From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: Fingertips
Reply-To: aaron@space.ualberta.ca
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 05:13:07 GMT



Flames lick at the room.  He screams for help as the flame leaps
to the edge of the bed.  "Everything's catching on fire!" he
screams.  The door crashes down.

He watches his uncle playing the banjo, mesmerized by the fast,
almost impossible motion of his fingers.

He stands out on a hill, wind whipping through his hair.  It's
too dark to see, but he imagines that he can hear her voice being
carried on the wind to him.

He dances at a party, alone.  The music drives him to frantic
motion, and eventually he collapses in exhaustion.

Late at night, he sits up in bed at a sudden sound from outside
his window.  He fancies for a moment that he sees a human
shadow.  Then he hears the sound of laughter from the street and
goes back to sleep.

An hour later, he wakes up and realizes that she's truly gone. 
He buries his face in his pillow and weeps.

He is driving with her on the freeway, when he hears the screech
of tires.  Two sports cars full of teenagers try to pass him in a
single lane.  He hears their laughter as he swerves frantically
and hits a car merging from the on-ramp, completely obliterating
the passenger side of the car.

He sees the sports cars parked outside a bar, and goes in, intent
on revenge.  Instead, he is tossed out into the street a few
minutes later, badly beaten.

He is home with his family.  Nobody talks about his loss.  They
remain formal and distant, and he doesn't stay long.
 
He stops answering the phone or the buzzer.  Eventually, they
stop ringing.

There is a more persistent knocking on the door.  When he refuses
to answer it, his landlord gets in with his key, and seeing that
his tenant is still alive, serves him with an eviction notice.

He wanders the streets of the city.  Nobody pays him much
attention--his clothes are too well-kept for him to be a bum, and
he wanders too aimlessly to be anything else.

He sleeps in a doorway, his blue raincoat pulled up over him.  In
the morning, he is rudely kicked awake and pushed out onto the
sidewalk.

One morning he wakes up to find another huddled against him for
warmth.  He nudges the sleeping form and she looks up at him
sleepily, then introduced herself.  He helps her up, and she
smiles.  He smiles shakily in return.

Attempts at conversation prove futile--they find they don't have
a language in common.  They smile and communicate with their
eyes.

They are walking and hear a sound behind them.  They turn around,
and a man is staring at her angrily.  He growls and beckons, and
she shakes her head and they dash off.

Later, she whispers something confiding in his ear.  He doesn't
understand a word, but she seems to feel better for having said
it.

That night, she kisses him for the first time.

The man surprises them the next morning, and they run frantically
away.  Suddenly he feels his arm go numb, and collapses to the
ground.  He tries to motion for her to go on, but she won't leave
him.

Before he loses consciousness completely, he hears her scream,
and he is spattered with blood.  He stares at his crimson
fingertips for an eternity.

Then he drifts into darkness for another eternity.

--
---Alfvaen(Looking for "October's Baby")
"Lucille was secretly thrilled when Norman sucked her toaster."
   ---B. Kliban
Current Album--Chris de Burgh:Eastern Wind
Current Read--M.J. Engh:Arslan
Newsgroups: alt.music.tmbg