Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Experimental pt.1/I can still feel you, like the air that passes through my lungs.



 As Daniel looks over the ledge onto the underlying trees, like lily pads on a small pond, it serves to remind him of the very pond he took Jules for the first time. There was this small cut off section from the downtown core, in the Chinatown district, like a hidden oasis in the middle of a desert. It was the first time they found themselves together, an the warmth of her palm upon his own, is the one thing that strangely sticks out the most, like stepping onto a sandy beach for the first time, an feeling the sand as it attempts to encompass your naked feet.
It was at that moment, he recollects, that he knew, that fate was not something primarily regulated to the outskirts of society. But as Daniel stood there, hunched over the patio ledge, with a gentle breeze slightly tickling the nape of his neck, he knew that all was not how he wanted it to appear. As not too long before he found himself out here, a few days prior to be precise, is when things went exorbitantly wrong. Even now, fresh in his mind, he is still at odds to put it into words, Like two entangled particles, even if you saw it happen, you would be utterly confused on the exact details of what went on.
"Is everything alright." His mom calls out, while trying as she might to quietly open the patio door.
"Yeah, everything is fine." Daniel answers in a somber voice.
"Are you sure." She responds, now leaning upon the rail beside him." A mother always knows." As Daniel looks out over the darkened expanse, he can see the slight breeze gently caress the branches of the trees, that notably give way to slight details that he hadn't noticed before. A nest, slightly below the hood of the trees, an owl, perched upon a lonely branch, as the echoes of his call fill the forest, like the waves on a small pond. Even the slight rustling of bushes beneath, sounding as though someone is trying to open a candy wrapper in quiet room. Noticing this, a thought dawns on him, as though springing forth from the empty nether regions of his own mind, or the parting of clouds on a clear sunny day. That maybe, like the trees before him, he is looking at things from too far away, an has yet to notice the minute details.
  "Its just that sometimes." He sighs." I feel as though I am in a dark room, feeling around for the light switch. No matter what I might do, I am more than likely going to stub my toe at some point in time."
"Well its not the fact that you stubbed your toe, its the reaction you establish
afterwords."
   An interesting thought, an one that Daniel has never quite minded before. Being that it is not the mere fact that the mistake has been made, just more so the idea of the events that follow, the immediate reaction that persists said events.
"So you're saying that my reaction wasn't the popular one, so to say."
"Well I don't know exactly what happened, but I do know that, more than likely, you could have handled it in a more proper fashion."
   The moon is out, hanging in the sky as if held up by strings. As though its watching over us, like a deity of old, taking notes for judgement. Everytime Daniel looks up, upon the sky, the stars, an the moon, he realizes how insignificant he is, compared to the cosmos he is but a dot, a grain of sand on the shores of a beach. It always happens to give him a perspective on any problems that might arise, seeing that no matter what, the stars will continue to shine, and the moon will continue to be held up in the night sky.
  "So I guess I may have some apologizing to do."
"Its never a bad thing to admit you were wrong, its a sign of growth, maturity."
"Yeah, I guess, I guess."
   Jules lives down in the valley, by the river, that cuts through the land like a knife. Its basically the outskirts of the city, big yards, fresh air, an every pet conceivable running around like wild animals. There is one road that makes its way down to where she lives, just to the left of the river, an all the houses that line up beside it. Most of the houses are of the vintage variety, mostly from the seventies, with a few thrown in from the 1950's. All of them have wooden siding, with paint chips, an dead lawns. Patios are most prominent on the majority of houses, not at all like the newer ones you find upwards in the city. Jules house sticks out though, the yard is big, groomed, an clean of most the debris, minus a few lawn ornaments that teeter on the edge of falling flat upon the dark green grass. There is a big, beautiful patio out front, adorned by all types of flowers, shrubs, an small trees.
An as Daniel knocks on the door, he can hear a slight low thud reverberate through the house, like how one's voice echoes over a canyon.
"Daniel! what are you doing here?" Jules says in a confused tone.
"I know its late Jules, an I am sorry, but I couldn't leave things the way they were."
"You shouldn't be here Daniel, you shouldn't have come."
"I just want things to go back the way they were, whatever needs to be done for that to happen, I am willing to do.. I love you.. don't you still love me?" There is a slight pause while Daniel says this, as Jules looks back upon the house, as though in anticipation.
"What's going on?" Daniel asks, quite perplexed.
"I am sorry Daniel, but you're too late. I didn't mean for you to find out this way." At that moment, Daniel notices a silhouette appear behind her, like a specter revealing itself in a haze of smoke. Its a man, one that he has never seen before, he is wearing a pair of blue jeans, with an unkempt shirt, as if it was put on in a hurry. Its at that moment he remembers the moon, back home, hanging above the trees. He realizes that the moon is much like a reflection on a pond, it eventually gets canceled out, by the noise of falling rocks, or the passing of time. An he realizes that it is him, in fact, that is the moon, an not Jules like he would have otherwise thought.
  Back home, in the living room, Daniel stares off into the darkness, like a void in reality that happened to pop up in his bedroom. He always knew that there was something wrong, something that needed to be fixed. But he never before thought it would ever come down to this. Daniel, for the first time, can feel a surging pain suddenly erupt from the pits of his stomach. As though a small hole suddenly formed, gradually growing ever bigger, like a collapsed star eating its way through its very being. An seeing that Daniel has never before felt an anger such as this, he is at a loss as how exactly to expose of his new found counterpart, its as though its taken on a form of its own, like a rogue wave that has sprung forth from an otherwise calm sea.
  That night Daniel dreams of being in a deep forest, its as though he is encompassed by it, as if it presently sprung forth from each step he has taken. The hood of the trees only allow a sporadic downfall of the night sky which in turn gives the brush a stain glassed pattern to it. As he begins to walk, he can hear the crunch of the undergrowth cold beneath his feet, an the branches of the trees bearing down, smothering him, like a unmitigated embrace of an overbearing aunt. An it only seems to become thicker, almost reaching down into him, until up ahead a clearing becomes slightly visible like a mirage on a hot humid day. Suddenly the hood of the trees open up, allowing the eerie glow of the moon to make its way onto the cold shoulders of Daniel, showering him with a minute sense of hope. Before disappearing restlessly into the night, as the clearing slowly closes down upon him.
  "Daniel! Daniel.. wake up, the phone, its for you!"
"What!." Daniel sleepily asks." Who is it?"
"Its Jules, she wants to talk to you."
"Well I don't want to talk to her, just tell her I am sleeping."
"Come on Daniel, I think you should take this, it might be good news."
"Fine fine, I will be right there." Still a little shaken, Daniel slumbers up off the bed, still thinking about the strange events that happened upon him last night. I wonder what it all meant, he thinks. It was like a sudden lack of oxygen, that took hold of my lungs. Daniel has never really felt such dread before, even now, when he thinks about it, knowing that it was all a dream, he still shivers. It was like a giant hand hovering over him, crushing him at a moments notice.
"Hello Jules." Daniel whispers." What's going on, I am quite busy so.." he trails off, quite uninterested.
"Oh.. okay, well I will try to be quick. I just." She breaks." I just wanted to say that I am sorry for last night, I didn't know you would show up like you did."
"Well that is beside the point, my whereabouts shouldn't, an does not, exclude the fact that you were with another man!. If you didn't want to be with me, you could of at least told me, it would have been the proper thing to do." Daniel pauses, an calms his nerves, as he can begin to once more feel that anger rise up from the pit of his stomach." But.. its no matter now, I guess." Daniel, now hearing Jules sobbing cries over the phone, is somewhat taken back. He has never been all too good at consoling a crying woman, an even so, he is bereft of if he even should.
"Jules." Daniel says in a muffled voice." What do you want me to do exactly, you cheated on me remember, why are you crying?" As he says this, he can immediately feel the distaste in his mouth, like the abnormal aftertaste one gets from a less than ordeal pint of beer.  As he now realizes that he is between two enclosing walls, on one hand Jules, was with another man, an on the other, he cannot deny the fact that he still has feelings for her.
   Still being a fairly young man, Daniel has never been met with something so adult as this, its like being pushed over a cliff. He now feels as if his young hopeful self is now lost, as though he left it behind like a snake shedding his skin.
  "I am so sorry Daniel," she says still sobbing," it was a mistake, I was angry, stupid! Please don't let it end like this, I didn't mean for this to happen."
"I just.. I can't Jules, I just can't, not anymore, I am sorry."
  The sun outside illuminates the grass like broken glass upon a beach. An the clouds are sporadic streaks across the sky eventually fading out in a whimpering gasp. There is but a lonely tree in the front yard, a singularity upon an otherwise open area. Its branches extend out as if its reaching out for a loved one barely outside of its grasp.
"I am sorry to hear about you an Jules."
"Yeah, me too." Daniel says." Me too."
"So what are you going to do now."
"I am not going to do anything, as there is nothing really to do, she made her choices, an I can't change that."
"Well whatever you decide is good by me, but.. you know you can't deny your feelings forever."
"I know mom, I know."

Experimental pt.6/Upon the grief stricken skies.



   Daniel can feel the heat pressing up against his skin ever so slightly as though being lightly kissed. An the sands of the beach slowly make there way across his towel like the armies of the Roman empire slowly cascading onto the fields of battle. Susan lays beside, prompted up by her chair that raises her backside up to a 45° angle. The sun falls upon all the bodies that currently reside over the sandy beaches of the lake, making them glisten like jewels being irradiated by the sun. As odd as it might seem for Daniel an Susan to be out together, he can't help but be comforted by that fact, is it just the fact that she is a rebound, or something else that he cannot currently fathom, like looking down upon the ocean depths, never sure what resides underneath. An even though he looks over his previous memories of certain events, he can't seem to figure out why exactly he is so comforted by the fact that she is here, beside him. Maybe it is just the idea of being so effortlessly tossed to the side by Jules, like an empty container that is in dire need for contents, so is interchanged at any given whim. So than why is it that Daniel cannot seem to get rid of a nagging feeling of being manipulated by her, as though some master plan on her part was put into action, turning out the fact that they are now together. But than if that would prove true, wouldn't it also be correct in the fact that he, himself, is also manipulating. Wouldn't the comfort he feels when she is around, be governed by that same idea. It seems as though Daniel is using her as a safety blanket, in a sense, to get around his feelings of loss, an rejection towards Jules. So if they are both using each other, is either of them truly wrong in that fact, is it wrong for a virus to attach itself to a host, or is it natures way of doing things, or is it just another one of Man's reluctance to blame himself. Daniel, being more prone to the latter, sees it as a type of mutual understanding, like the honeybee an the flower, both using each other in there own right, but both getting equal advantage over the other.
   When Daniel was just a child, his mom used to tell him the same story each night, before he went to bed. It told of a certain honeybee, that happily went around pollinating the flowers, with no regard of anyone else's well being. Eventually the flowers grew tired of his disregard, an turned their backs. One morning, when the colony went out for its daily routines, they found the field all but empty, the flowers have fled, for different pastures. But when the flowers struck down their roots, they didn't realize that they had planted their own doom. For without the honeybees, their demise was all but eminent.  So the bee's, being all but lost, sent out a troop, the very bee that put this all in motion, in a way to rectify his misdeeds. Eventually he came to a clearing, far out into the forest, past their usual stomping grounds. At first sight he thought he must be mistaken, an figured the need to keep searching. Until a lonely voice echoed out from the silence, a voice grasping for it's final words.
  "Dylan? Dylan is that you?"
"Dayla?" He echoes out." Where are you?"
"I am down here, just below you. What are you doing here, why have you come?"
  "I have come to bring you back, but mostly, to apologize."
"There is no need to apologize Dylan, I was crass, didn't think things through. As I.. We! have realized that we need you, we need each other."
"What do you mean, what happened here?"
"Didn't your fellow companions tell you? We are lost without you, a fact that remained unseen till it was too late."
  No.. they have told me nothing of this, I volunteered on the very basis that this is my own doing."
"You may have put it into motion Dylan, but this wasn't just your own doing."
   As Dylan flew off, he could see the field descend off into in a cover of trees. The clearing itself was quite beautiful, tall green grass, gently swaying to the tune of the wind, while being surrounded by the tall oaks like the fine hairs of a balding man, all while being juxtaposed against the wilting flowers that pepper the grass, as though a bloody war has just come to an end in the most ironic of scenery's. As he got back, he found the colony in turmoil, friends fighting friends, while the queen hid out of action in fear of an uprising. But eventually, an with the most choicest of words, he got them all back into reality, an a plan of action. But as they all made it back to the field, Dylan found that it was too late. With all the altercations back at the hive, the time they so desperately needed, had been thrown away. But as Dylan eventually found out, all was not lost, as in the rubble, a seedling, a vision for the future of both factions. As in Dayla's final breath, she gave life.
   As the sun went down, the people cleared out. There were no more echoing voices of crying children, or the muted sounds of water splashing off in the distance, just the sounds of the seagulls, coupled with the oncoming tides gently rolling onto empty beaches. Susan, still wet from swimming upon the shallow waters, stands before him while the dripping waters make there way down every inch of her body, while the sun glints off her skin like a Greek goddess descending from mount Olympus. Off on the horizon, the sky turns to a burnt out faded orange, washing over the skyline until seemingly emptying out into the ocean. As Daniel looks onwards, he can't help but wonder about the full force of his actions, of what he has already done, an what he now wants to do. How different would things have been if he had chosen Susan on that fateful day, if he would have went against his better judgement. What path would his life have taken. But looking back on your pasts supposed mistakes has always been a vision of 20/20, an a most dangerous turn at that. Daniel has always been one that found it quite hard to vacate certain ideas, or situational hazards if you will, it was only fairly recently that he learned to let things go. But there was no big life changing event that brought upon this realization, no life altering event that made him see things for what they are, instead of what he wants them to be. It was a slow moving process, like a spilled can of molasses slowly making its way down the sides of a kitchen counter, or a snail racing through the tall grass. He just realized that everything that has encountered him in his young life, may make dents, but hasn't yet stopped him from moving on. He may get scratches, both mentally an physically speaking, but life has moved on. Daniel worried about these things so much, that he couldn't ever see himself getting passed it, but each an every time, it has gone by without much worry. The mind has a way of making certain circumstances worse than they actually become. So when Susan showed up in his life, he didn't worry, or even think too much about it. Especially considering that he just broke up with Jules. The past that has intertwined between the two of them has made him a little weary about considering Susan for such lofty endeavors, but Daniel quickly realized that if Jules is no longer in the picture, than he doesn't have to worry about what her thoughts are anymore. Its strange how certain ideas stick with you longer than the actual source material, even though Jules is gone, Daniel still holds on to certain thought processes he had when they were together, like a phantom limb you still feel after its been cut off.
  "So are you all ready?"
"Yeah." Daniel answers." Its getting late, we should probably head back."
"Okay just let me get dressed first, an we will be on our way." Susan has a way of getting dressed, that makes it appear as if in the midst of seduction, she does it slow, an meticulous, carefully slipping each arm through, allowing the material to hug her every curve as if by some magnetic force, finally running her hands down each side of her body smoothing out all the would be wrinkles. Its the kind of scene that gives Daniel the chills, as though Susan knows exactly what she is up too, an what eventual reaction she will get out of it.
"You know I was thinking, that maybe we don't need to end the day just yet."
"Well what did you have in mind."
"Oh! Nothing much.. just thought maybe we could end this day over at my house, maybe a late night movie is in order, or you know.. whatever."
  "Yeah that sounds good." Daniel tells her, trying not to let his unexpected excitement spill out." Do you want to get something to chew on or anything?"
"No." She pauses." I am not really all too hungry, but you know." She stutters." You can do whatever makes you happy."
"Well that's good to know." He chuckles. I am not too hungry anyhow."
    On the west side of town, there are these new developmental housing projects being built, that rises up onto the side of the mountain, looking over the downtown core. Behind the rows of houses lies what used to be a small farm, that is now all fenced off for the fact that so many people have broken into the few abandoned houses that sit behind the main lot. Its a place that barely consists of a town, only having four or five main buildings including what appears to be a school house, or a hospital. Living a couple streets down from this, she has a prime spot to see both the city, an the abandoned houses that seem to almost rise up out of her back lawn. Daniel, riding in the passenger seat, can see all the lights down in the valley, like the sprinkling of sand upon a linoleum floor after a day at the beach. The house is tall, an skinny, with what appears to be a white trim running throughout. But Daniel is finding it increasingly hard to see, with the only source of light being the small spotlight that hovers over the garage door, an the few lights upon the neighbors windows.
  "Sorry about the lights, they haven't exactly gotten all the street lamps running quite yet, which is pretty ridiculous if you ask me."
"You would think that that would be one of the first things on the list."
"Well this whole thing has been going on for far too long now, something about rezoning or permits, I am not really all too sure."
  As you first walk in, the house opens up to a small foray with the main focus being the tall staircase that juts out of the ground as if by natural forces. A short hallway to the left, in which leads down into the kitchen, that in turn circles back again into the living room you see to the left of the foray. Susan's bedroom is located upstairs, above the kitchen, she has this big, curved, back window that faces the farm out back, that is now barely visible through the darkness. Below that is a small bench that is fashioned with a vast array of different colored silk pillows, an long Lacy curtains that droop down upon them like the cascading waters of a waterfall. Daniel settles himself upon the edge of the bed, as if unsure as to where exactly to sit, as Susan changes in the bathroom located beside the closet on the far wall. After about five minutes, the door creaks open, an out walks Susan wearing a green night dress, with tall white thigh high stockings. Fidgeting on the bed, Daniel can feel his excitement rise as she slowly makes her way over, eventually sitting herself on the bed beside him, as though setting down a set of fine China.
  "So than." She whispers." About that
movie."
"Well." Daniel says awkwardly." I.. I think the television is downstairs."
"Yeah." She murmurs." But all the action is up here."
  When Daniel awakes the next morning, the heat of the sun pushes down on him through the open blinds of the back window. While Susan sprawls out beside him wrapped up in the blankets like a cocoon.
  "Hey!" She says sleepily." Do you think you could grab that please." Susan asks, upon hearing the reverberating sounds of the door echo unto the walls. As Daniel makes his way downstairs, the low thud of each knock becomes ever clearer, as though the sounds of hollowed footsteps creaking continually closer, as if belonging to some unknown entity.
  Upon opening the door, Daniel is briefly blinded by the morning sun pouring in through the light grazing skies, but as his sight quickly comes back he finds a figure standing there, that suddenly fades off an focuses into Jules, an with his mouth agape, he manages a mumbled verse." Jules.. what are.. what are you doing here?"
"Daniel!" She calls out in grief." What in the hell is going on?"

Friday, May 02, 2014

Expetimental pt.5/ The battle of the beasts, an the valley of the souls.

   Jules, unlike such others of her age, has never understood the dispassionate ideals of such young minds, to continually drink themselves to a stupor at every chance they come across.  Never understood the idea of only having fun when a drink is in hand, dancing upon tables, or generally regretting ones actions the morning after. Why bring yourself to such chaotic heights, in some delusional attempts at enjoying life, when all you're apparently doing is forgetting it. Just the idea of following such practices alludes her, as she has always wondered the mindset of such individuals. What happens to these people later on in life, an what is going through their heads when its happening in the first place. One would think that it would be a kind of popularity principle of some sort. A way to get in with the cool kids, or that their young adolescent lives aren't on the trajectory they wanted it to be. Jules herself, imagines it as an outreach, a reason to believe that one belongs, a confusion of youth that one must go through to becoming an adult. As in most cases it appears to grab hold of all walks of life at that age, a kind of singularity that gravitates those that bare to close. But Jules has always had that ability to over analyze things, to break certain instances down to their basic components to more understand them, but she does so in such a way that tends to get her lost in the mix of things, an can no longer see the big picture.
   Jules can still remember when she first found herself folded into such events, at this house party located just a few blocks from where she lives, at one of Alice's friends, which is how Jules got invited in the first place. The parents were out of town, so Sam, Alice's friend, decided it would be best to throw her own party, in hopes to get herself on the map with the popular crowd. Jules never really knew Sam all too well, she was one of those people that one hangs out with when only another specific friend is around. As every time they would be alone they only found but awkward silence. The house was of a modest size, but the main living room was like a sprawling field that seems to barely interconnect with the rest of the house. Upstairs, the hallways sneaks around like an anaconda on the trees of the rainforest. With each room a different door to the same broken universe. Most houses have a sort of chaotic nature to them, a mix of patterns from one room to the next, but Sam's is consistent throughout, making one feel as if in a loop from one room to the next, as if encircling the same room over an over, like the lost forest in the Legend of Zelda.
   The place is packed, with bodies moving up against each other like the sands on a beach being gently caressed by the rolling waves upon the shore. Even the music, which seems to have an ebb an flow, moves along with the crowd like a drop of water crawling down the side of ones cheek. As Jules begins to make her way around, she finds that each person is dressed with a glass filled to the brim with various an copious amounts of alcohol, an seeing that she has never truly felt the cold bitter taste of it upon her lips, begins to feel a small pit form in her stomach, as if all other eyes are on her. Jules, at this point, has never seen, nor experienced, the effects of alcohol on the body of a young mind, an so has no idea of the limit that one must adhere to, so as to not make more of a fool of oneself, especially of someone so new to such experiences. But as the night goes on, her inhibitions move out, an she can feel her mind turn fuzzy, an her body turn warm. Even to this day, Jules cannot remember the exact events that transpired that night, but from certain admissions the day after, she learned that she held herself in less than honorable regards. What she was told, was quite astonishing, at the very least from her perspective, as she has never held herself as such before. It was a little later at night, after the alcohol has already taken hold. There was this boy at school, named Nathaniel, that she was always quite taken by. An it just so happened that on this night they would find themselves in one of the rooms upstairs. They sat side by side on one of the couches in the family room, after everyone has left for greener pastures downstairs. An as they sat in silence, she could begin to feel the cold glare of his eyes, slowly followed by the cold embrace of his palm onto her lower back. As it happened, with the effects of the beer already taking full force, it felt like a dream, one that she had many times before.
   But as they lay on the couch, mangled togethor in a beautiful embrace, the door suddenly flew open, but as so, with their combined drunken stupor, forgot that the door was even there, let alone still unlocked.  An as Sam now stood at the door, mouth now agape in contradiction, she started to slowly steam, getting ever madder at the view she now possessed. Until finally erupting into a volcanic blow of words. Have you ever had that experience, when a certain event jumped you out of your current state, well Jules that night had such an experience. But as she snuck out the back, in shame, she knew it was already too late.
   Afterwards, understandably, these events would be all the rage at school the day after. Everytime she would enter those halls she could hear the hollow laughter been echoed off the walls, an the silent, barely audible mockery rummaging around her backside. Even her friends, would eventually turn there backs toward her in a unified mockery, all the while Nathaniel was somehow still praised an glorified as if he had just won the MVP from the school soccer team. Even to this day, after the events that transpired that night have all but faded, leaving only a fogged memory in the back of her mind, she still wonders, how the same event could give two people such different trajectories. What is it, in the mind of others, that give vastly distinct opinions on each individual under such similar circumstances. Is it the person itself, altering the events unto others, or is it just ones opinion beforehand towards each, like a choice that has been made prior to the actual engagement. Jules has always thought of the mind as a broken system that doesn't appear to need fixing, or a machine without instructions, deemed inevitable by humanity to be always used in a improper manner, like putting together a desk from IKEA, you're never quite positive if that is how its supposed to work. Or maybe its not humanity at all, maybe the system was broken when we got it, an evolution hasn't gotten around to fixing it yet. It could just be that the evolutionary track hasn't quite got us to our final form yet, we may be just a prototype in all senses of the word, a 1.0 if you will.
  It was only about a year or so later when Susan found herself in a quite similar predicament, as if the sands of time have quickly spun over, repeating itself, or like a broken record forever being looped into oblivion. As this type of thing seems to have a cycle of sorts, like the oncoming winds of winter, as every so often it has another young mind in its clutches. Another mind that distances itself from histories previous lessons, always jumping straight in, never attesting the fact that the water has been drained from the pool. An so being, one could not blame the feelings Jules would have towards her, as her feelings would express just that, a sudden disinterest in her arousing opinions on the subject, an no matter how Susan tried, she was always met with utter disdain. It was only about a week or so later, that Jules finally opened up enough to hear her side of things, an what Jules heard, was quite astonishing, as she never really seen things in such an opposite perspective before.
   Back before Daniel first met Jules, he was dating Susan. An throughout the course of there relationship, were very much on an off, so much so that it perplexed all that surrounded them, to the point that no one really knew on a day to day basis what their status actually was. An Jules, being out of the loop, had no idea.  Its a lot like schroedengers cat, you never really know if the cat is still alive, until you look in the box. When Jules first met Daniel, it was after another fight the two just had, an Daniel was out back in the smoke pit. Daniel wasn't the one to smoke on a regular, or even in a semi regular basis, but after awhile even he was beginning to see the strains of the relationship, as if the fog has at once subsided, letting in the warm rays of the sun. Even on that fateful day, Jules mood was someplace else, as was her focus. So it was much to her favor that she was not exactly paying attention to where she was going, as if being dragged by some omnipotent being of mythological origins. The smoke pit itself is like the back alley of the downtown eastside, one side is covered over by half dead trees, that only seem to grace the backyard of a seemingly abandoned house. On the other, is nothing but gravel, dirt covered walls, an a small cement siding that seemed to have risen up from the bowels of the earth. Its a place one would only suspect to find a select number of people, normally those of the smoking variety. Daniel, leaning up against the wall, shuffles the gravel around beneath his feet, while flicking the dead ashes into the air as they are gracefully swept onto the ground below. An as he flicks his butt off into the distance it curves ever so gently before dancing upon the gravel beneath Jules feet.
  "Oh! I am sorry, I didn't mean to get you like that." Daniel says, standing erect.
"No its quite alright, its hardly a flesh wound." She jokes.
"Its Jules isn't it? I believe we have English together, with Ms Robinson."
"Right, I think I remember you, you're the 'All things with welcoming hands' guy right?"
"Yeah that would be me! Pretty embarrassing huh! I don't usually do that type of thing, you know, all the poetry an
all."
"That's too bad, it was quite beautiful, different than the usual dribble people bring in. How did it go again:
               Love,
               Like knife
               Smears madly
               From who,
              An she says he
              Wants like void,
              But only
              I, want for how.
Or something to that order I believe."
"Wow! I must say, I am fairly impressed that you remembered that, it was a couple days ago!"
"Well I have always had a fair memory."
"Yeah well, still pretty impressive. So what are you doing back here anyways, doesn't seem like a place you would normally be seen in."
"I could say the same for you."
"Yeah! I am not usually a smoker, its just been a stressful few days."
"Anything you would care to talk about, maybe I could help, sometimes a difference of perspective is all one needs."
"I don't know, its just.. have you ever been in a relationship, where you've been completely blinded by the fact that its not as good as you previously thought."
"Oh! Yeah, an you wake up one morning an wonder why you haven't seen it the entire time."
"Exactly, I am just starting to think that its run its course, it just isn't fun anymore. Actually, its been like that for some time, I am just realizing now though."
"Well it sounds like you need to figure things out, see if this relationship is worth fixing or not, I am sure if you talk to her, she would want to do the same. Being an outside observer as I am, I couldn't really justify sitting here an saying you should break it off, as I am not apart of this, but either way, I think talking to her would most certainly help, you can't fix your relationship when one is in the dark about what needs fixing."
"That's a good point, thanks for the advice."
"No problem, glad I could help. An if you ever need anything, you know where to find me." After that day, they started to see more an more of each other, at first it began as just friends, hanging out at various locales around town. It was a comfort to them both, for Daniel it was time away from his failing relationship, that he himself refused to fix, despite the advice given by Jules. An for her it was a door into the world of popularity. She quickly found that just being seen with Daniel raised her up in the social order. The girls that at one time were mean, no longer looked her way in contempt, an the boys now watched her contently from a far.
  All this changed one night, as he drove her home, it was dark out, an the lights of the city sparkled in the night sky. An the falling rain danced upon the roof of his car in tune with the radio. It started out innocent enough, a spark, a miscommunication, a relapse of judgement. Which turned out to be the start of something, something either of them knew that they had with in them. Like the flooding waters from a broken damn, that all started with a kiss.