WAVEFORMS

The sea rolls back to reveal that the tides have not entirely receded; thick cubes of saltwater remain in place, with independent waves traveling along their sixfold faces. They look like aquariums that forgot to put on their glass in the morning. Fish that jump out through one surface are dragged downward by the gravity of another, trapping them inside indefinitely.

A curious seagull rests its belly sideways against one of the larger cubes and furrows his feathers. Though not a particularly intelligent creature, he still recognizes that something isn’t quite right about this. After a few moments of comfort, he flutters his way outward from his saltwater throne, only to tumble forward violently into the sands beneath him. Such is the unceremonious life of his kind.

Eventually, the gull finds his footing, then takes a closer look at the anomaly.  His eyes cannot make sense of it, so he pecks at its surface. He then withdraws his beak to find that the cube has been transformed into a pyramid, having lost one of its sides. After subsequent gouges, it then becomes a tetrahedron, then a cone, then a mere circle. Though by this point it seems somewhat natural in form, its borders are too perfect, so he pecks at it once more.

The remaining circle of water disappears, leaving behind a hole in reality. Unable to make sense of this either, he simply grips it between his talons and flutters away.

THE BAPH-O-MAT

THE SELF-PAVING HIGHWAY