Sea Cliffs

Trying not to look down, I scrambled along the thin trail that led to the cliff. Directly below the trail there stood a garden of carnivorous rocks. Below that lay the unforgiving sea. I slowly made my way around a tree's enormous root wad. Ferns and white flowers sprouted up from the dirt wedged into the roots and reached up towards the sunlight as if they themselves could outgrow the tallest trees.

By now I had made my way out off the cliffs and entered a whole new ecosystem. The forest was dim except for a few patches of sunlight here and there. It looked as though someone had put a paper bag over my whole world and then randomly poked holes in the bag as to allow light to seep in. All around me it was silent except for the distant rumble of the waves slamming themselves against the shore. I stopped walking and bent down to examine a trillium flower. My hand glazed the petals like you would a Van Gogh, soft and delicate. Its flower was as white as a cloud on a sunny day and the leaves a green as fresh cut grass.

Recalling my mission, I jumped up and brushed myself off. I continued for through my mysterious wonderland for a little while longer, slapping away ferns and huckleberry branches as I went. Pretty soon, though, the trees lessened and the bushes grew scarce. As I paced, I noticed how my fantasia transformed and opened up into a panorama of dark sea, dark sky, and dark everything else. I had just come out of the the dim light of the forest only to come out into an even darker storm. And on top of that, it never ended. The looming horizon just kept going and going. Forever.

I snapped back into reality. I had come out on a cliff overhanging the sea. Below me the ocean churned and fought like a mad man. Waves crashed against the rocks and then rushed back out to collide with their brothers and sisters; making a huge CRACK. It was like being right in the middle of a huge, angry thunderstorm. Crack, swoosh, eek, CRACK!

I took a step towards the drop-off. Tilting my head back, I opened up my arms wide as if they were the wings that could fly me to a world other than this one. I took off my jacket and flung it on the wet ground, letting my pale, white nightdress billow in the fierce wind. I closed my eyes, hoping to slip away into another dimension. A place where all of the forest still stood strong, not chopped as cabinets or lawn furniture. Where the air was not so polluted in some places that each breath ignited a fire in your throat. It would be a place where people and animals could live in unison; a place where war is simply a three letter word. That is the place I wished to go...not wished, begged.

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