A Piece History

At first when the three unknown scientists started meeting to discuss together in 1945 it was the beginning of a totally new theory and not many people where interested in fact by 1952 only 18% of the population even knew about it and of that only 0.01% were in favour so it’s no surprise that it all had a somewhat shaky genesis. But by 1967 there was a lot more money, knowledge, ideas and support around so the was no problem after that and things went along very nicely. Then in 1973 a man came up with a rather controversial idea which was quickly dismissed so no one really knows anything about it but we can be assured it was of no importance because the current government had officially confirmed that no one should even bother about it, so they didn’t and to be honest at that time there were much more things to be excited and worried about because there were some (at the time) unnoticed effects causing certain problems (which can explain for the UFO sitings, dreadful clothing styles and food which occurred during the 70’s and early 80’s). But then a campaign was initiated to give the scientists more freedom and the political side of things was promptly shaken off and a fresher approach was taken which helped to shed a lot more light and in most cases there were even theories that were quite ahead of their time and more and more scientists were getting involved. By the start of the twenty first century the sheer enormousness and including the cultural dimensions -which simply couldn’t have been imagined by the original three scientists- are now forming a distinct and irreplaceable part of the modern world in which we live.

The Card Game

'I know the ins and outs boy; I was a child over the wall -a child in the line of fire -a child in men's shoes. See this hand? It's pushed and lifted more weight then this here ten story building'. I looked at the mans hands, I believed him. He sipped his coffee and continued. 'All the trucks and vans used to be green and the women wore blue blouses and white aprons -do you know why lad?' I shook my head. 'Well dresses where on the way out, women's freedom and all that.' I squinted my eyes, 'out where?' I asked. 'What lad?' Where where the dresses going?' He rubbed his hands and shrugged 'Russia perhaps, it's damn cold there.' I pulled out my gun and pulled back the lock 'They wear fur hats in Russia, and I just love the long coats' the man frowned 'enough of that son' I shot the light bulb hanging from the ceiling and jumped up running over to the bared window 'I noticed there's a screw loose -pull these bars back quickly' and in a minute and a half we were standing beside some large bins in an alley full of rotting garbage. We ran down toward the end and merged into the stream of people walking past. One minute I was ready to die, the next I was running for my life with a man I didn't trust but there was more at stake then on or two lives. A card game is not worth playing if the deck is rigged and there was a wild card in this game for the reek of it was becoming stronger the longer I played. As each card was played I knew sooner or later it would spring out and no matter what my hand was t would be left unplayed. 'We must get to the post office before the train leaves' panted the man, I nodded in reply and we pushed past the people in haste. At a busy corner I felt a tug on my coat and looking down saw a young girl in a tattered red coat 'please sir' she said timidly 'can I have some coins -my mother lost me' I paused and missed a gap in the traffic 'oh alright then' I took out my wallet and then everything went into slow motion. There was a loud sharp bang and I felt a searing pain in my shoulder. The man (whose name I never knew) had ran off and people had been screaming and yelling and some had come over and helped me to a bench on the foot path. I shook the dizziness away for I could not afford that now, someone had opened my coat to look at the wound and now there was blood everywhere. The girl in the red coat stood in front of me and asked for the coins with her eyes, I handed them to her and asked a women to take care of the child. Someone helped me tie my scarf around the wound on my shoulder and then with a deep breath a jumped up and ran for the train before my the next card was played.

The Black Hole Hole

The Moose and I had followed the ridge of the mountain for a long time, upwards and inwards. The air had become thin and I knew we were very, very, very, very, very, very high. At about midday we broke free of the forest and came out into a stony wilderness of stones and wildness. White puffy clouds floated far below us and below them the forest spread and below the forest the lost city that nobody knows about. I squeezed my eyes shut and swallowed a thought which threatened to ruin everything. 'I say'  I said 'Isn't it enthralling, being so far above the world and all that.' 'Indeed it is.' agreed the Moose, he opened his mouth and then shut it again. For the next seven years we stood on the mountain side saying nothing. Finally I sat down on a large flat rock, on the rock beside me was a shiny, thin, flat rock. So I picked it up, turned it over and on the other side were some words which read as follows: "Now what?" I flung it down smashing it on the ground. I bit my lip trying not to scream something silly which I didn't, then I noticed the Moose kneeling down some distance away so I ran over to him. A large rock nearby slowly started to slide down the mountain making a horrible grinding sound that turned my stomach. I clamped my hands on my ears and stumbled over beside the Moose to see what he was looking at. There on the ground was a large hole with nothing in it. Now this may come as a shock to you, there was nothing in the hole at all, nothing, nothing, nothing. Perhaps its a very deep hole you say? No I don't think you're quite getting it. If you can imagine a very small black hole star, or a space that's so empty it has nothing in it what so ever then you're imagining something that is nothing which is rather interesting I think. I sat down beside the Moose who was throwing stones into the hole and watching them disappear like magic, 'hows the black hole hole going?' I asked in one of my friendly voices 'Pretty good, about three elephants and a flock of birds have flown out of it' he informed me. I gasped 'I didn't know elephants could fly?' 'well these ones could' said the Moose. Three months later after watching a cow come out of the hole, I said to the Moose -who had nearly emptied the entire mountain into the black hole hole- 'hey Moose?' and he replied 'yes?' and then I said this ' lets jump into the black hole hole and see where it sends us, because I heard you can time travel in them' the Moose shook his head 'no, lets not' so we didn't. The next year the Moose backed down and said humbly that we probably just might jump into the black hole hole, so after throwing in the last piece of the mountain we jumped into the black hole hole and every thing went black for a second.

Life Colander

Stone can be a very dreadful substance; it's very cold and unforgiving -and when I say unforgiving I mean unforgiving- and there's no denying it. The man on my left is a neo-nazi and he's locked in a cage moaning and groaning and moaning. The man on my other left is a rocket scientist and he shot a feral dog on Saturday. The man on my right is fat and he has a bag of apples for his children and wife who life in a yellow house with their dog -Maxwell- and cat -ninety nine- and an adopted Indian child who can speak English but is the best table tennis player in the world. The room was full of a warm yellow glow from all the golden lamps standing hither and thither around the rooms shining on apples, whipped cream and rosy red wine on little silver trays on tables. We left with a group of friends and ran out into the street laughing and singing, the night was warm and the full moon was shining like the sun. The streets where lined with maples. Lucy called out and ran down through the entrance to the subway, everyone followed her. A spirited game of hide and seek ensued and after an hour the group of people gathered together on one of the platform. They got up some going back to the party, others to their homes. There were no other people down in the subway that night -Lucy was never found either. The neighbourhood was a breeding ground for criminals and most children were serious trouble makers before adolescence. The authorities mostly turned a blind eye -as is the usual practice- and the neighbourhood mostly broke itself down. Lucy's older brother was a in hospital after being attacked by a group of teenagers, they would have killed him if he hadn't been rescued by a security guard who heard the commotion. They were brutal and two of the teenagers had been shot. Lucy's great grandfather was a captain in the first world war, he had been to France during the battle of Mulhouse (9th, August, 1914) and had been shot in the leg passed out in a field where a farmers daughter had found him, taken him back to her house, looked after him, fallen in love and then married him, (this is known as the "The Florence Nightingale effect" or "Transference" as Sigmund Freud called it). Now getting back to stones and rock. The physical structure of rock is very hard and often is used to signify the absence of life and emotion. But if I may interject her with a short note on "Objectophilia" (not the sexual fetish but in fact the emotional attraction that is) Monica loves a park bench in the park. Anyway I was walking past the post office and all the words were seeping down through the cracks in the bricks. Millions of words, emotions, thoughts, ideas and mindless chatter. There was a list with all these people and I fell down into the words because I couldn't save them but I really wanted to. Elissia told me not to worry because there's no point in crying about spilt milk. Live and Let Die was playing quietly in the background "When you were young and your heart was an open book..." I leant back against the huge rock and watched the city lights come on below in the the valley, there really was a lot of words and strange words and emotions to sift through down in the city. I rather like the hillside.

Chapter Nine

Sally had wondered around being sulky for quite some time talking to herself mumbling and grumbling about how strangely rude The Girl with the Big Blue Hair was. She thought of the things she would like to do to her, teach her some manners and make her say sorry. After awhile she became bored of this and the feelings of loneliness and lostness took over and she hurried around this corner and ran around that one and up this hallway and down those stairs and getting more and more lost and lonely all the while. Sally came to a very long white corridor full of chairs of all sorts and in some parts there were so many she to climb over them, at the end she could see an arched doorway which came to a point much like church doors. The chairs seamed to go on for ever and ever first walking between them then climbing over them, catching her dress and falling and bruising her hands more then once. She was starting to get very tired when finally until she climbed over the last pile of chairs and walked toward to door wiping her bruised hands on her now rather tattered dress. “If the door doesn’t open” Sally threatened “I shall kill myself, for I am NOT climbing back over those chairs” she waited for a while just in case the door was listening for she was she couldn’t take it if were to be locked, after catching her breath she walked solemnly up to the doors which were much larger not so friendly looking now she was standing in front of them. Slowly she reached to the door knob knowing there must be something grand behind such grand doors, taking a breath she grasped the knob turning it slowly around then it caught and would turn no more. Sally’s heart sank and she stood holding the door knob a few moments before sliding to the ground and bursting into tears for it was the most disappointing thing that could have happened. She had cried a bit she remembered she was going to kill herself and after thinking about this she thought she would try opening the door again for she didn’t feel like doing this. “I’m a bright girl and when I put my mind to something it gets done” she encouraged herself standing up “now dry your tears Sally and open that door” in time she noticed a large red key hanging on the wall “ah ha! If that’s not the key for the door I shall eat my hat” (which was a much safer bet since she wasn’t wearing a hat) but the key was much too high for her to reach so she tried jumping then running and jumping and then jumping and screaming none of which proved helpful so she just screamed as loud as she could and sat down with a bump which rather hurt. She had been sitting for some minutes when it occurred to Sally to peek through the keyhole and see what was behind the big red doors, so she got up and put her face to the door and peered through. At first she couldn’t make out what she was seeing then it came to her as quite shock; there was a colourfully painted face staring back at her. Sally gasped and jumped back from the door and stood against the wall with her heart pounding. “It may have been there the whole time watching me -whatever it is” she shivered, then a thought came to her that maybe the face didn’t belong to a person or creature at all but was a painting or statue “for there does seam to be a great many paintings and statues around this place” she reasoned. But even this thought didn’t give her the courage to peek through the keyhole again so she sat down on the floor again and wondered if anything could get worse for her. Sally looked at the big red doors another thought struck her that she might call out to whatever it was on the other side of the door because maybe it was friendly or maybe just a painting. So she called out “hello” and because she couldn’t think of anything else to say “hello?” but there was no answer. “Maybe it doesn’t know what to say back to hello” Sally wondered so instead she said “what’s your name? I’m Sally” and then a little louder in case the thing didn’t hear “I’m Sally, who are you?” and then a voice croaky voice answered “Hello Sally” This was quite a relief because it was a rather friendly sounding voice, so feeling much more happy now Sally called out to it again “who are you?” “I’m A Clown Juggling Oranges” came the reply “oh” said Sally and couldn’t think of anything to say for awhile. Presently she thought that a clown juggling oranges might be able to open the door so she asked but he couldn’t and asked why she couldn’t and Sally told him. “How curious” said a clown juggling oranges “you really aren’t very clever are you?” “yes I am” retorted Sally “But I can’t reach the key because I’m too short not because I’m not clever” a clown juggling oranges laughed at this which made Sally stamp her foot “stop laughing, you can’t open the door either” “I can help you open the door” laughed a clown juggling oranges “how please?” asked Sally “why have you been sitting on the floor” asked a clown juggling oranges “how is that helping? Just tell me how to open the door” pleaded Sally “think about it” came the reply through the keyhole. Sally thought for a minute “because I was tired, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately” the voice sighed at this and then said “you can’t see the tree’s for the forest can you? Take a chair and place it away from the others” so Sally did this “now what do you see?” said a clown juggling oranges “I see a chair”  said Sally sulkily. “Think” came the croaky voice through the keyhole “can’t” said Sally. There was a long silence after this and Sally sat down on the chair and then jumped up again “I could have sat on this chair” she exclaimed “right you are” agreed a clown juggling oranges “and what else can you use the chair for?” prodded a clown juggling oranges “I don’t know” said Sally “reach golden keys?” the croaky voice suggested “oh yes” exclaimed Sally and dragged the chair over to the wall climbed up and grabbed the key.

A Walk in the Night

I awoke in the middle of the night and lay awake in the dark for some time. A beautiful sweet smelling scent hung in the air. I'm not sure how long before I noticed my window open, the curtains were dancing in the chilly night breeze. I watched as the moon rose from behind a cloud and sent glowing beams of light down through my window, I saw something shining on the floor. Getting out of bed I found the shining object was a small bottle, I put it in my pocket, pulled on my night robe and crept out into the hall. It was always dark -even in the daytime- soon I was walking down the pathway to the front gate and out onto the street. I stood under the street lamp and gazed down the empty street. Pulling my coat around me I followed the street to the end -there were fifteen street lamps. On the corner a man was kneeling screaming prayers and clutching a rosary, I passed with my head bowed and continued along without looking back. As I walked past the houses I glanced at the black windows which stared back menacingly from behind the hedges and walls. I heard a cough and down the street I saw a shadowy figure, it was standing under a lamp post on the opposing side of the street. After a pause I continued along hoping to walk past but the person started to cross as I drew near. As they came closer I could see they were an old woman in a shawl, she stopped in front of me and mouthed something I couldn't catch. So I walked over to her in the middle of the street, she leant forward their deep dark eyes sent chills down my spine. "Such a dear" she coughed "But oh! The horror, the horror!" my heart started beating as she continued in a quivering voice "They have a two story house you know." I stepped back "who does?" I asked, the old woman pointed over my shoulder to a two story house behind a large wall. A light flickered on and off in an upstairs room, I turned back to the old woman but they were already walked away and after a moment had all but disappeared into the shadows. I tugged my coat tight around me as the chilly wind stirred up the night air and turned back to the house, it was a lovely brick two story home in a beautiful street and I have never seen anything so terrifying. I stood in the middle of the street staring back at the house trying to console myself. On the roof was a weathercock, it was the traditional shape of a cockerel, suddenly spun around and a gust swept through the treetops, I shivered as I heard the moans of the praying man from down the end of the street. Just as I was about to walk away I noticed some writing on the wall in chalk, I can't remember what it said -perhaps my mind instantly blocked it out. After a while I had come to the park in the middle of town, in the lamp light I noticed   black stains on the sleeves of my coat and turning my hands over they covered in blood, I was wheezing and could feel bruises all over my body. I limped forward toward a bench and fell onto it everything went back. Sometime later I awoke, it was still dark but the moon had already set. My hand had stuck to my face, I pulled it away and painfully stood up remembering I had fallen asleep in the park. Shaking my head I hurried back to my house. I made myself a hot chocolate and went into my room and sat down on my bed. I felt a lump in my pocked which turned out to be what looked like a small glass perfume bottle. I stared at it for a few moments wondering how it had got there and then I opened it. An intoxicating scent burst out smothering me like a thousand flowers, I dropped the bottle and staggered over to the window and flung it open. The perfume made my head spin and I stumbled backwards and landed on my bed as everything went black.