InnerDemon
05-20-2009, 4:07 PM
I recently had a school assignment. Starting from this (http://asavine.com/websections/baby/images/Hockney%20-%20Pearlblossom%20Highway.jpg) picture, we were to write a story. And this was my story:
He didn’t know where he was going. The last thing he remembered was that before getting in the car he had stooped, touched the cold concrete and said “Somehow, this road is the only connection between me and her. Somewhere, hundreds of miles away, this very same road may be touching her feet…”. He then got in the car and left full throttle.
How many hours have passed meanwhile? We don’t know. It doesn’t matter actually, nor does it matter how much will it take until he reaches his destination. We only know that, enshrined in nightfall, the car bites off pieces of distance. The last crimson shades of sunset crawled across the sky, making way for the night’s myriad of stars. Stars that, like our beloved Sun, give their warmth to other distant systems. Maybe those systems are populated. Perhaps, right now, some alien people try to dismiss the idea of life existing in our solar system. From their point of view, our lonely man going hell knows where does not exist.
Regardless of his “non-existence”, our man keeps going as if he was the main character in some beverage commercial. He doesn’t have the slightest idea that our all-knowing eye is following him.
He is not used to driving, we can tell that from the uncertainty with which he wields the steering wheel. But wait! What’s this? The car has no steering wheel! He should not be able to drive it at all, let alone drive it properly! We take a worried look to our digital watch that also shows the date. We’re still in present, such cars do not exist! Perhaps as the story unfolds this mystery shall be unraveled.
So, as our all-observant eye has noticed, he seems unsure. He probably used to be the passenger until now. Yes, he probably didn’t even notice how many big red ominous “STOP” signs lay next to the road, as if trying to prevent the unsuspecting driver of the ensuing disaster. There’s no danger, though, the road is empty, no other car brittles its seemingly ancestral steadiness and silence. Loneliness doesn’t bother our man. He is accustomed to being alone. After all, his whole life he dwelled in solitude. However, his glittering eyes show us that there is something awaiting at the end of the road, the “she” he had mentioned. He is so focused on driving that he won’t even halt for five minutes.
A hitchhiker rests her weary legs on the side of the road. The car’s bright lights blind her for a second. She waves her hand but he won’t stop. He accelerates as if to bid her farewell.
Suddenly the car speeds up and we cannot follow it anymore. Its red lights fade in the distance, leaving us lost in the pitch-black darkness, “lost like a man with no love”. We have failed to understand how that man drives his car, given that there was no steering wheel. It didn’t have an automatic pilot, that is certain.
We ponder over it once again. The car had no steering wheel, it should have been impossible to drive. Yet, the man keeps going on an on towards his unknown destination as if driven by solely his will. Because, in the end, aren’t we all just drivers with no steering wheels, confined in our little cars? Following a million miles road with the echo of “Godspeed!” bidden at our departure, slowly fading in our ears, driving something impossible to drive, ignoring the “STOP” signs, we aimlessly, more or less, we keep on going. And if we don’t own a car, we use our paralyzed legs, our horseless chariots, anything that apparently cannot go further. But we advance. Some reach their destinations, some don’t. Some forget where they are going, some receive a desert in the grave. Yet we go. We are never motionless, however impossible motion may be. Because we are humans. And that’s what humans do, in spite of their non-existence from the alien point of view.
As you may have noticed, the fact that I always turn something with a narrative potential into shitty adolescent philosophy is my curse.:smug:
EDIT: Sorry for the spacing.
He didn’t know where he was going. The last thing he remembered was that before getting in the car he had stooped, touched the cold concrete and said “Somehow, this road is the only connection between me and her. Somewhere, hundreds of miles away, this very same road may be touching her feet…”. He then got in the car and left full throttle.
How many hours have passed meanwhile? We don’t know. It doesn’t matter actually, nor does it matter how much will it take until he reaches his destination. We only know that, enshrined in nightfall, the car bites off pieces of distance. The last crimson shades of sunset crawled across the sky, making way for the night’s myriad of stars. Stars that, like our beloved Sun, give their warmth to other distant systems. Maybe those systems are populated. Perhaps, right now, some alien people try to dismiss the idea of life existing in our solar system. From their point of view, our lonely man going hell knows where does not exist.
Regardless of his “non-existence”, our man keeps going as if he was the main character in some beverage commercial. He doesn’t have the slightest idea that our all-knowing eye is following him.
He is not used to driving, we can tell that from the uncertainty with which he wields the steering wheel. But wait! What’s this? The car has no steering wheel! He should not be able to drive it at all, let alone drive it properly! We take a worried look to our digital watch that also shows the date. We’re still in present, such cars do not exist! Perhaps as the story unfolds this mystery shall be unraveled.
So, as our all-observant eye has noticed, he seems unsure. He probably used to be the passenger until now. Yes, he probably didn’t even notice how many big red ominous “STOP” signs lay next to the road, as if trying to prevent the unsuspecting driver of the ensuing disaster. There’s no danger, though, the road is empty, no other car brittles its seemingly ancestral steadiness and silence. Loneliness doesn’t bother our man. He is accustomed to being alone. After all, his whole life he dwelled in solitude. However, his glittering eyes show us that there is something awaiting at the end of the road, the “she” he had mentioned. He is so focused on driving that he won’t even halt for five minutes.
A hitchhiker rests her weary legs on the side of the road. The car’s bright lights blind her for a second. She waves her hand but he won’t stop. He accelerates as if to bid her farewell.
Suddenly the car speeds up and we cannot follow it anymore. Its red lights fade in the distance, leaving us lost in the pitch-black darkness, “lost like a man with no love”. We have failed to understand how that man drives his car, given that there was no steering wheel. It didn’t have an automatic pilot, that is certain.
We ponder over it once again. The car had no steering wheel, it should have been impossible to drive. Yet, the man keeps going on an on towards his unknown destination as if driven by solely his will. Because, in the end, aren’t we all just drivers with no steering wheels, confined in our little cars? Following a million miles road with the echo of “Godspeed!” bidden at our departure, slowly fading in our ears, driving something impossible to drive, ignoring the “STOP” signs, we aimlessly, more or less, we keep on going. And if we don’t own a car, we use our paralyzed legs, our horseless chariots, anything that apparently cannot go further. But we advance. Some reach their destinations, some don’t. Some forget where they are going, some receive a desert in the grave. Yet we go. We are never motionless, however impossible motion may be. Because we are humans. And that’s what humans do, in spite of their non-existence from the alien point of view.
As you may have noticed, the fact that I always turn something with a narrative potential into shitty adolescent philosophy is my curse.:smug:
EDIT: Sorry for the spacing.