Another short story because pepsi asked me to get another one
We start this story with our protagonist waking up to a terrible fever. This protagonist is an incredibly withered and old lady, and her name is SYLVIA.
SYLVIA struggles to get out of the armchair she was sleeping in, as her legs and arms aren't what they once were. Her breakfast is always the same, and has been for the last twenty seven years. SYLVIA first reaches out to the stove and grabs the handle of her kettle. She then walks over to the kitchen sink, puts the kettle under the tap, and turns on the water. The tap makes a gurgling sound, and soon cold water starts splashing out from the tap. She waits for the kettle to be filled with water. With metalic clanking noises, the kettle slowly fills up with water.
SYLVIA eyes the water droplets hitting the stainless steel plate of the kettle, and fracturing into small pieces of water, then merging with one another, and slowly letting gravity pull them down to the floor of the kitchen sink, joining the other droplets of water to make up a small puddle, which then eventually leads to the drain in the kitchen sink.
SYLVIA imagines the flow of water in the plumbing below the kitchen sink, but she wouldn't know for sure if the plumbing actually even exists unless she checks by opening the cabinet under the sink. What after the pipe? SYLVIA had been taught that there are giant water tunnles below the ground, to carry the water from homes like hers. She would be able to check if they exist if she so wanted. All she would need to do is ask a kind person to open up a manhole in the ground, and go down to see if a water tunnel actually exists. What after the tunnels? SYLVIA had been taught that there are rivers that carry water from the tunnels, and the rivers join to make lakes, and lakes all lead to the OCEAN.
She wouldn't be able to check if the OCEAN exists. Her legs are now far too fragile, and her old heart cannot handle more than slight excersizes. She wouldn't be able to remember if the OCEAN existed, as she had never been to the OCEAN in her long life. SYLVIA coughes. She coughes for a long time, her body frail as a leaf.
In her youth, SYLVIA was a free girl. She used to live in a house by the prairie, and she would dance, and spin, and run in the cool grass. Once she was tired and huffing from exhaustion, she would fall back to the grass and close her eyes. The wind would make whispering sounds, and she imagined it was a message from other people from distant lands, trying to tell her their stories and adventures. One time, she opened her eyes and looked up into the ever so big sky. She then started to sing a song that could only be sang by her. She then knew that she was beautiful. Beautiful as the grass, and the wind, and the ever so big sky. Since that moment, she knew she was a whispered song in the wind.
SYLVIA coughes again. She knows that she is no longer a whispered song in the wind. That song died a long time ago, along with her smile, along with her youth, along with her dreams of the OCEAN. SYLVIA wonders how visiting the OCEAN would have been. She wishes that she did so when she was still youthful and healthy. SYLVIA focuses on the kitchen sink again. The kettle is overflowing. It has been overflowing for some time. SYLVIA wonders how many droplets of water made up all the rivers, all the lakes, and the OCEAN. She wonders if she waited and kept the tap open long enough, she would be able to look at all of the droplets that made up all of the rivers, all the lakes, and the OCEAN.
SYLVIA reaches out to a handle and pulls it down, and the tap makes a suffocating sound as it stops dribbling water. She struggles to pick up the kettle, but manages after a bit. She carries the kettle over to the stove again, and turns on the gas and ignites the stove. she looks into the kettle. The pool of water sizzles silently. It's her little ocean. her small ocean.
