Double

Sitting on a couch in a room full of people I love, I get a phone call. "Heyyyy!" The weird thing is, you're right here, not on the phone. Oh, it's simply your other self. You see, one version of you is here, with me in this state, lovely, beautiful, brunette you, and the other version is there, miles upon miles across the way, curls, blonde, crazy. Here you queries as to who is on the line, and I answer, "It's your other self." You're eyes become instantly ecstatic with excitement as you gesture desire to use the phone, to have the chance to speak to this other you far, far away. I withhold. You persevere. I drift into another world watching you and only you so closely as you look my way and smile in playful cheer. I'm taken to another place, a place of utter joy and love, love for all that is you. I see your face, your eyes, and into your soul. In this moment, there is perfect peace, silence of the mind. There is only you.

Foreign Cloud

Recollect. Recall. Remember.

Island life: water all around, shallow seas surrounding on all sides, the people crowding the landscape (and extra shallow waterscape) that remains untouched, unaltered from its natural state of harsh jagged rock and slimy colorful wildlife. Another contextually usual day on this neighborhood-sized island. The mainland, of course, is just a short distance away, with its towering skyscrapers and bustling city. The clouds in the sky are beautiful and few. And the day is windless, bright, and just right. A sudden commotion, such a terrible uproar. All the inhabitants rise in unison and face the same direction, pointing their view to the city, or rather, just above the city. A giant, dark, odd-shaped cloud came slowly down and stopped right over the highest high-rise. The bright sky darkened, clouds rolled in from all sides, people silenced in horror, as the darkest, largest cloud sifted away into the atmosphere to reveal a huge ship, a spaceship, something never before seen by any man. They were here, arriving with such fear in their wake. Why have they come? From where do they hail? What do they want? The nearby military base quickly informs us that it is in fact an alien life form, something nonhuman, who have come to confer with the government of the earth. Not just America, but the planet as a whole. Our wild human imaginations create so many postulations and notions as to their reasons, their appearance, etc. But these things may never be known. The circular craft simply remains still in its place, in a position as to suggest certain superiority of race over humanity. A tractor beam shoots down from the central core, down into the city, but nothing appears to move between the ship and the earth. All stand watching in fearful curiosity of what events are about to unfold. Suddenly I am filled with knowledge. Knowledge about human origins, the purpose of our creation, and why the extraterrestrials have come at this time. We are a byproduct of the visitors, who are in fact not visitors at all. They were on earth originally, and created us in an experimental attempt to create a better race, to see what we in this form could achieve. They found our technology more advanced than expected, and are quite proud of humanity as a whole. They have been living far above the earth, though not light-years away. Just beyond the atmosphere, but invisible to human eyes or instruments. It was time for a check-up. As this and more was all flooding into my mind, the sky began to brighten again and the spacecraft accelerated upward until it was no longer visible, leaving dark clouds and fear behind. Why had this revelation occurred to me? Had everyone else present experienced the same? What do we do now? These questions remained unanswered as the next events took their place. All attention was still slightly diverted in the direction of the city when I caught a glimpse of something peculiar in the water. A small boat, no bigger than the size of a toy slowly approached, a video camera hanging from its front, watching our every move. It came very close, to a point at which I could then see that there was not only the camera, but another object attached as well. A rocket? A miniature missile? Surely this is just some modern technical toy of some kind. An uproar rising from the voices of the people again, and without warning and out of nowhere, there are similar boats in all directions, but much much larger and without the camera, all silently aimed in the direction of our small island, our homes, our people. Without skipping a beat, the missiles fired, and chaos took over. Instant destruction and death everywhere. Direct explosive contact with houses and humans in every direction. And it was all over within but a second. I remained as a survivor, but I knew there was little time to lose before the next wave would be coming. Why is this happening? Why the sudden destruction? Such overwhelming thoughts bearing down on my mind amidst the chaos. The little boy near me I grab and start running with all my might. He had lost his two parents and sister just moments ago. We run and dive into the nearby sea, swimming with all our might to get away from the small island, our home. We swim off into a dream with no end, a story that has never been told, into a life that never was.