subrosa: the adventures of bill chase chapter_07

Chapter 7


In the early morning, I awoke with the creature lying beside me. Slowly, I got up to an upright position. I almost fell over. I was stiff and sore. Most of all, I was thirsty. When I moved, my head spun. I could not focus. There was a big bowl of water in a small room but it did not look clean so I took the lid off the reservoir behind it. I drank until I could drink no more.

I washed myself, then urinated in an ornament that reeked from the smell of urine. I felt better after cleaning up. I decided to continue on my travels. On the way out, I found a pair of pants with straps on them. Because I was nearly naked, I took them. The label on the chest said Bill. I hoped Bill did not mind.

When I had thanked the furry creature for his help and hospitality, I left. I continued my adventure down the center of the smooth path, walking the white line. It amused me not to step off the thin line. But most of the time, when the path was straight, the line would be broken; thus the game seemed less important.

As the light source rose in front of me, the warmth it emitted increased until it seemed to be draining energy our of my tired body. It was nauseating but I longed for it.

In the distance, the path seemed to melt and bleed into the open blue space. Out of the vicissitudinous haze grew a terrifying, shining object like I had never seen before. I could not believe that it was a living creature, yet I was certain that it was moving toward me. The rate of its approach was alarming. It soon would be upon me. It screamed or sang or both as it approached. I froze in bewilderment and amusement. Just as it came close to where I was, it slowed down and eased quietly along beside me.

"Get off the road, you fuckin’ idiot."

It was the first man I had remembered seeing. He had greeted me and was now gesturing at me with his middle finger. This was intelligence. I was ecstatic to have finally found intelligent life. I smiled and waved back with the same gesture he had used.

His casing stopped suddenly with a screech. It lurched backward and around and came back. He stopped at exactly where I was standing; pain ran through my thighs. Maybe he was not in complete control. The man slid awkwardly out of his casing and walked up to me. The size of his stomach amazed me. I had to reach out to touch it. He must not have liked me touching it because he knocked my hand away. It must have been hurting him to have so much swelling. I stood staring at him, not sure how to communicate. I could not speak. Any words I might have uttered did not seem appropriate.

"Look, smart ass; this is a car and this is a road. Roads are made for cars. Got that?"

I was pleased that he wanted to teach me things, but he could have been a bit more gentle in his approach. He poked me in the chest as he continued.

"What's wrong with you? Why don’t you get off your cloud and get a job? Why don’t you pay some taxes like the rest of us? I don’t want my taxes supporting you. I got kids to support. I sure as hell don’t need to support you welfare druggies too."

He was misguided somewhere along the path because he was not making any sense to me. It saddened me that he was so displeased with his responsibilities. To try to ease the tension between us, I showed him the middle finger greeting sign, hoping to indicate to him I cared and would love to help. If it was not too late.

He misinterpreted my intentions. He stopped his poking me in the chest so he could switch to squeezing my neck. This was getting out of hand. I did not know what I did to deserve being tormented by an angry, dissatisfied creature like this man, but I could not take continuous punishment.

Finally losing my patience with him, I bit his wrist and kneed him in the groin as hard as I could. He bent over and groaned. I reasoned that to be an opportunity to continue on my way.

"You die, you queer!"

I waved the middle finger greeting once more as a symbolic gesture of friends parting, but it was useless. The man was in a rage. I could not understand his disposition. He waddled back to his car and struggled to get inside. The car made another screeching noise as it lurched at me and knocked me down. He took his car down the road, and I thought I was done with him. If learning simple word lessons was going to be that annoying, I was not certain if I cared to learn the strange ways of the land.

Another screech. I looked up to see the car turn around. The man was out of control. Maybe I had somehow shattered his ability to reason. The cold reality of finality was approaching rapidly.

With a shock of energy through my body, the urge to fight against my doom took control. I jumped up grabbing a large rock from beside the road. As I hoisted the rock above my head, blood leaked through the cuts on my hand.

Horror, fear and hatred, things new to me, appeared on the man's face as I hurled the rock at him in his approaching car. I dove out of the way, but the car caught my foot and spun me around to the ground. My body was crippled with pain. I could take no more punishment. Maybe I would have to give in and surrender.

The man's car veered off the road and wrapped itself around a large tree. Then all was still and silent except for the cry of a black bird that had been disturbed from its perch. It flew off complaining about the disturbance.

I thought about going to see if the man needed help but he was yelling angrily, so I did not go. I wanted to get away. It was shortly after I started my crawling, that pain forced me off of the road. I lay down in the shade of a tree. An aching trance swallowed me in a restless sleep.



by Joanne B. Washington

read on. chapter_08



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