Water was falling again. It turned to crystals part of the way to the ground. Small crystalline structures piled upon each other, turning the ground white, if only for a moment. Without intervention the white was soon covered with dirt and grime. It had been there all along, hidden from view by muted perceptions. A single pair of foot prints began to disturb the coat of snow and dirt across the parking lot. They were booted feet, rugged in their leather and rubber outer shell; insulated from the cold, the dirt, and the wet. They left impressions in the the light crust of crystals. Crunching through and breaking structures leaving wet imprints of ridges and troughs before they deformed into only a memory of what they had been, leaving the white and black of the surface below to peer through to the sky again.
The boots were connected to feet, which in turn were connected to legs. Were they long legs or short legs? There was no frame of reference in the endless lot. The legs were mostly responsible for the forward motion of the entire body across the parking lot. It was a man. He pulled his blue worn coat tight around himself, an end of the scarf wrapped around his neck flapping over his left shoulder. He left duplicate imprints across the lot, taking long and hurried strides. Crunch, crunch, went the snow and blacktop under his boots.
The street lights came on in the muted darkening sky, reflecting off the surface of the ground and throughout the myriad of crystals still falling to replace their broken brethren. The man stopped and pulled out a small clear glass bottle filled with a brown liquid with hands wrapped in gloves missing their finger tips. He slowed only enough to take a long drink before replacing the cap and putting it back into his pocket, giving his uncovered fingers a chance to regain their warmth as the fire burning in the liquid warmed his throat and stomach.
There was almost a moment of contemplation on his face, but the crystals of snow alighting on his face kept it from manifesting in the world. He looked, but didn’t see. He breathed, but didn’t smell. He touched, but no longer did he feel. His senses were muted, ignored, repressed. He did not see it coming. The lead spinning forward at hundreds of feet per second. Time slowed, a single moment stretching for seemingly minutes as recognition appeared on his face. His gait didn’t change. It was impossible for his muscles to change direction and velocity to pull his body out of the way. There was only time for the muscles in his face to move. He smiled. It appeared in his mouth, in his eyes.
It wasn’t surprise that was the last thought plastered on his face. No, it was a look of peace, of tranquility. It was a smile that encompassed the knowledge the man possessed. It spoke of days spent walking under the sun. It spoke of nights spent talking with loved ones. It spoke of the future that was left ahead and the past that was left behind. Briefly, there was peace.
The lead thumped into his chest. It tore through the jacket leaving synthetic warmth exploding as it exited. It exited through the inside of the jacket and tore into the skin. The flesh tore, bones shattered. The life that had seen and known much escaped through the hold in his chest as the lead compacted and expanded through and out the back of him. It escaped through the front and through the back.
The crystals of water on the ground turned red. It mixed with the snow in spots as his body slumped over in a heap. The smile had left his face. His body limp and loosing his life and his essence. There was no help coming. The ambulance wouldn’t come until later. His heart skipped a beat as his blood stained the snow in the middle of the parking lot. His face was silent, his eyes empty. The snow stained in a syncopated rhythm. It took only a moment, but he was gone.
An hour later, maybe two, a second set of boots, with legs and a person attached walked across the parking lot. The body was covered with a thin sheath of snow, the stain of death beneath it spoke to the cold and the absence of life. The man’s hand had fallen out of his pocket, still grasping the liquid warmth that had carried him through the day.
The new legs were attached to a woman. She screamed. Muted by the falling snow. It was muffled by the crystals and the careless and methodical nature in which the world blanketed itself without regard for the life moving upon it. She fumbled with a phone, punching in numbers with a shaking hand. She sobbed into the phone, a calm and passionless voice on the other end telling her to keep calm. Help was on the way.
Time passed again. Uninterested in the events which comprised it’s meaning. Tick tock, it moved and then the lights came. The car crunching the snow under it’s tires, leaving a trail across the parking lot. The woman was still there, sobbing and shivering in the cold, the tears starting to freeze as she wiped them from her face. It was streaked with black where her makeup had ran.
A paramedic went to the body, leaving footprints in his wake. The wheels on the gurney pulled behind him. Another went to comfort the woman. He wrapped her in a blanket and sat her on the back of the ambulance. She shivered there, the warmth from the truck billowing out in waves as the cold fought back to balance itself and assert it’s dominance. It didn’t take long for the body to be uncovered from the light blanket of snow. It was only moments longer before it was loaded into the back of the ambulance and a second trail was left. The flashing lights faded and the snow continued, unimpeded from covering the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment