hopefully all is well with you. there was a rather ambitious project i thought to undertake a few years ago. i imagined that i would write a long story, possibly even a novel. but as always, i lost interest and focus within a brief time. now much time has passed, many things have happened, and i hardly resemble the person who began this story. as a result, and despite the urging of some others, i doubt if i shall ever finish it. nonetheless, i'd hate for these few pages to be wasted and lost to the lapping shores of lethe, and so i will post them on my small space here. who knows, perhaps some great interest will be stirred up, and i shall be persuaded to pick up these fraying strands...
“Birds’ ample melody floats in the air, upon the wake of Apollo’s fiery steed. The sweet scent of honeydew hangs on every breath, crystallizing in the early morning chill. This is what I need. Slowly, sadly, awakening I turn to the nagging buzz behind me, now a dull roar. The sound of metal against metal, softened by oil, burning gas. Cigarette smoke wisps follow the machines. Out of the window, yesterday’s news. Today is a new day, and tomorrow is unborn, still a twinkle in The Maker’s eye. Each day falls to earth as a raindrop. They were once tears of joy, but now of great sorrow. The earth as it stood, now is shackled with roads and buildings, cold, hard, unfeeling. The ground is stiff, and as we fall it is not the soil’s tender embrace we feel, but the disdain of unnatural life, scornful of our mortal imperfections. Once great forests abounded with life, now dead, processes, changed to be the paper I write this on. I have seen the enemy, and it is me. It is all people. We grow too bold in our ways, our “needs” overwhelm the planet. It has stood so long before us, but I fear we shall see the dying days of the earth. I can only pray that there is a God, and He is vengeful. I pray He will send the waters to purge the evil that is humanity. And perhaps this time, he will find another form.”
“David?” The voice snapped him out of this train of thought.
“Huh?” “What are you doing?” she asked, a hint of exasperation painted the once-blue sky.
“Oh, nothing...”
“We have to go or we’ll be late. You can’t always keep the doctor waiting.” The doctor. Oh no, a sin to keep that quack waiting, he thought. He was paying enough that she should wait all night, and still have dinner hot and waiting for him.
Through the city they rode, surrounded on all side by hulking giants; they lurked out of the ground in hideous irreverence to all of the world, spitting, glaring in the face of nature. Steel monoliths leering menacingly, peeking into the lives of those that carried on their meager existences in the shadows. Inside, computers whirled, phones screamed to be answered, electric pulse careened hazardously through the walls.
People sat in their cells, driven on the whim of the executives but enslaved by the technology, Prometheus looking on laughs. Through the windows the canyons stretched beyond and below any capacity of sight. All converged on a giant signal emblazoned across the panorama of necropolis. Shining hatred...
“David?! Were you listening?”
“Sorry, I was daydreaming again.”
“Well, stop it. That's going to get you in trouble one of these days. That’s why we’re going to the doctor, so she can help you focus.” Why did she always have to talk down to him? I know she loves me, I know she wants to help, but why?
It is always frustrating for a child to be patronized by a mother, but this is worse. Perhaps because she wasn’t his mother; she was his wife for seven years, sometimes an eternity.
But he could still remember... radiant, shining, her feet barely touched the ground. He had had to hold on to her tightly so she wouldn’t float away beyond the horizon. The walked together. The snow crunched lightly underneath, and the branches danced as spirits sang of midnight love. He cradled her near, she kept him warm. He could feel her buzz. Her very soul was alight with passion. They shared the same light.
He stroked her hair, dark, black on the wind. Roses kissed her cheeks and her deep emerald eyes glistened with love and hope. The eyes, deeper and more wondrous than the forest in which they now stood. There is no point in even describing such beauty, as absolutes can never be done justice.
This goddess he held now, so close. He stopped, drew her even nearer. Her breath formed clouds that whispered “I love you” just a moment before they dispersed their heat upon his face.
“I love you from now until the world ends,” the words sang out like messengers from Heaven. If only that end could have come then, no happier soul could be found, he thought.
But alas, it did not. Now she was merely there, a frail skeleton of this splendor. Years of work and money and the evils of the world had drained her life. Still he loved her; nothing could change that. And he knew that beneath all of her nagging and bitterness, still she loved him. She could come back, only sleeping, never dead...
