Blogathon - Entry 44
Jul. 27th, 2008 07:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mllelaurelExcerpts - The Gates of Horn and Ivory.
The path is laid out in front of me. All I have to do is follow it, but then I hear the sound of an ice-cream truck, tinny and enticing. I turn toward it and I'm five years old again.
I'm with my parents, and we're going to get ice-cream, but they're being slow! If we don't get there in time, the truck will leave! "I'm going ahead," I yell, and sprint away from them. The ground beneath my feet feels light as air, and if move my feet fast enough, I never have to touch the asphalt at all. I run and run, but I never catch up to the truck. Do your ears hang low, do they wobble to and fro. Eventually, the chime fades away. I stand there, then run back. I'll find my parents. We have ice-cream at home.
I get back to where we started, but Mom and Dad aren't there anymore. They were supposed to wait, and they didn't, and I'm all alone. Even with old Mrs. Nelson who runs the convenience store standing there, I'm all alone. I start wailing, then, until she puts her hand on my shoulder.
...And I'm thirteen, working my very first job. Nothing big; just helping her out around the store, but I can make myself the most useful assistant ever and maybe then she'll take me on as her partner. Eventually, we'll become rich and famous, but for now, I work the counter, until she asks me to grab something from the back room. I grab the first bag I see, but Mrs. Nelson isn't at the counter when I come back. "Have you seen my boss?" I ask the passerby, but they just shrug and want their stuff.
I walk out of the store, apron still half-on. I look and look but there's not a familiar face in sight, and after I turn a corner, there's no one left at all. Darkness falls and the streetlamps sputter into life.
I don't know how old I am anymore, but I'm filled with a certainty that I'd picked a wrong direction somewhere in there and now I'm the only person left in this world. Eventually, I know I will start to disappear as well. It'll almost be a relief when I do.
It's worth noting that this scene was inspired by a recurring series of nightmares I've had since I was tiny.
The path is laid out in front of me. All I have to do is follow it, but then I hear the sound of an ice-cream truck, tinny and enticing. I turn toward it and I'm five years old again.
I'm with my parents, and we're going to get ice-cream, but they're being slow! If we don't get there in time, the truck will leave! "I'm going ahead," I yell, and sprint away from them. The ground beneath my feet feels light as air, and if move my feet fast enough, I never have to touch the asphalt at all. I run and run, but I never catch up to the truck. Do your ears hang low, do they wobble to and fro. Eventually, the chime fades away. I stand there, then run back. I'll find my parents. We have ice-cream at home.
I get back to where we started, but Mom and Dad aren't there anymore. They were supposed to wait, and they didn't, and I'm all alone. Even with old Mrs. Nelson who runs the convenience store standing there, I'm all alone. I start wailing, then, until she puts her hand on my shoulder.
...And I'm thirteen, working my very first job. Nothing big; just helping her out around the store, but I can make myself the most useful assistant ever and maybe then she'll take me on as her partner. Eventually, we'll become rich and famous, but for now, I work the counter, until she asks me to grab something from the back room. I grab the first bag I see, but Mrs. Nelson isn't at the counter when I come back. "Have you seen my boss?" I ask the passerby, but they just shrug and want their stuff.
I walk out of the store, apron still half-on. I look and look but there's not a familiar face in sight, and after I turn a corner, there's no one left at all. Darkness falls and the streetlamps sputter into life.
I don't know how old I am anymore, but I'm filled with a certainty that I'd picked a wrong direction somewhere in there and now I'm the only person left in this world. Eventually, I know I will start to disappear as well. It'll almost be a relief when I do.
It's worth noting that this scene was inspired by a recurring series of nightmares I've had since I was tiny.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-01 11:46 pm (UTC)