Song of Teeth 1: The First Voice (5 page)

A little gurgle sighed in her throat, and she slowly pressed more firmly, and then drew back. She met his eyes again, smiled, and glanced down with a nervous cough. Mark knew his face was betraying the heat in his heart, but he trembled at noticing that the rich shade of her skin could not hide her flush of blood either. They both sat with their heads bowed a moment, not speaking. Rolling the tip of his tongue, he tasted the spearmint on his lips.

Trying to change the subject, Mark asked, "Um, can I ask what happened to your dad?"

The only change on her face was a slight crinkle in her brow, but somehow Tatiana's entire person drained. "I didn't see him much after that. A couple more times he took me exploring, and then he just stopped showing up. I felt really abandoned, especially since I thought we'd been having so much fun. Every place we went was this mysterious adventure, like the kids' detective novels I used to read. Before that-before he showed up-I didn't really think of him or feel abandoned, 'cause I'd never known him. My life was school, my mom, and her hobbies, which was a lot of going to the mall. Then I abruptly had a dad, and he showed me this whole other way of living and looking at the places around me; and just when I really started to get attached to him, he disappeared. It crushed me." Her voice cracked.

Cautiously, Mark rested his palm on her knee. "It's ok, if you don't want to talk about it." Tatiana shook her head quickly.

"No, I'm ok. Actually, it's nice being able to trust someone else with this. My mom and I don't talk much anymore. You're a pretty good listener."

"Yeah, well, not talking is one of my best skills," he grinned. Tilting her head, she angled a smile up at him. Then she focused her eyes sideways into space, her mind concentrating on some raw, buried place in her mind. When she continued, her voice was a delicate rustle.

"Turns out, I learned years later, the reason my father disappeared again was because he'd gotten arrested and sent to a mental health hospital. What my child self had perceived to be just an exciting sense of fun and kind of a quirky imagination, was actually a symptom of his mania. One day he just had a breakdown, grabbed some random guy walking down the street, and beat him to a pulp. The guy was in the hospital for a week before he died of brain trauma. I don't know exactly what kind of sentence they gave my dad, but he's pretty much going to be in the hospital for the rest of his life." She took a deep breath and slowly released it before continuing. "I've been holding that memory of us in the tunnel, with the singing and the water, for so long. I just can't imagine how the man who was with me, who made me unafraid so easily, could be the same man who would...do something like that. It's stupid, but I felt like if I could just find a connection to that moment again, if I could find the thing that was singing and prove it was real, then maybe it would prove that moment was real. Validation, I suppose." Her shoulders were visibly shaking. "Now I'm so close, and I feel I might lose it all again."

For a stunned moment, Mark scanned his words for something that might sound comforting, but nothing felt right. Ever so gingerly, he reached up and touched her cheekbone, lightly as a whisper. He could feel the warm tears that the shadows hid. Brushing them off, he traced his hand along the side of her face, his pulse nearly bursting through his fingertips.

"We'll find it again, whatever that creature was. And even if we can't prove it to anyone else, at least you'll always know for sure that it was real."

With her eyes closed, Tatiana laid her hand against his and pressed it tighter against her face. She guided his palm to her mouth and kissed it again and again. His skin became wild under the quivering of her breaths; he had to focus on gulping lungfuls of air to calm the trembling of his entire body.

At that very moment, they heard it. A hissing whisper that meandered like mist around the walls.

Both their eyes flew open, and they turned to the spring.

THE CROCODILE CREATURE had pulled its entire head above the edge of the well, its arms gripping the stone with webbed, long-fingered hands that were a cross between crocodile and human hands. Like a cat at night, its eyes mirrored the light with a blazing sheen. Though its great, toothy jaws were not moving, it was making a series of hissing, whistling sounds; as he watched more closely, Mark saw its nostrils fluttering around each airy syllable.

Almost forgetting to breathe himself, Mark finally pulled his senses together enough to whisper, "Is it talking?" As he heard his own sounds blend with the creature's, he realized what little difference lay between their speech.

"I-I think so," Tatiana whispered back, obviously noticing the same thing. "Should we, um, what should we do?"

Before he could respond, a subtle but distinct snap came from the camera as Tatiana overcame her own shock enough to remember the remote in her hand. Instantly, the creature went silent, its albino eyes glinting huge. Every muscle freezing at once, Mark wondered why it had not occurred to him earlier that, speaking or not, this was still a creature with a fang-filled deathtrap that could crush his torso in one bite. How far away would they need to be to outrun it?

As soon as the question entered his mind, the creature lunged entirely out of the water with a thrash of its giant tail. Mark and Tatiana scrambled their feet under them, slipping on the worn cobblestones. Flinging himself backwards, Mark stumbled and slammed his elbow on a rock; an electric jolt of numbness temporarily paralyzed his arm. The creature's force was so great it nearly flew towards them, and Mark knew they could never possibly outrun this thing, even if they had been much farther back. Instinctively, he threw his uninjured arm over his head and waited for the inevitable snapping of his bones. He heard Tatiana shout his name, but his body was too panicked to move.

Instead, he heard a metallic crash and plastic splintering nearby, and looked up to see the camera smash on the ground. The creature stopped, cracked open its jaws, and unleashed a shrill, gurgling screech that drained the blood from Mark's head. Then, with a grace that seemed preposterous for such a large body, it swung around and ran towards the far edge of the courtyard, all four legs swiveling swiftly underneath it like a dog or a cat. Except, instead of moving its pairs of front and back legs together, it moved its side legs together, so that it was both galloping and slithering in a hypnotic S-curve. In the space of a thought, it was beyond the reach of the lights.

"Hurry!" Tatiana ran up to Mark and pulled him to his feet. Grabbing her backpack and throwing it around her shoulders as she went, she ran after the creature, calling back to Mark, "We've gotta catch up!"

His elbow stabbing alive with pain, Mark stumbled after her. "Wait! It's too dangerous!" She ignored him. Her flashlight was a spastic firefly as she bounded ahead in the darkness. Mark pulled on his head lamp and followed, every movement jarring through his arm. Tatiana's light disappeared around the corner of what appeared to be another passageway. The light from his head lamp bounced almost worthlessly across the uneven ground; Mark could only hope he wouldn't slip on a hidden rock or patch of algae. Just before he reached the opening of the passageway, a furious swoosh echoed out, and Tatiana screamed. His heart clamped to a stop.

"Tatiana!" Oblivious now to the burning in his arm, he ran faster. Images of her body crumpled in the unforgiving mouth of that creature nearly blinded him. Now fully in the passageway, he could not see any sign of her or the crocodile ahead in the short span of his lamp. He ran for what must have long enough to catch up, but still there was nothing. Shouting her name over and over, he heard no answer. No sound at all but the hysterical echo of his voice, mocking him.

When his lungs were ready to collapse, and the pain from his elbow had seared up to his brain-when he made one final plunge into the dark, ready to let hopelessness consume him-the ground ripped open, and he fell with a cascade of earth into an endless pit, until his mind succumbed to blackness.

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How to Beat Procrastination

Procrastination is the habit of putting off responsibilities until the very last minute. People have different reasons for procrastinating, but the end result is almost entirely the same; work is completed late and of a much lower quality than it would be if completed on time. Some people will claim that they work better under pressure and that procrastination is just part of their genius. This is all well and good if the procrastinator is writing an epic novel or trying to build a ship in a bottle, but when others depend on work being done on time and as requested, it seems unfair to rely on the excuse that genius prevented the work from being done. If it's a boss in a corporate setting who expects work to be done at a certain time and in a certain way, failing to meet expectations could result in professional stagnation, inability to promote, and feelings of "always being looked over" for special assignments. If it's a client in a contract setting, failure to have work completed as requested could result in being unable to collect payment for work done or, worse, losing the client to the competition forever.

Fortunately, like other bad habits, procrastination is a habit that can be broken. It might take a little time and a little patience, but there is no quick fix for habits that have been a part of who we are for who knows how long.

If there's one thing you shouldn't put off, it's reading this guide on improving productivity by eliminating the beast of procrastination from your life. The advice offered is simple to follow and requires minimal effort to implement, even for the the habitual procrastinator.

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First, Still the Mind

One of the main reasons people procrastinate is because they feel like they have too much on their plate, or too many responsibilities to manage at once. Even if the person was able to sit down and get started on one of their tasks, he might feel an inability to focus or concentrate because of the nagging feeling that he is neglecting other responsibilities. This kind of response is often brought on by an overactive brain; a brain that tries too hard to work and worry about several things at once.

Relaxation techniques like meditation and deep breathing have been reported by practitioners to be very successful at helping the brain stay cool, calm, and collected, even in the face of seemingly endless tasks.

A few minutes of meditation may not make the workload seem any lighter, but it can keep the person more motivated to finish their tasks by relieving them of the mental and emotional worries they were experiencing.

The type of meditation or breathing technique used doesn't even matter. Any relaxation technique that helps the person calm down and feel more comfortable with the tasks in front of them is a good relaxation technique. One of the most popular techniques is to sit comfortably in a chair, back straight, palms down on the thighs, feet planted flat on the floor, and eyes closed. From this position, which can be accomplished in any office chair, the person will imagine being in front of the ocean, on a beach, watching the water move in and out from shore. Once they have this image in their mind, they will begin to focus closely on their breaths, evenly spacing and drawing out breaths so that each inhale and exhale is the same length. After focussing on their breathing for even just a couple of minutes, and after spending a few minutes in an imagination vacation, the person will notice that they seem less stressed and probably less "on edge" about their daily tasks.

When a feeling of calm is reached, the person can begin chipping away at their tasks one by one. If at any time the feeling of stress begins to creep back, the person can try repeating this phrase, an ancient proverb, as they work:

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

This means that, no matter how daunting and long a list of chores might be, there is no way to ever accomplish them without first taking them on one by one.

Second, Energize the Body

There are no two ways about it; many procrastinators just feel
lazy
. They probably can't explain why, but unless a deadline is looming overhead, they would rather rest and relax than get down to work. This kind of attitude can often be attributed to a lack of energy in the person. Sometimes, a cup of coffee or energy drink is enough to get a person through their responsibilities, but these are only short term solutions, and it's just not healthy to rely on sugary drinks to get through work.