Earthstone

One can find inspiration in the smallest of places....

***

It's a story that's been told a thousand times over, whether by the likes of Jules Verne or Dr. Seuss. New worlds, strange worlds, tiny words existing on a dimension different from our own. To some extent, there is truth to the notion. Deep within the sea, or hidden beneath layers of lush greenery in the Brazilian rain forests lie microcosms of life we've not yet discovered. While Nash appreciated the science, he never could quite believe that Horton ever really heard a Who. 

Nashville Roberts, named for the city in which he was conceived, had always been a skeptic. Born of the unlikely marriage between a hippie mother and Air Force pilot father, Nashville never found a place, or personality, in which he felt comfortable. Incredibly bright, Nashville breezed through high school, college, and two master's programs, one in philosophy and one in biology. He had toyed with the idea of getting his PhD, but couldn't make up his mind on which field to further pursue. It didn't really matter, though, as his life would take a dramatic turn long before he could decide. 

"What is this?" he asked as he flipped the small rock over in his hand.

"Lapis," Greg answered. 

"I thought that was a disease."

"That's Lupus, moron. This is Lapis."

"Ah," exclaimed Nash. "Yeah, still don't get it. Why are you giving this to me?"

"Because I thought it was cool and you might like it, you ungrateful turd! If you don't want it I can take it back!"

"No, no, I like it. It's cool. I just don't understand why this."

"Honestly," Greg began. "I don't know. I was in the gift shop at the Natural History Museum, saw it, and felt drawn to it. Like I was supposed to get it for you. Is that weird?"

"Yes."

"Why do I talk to you, Nash?"

"Because you're my brother and mom will yell at you if you don't."

"Good point. Anyway, I gotta run. Speaking of mom, are you going over there for dinner tonight?"

"Shit! Is that tonight? I told Jessica we'd go to that new Thai place and then watch a movie tonight."

"And you think mom's gonna yell at me. At least she likes Jessica."

"Yeah," Nash said with a sigh. "Cover for me, will ya?"

"You're gonna owe me."

"I'll take it off the tab of all the times I covered for you when you were running off with Ashley."

"That's low, bro."

"I know."

Greg laughed, gave his big brother a hug, and headed out. Nash grinned. Ashley had always been Greg's weakness. She was nice enough, but dumb as a bag of rocks. Although, Nash was fairly certain that it wasn't her intellect in which his brother was interested, but rather the sizable assets she barely contained beneath her blouse. Nash chuckled and walked into the living room of his small apartment and sat on the couch, holding the chunk of Lapis between his thumb and forefinger. There was no question that the small stone was mesmerizing.

A little larger than a bite-size Snickers a child might find in his or her Halloween candy, the stone was an irregular, rectangular shape. It wasn't its shape, though, that drew your eye. The majority of the stone was a deep, cobalt blue, with veins of greens and browns, and the occasional mark of a wispy white. To Nash, it almost appear to be a miniature, albeit somewhat deformed, model of planet Earth.  He couldn't help but stare and marvel its luster.

Nash was jolted from his thoughts when his phone rang. It was Jessica. "Hey babe!" he said happily.

"Don't you 'hey babe' me! Where the hell are you?"

With confusion, Nash answered "What do you mean?"

"Nash, you were supposed to pick me up almost an hour ago!"

"What? What are you talking about?" he asked with genuine surprise. "It's only –" Nashville Robert's jaw dropped when he looked at his watch. He had been sitting there on the couch, staring at the stone in a trance-like state, for nearly two and a half hours. "Oh my God, I am so sorry! I must have dozed off after Greg left! Give me twenty minutes and I'll be over."

"Don't bother. I really don't feel like going out now," she said, the anger in her voice fading. "Are you ok? You've never done anything like this before. This isn't like you."

Nash thought for a moment on how to build on the excuse to which Jessica had just opened the door. He certainly couldn't tell her he was staring at a rock for over two hours. "I don't know. Maybe I'm coming down with something."

"Well, get some rest. I'm just going to chill here and read with a glass of wine. Call me when you wake up tomorrow, ok?"

"I will. Thank you for understanding. I love you."

"I love you too."

Nash hung up the phone, turned back to the stone, and picked it up. "What the hell are you?" he asked, as if it would answer. He shook his head and went into the bedroom to change. He was supposed to have picked Jessica up at eight o'clock. It was now after nine and Nash felt as if he couldn't keep his eyes open. The headache that pounded his skull he attributed to staring at the chunk of Lapis for so long. Deciding that he'd best forget about it and go to bed early, Nash was already snoring by the time his head hit the pillow. His slumber would not last.

While he managed to sleep for a few hours, it wasn't exactly what one would call a restful sleep. Nash tossed and turned until he finally succumbed to his chronic insomnia and went to the kitchen. The chilled Gatorade he drank soothed his throat and helped his body relax, until he notice the glow emanating from the living room. Nash turned slowly and dropped the sports drink to the floor when he saw it.

The room was completely dark with the exception of the golden glow that hovered about two feet above the coffee table. There was no question from which the light came – it was a sun. What Nash saw appeared to be a holographic image of a solar system, however it was not his own. Swirling in the darkness around the tiny star were eleven planets in various, elliptical orbits. As Nash focused his eyes, he noticed the stars and constellations that filled the void throughout the rest of the room. Most of the planets were reddish-brown, some were a hazy gray. Some were encircled by rings much the same way as Saturn. It was one particular planet, though, that caused his Nashville's jaw to drop. There, in the sixth orbit around the system's sun, floating in the middle of his living room, was the Lapis stone.

Nash watched in awe as the tiny rock rotated slowly, traversing its orbit.  Leaning in to take a closer look, Nash could see that the white markings that the stone bore appeared now to move. "Clouds," he murmured to himself. Staring a bit closer still, Nash could have sworn that the cobalt blue undulated like the sea.

"This can't be real," he said aloud. A quick glance towards the cable box revealed that the time was exactly midnight. That didn't seem right to Nash, and he checked his watch. It too read midnight, and the second hand had stopped precisely at the marker for twelve. After rushing through the house, Nash discovered that every single clock in the apartment had stopped at precisely twelve a.m. and had not restarted. The tiny solar system still hovered above the coffee table, much to Nashville's dismay. He had hoped it was a dream. It was not.

"This is amazing!" he exclaimed as he reached forward towards the sun in front of him. "Ow!" he yelped, pulling his hand back in the process. His fingertips had instantly blistered as if he had reached into the over and tried to pluck hot a hot pan without an oven mitt. Moving his hand closer again, he could feel the heat resonating off of the tiny, glowing orb. It was no holographic image at all – what he saw in front of him was very, very real, and it both frightened and excited him.

Suddenly, as if someone had flipped a switch, the solar system disappeared from his sight. The Lapis stone fell and landed gently onto the black, velvet bag in which Greg it had been presented. Nash shook his head and looked around. According to the bright red numbers that blinked beneath his television, he had inexplicably lost another two hours of his life.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked rhetorically. Mental exhaustion finally overcame a very confused Nashville Roberts, an exhaustion to which he succumbed without ever leaving the couch. His eyes closed and he would remain deaf to the world until morning. He would never know that the Lapis stone hovered once more, nor would he see the tiny lightning storm that brewed beneath the miniature clouds that enshrouded one of the stone's continents. Oddest of all, Nash would be helpless to explain the strange, tattoo-like markings that appeared overnight on the inside of his forearms. The stone had indeed found its way to Nashville Roberts, and for a very specific reason.

© J.J. Goodman 2013. All rights reserved.