Oh My...

“Oh my…”

Jalen was annoyed by the words. How dare she interrupt his silence. This was his time. His daily trek around the sharp, steep curves of the mesa was the only time Jalen could find peace. High school was a never ending torment session of boredom. His home life was a tumultuous dance around the many eggshells his neurotic family loved scattering about the floor. This walk was his time. His only time. How dare she shatter it. 

Jalen glared at her. Kandice was her name. Everyone called her Candy, probably with a k, because people suck like that. He knew her. They had grown up in the same cul-de-sac just a couple of houses apart. She had even invited him to her tenth birthday party. She was different back then. She used to love anime, just like Jalen. They had a sweet talk about their favorite shows under an elm tree. A sweet moment. One of just a handful of good memories.

Then came middle school. Jalen was dwarfed by the other boys who suddenly sprouted like trees. As for Kandice, well she filled out. Earlier than most of the other girls. A feat that garnered her quite the following. Jalen became invisible to her. Remained invisible as they both entered high school. By then the other girls had caught up to Kandice. She needed a new gimmick and that seemed to be smoking weed and being bubbly. Two things that Jalen despised. Jalen was happy to be invisible to her then.

Then came two words.

 “Oh my…”

They weren’t spoken to him, still he felt like they were intended for him to hear. He didn’t know why, but a tingle of curiosity was coursing through him now. His eyes narrowed in on her. Something was wrong.

Kandice was wearing an obnoxiously bright neon yellow backpack that hurt Jalen’s eyes. Her heavily bleached hair was tied in a high riding ponytail. She wore an unzipped purple hoodie that hung over a tight top held up by spaghetti straps. Then came the pair of black pajama pants with smiling purple teddy bear heads. Jalen could feel his irritation rise at the sight of the bottoms. He always hated the tradition of kids wearing pajamas to school. He was far from a fan of schooling, but at least he was motivated enough to wear proper jeans when he went. 

Still he knew that it wasn’t her choice of clothing that perturbed him so much. Something else was wrong. He needed to keep looking for it. Then. Then he found it. It was her phone. It laid on the rocky ground next to her untied black and white sneakers.

The thought that someone, especially a teenage girl, would see something so jarring that they would drop their phone frightened Jalen. He was hit with a shiver. His feet moved forward, but slowly, cautiously.

“Oh my…”

Kandice was standing in front of a metal barrier intended to stop cars from careening off the cliff. Jalen was familiar with the barrier. He visited it often. Many a night he sat upon it as his eyes looked down the steep forty foot drop. He often wondered how easy it would be. Just push off and fly. Fly right into nothingness. Surely nothingness was better than his current life.

Maybe that was what she saw. Some brave hearted, disillusioned soul had come along and done what Jalen never could. Someone else who would be invisible to a girl like Kandice. Until now that is. Now that person had her attention. Now that person would live forever burned somewhere deep in her subconscious. Haunt her dreams for forever more. Jalen could inflict the same on someone else one day. His bloody, broken body lingering inside the head of a beautiful woman. If only he had the balls.

As he got closer he realized that couldn’t be it. Her eyes weren’t turned downward. No, they were glaring straight ahead. Jalen knew well that the mesa towered over a sprawling city. It was the sight of the buildings, houses and green tree tops that stretched out as far as the eye could see that typically stopped Jalen from jumping. Especially during the night. The sea of lights usually mesmerized him. He didn’t know why, but he found it comforting. It was like the frayed red and black flannel blanket that he clung to as a child. Only instead of protecting him from monsters, the city lights protected him from the dark demons that plagued his mind.

Had something happened to Jalen’s city? What could it be? A fire? A mushroom cloud?

“Oh my…”

Jalen’s hands were sweating, his knees were jittering as he finally caught up to Kandice. He stood next to her and then he looked out and saw…

What is it that he saw? His mind was whirring, spinning, puzzling. He looked out, but for a moment he couldn’t see, or that wasn’t it. No, it’s that he couldn’t process. He was ready for devastation. He was ready for chaos. He was not ready for this. This was unbelievable, unfathomable and….and…and it was peaceful.

There they were. Three of them. They were gigantic. Larger than anything else Jalen had ever seen, or even imagined. They looked like seashells. They were colored with a hundred different shades of orange. Spotted ugly things. Fleshy and breathing. Their darkened orange veins glimmered in the afternoon sunlight. Their bodies sleek and wet looking. Silently they floated through the sky sucking up the buildings, houses and trees of the city like a vacuum sucks up dust. Systematically they swept along engulfing everything and leaving nothing but fresh dirt in their wake.

It was unbelievable. All those people, all those places, the things, the plants. All gone. In an instant. And the seashells were uncaring, they were organized, unfazed, they were like a gardener mowing a lawn. And it was silent. Completely silent. No screaming, no pain, no agony. Just complete and utter silent obliteration. Jalen was struck with a feeling that he had never felt before. It washed over him and froze him. It was awe. Pure, undiluted awe.

Kandice’s fingers brushed against the back of his hand. Probing for comfort. Instinctively he opened his hand and accepted her. Just like that they were fused. The differences, the years, vanished in an instant. Gone were Jalen and Kandice. In that moment they were just one soul. One soul overcome and awestruck.

Kandice turned towards him. He met her gaze. He lost himself in the varying green hues of her eyes. Suddenly he was transported back to a grassy hill underneath an elm tree. It was a good memory, but just one. He needed more. He craved more. He craved memories of someone he loved smiling at him.

The dust around them swirled.

He craved memories of being touched, embraced, accepted.

The rocks shook.

He craved the feel of lips on his. Craved feeling soft skin.

Their clothing rustled.

He craved hearing the sound of children’s laughter. Of playing with his son, his daughter. Twirling them around, throwing them in the air. Losing himself in a game.

The air was sucked from their lungs.

They turned in unison. They looked up in helplessness as the orange monstrosity blocked out the sky behind them. Its gaping mouth hungrily sucking.

Then. Just then, for the first time in a long time Jalen wanted one thing. One little thing. He wanted…to live.

But…

It was…

“Oh my…”