One day we can be friends

Today I woke up just like any other.
Thoughts ran through my head but I quickly shoved them out of sight

The walk to school was muddy.
Mud covered the side walks puddles lingered on the ground refusing to dry up.

There was a line of cars waiting to drive past the school.
York picket line halted them from from any further progress.

The school felt so empty.
It was as if the school had lost it's will to live. The people who did show up were angry at the picketers.

People were lost, people were confused, and I made it home.

I never really felt I've failed before.
Baffled words hung on my lips, my heart pounded loudly in my chest.
I've never really felt like a fool before.

There were these words; "One day we can be friends."
And everything melted away.



And now the next stage



Stage 6

Gix woke up to an eerie blue tone illuminating his tiny little cabin hut. The sun hadn’t quite come up and Gix’s body ached all over. He had been sitting on the edge of the bed in the darkness simply waiting for Zefer to come back through the door. He remembered his little heart beating nostalgically until he collapsed backwards onto his bed. He neck was crocked in the wrong direction so Gix rubbing it trying to sooth the sore feeling. He still hadn’t figure out why the mark had stopped burning. He remembered it burning all last night, yesterday morning to. But last night… and now it felt normal. Gix had a tiny hope in his gut that wished Zefer would pop out of nowhere and swat him with the ladle, telling him not to rub it. Gix just lay there looked at the ceiling brighten up. It was cheery and light; Gix’s mood didn’t match, so he slammed both his hands over his eyes. Detaching any sort of happiness that could reach him on this light morning. Gix’s chest was too heavy, it was weighted down by something inside him that had sunken to low to be lifted back up again. Not now anyways. His nose started leaking and Gix had a snivel to keep it from messy up his sleeve. He smelt a burnt smell that invaded his nostril. Like a huge drawbridge Gix slowly pushed himself forward to sit up. I was like a mountain moving. He sniffed the air, a little concerned that something might be on fire.
There had been one time when Gix fell asleep with the stove warming his feet only to wake up to his stool buried in flames. He never slept with the fire burning again.
Sniffing the air some more it seemed that the burning smell had vanished slightly. Gix put looked around the best he could in the early morning light for anything that might be amiss, and that was when he noticed it. OH the cuff on this right sleeve was three deep black smudges. Even in the dark, Gix could see them scared on his perfect white shirt. Alarm Gix rushed to the water bucket and dunked his whole sleeve in, scratching at it vigorously with his opposing fingers. He lifted it up to his face trying to inspect if the sleeve had been remedied at all. The marks stayed. Gix let his arm hang limp and hit the floor. Just as he did the sun broke through the horizon line and shone brightly dusting the world with vivid red and mystic purples. Gix’s eyes stayed fixated as the stain on his wrist. He felt something giggling in the back of his throat. It tickled the back of his head and his vision blurred. Just as all of Gix’s depression seemed so strong they threatened to shallow his, a shadow appeared over his face.
Zefer strode in the hut door way. “It is mighty hard to find your way back to this little hut in the middle of the night!” Gix starred up at him, vision hazy. “I chased a boar all yesterday evening, once the sun started setting I tried to find this place, oh boy that was difficult.” Gix couldn’t hold it in any longer; he opened his mouth and let out a terrible sob. The tears welled up in the corner of his eyes and rained down his cheeks.
“Wha-?” was all Zefer could stammer out. Gix distressing howl continued as brought his hands to his face to cover the tears that just wouldn’t stop. Zefer dropped and brought himself before Gix. Gix looking through his tears shot out and grabbed Zefer as tight as he could, crying on his back shamelessly. Zefer accepted the embrace and patted Gix’s back. Gix’s cries where muffled as rested his head on Zefer’s shoulders. The bright morning colours faded as light filled the room to the brim. Unmoving the two sat there on the floor and Gix cried.

When the cries turned to sobs, and the sobs turned to coughing from a horse throat, Zefer and Gix sat back to look at each other. Zefer watched as Gix tried to rub out the wet spots on his cheeks. With a sympathetic eyebrows and a tiny smile Zefer spoke to Gix.”
“Do you want to come hunting with me next time?” Gix chuckled roughly as a smile returned to his face. Their nervous reunion was broken by two growling stomachs.
“Oh yeah, I wasn’t able to catch that dumb boar was I?” Zefer stood up to leave but there was a tiny tug from behind. Gix was holding onto the back of Zefer’s trench coat. Zefer blinked. Grabbing Gix’s wrist Zefer pull him up.
“Well come on, let’s go find some food! I’m not going to drag you!” Zefer hauled Gix into the light of a new day.

***’”’***

“What are we doing now?”
“We’re trying to catch a fish!” Zefer said while frowning.
“Are you certain this is how we accomplish it?”
“Yes, I’m certain, now be quiet, are else you’ll scare them away!” The two had walked for a while looking for an animal or some tasty looking green. They found neither when Zefer came up with the brilliant idea of tie string to sticks and putting worms on the ends of that. Zefer said he had saw some men do it really early in the morning, they gave him one of the fish they caught and he was able to cook it up, he said it was one of the most delicious things he had ever tasted. So they had found the deepest and fastest flowing part of the river and dangled their strings and worms into the water. Zefer watched as the water flow free past his string. A memory flashed to him then
He remembered splashing through this water trying to catch tiny little black things that quickly fled from him. He had also found frogs on the side of the river that hopped away from him in a rather silly manner.
“I caught a frog once.”
“Eeew!” Zefer did little to mask the disgust on his face. “How did that taste?”
“I didn’t eat it.”
“Shush! Remember you’ll scare away the fish!” Zefer reprimanded Gix and they both sat quietly with half closed eyes. Gix normal didn’t mind the silence, or when somebody simply had nothing to say, but being forced to not say anything was something that Gix hated entirely. Like some sort of slow torture. Some sort of buzzing beetle began it’s buzzing. Gix didn’t like that he and Zefer had been so silent and still that the creatures around them preceded their noises freely. Like one who lived beside a cemetery would not think to keep their noise down. An interesting sounding bug decided to add is beat into the melody of the choir. Gix had never heard that particular sound before so he took to repeating it. The bug would sing, and then Gix would sing the same line back.
Zefer’s lips pressed together annoyed. “I though I told you not to--” Before Zefer could continue his stick jerk him forward.
“A bite!” He exclaimed! Zefer pulled the string viciously. Soon a green speckled fish emerged from the water. They placed it inside a bucket with a perfect hole in the center.
Wondering back to the hut the fish sloshed around in the bucket, water jumping out of the side. Of course Zefer was talking about he was pretty much the best fisher this world has ever seen. Gix found that familiar smile creeping across his face. He let it stay there. Zefer’s stories and hyperbole were even sweeter this time around.
Gix didn’t watch the Zefer prepare the fish. He just couldn’t bear to watch such a swift animal be reduced to a mushy pile of food. Instead he let Zefer concentrate on the food. Gix was lounging on the floor waiting for propping up his head with his one hand, the restless night before left him feeling quite groggy. He was looking forward to sleep more then a fishy dinner meal. Kicking his feet horizontally he was having fun swinging them in and out from under his bed.
“We should have stayed out there for a couple more hours! I bet I could have caught every fish in that sea!” Gix didn’t point out the fact that it was a river; he was letting Zefer have his fun. His foot then touched something, wondering what it was he pulled it out from under the bed with his foot. Sitting up straight he gathered the thing in his arms. It was the back holding the gun and it’s accessories.
“Oh… right.” Gix wasn’t too impressed with the thing, it had marked up his sleeve quite drastically, and he wasn’t very impressed with it. He untied the string keeping the cloth on the thing in place and held the way he had before. It looked like the hatch wasn’t too secure, and when the impact sent the bullet flying some of the powder was shot right back him. Hence the mark oh his sleeve and the reason why it wouldn’t wash clean. Zefer turned around to get a good look at what Gix was doing.
“You like that thing eh?” Zefer mentioned as he saw Gix holding the gun. “You’re a pretty amazing shot, you know that? In that grand city of my there was a contest where al these sharp shooters tried to shoot these bottles off of fence from far away. Non other them shot as good as you, you know that?” Gix couldn’t help but look up at Zefer when he said that, smiling so big that he cheeks squished his eyeballs.
“Oh, it looks like it’s done!” Zefer said as he used his very flat wooden board spatula to scrape the dish into a plate and a small bowl like cup. He then brought it over to the table. A set the two dishes down. Gix wrapped up the gun and tied the string on it. Tossing it atop his bed he sat down to join Zefer.
“Hey you didn’t burn it this time.” Gix sounded a little disappointed.
“Well maybe you should cook next time then!” Zefer snapped back taking the comment as sarcasm. Zefer hungrily ate his fillet as fast as he could while Gix picked at it, missing the sharp carbon flavor. The sun was setting and the land was growing dim. Gix had a pasting thought that this must have been the shortest day in the history of day. Or perhaps he had fallen asleep once of twice fishing.
The glow on the horizon line sharpened to a line of red. Everything else grew an opaque black. Since Zefer and Gix couldn’t think of anything to talk about while eat they both watch the sun set and the light disappear from the world. Zefer finished his rather quickly and sat back and wait for Gix to finish his. The thick red line of light on the horizon line wasn’t moving, even as the rest of the colour faded to black in the sky. Simultaneously Gix’s and Zefer’s face wore a shade of puzzlement, the fire under the stove lightly illuminating their expressions. The red started to grow and they found themselves even more bewildered. It wasn’t until they heard the slight screeching and deep rumbling seconds later did they start thinking ill thoughts.
The red light separated out dancing across the ground, it flickered and danced as it grew. Some of the light started shooting upwards and out of view. A few moments later a wood shattering hum thudded. Flame enveloped the hut immediately. Gix held his mouth open a gasp, Zefer sprung into action.
“Grab something Gix! Quickly we gotta get out of here!” Zefer screamed a he grabbed something Gix couldn’t see and barged out of the hut. The flames danced around Gix as they mocked him. A thousand possibilities ran threw Gix’s head, “What should I take?” Gix blames everything on this moment. Nothing would have happened had he chosen something else, anything else. There were a thousand different memories in that hut, a thousand different correct items to grab. Gix made a mistake. He grabbed his pouch containing the gun and followed Zefer out the door.