I look down at the folder in front of me. On its cover lies a powerful tiger in front of a moon lit waterfall. Healthy green plants surround the animal and the scene ends with steep mountains that seem almost to touch the moon.
I wish I were there. I wish I could be surrounded by such beautiful, calm images and colors. I wish I could be that tiger.
But I’m stuck here. This is reality. A fan turns to hit my face, offering me a moment’s escape from the heat. I look up from a long writing assignment (that I’ve put off for as long as I can) to see the computer screen. Blood red words leap off of their black background. A story about a young little elf boy. I wish I could be there with him. It’s more interesting than the writing assignment I need to finish.
With nothing but the computer screen’s light to guide my pencil I can’t help but let my mind wander. I can picture the weather slightly chilling me as I walk to school tomorrow. The weather lies to me with its frost, and heats up later. It lies to me every morning, but I always try to believe it.
I can see my friends. My best friend ready to read more chapters out loud to me from story titled The Drama of Our Lives. The chapter titled “What Happened Last Night the Really Pisses Me Off”.
Then there’ll be noise. When the birds overhead begin to speak it becomes an uninvited, yet accepted, symphony of chirps. It’s the school of students that I hate. They’ll be the ones to squawk in a cacophony of ugly noises. Screams and yells will be heard across campus. I wish yet again that I could be with that peaceful tiger.
The days will pass and eventually the weekend will come and I will venture into the city. The frost won’t lie to me there. The chill that will n** at my face will be for real. Maybe I’ll be happy then. The sidewalks will still be cracked and uneven. The people will still squawk. The birds will still speak. But in the city it will be cold. So I will be happy.
I pull my mind back and realize two things. First: that I have moved. I now sit on the dusty leather couch in my living room. My eyes wander from the paper on my lap to the dark night sky beyond the sliding glass door. Second: that I have been writing down all of my thoughts. The whole time my mind was wandering, I was writing.
Now all I can think about is how this writing assignment is almost done. Soon the night will take me away into slumber. Before that I will stare at the darkness and dream. I will make my own dreams that will take me to real ones as the minutes pass. For years this is how I have slept and soon I will again. I will lay on top of the covers and wait as the minutes open into parachutes that fall and fall again.
Oh, look, I’m done.
 Alatria · Wed Nov 21, 2007 @ 01:19am · 0 Comments |
