I feel tired and drawn out over the terrible expanse like a mule left to wander the desert of infinity alone--so very alone--with the singularity of mind to keep moving and so forth to keep breathing. In the distance this mule knows there are others of her kind in better shape who are going faster and going stronger. The mule sees their hoof prints imprinted like fingerprints in the sand but she is content with her pace. She truly is you'll see: this mule while lonely lacks the desire to follow the path these others have worn. Brittle sands whip round her quarters and burn her eyes yet the hills of desert sand are blocking something special from eye.
Despite how she slips and falls in the ever changing terrain she'll not follow the trail the others have laid because there is something out there that hides. To spite the winds and sunny rays our mule puts one foot before the next and her muscles quiver with her strain. From eons of anguish the mule glances ever so slightly at the hard tracks to promising lands of wild honey and oats yet she knows there is no escaping the desert's whispering rhyme so she decides to continue til she forgets the hills of sand and the winds and rays.
When topping the hill she brays into its faulty abyss from a sight forming on its enchanted vision yet there is no response to her cries. She has forgotten on her sadden quest that she was alone and that the others wouldn't come. The mule wonders what was so pressing down the path the others took. Was there water and hay? Was there green grasses and a soft cool breeze?
The mule's legs are weak and collapse on top of her brave new hill. Her sorry tone unheard but to see the sight of uncharted plains soothes her wearied woes. The heat still drys her throat and the sand still stings her eyes but her quiet soul needs no qualms. Like the lonely mule to be lost under sands I'll not rise but be forgotten. Yet do not bray you far down the path for the sights are worth far more than that.
YOU ARE READING
The Haunted and other short stories
Historia CortaShort Story Collection including works such as Black Smoke and The Haunted. Black Smoke - In the old west a cowboy heads home only to find himself alone in the endless plains of his own denial. The Haunted - A man is tormented by the ghost of his pa...
