the ride home And Other Short Stories

a lonely mans friend

I have been alone my whole life. An orphan. Im now 21 and live in a single room flat. I have no windows. A small uncomfortable bed and a kitchen. No tv ment that the news was fed to me at work. I work at a supermarket. It is verry dull. Stacking shelves and Changing lables is all i do.

One sunday i found myself at home doing the most childish thing, i created an imagenary friend. I called her eve. She was tall and had her blond frizzy hair tied up to look like a majestic pekocks tail feathers. We talked and talked. We descused polotics and the world and dreams. We talked for so long that 1 o clock turned to 11. I hadnt eaten. As i went to sleep eve stayed with me.

I woke up at 6. I had to go to work. Eve was still here. I went to have a shower. Eve waited in the kitchen. After i was readdy i headded to work. Eve came with me. The day went normaly. I got the news from a coleague. Stacked shelves and changed lables. This went on for a few days. Every day eve would come with me.

Today while walking to work eve said "today, dont get the news from them. Its always the same anyway." I just agreed. I didnt get the news that day. Or the next. On the third my colegues came and asked if i was ok."im fine," i said "why?"they hesitated"well... you where talking to yourself" i looked confused and looked at eve. "No i was talking to eve" i said as i waved my hand where she was. They looked at me and walked off laughing."never mind them" eve said. And i went back to work.

The following days my colegues didnt speak to me. I spoke to eve and eve only. She had a calm and soothing voice. About a week later she told me to quit my job. The people where "a bad influence on me" she said. So i did. I dont know why but it seemed like eve knew what she was talking about. A week passed. I had no money. No food. And i was on the street. But having eve there comforted me. After a while i started to get verry attatched to her. She felt the same.as she put it."we would draw blood for each other" and we had to proove it every day. We used razors we found on the street. Every time the blood poured down our arms and every time it did i felt our relationship strengthen.

A month passed. We had food from kind passers by every now and then. Eve refused to eat. We had proven our oath to each other everyday. Today she said something. "Im imagenery. You only thaught me up. It hurt. The more i thaught about it the more i remembered. She started to walk off. I shouted after her. She turned a corner. I chased after her. When i came to the corner she was gone. I slumped back to where i was begging. I laughed. I looked around. I was allone. No one could hear me. I vowed to show that commitment to eve. I will keep it. So every morning i would draw blood.

A month went by. I was still cutting. A kind person noticed one morning."come i'll get you help" she said. She was tall with long frizzy blond hair. "My names eve" she said. I looked at her. "But your imagenery" i laughed. She looked at me oddly.

We got to the hostpital. The doctors cleaned me up. Gave me a meal , hooked me up to a machen to replace the blood i lost and asked me some questions. "Where is eve.. the girl i walked in with?" I asked. The doctors said she went home. I was admitted over night. During the night i woke to my door opening. Eve. The imagenery eve walked in. Shd plased her hand on something."pull this" she said in her soft voice. I did. She dissapeared again. Blood started to hit the floor. Both from the device and me. The world started to darken. The already silent hostpital became more silent. I was allone once again and it was never going to change.