11988 Autumn
I walked through the apartment of the large building. The room i was in was very white, and had little furnishings. Through the windows, i could see the outskirts of the town that we were in. It seemed like a small town. I walked along the outside of the building. The building was white. It seemed like a museum. There were glass exhibit cases on the side of the museum which were filled with gold ornaments and gems. They were arranged in an elegant display. I looked them over as i walked through the bright green grass that surrounded the building. I then noticed that the sun light was very bright and diffuse, as if it were shining through a haze filter. The wide lawn seemed to be very open and inviting. There was a wooden wall on my left where the museum used to be. It was part of an underground building which seemed like a barn. The bright green grass was growing over the roof of the building. I walked along the grass when i noticed the window in the center of it. It was part of the house. I looked into the window when i heard the alarm go off. I was not supposed to be on the museum. I had set off the alarms because i did not stay in the regular part of the building. I started to run around the side of the building. I looked around and noticed that there were small barns on all sides of me. I felt as though i was in a historic village. There was someone else with me. I did not know who he was, but he seemed very pleasant. I hugged him for a moment and felt very peaceful. Then i heard the alarms again. I started to slide off of the edge of the grassy roof. I grabbed onto the side of the roof as i slid and started to flip myself over. I found that it was easy to maneuver myself in the air at the edge of the room. I then realized that i could easily do gymnastics. I thought that it was fun. I then thought again about the other man as i did the gymnastics. I thought that he might be impressed by my agility. I wondered how i could be strong enough to actually do the maneuvers.
Something was wrong. The soldiers forced the people into the small glass elevator. The elevator was round, and had glass on all sides. The people crowded into the small area. They were crammed together so that there was no room between them. I was one of the soldiers, but i started to feel sick. The other two soldiers were standing on the other side of the glass cylinder. They were wearing dark blue formal uniforms. They closed the doors of the elevator, locking the people inside. I expected the elevator to move, but it did not. It just sat there. The people inside looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. They seemed scared. Then the people inside started to panic. They were already crushed together so that they could not move. Then i realized that the air was being sucked out of the chamber. The people started screaming, but the air was being sucked from their lungs as they tried. Then the window was streaked with a reddish brown smear of blood and other bodily parts. Their skin started to tear and their blood was boiling. They screamed in horror as they were shredded apart. The soldiers just stood and watched. The one on the right chuckled at the sight. Then they both laughed aloud. I could see human hands wiping down the inside of the glass. The window was covered with a muddy maroon blur of vomit and blood. I felt very nauseous and wanted to get out. Then my head started to hurt with sickness.
We ran down the streets, chatting and enjoying the day. The chapel was ancient and very large. The fine floral decorations covered the tops of the clean white walls, just above the level of the human head. We were in the city. This place was very special, but we did not stop to notice much. I ran with the others, playing like children. The main room of the building was vast. This place was a cathedral. It reminded me of the cathedral in the Vatican. I stopped and looked behind me, spotting one of the other boys running over the edge of the upper roof. We had run from the upper level of the roof, hopping over meter-high drop to the lower section of the room. There was a large structure to the left. Ornate stone carvings shaped the small domes which cropped up out of the flat surface of the roof. The edge walls were formed of intricately carved stone as well. I turned back around and continued across the roof. The many small bell-shaped domes were covered with glistening gold. We stopped at the small opening in the roof. It seemed like we were at the highest place in the city. The trap door was pulled up from the tiny opening, and we looked down. The black patterns in the white marble floor were very far below. I was gripped with fright. We must have been in the top of the main dome. I felt dizzy with the height, my stomach tightening. I crept back from the edge of the hole and sat on the roof, scared to move. The large dome of the cathedral was still to the east of us, so the opening was not at the uppermost point of the building. The floor seemed to be at least ten stories below. How we would get down from this height?
I ran hunched down the one lane road, gazing at the grave stones through the fence to my right. The commando group around me aimed their guns across the empty cemetery. The tall steely fence loomed over us from the shoulder of the road, its light coils of barbed wire shining dully in the day-time light. It was night, i knew, though i could see with the clearness of a grey day. I watched the head stones pass as we ran down the road. The fence had moved up a short grassy hill from us, still keeping us out. We came to a joint in the fence and i started to climb. I thought that it would be simple, but the commandos moved down the road. I followed them reluctantly. I was getting a little nervous now. As we rounded a corner, we caught a glimpse of the main cemetery gate. A steel arch bent over the entrance gate, supporting a round white plaster plaque of Augustus Caesar. I then noticed the police cars blocking the gate. They were here to stop us from getting in. I then noticed that the commandos had retreated. I walked uneasily towards the police cars. I should not get arrested. We could always get by them.
I stepped in the back door of my parents’ house. My mother led the party guests in and showed them the upstairs. I looked over the polished wood floors and chair boards of the basement section as the others went upstairs. I noticed that the room, which was mostly stained oak, was empty of furnishings. Only the heavily flowered wall paper gave it any contrast. I found a small plastic horse with wheels on it. I sat on it and started riding it through the house. I rode it through the white carpet of the living room where my mother was standing in a white party dress. Her guests were sitting on the white couch holding hors d’oeuvres in the small white party napkins and champagne in the crystal glasses. I quickly rode the horse down the stairs and through the doorway on the right of the stairs. I started to walk the horse through the unfinished, cinder block hallway. I came back into the unfurnished wooden room where i quickly got off the horse and placed it against the wall, for i knew that i probably should not be riding it. As i walked into the furnished section of the basement, i heard the jingle of keys at the door. I looked out the window from across the room and saw no one. As i stood in the doorway to the room, i could see a man in a brown trench coat coming down the walk from the parking lot. I walked across the room, looking back at $F26. It was his father i saw coming. The sound of keys could have been him opening the door. I looked back at $F26, who stood uneasily in the doorway of the room. I knew there would be tension as soon as his father came in. $F30 asked me who was at the door. I looked at him, stranding at the edge of the pale furnished room and told him that it was my father. I watched out the window as $F26’s father opened the door to the house. $F30 asked again who that was as he opened the outside door of the room. He looked outside only in time to see the other outside door shut. $F30 came back into the room, asking again who that was as curiosity crossed his face. Rather than answer “my father” again, we both turned to look at the man in the brown trench coat standing in the entrance to the room. He was standing where $F26 had been. $F26’s father took off his hat and stared coldly at me. I knew that i should clean up the room. I walked over to the table, which was where $F30 had been standing, in front of the door. I adjusted the pillows under the stereo, knowing they did not belong there. I placed them back upon the pale chair to my left and glanced uneasily as $F26’s father placed his hat and coat over the back of the chair. I tried to place the cushions back under the stereo, but they would not fit. I then started to arrange the cushions on the large couch. I looked at all the different types of pillows, trying to get them to fit together. I lifted the orange throw pillow and placed the red and white, stripped cushion into position. $F26’s father looked over my shoulder before walking out of the room. $F26’s little sister walked across the room and started to watch television. $F26’s father did not even see her. I took off my pee coat and started to place it on the couch i had just been arranging. I then placed another coat over the back of the couch when i realized that the guests’ coats probably should not be arranged into the couch but just placed on the edge. As soon as i was finished, i started back to the party. My girlfriend, who had long wavy blonde hair and a white fifties-type dress, came out of the doorway to the right of the bottom of the stairs. She was accompanied by a small group of people from the party. They followed me back down the hall. The little girl appeared between us, and my girlfriend disappeared into the crowd. The crowd demanded to know what i would do about the little girl. I watched myself yell at the crown i despair. I told them that the little girl would be my first, but that i will be the only one she will not like. This upset me, so i almost started to cry. I turned and headed down another corridor. My girlfriend, the little girl’s older sister, was in tears. She wanted to know why i was ignoring her if i loved her. I told her i did love her as i walked down the cinder block hall. I passed the small room where the wine was kept and i made a right, walking around the room. My girlfriend was following me, along with the rest of the party guests. As i came to the back of the wine room, i noticed several stones missing from the wall. I gazed through them. I could see twelve occidentals standing on the mountain side. The light covering of snow over the rocky surface was tinted a bluish grey, and the dark grey clouds passed over the mountains, which were across the valley, in the distance. There is a row of leafless shrubs at the bottom edge of the snow-covered field. The occidentals were wearing white shaman robes, tinted pink in the light. They were the good guys. The bad guys came riding up the slope in black shaman clothes. I knew that the good guys would win. The bad guys screamed and shot into the air. The occidentals just stood there, calmly. One of the bad guys took out a bazooka and fired. One of the good guys, who was wearing a white hat, got shot in the head. He exploded into spatters of blood. The rest of the bad guys fired, killing all the shaman. I knew that the good guys do not die, though, and watching them fall without ever moving scared me. The bad guys won. I was shocked. The twelve occidentals lay in the snow as the bad guys rode off. I then started to hear the chanted words: “Way up where the Eskimo die, in the land of the bleeding snow, no one cries for the tear blue sky as the cold wind...”
I stepped into the new dorm of $P19. Turning to the left, i saw the small tornado in the center of the room. There was someone standing in the center of it, and there were several things swirling around in the grey winds. I realized that the people who were caught in the tornado were not real. This was really Hurricane Greg. I realized that the different characters in the book were all caught up in the winds of the small storm. They were really not individual characters, but facets of a single character. They were all aspects of a single person who had been shattered by the tragic event. I felt as though i had just realized something spectacular. The key to the story was that all of the characters were part of the same person.