Splitting a Soul~Chapter 8

Aisling drove for the remainder of the night, taking a break only once in a great while for a bathroom break or two. I kept falling in and out of sleep, never being able to find a comfortable spot. But it wasn’t only that; every time I closed my eyes I seemed to have terrible dreams. In one dream, I find myself standing in front of a large gate. As it opens, there is a bright light and a figure that I can’t see standing in the center of it. However, all I know of him is his laugh as he looks at me and then the gate closes.

“Ash, time to wake up!” I hear and I open my eyes slowly.

“What? Where are we?” I asked as I pulled myself up from my seat.

“Aisling might have made a pit stop by Niagara Falls; something about needing a hat,” Jack said.

“Ya, Aisling likes to collect hats from places she visits,” Kimi added. As I looked out my window, I saw Aisling looking around, trying to find at least one open souvenirs stand to buy a hat form.

“We’re kind of short on time so let’s help her out,” I commented and we all piled out of the car. Kimi rubbed her arms a bit before pulling a small pouch from her pocket. She began pulling fabric from the pocket, but it seemed like a lot more fabric then should be possible. Eventually I noticed it was her coat that she got from the kobalos back in Washington DC about a year back. It had pockets that seemed to go to nowhere and the edges of the coat still had the flame design.

“How did you do that?!” Jack gasped as she put on her coat.

“My pockets are bigger on the inside,” Kimi stated matter-of-factly. “I can fold my jacket into my pockets. Kind of like a snake eating its own tail, except I can pull the tail back out again.”

“You know my pockets are bigger on the inside too,” Jack said and reached into his left pocket, managing to get his arm down all the way to the elbow.

“How are you doing that?” I asked, a bit confused. When he pulled his arm back out I noticed the fabric of his pocket come out with it. It wasn’t that he had bigger pockets; it was that his pockets were full of holes. “How do you keep track of anything?”

“Hey, it isn’t like I put anything in that pocket anyway,” Jack said with a smile.

“Come on guys, I want to go and see the falls!” Aisling called to us. We all begrudgingly followed her to the tourist booth and she got us four tickets, as well as a few ponchos so we didn’t get wet. Not that getting wet was my main fear, as I was more worried that I was going to freeze to death.

The air around Niagara Falls was incredibly cold and I saw chunks of ice breaking off the edges of the river leading to the falls. I could hear the roar of the falls from the parking lot we were stopped in. However because of the cold weather, I don’t think a single soul would be dumb enough to visit the falls during this type of year. Not to mention the Maid of the Mist tour wasn’t even running because of the ice. We walked up to the stairs leading downward to the walkway and there was some guy in his mid-twenties standing there, in about five layers of clothes.

“Hello and welcome to Niagara Falls walking tour,” he began in a monotone voice. He had obviously memorized the speech and really didn’t seem to care at all for his job, but could you blame the guy. “In a few moments you will descend down the stairs and view the falls on the American side up close. Please don’t lean over the rails or go off the path. Also watch out for patches of ice as the wood may be slippery if you aren’t careful. Thank you for visiting Niagara Falls.”

“Come on guys!” Aisling called as she made her way down the walkway. The rest of us followed right after her, almost slipping right out of the gate; well except for Jack. Every step he took was perfectly balanced on the small patches of ice and it seemed to brace him as he walked instead of making him slip.

“Have to admit, this is pretty cool,” Jack said as he looked around, and for once I had to agree with him. Icicles several feet long were draping down from the rock formations around the falls. The morning light was also bouncing off ice and snow crystals all around the falls and I wondered if it had snowed the night before. The morning sun also cast a constant rainbow over the walkway and I silently wondered if this was one of Iris’ favorite spots.

“Here, let me get my camera,” Kimi said as she reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a small digital camera. She had picked up photography as a kind of hobby, saying that she never wanted to forget anything again. She began setting some kind of timer and set it up on a rail so the lens was facing the falls and us. “Ok, everyone get into position. Aisling, get over here quick!”

“Kay!” she called back and began running over. The camera began to blink, counting down until the timer went off. As Aisling ran over, she must have hit some ice or something because she started flailing around and couldn’t stop. All of us went to reach for her, but she went straight to the ground. “Ow…”

“Here, I’ll help you up,” I said as I grabbed her arm and pulled her up. Then entire time she was rubbing her cheek that seemed to have a small ice-burn on it. It wasn’t something I would pull the nectar out for, but it didn’t seem to matter as I saw the red mark simply fade away instantly. “You know it wouldn’t hurt to slow down once in awhile.”

“Life does by too quick to be slow, something I learned from my dad,” Aisling said, making a motion like she was about to sprint away.

“You have to send me this picture,” Jack said as he picked up Kimi’s camera. “I think I just found my new wallpaper.”

“Give me that!” Aisling protested as she ran over. Jack on the other hand was a good bit taller than her and just raised the camera up over his head.

“Go on, jump for it,” Jack joked as he would lift it up just out of reach. He was so confident that he never saw the punch to his gut coming. He keeled over in pain and Aisling snatched the camera right out of his hand.

“Serves you right,” Aisling said, sticking her tongue out at Jack, who was unsteadily getting back to his feet.

“And I’ll take that,” I said as I snatched the camera from Aisling’s own hand. I took a look at the picture and tried my hardest not to laugh. The picture showed Aisling half way to the ground with both arms extended outward over her head. Meanwhile, all three of us had panicked looks on our faces and were trying our best to grab her.

“Oh come on, give it back,” Aisling pleaded, giving me a big pair of puppy dog eyes, but the fact that her eyes were losing some of that stormy grey in place of a slight red color caused the puppy eyes to look almost scary.

“Alright, here you go,” I said as I reached my arm out toward Aisling, but at the last second changed course and placed the camera in Kimi’s hands. “Here is your camera back.”

“That isn’t what I meant,” Aisling argued.

“Hey, it is her camera and she can do with it as she pleases,” I countered.

“Don’t worry, I’ll delete it,” Kimi said. I looked over her shoulder and watched as she hit one option that said Save to Camera. Just like that the picture was no longer on the memory card. “See, it’s gone.”

Kimi scanned through the most recent pictures to show that it was gone and Aisling trusted that it was, but I guess even Kimi knew that the picture was too funny to give up. We continued on, with Aisling staring at the falls, Kimi snapping pictures, and Jack making icicles on the rocky cliffs just by blowing at them. It was about half way through the walk that we spotted an old man sitting on one of the benches of the rest areas. He had a pair of thick mittens on and appeared to be trying to tie his shoes, with little success I might add.

“Need some help old timer?” Jack asked as he walked up to the man.

“If you would be so kind,” he said before pointing down at his right shoe. “I was looking at the falls when all of a sudden my shoelace became untied. Almost tripped on it and fell over the falls. Wouldn’t that be something?”

“Sure, just give me a quick second,” Jack said as he leaned down. He grabbed the laces of the old man’s shoe and after some untangling, managed to get them into a double knot. “There, I don’t think they’ll be coming untied any time soon.”

“Thank you stranger. As a reward, I have something to show you,” the old man said.

“Right this way.”

“Is it exciting? Jack asked with enthusiasm in his voice.

“I bet you have never seen anything like it,” the old man said and went over to the far rail overlooking the river at the bottom of the falls. “Look, it is right down there.”

“I don’t see anything,” Jack complained, leaning far over the rail and looking down into the river. Then with a speed I didn’t think a man his age could move at, he grabbed Jack around the ankles and flipped him over the side.

“Jack!” I called and we all ran to the rail. I watched as Jack fell toward the river and a giant turtle rose out of the water and ate Jack whole in one gulp.