My Cambrian pet.

Last night, in my dreams, I was travelling through time.

and I got stranded in the Cambrian era

My time ship had broken and

My friends went home

in their ships and

said they would return with parts to fix it.

With parts to fix it, so that I could return home.

Return home so that I could be safe again.

They left.

At first I was afraid.

All around me, storms raged and lightning lit up the violent sea

like a black diamond.

In the black-diamond sea, I could see the shapes of strange creatures of the era.

I waited for my friends to return.

Some of the creatures tried to eat me.

I didn’t like that very much,

but neither did they like the fact that I wouldn’t let them.

Then I saw an amazing thing;

two creatures combined to make a strange-looking symbiont.

I called him Symbad.

He was a friendly creature so I fed him every day.

He liked that, so continued to let me do so.

I sometimes checked the date to see how long ‘til my friends arrived.

I wasn’t that afraid anymore.

The storms were not so loud.

One day I had a visitor, a human visitor.

He told me four humans lived in a makeshift house a few storms north of here.

They had not communicated with me until now because they thought I might like to be left alone in peace with my pet.

I didn’t dispute this, I really liked Symbad.

But the human visitor was very nice, so we started visiting each other’s homes and shared food that we had caught. Food that tasted quite nice.

I sometimes remembered the fact that my ‘friends’ had not returned yet.

I now fed Symbad twice a day.

Then my bloody ‘friends’ returned.

They scared Symbad as their noisy ship shook the island.

The storms seemed to get louder with their arrival.

I sort of greeted them.

They started to fix my ship for my voyage home.

I turned and looked at Symbad. His four big blue eyes gazed back at me.

I missed him already.

No.

I am happy here.

My friends did not understand.

(You’d better understand, or I will tell Symbad to attack!)

I made them leave and Symbad made a barking-like sound…sort of.

They left me alone in the paradoxically peaceful Cambrian era.

They left me alone in peace.

I now reflect on that dream.

I know that someday I will want to live that dream.

Me and Symbad, together in the Cambrian era.

Symbad, my honestly created pet.

Symbad and the Cambrian era –

a far cry from me, and the raped era that spawned me.

02.03.03