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Just wanting to post a story here for review at some point.
“A few minutes after noon. No one in the restaurant is having bacon and eggs. Yet with every sip of coffee, I taste the bacon and eggs. Taste the memory of Missy who served the bacon and eggs.”
Allowing my mind to wonder, I drifted back to the memory of my meeting with sweet, innocent Missy. She was your typical waitress; hair in a bun, old, worn skin encasing her body , heels adorning her feet, and the blue dress, that was required, with a white apron over it. She was serving her last plate of the day to me and I thanked her for it, giving her the money for the meal, and a tip, for her efforts. She clocked out and excited the diner. As she walked across the rough pavement of the busy, 4 laned street, her heels clicking busily, her aim her car, no one was expecting anything different than her reaching her destination. That was until the sharp noises of screeching tires sounded throughout the restaurant, silencing the busy chatter. Everyone in the restaurant looked in horror as a car screeched, the driver trying in vain to save the life in front of the moving vehicle, and smashed into the woman’s body. A sickening thud and slight squish echoed throughout the now silent restaurant.
I slipped away from the memory and smirked to myself. That experiment had gone well. I pulled out the slender, mechanical-like insect from the pocket of my black jacket. It was in the shape of a butterfly and shimmered in the light of the restaurant in a charade of rainbows. This had been given to me by a guy on the street, who I had met on my way here this morning.
The gentleman had been sitting silently on the side of the walkway that I take everyday on my way here, shaking a can hopelessly for money. He was run-down and looked as if he knew nobody could care less about his need for cash and his run-down state. I walked over to him and dropped a ten and change into his small can. His expression turned from down cast to pure ecstasy. I began to walk away but he quickly reached out and grabbed the sleeve of my jacket.
“Thank you for your generosity young man,” he said to me in a gruff voice.
I smiled and responded, “it’s no problem at all, you need that money more than me, use it well.” I began to walk away again when he continued, “but I must give you this in return. Please, take it.”
I looked to see what he was handing me and saw this delicate little thing. It’s paper-thin body flexed in the man’s outstretched hand. Its rainbow wings shimmering delightfully. I looked quizzically at him and questioned, “ what is this thing?”
I took it and held it gently in my hand as he explained, “this is a gift to you. I know you can do great things with it. It is only able to be used by and held by those with pure hearts. Anyone who is with it and doesn’t have a pure heart will soon die. The butterfly will the return to the one with a pure heart as if it had never left. Use it well, won’t you?”The man finished this explanation with a broad smile still resting on his face.
I nodded to him and continued down to the restaurant that I now reside in, placing the butterfly in my pocket. I had now tested the little butterfly with the waitress. I had seen her stealing some money secretly from the cash register earlier that day. I figured, if this thing worked, I would know it. When I handed Missy the tip, it was hidden in the money bills, its thin body never noticed. This had been a mere hour ago. The beautiful thing did its job perfectly so far. It had been the cause of Missy’s death and then had returned to me, as the man had promised. Nice little trinket to use to cleanse this filthy world. I smiled at the little thing and placed it back in the dark abyss of my jacket’s pocket. I took the final drink of my now cold coffee, straitened out my business suit, and slipped out of the nearly empty restaurant. I walked casually along the street for a few moments until I was on the little stretch of alley-way that led to my apartment’s entrance.
As I pulled out my keys, I heard footsteps behind me. They sounded heavy and drug and I could tell there were several carriers of the noise. I turned my head to see who the racket belonged to and was faced with four young men dressed in baggy clothes. A local gang was an obvious guess from their attire and posture. I sighed to myself, noticing the greedy expressions cloaking their faces.
“ Nice clothes for an area like this, you must have somethin’ for us ta have,” the apparent leader spoke up to me.
I was immediately grabbed by two of the other members and pulled away from the door. The third member started to land hard blows to my stomach. I gasped for air as his assault continued. He landed another hard hit to my chest and the remaining air in my lungs was knocked out. I collapsed on my knees, trying to breathe and hoping they wouldn’t do much more damage to me. The leader was quick to search my pants for valuables. He took the keys, my wallet, my watch, and the paper-thin butterfly.
They sniggered as they released me and ran away. I smirked to myself, noticing that they had taken the one thing I had hoped they would find.
As I began to catch my breath, I heard gunshots in the distance. I smiled broader and placed my hand casually in my pocket. I found the butterfly there, as I expected, and took it out thankfully. It shimmered happily in the dull light of the alley-way. I suddenly felt more weight in my pocket. I searched to find all my belongings had returned to me.
I thanked the little Butterfly of Justice, not expecting it to return everything else that had been taken.
As I went to enter my apartment, I was once again interrupted by the sound of shuffling feet. This time though, only one pair was heard. I turned to face the owner and met the eyes of the beggar I had seen earlier that day.
He smiled at me once again and asked gleefully in his gruff voice,” so, how is the little thing treating you?”
I returned his smile and pulled out the butterfly while responding, “ quite well actually. It’s a very nice gift and it saved my life just a few moments ago. Thanks for asking. You don’t miss this beautiful thing?”
The man shook his head slowly and continued, “No, not at all. You use it well, but I warn you, it’s only a blessing so long as you yourself remain innocent.”
That thought briefly confused me but I shook it off as nothing and continued the conversation with, “ thanks for th advice, I’ll keep it in mind. Now I hope you will have a good evening.”
I finally entered my apartment and closed the door. I sighed in relief at being home after all the chaos of my day. I kicked off my shoes and immediately collapsed into my soft, black leather couch and turned on the T.V. The news was airing and I figured I’d watch it since I had nothing better to do. They broadcasted the story of a local waitress killed by an out of control vehicle. They also showed a story about a local gang war that turned violent and how one of the leaders had been killed in a crossfire. I sighed and began falling asleep in my comfortable state when a story drifted across my mind of an arsonist running around my neighborhood. It didn’t disturb me though and I quickly collapsed into the darkness of sleep. My dreams were filled of people who had done anything from terrible things to minor crimes and how I would be the one who killed them in revenge with the little Butterfly of Justice.
Suddenly I felt extreme heat running across my body and awoke with a start. I found me and my apartment encased in flames. I immediately tried to get up and go to the door when I noticed I couldn’t move. I looked around and saw that I was tied with chains to my couch. I heard a woman laughing hysterically in the room and I looked around for the source. I saw a blond teen standing and laughing at me. She walked towards me and spat darkly, “Still think my mom deserved death?”
I was quick to ask, “What are you talking about?”
As pieces of the upper story began to fall around us I was beginning to go beyond panic stricken.
“Little Missy. Sweet Little Missy who needed to steal money in order to save her daughter from starvation. Little Missy who had done nothing but try to help her family survive. Little Missy who served you and then was killed by this thing”. She spat to me as she clutched the delicate butterfly in her hand. She continued coldly.
“What did my mother do to deserve the painful death that you gave her? What did the driver do to deserve being haunted by the image for the rest of her life and then be chased by the law for a murder that wasn’t her fault? Did you even think about anything when you handed my mother her death warrant? I doubt it. After all what does it matter to you if an absolute stranger dies, who cares what the whole story is ? You’ve just gotta do what you feel is right in that exact moment, don’cha? Humans don’t deserve to judge others. They can’t be gods and should never have the power this wretched thing holds. It will die here with us now”, She continued as she crushed the butterfly in her hands.
“You’re crazy, let me go”, I screamed desperately. My vision began to fade as the smoke began taking affect on me and suddenly remembered what the old man had warned me about.
The news reported to the world casually the next day that a vicious fire had erupted in a small apartment complex and that two people were counted as dead. No one in the city cared about the long story of the Butterfly of Justice and people ignored the warnings held in the story of its death.
The days continued on as normal for the beggar on the street. He continued each day to shake his can hopelessly for money to survive on, hoping another good soul would drop a few cents into it. As the evening began to come and the beggar was about to leave to find a warm place to sleep for the night, a woman with flaming red hair and a good build came walking along. She dropped a twenty into the can for the man and began clicking her heels forward when the man grabbed her arm.
“Thank you for your generosity young woman.” He said in his gruff voice.
She smiled and responded, “It’s no problem at all, you need that my money more than me, use it wisely now.” she began to walk away again when he continued,
“But I must give you this in return. Please, take it.”
She looked to see what he was handing her and saw a delicate little butterfly. It’s paper thin body flexed in the man’s outstretched hand. Its rainbow wings shimmering delightfully. She looked quizzically at the beggar, admiring the beauty of the little thing and questioned, “What is this little thing?”
She took it and held it gently in her hand as he explained,“This is a gift to you. I know you can do great things with it. It is only able to be used by and held by those with pure hearts. Anyone who si with it and doesn’t have a pure heart will soon die. The butterfly will return to the one with a pure heart as if it had never left. Use it well, won’t you?” The man finished the explanation with a broad smile on his face.
She smiled and said gleefully, “Thank you, it’s beautiful.” She then continued down the street to her desired location.
The beggar smiled, knowing well that giving power of the gods to foolish humans would always end up in either a world of chaos. Or maybe it would end in a world of peace for everyone on this planet that is so very corrupted. The beggar gathered his few belongings and walked to the locale park. He found a secluded place to sleep fairly easily. His dreams were filled with thoughts of a peaceful world. He imagined people who were not corrupted by the Butterfly of Justice but rather could control and use them perfectly to rid the world time and again of all the bad cruel hearts. Thus, he keeps creating the butterflies in the hope that some day someone won’t be corrupted by its power but instead will use it to the benefit of the world. Thus, the beautiful butterflies of justice continue today spreading the hope of a world when only good hearts will exist and no one will be corrupted by the power of the gods.
I like to think of myself as a good guy who's very confused at the moment.  Donate to my beauty. biggrin  introducing_new_fanboy · Tue May 20, 2008 @ 02:04pm · 0 Comments |
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