Come on; this is a rough draft, but if you read it to the end this little short story has a real Guy De Maupassant twist even if I am crazy “Nature abhors suicide Damaged, old clothes, tattered threadbare, combined with his weather-beaten gait—; lead credibility to his poverty stricken state—. I watched the swarthy old man wearing the odd looking boater— askew, perched and tilted in an awkward and funny sort of way, atop his head. He seemed to wear the hat corrected or positioned in some sort of odd way, peculiar to his character, perhaps the funny old fedora was positioned this way to make some sort of statement, maybe even fashioned to the ideology of his former position in society? The young strong man with keen eyes mused. If this were so, if indeed this haggard old man had once held a high position in society; this then, was now obviously, long lost to time, and by now, certainly become that of legend. Nevertheless, he held his head high with pride. Perceptibly, he had been wearing this old hat (or one like it), for nearly all of his life and it had become as bent or warped, to his disposition, as his old bones had become bent, to his fibrous gait. He did seem to gristle along, seemingly sinking into the very earth itself and as if he were wearing a soggy, wet old trench coat. Certainly, the old man was bent. All old people are “bent”—; this is a manifestation of a certain “swagger” or style of walking, usually adopted in youth, after many years of a persistent movement, the body, combined with the effects of gravity, hone the body into a particular “bent” state—; misshapen from its former glory and its— fleeting—feeling linked to the levity of youth. This was now his inexorable and exquisite, pained shape, as he now favored a certain and specific, bent gait. I watched him, mesmerized by the spectacle that he made for me, as he continued to make his way through the red brick old alleyway, my keen young eye’s noticed that he seemed to grind—; into the very earth itself, as he disappeared over a mote, or a rise upon the cobblestone and brick causeway. He then seemed to shiver or spasm just as I felt a cold wind, blow up from, behind me, over my shoulder. I did not like this place. This old town of Wismar in the former East Germany before the wall had come down. The town had not changed a bit. The coldness which had blown over my shoulder seem to attack the old man and then the cold wind seemed to steal into his old arthritic, stiffening bones. As he suddenly—, “stick- manned”—, into a sudden spasm. I was abruptly and immediately concerned with the thought that the crusty—, yet intrepid, old man might fall over to shatter like a glass man on the stone and brick walkway and perhaps even to make it around the corner of the building tripping and then stumbling as he rounded the corner. As I watched intently, he momentarily disappeared, rounding the corner I expected him emerge to end up amidst the discarded heap of old bricks from the falling down neglected Church. However, amazingly he had recovered in that brief moment lost to my keen eyes. Then he emerged suddenly, and almost nearly as a new man! He recovered! Then correcting his hat he then tightened his old coat, he continued on through the labyrinths of old Viking settlement which later became the red brick buildings from the seventeen hundreds. He now moved faster and straighter upon the paths and then he disappeared forever behind the Church. He did not, remember feeling, this new feeling—, the previous day, nor even—, ever before. This arthritic pain seemed new and was supplementary, more painful, this then, bent his body all the further, ever closer to the earth. The old man continued down the cobblestone and brick path alone, supplicating his new pain, with the ever growing twist and bends to, his maneuvering, now—, in an entirely—, new way, of walking. The cobblestones were from the foundations from a far earlier, Viking settlement, so they were sparsely, and haphazardly placed, amidst the red bricks, thus making his walk—, all the more painful—, treacherous […] Each step was affirmed to be quite laborious for him. I was shocked, at first from the spectacle that the old man made for me; I coming from California, then to suddenly find myself here in this community which seemed to be some sort of time capsule. “Yes—! This is what is bothering me so much! This place is all wrong!” The young observer shouted inside of his head. Then the young observer with the very keen eyes suddenly felt nauseous. Now, with that thought he nearly, heaved his lunch onto the path behind the old man, even perhaps into the very footprints the old man had left on the dirt. This thought gave the young man from California even more nausea to think that he was now stepping in the very same footsteps as that of the old man. Footsteps in time, over the stones and brick or in between them. The walkway where the youn0g man now was, where he had first noticed the old man in the distance—; the walkway was slanted here and this old walkway was as skewed as the old man’s hat. The walkway; he noticed was as lop-sided by personality form the passage of people throughout the centuries as was the old man’s bent nature. He had not noticed this from the distance where he had been observing. His mind was reeling out now, not unlike hooking into a giant Marlin’s off the Florida Keys with one of those big open face, Penn fishing reels. Reels fashioned to strap to the boat combined with you sitting in a chair which you are strapped into so you do not go flying out of the boat when you hook into a five hundred pound leviathan. These reels often have the leather thumb protector. This is so you do not end up with a third degree burn on your thumb when the big fish begins to run and then fly. And he thought of this big fish flying out of the water as his brain began to first burn and then his head began to spin as he indeed then heaved his lunch. Upchucking his lunch in between the old Viking stones, in the dirt, he noticed fresh footprints before he went down. A sudden cerebral hemorrhage then took the life of the young strong man with very keen eyes.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 08:15:28 +0000
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