Rose May Park by: Richard D. McGehee Raymond Shen, no relation to Mayor Shen of Richardson, WZ-CI, walked to work via the same route every morning. He would stop at the same paper stand on the corner of Elm and Pine for his morning paper and cup of steaming hot coffee. Harry, of HARRY’S PAPERS AND COFFEE, always made the best coffee on the block. “Good morning Harry!” Raymond would always say in his friendliest of tones. Harry would always have Mr. Shen’s coffee poured and waiting on his table next to a finely folded, hot off the presses, morning paper. “Good morning yourself Mr. Shen, how was your night?” The two men would shoot the shit for exactly five minutes and then Raymond Shen would be off again continuing his morning ritual to work. Mr. Shen was a man of ritual and exacting preciseness and had a massive hysterical melt down when things went completely astray as they were about to do this fine morning. Raymond always left the house exactly 30 minutes early every morning so he could spend time on his way to work; he was an accountant at one of the city’s most prestigious firms, sitting on the same cool wooden bench located in the exact center of the walking path on the southern end of Rose May Park. Raymond’s park sitting time helped calm and quiet his mind for the upcoming day; he also enjoyed listening to the many birds sing their good mornings to the Earth as the sun slowly rose in the sky and he finished off his delicious coffee. As Raymond sat there in the cool morning air he noticed a pine tree had been added to the park just feet from where the bench was sitting. The tree seemed to interfere with Raymond’s accustomed view of the park and its early morning visitors; this annoyed him instantly and completely. Finding his usually relaxing morning disrupted by someone’s careless disregard for public interaction Raymond got up and examined the tree closer leaving his neatly folded paper, coffee cup, and brief case sitting on the weather-worn bench. The smell of pine filled Raymond’s nose threatening to knock him over. Upon closer inspection of the tree he found its needles covered in a thin layer of what appeared to be mercury. What did curiosity do to that cat again? Raymond reached out his finger and touched the shining layer of quicksilver; that was the beginning of the end of Mr. Shen’s considerably short life. Once the quicksilver touched his skin it seemed to triple in size and from there double every second or so until in a matter of moments the liquid metal consumed his entire arm. Panic, not pain, raced through Raymond as he tried in desperately animated movements to get himself free of the ever growing intruder; he failed miserably. I less than two minutes the mercury had completely consumed Raymond’s body cloths and all. Fighting desperately for air Raymond collapsed onto the morning dew strung ground not even making it back to his favorite bench. The mercury slowly seeped into Raymond’s clothing and skin, sinking ever further and causing a universe worth of pain and a burning sensation that could have rivaled the sun as it methodically made its way through muscle and bone. What was left of Raymond Shen, no relation to Mayor Shen of Richardson, WZ-CI, was a shining silvery mass of quicksilver that was slowly descending its way into the ground as the sun continued its accent into the mid summers morning sky. Twenty minutes later Jason Redding made his way into Rose May Park. Stopping to rest a minute on one of his favorite wooden benches he noticed that someone had left their personal possessions behind; he sat down next to the brief case, the coffee cup, and the folded newspaper and began to look around and take in the day. Jason noticed two large pine trees that were not there yesterday; Jason gets up to take a look.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 22:22:46 +0000
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