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(This is a short story I wrote for English 30-1 in September 2009 as a personal response to the idea of enlightenment in a person's life.)
The Plague
I remember a time when dreams were a kindness, a sweet and succulent fruit gifted to the children of the world. I remember dreams were like an innocent candy, a joy that seemed it would last forever. And those gay children would run freely, cast under the wings of the pure dream-giver. In the sunlight, this creature would sing a joyous song, urging the children onward in their naïve games. As the sun would set, it would cast a golden light onto those gentle feathers of the dream-giver. This golden light, like an enchantment, would set the children to bed. Once more gifts would be showered onto the perfectly untouched minds. I remember a time when I too dreamt such beautiful dreams.
I stood outside in the cold with my friends. I hated the cold…downright hated it. My body was unable to warm itself. And yet, there I stood beside two of my friends; correction, my girlfriend and another friend of hers. But I was only fifteen; I would do anything for the girl I loved. For the most part, I would watch her every movement, admiring everything about her curved body. Her friend didn’t really like me and therefore, did not converse with me. I wasn’t complaining I was just glad to have a girlfriend who was willing to have the public know about us. I mean, it was definitely different for two girls to publicly show love in junior high.
The dream-giver would then wake the children from their slumber. It would do it slowly and carefully, fearful of shattering those fragile minds. With a sweet tune, it would set the children to their tasks of chores and school. And those gay children would run freely, cast under the wings of the pure dream-giver. In the sunlight, this creature would sing a joyous song, urging the children onward in their naïve games that could only last so long. As the sun would set, it would cast a golden light onto those gentle feathers of the weakened dream-giver. This golden light, like an enchantment, would set the children to bed. Once more gifts would be showered slowly onto the untouched minds. I remember a time when I too dreamt such beautiful dreams.
The darkness of the night engulfed my friend and I as we sat in the living room. It had been quite some time since the two of us had sat up late at night and talked. It was much needed as both had issues plaguing us from home. Our mothers, we agreed, were good people but seemed to neglect us. Were sixteen year olds supposed to help pay for food? Or pay for all their school fees? However, we realized, we didn’t have it the worst. We had warm homes with good parents, we had food and we had a safe haven. Life was overall good.
“Let’s be friends forever,” I whispered softly, scared to break the warmth of our bonding.
“Forever,” My friend's voice answered mine.
The dream-giver, having been abandoned for a year because the children did not play anymore, was weak and slovenly. In sadness, it began to sing quietly. The songs started out small and meaningless. Until, it suddenly seemed, the youngsters began to remember those old tunes. With jubilation, the dream-giver sang lovingly. It laced the hearts of the youngsters with new dreams. I remember a time when dreams were a hope for the future, an insightful novel that was like a feast for the mind. I remember when dreams were like ballads, tales for the heart. And those bright youngsters would run freely, cast under the tainted wings of the dream-giver. In the sunlight, this creature would sing a joyous song, urging the children onward in their new hopes. As the sun would set, it would cast a golden light onto those feathers of the newfound dream-giver. This golden light, like an enchantment, would set the youngsters to bed. Once more gifts would be showered slowly onto the minds. I remember a time when I too dreamt such dreams.
My sobs echoed off the walls of my closed room. I felt nothing but pain, loss, and horror. Where had it all gone wrong? How long had I lived in my delusional world? I felt betrayed, poisoned by the lies I once believed to be true. I was outraged with the world that had abandoned me and had only returned to smash the truth into my face. But what was the truth? Only what man chose to see, dictating our knowledge laws. For years, I naively questioned human nature and now I knew the truth. How could I have not known? How did I not see it? Now I had to deal with all the pain that hurt more than the world's most powerful slow working poison. With troubled thoughts and a trembling body, I fell asleep.
The next morning, the sun did not shine its sympathies on me. The weekend's holidays left the house and streets barren. Left to my own devices, I worked lazily at cleaning myself up. With weak slow steps, I wandered outside and cringed at the clouds that were a blanket of depression. A few feet away, me eyes fell onto something strange. Tiredly curious, I moved towards it. At one point, the dead bird may have been beautiful, but now it was half - eaten by a poison, a parasite. Its once gentle feathers, that used to cast golden enchantments, were blackened by the world's hate, negligence, and its brutal understandings. The dream-giver was abandoned and then destroyed by the changes in the gay children of the world. Their minds were once innocent just as the bird was until the world showed them its ugly truths. I sneered to myself. Death, a beautiful lie. I believed the lies that made it beautiful and in the end they destroyed me; destroyed me like it did the dream-giver. And I suddenly I felt a sympathy for this creature. Like me, it had not foreseen this disaster of destruction. Like me, it did not taste the poison soon enough to stop it. And now, this poison would spread into a plague. A plague of enlightenment that was sent out to destroy dreams.
 Rurouni Mori · Fri Oct 02, 2009 @ 04:05am · 0 Comments |
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