Howl Your Appellations

Ground

BOEN OPEOR

    She abruptly left as if an invincible force prompted her to. I didn’t have time to stop her or had time to process that she ran away at an incredible speed. The afternoon breeze performs a concert on the trees, it’s an eerie piece with the twigs and branches hitting each other hard. It demonstrates a sort of warning. I close the door and let nature play its song. 

    Lissana once again has me confused and a little concerned. Maybe someone from behind the fabrics of reality is stopping us from forming a proper relationship. I feel like the more we try to be together, the more we’ll be torn apart. I don’t think she can let me be since in her case, I’m a responsibility and probably an asset. What good did licking my moon ring do her? Did it really provide her anything useful? I hope so. On the other hand, she hasn’t been or can’t be completely honest with me so can’t fully trust her now, can I? And the smell she was talking about, was it the cabin or something else? Everything’s such a mess. More questions keep piling up. It's actually becoming unhealthy. I need to talk to someone before I do something problematic.

    I dial Isa’s number, hoping that Beanie might be in the cafe right now. I don’t have anyone close enough with me other than him (plus he knows where the cabin is). I wait for Isa to pick up. She doesn’t; I dial her number again. Maybe asking for Beanie was too much, Isa’s okay too. I clutch my phone, about to form water droplets on my eyes. I just need someone.

    “Bobo?” She picks up. Tears start to well and overflow from my eyes. I try to not make it sound like I’m not too distraught. “Didn’t I tell you not to call me that...”

    “Oh come on! You liked it when we were makin’ out---wait are you crying? Are you okay? What’s wrong?” She says this while a couple of bangs and crashes can be heard in the background. She must be in the kitchen and overreacting. 

    “It’s just...I think I’m really homesick and wondering if Beanie’s there?” I reply, my tears still streaming from my eyes. Of course this is a blatant lie, I would never miss the frigid landscape of the house I grew up in but as soon as I heard her worry about me, I just can’t stand to burden her with my problems. 

“Oh! Okay, let me check real quick, okay? Don’t worry about it.”

    I wait for a couple of minutes for her reply. It seems like Beanie hasn’t been to the cafe since the time I took him to the gondola terminal. No one has seen him since then.

    “Sorry Boen. But if there’s anything I can do to help, just ask me, ‘kay?” She says, sounding awfully concerned. I pull myself together and make my way to the couch, the conversation pit’s too messy to lie down on.

“Nahh, it’s okay. I think I calmed down a bit when I heard your voice.” I tell her.

    “Cute. But seriously, homesick, huh? I think something home familiar could help you, B. Whenever I miss our old house, I bake some of my mom’s chocolate crinkle cookies. And whenever Dann misses our old house, he plays our dad’s favorite piano piece.”

    I took a pillow and wiped my tears on it, what little make-up I put on today is painted on my once spotless bunny pillow case. Her advice might actually be useful to me if I ever missed my neglectful parents and indifferent siblings but I don’t. I relied heavily on art and mentors for validation. I thank Isa and send my regards to Dann. 

    I stare at the moon that seems to be in control of everything and I am reminded of Patricar Far. I haven’t listened to her podcasts in what feels like forever. Ever since I met Lissana I’ve been too preoccupied with thoughts. Maybe what Isa said rings some truth and I actually need something familiar to ground me. Amazing!

    Delighted by my new discovery to cope, I took my speaker from the conversation pit, which is under quarantine because of all the garbage I accumulated, and laid down on the floor where the crescent moon can be seen from the balcony doors. Soft finally shows herself to me after I screamed at her about the mess she made with the potted snake plants. I give her little pets on the head and she lays down next to me. I play an old episode of A Box of Penumbras.

    Greetings precious listeners! I’m glad you’re back on the hub with me and my little rovers on A Box of Penumbras, where all your moon-themed, moon-inspired and moon-tastic questions are answered!

    Today is a placid day on the moon. The hub is stable and my rations are optimal. Rovers Spice-II and Concord have sent me more pictures to examine and send back to Earth. The other little ones are on patrol  and Wonderment Rover still hasn’t returned. The moon may seem small, but it has so many rabbit-holes, sometimes I think Wonderment fell into a small pocket space where I can’t get to her. But someday soon, I know we’ll find her.

    On another note, I’d like to thank everyone for sending me such warm and saccharine messages! It’s wonderful how everyone empathizes with the disappearance of a dear rover. I keep all your messages, letters and illustrations inside one of the rovers’ rear compartments so it’s like everyone’s voices are calling out to Wonderment as they patrol. They’re all trying their absolute best to give us more insight on our little moon.

    In the recent discovery corner we made a fascinating breakthrough! We discovered this little shooting star conjunction that happens when the moon wanes, all credits to The Necessity Rover for discovering this! The stars seem to spiral around each other for about a few nights, it’s honestly beautiful and I can’t wait to deliver the pictures to earth soon! For a little visual clarity, the conjunction looks like an eight with three loops,fated to meet and fated to separate. We’ll hopefully find out what they’re about soon! 

    For all the fanfiction writers down there! I’d encourage you to write this about Spice-II and Concord’s love stories! Aha! I actually read the really sweet ones so please keep them coming. Not even my limited electricity usage can stop me from reading them! And in the light of all these goodness, I made a little chiptune in my spare time dedicated to all the moon stories and the moon lovers out there! Watch your ears!

    Patricar plays a simple dippy-dotty tune. It’s a little messy and unorganized but it gives off the proper space vibe (if that makes any sense). It’s a wonderful a minute and a half long chime and it’s just what I needed. I wiped my tears and willed to stay strong. Soft fell asleep while we were listening so I let her be. The whole atmosphere of the cabin’s now less gloomy. I cleaned the conversation pit and arranged my plushies in their order again, my heaven once more. The sheer amount of control you can feel while cleaning up for your self’s undeniably unparalleled. I prepared a small dinner for Soft and I and checked my schedule for the next couple of days. I seem to have nothing too important coming up except for a short meeting and crochet milestones I set for myself. Things aren’t so bad if Lissana’s out of the picture. Do I seriously still want to involve myself with her? I feel like things are a lot deeper than just us trying to get along. I fiddle at the ladle as I think. I can still hear Patricar’s voice narrating from my phone, I forgot to turn it off after I had my mini epiphany. I slowly walk towards it with our dinners and accidentally hit the long hood I was wearing today. I just threw it on the floor while trying to fix the cabin up for Lissana. I hit my pinky toe on something thick and hard under the hood; I lift it up to see the book I stole from Lissana’s shack.