[DRAFT] He Sat as an Old Man [DRAFT]

The man sat there, looking out across his city. His world was one of his creation; as close to perfect as humanly possible. He sat in the Chair that had been with him since his journey began. He was old and he loved the people. He loved the people that had been and those that were yet to be. He was very old, yet frailty had not yet settled into his bones. If he were to die at that moment it would have been a very fine ending to his life. He would have been content to die, but he couldn’t. He still feared death.
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Old snow crunches when you walk on it.

If the sun were shining, the ground would shimmer as if it were made of crushed diamond.

It is the overcast day, the labyrinthine myriad of footprints frozen in the snow, as if tangible echoes of those who have passed, that seem to make a perfect metaphor for life: It is when you walk and follow the trail forged by the firsts that you will evade the ice.

My thoughts were many and they were complex... to me. It was not the conviction of every teenager to contemplate the similarities between a snowy ground and the meaning of life. After all, the metaphor falls apart once you hit a patch of ground absent of snow. Does this symbolize an absence of new? Does the snowless ground symbolize death? Perhaps it is the unity of all Humanity…

I digress.

It was a bitterly cold day, and perhaps it was the source of my nostalgia. The cold affects men in many ways. Men have died of hypothermia after drinking and believing in newfound warmth. For me it made me think about the world. A world that could be better, but isn’t. The thought that we were going to end in death was a harsher blow than that of the cold gales which beat around me.

 My world could be better.

That was the night I disappeared
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They say all things happen for a reason, as if the events which make up our lives occur because they are the trajectory of movement already set in motion long ago. Consequently, such an ideology must cause inquiry into the original provocateur’s identity. It is only natural. It is only natural for humans to think they are the center of the universe, and it is only natural that that be their end desire. If we were made, this was our gifted innate wish. For many years it was questioned – to full extent – the true nature of mans’ universal isolation, and in the days of the Universe’s end all life became aware.


A meeting of worlds began. Ancient peoples suddenly thrown together in the acknowledgment of each other’s existence, all of whom thought they were at the center of their continuum, needed a plan. One group who claimed to have been in existence since the inception of the universe thought that they should be the ones to decide, but when questioned upon the age and nature of the universe they supplied answers completely unlike those known to the rest. The analytical of most groups believed that the universe was likely to fail in certain areas, and if the capable could simply move to evade the hazards, life should still be preserved. Some succumbed to the hopeful doubt that nothing was going to happen as they had neither the proof they wanted, nor the desire to pay attention to the instinct to survive within their heads. The wisest of most saw the coming events as a blessing. One thing – made apparent to all life – was that their universe was ending.


One man could no longer bear to sit as the fate of the continuity of life was gambled with. The scope of what was possible had grown in the past hours for him. The secrets and the advancements of life were gathered in one place. He knew nothing and felt nothing except for the innate. In a world far from where he was there was an answer. He found one man, and with great excitement thrust his finger to the sky and said, “Can you take me there?” and the man, with great contempt, bested the foolish desires of the simple boy.


He was a boy now.  He found another and once again thrust his finger to the sky at a location of which he knew, but didn’t, and said, “Can you take me there?” and he replied “Boy, I do not know what you are pointing towards. Everything spans out. I can show you a map and then you can tell me.” And then the boy said “I believe where I want to go is not on a map.” And after hastened consideration the man replied “Then let us go."


They arrived at a world which held the abandoned shell of an ancient city, veneration was set in its walls, but the city was unlike anything that existed - it was grander. The sky was darkening and a soft, cool breeze flowed through the buildings and across the streets.  The boy began to venture in, but the man remained planted. “I think I should depart from here” he said, he pointed towards a wall “I believe this is your venture.” The boy looked, and among the engravings in a language long unknown, were the symbols of his name. The man was gone.


{END IN PROGRESS}