Time and time ago, years before the world was a serious place, when the sun's rays enchanted me and filled me with young vigor, I met a woman upon a city bench when I was waiting for the school bus to arrive. I was the only one at this stop; the sole child at this corner of the street that went to Noonday Elementary. Her presence invoked a feeling I hadn't felt before, a feeling of wideness in the world, a feeling that made everything seem possible.
The woman regarded me carefully, stroking her chin with an eyebrow raised, as if she was feeling a kind of curiosity that marked interest but not confusion.
For a while we sat there, the woman just looking at me with interest. People passed by, looking as if they did not know the woman and I were there.
I was the first to speak, asking a question that had been on my mind since I had got there: "Who're you?"
The woman seemed pleasantly surprised that I had asked a question, almost as if she wanted that to happen but was not sure if I would. Despite her surprise, she managed to answer right away: "I have many names. Many different appearances. However, now I am Eris."
As she said that name, her simple gray jacket - unzipped so that you could see the plain white shirt underneath - appeared to glow with a gleaming yellow-orange aura. They vanished within an instant, as if they were simply artifacts of a wild imagination. For a brief moment afterwards it felt as if someone had shackled my brain.
"You look funny." Oh, what a charmer my past self was. Not that today I'm any better.
"What about me looks 'funny', as you say?"
I scrunched up my face, trying to place my finger on it. "It's something about your eyes. They're all weird and shiny. Where're you from, Miss Eris?"
"Mrs. Eris, to be more precise. Just 'Eris' is fine, however."
"Okay, just Eris. 'gain, where're you from? Where's your home?" For some reason, every time Eris didn't answer my questions, I got a tingling burning sensation on the back of my neck.
"Oh, around." That answer didn't help me much.
I balled my hands into fists, as if I could possibly do some damage to this tall woman. "Please, Eris, answer my question. I can't stand this-"
"In the caves of luminescence."
Though the tingling on my neck started going away, my confusion just increased. "What's that? Where's that? You ar'n't making much sense."
Eris repeated, "In the caves of luminescence. Its meaning would be clear if you were one with light."
"No, it wouldn't," I argued, a familiar feeling of anger and frustration building up within me. "Trust me, I know a lot, and that doesn't make sense. It's just gib'rish."
"Light spreads far across the world, piercing through even the darkest shadows. Through this light I know things, facts and feelings." Eris smiled joylessly. "I know things that are best left unknown. Feelings you don't want to feel. And I'm fine."
"What do you-"
"Time is ticking, you know. Time until the choice. Time until you're at the Decision Point. What do you want to feel, Misery? What sensation do you want burning through your pretty little skin?"
I spluttered, "I don't- How did-"
"Your bus has arrived."
I looked away from Eris. Sure enough, a yellow school bus had pulled up to the curb of the street, right in front of the bench. I turned back to look at Eris one last time, but instead all I saw was a fading outline of her body, of her facial features. She was smiling broadly.
For the rest of the day and some time after that, I felt the burning on my neck, an ethereal sunburn that seemed to never heal. It only got a little better when, years later, I discovered a wonderful religion called Discordianism. It's only half-serious, but since the day when I converted, my neck has been feeling a little better. I suspect that the woman I met was a Discordian as well - that would make sense, what with the name she went by and the non-answers she gave to my questions.
I long to meet the woman named Eris once more. Then, I could get some real answers.
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