Thursday, October 20, 2005


Come, gather round my picture. Let me tell you a story. You're attracted to me, aren't you? The seconds go by and you're still studying my features and imagining the body hidden from sight. You little devils! You don't have to admit to anything. It will be our personal secret. But I wanted to tell you a story. A story of the destiny of one who found my photo in the vast labyrythal synapses of the Internet. He looked into my static eyes - yes - I know I'm a digital photo and that my eyes and all the rest of me are static, unchanging. I can live with that. If I am not evolving, at least everything around me is. And that is fascinating. When the collective pixels of my gaze met the searching eyes of my finder, something happened to him. It would be a cliché to say he fell in love with me at first sight, but he seems to be the clichéd type, and that's exactly what his passions forced upon him. Before that moment ended he stood up, began pacing nervously up and down his room, then pushed against the door and stepped into the world in search of me. He boarded a bus, gambling that the increased mobility would necessarily assist our paths in intersecting. It won't. Maybe it will? But first his face will have grown gaunt and haggard from this tedious turning from face to face, wherever he encounters the features of a girl, a hope ending each time in disappointment. His eyes are darting about right now from side to side desperate for the brief respite of someone potentially me. Where he is? He's already drifted further from his point of origin than he could ever hope to recover in a week's journey by the same buses. That's really it - the story, I mean. It will end eventually in some tragedy, when his money runs out, when his credit cards cease to function, when he no longer remembers who he is. I can already see clouds of panic forming in his eyes at this very moment. How do I know that when I'm here with you? He printed me out on a scrap of paper, and looks at me when no one else is around.

Story #296

10 comments:

Indeterminacy said...

Cool! Let's go back to the last story!

Jamie Dawn said...

Obsession.

Michael said...

You are one sick puppy...

and I love it.



Take Care
Michael

Unique Designs from Zazzle said...

Hey, that pic is wrinkled; what have you been doing with it?

Ariel the Thief said...

yeah, Jamie, obsession it is. great story, funny and sensitive at the same time.

Indeterminacy said...

Sorry for answering your comments so late, but here goes....

Lula: You should watch what you post. Never know what I might use over here ;-)

Jamie: Yeah, and what would really be cool is if Sylphidine saw the guy and could tell us what finally happened to him.

Michael: It's great to be loved. But I think I am too old to be a puppy.

Shane: Guess this turned out to be a hands-on obsession.

Ariel: Thanks - I'm glad you like the story.

Doug The Una said...

Ardor, n. A love so sublime and overpowering that one will pay any membership fee, click any link and abbreviate even the shortest of words to prove its valor.

From the archives

Indeterminacy said...

I loved that one, and I do remember it.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hey Indie,
I enjoyed reading about this man running around frantic with the girl in his pocket. Somehow whenever you write in first person, even when the girl is talking I tend to think that the man is you. In the other stories I do not. Just thought you'd like to know that. :)

smiles,
Liz

Indeterminacy said...

Liz: Ah, but what does this perception say about you? (P.S. I'm glad you enjoyed the story.)