Not The First Time The World Had Ended
But it wasn’t that the world was coming to an end, oh yes there had been a thousand Armageddon pasts, entire civilizations had been whipped off the face of the earth, along with the dinosaurs and the so like us Cro-Magnons, there before the great renditions on the canvas of the universe they had all been erased, nullified, their existence not satisfying any of the ongoing routines which nature had opted to follow but more, more than that, their time had expired, their entire species concept had been disapproved, at some point they all decided to fade away, one by one till the last Cro-Magnon could not be heard, till the ultimate dinosaur breathed heavily through his lungs, till that innovative island cat made eye contact with that last dodo bird, there species ends, others will thrive because of their demise and others too will fade but the beginnings and the endings, the flooding storms the fiery outrages, were all part whole of the master magnificent, that the continuation of things depended wholly on there being a period at the end of every sentence.
Lauren stood by the television set watching the ensuing world disorder, there was no editing the news now, there was no time for it, people were killing each others in bully groups or one by one, there was a great deal of anger being expressed, where there were no fires soon there would be, explosions were raging throughout the city, the killings could not be labeled as murder, anarchy has other rules, looting was rampant, the police were helping, community leaders, politicians and priests had stopped asking the people to reduce themselves to humbleness and to turn the other cheek, no one could look away, no one could assume that their next step would not be their last, what they could assume was that civilization was suffering more than a serious set back, pushing the limits it was the end of a democratic ideal, it was the end of capitalism, the dark ages had arrived again and this time with all the lust to reclaim their honors at the sanguinary table where the human passions practiced their gluttony for the enlightenment.
Antoinette came in the room, she didn’t understand why her Lauren would watch and watch that tube tuned to the horrors, day in and day out, she was personally disgusted by it, she had locked all the doors, sealed shut all the windows, the world could collapse she wasn’t going to participate in the mayhem, not by watching, not by listening, she would have none of it, she did suspect that their house would not remain untouched, that it was a matter of time before the freakish mobs would close in on them, and in some way she guessed that that too was what Lauren was thinking about, seeing the moment of their violent death arrive, there was nothing to do, what little they knew about other countries was the same news, butchering everywhere, the mass had gone mad.
Lauren had still not turn around from her standing in front of the television to acknowledge Antoinette’s entrance, Antoinette came up to her and said, “I think we should go to the lake.”
The lake was where their cabin was, they had bought it a few years back with the intent of visiting often on weekends, they rarely went there, there was just no time, the city always kept their attention, Lauren hadn’t even thought of it, she replied, turning to hold her lovers face, “the roads are impassible babe, besides they will kill us as soon as we leave this house.” Loki laid on the couch, it seemed he didn’t know that the entire world was coming to an end, or maybe he did, maybe he just figured he’d waited out, wait till they all died away, and then he would make his way through the wreckage and bodies to the woods, and there camp out for the rest of his life.
Antoinette was undaunted as if in another life someone had chopped her head off and now there was nothing she could fear, “I have gathered what little food we have and I have mapped out a walkout plan, we just walk out of here and keep going until we make it to the cabin, at least there we wont hear the carnage, we can just wait things out, whatever happens to us there will happen and that is that, but at least we will be at peace for our last days, I just want it to be the two of us and nothing else around.” Her eyes teared, she didn’t want any end to come, and yet her tears held back flooding contained.
She motioned Lauren to sit on the floor, laid the map out, a penciled route was evident, with boxes marked along the way, “…see we can walk at night, I think maybe from 1am till 4pm, the rest of the time we can hide in these areas, if we walk briskly we could be at the cabin within 4 nights time, I am counting that once we are out of the city we can increase our walking ours, what do you say.” And she sort of nudge her on the shoulder so as to imply “lets do it.”
Lauren wasn’t even picking up a bit of hope, she was definitely tied to the life of a city, Antoinette was always mostly by herself, Lauren needed that world far much more than her lover, disillusioned at their prospects, “I suppose there is nothing else to do, staying here to wilt under the roués wont be any fun,” then she suddenly paused and looked around the room to spot Loki with his eyes draped over by his palms, and remarked, “what about Loki?”
Antoinette had planned everything, without a drop of doubt she said “I have this satchel and we will take turns carrying him, I don’t think he will follow us, I don’t think he knows what is going on, and besides that anything out there is bound to scare him.”
Lauren noted, “He weighs 20 pounds or more.”
Antoinette “We could take less food and just bet on losing some weight ourselves.” To which they both laughed as they cuddled each other and then laid there forgetting the world for a few unforgettable minutes.
That very night Loki was placed in a satchel, as always he didn’t mind anything that his mistresses did to him, he loved them adored them, and would probably have followed them but then that would be true in a perfect world, they were about to walk into the unknown. The night itself was inhospitable, it was moonless, dank, they could not use a flash light, fortunately both knew the city very well and would only encounter difficulty navigating the country side, they were off, their house slowly drifting into the background, slowly disappearing, losing its sense of home.
Loki turned out to be a pleasant travel companion, though occasionally cuddled next to his mistresses he would purr and they would urge his silence with serious eyes. For now he was the rest of the world to them, they had no cell phones no electronic gizmos to communicate with, where Ogle or Habakkuk were was now something that they could not know, both would wish to know but now all they had was their Loki cat.
The trip overall had its scary and inconvenient moments, but what matters to us is that after the fourth night as dawn sparked itself to life they saw the cabin, surrounded by trees and overlooking a glorious lake it was now heaven, certainly a sanctuary, for some odd reason Loki started to cry a bit, but they just concluded that he was trying to get used to his new surroundings through some kind of moaning ritual. Of course the girls were also starving, having forgone rations to carry a cat, and so they took to the cereals and can food that had been precariously but fortunately been left in the cabin.
They slept the entire day, and then afterwards took a shower together, after all this would not be the first time that the world had ended, it had ended many times before.
Lauren stood by the television set watching the ensuing world disorder, there was no editing the news now, there was no time for it, people were killing each others in bully groups or one by one, there was a great deal of anger being expressed, where there were no fires soon there would be, explosions were raging throughout the city, the killings could not be labeled as murder, anarchy has other rules, looting was rampant, the police were helping, community leaders, politicians and priests had stopped asking the people to reduce themselves to humbleness and to turn the other cheek, no one could look away, no one could assume that their next step would not be their last, what they could assume was that civilization was suffering more than a serious set back, pushing the limits it was the end of a democratic ideal, it was the end of capitalism, the dark ages had arrived again and this time with all the lust to reclaim their honors at the sanguinary table where the human passions practiced their gluttony for the enlightenment.
Antoinette came in the room, she didn’t understand why her Lauren would watch and watch that tube tuned to the horrors, day in and day out, she was personally disgusted by it, she had locked all the doors, sealed shut all the windows, the world could collapse she wasn’t going to participate in the mayhem, not by watching, not by listening, she would have none of it, she did suspect that their house would not remain untouched, that it was a matter of time before the freakish mobs would close in on them, and in some way she guessed that that too was what Lauren was thinking about, seeing the moment of their violent death arrive, there was nothing to do, what little they knew about other countries was the same news, butchering everywhere, the mass had gone mad.
Lauren had still not turn around from her standing in front of the television to acknowledge Antoinette’s entrance, Antoinette came up to her and said, “I think we should go to the lake.”
The lake was where their cabin was, they had bought it a few years back with the intent of visiting often on weekends, they rarely went there, there was just no time, the city always kept their attention, Lauren hadn’t even thought of it, she replied, turning to hold her lovers face, “the roads are impassible babe, besides they will kill us as soon as we leave this house.” Loki laid on the couch, it seemed he didn’t know that the entire world was coming to an end, or maybe he did, maybe he just figured he’d waited out, wait till they all died away, and then he would make his way through the wreckage and bodies to the woods, and there camp out for the rest of his life.
Antoinette was undaunted as if in another life someone had chopped her head off and now there was nothing she could fear, “I have gathered what little food we have and I have mapped out a walkout plan, we just walk out of here and keep going until we make it to the cabin, at least there we wont hear the carnage, we can just wait things out, whatever happens to us there will happen and that is that, but at least we will be at peace for our last days, I just want it to be the two of us and nothing else around.” Her eyes teared, she didn’t want any end to come, and yet her tears held back flooding contained.
She motioned Lauren to sit on the floor, laid the map out, a penciled route was evident, with boxes marked along the way, “…see we can walk at night, I think maybe from 1am till 4pm, the rest of the time we can hide in these areas, if we walk briskly we could be at the cabin within 4 nights time, I am counting that once we are out of the city we can increase our walking ours, what do you say.” And she sort of nudge her on the shoulder so as to imply “lets do it.”
Lauren wasn’t even picking up a bit of hope, she was definitely tied to the life of a city, Antoinette was always mostly by herself, Lauren needed that world far much more than her lover, disillusioned at their prospects, “I suppose there is nothing else to do, staying here to wilt under the roués wont be any fun,” then she suddenly paused and looked around the room to spot Loki with his eyes draped over by his palms, and remarked, “what about Loki?”
Antoinette had planned everything, without a drop of doubt she said “I have this satchel and we will take turns carrying him, I don’t think he will follow us, I don’t think he knows what is going on, and besides that anything out there is bound to scare him.”
Lauren noted, “He weighs 20 pounds or more.”
Antoinette “We could take less food and just bet on losing some weight ourselves.” To which they both laughed as they cuddled each other and then laid there forgetting the world for a few unforgettable minutes.
That very night Loki was placed in a satchel, as always he didn’t mind anything that his mistresses did to him, he loved them adored them, and would probably have followed them but then that would be true in a perfect world, they were about to walk into the unknown. The night itself was inhospitable, it was moonless, dank, they could not use a flash light, fortunately both knew the city very well and would only encounter difficulty navigating the country side, they were off, their house slowly drifting into the background, slowly disappearing, losing its sense of home.
Loki turned out to be a pleasant travel companion, though occasionally cuddled next to his mistresses he would purr and they would urge his silence with serious eyes. For now he was the rest of the world to them, they had no cell phones no electronic gizmos to communicate with, where Ogle or Habakkuk were was now something that they could not know, both would wish to know but now all they had was their Loki cat.
The trip overall had its scary and inconvenient moments, but what matters to us is that after the fourth night as dawn sparked itself to life they saw the cabin, surrounded by trees and overlooking a glorious lake it was now heaven, certainly a sanctuary, for some odd reason Loki started to cry a bit, but they just concluded that he was trying to get used to his new surroundings through some kind of moaning ritual. Of course the girls were also starving, having forgone rations to carry a cat, and so they took to the cereals and can food that had been precariously but fortunately been left in the cabin.
They slept the entire day, and then afterwards took a shower together, after all this would not be the first time that the world had ended, it had ended many times before.
posted by Ricardo Correa at
8/31/2006 05:17:00 PM
