Bloody Sunday (440 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 5 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by rick_the_stud (View user info) at 2007-06-27 13:54:03 EDT
It was the perfect weather, just before the storm. As they passed the vestiges of downtown, he gazed blankly out the window of the car. On the right was the chemical plant, now largely unused, with expansive fields of deserted blacktop speckled by lone cars as its front yard. On the left was the water, surging forth unusually gently from a light wind. The buzz of activity that precipitates the loosing of water from the heavens had ceased: any animals still this far north for winter had taken shelter, the trees had braced themselves for the snow, and even the lake-effect winds that normally gusted so chillingly had ceased. There was no movement, just lonely cars passing by on the four-lane road interrupted by a single-lane double yellow line. The earth was still and the clouds moved into position, creeping steadily, marching with slow advance across the gray sky.
The car stopped, along with all of its followers. On the side of the narrow, painfully straight one-lane road now sat a line of cars, stretching a few hundred feet into the crystal-clear haze. As he opened the car door, the first flake completed its descent, disappearing gently into icy water on the popping vein of his left hand. With quiet intensity the numbering flakes increased, to match the slowly growing crowd gathering underneath the tent.
He straightened his tie.
Not sixty-three hours before had the cashier inquired about the black-tie occasion. He just smiled politely as her expression flitted from emotion to emotion before his eyes, finally resting on embarrassed sympathy accompanied by a half-smile.
The cold was bitterness incarnate, biting, scathing, and piercing miserably through the dark veils and the dry-cleaned suit coats. The wind had found its way back to its customary state of gusts capable of piercing the cold armor surrounding a man's very heart and he felt it. They stood huddled around the broken earth, quivering in one another's arms, leaning in close as if the wound in the ground were a hearth. They waited.
With the water from the snowflake still vainly clinging to the skin of his hand, he knelt and tightly clutched the freezing, lacquered aluminum rod. At once and in unison they stood, each with a slight lean in their step, slowly bringing forward the collective weight of all. He lead the slow march alongside his kin and with each dragging, crushing step felt the souls of dozens bearing down upon him. His knuckles whitened as his grip tightened against the ever-growing weight, finally giving his hand a blue-tinged cherry color in the cold air.
Their eyes landed upon him, slowly scanning as he walked forward, moving stoicly with a determined, expressionless but occupied stare. They halted in the center of the small crowd, on either side of the avulsion in the dirt. With all the poise and strength his constitution possessed, he gently lowered his portion, eyes tracking it as it sank into the shallow of the earth.
He stood near the crowd, not quite joining it, floating securely at its edge. The dirt and tears mixed on the mahogany. He felt the cool grains of earth as they grazed the rough skin on the palm of his hand, falling gently below, the clods exploding as they struck. The tears formed icy rivulets on the cheeks of many, but not his. The water welled, pooling slowly around his eyes, freezing crystals ever-so-gently into his eyelids and lashes.
When they returned to the car he sank gratefully into his seat and slowly passed into the sweet oblivion of sleep.
He asked the cashier why it was that weddings and funerals were thought of as opposites.
User Reviews
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-06-28 11:02:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by rick_the_stud (user info) at 2007-06-28 00:38:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
much obliged.
Submitted by we_die_young (user info) at 2007-06-27 19:31:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by i_can_get_you_a_toe (user info) at 2007-06-27 19:21:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
short and sweet, brilliant
you have the gayest name ever.
Submitted by SgtHartman (user info) at 2007-06-27 15:16:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
shit, a kid i knew just died yesterday, this is good