The Never Ending Tails
The Gift

Most people think that the world we live in is dull, and lacks true power. We are conditioned to think that we are limited in the things we can achieve. It was not always the case.

Time is a complicated structure, and what we see of it is only a fragment of its true nature. Earth was not always as it is now; there have been different times, different Earths where people could do wonders and even go through the stream of time itself! Some of those worlds are no more.

Those worlds died when silence returned, so much has been undone to give earth a chance to keep on existing. This new world is the product of that undoing; a desperate attempt to avoid any mingling with the flow of things by concealing the upcoming doom, and sealing of the symphony of time.

It is wrong to think that this world never knew anything out of the ordinary. Incredible things happen everywhere, in the less expected places and to the people we ignore in the mass. One of those incredible events happened to Simon Dice, a skinny little man born in a poor neighborhood of the suburbs of Los Angeles, the 20th July 1950.

Simon was not really the type of person that could shine anywhere. His physical built has always been scarce, he always gave the impression that he was about to fall from starvation. He was from Spanish lineage, but the only thing he got from that was a tanned skin and black eyes. As soon as he reached the age of 15, he started losing his hair and decided to shave what was remaining of his brownish tangled hair.

Simon had a respiratory condition that made any big effort a source of great pain and shortness of breath. Simon was roughly treated by life. Most people avoided him, and the ones that acknowledged him never failed to remind him of how pitiful he was, not in a sympathetic way. He was picked on all the time, and was the default scapegoat and punch bag of everybody. In a weird way, he tolerated harassment way more than disgust or complete ignorance as he felt that, in some twisted way, he belonged somewhere.

Simon’s life changed forever the 6th may 1968. It started as every Monday, a basic class day in the community college that he recently got enrolled in. For once, he wasn’t really made fun of much. Something pleasant even happened. Sarah Grey, another freshman who was his classmate in American Literature came to talk to him. She was really pretty, way too pretty for him. For first, she was taller than him. She was blonde with long hair, and deep blue eyes, the very image of the perfect women in the collective unconsciousness built up by years and years of stereotyping. She was the woman for whom any guy would have fell, and Simon was no exception.

“You are Simon, right? I am Sarah, Sarah Grey. We are both in American Literature with Mr. Stone! I noticed that you are always on your own, but there is no reason for that! You should hang out with us sometime, we can discuss literature and many other things; what do you think?”

Simon was shocked, nobody ever spoke with him like that. More than that, she wanted to see him more, was it possible that they could be friend, or dare he think, even more? He tried to reply:

“I… I would… love to…. But, why me?… And why now…?” He struggled to say.

“Well, life is short, and I tend to think that people can be way more interesting than they appear. So, I’ll see you tomorrow evening, 3.30 pm, let’s meet at the campus store, and then we’ll see where to go from there!” She said with a beautiful smile.

Before Simon could say anything, she was already away. For the first time in his life, he had a date! He was ecstatic; it took him a little moment to process this new information. For once, he was happy.

Simon was daydreaming on his way back, he walked pass a bunch of skinheads. They were ganging up on a poor Mexican boy hitting him with bats and wrenches. Simon walked the other way, and tried to avoid eye contact with them. He thought he got away from them, but as he got few steps away, one of them screamed to the others:

“Hey! Another shit head from Mexico! Get him!”

Simon started running, but he knew that he couldn’t hold much longer so he decided to go for the forest, thinking that they would lose his trail in the dense vegetation. Simon was so carried away by running, that he failed to see a whole in the ground covered with leafs and branches. He felt in a deep cavern. The fall felt like never ending. Similar to falling in a dream, everything was slow, and for a very brief moment, light like he had never saw, then nothing, fade to black.

Simon woke up flooded with sweat, and his heart beating like crazy, he quickly reached for his inhaler. He felt a huge headache as he was got back his calm. The last thing he could remember was falling in that cavern. He looked at the time, 6.30 pm, those things happened an hour prior. He couldn’t recall how he managed to get back to his dorm room and fall asleep. One thing was still bright in his memory, the vision of light. His roommate entered at that moment, as soon as he entered the room, Simon felt something strange, an emotion that wasn’t his; a sort of deep sorrow accompanied by a huge shame. Simon also heard words. ‘It was not a good idea to do that, I might love him, but I shouldn’t do those things. I will rot in hell for that. My god, why did I fall in love with Brad Garrison? What is wrong with me?’

“Hey dude, how was your day? Mine was amazing; I landed a major babe downtown. An amazing day I tell you.”

“What was that?”

“What was what? I just told you about my amazing day and that’s all you gotta say Simon! I shouldn’t have hoped for more from you, you half-wit imp!”

“What’s going on with Brad Garrison?” Simon asked to see if what he heard made any sense.

“Who is this Brad Garrison?”

Simon felt a new emotion, fear and panic. ‘Oh my god, he knows! What should I do? I should just keep on denying any knowledge about Brad! Even if he knows anything, who is going to believe Simon, nobody cares about fucking Simon. He is just a worthless piece of shit and everybody knows that, even him.’

“Sorry, I need to take some air.” Simon said without waiting for an answer from his roommate.

Simon was in shock, he didn’t really understand what happened. His mind was invaded by the feelings and thoughts of his roommate. And how unexpected were those thoughts and feelings; he always saw his roommate as a basic bully, a senseless womanizer. How out of character were those thoughts. Simon didn’t really had anything against such things, he believed that everybody should be free to love whoever they want, but it never occurred to him that under that coat of roughness his roommate could be involved in such a relationship.

Simon was confused. Were those thoughts real or just his mind going insane? Simon was happy to see that the corridor was empty. He felt good to only hear his internal voice in his mind and his own emotions. Simon thought that he was over that weird happening, but he felt a similar emotional aggression way stronger this time; it was a mix of contradictory feelings, joy and sorrow, excitement and boredom, envy and hate; so much at once. Simon saw a group of people walking next to him; they were seven; three boys and four girls. As they approached, he started hearing voices.

‘…What should I do tomorrow…I wish he likes me, I don’t care if he’s engaged…I must throw the gun away as soon as possible…nobody should know about the money…’

Simon felt intense pain as they were approaching, everything was blurring in his mind, the emotions and voices didn’t make any sense anymore. It needed to stop, and it needed to stop quickly. Simon pushed himself to ignore the pain, and started running, he stumbled upon more people which lead to more blurry mind input.

Finally he reached the outside where he managed to find a quite place where nobody would bother him. He took a moment to enjoy the silence in his mind before thinking about all that.

He couldn’t deny the obvious anymore, not after all this pain, and all those words and feelings. He was able to feel others’ emotions and in a way read their mind, a sort of literal empathy.

But what was the cause of that; he couldn’t really see what would have triggered such an ability. It took him a moment to link this new gift with his fall in the cavern, and the light he saw. Maybe that light changed something deep within him, and made the minds and feelings of others accessible to him.

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