The Trial Run

The story starts when he is a boy, and he is getting the side of his mouth wiped by his mothers spitty thumb. She is telling him something of importance, something of great relevance about the world that surrounds him, but he isn’t listening so as much as he is just being talked to. He is staring at the sun glinting from the many strands of silver hair poking out from her head. She tells him he looks good, like a fine young man, then she leaves.

On that very day the city is covered in shade.

At first everyone thinks that it is clouds, covering up the sun. But months go by and it seems the clouds never move. And soon they all realize that it is not the clouds covering the sun, but something entirely different.

The boy is left with strangers when the shade hits, but they treat him as if they are his family. He learns to live as if they are his family, and soon his mother is just a mystery from his past.

When the reality dawned on the citizens, that the little city might be in an interminable shadow, many began to leave, panicked; they feared that they would never again see the sun. But the mayor called a large meeting with all the people of the city, the public and the officials and the little boy too, and pleaded for all to stay, to stand firm against the darkness that had descended upon them. He called on the hope of the city, he called on the faith of the city, he called on the loyalty of the city, and all that was the city, to remain in the city. He said the city deserved them, and they deserved the city, and he said it all with such conviction and eloquence that the citizens believed him, and those that had packed their bags unpacked, and those that hadn’t rested easy in their lumpy couches that night.

Soon, the surrounding suburbs began to notice, and then neighboring boroughs began to catch on, that this little city was shrouded in complete shade. First there were murmurings and whispers, then people began to speak openly about it. Then there was a video posted of the shady little town on the internet, and then it became a digital myth. It took a natural course through the media until finally it was on every newspapers front page (except the little cites paper. The little city’s mayor banned any mention of the shade in local papers, as it would just depress its citizens, who were trying so hard to keep a strong, firm hope, that one day the sun would shine on them again).

Then a daring tv journalist went to the town and did an expose on how dark it was in the little city. He told of how the scientist couldn’t figure out why the town was stuck in such a dim light, and how the citizens of the city refused to leave. He spoke of how proud they all were of their dark little city, and how sad it was for the rest of the world to see them so proud.

Eventually the people of the dark little city became used to the shade. They stopped hoping for the sun to come and grew fond of how unique they were in comparison to the rest of the world. The population became pale, and they grew fond of that too. They created their own fashion sense that reflected the blackness of their sky, and a new language developed and it sounded like the music of a buzzing motor engine. They burned the streetlamps 24 hours a day, and the electricity bills skyrocketed. But the people didn’t mind, they absorbed the cost into their lives, they budgeted it out. And the little boy watched the city grow, and he felt the earth still beneath him, and he warmed to it, like one would warm to the hum of traffic and eventually sleep right through noise. And no one really went on vacations out of the city, and no one really went on vacations to it either.

They heard about themselves all across the globe, the natives of the city. They heard about their city from the television and the radio and the internet and all what not. They all knew that it was only they that were covered in shade, and no body else. They all knew that it was only their right. They watched the rest of the planet too, and saw the tv shows and heard the radio stars and watched as the policies were erected and the walls torn down. They listened to people sing about the turning of the world and they read what people wrote about the stars and the sun. They absorbed all the data that was offered to them.

They lived in their dark little city and they loved their dark little city, including the little boy.

Then one day the shade was lifted, and everyone put their hand in front of their eyes to block the burning rays of the sudden sun. The little boy, who was a grown man by then, looked around at everything in the light. He saw the stupidity in their fashion, he heard the infancy in their language. And he stood there alone and watched his shadow, stretched across a lawn of dead grass, tall and defined; endless.

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that was just some weird rough draft i found in my folder. it sounded kind of interesting so i figured i'd post it. its sort of radom, like these people. hey, heres is a good label you guys should already know about. if you dont, than now you do. oh, and i was just wondering, do you look like your dog?