.Flight
As depression
slipped deeper and deeper under his skin and into
his veins, he felt the tight grip of darkness
trying to suffocate him. Lying on top of the
four-poster mahogany bed, thought, like a shadow,
moved slowly across his tortured mind. What if
the body could be cut into, sliced down the
middle, pried apart, the skin pulled back upon
itself and the insides purged of all their rot.
Like pulling apart a ripe passion fruit. But,
instead of sweet, fragrant fruit pulp, seeds, and
juice, he could already visualize his blood. His
guts and tears flowing out over his new, clean,
crisp white sheets, so carefully placed over the
massive bed. He could feel his heart pounding as
his chest vibrated to the internal, thump, thump,
thump.
Trying to rid
the mind of this unsightly vision he took a deep
breath and hoisted himself, with some difficulty,
out of bed. Slowly he made his way over to the
bedroom window, where the star-speckled sky
reached out to eternity. He stood there, in the
darkness for some time with his forehead pressed
tightly against the icy glass, resting in a state
of numbness.
Slowly, he moved
back and unlatched the window opening it as far
as possible, letting a breeze drift into the
stale, darkened room. The sweet fresh breath of
night floated past unseen. It rustled curtains
and bed linens, as the silvery moon flashed a ray
of soft glowing light on the bedroom floor past
the tall, thin figure in the corner.
With difficulty,
he emerged slowly into the moonlight and climbed
out of the second floor, grabbing onto the
ivy-covered trellis. Clinging to the side of the
house, he made his way up to the roof. There, he
struggled for a few moments before finding his
balance. Then, somewhat awkwardly he stood up and
gazed out into the distance, searching for
something.
The midnight air
on the roof was cold with a heady scent of
wisteria perfume coming from a vine infested pine
tree near the edge of the house. For the first
time, he noticed the color of midnight. It
wasn’t exactly black, more an intense royal
blue reminiscent of a medieval tapestry. As his
eyes adjusted to this new color, he began to
notice shades of darker blue within the immense
sky, moving around in circles in front of his
unexpected eyes. They appeared both near and far,
stretching out into the distance as far as his
eyes could follow. But, the more he tried to
focus on the shadows the less he was able to see.
Eventually, he
noticed the shapes were motioning him forward.
And just as they commanded, he stepped nearer to
the edge of the roof, like a sleepwalker in a
nightly trace, one foot sliding slowing in front
of the other. As the symphony of nightly
creatures rose and fell and, rose again in
crescendo, under the attentive and watchful eyes
of millions of twinkling starry spectators, he
stepped off into the dark abyss.
Buoyancy,
that’s what he noticed, as he floated like
an autumn leaf, round and round and round..
Gliding through the cold air he felt his body
become lighter as fear rushed out of his veins
and a sense of relaxation passed over him;
weightlessness climbed into his consciousness.
Out on the
horizon shadows began to appear en masse like a
storm gathering. Multiplying, dividing, swirling
weightlessly they come closer and closer, now
floating gracefully like ghosts clinging to
invisible matter. He recognizes expressions and
faces, a smile here a laugh there, a cocked
eyebrow and other physical similarities. The
transparent, fluffy, white masses with round
faces float closer and closer until they stand,
with outstretched arms before him. A sudden
awareness, and he remembers, Euphoria, Happiness
and Laughter, he knew them before. Examining
their features, there is no doubt, finding them
identical to his own, he rushes forward. Joining
them, diving into their billowy arms they melt
into one, divide into many and float off into the
purple-blue distant. From a parting in the thick
clouds, he looked back to see his former shadow
falling from the roof, slowly, slowly, towards
the empty ground below.
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©2008
scm - 710 - 080207
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