Blood And Sand

The flames of the fire flicker back and forth, organic and pulsing. There he is sitting there, waiting for her. Katie doesn’t know how he knows that she will be coming, but he always does, he is always there waiting for her. She suspects that it must be something to do with this place, looking across the landscape, its clear cut delineation between sky and earth. The sky is blue, pure and deep, unsullied by the slightest hint of anything that could be described as a cloud. The earth is the sweep and curl of dunes, the bright, warm, yellow of the desert – an ever shifting environment, mutating one grain at a time. A fact Katie can testify to, the coiling fluid particles moving with her every step as she carefully measures each step down the side of the dune to where he is camped.

He pours the tea into two cups as Katie arrives, places them on the ground, before rising to meet her.
‘Katie,’ he says, his voice deep and filled with a warmth tinged by a sadness, as he takes her in his embrace.
‘Simon,’ Katie squeezes him, her arms doing her best to crush him to her ‘,I’ve missed you so much!’ No doubt he can feel her shaking with the effort she is putting into not crying. He runs a hand through her hair, steps back from her, taking her chin in his hand. Simon sighs, kisses her forehead, before hugging her again.

Now that she is sat comfortably round the first, Simon hands Katie one of the cups of tea.
‘Blood and sand,’ Simon says raising his own cup to her.
‘Sun and moon,’ Katie responds, clacking the rim of her cup off the rim of his, before taking a sip from her cup.
‘So, how are things? How is everyone?’ asks Simon, looking at Katie over his cup.
‘Everything is fine. We are muddling along. What else can we do? And you know Gabe, he is always one to cope.’
Simon smiles at this, ‘Yeah he’ll manage, if anyone will.’
‘When are you coming back?’ Katie looks at him searchingly, imploringly.
Simon puts his cup down again. Brings his knees up to his chest. He looks up to the perfect blue sky, as though trying to derive some answer from it’s expanse – but the sky remains silent as ever, no comment for this subject.
‘Things, things changed, you know? It wasn’t supposed to be like this! The plan was that things would get better, that we would make a difference. Then that happened, and it was an omen – surely the two of you must feel – you of all people, you must sense something? Things are going to get bad, I really don’t know where this will end’

Snug in her sleeping bag, Katie stirs, her eyes opening to the orange canvas of her tent. Sitting up she reaches for her bottle of water, unscrewing the cap and swallowing a mouthful. Screwing the lid back on, her mind fills with thoughts of Jess – Jessica – her sister. Katie becomes over whelmed with these feelings of loss, sitting hugging herself, with tears running down her face. Unconsciously cradling back and forth, desperate for some sense, some reason for Jessica’s death. Recalls how she lost her hair, lost so much weight, consumed to a shadow of herself. Her cells fighting a losing battle against herself, they could all see the end coming well before it did, and the fact that there was nothing that could be done tore them up. A light ringing tone brings Katie back to herself. Out here in this dry, crumbling land in the American desert, reception was poor. Most of the others that came here would be unable to get a signal, but with her test model Katie has a call coming through. If she can find the phone, grabbing her back pack and raking through the contents.
‘Hello,’ she says, unable to conceal the sob in her voice.
‘Katie. We all miss her. You know that? We have each other, you know I’m always here for you, and Jess wouldn’t want you to dwell on this too much. She would want you to move on.’
‘Yeah, I know. It is good to talk to you, I know you are there for me,’ wiping tears from her eyes Katie starts to feel a little better. She can’t help herself, when she thinks about Jess too much it just overwhelms her, but at least she has Blake to bring her back round.
‘Ok I have got to go. But I think we will be seeing each other soon, till then take care of yourself! I love you. Bye’
‘Thanks for calling, bye,’ Katie slings the phone back into her bag, before unzipping the tent. It is another warm day outside, as it has been the entire time that she has been here.

There are drummers everywhere. Assorted other punters with their home made instruments and their home made drugs. Dancers and fire spinners, dervishes all. Katie’s arms weave in front of her, following the lines that dot to dot into symbols, catching the tracers of each move. Accentuated black lines within that, from the tattoos up her fore arms. She feels both dizzied and energised by the chaotic sonic mass that surrounds her. Embraces the adrenalin pumping from her dance, spinning round, totally absorbed by the moment, as naked as everyone else. A cheer goes up as they set the man on fire.

[soundtrack to now funkstorung - appetite for disctruction]