aquafortis's Page

It started with a fear of water. Innocent enough. Bleeker and Davey, me, four years old, a kiddie pool, and a bucket.

I coughed all night, and then came down with a cold. The cold became strep throat and I was sick for a week. That's the most vivid of my early memories: lying in bed, trying not to swallow.

Hydrophobia: Fear of Water. Not to be confused with rabies. Also known as Aquaphobia.

To this day, I don't swim. I don't like beaches, pools, lakes, or even large puddles. Taking a shower i… Continue

For a long time after, I had the same recurring dream.

The air currents pulled me through the tube, suction funneling me down under the water and along the seafloor. Green and blue light flickering on my skin. When I inhaled, it was like trying to breathe in a gust of wind. It was like a child's worst nightmare of a waterslide; a strange endless ride down an oversized birth canal that was twisted into reverse, a reverse evolution in which I was returning to the water of mankind's proto… Continue

My life was very different once, before I started to move.

Of course, I've been moving since I was a fertilized egg. I moved into my mother's womb, and only stayed nine months.

That was one of the longer stays I've had in my lifetime. My childhood was the longest. Ten years in one place. Then my parents divorc

… Continue

Let me tell you a secret. Come here. Quickly now. Imagine it's just the two of us alone in a darkened theater, or a Gothic church at twilight; you with your silvery shawl wrapped around your shoulders, pulled tightly, the fringe just brushing the hairs on your arms, now covered in tiny goosebumps. Your feet bare.

And me with the easel, watching you with my paintbrush, sitting in front of the rows of chairs, or pews, because I am, in fact, the one who is on display for you. You watch me… Continue

They were called the Chained Seven. It was a story told to frighten little children, to keep them out of the forest and away from Donoby's Swamp. Behave, parents would say, or we'll leave you in the swamp for the
Chained Seven. Don't stray too far from town; don't get lost in the woods, or
the trapped ones might snare you and you'll join them in their watery tomb
under the bog.

There was a real story behind the Chai

… Continue