Oblina lived in a house that matched her body. It was long, and thin, and striped and uncommon.
She was striped due to a condition that people hardly knew, but she looked rather fetching amongst the crowds. Not that she appreciated crowds that much. She enjoyed the solitude of her candy cane house, it was full of what she needed and she liked to hear herself think, or in the absence of thoughts, the waves were a soothing sound that filled the void.
So there she was, in her long house, on her own, when out of the blue she heard the phone.
“Who on earth would be calling me?! The only folk I call don’t have access to a phone” she pondered as she narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
“I called you yesterday! And you weren’t there! So is this you calling me back?! Because if it is, you’re too late!” she called out defiantly.
No sound, except the loud ringing of the phone, and the distant crashing waves.
“Make a different sound! I don’t like this ringing, are you listening?!” she called out again, more annoyed this time.
Oblina would often call out to the spirits and they sometimes would call back, but not always. Her favourite response was the soft whisper of a particular spirit, his presence soothed her soul more than the waves, and made her heart race, more than the waves.
The ringing continued, shrill as the gulls that surrounded her house in the day. They sounded angry today so Oblina opted to stay inside, out of harms way. The last time she ventured out and the birds were angry, they tried to peck at her eyes, so she stayed inside.
“OK OK I’M COMING!!” She called out in a huff as she made her way to the stairs that spiralled up to heaven. She moved gracefully and clumsily at the same time, each step filling her heart more and more as she longed to hear her spirit’s voice, but as she came close to the top, and looked over the edge of the railing with a flop, the ringing stopped.
“But…I’m nearly there, I’m on the stairs…” she said quietly as the sinking feeling washed over her.
Her heart fell heavy, as the silence grew louder, silence with nothing but gulls and the wrong waves. Those waves were outside, she wanted to hear them within, but nothing came…not even him. So she called out again, just one more time to check.
“I thought you wanted to talk to me? I thought I was sure... I thought you’d whisper in my ear once more..” she called out woefully.
But her spirit had left her, so she fell to the floor. She breathed heavy and hard, and her conscience felt sore. She felt foolish for pining, and more so for whining, as regret rumbled inside her and she coughed up her heart.
It lay there, disappointed. And she watched it, disappointed. And after a moment of not knowing what to do next, she stood up, and picked up her heart gingerly, and ran upstairs with it until she reached the top of the lighthouse. She kicked in the door, as she fretted and swore, and then held out her heart to the seagulls. They swooped down to the delectable offal offering, and she crumbled into dust as the last of her soul was consumed.
Oblina, the striped creature, now exists as a shapeshifter, a collective of starlings that fly above her old striped home. She returns every year, to wait for her dear, and listens out intently for the phone.
Fin.