Nebula Neurotica

[Unpublished]

It was hardly noticeable at first. The inhabitants continued their normal daily routines, going about their business, without even glancing upwards. It was a sleepy town by the coast, the kind of place where one could escape, perhaps to hide from something, or merely to find peace and quiet. There was a beach, small in size but filled with the required ingredients, such as sand, and the sea beside it. There was a lighthouse, the tiniest lighthouse there ever could be, watching over the beach and the oncoming ocean waters. It was a sleepy town indeed, but it was soon to be awakened.
No-one was sure who spotted it first. Maybe someone walking their dog along the sand, it could even have been the dog itself. Perhaps it was the policeman who strolled along the sea front every morning, partly through duty and partly through pleasure. It could have been the early morning milkman delivering fresh pints to the houses on the road that ran alongside the beach. No-one was sure. One thing was for certain though. Jamie saw it before Tasmin did.
It was one morning, about nine o'clock, just when Jamie pulled open the bedroom curtains, allowing the early sunshine through the window. Tasmin was still in bed, although she wasn't asleep, merely dozing in half-awakeness. They lived in the second
house on the coastal road, about thirty yards from the beach, overlooking the abandoned lighthouse. Jamie squinted as the rays invaded the room, then, focusing his eyes upon the sky, he noticed it.
"Look at that cloud," he said to Tasmin.
"What cloud?" his bleary-eyed girlfriend replied.
"That one there," Jamie said, pointing to the item in question, "it seems to be lying lower than the others. As if it's falling."
It was true. One of the clouds in the light blue sky was indeed lower than its brothers and sisters, as if it were trying to escape from something.
"It's your imagination, Jamie, you're still half asleep."
He didn't agree. He had a positive feeling about the situation with the cloud. If it was falling, the movement was barely noticeable to the human eye, so only time would tell
whether his supposition was correct. Jamie decided from that moment on to monitor the cloud concerned for further signs of sinking.
"Get up, sleepy-head," he told his partner, "or you won't get a lift to college."
The second day, and Jamie gingerly opened the curtains as he had done the previous morning. He was aghast. The cloud had travelled further towards the earth. The huge
nebula seemed so small from such a distance, but he realized how massive it really was. The movement was evident to him, having taken careful notice of its position twenty-four
hours earlier. There was no doubt about it, the cloud was definitely falling.
"Look, Tasmin," said Jamie, "it's still sinking."
There was no response from his girlfriend this time. Jamie gazed at the sky, at the mass of watery vapour that was dropping from the heavens. He wondered why it was happening, and why the other clouds weren't falling also. The cloud's colleagues were
holding their positions right up there in the sky, yet this one was intent on reaching the earth's surface. Jamie had never known such a mystery.
On the third day he saw it again, and it was still coming down. Its size was increasing all the time due to the fact that it was becoming more visible to the naked eye. Jamie watched through the bedroom window as he had done before. Other people were beginning to notice it too. Jamie spied them along the coastal road and on the beach, people in groups or alone, heads aloft, eyes glued to the drifting nebula. He was relieved in a way, for it proved to him that it wasn't his imagination. For whatever reason, the cloud was descending.
It wasn't long before the media got a hold of the story. The next day, Jamie read it in the local newspaper, a half-page feature on page three, complete with a photo of the plunging cloud. They gave no explanations, but plenty of theories, none of them believable to Jamie. He had no ideas of his own, he found it difficult to speculate, as the whole thing seemed so absurd. It was crashing from the sky at an alarming rate by that time, it was possible to see it actually moving downwards, not at any great speed, but the falling motion was evident. It was really large, that was becoming more obvious by the hour, and it was heading directly for the sea.
"My God, Tasmin!" Jamie cried. "Come and look at this."
Day five, and the nationals had latched on to it. The beach was absorbed with vehicles from different television stations and newspapers. Reporters were delivering live announcements concerning the cloud's movements, and there were countless cameras of all shapes and sizes, snapping and filming, getting in each other's way. There were crowds of people as well, some of them local, but not all of them. Curious inhabitants of nearby towns had flocked to the beach to witness the phenomenon, apparently disbelieving newspaper reports, wishing to see the spectacle for themselves. As for the cloud itself, it was still swooping earthwards, and how.
"That's amazing," said Tasmin.
Jamie was able to see the misty vapour descending, getting closer every minute. It was like an enormous white blob, something out of a horror movie. The remaining clouds watched from the safety of the heavens as their brother sank further towards the salty ocean waters. There was a hive of activity on the beach, media employees shouting and
running in all directions, each of them eager to produce the best report and the best pictures for their viewers or readers. Jamie had never seen the place so busy, this tiny sleepy seaside town that was normally so peaceful and placid. If only the cloud realised what a furore it had caused.
After a sleepless night, Jamie awoke as the morning light invaded the bedroom. He immediately heard the commotion outside, and he slowly arose from the bed and shuffled over to the window. When he drew the curtains this time he was dumbfounded. The cloud
practically filled the whole sky, it was so near, and so huge. It hovered about thirty feet from the icy-blue sea, and it was still falling. Its vapour was touching the top of the lighthouse, and it was obliterating everything for miles around. Jamie peered into the mist. He was certain he could make out two distinctive shapes in there, like a pair of eyes looking around, sad and lost.
"My word!" said Tasmin, having emerged from the cosiness of the bedclothes. "It's so close."
"Why do you think it's happening?" asked Jamie.
"I've no idea, I've never known anything like this before."
"Me neither. It's so weird. Can you see those two dark patches? It's like the cloud has eyes, as though it's alive."
"Don't be silly, Jamie. A cloud is just a mass of watery vapour. How can it be alive? You've been reading too much science fiction."
"I'm not saying it is alive, it just seems like it is. It's as if it's just given up on hanging there in the sky and it's decided to let itself go. Like it's depressed or something."
"A depressed cloud? Now I've heard everything."
They both watched through the window as the cloud fell further, until it was touching the watery waves. There were loud gasps and shouts from the crowds of onlookers, and cameras clicked from the safety of the beach. The sea appeared to hiss violently as the vapour began to sink into the water, the mass disappearing beneath the brine, becoming less and less visible as the seconds passed.
Jamie was astounded. He detected a sudden movement within the mist, and peering closely he saw the two eye-shapes. They appeared to move, at least one of them did, as though the cloud was actually winking at him. It wasn't long before they too sank into the salty sea, those two sad donkey cloud-eyes. Was it really depressed? Was it possible? Jamie wondered, as the cloud submerged itself beneath the ocean, inch by inch, second by
second, until it could no longer be seen.