Iglesia ……………………………………… Episode 44

 

(Iglesia is a serialized novel, published on Tuesdays and Saturdays at midnight ET, you can read all of the episodes by clicking on the tag.)

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They were walking through the remains of an underwater city….underwater. Dolphins swam all around them. Hundreds of them. They swam and played in the ruins darting through marbled arches and between the pillars and columns of temples and above the rooftops of the ancient ruins. It was almost too surreal to register in his present state, until a group of dolphins swam up and started laughing at them and pointing with their fins.

Wait, no. They were laughing at him. Rogers had a finger to his lips and was looking at them and shaking his head. He thanked God that Rogers had let go of his ear.

Only now that his reverie of pain had been broken did Abe think about….breathing. He suddenly grasped his throat in his hands and made all of the other reflexive, silly looking motions that go with the instinctive reactions of the body when a humans most basic ……and taken for granted …….function, has suddenly ceased. Now that his brain had finally gotten involved, he was thinking he couldn’t breathe. Even though they had been walking for five minutes under water…..without any problem whatsoever.

The dolphins were now rolling on the sea floor, laughing their asses off….Rogers attempts at etiquette and decorum lost in the paroxysms of humor that were, for dolphins, as unavoidable as breathing. Of course, it did seem that breathing was pretty darn avoidable, here, now that you mention it.

Abe’s lungs had evidently chosen to believe his mind and were acting as if they needed air. He tried breathing, he tried not breathing, he screamed…….which seemed to help. Since screaming was impossible…but had worked. Which seemed to short circuit that whole brain thing. He relaxed….and concentrated on being pissed at the dolphins, who were still cracking up. He flipped them off. Which had the predictable effect of making them roll around and laugh even harder. He was so busy giving them his best Death Glare that he didn’t notice Rogers opening another door.

As he stepped through, he noticed that the more familiar emotions of imminent death and being highly cheesed off had returned him to a state that was a fair bit higher up the evolutionary ladder than the love-sick bovine he had been just a few short minutes ago.