The universe hiccuped and millions of people stumbled in confusion.
It wasn’t a delicate hiccup of a princess. It was the hiccup that came from the depths of repressed hiccups everywhere. A hiccup from a soul that hadn’t hiccuped in billions of years. Or, maybe 20 years – time lost all meaning.
It hiccuped and shook the top half of every person and creature and element. A collective “oh please let this be the only one” was the thought – everyone simultaneously waiting for that next breath and swallow and hoping that the jolt wouldn’t come.
It came. The universe does hiccups like a champion. Open mouth eeek squeak the sound of a balloon forcing air out of a tiny hole – with the color of a banana. No one knows why bananas are the color of hiccups – both funny and curious and seemingly fitting for everything that they do.
The universe hiccuped for a while. Millions of people creatures and elements tried – there it goes again, like whistling up the wind – you think about it and your body calls to it like a magnetic. Or anything that you are told you can’t have or do – your body goes straight to wanting it needing it.
Point is – people tried to work their way through it and with the jolting hiccups of the universe. Bumping into each other, trying breathing patterns, swallowing in great gulps of air, wondering why their lungs don’t expand as much as they used to, wondering if Taylor Swift with her running singing routine takes in more air than them – point is – they tried individually to solve the hiccups.
They didn’t. In one divine moment, divine because the pieces aligned just right, the people were all in that spot where they could take the collective breath, where they could stand and close their eyes and breath in hold hold hold counting their fingers on their hands four sets of five fingers – 20 seconds and then breath out slowly. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. A world where everything is just breathing for a fraction of time – letting the universe breath, reset, and settle.
The universe hiccuped and the world was set right.
