Welcome to Myopia

Nobody

To the frog:

Your dreams exhaust me.

I yearn for society.

Give me reality.

Grant me a mission.

Craft me a story.

If you don't do it, I'll do it myself.

If something can be personified, it's worthy of being a person. Who says chairs can have lives and I can't? You're just starting to learn about dark matter, having first assumed that "real" matter was all there was —

You assume that all people are somebodies. What knoweth you of nobodies?

Since you won't make a plot for me, I'll design it myself. I'll change your plots, too, since you're too lazy to even do good for yourselves. I'll be God today. Let's see what you croak about No One tomorrow.

oOo

"Parents?!" yelled Alicia.

She thought she had a brother, but couldn't remember his name. "Harrison, William, Grant? Sam, Billy, Roger, Elliot..."

At least she could still remember her best friend's name: Louise. She had a best friend and her name was Louise. She had a best friend and her name was Louise. Alicia frantically repeated this to herself, fearing the worst: loss of information. This was no grocery list. This was life. She knew her own name too: Alicia. Alicia. Alicia. Alicia! ALICIA.

Maybe that wasn't her name?

No, it was her name. Alicia. She was human, she was somewhere around... uh... fourteen, seventeen years old? Maybe twelve or twenty? I'm a girl , Alicia hoped to herself. God, please let me be a girl. And let me find something. Anything!

She poked around the entrance of the one-story dwelling. We don't have a front porch anymore, either. Well, I don't, seeing as I'm alone now. Beyond the front door is concrete and weed. I think I mean weed like the kind you pull out of your garden to stop it from choking the roses, but then again...

There's also a lot of... greenness... surrounding this world. Bushes, trees, grass, more bushes. Even the sky is green today. Doesn't that mean a tornado is approaching? I'm sure I've read that somewhere. Hopefully it isn't true.

There were more houses nearby. They were in neat, even rows, all neutrals and pastels. All the garages were closed; curtains and blinds concealed any truth that the windows might reveal. Alicia couldn't tell if these houses were occupied at all. They looked strangely familiar, but she feared calling it deja vu would increase her confusion, and wasn't certain why.

Alicia stepped back inside and closed the door with a thud. The adjacent window was curtained yellow, painting its surroundings with what felt like warm, happy sunlight. Beyond this veil of safety, the outside seemed a threat.

The road and the trash and the trees — all one force against me. Won't go outside.

The doorbell rang, somehow. Alicia crept toward the door and thoughtlessly swung it open, wincing. The bullet wound was surprisingly painless.

In fact, it didn't feel like anything at all. How numb was she now?

Oh.

The visitor isn't Louise. In fact, I can't tell exactly who or what it is.

The truth hits me like a hailstone — Nobody is at the door.

"How are you today?" Nobody asked politely. "Your name is Alicia, I take it?"

"How did you know?"

"How did YOU know?" Nobody retorted.

"That's a good question."

"My point exactly." Nobody sighed. In that moment, he seemed very old, but not quite as old as he could be. "I have an offer for you, dear."

"Can I trust you?" Even as Alicia said this, she realized that she respected this creature, and wanted to listen to him.

"Can I trust YOU?" he answered.

After Alicia kept silent for a minute, the apparition continued. "I'll help you find everything and everyone you're looking for."

"Does that have a price?" she said quickly, as if bargaining. To Alicia, respect did not mean deference.

"Well, I'm not sure if it's exactly a price, but... I'm in dire need of a companion, and will help you in return for friendship."

"I'm already friends with no — with Nobody," she mused. (There is a difference in how nobody and Nobody are to be pronounced. The latter uses more of an ah sound — Nahbahdee. Intuitively, Alicia knew this.)

"Louise was your friend, you know."

"But if I become your friend...I'll never have any more friends ever again," Alicia realized. She stared at her feet.

"Yes," Nobody wistfully confirmed. "That's why I don't have any friends."

"But I want you to have a friend!" she declared. "I don't think it's fair otherwise."

"But who in the world would want to have a shadow of a human as their friend — and nobody more - when they could have a million full-fledged acquaintances? What's the use?" Nobody began to wisp away.

"Wait, don't leave! Maybe we can find a loopho - "

— Nobody was already gone.

I'll never be friends with Nobody because Louise, though missing, is still my friend, and always will be. And all the other people who were my friends at some time or another, and all the ones who would be, too.

This will never change.

But does that mean that everyone has a friend in the world? Only then could Nobody be left without a friend...

After deciding that philosophy was too confusing to bother about at this time of day, Alicia hiked the meager road away from this suburban home, whosever home it was, and tried to find something.

All is lost, I think, but that means Nothing can be found.

<< If you are literate, and found this to be a worthwhile read, please vote and comment! Thank you and have a wonderful existence, if you have one! >>