The Current - The Rivers School

Things were perfect. The sky seemed as though it shined on every moment. Every Sunday drive or bike ride into town
was covered in a sort of light that didn’t hurt your eyes, but illuminated them. You experience all time and all emotion at once, absorbing
everything you’ve learned once again, then twice. Time shuffles past you like a flip book. Some moments you wait longer
in, some pass you by with a wave and a wink. Here you face yourself and come to terms with everything selfish and wrong in you.
Do you care Usually not but this case is special. It’s your last chance to love. Yourself Time will tell perhaps. In your peripheral you
can see your face, as if in a mirror. The mirror is cracked but you smile back. You don’t feel alone. You walk on and find yourself in a
hallway, with flipping images floating above and below you. You float with them, and gravity loses its pull. I can see on your face
how you remember your first lost tooth. A gapped smile stays with you for a moment and is gone. Watching you bathe in a sea of
memory, I close your eyes. You feel peace. Perfect peace.
Things were beginning to lose focus. That could be a good thing, but you forget. What were you thinking again It was as
if a storm cloud met a dust buster deity and they pitted it out for you to watch the fireworks. If your mouth worked you would smile.
So far every attempt resulted in a numb resistance. A part of yourself was missing, of that much you were sure. But how much And
what You hurriedly hope that it wasn’t anything important. You don’t feel all that different. Maybe a little nauseous, but that could
just be from lack of sleep. You haven’t been sleeping well recently, remember You smile and thank yourself that a little insomnia is
the least of your worries. The man could have cleared things up if he just opened his mouth. He kept cold silence around him like
an icy blanket. Did he tell you a name You forget. You get a shiver down your spine for an instant when you remember his coat. It
reminded you of winter.
Things had frozen in time. You couldn’t focus on what was ahead, only on distractions. You were seventeen again, and
procrastinating in any way possible, anything to keep from this ever approaching deadline. Your dead line. You noticed the water
boiling. You were making tea, it should be ready now. The bubbles were frozen too. Did you remember to tell your wife that
you love her You should have. It’s important to do things like that, in case you have an unexpected deadline. What would she
remember You don’t want her to feel shame, do you
Things were crystal clear. Your heart rate tripled in your paper chest.
You were going to die. It was the swiftness of your realization that surprised you more than the whirl of action in front
of you. You didn’t question the motives. Why would you What difference would it make anyway, whether or not your death was
justified It was going to happen. Why waste the thought
The man in the black coat is here. I crawled through the open window in the baby’s room. You take your last breath as I point my
gun to your head.
It takes you a second to die.
Charlie Harrison // Dne Eht
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