The half-forgotten
Other half of my short life
In short story form

 
Put It Out Now
11-08-1998

I'd been collecting coins that grant the bearing special powers, and I only had one more to collect -- the most powerful one. I journeyed across the land.

Meanwhile, a large transformer-like robot was back in GB, asking about me. He was looking for the coins, too. He found my church, and was informed by the pastor that I'd gone away for a while. "He's got to come back sometime," said the robot in more of a demonic voice than a robotic one. So he decided to wait for my return at the church.

I finally did return. I walked in the back door by the youth lounge, which had been converted into a large locker room and bathroom. I passed some guys who were getting dressed, taking leaks, and so on, and took a leak myself. Ahh. I wished I wasn't barefoot.

I walked out and down the hall, intent on attending service.I noticed a picture on the wall of a new pastor...a kid about my age...an old woman who was walking out of the early service complained that the kid played the music too loud. He looked like the kind of guy who'd spent a lot of time in underground clubs, so his hearing was probably shot, which would explain loud hymn music.

I sat in the front row, next to my mom and my sister. In the middle of the service, I heard that demonic voice. The big robo-monster started slowly walking the aisles. "I sense his presence. It's only a matter of time now until I find him." He couldn't quite pinpoint my location. That was a good thing. I grabbed my bag of goodies and started crawling down the aisle opposite him. I didn't care what anyone thought...service was being disrupted anyway. He started veering my way, though, so I turned around and started walking very quickly, bent over, back across the front row and down the other aisle. "He's moving. I can sense that he's leaving."

I thought to myself that this kinda sucked. I ran out the service door, then out the church door to the outside. I could still hear the now-booming voice, as if it were inside my head. "He's running outside."

I had this feeling that he would crash out of there any moment and give chase. "He's running past the baseball field." The more distance I put between us, the better. It was kinda daytime out, but it was overcast and very windy. Beyond the church baseball field was nothing but grassy hills, with the exception of some large warehouse to my right. I bolted around that. Perhaps a barrier would help. I kept running. It's as if my legs were mechanical or super-powered, because I never got tired.

I dug an old piece of paper out and started at it as I ran. I'd used it before to transform my being into a technological juggernaut, not unlike the guy who I thought was chasing me. I held it in front of me and shouted the sacred word, "HAOU!" Nothing happened. I did it again, "HAOU! HAOU! *HAOU!" But it never worked. It started to sprinkle. I wondered what could be interfering with my powers.

I came down a hill into a valley and looked across the landscape. In the next hill over was a rickety old wooden door. It was almost as if a little voice was urging me to go there. I wasn't sure if it was the robot guy or what, trying to trick me, but I had no place else to go. I got inside and closed the door. It was a dark room carved from the rock. Candles were lit. An old man was there, pointing me toward a spot near the ceiling. The final coin. My quest was almost complete.

Outside the storm raged as I climbed up the rocky footholds toward the coin, which looked more like a silver ring than a coin. When I got to the top, I could feel something bad coming along, and the old man was frantic. "Take it now! Hurry!" But I just stood there, half-trying to keep my balance, and half-in awe of finally beholding this icon. I started at it for a long time before finally snatching it up. When I did so, I jumped to the ground. The old man rushed me outside to a totally new view, yet no less sinister-feeling. "Run forth, and take this." He bent down, grabbed a hunk of long grass that changed into a multitude of colors, and handed it to me. He told me not to drop it, but to take it and keep moving "forward." My journey wasn't over yet.

The scene before me was like someone's front yard. I was at the side of some structure, and before me was a fence, beyond which were two cars, some yard, another fence, and then forest. I rigorously jumped and climbed over everything. I traversed many such yards. I fell down a lot, too, and every time I did so, some of the grass I was trying to keep grasped in my right hand would fall out. The wind didn't help, either.

When it was almost gone, I picked up some more grass and willed it to intertwine with the, uh, sacred grass, into a flexible woven tube. That should keep it secure. It did, and I kept moving, but it seemed like I kept traversing the same scene over and over again. I finally stopped and thought loudly, "When will this ever END?" I found myself back in the hill room, the old man there. He asked me for the grass, and I gave what was left to him. Two other people were there, too, a guy and a girl...no real memory of them...and the old man was talking, half to himself and half to all of us. "You see, sometimes you need to advance to the next level with the level itself, before the next level is revealed." I had little idea what he was talking about, but it sounded like something I wanted. "He took this grass, and now this is all that is left." He took it and lit it on fire, placing it in a candle holder and setting it down on a ledge to burn. I now understood that this was his life essence. "Go ahead," he said, "put it out. Put it out now." I refused. I knew I had to eventually, but I didn't.

The next thing I knew, I was in my backyard on Antoinette St., and Sara R's mom was mowing my lawn. She missed a big spot, so I took my own mower and went over part of it again before she told me to stop.


posted by Phlegm at 11/24/2003