The Little Girl
10/28/18


One night I slumbered and found myself in a strange, ethereal place. I had appeared on a boardwalk, with people surrounding me bustling. Eager.
Urgent.
	Perplexed I looked around and saw a large black ocean, and a mist-wall in the near distance. On a nearby dock that most of the people had been lining up on, was a normal looking ferry boat. I reached into my pocket and found two gold coins, and although I understand what was happening now in this weird dreamscape, I still desired more information.
	I pulled aside a man and asked what was going on. He said: “Well, we’re all here to board the ferry.” I asked: To where? And why? He looked at me like I was dense and said “Where else?” and walked away.
	Understandably still confused about my predicament to cross over to this “Where Else”, I still wanted to have a look around. I perused the boardwalk and discovered that all manners of food was free of charge. Between street vendors, food trucks, to even sit down restaurants. I walked further up the boardwalk to a beach, and hundreds of people huddled there, crying, and begging for two gold coins so they could board the boat. One man even grabbed me by the shoulders and said “Please! I’ve been here so long! I just want to go!”
	And callously I silently turned and left him there. To which I heard him crumble and sob.
					    ----
	After I had understood the severity of my need to board this boat, and had investigated all of my surroundings thoroughly, I approached to board the ferry myself. But then, I saw a scared Little Girl, with gorgeous deep brown hair and bright brown eyes, asking people for help. People noticed her, but they simply walked away while she grabbed their pants and skirts.
	I approached this girl and knelt down and tried to calm her down, I said “It’s okay, it’s okay. What’s wrong?” She replied that she and her mother had come to board the ferry, and her mother was already on it. But the Little Girl had lost one of her coins. She said that she had been asking people to help search for it, but no one would. I graciously agreed, since I had just investigated the entire boardwalk for the first time myself, and that I would help her get her one coin. She said Thank you so much Mister!
	We never learned each other names, as you can probably tell. To me she was Little Girl, and to her I was Mister. I suppose names didn’t exist in that place, I do not know.
	Hand in hand we scoured the entire landscape, searching the pavement, the crevices, even the wood and cracks in the dock. I had thought I saw something promising when I noticed a glint just beneath the dock in the water, and dived in to retrieve it, to the shock of every person there. Except for the Little Girl, who was excited to finally be able to meet her mother again.
Beneath the dock I plunged into the dark swirling waters to grab the coin, but a horror fell upon me when I touched this putrid water.
	This is not where mortals tread. It is not permitted for passengers to not board the ferry, and try and enter these waters. The black waves of this saccharine dreamscape do not allow for such a thing without torture and punishment. And make no mistake: I was subjected to it.
	With terror in my heart I clambered back up and threw myself where the Little Girl was expectantly waiting. Did you get it? She asked. After a moment to catch my breath I responded as calming as I could, so as to not alarm her, and I lied and said that no, it was not there.
	We had already searched a great deal even before my encounter with the fetid abyss, so we decided to get something to eat, and after, I got her some ice cream. As she finished eating, I heard the voice of the Ferryman, I suppose as did everyone else, as if he was right next to me. He said “Attention all passengers, all passengers. The Last Ferry is soon departing. If you have not boarded now, and have passage, please make your way to the boat”.
	Naturally the little girl and I hurried to board the boat so she can be reunited with her mother and, I say this selfishly, because I deserved to board too. I had proper passage, and that was apparently why I was here in this ethereal place.
	We hurried up to the Ferryman and he asks “Payment please”. I pull the two coins from my pocket and show them to him in the palm of my hand. The Little Girl pulls out her single coin. The Ferryman looks and points at me and says “You can go. But she stays”.
	Naturally my response is astonishment. Even a small child cannot be given an exception in this place? The Little Girl begins to cry and scream, she says her mommy is on there, I need to go!
	I look up and see a woman with the same brown hair as her, naturally looking distressed that she could not be with her daughter, and that her daughter will be stranded, alone, in this desolate place.
	I turn to the Little Girl and kneel, just as I had when we first met, and I take one of my gold coins from my hand and place it into hers. I say “Go be with your mother”. She profusely thanks me, “Thank you so much Mister!” and kisses me on the cheek.
	I stand and look at the Ferryman, who is not phased, but says in the simplest terms: “This is the Last Ferry sir. Do you understand that?” I look back at him and with grim resignation say “Yes. I do.”
	The Little Girl is lead up onto the ferry and I walk back to the boardwalk. I lean against the railing watching the boat contemplating what I had just done. I see the Little Girl reunite with her mother in an embrace of kisses and tears of joy. The Ferry then departs, and slowly drifts away to the mist-wall. Before it crosses the Little Girl notices me, and smiles the most beautiful smile of joy I have ever seen, and will most likely ever see again. And she waves and calls out “Thank you Mister! Thank you so much!”
	The Ferry crosses and I am left alone on the boardwalk. Stranded, and alone. Another hopeless wretch, like the ones on the beach.

	That is when I awoke in my bed, covered in cold sweat, and tears. I held my face and pinched myself to discover if this world was in fact real. I quickly discovered thankfully, or unthankfully, that it was. I had not crossed the dark waters into the ethereal Where Else, and I was stranded here in my own bedroom and reality. And I reflected on this strange and incredibly dream I had just had, and recalled with just as much absolute clarity as I am telling you now; possibly even more And I think of that beautiful brown haired Little Girl’s smile as she leaves, and I realize:
	I do not regret a thing.