The Inconsistent Ramblings of a Constant Story Teller(A short story collection)

Getting Lost

Richard stood alone in a large white room while thousands of other men a women ran in circles around him. As his eyes became used to the blackness around him he began to see that all of the water falling from the ceiling was as hot as fire. He sat up out of his black chair and his bare feet felt the dryness of the floor.

Richard felt the weight on his shoulders as the small large room suddenly became a dark green forest filled to the brim with vicious animals ready to eat him as soon as he took one more step into the dense woodland. The boy liked the feeling of the cold, red, sand on his feet, so despite his anxiety he continued forward.

A cheetah walked into site and the man saw an odd green liquid staining his muzzle. Richard looked down to see that what he had previously believed to be maroon sand, had actually been nothing. When he looked up he noticed that what he was sure was a deep forest before was gone, and instead was a void, filled and filled with bright yellow twinkling stars.

She grabbed one and it felt hot in her hands. But before she could open her hands to look at the star, Richara saw a dark form pass beside her in her peripheral Vison. She let go of the cold star and it floated away, slowly becoming dimmer and dimmer as it got further away. She turned to look at the figure that passed her and saw the cheetah that was previously in the large open plains.

It looked at her with hunger in its eyes. It crushed a bone in its jaw and started slowly stalking the woman. She turned and started swimming away, because sometime during the time she was watching the animal, the void with the hot cold stars had transformed into a small pond, filled with green slimy muck that stuck to her skin.

She tried to swim faster, but the small tadpoles that swam beside her began biting her. She tried to take them off but the green leeches hung on. Richara looked back to see that the predator that had previously been slowly stalking her had just dropped into a full sprint. The young girl had no defense against the fastest land mammal in the pond.

It caught up to him and took one leg. There was no pain. The hunter took more and more parts of the human but she felt no pain. The animal continued until all that was left was their head. Richard was okay with that. After a while of Richard's head sinking endlessly down lower and lower in the shallow pond, a small tail sprouted from his neck and he swam as fast as the tadpoles.

The yellow tail swam faster and faster until she found the bottom. There was piles and piles of ships, but they were not underwater, not any more. The ships varied in size but they were all made out of wood. All of the sails of the ships were tattered and ruined.

Richard, swimming in the sky with his tail saw something on the ship. It was a baby boy swaddled in a sky blue blanket. In the blanket, Richada saw clouds and birds slowly drifting in and out of sight. As she was looking at the baby, it grew in size until the large ship that it was on could no longer hold it. The boat was crushed under the weight of the baby.

After the boy was done growing, it started ageing. The old woman watched as the baby boy, swaddled in his sky blanket went through all of the experiences in his life, his failures, his sadness, and his disappointments. As well of his achievements, happiness, and his joy. But then, after what was literally a lifetime of watching the boy grow, Richarda saw him age into a senior. His face became wrinkled and his legs stopped working, and he needed an oxygen tank.

Richard watched in horror as the boy that he had been watching for a full lifetime was now dying right in front of her. The boy, old man now, again swaddled in his sky blanket, hung his head over and died. A tear ran down his cheek and landed in the safari down miles below. It hit the head of the cheetah and the predator looked up into the sky.

Then death came and slung the old man over his shoulder. Richard beseeched death, "Oh death, why must you take those whom we love and cherish away from us?" Richard now had an arm and a hand and reached it out to death, "What reason could you have for taking him and many others like him away?"

Death responded, "It is not whether they are cherished or hated, or whether they touch lives in any way or in any capacity. It isn't whether they are, or are not here or there, or around anyone else or by themselves. It does not matter to me if they can, or cannot have the capacity for being or not being around or gone or on a trip or on a vacation or just doing their everyday life. I take them no matter what. There is no stopping me. For I am death.

"Have you heard the poem, have you heard the contradictions? It goes as follows, 'One bright day in the middle of the night, Two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise and ran and killed the two dead boys. If you don't believe this lie is true, ask the blind man, he saw it, too.' Such is the meaning of death and life and all that comes before and after.

"Nobody knows who, why, when, where, what, how, I am, but does that even matter in any tense or time? Many want to know for what I do and am but should they want to know? If they knew would they want it?" Death questioned.

The dark figure, still with the old man on his shoulder, continued talking, or didn't, on and on for an eternity. And when the eternity ended, Death bowed to Richard and walked away, or he, or it, didn't. Mayhap all of that was or was not was or wasn't inside of the man, woman, boy, or girl's head. Who will know?

Richarda sat in the desert alone until time went backwards, then forwards, then backwards again until it was 1998 or 1999. IT was then when she had had enough. She yelled to the sky, up to where she was told god lived, but no answer was received. Was there something that could have received it at all?

Her arms felt restrained, so she waited until they did not. That time did not come soon. Then from the ground fell up nuts and bolts. Black/gray/yellow in color, the nuts and bolts struck Richard with such a ferocity that his negative two or one year old skin was easily bruised. Richard got fed up with one the nuts that repeatedly hit her so he kicked it.

Once her leg hit the nut, it immediately started crying. It wept at Richard and sobbed and wailed and howled into the sky. "Why did you do that!" It yelled at Richard

"I-," hesitated Richard, "You hit me first." She resisted.

"That doesn't give you the right to kick me," he wailed. "I think I am broken now, I think you chipped me, I think that I can no longer ever be useful." The nut glared at Richarda before saying it's last words, "Just because someone hurts you doesn't mean that you can hurt them." The nut left Richard, but it stayed with him until the end.

Then the world froze over again and again until no life could live, but Richard survived. Many things happened after that, but Richard didn't want to be bothered with noticing it, so I won't be bothered with writing it down. Some tell me that this is the ending, however does it ever end? Can it ever end? Nobody will ever know, how could they?

leN7