Seaside Story

No colour is ever just a colour in isolation just as no noise is a noise until it's heard inside the head of the perceiver. And this dear reader is the start of our tale of Princess Rorschach who sits happily at the top of an enchanted tower on the outskirts of the city of Suomaf in the left region. She had many fine necklaces and would take great pleasure sitting at her dressing table, in front of the ornate mirror trying them on. Her hair was luxurious and silky and she also enjoyed styling it in different ways and setting her face in a way that seemed suitable for the style. Then she would flop back onto her sumptuous bed and pick the hand mirror whilst continuing to turn her head this way and that as she adjusted and shaped her hair a little more. She liked to pout her lips and gaze into her own eyes, sometimes imagining she was a visiting prince who had fallen in love with her. The prince strongly desired to ravish her and to leave her in a quivering heap but he always restrained himself out of a sense of royal duty. When she was bored of the hand mirror she would pick up the conch on her bedside table and listen to the sound of the sea as it broke on the rocks. It always amazed her that the sound of the sea could be captured inside a shell and she presumed that this was because a shell being part of the sea therefore had the power to carry its sounds away with it. The sound was too mesmerising for her to contemplate this explanation for too long and she would listen finding herself in a trancelike state. As her mind drifted, she would think about how the shell was like her prettiest most intimate body zone and she would allow her hand to wander over the coast line of her body in her mind’s eye, losing all track of time as she pleasured herself in the rockpools. One morning as she lay on the bed, she picked up the shell and enjoyed its smooth into rough surfaces under her finger tips. She liked this tactile process but was always surprised by the shell’s odourless quality. That said she never actually thought of holding it up to her nose. This time she put the shell to her ear expecting to hear the sounds from the nearby beach of Revelc, where the wealthy scholars of Samuof liked to go at the weekends. Princess Rorschach pulled the shell away from her ear and looked at it in puzzled amazement for instead of the sound of the sea she heard a kind of knocking sound, which was also like a dog barking I the far distance. At first though she thought it might be the sound of a neighbourhood beggar knocking at the door of the house. She dismissed this idea as ridiculous because one of the servants would be swift to answer it and this knocking noise was continuing to come out of the shell. Then princess Rorschach exclaimed to herself that yes! It’s a dog from across the valley and its cough-like little bark is reverberating from the fields of a hillside farm into the shell. How was it getting into the shell she mused? She picked up the hand mirror and put down the shell to gaze at her truly beautiful pouting face, whilst dreaming of her life as queen ruling over the future where there would be no made up or fictional stories because her life would always be enough of the people of the land. Just then as she starred into her own deep dark eyes, she heard the knocking coughing sound coming from the shell. Her good sense told her to ignore it but somehow she felt compelled to pick the shell up. She held the shell’s tactile but now slightly disturbing form up to her ear and listened. The knock knock barking seemed to change to a tap tap tapping and the rushing of the sea was returning as if the tide was quickly coming in. Had the sound of the sea been there all along or was she adjusting her hearing? She couldn’t say but as Princess Rorschach lay there on her luxurious exotic silk bed spread propped up by her sumptuous goose down pillows listening to the noise in the shell, the sound of the knock began to change into a voice. The voice though was clipped in a very strange way as if someone was opening and shutting a door very quickly on someone whilst they spoke. Or it was as if she herself was putting her hands over her ears and taking them away to create an undulating wave sound (you can try this yourself but be gentle with your ears because they are important). At first this novel and somewhat uncanny sound was deeply arresting. Then the knocking voice became soothing and lulled her into a dream-like feeling, which made her anxious and she felt her skin begin to prickle with sweat. The knock knock knock was a voice trying to tell her something she thought, cocking her head to one side to listen. What what what said the voice over the sound of the rushing sea. Then it became clearer, why why why why why said the voice and she thought about all the decisions she had ever made. She realised that she had actually never made any decisions and that all of her choices were simply about having the very very best of everything. Still, she didn’t like this why why why knocking in her ear and went to throw the shell out of the window. She lifted her hand, which much to her surprise was no longer holding the shell to her ear even though she had just that second thought of throwing it. Instead she found that the shell and her hand were stuck to her ear and she could not move them away. Why why why why why went the knocking voice over the woosh of the sea. Just then there was a knock at the door of her room and her mother’s voice cried Princess Rorschach are you alright? Oh mother of mine please come and help she pleaded. Her mother, the old Queen Rednow, burst into the room and gazed wide-eyed at her daughter on the bed who appeared to be pleasuring herself as she listened to the sound of the sea in a shell. Oh daughter why have you summoned me in to witness such a wanton act of salacious self-gratification she demanded in a quavering tone? Oh mummy I’m sorry it’s not what it looks like replied the princess. I promise I will stop gazing into the mirror and read all of the books full of knowledge and scientific discoveries that my Uncle Thgir bequeathed to me. I will visit the scholars who pass by my window asking for some of my time if only you will help me. The Old Queen looked at Princess Rorschach with a sympathetic frown and the knocking voice began to sink back into the sound of the sea, which now seemed to say why why why waves waves waves in its rushing noise. The Princess found she could once more move her arm but the shell remained on her ear. Thinking quickly she shook down her hair to cover the shell and sprang from the bed into her mother’s arms. The old queen didn’t seem to notice the shell and if she did she chose not to mention it. Mother and daughter, two generations of royalty, stood holding each other in fond embrace while between them the sound of the roaring sea went why why why why why.