Belonging.

The relentless chirping seemed to come from a mix of tropical and domestic birds. Their songs echoed through the trees just beyond the window of this small, wooded cabin. I rolled over and realized what had happened, but it didn’t make me feel any more at ease. “Apparently,” I thought, “after passing out in the clearing, I was taken to this place.” However, this place felt more alive, more real that what I remembered experiencing. The bed on which I awoke was semi-comfortable, if just a little squeaky. There were no Centaurs around, from what I could tell. The place was rather…well, normal. Really, it was about as normal as I could hope for after going through what had previously happened to me. Perhaps it didn’t happen though. Maybe I just dreamed the whole thing. That, at least, made more sense.

“Well, good morning. Are you thirsty?” asked the older gentleman at the foot of my bed. He was considerably well-dressed, sporting a modest day coat and bowtie. I picked up on his accent right away too, but I couldn’t distinguish its origin. “Allow me to fetch you some water,” he insisted.

Water sounded appetizing, but not knowing much about this situation either, I politely declined. The man, however, appeared to be warm and inviting. “I would assume these are your garments,” he said as he gestured to some clothes laid neatly across a chest next to the bed. Looking at them, they did seem like my clothes – a style I used to prefer when I was younger.

“Thank you,” I said, extending my hand as a courtesy. However, the man did not accept nor even notice it. After a moment, I realized he wasn’t trying to be rude. He was just blind.

“There’s a bathroom over there,” he continued, “feel free to use it or…whatever.”

I casually sauntered over to the bathroom door, but stopped just short of entering. “Do you work here?” I asked.

“Me? Oh no, I would be one of your fellow residents,” he replied with a slight laugh. “My name is Etand Lebenstraum, and you are…”

“Evan. Evan Parris.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Evan. Please, finish your business. I’m sure we both have much to discuss.”

There was no doubt about that. After splashing my face with cool, clean water, I got dressed in the clothes from my bedside and stared at my reflection in the mirror for what seemed like an eternity, and then my thoughts turned to that other individual I met at the table in the clearing. “Is there another man named ‘Evan’ here?” I asked him.

“Not to my knowledge,” Etand responded, “but I believe you have yet to meet our other housemates.”

Other housemates? I didn’t remember seeing anyone else after I woke up, but I could’ve simply overlooked them. I came back out into the main room and saw Etand with a comforting arm draped around the shoulders of a middle-aged woman. She looked terrified, and she held on to him as a scared child would cling to her father.

“You were the last to wake up,” Etand said. “I apologize, but we’ve all made our introductions already. This is Lucidia. We’ve taken to calling her ‘Luci’ though.”

“We?” I asked.

“Soren and myself. That’s him over in the corner.”

I glanced over to the far side of the cabin to see a young man, not even in his thirties, shoving food and other objects into a pillowcase. He seemed oblivious to our conversation, but maybe he was just not interested in the discussion.

“What’s he doing?” I asked.

“Does he still have that pillowcase?” Etand responded.

“Yes.”

“Oh. Well, I would assume he is still feeding his god.”

I thought for a second that maybe Etand misspoke, and meant to say “dog,” so I questioned him. “You mean he’s feeding his dog, right?”

“Actually no,” he corrected, “Soren believes he is appeasing his god.”

“By shoving food in a pillowcase?!”

Etand stood up and walked over to me with Luci close behind. “Soren has semiotic dyscordia,” he whispered. “In other words, he confuses letters in words, displacing the associative constructs of their meanings.”

I looked at Lucidia confused. “Luci, what’s he talking about?” I asked, but she just shook her head and walked away.

“Unfortunately, Luci cannot hear us,” Etand explained.

“So I’m in a room with a blind guy, a deaf girl and a crazy person? What is this, some weird science experiment?”

“I wish I knew, Evan. I’m… well, I was a psychology professor, not a science professor. I’m sorry, but I don’t have the answers you’re looking for.”

I walked over to our little kitchenette area and sat down. “So then, Professor, what’s with the pillowcase?” I asked.

“Hm-m-m,” Etand pondered. “Perhaps he is suffering from mild shock. That could possibly cause his dementia.”

“Mild shock? I’d say he’s a little more than mildly shocked. The guy’s sacrificing our food to his linen.”

“Well then, maybe we should eat what we’ve been given before Soren’s deity consumes it all.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” I answered. “Can you cook?”

“I can help,” Etand replied.

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