"Love your friends like your own soul, protect them like the pupil of your eye."
Recollections of the past, slivers of enlightenment toss about, rattling, shattered pieces ricochet. Anger and hurt. Why? Why. Seeking, searching, flipping memories in darken, cloudy skies. Where is it? Where is it. Doom encroaches, slapping heartstrings, embracing a shadow, robed in nothing in order to keep warm. So cold. Moments, moments, too far from now, sooner, searching. Stone, brick, layers, building up from the ground, a mother, a father, hands are cupped, “there you are. I see you!” Childish. No. Further, go further, Blur of moving colours. White, red, blue, green. Stop! Schoolyards, papers and crayons, ABC’s, no, no, Frustration. Continuation, lengthy flip, flips. Aha! Cutting sharp, a commonality of dress always fittingly done, and pressing. Finery equal to a new jacket, white; must have been cold outside, surrounded by warmth, smells. Hmmm, there must be more to it. Flash. There, there, gone blankness filled in with inky black. All gone, fazing memories blocked from the mind’s eye. No, please! Why? Why. Crash. Where? Where. Follow, follow.... fall.
"Nolan! Is everything all right? What the hell are you trying to do in here? This space is already a mess. Tearing this place further apart is not helping our present situation. As is, it's a hard enough task of running the day-to-day functions of living left all to myself. I'm stretched too thin; I can't deal with that and your angry madness at the same time. Please. If you can, try and visualize the concept of a wreck. This is the shape we're in at the moment. Time, at present is an enemy."
Time is meaningless here, non-existent." Smile. "Donkeys fly to the moon, papers layered in a brown sack. Always doing the backstroke in time. See them winking as timeless as the stars, twice as real. Imagination, wink, wink."
"Ha-ha! I guess imagination would be timeless. You have a very unusual way of looking at things. Thanks; it has been awhile since I had something to laugh at. I really needed that. Gees, there are memories strewn all over the place. Did you find something of note? What are you looking for anyways?"
"Dreams, a memory of a dream. Once, here drifting by me, a fragmented image, opaque held up to a recognizing light, it floated in. A face misplaced from a memory. A warming smile given over to beauty, captured, enthralled in the throws of a muse. Now just pictures empty of any radiant light. These points erased from the plane. Who is she?"
"Huh?... her, I don't have a name to give you. I didn't think you would remember her. She was probably a hallucination brought on by the stress. I'm not even sure myself. Some of our memories are partially gone. Our life is an utter mess at the moment. I'm doing everything I can but I'm just barely hanging on by a thread myself. I've spent my entire existence protecting you. I maybe better suited for handling conflict but I'm not invulnerable. This one situation that transpired was completely new to me. I mean I didn't even see it coming. I can't say I enjoyed the transition very much. Ah, Don't think too much on this, it will only lead to more trouble. I'll explain what I can, when I can."
"Trouble is lonely, degenerated concave descending, weeping, like mud, close to the ocean, with one lost, but who? Who. Explanations echo senses, sonar in the gloom. Hurt. Flash and sear, flash and sear....end."
"I-uh... what I can, when I can. We will get through this, right? I mean you are not going to give up on yourself? All I ask for is a little patience, for a friend.
I've got to go, things need to be done. You should rest for a while, ease your mind. I will check back with you later."
A voice blends in with the light, as would a shadow, leaving behind a now quieted, disimpassioned inflection.
