It could have been another day.  But it wasn’t.  My head hurts and my clothes were wet.  Maybe I was just being cynical about the whole thing.  Nothing was as bad as breathing my last.  Leaning against a boulder, I looked at my hands.  A sandwich would be good right about now.  Perhaps, a side of fries and a nice cold soda.

“Martin, are you all right.”  A beam of light hit me in the eyes.

“I guess so.”  That would be great.  A nice slice of smoked ham with mustard, lettuce, and tomato on freshly baked rye bread.   Ahhh…

“It’ll be all right.  Just stay right there and I’ll be right back.  Just remain calm.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”  I can taste it now.  My mouth watered as I took a bite out of the sandwich.  Just like mom use to make.  Oh, it’s so good.  Better eat up.  If this is going to be my last, I better enjoy it.  Wow, this is filling.  I’m getting really full.  Now what am I going to do?  Well, I can think about how I got myself into this pickle.  A pickle would be great.  How did I get here?  I’m so sleepy. Ahhaa… I’ll just take a quick nap before Jack comes back.  Just a quick…

Look at that.  Undescribable hues illuminated the darkened sky.  A figure stood before me with a basin of water in hand.  Covered by a golden aura, the figure was dressed in an ivory hooded robe.

“Come, my child.”

“I can’t.”  I looked down, my body was free.  I dusted myself off.  “How did you?”  I took a better look at the robed being.  It was a woman with golden curls that swept across her ageless face.  She set the basin upon a pedestal and beckoned me to come forward.  I didn’t want to offend her, so I obeyed.  She seemed nice, but strange.  Why was she out here, alone, and dressed that?  Unless she was one of those wit—nah.

“Martin, come and wash your hands.”

I stood before the basin and looked at her.  “Can I ask you a question, lady?”

She just pointed to the water.

“All right.  It’s not like I’m dirty…”  My face was caked in mud.  I dipped my hands in and began washing my face.  Dripping, I looked back up at the woman.  “May I have a towel?”

The woman just smiled and pointed to the water.

As I followed her finger to the water, I saw that my face was no longer wet.

“You did not wash your hands.”

“Yes, I did.”  I said as I threw my arms forwards to show that my hands were clean.  I felt as if I was a little boy being inspected by my mother.

She came forward, grabbing my hands.  

Pop.  Pop.   “What are you doing?”

In her hands were mine.  “They aren’t yours anymore.”

“What do you mean?”  

“No more.”

“What the hell!?”

Placing my hands into the basin, she disrobed, revealing pale flesh.  With the robe, the woman wrapped my hands.

My feet were planted firmly.  I reached out with my handless arms.  “Give them back!”

A strange shrill of a laughter broke from her as she took off with my hands.

“Martin, I’m back.”

“Don’t go!”  I could feel something pulling me up towards the light.  “Come back!”

“Everything’s going to be all right.  We’re going to—”

Everything quickly faded to a colorless atmosphere.  Pounding lights and colors stormed through.  My head swam among them in the pallid sea.  Beep.  Beep.  Beep.  Beep.  Would someone turn off that alarm?  Beep.  Beep.  That’s getting really annoying.  Beep.  Beep.  Beep.  My lids slowly opened to see Jack sitting across talking to my folks.

“Look who’s up.”  

“We were all worried about you.  You scared us when you didn’t come home.”

Where exactly was I?  Hey, look it’s daytime trash tv.  Man, where do they find these people?  Hmm, I take it I’m in a hospital.  Whoa, what a heifer.  I opened my mouth to speak, but no word escaped passed my lips.  “Water.”  The cool liquid hit my parched tongue.

“I don’t know how he got trapped under those rocks.”

I need to pee.  Rrrrr…  Hungry.  A sandwich would do.  That would be great.  “I don’t know.”

Jack shook his head.  “Don’t you remember kayaking?”

That’s right.  We were going down a few rapids.  “Wow.  That was a couple of days ago.”

He shook his head.  “Two weeks ago.  We’re trying to figure out how you wandered away from your kayak and into a dry riverbed.”

Rocks.  “All I remember was a sandwich and a strange woman.  Boy, that was a good sandwich.”  My mouth watered.  Sandwich.  “How long had I been lost?”

“Four days.”  

I looked at the tray of food.  Resting my arms upon the table, I reached for the fork.  Come here.  Why aren’t my— “Where are my hands?”  

“The doctors told us,” his voice fluxed, “that you had eaten them.”

N-nooooo!  I shook my stumps in the air.