The freshly painted advertisements on the new express flew through the small, dusty town late at night, disturbing the calm harmony of the stars with its glittering cloud of white death.
How long since a train had been there on those shining clean tracks of silver, letting off a forgotten cousin or hated enemies from its huge dome doors? Had this terrible monster of man even stopped once at this lonesome village? Its platinum people even peek out into the night as they scream by just to see a tiny glimpse of this timeless town? But, why should they? It's only a small lonesome village...
Without the slightest warning a screech of a thousand trees awakening in the cruel universe of man, sent the deep voice of Douglas Murks into endless oblivion. His mind seemed to force his invisible legs to raise, as if impelled from inside the darkness, like a forgotten command of terror that was pushing them to flee.
What's happening? his many thoughts shouted in unison. Is the fastest train in the world derailing? Did the track...? A moment of silence calmed the wildly beating heart of Mr. Murks.
A girl with a face as smooth and as bright as the rising sun appeared from the lost door of the quiet train then, feet small and calm like the wind on the hottest day, her hand of life and joy clutched another, darker larger hand, shaking with young age and fear of love, alone into a town of life and truth.
Douglas's hand trembled as it gripped the small dusty black bag of tales, known only to the eyes of time, for his bundle of lost treasures were his and his until death.
The brains of all the lost eons seemed to pause as if for a lost second, those seconds that would forever float from old to young in the disregarded land of peace.
"Farewell," Douglas whispered to the soft voices in the wind. "Farewell." Then quitely his body slipped itself into the forbidden monster. The terrible creature slid with a roar into the night, carrying his precious fugitive in its dark, hidden belly of steel.
The once respected Mr. Murks quickly, but silently, found the last open seat beside a lost man, searching for a lost hope in the renoun world of business like so many others in that sleek train.
Almost instantly, at the sight of a nearing man of lost heritage and fame, the young business man stiffened like tempered glass, not wanting to be shattered; his eyes not even once wanting to recognize the new passenger's unexpected persence.
"May I sit here?" Douglas asked politely to his tense neighbor.
"Sir?" the expression on the man's sparkling face gave his calm smooth voice away.
"Did I offend you?" Douglas's voice whispered even quiter than a butterfly's softly moving wings.
"Why, no," spoke the business man who, in the blink of an eye, had completely composed himself, making his words the words of a friendly business man looking for hidden profit. "But, why did you ask? No one has even said one single word of friendliness or hate to me in three years!"
"Hmm, well I'm not surprised," the voice of Douglas Murks mumbled as if in a deep sleep. "You are a business man I presume? Have you a wife, children?" It was a voice of routine, not of curiosity that controlled Douglas's forgotten voice.
"No, to all of those," the sad voice of the business man lingered. "No."
"I apologize that we have not properly met," stated the low tones of Douglas. "I am Douglas Murks, born in the sad city of Chicago. I am fortunate to meet you sir..."
"Yes, I am Lands Parker, born and raised in Los Angeles. I am... surprised to meet you."
"Now that we are met I feel that I must ask you the question of all questions. Do your eyes seek a hidden world that always lies in the distance just beyond your reach, like a secret mirage that hinders the hope of a dying man?" The once calm voice of Douglas Murks rose as he asked the words of nothing to his confused neighbor.
The red lips of the man moved in silence, mouthing the small three letter word that, spoken by his mother, delights a small child in an ice-cream shop. "I am growing old too quickly and sadness seems to be pulling my words away from the palace of thoughts and into a dark cavern of nothingness!" Lands' voice seemed small in the enormousness of the train.
Curiosity soaked into the wrinkled brow of Mr. Murks like a sponge in a lake. "In all my years...!"
"What," the man swiftly intruded. "Are you a... never mind, but how... why did you ask me a question if it was meaningless to you?"
"It's quite a tale, if you wish to make time live..."
"Yes," Lands broke in again. "Tell, please!"
Suddenly, without warning, or even a reply, the man's ears filled with pictures of life, color, bright stars, and even time, all bundled up in that harmonious voice of Mr. Murks that hid mysteriously behind the bushes of the incredible tale.
"I was sitting quietly on a warm, hard seat, calmly reading my newspaper on a train, slightly similar to this one. When all of a sudden the train stopped with such a violent jerk that my paper was ripped out of my hand and on to the floor. As quitely as I reclaimed my gray, dusty paper., I noticed something that made the very pupils in my light green eyes shrink to tiny dots of fire.
"I saw a mist, not just a covering gray canopy of fog, but a terrifying mist in the shape of an evil castle door with its knocker ready to capture your tongue with its glowing fire eyes of red death.
"As I sat, eyes unable to unlock my mortal fear, the portal of dreams calmly opened and a maided, so beautiful and entirely peaceful floated towards me as a perfect being.
"My desperate bonds of fear instantly changed to those of transfixtion as the maiden in the stifling air came to me muich quicker than even a scropion's sting, casualing plaing a chilling kiss on my pale, moist cheek.
"The conductor seemed to scream into my face, yelling my stop, but that senseless time itself had me sitting on that smooth brown bench for eternity.
"Help! I thought. The word screamed itself out my ears. In a daze my tongue had captured my voice in this wild struggle for my mind. I felt my head lift as if it was on a marionettes string. My marble eyes instantly forced themselves inside the forbidden room of mist, the deepest legend of the unknown.
"For a moment I saw a trillion billion shining stars of gas in the everlasting shape of a galaxy, spinning, twirling like a ballerina in her last performance.
"Suddently a terrible black galaxy of darkness and clouds collided with the beautiful dancer knocking her out of balance. Her scream was what I saw next. The billion trillion stars exploded in that one sad moment of death. Pieces of glowing rock and fire flung themselves into the vastness of space in a lost fight of existence. The dark cloud was quickly and thoroughly covering what once was a thing of beauty not even comparable to a rainbow of diamonds.
"As one tear of sadness crept into silent existence like a small cloud, it slowly disappeared into the wind of the autumn air. My strawberry hair grew inches in that moment of overwhelming sorrow.
"As suddenly as the train had stopped, a brilliant new galaxy arose from the black pit of dust, blinding my eyes like carnations in a burning desert of darkness. How could a galaxy brighter than life itself come from such a terrible murder?
"A song of curiosity and delight flung itself out my very being into the cold, soft, never-ending wind.
"A raging planet shot out into the dust of sparkling stars, making itself a lonesome ruby in a heaven of diamonds. I could almost see sapphire water winking playfully into my eyes. Its green gems of rock laughed at its own charm and symetry. Even my moist breath had stopped to stare at this perfection of nature. Soon life's children started flying, growing at a rate unthinkable to all, save time. The beauty of all life was shown on the tiny eyes of silver-gray, off the small beautiful cheeks of brown skin on the fresh inhabitants, but even the sight of a thousand perfect pearls couldn't surpass the inccocence of a perfect people.
"Devices of miraculous ingenuity seemed to form with the wind, as if the very fingertips of mortality produced them. Could a race of such purity and life produce machines equal in complexity and mechanic symetries as the dome of stars? Was this the ultimate cornucopia of man? My many thoughts expanded, momentarily blocking my view inside the universe of essential life and charm.
"My mind slowly wandered, hitting a sight of disaster inside the darkening portal. Was one glance away all it took to ruin a utopia? The loveliness of this simple universe was destroyed. Why? What caused the breakdown of unique beauty?
"My face went gray as I saw. It was a man! How could one man... I searched the man's character, as if I was beside his small body of bricks. His eyes were filled with the black emptiness of death, their darkness sending slivers of ice into my heart piercing my lungs. How could these people look to the creature of evilness and see a man, a king of innocence! No! He was the master of confusion and the doom of all humanity.
"Darkness arose from the towers of silver in the sky, water of blue diamonds was now a river of blood. All who thirsted for a single drop of life found only a sea of deathly poison. Bodies decaying enlessly like bloated fish in an ancient swamp saturated the dark wind with methane, the stench of burning flesh. Greed and power buried all that was left of gentleness. Hate and violence had taken all the dreams and loves of mankind and slapped them accross the face of beauty, ripping out skin and muscle, causing scars of malice and fear to melt into the dark blood of sorrow. The land was now a land of wars, venom of nations, scorching, plundering the land like red dragons.
"While my heart cried tears of lava, my eyes were searching the unending boundaries of death for one small island of beauty. If not one wisp of live was found, this planet of corruption would find its finish in endless ruins of ancient coal.
"Seemingly the destruction that was predicted occurred. The world was burning before my very eyes, the dark blue flame chased the evil out of the world, blacking out all into a sea of regrets.
"Desolation, bleak, waterless land, deserts seemed like paradise compared to the evil before it.
"My heart gave a flutter, was that a man? It was completely impossible! Yet one man, stumbled out a white cave, next came women, children, some stumbling along, some running, but all happy. Laughter filled my ears, my soul rejoiced at the miracle..."
Silence closed in on the two men. The train roared to a stop, bidding passengers to take up their lives and fall into the city of money.
Without a word Douglas Murks leaped onto the full platform.
"Wait! I didn't have a chance to..."
The train roared, leaving a questions unasked, but the answer in his ears, spoken by the blowing wind.
one of my earliest stories