The Great Escape - 10/20/03

Adventures don't end

the old man... old crazy man. Once the greatest pirate of his era. Once the most ruthless and thoughtless killer alive. Once the most attractive son of a bitch to walk the earth. And now hardly walking.

He doesn't remember any of this. As a small babe, he only knows of his own existence. Who was he, where is he, when is he, how is he. Unfamiliar faces pester him. Distant. He should remember them, but he doesn't feel any shame for forgetting. He had already forgotten shame long before.

Now, just sitting on a couch.
Now, just sitting on a bench.
Now, just standing across from another old man just like he.
In a white chair, in a white room, in a white house, in a white courtyard, in a white light all and nothing new under the sun.

He's trapped. This is about as much as he can figure. He doesn't do anything, he hasn't, isn't, won't do anything if the same continues.

He plans. He is aware that he can't, and so he slowly scribbles whatever he can of his plan onto the daily little squares on the daily flimsy piece of paper. When he remembers what he's doing, he carefully folds the paper and licks his quivering tongue along the fold. Then meticulously he precisely tears out the scrap containing the supplements to his plans. At night, when he remembers, he plucks the plans from his left breast shirt pocket, reviews it as if he were receiving directions from an old friend, and stores it with his other squares, carefully hidden under his bed mattress.

He doesn't know how long this takes him, since all sense of time divorced him sometime long or not so long ago.

One evening in bed, he fishes the puzzle square out of his breast pocket, readjusts his large spectacles, and reads what his friend has written him:
T O N I G H T

I S T
H
E

N I G H T

The old man smiles as he remembers the basic part of his plan. He picks up his squares that he has carefully ordered putting the most recent underneath the pile.

GET OUT OF BED

PICK UP CANE

WALK TO DOOR

OPEN THE DOOR

WALK OUT BUILDING

WALK TO GUARD GATE

The guard gets up noticing an old man has come out of the white building, and curious but frustrated from being distracted from nothingness, he goes out of the office to meet the old man.

SMITE GUARD WITH CANE

WALK PAST GATE

WALK DOWN ROAD

WALK

TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT

- Felix Bristol 10/20/03