Epilogue To The Poet's Mistake

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Jana strolled beside Alo beneath the shady canopy until they came to the edge of the trees, where the forest gave way to a clearing. Alo stopped and she almost ran into him. She stepped around him and gaped—there, in the middle, stood a huge tree branching far overhead. At first, Jana thought it might be a giant ash, its towering trunk certainly reminded her of one. But it also had gnarled branches that sprouted out much closer to its base than a giant ash should, deep green leaves speckled with red. She walked a little closer and discovered the speckles were scarlet berries clustered amidst its thick foliage.
To Jana, who'd never seen anything so enormous, the tree was mystifying, transfixed by its glistening fruit. They hung invitingly
She prided herself on her knowledge of bush tucker, she had a book on edible plant identification under her bed back home, she wished she could have packed it. “It appears there’s a roseleaf raspberry growing up there. I have some in the garden beds back home, they’re delicious. But I’ve never heard of one growing in a tree.”
Alo stared down for a moment, then perked back up, a grin on his face. He reached up, picked a bunch and, before Jana could say otherwise, stuffed them in his mouth. “Good,” he said, berry juice trickling down his chin, “ya gotta have some.”
“I suppose it couldn’t hurt to sample a few. But if I suffer poisoning, I’m blaming you.” She stretched her arm upwards, grasping at one of the lower hanging berry clusters. She plucked them from their branch and admired their scarlet hue, tentatively popping them in her mouth. The taste was familiar, a hint of sweetness on her tongue, reminding her of long summer days spent foraging in the bushland around her backyard. She sat back and stared upwards, a sleepy smile on her face. Above her, higher in the tree, something glinted in the sunlight. She shifted her head to one side, but the reflected light still shone in her eyes. Unable to settle, she stretched and climbed a little
Everything grew bright and out of focus, colours became so vivid it stung her eyes. The air grew thick and heavy. Jana fought to pull herself back onto the branch, but it felt like she was moving through honey. The ground tilted and spun. She no longer knew which way was up, it felt as though she was inside a giant washing machine. A strange whirring drowned out the sounds of the glade, the sky and the trees mixed together in a kaleidoscope of patterns. Alo’s face was screwed up in a mixture of horror and disbelief.
He was struggling to separate his hand from hers, but they were stuck together like glue.
She seemed to be spinning faster now, a flurry of leaves swirled around her before disappearing into nothingness. She screamed, but it came out as a muffled whisper, caught in the wind. She grabbed hold of Alo’s jacket edge, her mouth still open. The world fell away until they were the only ones left in existence.
Jana tumbled round and round. Her head was beginning to ache from all the bright flashing hues and still, impossibly, she spun faster. Shutting her eyes made no difference, the colours were somehow inside her head. Alo had become an indistinguishable blur in front of her, she felt too ill to stare at him for long and she began to worry that this feeling might never