Underwater

He didn’t know why his mom and brother were taking him to the bottom of the lake but he looked towards the surface of the water above that shown green shafts of light below and his heart sank as he descended further down.  His brother told him to stay there and he understood that meant live there and he wondered what it was going to be like to live at the bottom of the lake forever.  He didn’t take this as unkindness; although, he knew he would miss his family and all that was familiar to him.  The lake was a cold and wet place and it was dark and there were fish.  Soon his brother and his mother were back on the boat and he watched them from under the surface of the water.  He felt so close to them in that moment but he knew they’d soon be gone and that broke his heart more than his heart had ever been broken before. 

beyond

Traveling at near light speed had become a rather customary and safe affair.  His speed was not the problem that morning rather it was his decision to follow the subtle path that beaconed him between the second and third dimensions.  He knew the elusive inter-dimensional space was not well known but it seemed like a good idea at the time until that moment when the unforeseen space-time ripple threw him for an interstellar tumble.  Within seconds he realized he was going to miss his appointment and a few seconds after that he realized he might never be heard from again.  He had no idea what direction he had been thrown in and he had no idea how to stop the inertia he had become subject to.  Resigned to his fate he tumbled along for an unknown quantity of time watching the universe spin and spin around him until eventually, and for unknown reasons, the spinning begin to slow down until ever so gradually he slowed down and stopped in some unknown region of the universe.  He floated there looking around himself to gather his surroundings, which he noticed were completely empty of anything that could possibly surround him.  All he could see was an empty blackness.  He peered into the blackness and thought that where ever he had been thrown to was the emptiest region of the universe he had ever seen.  Then he thought that maybe he wasn’t in the universe at all.  Had he been thrown beyond the universe?  Had he been thrown out of the universe entirely?  He had always wondered what was beyond the universe and to look around it seemed to him like there wasn’t anything at all. 

Empty

He didn’t intend to become a shell of a man and he didn’t realize that was what he had become until one day, late in life, he took an actual look at himself and discovered that he in fact had become a shell of a man.  He reached deep inside himself, deep inside his chest cavity, and felt around and felt nothing but the empty swish and swash of emptiness occasionally feeling his boney spinal cord, which he was glad to feel.  At least there was his spinal cord, he thought, otherwise he might have slumped over long ago into a lump of immovable flesh and he would have been deprived of the ability to do so much of what he had enjoyed doing in life such as reading the newspaper and…and….and….and…, and to his surprise, he couldn’t think of anything else in life that he actually enjoyed.  All he could think of was that he enjoyed reading the newspaper every morning.  It was what he looked forward to and it was what motivated him to get out of bed in the morning.  He thought some more about it and thought some more after that and he couldn’t figure out what there was about the newspaper that might be enjoyable.  Upon deep reflection he realized that newspapers mostly reported on the problems that precipitated from the progress that was supposed to fix all the problems and the dissatisfaction of life felt by so many after they bought so much of the stuff that was assured to provide so much satisfaction.  He started to wonder how much of his life he wasted with all the problems and stuff that he ingested through the syringe of the newspaper.  He felt agitated and needed to move around and dissipate an unsettling energy that overcame him.  He got up and began to walk around and eventually found himself walking around outside.  He was about to conclude that his entire life had been wasted but was soon distracted when he began to observe things as he walked around outside.  Upon observing things, he found himself thinking about the things he observed and then began wondering about the things he was thinking about and wondering what else he might observe if he were to walk some more or if he were to walk somewhere else that he had never been before.  More and more he observed, thought and wondered and wondered what more there was to observe in the world and he desired more and more to observe whatever there was to observe and wherever he might observe such things.  After spending considerable time observing, thinking and wondering he started to feel something inside of him and the more he observed, thought and wondered, the more he felt something in there.  He got curious as to what might be going on inside of him so he reached deep inside himself again and felt around.  To his surprise, instead of the swish and swash of empty emptiness that he remembered feeling before, he felt the squish and squash of strange gelatinous liquids and lumps.  He tried to grip those lumps but mostly they slipped from his grasp until finally he was able to find one that he was able to wrap his hand around and hold tightly as he pulled it from his chest cavity.  As he pulled this mysterious object from his cavity, he was more excited to learn what he might observe than by the fact that he was no longer just a shell of a man.  To his further surprise, he observed a flower unlike any he had ever seen before and he wondered how it got in there and then, as he reached back in to replace it, he wondered what other things he might grow in there.  

strange night

It was a strange night and got even stranger when I started eating this weird bird and I wasn’t even sure if it was cooked or raw or vegetarian but I didn’t care at the time.  I just starting eating like I hadn’t eaten in so long but then I remembered I had eaten not too long ago because I had eaten breakfast earlier on and it seemed ironic that I had eaten an egg for breakfast and then I was eating this weird bird later that night.  I intuitively felt this strange notion that coalesced into new knowledge but it was new knowledge that I couldn’t believe because it revealed that I was eating the bird that had been born from the egg that I had already eaten for breakfast and my mind couldn’t possibly comprehend how such a time line could exist wherein I could eat the future bird from an already eaten egg but somehow it made sense when I realized that upon ingesting the egg into my being it gave birth to my existence which existence was the essence of the egg’s potential embodied in this weird bird that I was eating meaning that I was essentially eating myself and ingesting my own being and incorporating myself into the structure of my own flesh, blood, bones and life force.  Like I said, it was a strange night and it got even stranger and I wasn’t sure what moment marked the beginning and the end or if it even mattered.

a bit of wondering

He set out to do something and wondered if he could persuade others to join him to engage in atrocities and bad things funded by the bitcoins he luckily received as payment for all the shoveling he did yesterday afternoon on the organic carrot farm.  That got him thinking on the nature of luck and happenstance and chance and he wondered what all the coincidences in the world meant and if they could be calculated by a mathematical genius.  And he wondered if he would be lucky enough to find such a genius to make such a calculation and if that genius would accept bitcoins as payment for his services.

signs

The sign flashed obnoxiously in the dark alley, the only sign of its kind. Neon orange and tubular like so many other neon signs.  It seemed to advertise something familiar, something that all neon signs try to sell.  Something he once wanted but never quite had.  Something from his youth maybe or even a more distant past such as a past life.  He wasn't sure exactly but what ever it was, it caused him to stop and stare at the sign blinking on and off until it wasn't blinking anymore but rather commanding him according to its advertisement and with each blink repeating the word, "drink some carrot juice".  He opened the door below the sign and walked through slowly not sure of what he'd find.  Once the door closed behind him he stood in the entryway staring much like he had just stared at the sign wondering if there was some other meaning to what he was seeing.  Tables and chairs and people in the chairs with their arms on the tables everywhere while the people were going about their own business conversing and such with one common denominator amongst them.  They all had a glass of carrot juice, neon orange just like the sign outside.  He wondered if he had made a mistake by entering.  Maybe this was a meeting of a close group of friends or a cult of some kind, he thought to himself.  He wasn't sure what it was but he felt like he didn't belong and that he shouldn't have gone in at all.  He wanted to escape before they noticed him and were not nice to him as he assumed they wouldn't be because groups of people are never nice to outsiders.  Shifting his weight from one foot to another as he prepared to leave caused the floor beneath him to creek so subtly but it was just enough of a disturbance in the flow of conversation and drinking and general on-goings that everyone stopped what they were doing to notice him at the entryway.  As if mimicking the neon sign that lured him inside everyone offered him the same words of the sign, "drink some carrot juice".  But when they said it, it seemed more like an invitation as opposed to a command and as it turned out, they were all very nice.

The Treacherous Seven

The Treacherous Seven were not known for their kindness rather they were known for their treacherousness but their use of the word treacherous was widely misunderstood.  Most people were familiar with the Merriam-Webster on-line definition that defined the word treacherous as “not able to be trusted”; however, the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary also defined treacherous as “providing insecure footing or support” and it was this definition that that the Treacherous Seven were contemplating when they were deciding upon a name for their acrobatic troupe, which they hoped would become the most famous in the land due to their gravity defying and treacherous acrobatics.  Soon after their formation, word spread that they were indeed the most treacherous acrobatic act in all the land but the majority, if not all, acrobat promoters believed this meant that they were the least trustworthy acrobatic act to work with.  Fearful of double crossing and broken contracts, not one promoter would agree to work with the Treacherous Seven and without regular work, the Treacherous Seven found their skills and bodies atrophying for want of work and performance opportunities. However, despite their failed dream of becoming the most famous acrobatic troupe in the land, they remained good friends supporting and caring for one another through hard times, ensuring that not one member was ever in need of the basic sustenance of life.  Their friendship was their only luxury but they all felt it was the only luxury they truly needed. Eventually they all passed away and were never remembered or even known for their gravity defying and treacherous acrobatics.  However, they were remembered long after they had all died as the most loyal of friends anyone had ever heard of.