Introduction

Excerpts and Illustrations of

T H E L O S T D I A R I E S

written and illustrated by Susan Stanek

NOW AVAILABLE contact ss@summermoonstudios $5 ea. plus shipping

Introduction

These are the lost pages of a diary of a person unknown. I found torn pages caught in ta bush at a cemetery. I was making grave stone rubbings when I heard the pages flapping in the September winds. Her name is Lost. She has a companion named Rabbit, and she says that she is lost in a strange dream like dimension. I feel like she is trying to contact someone in the real world. I hesitated about publishing what I found, but I think that she is trying to make contact with someone, that she is lost in a bizarre world alone. Here is all I could find of hers. I often revisit the cemetery hoping to find more pages, or a clue, or a sign of her existence, but I haven't found anything yet.

Day One

“Xylem and Phloem, a tree’s pulse and rhythm,” she chanted. The moss girl sparked her way through the system. “Cerebral reflex buzz like insects. Jars full of charm chant the night’s contents.” She reads everyone’s dreams through the flickering code of the fireflies, and stood by with a feather pen and paper. The little nightlights flickered dimly in the mist. It was nearly hypnotizing. We fell asleep on a bed of moss.

Day Three

Day Four

We’re about half way across the forest, and have to camp out on top of this huge cap somewhere in center of all this. The wind isn’t blowing, so the forest is quiet. I hear laughing, and scuffing down there. I hope they’re friendly inhabitants. It’s like a rain forest down there, dewy. When the wind blows the rain falls from the gills like the way rain falls out of a tree shaken after a rain. Virtually no light makes it to the forest floor through the dense canopy. Oak Tree said the rain is poisonous, so I wonder who could survive down there, let alone make it a home. I’m tired, time for bed. Rabbit laid out blankets and pillows, and is already sleeping.

Day Six

They have sixteen different soups (they eat a lot of soup I guess) each for a different effect or counter effect, like medicine. They prepared a different anecdote for Rabbit than they did for me. For me they made a soup that was like green tea and put a hot rag on my forehead. That was the odor I smelled when I woke up. Rabbit had to ingest a thick green soup that he said tasted bitter sweet, but it made him feel better, and brought back his vision with every sip. By the time I woke up he was carrying on at the kitchen table with Margaret and Sean. . . .

...Then I saw over the trees a line of smoke. A friendly smoke. An inviting column of gray tossing upward. “Depressed!” Rabbit smiled. For the first time I had a sense of relief, though my skin had began to burn....

END OF BOOKLET ONE. now available

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