Unreliable Narrator

    Seconds

     I tossed and turned for roughly twenty minutes before resorting to lying on my back. The frustration was almost worse than the pain itself. No matter what position I was in, I could not seem to lessen the intensity of the aching in my abdomen. 

     Turning the lamp on my nightstand on, I looked up to focus on the blades of my ceiling fan for distraction. I picked one blade and tried to follow it with my eyes as it made each rotation. One, two, three, four, five six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen times around. Or was it fifteen? I kept loosing count.

     Instead, I tried counting the seconds in between the sporadic bursts of pain in my stomach. One, two, three, four...all the way up to fourteen before I felt it again. The second time around it was sixteen seconds. I bit my lip as the pain intensified. Maybe if my lip started bleeding, I'd forget about my stomach. It felt like the excruciating aching was spreading everywhere. I could feel it running up and down my legs as if someone was scraping a knife across my limbs. 

     Now it was spreading to my upper body. I couldn't even count the seconds in between bursts of pain anymore. Each interval was so close to the one prior that my body didn't even get a break. I couldn't remember what it was like to feel comfortable. Up from my abdomen to my chest, the pain spread like wildfire. My lungs felt like they were being crushed. They probably were.

     By this point, my entire body was overtaken. I couldn't tell where my stomach ended and where my throat began. Did I even have a stomach anymore? It might as well disintegrate considering there was no feeling anymore. I didn't feel anything. It was all just one big mass of unbelievable pain. So much pain. My head was spinning and pounding. Focusing on the fan blade rotations was impossible as my eyes rolled back in my head. 

  

     I tried straining my neck to the left to glance at my clock. 4:14 am. It felt like I had been lying there for days- no...weeks. It felt like weeks. I didn't know my name. I only knew the pain extending from my abdomen. I don't even know how to end this thought.  

Short Short Story

Plummeting 

CAUTION: Those who are made uncomfortable by loud noises should not ride.

WARNING! For safety you should be in good health and free from high blood pressure, heart, back, or neck problems, motion sickness, or other conditions that could be aggravated by riding.

-Expectant mothers should not ride.

-Supervise children at all times.

-Those who do not meet the height requirement of 48'' may not ride.

-Prior to riding, you must remove all loose articles from your person

The wind lashed violently against my face, peeling my skin back and making my eyes water. My back was in such excruciating pain that I had trouble inhaling and exhaling. There was so much tension and aching in my body. I couldn't see anything around me clearly. Was that the ground below me? Or was I upside down facing the sky? If only my head would stop pounding. My stomach kept turning. I felt my body being jolted up again as the pain in my head intensified. The watering in my eyes was uncontrollable as tears streamed down my pale white cheeks. Now I've lost feeling in my head entirely. Suddenly, a deafening crack pierced through the cold air. It was so violent that I felt as if my ears would start bleeding. The blood completely drained from my face as the crack repeated itself. My eyes widened, stricken in fear. Then instantaneously, and almost as if it were on cue, I felt the sensation of falling. My entire body lost all sense of feeling as I plummeted.

Falling.

Falling.

Falling.

Black.

Self-Deprecation (test)

German poet, Charles Bukowski once wrote, “Find what you love and let it kill you”. Loving something to such an extent as this has always been easy for me. Ever since I was very young I’ve had an extremely obsessive personality. I’ve always loved a lot of things, but I didn’t just love them- I loved them large. So large, in fact, that these things seemed to overtake my life. Take Care Bears for example. When I was about five or six, these small, colorful bears weren’t just more stuffed animals to add to my very large collection. They were my entire life. Everything I owned had to be Care Bear related. Care Bear pencils, Care Bear pillows, Care Bear pajamas, Care Bear blankets, etc. Every time I noticed something Care Bear related in a store I would bother and pester my mother until she caved and let me buy it. I would also, regrettably, cause a horrible scene involving screaming, pathetically begging, and crying if she refused my pleas. My bedroom at my grandmother’s house was not even close to complete without my Care Bear comforter set. I was never able to hold a conversation with anyone without making unnecessary comments about those bears. As I grew older, my obsessions grew older with me. I soon ditched the Care Bear phase and moved on to whatever caught my attention at the time. Whether it was animals, certain colors, movies, foods, TV shows, or bands, something was always on my obsessive radar.

            When I was fourteen, I made the choice to alter my dietary habits by picking up vegetarianism. I had pondered my decision for quite some time before making the switch. I spent many moments alone with my thoughts weighing out the pros and cons of a meat-free lifestyle. I kept thinking about all the animals I could spare by not eating meat. Like cows. I love cows. I mean, just look at them. They’re so innocent and helpless. They just stand in fields day in and day out grazing to their hearts content. Killing something so sweet and harmless seemed merciless in my opinion. I also couldn’t stop thinking about pigs. Have you ever seen Charlotte’s Web? Every time I ate pork or ham the only thing that came to mind was that pig, Wilbur. I just couldn't eat little Wilbur’s anymore. Going vegetarian would clear my conscience regarding cute farm animals like cows and pigs.

            However, one con in particular stuck out in my mind. Going meat-less would mean I would have to remove chicken from my diet. And I love chicken. Like really love chicken. The thought of parting with it seemed torturous to me. If this sounds really stupid to you, just think of your favorite food in the entire world and imagine never being able to eat it again. Ever. Are you imagining it? Well, that’s how I felt.

            But, nonetheless, I made my decision to go vegetarian. The switch seemed easy at first until I went out to eat with my family. I can’t remember the restaurant at the moment since the only thing burned into my memory was this: we were seated at a table in a quiet corner of the restaurant. Seated nearby was a kind looking middle aged couple that just got their food delivered to their table. Usually, I’m not one for people watching, but today was different. The woman at that table had ordered a huge plate of chicken parmesan (the man had ordered something completely irrelevant to me). When I saw it, my heart snapped and it felt like someone had thrown a chicken sized brick at my chest. Here I was, vegetarian, sitting directly across from some random omnivorous stranger eating my favorite food in the entire universe. It was unbearable. Call me rude for staring, but I could not stop. A small part of my soul withered away with every bite she took. It was almost like she knew. She knew I had given up meat and she knew I wanted her chicken parm more than I wanted air in my lungs.

            The entire rest of the night was torture as I ate my salad, trying to forget about the chicken eating episode I just witnessed. When I returned home, all I could think about was chicken and how I’d probably never taste it again, seeing to that I kept my vegetarian habits up. Chicken had overtaken my thoughts.

            To make a long story short, and to spare you of any more pathetic details, I quit vegetarianism as one might expect. It took two years of will power and self-control until I caved. My infatuation was too much. I still don’t eat beef or pork, but being able to eat my first chicken nugget since I was fourteen this summer was life changing. 

RAFT assignment

The night was cool and crisp. Crickets chirped loudly outside as the famous, and extremely intoxicated actor, Marco, lay lightheaded on his couch. He struggled to fish for the remote in between his couch cushions and turned on his TV. The local channel was showing a rerun of the day's earlier events of competitive cliff jumping. Marco looked longingly at the television as the love of his life, Mary, made her way to the diving board. Marco had been infatuated with Mary for a very long time but he had never had the courage to tell her. However, in drunken confusion, he decided that tonight would be the night to express his feelings. 

Marco stumbled up from his couch and made his way to the door. Mary only lived a few houses down so it did not take him long to travel to her house by foot. He clumsily walked up to her door and knocked very loudly. After about two minutes, Mary came to the door. "Marco," she asked, "what are you doing here so late? Are you alright?" Marco stared at her for a while before proceeding to answer, "Mary, I've waited so long to tell you this but I've been in love with you for as long as I can remember." Mary looked at him with a confused look as he continued, "and just to prove how important you are to me, I've decided to buy you eleven porta-potties for your constipated rabbit." 

Marco looked at Mary with a hopeful gleam in his eyes hoping for her to return the affection and accept his gift, but, much to Marco's surprise, Mary burst into tears and yelled, "How dare you! My rabbit died last Wednesday! Today was the first day I had started to move past my grief. But now you decide to show up here unannounced and bring up the sensitive topic while I'm still mourning. Get out of my face and never come near me again." And with that she slammed the door in his face leaving poor Marco alone on the front step with nothing but a destroyed liver and an empty heart.