Folks

“Folks”

A Short Story – (originally written and published December 4th, 2019)

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There was a long line of folks walking ahead of me. We were walking in a straight line toward God knows where.

We’d been implanted with an electromagnetic chip in between our thumb and forefinger. Why? We refused chemicals being forcibly introduced into our bodies by government dictate. A capital offense in the present day and age.

Even the slightest deviance from the yellow painted line on the path before us would result in instant death, if you were lucky.  If unfortunate enough to survive the electromagnetic zapping, you’d live a while longer, contracting some heinous life-ending disease and suffer unimaginable torments for a few weeks, maybe a few months, before succumbing to sweet death.

A few of the older folks took their chances, stepped outside the yellow line, hoping they would be instantly terminated.  Some were lucky, many were not.

I was still somewhat young. 48 years old, with no children – thank God.  Most of the other folks walking in line ahead and behind me, all had children that either been terminated, or if they were of use to the organization, were re-educated as necessary, providing the organization with clones of their original selves who would do the bidding of the organization, without question.

I had always been the defiant one in the family.  I was classified as the nutjob who tilted toward conspiracy theories.  Funny, those who went along with whatever modern day jive the organization threw at them – they were the first to be terminated, for they were considered the weakest by the organization.

The organization held onto folks like me for as long as they could. Those who were the most defiant, the organization didn’t mind losing. It was the middle-of-the road folks that they wanted to keep alive…for experimentation purposes.

I swayed back and forth with the thought of stepping out of line.  I had nothing to lose.  No children, all my family were terminated in the great cleansing 2 years past. I was alone…except for one original that I had managed to keep up correspondence with with, through the great extermination.

Hundreds of correspondences between her and me for years upon years…and yet, we’d never met. She lived in one country, I in another, thousands of miles apart.

In our correspondences, we held the quiet hope, unbeknownst of each other, that we would at last meet after the earthly charade was over. The last correspondence from her just a few days before my capture told me she was alive.  She wrote to me…”I am alive for now…and I wait for you.”

Yes, I’d seen photo’s of her. A beautiful brunette woman, with green eyes and a melancholy look permanently etched upon her delicate face. She wasn’t the trite and often overused phrase of a ‘soul mate’…she was simply my friend, in the truest sense of the word.

I looked for her in the line ahead of me.  I didn’t dare to cast a look of folks behind me. She wasn’t to be seen.

I hoped for, in a foolhardy sort of way, that I might chance upon her in this international holding facility I found myself marching in step with other folks who had refused complete and total indoctrination – hopefully catching a glimpse of her before permanent re-programming took place. I wanted to see her as the original she was.

The yellow line before us veered off in two directions – one right, one left. Our last choice afforded to us was which path we took.

I chose neither and continued to march straight ahead.

The obedient soldiers, those whose job was to maintain the line, and tasked with ensuring the status quo be obeyed, cast a wary glance in my direction as I chose neither the right or the left path ahead of me.

Straight ahead onward I walked. I felt a tinge of insanity between my thumb and forefinger, gyrating to my brain. I somehow managed to keep my mind’s gaze fixed upon the brunette, or rather, upon her words of correspondence shared throughout the years.

“Here we are….and there we go,” she shared often.

I never exactly knew what she meant by that, until the present moment.

I am here…and it appears that soon, there I shall go.

And I hope to see my friend in the hereafter soon.

***

“In my experience, everyone will say they want to discover the Truth, right up until they realize that the Truth will rob them of their deepest held ideas, beliefs, hopes, and dreams. The freedom of enlightenment means much more than the experience of love and peace. It means discovering a Truth that will turn your view of self and life upside-down. For one who is truly ready, this will be unimaginably liberating. But for one who is still clinging in any way, this will be extremely challenging indeed. How does one know if they are ready? One is ready when they are willing to be absolutely consumed, when they are willing to be fuel for a fire without end.” – Adyashanti

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Tonight’s musical offering:

“Loan Me A Dime” – Boz Scaggs

Photo by Eddy Klaus on Unsplash