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

 
The Mute's Symphony
12-2-2005

I'm a contestant on a talent show. I hate everyone there. My competition cheats because he knows other people on the show. After the show there is a banquet. An old guy says he can get me in with an ID. I ask him if I look that young and get pissed at him. He threatens me. I tell him to fuck off.

I see a beautiful nerd girl using a photocopier to write a paper in a dark musty basement. There are two old pianos with large keys. She asks what I'm there for and I say it's because of her. I sit down and start to play a beautiful piece on the piano. After a moment I get perturbed and tell her to join me. I take the high end, she takes the low end. The music is awesome. Then she gets up and gets out a violin. I become her to play it, and again it's the most beautiful piece of music I've ever heard, moving me to tears. The piano sounds morph into sounds of something being scraped on concrete, but it still sounds great.

Mom picks me up and takes me home. We take a girl from the show home with us, who takes shotgun and squishes me into the back seat. She entertains my mom and I look at some pictures she brought. She tells a story about some genius who can no longer talk. I hear a buzzsaw and rush out to find it. I end up in an auditorium. From my right, I hear the type of sound only a mute could make, over and over, rhythmically. To my left I see SG holding something to her jaw. There's a train whistle, and strings enter the rhythm, followed by plucked instruments. A symphony started by a mute.

posted by Phlegm at 12/02/2005  (0) comments

 
Then There's Nothing
7-16-2005

I've just escaped from a massive corporate epicenter, an evil media juggernaught. It should be peaceful nighttime, but outside on the streets there is chaos. Police, emergency vehicles, rioters, news and even construction crews. Some there to do their job, others there to plunder and cause mayhem.

I choose my moment carefully. A corrupt corporate man I always hated is stealing a tank-like vehicle. He has the attention of the police. I jump onto another vehicle--which is out of control--and slip past everyone and into the building.

Armed with a sword, I make my way though the lower bowels of the complex. I see two people--a girl and a guy--floating around the base of a staircase. I run over and offer to cut them in half to make it easier. Memories of my escape invade me, memories of when I was cleaved. The girl, floating and holding onto the stairs above her, consents. "Okay, but I've never done this before." She moves back and forth in the air. "Keep still," I say. My first strike is weak, right on her abdomen, barely breaking the skin. The guy moves in to interfere, but I tell him to back off, I've got it. I hack again and saw my way through her body with the implement that was not meant to saw. She cringes and lets out a few yelps. Just a strand is keeping her together now. I run the sword through her again, but one piece of her will not come undone. A long strand is tearing up her side and into her shoulder. I try to hold her two halves apart while I cut at it with my sword. Eventually she comes free. The guy wants my sword, just a little while. I don't trust him. I run along.

At the back of the building, children are running outside as if going to wait at the bus stop. My sword is now a mere knife. I run through the sea of children to get to another entrance to the building.

Once inside, I dive beneath the floor into a sea of goo. Gadgets, weapons, junk can all be found here, lost or cast away from the world above. I find some blasters, capable ones at that, and resurface into the lobby.

Only a few employees remain in the building. It's supposed to be demolished by the construction crews outside in about thirty seconds, but apparently there's work that even now is so important that they have to cut it to the last second. One, a woman I trust, comes down the stairs. She sees me, knows my intention, and calls the attack.

I leap to the top of the building instantly. I am now a woman. The woman from below catches up. "You don't have time," she says. "He's been stomping." A powerful man, somewhere further above, using his powers to bring the place down. It's not just a building, it's a mountain, extending for miles further than I can see. She calls the shot. I'm hit by a thousand energy beams. I drop to the ground in smoke.

But I have a blaster, which means I am defiant; the closer to death I am, the more powerful I become. That was my plan all along. I rise up and fire at the mountain, this eden of mass media. A blue light infects it at the base and slowly consumes it as I hold the trigger. They fire at me but it doesn't matter now. Their objective will be complete in one second, but somehow the ticker doesn't move. My energy engulfs everything and then there's nothing.

posted by Phlegm at 7/16/2005  (0) comments

 
My Hero Woman
7-6-2005

I'm on a dropship with three people. We land on an island. One of us goes out for a drink with a friend who is on the enemy side and learns there are many more enemies here than we thought.

With our newfound information, we locate the underground enemy base. It has three entances, the easiest of which is through their medical supply depot. We know that we can find a profiler there, stashed away for us by one of our moles.

I obtain the portable profiler. As I'm scrolling through enemy profiles, I find one that describes me and has a blank message for me to fill in. I'm confused. Perhaps it's not really me.

Later, I'm descending an escalator with another guy. I wonder if he's the guy from the profile. He suddenly asks if I remember our purpose. He really doesn't know. Neither do I. He mentions Acitomyphentriphosphate. I ask, "Where does the Acito go?" None of my business. I figure he's lying and just doesn't know.

We meet up with a man missing two fingers. He's the main bad guy. I help them pack up a truck. I joke about ChemE waste products to try not go give away my interest in his waste.

Suddenly, there's an earthquake, and rocks spill through a window. I crawl out of a newly formed cack into daylight. The supply truck is outside already, so I steal it. I also suddenly twenty years younger; only a kid.

My dad is driving the truck with me over an ocean road. One lane each way over water for miles. A devilfish springs up in the middle of the road. I fumble for my camera but don't get a good picture; we're way past it. I don't have many photos left so I go through and delete some. I note a picture of children hugging by a tree.

We approach a roadside service building. Traffic stops. Helicopters close in. Bullets fly everywhere. I bail from the truck and duck behind behind a wall. Bullets come at me from both sides. The devilfish reappears and causes enough confusion among the enemy that I'm able to run and escape. My mom calls my name to give me my bag over a thin railing to the other side of the highway. I yell to never call my name, then take the bag and run. Many pedestrians move to let me by, and I worry someone will push me into the water.

I make it to a townhouse. A note on the fridge--written by me--says I like white cars with long seats. An old Jeep pulls up below, a man and woman in it. I go down. The Jeep is just one long seat and a steering wheel. The seat drops back for people to sleep on. It's awesome. The woman gets back in and drives us away. The man gives me a packed lunch. Nobody chases us. I want to bawl my eyeballs out but I hold it back.

The man picks up a porn mag and the woman chews him out. Says she doesn't want him impressing me and having me growing up like him. He puts it down.

We drive into the country. A huge black cloud rages past us. When it clears, we see a huge ugly castle in the middle of nowhere. A McDonalds hotel. I say I've been there. We go inside for ice water. An enemy agent is there looking for us. The soundtrack ends on a single note as I pan to my hero woman.

posted by Phlegm at 7/06/2005  (0) comments

 
Along the Bottom
6-25-2005

I'm at a tiny video store, the kind with all the movies you never heard of. Two titles catch my mind. THE ENDEVEROR or something similar. I catch the end of the second one in my mind: a brute human mutant in the top room of a house, which is being eaten side-by-side by a huge monster. To call the human an appetizer for this thing would be an exaggeration. The human has a curved metal rod that he swings golf-like up into the monster's lower jaw. Blood everywhere.

I lose my vision. I'm again staring at the two video boxes on the bottom shelf near the floor. It seemed so familiar. I look at the back of the first box and see some scenes I recognize. People living in some desert wasteland town, driving rusty old cars. Assumably from a low-budget film I once saw, but more likely from a previous dream. I can hear Matt's voice now, going "that's awesome" to some low budget scenes. The second one looks well-made, though, so I pick it up and start to watch it at his place.

I stay with the protagonists of the film for a while. They're obnoxious young guys, and the main mutant guy hasn't mutated yet. He's pretty reluctant to fill his role. I imitate his move from the movie by swinging a golf club into a television set, breaking it. Guess noone's watching any movies now.

Soaking wet, I enter a bedroom that should belong to grandma. Green everywhere. Dusty, uncomfortable linens. I sit down on the bed. I have to pee. I figure I'm already getting water everywhere that I'll just go here, so I do. I piss forever, and it starts to make a small river down the carpet past the doorway. I close it a little from where I'm sitting so noone will see.

The supersonic jet I'm in lands on an airfield in prehistoric Australia. There's a single human colony there, and I'm visiting. The settlers have forgotten their so-called past heritage and have adapted to prehistoric life--with the exception of supersonic jets passing through every now and then. The younger generation doesn't even know what technology is. They follow me around everywhere to hear my stories.

I run into MP. Don't know whether she lives here or is just visiting. We walk around. Everything is green for as far as I can see. Untouched. I explain how where I come from, all of this is populated with people, and how people keep cutting down all the forests even though we need them to breathe. She asks if I've ever been to Australia, and I admit no, I haven't, but I have friends there.

Walking along some trails, we come upon some fenced-off areas with yellow signs written in an alien language. Some sort of "keep out" deal. MP points to some shacks beyond one fence. A body rests in a casual sitting position, back turned to us, dead. I assume everything there is dead, but then I see some legs moving. I decide to leave.

I get back on the jet. Some kids come with me. Before I know it, I'm off into space staring at the Earth, Australia a green speck rotating off around the globe, the globe a translucent black pearl hanging in the void. I don't really want to go.

One of the kids starts to open a bottle of wine. I say no, but it's too late. Fortunately there is simulated gravity in the jet, and it all just empties into the swimming pool. I tell him it's a waste of oxygen. I hold my breath and go under the water for a bit. Some General comes by to evaluate us. I ignore him to take another dive into the pool, scraping the left side of my face along the bottom.

posted by Phlegm at 6/25/2005  (0) comments

 
Cannibal Mafia
6-23-2005

At a Saturday family barbeque. I have a pet dog living in my car and it's gotten the interior rather dirty. I accidentally kick over some dog food on the floor and the dog eats like crazy. That's when I remember I haven't fed it for five days.

I take all the seats out so I can clean it. Other kids take that to mean to take apart my entire car and take it to the store and then buy all sorts of accessories for it. No matter how much I yell and swear and scream that I just want a wash, they don't listen to me. They just push my exterior car parts around on a big shopping cart. Finally after I literally start slapping people around, they each listen and say, "Why didn't you just tell me."

Back at the barbeque in the middle of the desert. Eating some very good burritos. The father walks by and asks how I like the burrito skin. I say it's great. He shrugs and moves on. His son, still older, comes by and brags about how he made it out of the boss he just killed while running an errand. I take a couple more bites and then decide I don't want to eat human.

There are two ways out of the barbeque. One is through a night-time French town constructed entirely out of bricks, and the other is up a cliff that hadn't been scaled since 1935.

I sneak into the town first. The roads are a mess, being built of brick. Loose bricks everywhere. Buildings falling apart. Can't tell which roads lead through a ghetto or to salvation. Another man is with me, and he seems to know where he's going, except I think he's drunk. The son finds us and chases us. We find a firetruck and two firemen at the end of a fire scene. We start to explain when the son comes and shoots at everyone. My companion hands me a metal plate to shield myself with as he goes down. It blocks the bullet and I run.

I make for the cliff. I scale it. Looking up each step, it looks impossible, but I somehow find stuff to grab--a rock here, a root there--to pull myself up. He can't keep up with me and I get away to another town. I go into a store and talk to a little kid there, tell him about these lunatics. I sit down on a bench in the little novelty store. Just when I think everything's cool for a few moments, I shut my eyes and hear a click. The kid has fastened me to my bench. "It'll be okay, he says," and the son comes in the door. Everyone in this area is afraid of this family and do everything for them!

The man that was with me earlier, who got shot, he saves me. A bullet is sticking out of his forehead. We make it back to my car. My car is all rusty and has a recess in the front with watery sand and dirt and large rocks in it. Even huge chunks of chicken inside an exterior hood compartment. I didn't think the weather here was bad enough to wear it down like this.

I drive like a maniac, like someone who'd gotten any with too many crazy stunts in too many video games. I squeeze through cars inside tunnels and screech sideways past Mafia cars as my gun forward-mounte gun turrets fire. Mafia. Family. Some kind of Cannibal Mafia is what I'm dealing with and I'm going to end it.

With the enemy on our tail, we climb another mountain--just barely--and make it to some complex. My companion, he has super speed and can teleport every now and then, which is probably how he saved me before. He tires quickly, though, and falls to a volley of bullets. Me, I'm more normal, except I have a supercharged bomb. One shot to annihilate everything around me. I take a fall and use it to my advantage. I do what amounts to breakdancing on the ground as I fire bullets at my enemies. The boss draws closer. A green alien, lizard-like, with glowing orbs on his chest. I wear him down, waiting for him to attempt his self-heal, when he's most vulnerable. I see his blue charge, and I let my bomb go off. A moment before he vanishes into the ether, he congratulates me in a robotic voice.

Chilling in ER's place, watching Aliens on his TV with no sound. An alien starts to lick a woman, and I hear it. I look around the TV and ER is there with a record player and a candle, the hot wax of the candle being sliced by the turning record, generating a licking sound. How does he come up with this stuff?

posted by Phlegm at 6/23/2005  (1) comments

 
Swim There
6-21-2005

Once again in my childhood neighborhood, this time walking up Fern to the elementary school. Daytime. Grass is growing up through the concrete street. Half the parking lot of the school is gone, and the playground has been replaced by a steep slope with a dark forest at the bottom. A large tree with dark green leaves sits in the middle of a dark pond with turbulent waters. Probably connected to the creek further down.

GJ and EZ come up behind me. I'd gotten EZ's number earlier during a chance encounter in a cafeteria or something. I lean on a wooden fence that was never there before and overlook the pond. I hear a splash and suddenly there are half a dozen kids jumping into the water and playing. It's deep; everyone's swimming. "I can't believe people actually swim there!" I say as I point.

posted by Phlegm at 6/22/2005  (0) comments

 
Other Humans Inside
4-27-2005

I'm walking on a sidewalk, early evening. A girl is in my way, but not because she's slow; there's a guy in front of her walking slowly, too. I find myself keeping pace with them both, even after an opportunity to pass them comes. I don't know why. She finally stops and stares into the distance. I come up beside her and look to where she is. I notice it's a girl from dance class whom I've never talked to--nor any any interest in talking to.

"I'm remembering the old building," she says. Where she's looking is only the moon between two other buildings. "Ohhh, I remember now," I say, thinking back to a few years ago. We start walking again, the other guy joining us. He seems interested in her, but she's not paying him any attention. Nor me, either, but we seem headed along the same path for now.

We get onto a boat. The guy goes inside, expecting us to follow, but we don't. We sit on the front, next to each other on a bench facing the water. It's chilly and her legs are bare, so I lay my jacket out along both our legs. The boat cruises into town. "This city has such great public transportation," she says. "I never really used it," I remark. "Just the bus to and from north and central campus." I remember how I used to drive around town.

We end up in a boarded up house. Every door inside is shut, and other people are inside, too. It's being assaulted by the undead. I shuffle into one of the inner rooms, moving a barricade in doing so, totally freaking out the other humans inside.

posted by Phlegm at 4/27/2005  (0) comments

 
I'm Awake!
3-21-2005

Cruising around a fantastic landscape with large ancient buildings. I wake up from my dream, but I'm still "seeing" in REM, because I'm in my high school bedroom. I get out of bed and walk out into the wall toward the stairs. I know I'm awake, but I know I'm still dreaming. I go to the bathroom, which is in my childhood home. So detailed. It had to be a dream.

I wake up again. I go into a restaurant with some people and I tell them about my waking REM experience. Then they ask if I'm awake yet. I insist that I am, then wonder.

I wake up again, frustrated about my permanent REM. No matter what I do or think I see, it's just a dream.

posted by Phlegm at 3/21/2005  (0) comments

 
Perdi's Pigeon
3-14-2005

The time is 10 AM. I'm on a bus to one of my college classes, but get off at my elementary school by accident. I write a letter home to my dad to pick me up, but throw it out before mailing it. Then I notice that the school has turned into the Y, so I go in. Pam is there in a science lab with a nice kitchen. She's a cook now instead of a lab tech and doesn't know what she's doing with her life. Something about the setting reminds me of the burritos in LA.

I end up on a cliff in the mountains, somewhere I used to go a lot as a kid. I notice another path I'd never gone up--for no particular reason--on the other side of the ravine. I drive down to it with RM in his truck. The wooden steps to the path are all old and falling apart; noone comes here anymore; a rock-slide took out the path and gondola that used to go up to the top.

A bird finds me on my walk down through old abandoned apartment complexes and iron stairwells. It's Perdi's pigeon. It scouts the area before going back into its cage. It then comes out again so it can get a hug from each of us.

posted by Phlegm at 3/14/2005  (0) comments

 
Mind Control Mechanism
2-20-2005

On a familiar tropical island, a new sports stadium has been built. Every seat is really close to the action, and my colleague RF has tickets to the opening game. I hang out with my old roommate in a luxurious room. A kid and his father come in, and the kid brags about how his dad is going to get some tickets for the room. "Go ahead, watch the gave on TV from here!" I laugh. Dumb idea, coming to a stadium to watch a game on TV.

When night comes, the game starts. I'm starving, since the entire place only has cheese and crackers to eat. There's a loud noise that everyone else seems to think is part of the show. I leave and travel in the direction of the noise, first coming upon giant grooves in the earth, then steaming rubble, and finally a gleaming white spacecraft. I see a man hiding in a cardboard box with a shotgun, one of the local miners. He points to the five men approaching us. "Aliens," he says. This offends them, and they rush him, holding him down. "Shoot him on three," one of them says. "One...two..." and they all open fire with their fully-automatic handguns. They ignore me and turn around to go back to work salvaging their ship. I pick up the shotgun. "Fuckers," I mumble as I shoot one, then another, in the back. The other three whip around, but I just cock and fire, blast them away, too.

Five more shapes approach me from the wreckage. Alien women. They blow me up somehow, but I survive, unconscious. "It's a man," I hear them say. They explore my human body, my clothes nearly all burned off. One holds my penis. "A dominant one, too," another one says. Another, their leader, says, "Bring him with us."

I wake up with the alien woman in her bed. Her skin is completely white, and her hair is very luminous, but otherwise she looks completely human. Just...feels alien. Assumably I've already pleasured her, but I don't remember a thing. We're eating cheese and crackers; I'm still hungry. Granted, the cheese is better than at the stadium. I start to wonder whether this will become a regular service of mine, given being killed would be worse. As if reading my mind, she looks at me and says, "You will never see me again." "Will they kill me?" I ask. "You will leave."

Next thing I know, I'm walking through a fence past some security drones. Either the aliens work fast or I was out for some time. Sentries warily watch me leave, but surprisingly noone kills me. It's nighttime. I head toward the mines.

Everything seems normal at the mines, but the foreman ensures me the aliens are in control. I pick up a short shovel and start moving some clay. It's morning now, and I can see there are too many people working here now. One worker tells me, "The change is random. Happens every Tuesday and Thursday. I'm told there's something you can do right away--if you get it--to stop it from happening, but eh, I don't know what that is." Great, how long was I gone? And this guy wasn't paying attention or soemthing? Seemed pretty important to me. I don't have much time to think about it, because an instant later I hear a bell, and dozens of people instantly transform into Rikti. The same guy comments, "They've just stepped up in class." The foreman walks by. "Come with me," he says. Into his office.

His office is more like a laboratory. Bottles and gadgets and tools all over the place. On the wall is a clock with a record on it. It briefly plays some alien, yet familiar music. "They communicate with their minds," says the foreman, who I'm guessing is more than that. "We've intercepted their signals and this is what it sounds like." So that's why it's familiar. "This lab is also protected; we're immune to the change in here. Our problem now is how do we trasmit back to wreck their operation?" On a table is a bizarre contraption, a model of their mind control mechanism.

posted by Phlegm at 2/20/2005  (0) comments