What’s that noise, you ask? (1164 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.95 on 34 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by K.M (View user info) at 2004-03-22 14:06:35 EST
That's you breathing. That is your heartbeat, thumping even in your head, drowning out your thoughts.
It's the little things that count, you know. Most people, they don't remember their whole lives. You aren't really the total of everything you experienced between birth and death. It's hard to realize that you spent half of your life asleep. It's hard to realize that you spent a third of it in cube with a punch clock. When it's all said and done, most people lay on their deathbeds thinking about one thing.
It's the noise that you might hear after a cobra sinks its fangs into your newborn child. What you would hear after little Johnny steps on a landmine while he is flying his kite. It's the kind of noise that happens when a person steps down from its own world, into the natural order of things.
Thud. Thump. Thud. Thump. It's what all animals sound like on the inside.
When someone is on their deathbed, they don't relive their life from start to finish. They don't let the whole of their life wash them over, thinking about everything that has ever happened to them. They don't recall the job they worked for 25 years. They don't remember the faces of friends and family members. Things like that, they just go right out the window. Instead, they go back to that one moment in their life where they could have made a difference, but failed.
Picture this.
You are driving along a highway on your way home from a weekend at the cottage. You hear the steady hum of the vehicle, the radio in the background. Your wife is riding shotgun, sipping a cup of take-out coffee and browsing through the World section of the newspaper. Your window is down a crack, as you enjoy your morning cigarette. The rush of the wind acts as a vacuum removing the smoke from the car's interior.
Your wife doesn't smoke. She wants you to quit.
You hear your own thoughts. "Conference call at 4:30pm with Mr. Lament." or, "Update payroll, get in touch with Mrs. Regret before 2."
Your wife undoes her seatbelt, to reach to the back seat and grab the horoscopes. You see a car pull onto the highway from a side road directly in front of you.
It's that noise a person hears when they wake up, hanging upside down from their seatbelt after their car screams off the edge of the highway into a ditch at 80 mph. You don't hear the whir of the still spinning tires, pointed towards the sky. You don't hear the birds still singing, completely undisturbed. You don't hear the moans of your dying wife.
When you are lying on your deathbed, you are thinking about that one regret you had. You are thinking about how the world would have been a better place had you just done something a little bit differently. You are thinking that when it really came down it, when it really mattered, and death decided to test you in just the slightest way, you folded like a deck of cards and gave it everything but yourself.
Most people, when they are on their deathbed, they hear that noise again. Your last moment before judgment is a cacophony of percussion.
Thud. Thump. Thud. Thump. It's what all animals sound like on the inside.
User Reviews
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2005-12-22 14:27:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
There.
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2005-12-22 14:27:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I am sorry I did like this, but it just didn't do the whole thing for me. It was more a 1.4 so I will also follow up with a +2.
Submitted by MistressFist (user info) at 2005-12-22 14:22:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow.
Submitted by ruthless (user info) at 2005-12-22 14:17:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by FilthyAssistant (user info) at 2004-06-06 11:23:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I like this. A lot.
Submitted by mystiamoon (user info) at 2004-06-06 11:13:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
good stuff. I like your stuff, I must go back and read more of it when I have the time
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2004-05-12 16:16:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by sebcharrot (user info) at 2004-05-12 16:08:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Amazing.
Submitted by smokymtcsw (user info) at 2004-04-04 23:44:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This is beautiful
Submitted by kilgore_trout (user info) at 2004-04-02 12:09:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Heimdallsman (user info) at 2004-03-30 16:10:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Holy hell, man, this was great.
Very thought-provoking.
--HeimdallsMan
Submitted by someone (user info) at 2004-03-29 15:46:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
wow.
Submitted by Dustbrother (user info) at 2004-03-28 03:11:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice, very nice...
Submitted by Nobb (user info) at 2004-03-28 03:09:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
What could he have done to change it?
Submitted by Nator (user info) at 2004-03-25 16:37:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
yay
Submitted by esso_merda (user info) at 2004-03-24 03:52:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Shit. That was great. Doesn't help my extreme fear of death at all, but it was great.
Submitted by GrizzlyHunter62 (user info) at 2004-03-23 00:26:05 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Though I enjoyed the essence of this post, if I believe it or not, I must ask:
Where the fuck is this coming from?
Submitted by Kale (user info) at 2004-03-22 19:22:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by jwlmar10 (user info) at 2004-03-22 18:55:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by PeopleAreStrange (user info) at 2004-03-22 17:21:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
It's the noise of Ubersite waking up to talent.
Submitted by Phinch (user info) at 2004-03-22 17:19:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by spacemonkey (user info) at 2004-03-22 16:08:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by silver (user info) at 2004-03-22 15:56:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
w00t r3gr3ts r0x0rz y0ur h34rtx0rz!!!!!!1111oneoneone
Submitted by Lyric (user info) at 2004-03-22 15:51:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is awesome.
Submitted by ohlookasquirrel (user info) at 2004-03-22 15:39:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I wonder what my regret is. We like to think we can pin it down now, but I don't know.
Made me think, as always bud.
Submitted by GreaterThanBest (user info) at 2004-03-22 15:05:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Very nice, but when my car flew into the air at 60mph, my body tossing around like lifeless bag of nothing, I heard nothing, no thump, no glass shattering, no metal bending. All and everything went to a state of dreams, disbelieve maybe. No thoughts except that it was happening, no regerts, no wondering. It was rather empty, a space of time without time.
Submitted by TaK (user info) at 2004-03-22 15:00:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice.
Submitted by Nosearian (user info) at 2004-03-22 14:51:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Truth.
Submitted by hcp28 (user info) at 2004-03-22 14:36:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Herpes (user info) at 2004-03-22 14:32:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Deisangua (user info) at 2004-03-22 14:13:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nicely written.
Submitted by Razor (user info) at 2004-03-22 14:10:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by youarsoghey (user info) at 2004-03-22 14:10:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Very fucking good.
Submitted by freebie (user info) at 2004-03-22 14:10:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
This is good. Kept my attention to the end.