Author's Note:
This posting is based upon an event that happened after the snows that shut down NYC last month. The story I am referencing can be found here, however I ask that you read my writing BEFORE accessing this link.
"When is the world going to return to normal?" Angelo Icapatos thought out loud to himself.
He was sitting on the sofa gazing out window of his ninth floor apartment. Angelo lived in the West Side neighborhood of Manhattan, and had watched as his community ground to a halt over the past week.
"How can a little snow bring everything to a stop?" he once again pondered. "I need to get to work. This much free time isn't good for me!"
Angelo had started yet another in a long line of jobs to nowhere about six months ago. This had actually been the longest he'd managed to hold a job in his young life. There had been so many different brief employments, but HE always screwed things up, always got Angelo fired. The twenty-six year old man was bound and determined to not let HIMSELF get himself fired from this one. After all, he'd been making some fantastic strides in his therapy and hadn't heard from HIMSELF in a long time.
The young man went to the stove in the little kitchen of his tiny apartment. He poured himself a cup of tea from the pot that had been staying warm on the stove for the past hour. Angelo walked to the window and took a sip.
As Angelo looked out across the horizon, he saw an amazing contrast. The familiar New York skyline, the one he had found so much stabilizing comfort in, was now standing tall over a seen of chaos that threw Angelo back.
It had been a week since mother nature had dumped a record snowfall on the city, and completely ground it to a halt. There was still snow covering everything. Cars had not moved from their parking spots Trash bags had piled up into little mountains on the sidewalks, uncollected since the snow hit. There were hardly any people about. It just didn't make sense to Angelo, and it ruined the routine he depended on.
Angelo thought about the tools his therapy had given him. He was fighting a losing battle, and he knew it. He could only hold out so long with this much disruption to his life. And as if on cue, HE was back.
Hello Angelo!
"Took you long enough!" Angelo said to the voice.
Oh, I've been here the whole time Angelo! I've just enjoyed watching the torment the mere THOUGHT of me coming back has brought you.
"I know you're not real. I've worked so hard to get you out of my head, but you keep coming back. Keep messing my life up. Why?"
Because you make me real Angelo! Because you can't live without me, I am you Angelo! You'll never be rid of me.
"Oh yeah?" Angelo opened his hand and drop the cup to the floor. He turned to the window, and slid it up and open. He was met with a chilly breeze as he looked out and down.
Angelo, it's cold out there. What the hell are you doing?
"Something I should have done a long time ago," Angelo said as he locked the hold-open latch on the window. "One way or another, this ends today. I'll not have you running my life anymore."
You think it's that easy Angelo? Okay, do it. I don't think you've got it in you. You've always been my bitch Angelo! You always will be my little plaything. Try it. You'll just get to spend eternity, with me, in hell.
"We'll see." Angelo ducked his head down, swung a leg out the window. The other leg followed it and he was looking down past he feet at snow covered scene below him.
This is going to be awesome! You're mine forever!
Angelo gave a push, and was met with a falling sensation. He was on his way down, body parallel with the ground. His face looked back at the window of his apartment.
"It's done."
Whoosh! The fall was over.
A long moment passed. Angelo opened his eyes, expecting to see either heaven or hell. Either were preferable to the life he'd just left, it didn't matter. His life had been hell.
It wasn't anything he expected. Angelo felt a strange numb sensation, a paralyzed feeling. His eyes were taking a second to adjust, things were a blur. They soon came into focus. What was a brown haze a second ago began to take shape. It was a large rectangle, with shiny nearly-metallic rectangles in vertical rows upon it's face.
Angelo was drawn to one of these lesser rectangles. It didn't appear metallic. It just seemed dark. It was in the row nearest to him, but far up the vertical row. Angelo blinked.
When he opened his eyes again, full clarity returned. Then reality set in. The large brown rectangle was his apartment building and the odd dark rectangle was his apartment window. The window he had just leaped from was the only open one on the building, the only one that wasn't casting a metallic reflection of the hazy skies.
"The fuck?", Angelo moaned. His body couldn't move, but his eyes swept left to right. All he could see was a black plastic film that his body was lying on. It seemed to ripple in the slight breeze.
"Trashbags! God-damned trashbags!" Angelo screamed. It was in that instant he realized he had fallen nine stories onto the week's uncollected accumulation of his building's filth. His body was broken, but he was alive.
How's that feel Angelo? I told you 'you will always be mine', Angelo!
No comments:
Post a Comment