Posted by Cemetery of Eden on February 19, 1999 at 08:54:47:
"FRIENDS"
Cameron Baker
I am a child. I have nothing. I am nothings except property. I have no friends, no one whom I would call family. I have crawled through life as a child, and I will die a child.
I did have one friend, however. A good friend as well as an excellent listener. She seemed to always have a solution to any problem that I would come to her with. I thought that they were rather intelligent solutions, few others felt the same way, as they have shown me, leaving me without a solution from my friend, leaving me without a friend. They took her away, and they took me away after I came to see her again (to say good-bye, of course).
Perhaps you will be able to understand better my situation if I first tell you, in more detail, my past...our past...the past between my friend and I.
I loved her, and she loved me, yet she never told me. I have always chalked this up to her overpowering skills as a listener minimizing her ability to voice her own opinion to me, or anyone else.Despite all of this, she was the greatest advisor I have ever had, and for this, I am forever grateful.
I met her one day while I was walking through the woods praying that I would get lost in the forest, like the trees. You've heard the saying: "You can't see the forest for the trees." What they did not realize was that a forest without trees is a large piece of grass and dirt. She was lying there, almost hidden in the bushes behind the rusty, barbed wire fence. I made sure that no one was looking, and made my way over the boundaries into unknown land. Even then, she wouldn't speak to me.
I carried her to a nice spot in the woods, very secluded. It was at this place that we talked for hours. People thought me insane. "How can anyone sit in the forest and talk to nothing for hours?!" they would say. They had no idea. I had a friend then, and nothing that they said could ever get to me, no matter how hard they tried.
I caught her sleeping once. she was lying in the same spot that I had placed her weeks ago. People complained of the stench coming from the forest (and from me), but I never noticed it, and neither did she, my friend.
There was one man, however, whose words did get to me. He was a well liked person of high political status in our community. For some reason, he was able to get to me through me with his mis-used intelligence. They called it witt, I call it ignorance.
Because this was so powerful to me, I told my friend. Without words, she was able to give me the solution to my largest problem at that time in my life. I now knew the best way to fix my situation, all because of my friend. We thought so much alike! Her thoughts sounded like my thoughts, her voice like mine...we were one entity with separate bodies. This is why I loved her so much.
At this point, I had to prepare for my solution. Each night, I sat and planned with her, I sharpened my axe, and I contemplated the future with her. She always was able to answer my questions, neverminding how difficult they may be. The last thing she told me before I began to solve my problem was that as long as there are clouds in the sky, then there is always hope for peace. That had never left my mind, not since that second.
I left her, and made my way to his house. It was a deep night, and I knew that they only way to get in was through forced entry, for he would never let me into his house...no one would, no one understood me like she did, my friend. Now in his house, I crept into his room. I found his bed, I found him. Lifting the tool over my head, I came down lightly upon his mouth. He was now awake, but no one was there to hear him moan. I worked the axe out of his mouth and helped myself to a drink of water. I stepped back into the room, watching him writhe on the floor. I came closer to him.
It was always he who complained of a smell, so I relieved him of his nose, just as a golfer drives his ball. His bloody nose rammed against the wall, but that was nothing to the amount of blood on his face. In my final swing, I tore his skull from his lower head, and left him to die.
Somehow, the neighbors found out about it by the next morning (something about a stench, I didn't notice it..) They chased me, and I ran to the only place I knew was still safe for me to go: to my friend in the forest. It had been so long since I had left her sight. She had grown old. The insects crawled over her, yet she still remained at peace in that same spot I had placed her months before. I looked at the sky, looking for clouds, but there was only pitch.
When I hear them coming closer, I lifted her body, stiffened by time, yet brittle to the touch, and carried her back to where I found her. They were standing there waiting for me. In my last act, I gently placed her body on the ground, kissed her cold, blue, hand, and sat there waiting for them.
No one understands. They say I murdered her too, but she was alive when I left her. And so I sit here in prison waiting for the clouds. They tell me that I will get to see her again soon. And when I do, the clouds will be full and strong, and my corpse beside hers. Each of us with the same name on the tomb..."Friends".