In responce to Scribbla’s invitation to write a reply to his “DEAR JOHN” letter, and INDIGO SPIDER’S Sunday photo with a twist: here is my story in tandem of Scribbla’s.
Thanks for the push Scribbla, you furnished a wonderful jump start for my imagination. Hope you like it.
Dear Gilliam,
I pray this note will reach you. Your Bessy arrived but she was poor in spirit. Her heart burst as she flew into the pen on my rooftop. I’ve no idea how she escaped the pull of the dark void that has arrived in your little hamlet, but the effort cost her dearly.
Gilliam, this void you describe is not new. I have heard of it’s occurrence many times. As a conjuror of time, I’ve traveled through many eons and lived several lifetimes. What you describe is not an un-natural state of affairs. If my own bird arrives safely at your rooftop pens with this revelation, I will be greatly surprised. Man, beast, fowl, and fauna can not keep the fires of their spirits lit inside the life sucking blackness that is coming. As you have observed, the fowl and the beast have succumbed, disappeared from the landscape of the land. You spoke of cleansing or bleaching the darkness from your sight? What you are experiencing is a cleansing in it’s own right. It’s as though something from beyond our lives has decided a mistake has been made and everything as we know it is being cleared away by the darkness: the light will return once all but the strongest of heart and desire have been swallowed and destroyed by the inky decay of nothing-ness. The strong will survive, but not with their memories. All will be wiped clean, the survivors will be nothing more than near empty vessels of genetic material. The survivors will learn to build fires, to cure meats, how to chip arrowheads from stone: they will barely be standing upright. It is a cleansing of the weak of mind and spirit. Only the best genetic material will survive.
The empty shell of the woman (Kerry?) on the bed is what you should expect to happen to all those you know, all those living. You’ve observed the result of the darkness once its entered and overtaken the spirit. Taking with it all the human vestments and knowledge. If your mind and spirit are strong enough, you will fight the ensuing madness that will prevail within you. You will fight it and win, in a manner of speaking. Because my dear Gilliam, little is stronger than the desire to pass on the genes of a fighter. Nothing is stronger than the yearning to live and be the Ark of the people. There is no way to avoid the darkness sweet Gilliam, but there is no room for despair either. To win this battle: to be a parent of the New World, you must prepare yourself. You will find your mind in conflict. Don’t fight this variance , but rather direct its fight for survival. Don’t allow despair to turn the darkness against your very will. It is the WILL that will save your genes.
The emptiness of will is what has consumed Kerry. It’s taken her soul, her self-awareness, and her life. She breathes the air but derives no pleasure from it. What she exhales only expands the void around her. Infecting all who breathe the same breaths as she. The void consumes the vegetation which explains why the fields are dark and the hedgerows barren. The animals have fed upon the vegetation and are bleak and infertile inside, until they too become one with the void. The fields have blackened and in turn have befouled the intestine of the rabbit and the cow who feed upon them. It cannot be stopped or slowed. Prepare yourself Dear Gilliam: be strong of heart and faith. Be one of the few whose bodies escape the deepening black abyss. Pass on your exceptional genes of survival, strength of character and superior mind to the new breed of humans advancing themselves to the next world. Pray you are the strength that pushes the future of human survival: work hard so it is your offspring that will be the object of praise from the universe and your offspring will inspire the elements to end the cleansing of the species this earth has endured since before time.
Be strong Gilliam, and I will see you in the next world.
John
VERBOSE SHE IS, VERBOSE SHE WRITES 