after finding an empty seat in this crowd
the lights turned dim
blot! blot! the film began to roll
-A SILENT MOVIE
'You know this is going to alter your day by doing this.' the dna one sprint paced not to injure anyone around him to his out of possession item. 'There's no way I can leave it behind.'
-THE DNA ONE
So not to bruise each apple settled on, a rope traveled along a shoulder, across his back, looped a time around a basket, back to his shoulder to a nice, tight knot. Each new apple torn from its snapping back twig admired as much as the last.
-A DRAGON IN THE CASTLE
They waited in the doorway after I finished an amazing on time breakfast. My stuff laying by the coat rack and sweet relief shaped their expression. Eighteen years in the making and they did it. Now, it's my turn.
-A DIARY CALLED MOUNTAIN
Four blue strobe lights in Rainy Day's room flashed once every second stopping the audio and visual artist on a particular path for another masterpiece. To get to their family-owned restaurant, Rainy utilized the firefighter's pole, a piece kept intact to this historical building, around another corner where she kept her hand towel to at her surprise to take the order of her boyfriend that is moving far away. 'Shouldn't you be leaving soon?'
-RAINY DAY’S ROOM
Milton placed his right triangle on a corner where two pieces for his frame met. His heart a receiver for her messages.
'I'm still waiting for you to come around.'
'I have good intentions today. Reading the paper, spending time with the Anatidae Family, lunch near the Boardwalk. I made you something. I will put it right here. It is what leaving Fawn Gulch looks like on a clear, spring day. The best part is remembering time spent there.'
'Loneliness is so lovely. I'm so glad you never decided to come with me.'
'You're not alone, my Dear.'
'One day you'll miss me. I'm sure of it.'
'Missing you? I do not ever have to miss you. You're everywhere I am.'
'When controlled by nature, yes. When stubborn to it, no.'
-THE PHOTOGRAPHER
No rush for the theatre's director to ease a thick, metal bar into a position requiring a padlock to secure a clamp resembling the old-style ball and chain cuffs favored by guards to anchor a prisoner in one spot.
-FOREVER MORNING THEATRE
Heat evaporated the water from his head. Water trickled from his ears. He blinked a few times to help remove droplets from his eyelashes. An area on the surface of the lake formed miniature impressions of Moses parting the sea. Mud continued to slide between each toe until he made it close enough to shore to drop to his knees.
-WILLIAM’S LAKE
Soft, warming sunrays absorbed through four blue skylights he installed two Sundays ago. Phelps grabbed hold of one corner of a two and a half by four meters rug revealing a door. The door slid open, he sang: and I came to see, to see ya leave! He constructed twelve concrete steps. For the mold, he found an old crate near an empty shed soon after he moved in. On two opposing sides, a stenciled track and train in motion for a design. The other sides read noon.
Dark, cold concrete. His hand landed on the rough wall to guide him; dust fell to the floor on his way to an opened door. Her eyes opened.
-HE MADE HIS LAST CUT IN CERTAINTY
'Robbie! You need to get me!'
She latched on to a hand full of the front room’s curtain to draw together.
'Why? What's wrong?'
'Hurry. Come get me. It's about Jack.'
-ALLIGATOR FOOD
'I'm Inspector Monroe. That is what you can call me.'
-INSPECTOR MONROE’S 1,000 CASE
On her shoulder, a coiled twenty-foot, three-eighth inch nylon rope unraveled more and more away from the center of a beam.
Old man Cowen's winter boots disappeared in the snow. His car door closing reshaped the pattern of falling snowflakes. He entered the church through a stairwell service door.
Through a glass window door, the hall light turned on. Startlement forced loss of concentration and her balance.
-ETERNAL SHINING LOVE
Mae held the front door open to a young girl adorned in white garments, accompanied with golden tassels; her blue eyes sparkled.
'Hello.'
'I will be taking you before God. He has asked for you. I appear without question or doubt. My tears are of joy. I am here to take you.'
-WHILE I WAS AWAY
Off to a side of an outside atrium, a six-foot creature took off a black hat from his head; he bowed for the newcomer. A caring hand directed Chad through the main entry to a cozy, welcoming children's home. The creature stuck his right foot in the black, top hat, climbed in like a carnival rider, his hat transformed into what resembled a miniature northern star only to disappear.
-DREEAM
'Red One, come in.' Blue Cardinal One spoke into her hand-held transmitter. 'Red One, do you read? Red One is not responding. Show her location on screen two.'
Blue Cardinal Two typed commands into their main frame keyboard. 'I have her on screen. He is near the dam. You know who captured him.'
'Everyone load up.' Blue Cardinal One ordered.
'Roger!' They responded.
'Blues, I need you to fire up the mobile command. Reds, I need you in the air.'
-ONE DAY AWAY
'Good-bye.'
His everything took a corner in the tunnel guiding them into an airliner. A heavy, thick weight coated his chest, stomach, and heart. Him alone in this world had the likeness to an empty electron shell. Heavy arms. His neck acted like his head's too heavy to hold, not even for a bumpy train ride. Light in his chest turned off. A dimmed glow to his eyes.
A piece of paper fell from a passenger's carry-on.
'Ma'am! You dropped something!'
He scooped it. Light bounced from the leaflet in a few spots where small mirrors were included on the cover reading:
EMPTY NEST?
Try a cyborg child! Free for the first month!
Tailored to all your hopes & desires in a perfect child.
-EVERYTHING
'Everyone had torches. When the sun arose, they entered by the hundreds. It looked like a storm throwing sand when they marched into town. The houses caught to fire so fast; so hot. We tried to defend ourselves. Horses tore bodies on the ground. They gathered and pinned us in like cattle. The crowd centered around one man standing on the church steps. He smiled, shaking hands to greet people. He opened the church door. He told us to go to our God. The crowd cheered with excitement. No one went inside. They laughed. A man handed him a torch; he threw the first of a hundred inside. He climbed on his horse to rush it to a woman holding a small child to pull the boy from her arms. She screamed running after them. The child watched his mother collapse to the ground, with her arms extended to the sky until the smoke became too thick to see.'
-NO SHADE TREES AT NIGHT
A tropical hut built for the team of crate organizer's rest station occupied one end of an outstretched T-shaped pier. Another ship had docked and kept close. For an hour in the middle of the day, the shipping ports are silent from bells, yells and warning signals formed from compressed air; chatter from birds remodeled the forefront resonance. The seagulls, they too are accustomed to this time of day.
Inside the hut a longtime team member took a break from unloading a shipment of items from playing cards to parts to race cars.
'Jonathan!'
- LIGHT COURSE HARBOR CAFÉ
By Damie Evers