THE PRESONIC MAN
What would you have done if you were in my shoes?
It happened suddenly. One night, I had gone to sleep, a normal man. The next morning I got up, a thoroughly abnormal individual.
At that time, I was a moderately well-to-do writer. I had no living relatives and lived alone in my apartment.
That morning, I switched on the TV. A cartoon was being shown but the sound I heard was not the sound of a cartoon but of news being read. Was something wrong with the TV?
Had two channels somehow got mixed up? Then I heard the news reader announce the date. I sat bolt-upright. How could it be the 25th of May, today? Yesterday, when I had gone to sleep, it had been the 20th. What was going on? Had I slept for four days – a modern day Rip Van Winkle? I ran outside, picked up the newspaper lying on my doorstep and looked at the date. Twenty first of May.
So, after all, I had not slept for four days.
That was just the beginning. That whole day, I kept hearing voices: Voices of my friends, my neighbors, the voice of my sweet heart, and my own voice. What was going on? Was I going mad? But there was no insanity in the voices I heard.
I thought hard, struggling against a rising sense of panic. Slowly, almost shyly, a tiny idea raised its head. I had a hypothesis. It was fantastic. Nevertheless, I decided to test it.
Next morning, I switched on the television. Once again, the picture on the tube didn't match the sounds. I heard the date being announced, and it was the twenty sixth of May. Hypothesis proved!
No matter how fantastic, it was probably true. My sense of hearing had extended four days and a couple of hours into the future.
First, I went into panic. Then, recovering, I quietly sat at my writing table for hours, mentally working out the ramifications of my condition. There were various things, big and small, to take care of. For instance, if someone rang the doorbell, I wouldn’t hear it. I had to have some kind of visual indication for it. Then there was the phone. This was one instrument that would become almost totally useless to me. And what about conversation with people? I could talk to them and they would hear me but when they talked, I would have heard it four days ago. How then to have a coherent conversation? The only solution was to tell everyone that I had gone totally deaf. Let them communicate with me via writing or sign language.
And life went on with all its strangeness.
*
My pre-sonic condition had its advantages. I made it a habit of hearing the business news bulletins on the TV, and armed with advance knowledge of the market, I started playing the stocks. Inevitably my income became healthier and healthier. In turn, I became quite a philanthropist and had no end of fun.
No one knew about my abnormality till I heard himself telling my sweetheart about it and didn’t hear her scream or panic. So four days later, I did tell her about it and she, after a brief adjustment period, accepted it and said so in writing.
And one day, I wrote a note to her, asking her to marry me. She accepted and soon we became man and wife and lived happily for quite some time...
...till the time – yesterday - that I heard my wife crying with grief. And this grief was over my death.
I immediately got busy straightening out my things, preparing my will, loving and cherishing my wife.
Today, I heard my friends come to bury me.
And then my world went dead silent for some time.
And then I heard a terrible voice say: "Who is your God?"
And now I have three days to find the correct answer to that question.
THE END
Paper Fantasy
Lost in a book,
I stare at aged pages,
Gazing at typed words,
Peering into fantastical worlds
The stress of reality closing in,
Squeezing so tight,
I fade away
My mind escapes
Into an unknown place,
One of mystery, one of myth,
One different from where I truly live
Within these paper walls,
Snuggled next to splotches of ink,
I slowly close my eyes,
Falling into a magical dream
Black
Your favorite mug
Smashed on the ground
Blue and white ceramic
On the kitchen tiles
Floating in coffee
Black, the way you liked
And black, like the feeling inside
When you know
Your rock isn’t there anymore
Black, like the words you threw
And black, like the sky outside
When there’s no moon
To light the road as you drive
Black, like the car you hit
And black, like the uniforms
When the police arrives
To say you’re not coming back
Black, like the anger that caused this
And black, like my clothes
When I go
To your funeral.
Night Star.
I heard the sound of gentle laughter.
It seemed to be coming from some location close to the window.
Curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to find the source of the noise.
Uh, just when I thought I was going to be in dreamland- something had come to disturb my slumber.
I got out of bed and a quick burst of light came whizzing past me, making its way speeding around me— causing me to spin around in circles.
Er, whatever it was~ I wanted it to find its way out of my room...asap!
Then it stopped in front of me and before I had a chance to stare at the bright flying sphere....it transformed into a charming, sparkling, young lady.
I gazed at the woman in awe.
Hmm, this might all be some kind of crazy fantasy caused by a few bottles of liqueur I had with my supper.
She stared at me with wide, deep soulful~cosmic eyes.
Her feet, which truly did shock me, were not on the ground.
She was staring at me mid-air.
“Um.”
I wondered what one would say to a being they just met for the first time, who’s a star.
When I looked into her eyes, for a much longer while, this time, something flashed in my head.
It was her!
I tried to hold back tears from streaming down my face.
My darling, dear.
The one who I always called: ‘Angel.’
Now here she was, back with me in an odd, magical way.
Yes, it was her all right.
The second I caught her smiling, radiantly at me..I knew.
I smiled back at her, before she planted a kiss on my cheek and turned into a star, as she floated away through my window.
Ah, whenever she was nearby my heart always beat a zillion times more rapidly.
Well, now my heart can rest with lots of peace, for I know she’s a part of the heavenly bodies of stars.
#NightStar.
Advice for when I live to see tomorrow.
Wrap your warms arms around me
and squeeze.
Watch the sunrise with me
Let the colors wash over us.
Listen to the birds chirp in
The new light.
Look up in the middle of the day
And see the moon within the clouds.
Walk on the beach with me
Sand between our toes.
And count the stars with me
One
Two
Three
Four...
Untill I fall asleep
And live to see tomorrow.