"The smoke flooded my lungs, and I couldn't breathe. My eyes stung, and I couldn't see. The fire was consuming everything in its path, including me. Then I fell into a never-ending black pit, the only places I could see fire lit. When I awoke among the embers, my body aching and the building burned, I saw all those among me that slumbered burned to ash and bone, and all that was left was me alone." Journal of Harrison Blake, 1944.
"So, with this journal entry, i want you all to use it as inspiration for an analysis on what you think it means metaphorically and how the meaning could be applied to actual life. They will be due by thursday." And with that, the class ended. I gathered my laptop and backpack and continued on with my day.
The final words from that jounal entry stuck to my mind "When I awoke among the embers, my body aching and the building burned, I saw all those among me that slumbered burned to ash and bone and all that was left was me alone." Why did I find it so familiar? Again, the words played through my mind, and i started to wonder something, but i pushed the thought out of my mind. 'No, that couldn't be possible,' i thought to myself and left it at that. The fact that it sounded like my writing couldn't be the truth of the situation.
I continued walking down the street, but as i passed an alley, i had to do a double take. There was a new mural on the wall that wasn't there before. People were painted walking through a hellish doorway, each one with a different color surrounding them. Past the doorway there were two different outcomes, one of life and beauty where the people could live happily in a lush green world portrayed by bright colors and people smiling in a field holding hands, and one of destruction and pain portrayed by a war in a blood soaked field exploding and people fighting instead.
'That got morbid,' i thought as i reached that part of the mural. I continued to look at it for a while, snapped a picture with my phone, and continued walking. As i walked down the block, the smell of coffee was potent. 'I've gotta get me a cup of that,' i thought. I walked into the shop and and as the earthy undertones of freshly ground coffee beans and the sweet aroma of a steaming hot cup of coffee surrounded me, so did the news on the television in there as well.
