THE CRYSTAL CUP - Chapter Forty Two

THE CRYSTAL CUP

Chapter Forty Two

Helena was walking on the edge of a cliff... how had she ended up there? She didn't have the slightest idea.... what she did know, for sure, was that she had to be very careful, as a small falter on her part meant a fall of at least a quarter of a mile... certain death. It was night... to complicate things, the sky was full of clouds, which made it difficult to visualize the path to be taken and, consequently, made the walk even more dangerous. Well, at least she wasn't wearing high heels... she was wearing flats, which made the walk a little less drudgery. After an hour or so she finally overcame the dark trail she had wandered into and got to safety. She was now on a plateau...it looked familiar, although she couldn't place exactly where she was. She followed carefully, because although she didn't run the risk of falling into a ravine, she always had the possibility of tripping over a branch or getting her foot stuck in any hole and ending up on the ground... step after step, she followed. in front. She still didn't understand what she was doing there, in that lost immensity of the world. But she felt she had to move on. Where? She did not know. But she was sure she would know when she got there. And so she walked. After some time, she began to feel tired, the first signs of tiredness began to appear, but she kept going forward, determined to complete her journey, to reach where destiny had sent her...

Cecilia watched her sister. She slept restlessly, though more peacefully than she had the last few days. She muttered intelligible words from time to time. And sometimes, she cursed. Which was funny, in a way, because she never did that kind of thing when she was awake. At least, Cecilia didn't remember that side of her sister... Helena was always so calm, measured... the only time Cecilia she saw her sister lose her temper, that's when the two had an argument with Estela... apart from that, she never lost her composure... she never uttered a curse word or anything like that. But now, that she was in a dreamlike state...

Helena's adventure continued. She was arriving at the "foot" of a mountain. It was well wooded. The girl kept walking, always moving forward. In front of it was a clump of blackberries, the white ones that grow into hawthorn. This mulberry tree hid the entrance to a cave and, without even knowing why, she entered it. Funny, despite being night, despite not having a moon, she was able to walk through the cave calmly. It was even easier to walk through the cave than it had been through the previous mountain. Helena was tired. And she decided to get some rest. She sat down on a rock that had appeared in front of her.

Cecília was in a state of alert... her sister had just sat down on the bed. But she was still sleeping, I could hear her snoring, and her eyes were still closed. Well, she should go back to bed soon, thought Cecilia... but what the hell. Suddenly, without warning (if she had warned, it wouldn't have been sudden, would it?) She got up and started pacing the room. Cecília was attentive, tried not to lose sight of her sister... which wasn't difficult, since there were only the two of them living in that house... suddenly, out of the blue, she opened the bedroom door and went out to kitchen ...

Helena walked back into the cave. But how there were obstacles, my God! But, slowly, taking one step at a time, she was overcoming all the difficulties imposed by the stony terrain that opened up in front of her. Then, suddenly, an abyss opened in front of her, and on it only a fallen tree trunk, serving as a passage to the other side ...

Cecilia didn't understand what her sister was doing. She suddenly opened her arms and began to walk carefully over the dividing line of the kitchen floor. My God…she looked like she was balancing on a rope or something. Sometimes she seemed to lose her balance, but then she managed to stay upright over whatever it was she was going through. It would be funny, if it weren't tragic... well, when she finished crossing the... I don't know what... and opened the door, gaining the backyard of her house, Cecilia froze... After all, she's always heard that you shouldn't wake up a sleepwalker, with the risk of causing him a serious psychological problem... but what if she decided to go out into the middle of the street? Okay, until she was well dressed, her pajamas were... decent... she could be in public without embarrassing herself... the problem was if she decided to cross a street, in front of a car...

Wow... suddenly the temperature dropped drastically... yes, it was very cold in that part of the cave... if only there was a way to return... but behold, a new passage appears, and Helena decided to enter it... it was slow, so as not to have unpleasant surprises... like in the beginning, one step at a time... taking the utmost care. And suddenly, there she is in the opening stretch of her odyssey...

Cecília sighed in relief when her sister turned around, returning to the house. It's okay that she entered through the living room window... (she swore she had locked it from the inside, but her sister managed to open it...) but at least she was safe again. With a bit of luck she might even be able to return to her bed... anyway, Cecilia wouldn't let her sister get hurt....

When she was right in the middle of the room, Helena suddenly stopped. For a few seconds she looked a little lost. She opened her eyes and was startled to realize that she was standing in the middle of the room. Her sister watched her, impassive….

- What... what happened...?

- Thank God, nothing, girl...

- What am I doing here in the room?

- Do you believe me if I say I have no idea?

Helena was silent for a few seconds. Then, lifting her head, looking her sister in the eye, she began to describe the places she had walked. Cecilia took her sister to the kitchen, made her sit down and then prepared tea for both of them, as that was the best way to calm her nerves and regain sleep, which seemed to be a little lost at that moment...

- Well, at least it wasn't a nightmare....

- For you... you can't imagine how terrified I felt when you opened the door and went out into the street...

- Can I...

- Of course... I think we'd better change the two single beds for a double...

The two laughed at the joke... a yellow laugh, a bit forced... and headed for the bedroom, trying to sleep the hours that were still left in the night... the clock showed three o'clock in the morning...