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Pomni and Gummigoo sat cross-legged on the beach, facing toward the digital lake as the Sun was setting. (The Sun herself was asleep, so there was no need to worry about any sarcastic quips.)
“So,” Gummigoo asked as he took off his hat and scratched the back of his head. “What exactly is it that we’re doin’ here again?”
“Well,” Pomni replied. “I thought maybe we could try some meditation together. Ragatha’s been teaching it to me since I got here, and it’s really been helping me out a lot. I thought… maybe it could help you, too.”
She looked up at him with empathetic eyes.
“I know things have been rough for you since… that happened. Well, meditation is a good way to anchor yourself in inner peace. When negative thoughts start bubbling up, you can use it to help quiet down the noise in your head.”
“Heh,” Gummigoo acquiesced, placing his hat on the sand beside him. “Well, if you think it’ll help, I trust ya.”
Pomni pulled out a couple of long, black strips of cloth, and handed one to Gummigoo.
“Huh?” The gator tilted his head. “What’s this?”
“A blindfold,” Pomni answered. “We’re gonna put them on.”
“W-Whoa, whoa!” Gummigoo’s face blushed beet red. “Let’s, uh… pump the brakes there, mate.”
“Huh? …O-Oh, God, no,” Pomni blushed as well. “It’s nothing like that. It’s just to help block out distractions, so you can bring your focus inward. Since it’s your first time meditating, I thought it might help.”
“O-Oh,” Gummigoo chuckled bashfully. “Y-Yeah. O-of course. Thanks, Pomni.”
Pomni tied her blindfold around her head, covering her eyes. She then placed her palms together in a prayer position in front of her chest.
“Just like this, okay?” Pomni instructed.
Gummigoo fastened his own blindfold and mirrored Pomni’s meditative mudra.
“Now… Listen,” Pomni began in a soft voice. “Do you hear the waves, slowly flowing and softly crashing onto the shoreline? I’d like for us to take some deep breaths in time with them. In… and out… Ebbing… and flowing… Just letting ourselves be at one with the waves…”
Gummigoo listened to the waves, letting them act as a metronome to his breath.
He breathed in deeply through his gator nostrils. He took in the smell of the water’s spray, and felt the sensation of his diaphragm rising.
He then pursed his lips and slowly exhaled. He felt the tension melt from his muscles as the air expelled from him.
“Good,” Pomni quietly praised him. “Keep going just like this, okay? I’m right here with you. Everything’s gonna be alright.”
They continued like this for a few minutes in silence.
The warmth of the sunset combined with the cool spray of the lake caressed his gummy body.
It was as if the world around him was whispering to him, leading him into a healing trance.
His mouth slowly curved up into a serene smile.
Pomni couldn’t see Gummigoo, but she could sense that he was beginning to relax. This made her smile as well.
“Now…” she continued. “Do you know what a mantra is? It’s a phrase that’s repeated during meditation to help center the mind. I’d like for us to repeat a mantra together in our minds as we continue breathing.”
Gummigoo nodded with a low, affirmative “Hm…”
“Repeat after me,” Pomni instructed. “Breathing in, I know I am real.”
Gummigoo followed without hesitation.
“Breathing in… I know I am real…”
This was followed by the two taking a deep breath in unison.
“...Breathing out,” Pomni continued, “I release all doubt.”
The gator repeated once more.
“Breathing out… I release all doubt…”
They both exhaled together.
“Just keep repeating this in your mind,” Pomni prompted. “Breathing in, I know I am real… Breathing out, I release all doubt… Repeat it silently in your head as you breathe, okay?”
Gummigoo nodded, forgetting that Pomni was also blindfolded.
He let the mantra sync in his mind with his breathing.
Breathing in, I know I am real…
Breathing out, I release all doubt…
Breathing in, I know I am real…
Breathing out, I release all doubt…
Breathing in, I know I am real…
Breathing out, I… I…
His mind flashed to an image of his mother.
She was laying sick in her bed, just before Gummigoo’s infamous maple syrup heist.
Her voice rang in his head as clear as day.
“I know you’ll pull through for us, son… You’re my little fighter…”
She gave him a kiss on the cheek as he and his posse went on their way
But this moment… it never actually happened, did it?
They were false “memories” implanted into his head by Caine, weren’t they?
Gummigoo, back in the “real” world, began shakily sobbing.
Tears soaked his blindfold as his mind raced with questions.
Pomni heard this, but was too deep in her own meditative trance to move.
Instead she addressed Gummigoo in a voice that sounded soft, low, and mature, as if she was channeling the spirit of an ancient sage.
“Gummigoo… What’s wrong?”
“Me… Me Mum…” His voice wavered. “I… I remember her… I remember the last time I saw her… B-But… it was all fake, wasn’t it? Me Mum… never even existed, did she?”
Pomni’s mind felt as though it was receiving wisdom from the cosmos. The words flowed effortlessly from her lips as she continued meditating, as if the Universe was speaking for her.
“Gummigoo…” she whispered. “I want you to focus on your memories of your Mom… I want you to envision as many memories of her as you can, as clearly as possible… Can you do that for me?”
Gummigoo gulped. What Pomni was asking of him seemed painful, but he wanted to trust her.
He took a deep breath, bringing his mind back to as many memories as possible.
He remembered the feeling of his Mom’s kisses on his scuffed knees… The smell of maple cookies baking in the kitchen… Her words of praise during afternoons of lasso practice…
“Tell me,” Pomni continued in her entranced, monk-like, whispering voice. “Those memories… do they feel real?”
The gator sniffled.
“Y-Yeah…” he murmured. “They… do…”
Pomni smiled in her trance.
“She’s real, Gummigoo,” she affirmed softly. “She’s in your heart… She’s there with you, all the time… She’s real, because you’re real… Don’t ever doubt that, even for a second.”
Gummigoo smiled as well, his mind drifting back into a state of inner peace.
“Th-thanks… Pomni…” he whispered.
The jester woman, without needing to see, reached over and took Gummigoo’s hand.
The two of them sat smiling hand in hand, soaking in the warmth of the setting sun, and the all-encompassing comfort of a deep, loving trance.
They repeated the mantra once more in unison:
“Breathing in, I know I am real… Breathing out, I release all doubt…”
They sat silently meditating on the beach together until it was dark.
Gummigoo soaked in every sensation.
The cool spray from the waves, the soft sand beneath him, the silence of his blissful mind, and the warm touch of Pomni’s hand.
For the first time in a long time… he felt real.