The Quest of the Lost Unicorn
by
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It pawed the strange ground with uncertainty. The landscape seemed alien, and the overhead night sky twinkled with murky strangeness. Bewildered, it continued to paw at the unfamiliar ground and to shake its head as if to awaken and disperse an errant dream. Quivering in growing confusion, it felt lost. It pawed something solid and then stepped forward upon the newfound surface. Lowering its head as if to inspect the new surface, it slowly walked across the asphalt road. It raised its head to gaze at distant, approaching white lights which seemed dissimilar to the dark canopy of lights overhead. The lights grew larger and an unfamiliar sound grew louder. It stood there, transfixed as the widening lights washed away the darkness blanketing this foreign landscape. Suddenly, the loud screeching sound of rubber on asphalt startled the stationary figure as it bolted forward only to dart into the path of another flood of lights and to hear the same confusing, bewildering screeching sound. It responded with instincts long dormant: fear and flight from fear. Already out of his van, the first driver stood, grasping the van's door as his transfixed eyes followed the fleeing shape into the night sky. After slamming on the brakes to stop his Pinto wagon, Bryce Bookout sat back, both hands firmly fixed to the steering wheel. Then, with one hand, he shook his groggy companion. "I don't believe it. April, did you see it?" he gasped. April Green, awakened abruptly from her dozing by the sudden stopping of the car, glanced dazedly around and moaned, "See what, Bryce?" Bryce was out of the car before April replied. He stared toward the full moon, and his vision filled briefly with the unmistakable silhouette of a winged horse with a horn protruding from its forehead. "A unicorn!" Bryce cried as April crawled out of the car. "I just saw a unicorn!" "A unicorn?" was April's subdued reaction. "Yes!" Bryce pleaded. He pointed toward the full moon and said, "A flying unicorn!" "Sure," April responded sympathetically. Bryce insisted they ask the driver of the van, and, sighing reluctantly, April followed Bryce. The other driver had climbed back into his van when Bryce reached him. The driver, as if in a trance, looked down into Bryce's face and saw two red circles reflected in Bryce's glasses. The driver of the van blinked, shut his eyes, and then opened them again, and the red dots had disappeared. He gazed through Bryce and mumbled, "Those eyes glowed like...like neon emeralds. I have never seen a glow like that. And...and did those hooves reflect gold?" "The unicorn?" responded Bryce. The driver's eyes focused, and then he shifted his van into gear and glared at Bryce, "Hey, buddy. Don't tell anybody about this." "Why?" Bryce asked, affronted by the driver's shift in attitude. "Because," he replied, thinking how wimpish Bryce looked. "Because why?" Bryce's challenge was muffled in the trailing dust and exhaust as the van squealed away into the darkness. He turned to April and asked, "What do you think?" "I think he still has nice eyes, and he still drives expensive vehicles." "Do you believe him about the unicorn?" "I suppose both of you saw something," April frowned indifferently as she dragged her foot across the asphalt. "But that something flew off into the sky," Bryce added pointing to the sky. "He didn't say it flew away," April said motioning toward the departed van. "You don't believe me," Bryce sighed as his chin slumped below his shoulders. "Maybe it was Pegasus," April said with a grin. "Pegasus?" reacted Bryce. "Yea," responded April. "Isn't that the flying horse from Greek mythology?" "Pegasus was a flying horse, not a unicorn," Bryce stated. "Besides, Pegasus wouldn't still be alive." "Maybe in his wanderings," April countered, "Pegasus found a unicorn that struck his fancy." "I never thought of that," Bryce mused. "No, you probably wouldn't," sighed April. Bryce stuck his hands in his pockets and scratched the road with his eyes. He looked up at April and asked, "What did you mean, 'He STILL has nice eyes'?" "Oh, I know him. Conrad Hunter, the THIRD. He's three years older than I am. He was a senior when I was a freshman, and I had a crush on him," April sarcastically reminisced as she turned to walk back to Bryce's Pinto.
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About the Book
"A quest," Grandpa Everett repeated. "A quest to chase something you really value before you settle into the routine of life." True to the advice of April's grandfather, Bryce Bookout and April Green began a road trip in pursuit of the elusive unicorn. "Then you have to begin searching for what you do believe in," the old man told Conrad. "To pursue things of this world teaches you a great deal about human nature, but nothing about the human soul." Mildly miffed by Doneit's admonition, Conrad Hunter III continued on his quest across the country to hunt the unicorn. The seed for this story sprouted in 1979, when I was twenty-four, just graduated from college with my first degree. Over the next three years, I wrote and worked on this, my first attempt at a novel length story: the quest of a flying unicorn by three individuals and their journey across the heartland of America. But in 1982, with about two-thirds of the story written, the quest had stalled in Texas outside Austin. The ending had been written, and many of the events between those two points had been sketched out. Yet I couldn't finish the story. In 1998, I resolved to finish the story and did so by January 1999. Thank you for your consideration to read this story, and may a quest of hope and desire capture your fancy and enlighten your path through life.
About the Author
The author currently lives in Bluffton, Indiana, where he has a modest self-employed job. He has traveled extensively through the United States and Canada, backpacked many parts of America’s West and Alaska, and has written other essays and stories inspired by those adventures. For the list of other books available from the author, please contact him at the following address: Doug Sundling P. O. Box 58 Bluffton, IN 46714.