Tuesday, February 7, 2012
a transgressive fictional story
It started on the roof, I was staring up at the sky trying to find at least one star when the faint scent of something sour, like lemons and something earthy hit my nose and I came back down to earth. That smell. It's so familiar to me, every time I'm instantly back at home surrounded by trees and mountains in every direction. Whenever I smell it walking around here I pause and look around in every direction for a quick moment, then keep walking. I shook my head fast two times to clear my mind of thoughts of home and looked down at that little brown tube in my hand. This is my favorite part. Sticky little green leaves wrapped up so carefully and neatly in brown leaves, like a newborn baby tenderly wrapped in it's warm, soft blanket by loving parents. Not too loose and not too tight. Just right. No loose parts or weird edges sticking out anywhere, nothing falling out or anything like that. A perfect little cylindrical package almost ready to be sent into the sky. I heard someone speak and looked to my right; someone was trying to give me a lighter so I took it. It was cheap, made of transparent green plastic and there was little to no fluid left in it. I tried to flick it on a few times, but when it didn't light I threw it off the roof dismissively and extended my hand again. This time the lighter that landed in my outstretched palm was heavy, made of black matte metal, and it seemed much more trustworthy. When I flicked it on the sound was so satisfying, the unpleasant smell of lighter fluid briefly met my nostrils but was almost immediately replaced by the strong, slightly sweet, smell of the thin stream of smoke that had started to stream out of the tip of the perfect little brown cylinder in my hand. It's always at this point that I feel a small tinge of sadness, like the way one feels when they realize their efforts are going to waste. In this case, my effort was literally being burned and soon there would be nothing left. This feeling only lasted as long as it took for my hand to reach my mouth, for me to breathe in, breathe out, and watch my little cloud rise into the sky.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment