Notes From an Amateur Writer #20 - Life Is Like a Box of Crazy
This is day 28 for me (I started 1 day late) in @dragosroua's 30 day writing challenge.
1. Shopping With Zombies
I was at the supermarket. So were many other people. I only wanted a few things and I would be on my way. A shopping hit and run, so to speak. My local supermarket is a small place. Too small for the numbers of people that go there. Trying to navigate through the shop is quite an ordeal. I think some people who go there consider blocking the aisle a right of passage. Just as others relish the opportunity to hunt me down with their trolley. To physically accost my ankles.
I try to make eye contact with people. I think this is friendly behaviour. So as to better navigate the obstacle course that exists all around me. Around us all. But I've come to learn that zombies don't make eye contact. I have also come to learn that most of the zombies shop at my local supermarket.
The apocalypse has begun, it would seem.
2. A Bus Ride to Crazy Town
I took the bus to the beach again. The sun was out and I wanted to go for a walk and allow stories to grow in my thinking spaces. Stories tend to grow well in the sun. And when I am out walking, and not just cooped up at home hiding from the zombies.
A man sat down in the seat in front of me. It was a mostly empty bus, but he gravitated to my space. It happens. He started talking to himself. He made what sounded like farting noises when a couple got off the bus. Or perhaps they both had very squeaky shoes? His head was twitching and jerking. But he was not causing any harm, so I just watched the show and let him get on with it.
The bus arrived at a busy section. Start and stop, constantly. There was quite a bit of this for a 5 minute stretch. This seemed to bring out the crazy in him.
"Red lights," he said, to no one in particular. "Too many red lights. I could walk quicker." His head twitched. It twitched some more. "I could get out and walk quicker. Too many red lights."
He wasn't wrong. There were too many red lights. But none more than usual. I laughed quietly to myself. It was slightly amusing, but I also wondered why I attract these sort of people on public transport? Or perhaps every one does? I was being harsh, I know. He was far from crazy. In fact about the only thing he was doing out of the ordinary was talking to himself out loud in public. And that was the cardinal rule he was breaking.
I talk to myself out loud I reminded myself. When I think no one is around. When I think no one can hear me. Sometimes I like it better than the internal thought stream. So how many degrees of crazy separate me from my follow traveller?
"Crazy people," I said. "There's too many crazy people on this bus." My head twitched. It twitched some more.
"You're telling me," he said. "We should get out and walk."
3. It's All too Perfect
I arrived at the beach. Started my 2 hour long meditative saunter along the promenade. It refreshes and restores me. It makes me feel less crazy. For a short time, anyway. The crazy always returns. Maybe its hardwired in.
The sun was shining, and the water was perfectly calm. I took in a deep breath of salt air. Was evolution coming full circle? Was this my way of trying to return to source? To get back to my roots? Or were these all just questions that crazy people ask?
I looked out at the breakwater, with the boats sitting still in the water. Such a picture perfect scene. Almost too perfect. What secrets lie within this picture? What truth lurk beneath the depths? Was this scene hiding a SciFi drama or mystery, where the boats were actually alien crafts waiting for the most opportune moment to reveal themselves? Were the people coming towards me actually assassins sent to monitor and nullify the alien secret invasion? And what of the girl sleeping on the sea wall? Was she really sleeping? Her eyes were covered by dark glasses. An ideal disguise for hiding her true intent. It's all too perfect I reminded myself. Nothing is this perfect.
I wondered if aliens experience mental insanity. Has there ever been a crazy alien? Or is that a purely human experience? Or was the approaching zombie apocalypse making me paranoid? More so than usual? My head started twitching. I tried to make it stop. I didn't want the aliens noticing me.
4. Stranger Danger
I kept walking. I passed many people and large numbers of them had dogs with them. I tried making eye contact with the people, but I forgot that zombies don't make eye contact. So I tried making eye contact with their dogs. Dogs always make eye contact.
"Hello," I said to one of the dogs that I passed.
"Hello," he replied. "Sorry I can't stay and chat but my owner is in a hurry."
"Oh really, where are you going?"
"Nowhere. She is always in a hurry to go nowhere. I think it's a human thing."
"No, I think it's a zombie thing," I tell him.
"So tell me, why are talking to a dog?" he asked me.
"Because I'm crazy," I said as his owner dragged him away muttering something about stranger danger.
5. The Zombies Are Lonely
"Would you like some love?" What a peculiar question. Who would ask me such a thing out here in the wilds of strangerdom?
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" I turned to see a woman, younger than me staring at some birds near by.
"I said have you seen my Dove?"
"Those are Pidgeons," I said correcting her. "I thought you were offering me some love. I wasn't sure if it was a euphimism."
She looked at the Pidgeons, then back at me. "Are you sure they're not Doves?"
"Yes."
An awkward silence drifted in between the two of us. "So do you want some love then?" she asked tentatively.
"No."
"I'm lonely," she told me.
"Aren't we all," I said.
"Well at least I'm not crazy." She had a point.
6. I See Crazy People
I sat and thought about my stories. About the people in my stories. I think they are all a little bit crazy. In their own way. Seems I write about crazy people, except they don't know they're crazy. They don't know they are actually aspects of me. I won't tell them if you don't.
7. The Not-So-Missing Cat
When I was around the corner from my house a cat came up to say hello. I had seen this cat once before. He's very friendly. I knelt down and started to scratch him behind the ears. I remembered the cat story from yesterday. About the missing cat. I wondered if that was him. But it couldn't have been. He was too out in the open for someone that had gone missing.
I gave him lots of scratches. I pulled my hand away but he grabbed it back and requested more. I wanted to stay. I really liked this cat, but I had to keep moving.
"Don't go," the cat said.
"I have to," I replied.
"We can be friends," he told me. That was nice. I would like that, but then I remembered something.
"I was a cat for a day yesterday," I told him. "I didn't buy the deluxe package so my time ran out. Next time I try the cat for a day service then I will hang out with you."
"You promise?"
I gave him a little scratch behind the ears and he gave my finger a little nibble. We had an agreement.
All images used with permission, and sourced from Unsplash.com.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you liked it then please like, comment, and follow
@naquoya
Short Fiction:
Bang Bang You're Dead
I Have No Name and I Must Scream
The Last Book Store
The Judge
The Man In The Mirror
The End of the World [Part 1] [Part 2]
The Locked Room
The Gods of Love and War [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
Notes From an Amateur Writer blog series:
Notes From an Amateur Writer #1 - The Search For Inspiration
Notes From an Amateur Writer #2 - A Call to Action: Interacting With the World Outside of Me
Notes From an Amateur Writer #3 - Facing the Challenge
Notes From an Amateur Writer #4 - The Soundtrack to Grief and Loss
Notes From an Amateur Writer #5 - Music as a Catalyst for Imagination: Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing
Notes From an Amateur Writer #6 - The Stories All Around Us
Notes From an Amateur Writer #7 - Introducing Nomad [A Cyberpunk Mystery in the Making]
Notes From an Amateur Writer #8 - The House at the Edge of the World
Notes From an Amateur Writer #9 - Making Peace With My Kindle
Notes From an Amateur Writer #10 - Learning the Craft of Story Structure
Notes From an Amateur Writer #11 - Adults Sit at the Big Table, Children Sit at the Small Table
Notes From an Amateur Writer #12 - The Time I Won a Lego Competition
Notes From an Amateur Writer #13 - Learning to Fly
Notes From an Amateur Writer #14 - The Tucker 48: Face to Face With a Million Dollar Vehicle
Notes From an Amateur Writer #15 - When the Levee Breaks: A Story in Song and Words
Notes From an Amateur Writer #16 - Monty Python, Keanu Reeves, and My Case of Invisibility
Notes From an Amateur Writer #17 - Dancing With My Muse
Notes From an Amateur Writer #18 - Facing the Challenge Part 2
Notes From an Amateur Writer #19 - Telling Stories
Oh, mate. You just keep coming with the hits, don't you? I really like the continuity from the previous installment. I'm so glad I read them hours apart instead of a day apart. The woes of the supermarket are something I know all too well. It's like people are intentionally trying to be unlikable. The crazies in the commute? I think every country has them. Here we even have bible preachers boarding buses and preaching the word of God before the next stop.
You and you conversations with dogs. I swear, those scenes are so eerily familiar. Are some humans even crazy or are they just misunderstood, and they're perfectly sane when seen from a different perspective. My favorite scene has to be the one with the doves. It's short and sweet, but so intimate haha
Home stretch, buddy! As you journey towards the end of the 30-day challenge, I have completed the 30-day commenting challenge as well :D
Thanks again man, much appreciate. For following along, reading and interacting and sharing your thoughts like you do. These things also inspire and help my own flow of ideas and concepts.
The dove one just popped into my head whilst I was walking. I think I was contemplating something, really don't remember, then it was like "wouldn't it be funny if?" and then the female voice asking the question. I suppose the theme of crazy was just flowing in my mind and the creative writing and imagination just went for a ride with it.
Yes the finish line is in sight. 30 days, then I may have a rest :) I wont know what to do with myself. Maybe I will need to keep writing? And there should be a badge for you also - 30 day commenting challenge. Winner :)
Mate, as I've said before, I find it my genuine pleasure to help out any way I can :D As much as I try to be there for everyone, these days I have more time to relish in the interaction because I concentrate on the people who I feel do the same for me.
I, for sure, thought that it was a prostitute when I first read the love line haha! The craziest people always come up with the most far out stories anyway. Your interaction and continued support is all the badge I need, brother :D
That love line would lead there. That's where my mind went when it popped into it. Like who would ask such a question randomly like that? Then a small section of the overall story turned up. The love/dove was my mind trying to make sense of the question, then the character popped in and it was like perhaps she really did ask the question? Layers of intrigue.
Intrigue indeed! A veritable onion of awesome!
I really loved this, the constant dialogue in our heads. And what's up with supermarkets anyway. I feel personally offended if I feel more than the right quota of customers are in the store at the right time. Because I know how to avoid the wrong time, and they make me wrong. And claustrophobic. Quality writing, followed. :)
Thanks for the comment. Glad you appreciate the style of writing here. Just my thoughts spilling out onto the page, but hopefully tidied up enough to make for a readable story.
And yes the supermarket provides me with many experiences I could write about. I see you have also seen their madness. Crazy places really. Thanks again :)
Another excellent post, the each one could have been a story in itself, the apocalypse has indeed begun, I see the Zombies all to often ;-)
Thanks mate. I liked that format, little vignettes in a way, but with a sense of connection and flow. And yes, watch out for the zombies :)
Finally! A post about me. lol In all seriousness, I enjoyed reading this a lot. Keep them coming. I am really enjoying your stories and posts.
Lol, yes indeed. But These zombies weren't the thinking type. They were a lower strata of zombie. And thanks, I appreciate the feedback.
I like the short story because you brought out so many characters in it including the dog, cat, the man and the lady. The dog was baffled that you talked to him, so much so that he had to ask you why you were talking to him!
If the zombies need love, why are they always in a hurry?
Thanks for the nice piece!
Upvoted and following for more.
Thanks for the comment. I was just going with the flow writing wise. Trying to string a them (crazy) together. And it's a good question about the zombies - why are they in a hurry? Maybe i will need to explore that some more in a further post.
Thanks for your prompt response. Will look forward to your next post.
Anytime. I try to respond to all comments, so feel free to leave me one with your thoughts. If I don't respond then know that I will when I see it. Thanks for reading.
What you say to yourself in the privacy of your own mind will dictate many things. Thoughts become emotions. Emotions become decisions. Decisions become actions. It all starts from what you think.
That may be true, but this piece was an exercise in creative writing. Nothing more.
And crazy makes for interesting writing material :)
This was a very interesting piece of fiction and it flows quite nicely. I think we all feel crazy from time to time.
Thanks very much. It was just the day in life of a writer looking for stories, OK - may be there are some embellishments :)
But yes, a little crazy does exist from time to time.
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STOP... great musings and writings ;-) Wish I had the skills to write.
Glad you liked it. Thanks for the comment.
As for the skill - read lots, write lots. Well that's a start anyway.