She had been dripping down the looking glass for years. While people watched the Drip. Drip. Drip. into the bowl underneath where breathing souls finally fell into themselves. But she was less concerned about when she would fall into the water bowl than how she looked to the people standing around watching. And this tortured her, knowing how foolish her preoccupations. Once, another drop gained her path and they became one piece of wet slipping down faster to the water bowl. surrendered to each other’s weight. She liked it. Their drops one piece of wet magnifying. obscuring. the people watching their drip. But someone screamed outside the looking glass on a no reference afternoon and the glass shook. She looked up, then down. saw the eyes again of the people watching her drip. now with more weight and less grip for the other drop atop her. pushing them down faster to the water bowl. A place she began to see upon closer examination as only the weight of those who fell before her. She had to leave and leaving their drip was only a matter of trusting rumor. Waiting for the crack in glass that most drops pass on week three hundred and twelve, she used the rupture in glass to hesitate away from shared drip. Now equally concerned about when she would fall into the water bowl and how she looked to the people standing around watching from outside the looking glass. This tortured her, and she missed the plain of her once foolish preoccupations. On week five hundred and two the drop hung closer to water bowl than looking glass on a no reference afternoon. It was as she fell, holding to air alone. in between the two worlds she knew. that she no longer cared for magnification and obscurity. She looked to the looking glass. for the first time an outsider and saw only shared drips before falling finally into the bowl of breathing souls and before all else felt water.
–R.S.
Author: Vaughn Rhodes
Email: [email protected]
Author Bio: Hi! My name is Vaughn. I’m a 27 year old woman whose main drive in life is to be a resource for women. Throughout the past decade I’ve traveled and lived in nearly 40 countries, learning-giving-receiving-learning. In between travel I picked up a BA in Social Entrepreneurship from Belmont University in Nashville, TN. I am a determined and humbled entrepreneurial mind-heart who will raise The Wooden Door Collective, a physical and online space to help empower abused/ trafficked women. But at this moment in my life I am freshly home in the US from working in South East Asia to fight trafficking, and am going to spend the next few months working at an organic farm in Maine. To be continued, as ever…. -RS
Link to social media or website: Instagram @thewoodendoor
