Cahhsee
Offline
- Quote
- Posted: Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:10:08 +0000
This is a short story I wrote a long time ago. It has to do with the butterfly effect and how one thing effects another. Part of it is real and some of it isnt. I'm willing to answer any questions smile
Thanks for reading! biggrin
Dayton, Ohio Spring Break 2009
Who really knows how the hell I got here. I was standing to the side of a crowded hallway with my two flags, rifle, and saber in hand. Do you understand how uncomfortable that is? Especially after holding them for the last thirty minutes. Then add another ten minutes to that since you have to wait for the winter guard before you to be done and over with.
I was in Dayton, Ohio at a Winter Guard competition. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a group of teenagers dressed in little outfits trying to dance around and tell a story without using words. Now this group, or guard, can be with boys, girls, or both. Usually, it’s mostly girls. The girls are ones that know how to dance. The boys are the ones with the muscle. They help with whatever they can. Like lifting us, for example. The show that we were doing was called “December.” There were quite a few lifts in this show because we actually had four boys in our guard this year. And they all were very helpful.
Finally they called us. We started to walk out to the floor and another guard kindly came out and pulled our tarp for us. You could hear the crowd beginning to murmur. They were most likely talking about the guard before us. But I always thought that they were talking about us; more or less the tarp. Most of the people that I could see had weird looks on their faces. I didn’t blame them. Our tarp was very weird and depressing looking. I always thought that the tarp should say something like “You all are morons!” or “Why are you just sitting there watching us prance around in our snotty little outfits for enjoyment?” I usually try my best to ignore the crowd but sometimes it’s difficult. The way some of them look at me, creeps me out. But I tried my best to ignore the crowd so I could run to my spot on the tarp.
All fifteen of us, myself included, were down on the tarp, kneeling on our knees. Our heads were all turned upwards toward the judges.
“South Mecklenburg Winter Guard, is your guard ready?”
Now we counted “one…two…three…” and we sat down. We looked like we were praying, but our hands just laid softly on our laps. Our backs were now toward the judges. The murmuring crowd had finally gone silent.
“South Mecklenburg Winter Guard, you may now take the floor for competition.”
There was a moment when absolutely everything was silent. It had seemed as if time itself had stopped. And God had his watchful eye on us. Maybe he would help us and make sure that we didn’t drop a single piece of our equipment, if he could. But finally, the silence was broken by our song that started playing, Brothers on a Hotel Bed by Death Cab for Cutie. Julia started to dance around us, and we began to join her.
That would have been the last time we did our show at the WGI Competition. But as I remember it, and how everyone else remembers it, that night was a little bit different. Everything from that entire week in Dayton, Ohio had changed my prospective on things. I was being picked on and yelled at by my color guard coaches. Apparently, I had an issue with looking up at the crowd while I performed. And just because I was looking down, the guard had points deducted. I figured since I cost the guard so much, they wouldn’t need me for the semifinals. I began to think about leaving Dayton and going back home. Even though I was in the color guard, I had a certain resentment for all the people in it.
For that week, my parents couldn’t find any way to get off work to see me compete. They did not want me to go on my own however. So to my surprise, they were able to convince my best friend to go with me. I would have asked him on my own but I had no idea that he would even consider going for it was spring break over in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tim Drake had been my best friend since I moved to Charlotte. He was my next door neighbor and a dearest loved one. He had the greenest eyes I had ever seen and the softest hair. It was light brown and it had this texture that you just wanted to keep brushing your fingers through. If you were to just see him, he might look like just an average guy with a cute face. But he was more than just that. He was an artist, a writer, and he knew how to play the piano. He told me that seeing me was the highlight of his day and his life all of a sudden had meaning. He hated seeing me sad and actually agreed to help me escape from the prison called Color Guard. So we began to plan our escape. Little did we know, our lives would be incredibly impacted by what we were planning.
Though, life as we know it is all about change. Things happen whether we want them to or not. Through out life, we are on a collision course, unable to stop what will happen. Fate will keep happening; whether on accident or by design.
A business man in Dayton had just gotten home late that night after having an affair with his mistress after work. He then realizes that he had forgotten his briefcase in the car and went back to get it. At that time, Tim, the rest of the guard and I had just gotten back to the hotel after the preliminary rounds of the competition. After the business man had found his briefcase, he walked inside to find that his wife had stayed awake until he got home. They then started arguing because his wife had found a love letter that his mistress had wrote to him. While they were arguing, Tim went back down to the lobby of the hotel to get a snack for me from the vending machine. This took longer because the vending machine had eaten his money. While Tim was getting the snack, the business man had gotten back into his car and drove to the nearest bar because his wife had asked for a divorce. So the man started to drink until he could not see straight. After the first couple glasses, the bartender took his keys away. All the while, Tim had come back up to my room and started talking to me until I fell asleep. Once the man had stopped drinking, the bartender called a cab for him since he took the man’s keys away. The cab driver, who did not leave right away, was sitting in a dinner drinking a cup of coffee. While the business man was waiting for his cab, I had fallen asleep and Tim was waiting outside for his car. It took longer because the valet could not remember where he parked the car. By the time the cab driver had finished his coffee and was on his way, the business man had become impatient. So he walked back into the bar and stole his keys back from the bartender. When Tim got his car back, he started heading south on a poorly lit two lane road toward the house he was staying at. There wasn’t much on this poorly lit road, except for a lone farmhouse and a barn. The owner of this farm had had a hard days work, and was too tired to close the gate to the livestock pen. As the farmer was heading to bed, the business man was heading north on that same road toward the hotel that Tim had just came from and forgot to put his headlights on. Around mile marker 34, the business man and Tim were just within a few hundred yards from each other. And before the drunken man could even see it, a calf had cut in front of him.
Now if only one little action had happened differently, maybe the outcome wouldn’t have been as devastating. If the farmer had remembered to close that gate to the pen; or if the valet had remembered where he parked Tim’s car; or the bartender had kept a closer watch on the man’s keys; or if the cab driver hadn’t stopped for a cup of coffee; or if the man hadn’t cheated on his wife, then maybe Tim would have drove right by, and the man would have missed him. But with life being what it is, a butterfly effect of lives and incidences. The calf had walked in front of the business man’s car, and it just sat there and watched. Instead of just simply stopping his car, the man swerved left into the other lane and hit Tim head on.
I didn’t hear about the accident until the next morning on the news. When I did hear about it, I felt like I was going to be sick. They found his identification, but even though they were saying his name over the news for hours, no one had claimed him. I thought he was dead when I heard about the seriousness of the accident. But the news reporter had eased my worry when he said that Tim was in critical condition. So instead of going to morning winter guard practice, I went to the hospital to let them know that there is someone there with him.
When I first saw him lying there in that hospital bed, I couldn’t help but cry. He was hooked up to a bunch of machines and his leg was broken. They had to shave his head to do surgery so he was now bald. I barely recognized him and I hated seeing him like that. But I sat there, held his hand, and cried my eyes out as they explained the accident in greater detail. When they stared back at me, they looked back at me, remotely, possessed by intense life.
Eventually, visiting hours had ended and the nurses had to force me to leave. I still picked a fight with them but I ended up leaving anyway. I was still forced to do my winter guard duties and perform at the show. The head coach, Hayley, gave me hell for missing morning practice. Even though I had a legitimate reason to miss practice, I still got yelled at. The incidents that had occurred had caused the entire guard to not be in a performing mood. So Hayley tried explaining to us what our show actually meant. “Brothers on a Hotel Bed” is about a guy who had just gone through life without a second glance. Then next thing he knows, he has grey hair and realizes that he has done nothing in his life. His lover and he have gotten bored with each other and when they sleep together, they sleep separately on opposite sides of the bed. Like brothers on a hotel bed. She told us to try our best to tell that story through our actions and body language. Everyone else understood but I didn’t. I didn’t want to end up like that guy. Absolutely doing nothing in my life then noticing at the end of my life. So in order to save myself, I stood up and walked out. Filled with faces dead and gone. Filled with friends gone now forever. I didn’t perform. I didn’t even stay to watch. I just got a cab to the hospital and fought those nurses until they let me in. So someone would be there when he woke up.
Thanks for reading! biggrin
Dayton, Ohio Spring Break 2009
Who really knows how the hell I got here. I was standing to the side of a crowded hallway with my two flags, rifle, and saber in hand. Do you understand how uncomfortable that is? Especially after holding them for the last thirty minutes. Then add another ten minutes to that since you have to wait for the winter guard before you to be done and over with.
I was in Dayton, Ohio at a Winter Guard competition. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a group of teenagers dressed in little outfits trying to dance around and tell a story without using words. Now this group, or guard, can be with boys, girls, or both. Usually, it’s mostly girls. The girls are ones that know how to dance. The boys are the ones with the muscle. They help with whatever they can. Like lifting us, for example. The show that we were doing was called “December.” There were quite a few lifts in this show because we actually had four boys in our guard this year. And they all were very helpful.
Finally they called us. We started to walk out to the floor and another guard kindly came out and pulled our tarp for us. You could hear the crowd beginning to murmur. They were most likely talking about the guard before us. But I always thought that they were talking about us; more or less the tarp. Most of the people that I could see had weird looks on their faces. I didn’t blame them. Our tarp was very weird and depressing looking. I always thought that the tarp should say something like “You all are morons!” or “Why are you just sitting there watching us prance around in our snotty little outfits for enjoyment?” I usually try my best to ignore the crowd but sometimes it’s difficult. The way some of them look at me, creeps me out. But I tried my best to ignore the crowd so I could run to my spot on the tarp.
All fifteen of us, myself included, were down on the tarp, kneeling on our knees. Our heads were all turned upwards toward the judges.
“South Mecklenburg Winter Guard, is your guard ready?”
Now we counted “one…two…three…” and we sat down. We looked like we were praying, but our hands just laid softly on our laps. Our backs were now toward the judges. The murmuring crowd had finally gone silent.
“South Mecklenburg Winter Guard, you may now take the floor for competition.”
There was a moment when absolutely everything was silent. It had seemed as if time itself had stopped. And God had his watchful eye on us. Maybe he would help us and make sure that we didn’t drop a single piece of our equipment, if he could. But finally, the silence was broken by our song that started playing, Brothers on a Hotel Bed by Death Cab for Cutie. Julia started to dance around us, and we began to join her.
That would have been the last time we did our show at the WGI Competition. But as I remember it, and how everyone else remembers it, that night was a little bit different. Everything from that entire week in Dayton, Ohio had changed my prospective on things. I was being picked on and yelled at by my color guard coaches. Apparently, I had an issue with looking up at the crowd while I performed. And just because I was looking down, the guard had points deducted. I figured since I cost the guard so much, they wouldn’t need me for the semifinals. I began to think about leaving Dayton and going back home. Even though I was in the color guard, I had a certain resentment for all the people in it.
For that week, my parents couldn’t find any way to get off work to see me compete. They did not want me to go on my own however. So to my surprise, they were able to convince my best friend to go with me. I would have asked him on my own but I had no idea that he would even consider going for it was spring break over in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tim Drake had been my best friend since I moved to Charlotte. He was my next door neighbor and a dearest loved one. He had the greenest eyes I had ever seen and the softest hair. It was light brown and it had this texture that you just wanted to keep brushing your fingers through. If you were to just see him, he might look like just an average guy with a cute face. But he was more than just that. He was an artist, a writer, and he knew how to play the piano. He told me that seeing me was the highlight of his day and his life all of a sudden had meaning. He hated seeing me sad and actually agreed to help me escape from the prison called Color Guard. So we began to plan our escape. Little did we know, our lives would be incredibly impacted by what we were planning.
Though, life as we know it is all about change. Things happen whether we want them to or not. Through out life, we are on a collision course, unable to stop what will happen. Fate will keep happening; whether on accident or by design.
A business man in Dayton had just gotten home late that night after having an affair with his mistress after work. He then realizes that he had forgotten his briefcase in the car and went back to get it. At that time, Tim, the rest of the guard and I had just gotten back to the hotel after the preliminary rounds of the competition. After the business man had found his briefcase, he walked inside to find that his wife had stayed awake until he got home. They then started arguing because his wife had found a love letter that his mistress had wrote to him. While they were arguing, Tim went back down to the lobby of the hotel to get a snack for me from the vending machine. This took longer because the vending machine had eaten his money. While Tim was getting the snack, the business man had gotten back into his car and drove to the nearest bar because his wife had asked for a divorce. So the man started to drink until he could not see straight. After the first couple glasses, the bartender took his keys away. All the while, Tim had come back up to my room and started talking to me until I fell asleep. Once the man had stopped drinking, the bartender called a cab for him since he took the man’s keys away. The cab driver, who did not leave right away, was sitting in a dinner drinking a cup of coffee. While the business man was waiting for his cab, I had fallen asleep and Tim was waiting outside for his car. It took longer because the valet could not remember where he parked the car. By the time the cab driver had finished his coffee and was on his way, the business man had become impatient. So he walked back into the bar and stole his keys back from the bartender. When Tim got his car back, he started heading south on a poorly lit two lane road toward the house he was staying at. There wasn’t much on this poorly lit road, except for a lone farmhouse and a barn. The owner of this farm had had a hard days work, and was too tired to close the gate to the livestock pen. As the farmer was heading to bed, the business man was heading north on that same road toward the hotel that Tim had just came from and forgot to put his headlights on. Around mile marker 34, the business man and Tim were just within a few hundred yards from each other. And before the drunken man could even see it, a calf had cut in front of him.
Now if only one little action had happened differently, maybe the outcome wouldn’t have been as devastating. If the farmer had remembered to close that gate to the pen; or if the valet had remembered where he parked Tim’s car; or the bartender had kept a closer watch on the man’s keys; or if the cab driver hadn’t stopped for a cup of coffee; or if the man hadn’t cheated on his wife, then maybe Tim would have drove right by, and the man would have missed him. But with life being what it is, a butterfly effect of lives and incidences. The calf had walked in front of the business man’s car, and it just sat there and watched. Instead of just simply stopping his car, the man swerved left into the other lane and hit Tim head on.
I didn’t hear about the accident until the next morning on the news. When I did hear about it, I felt like I was going to be sick. They found his identification, but even though they were saying his name over the news for hours, no one had claimed him. I thought he was dead when I heard about the seriousness of the accident. But the news reporter had eased my worry when he said that Tim was in critical condition. So instead of going to morning winter guard practice, I went to the hospital to let them know that there is someone there with him.
When I first saw him lying there in that hospital bed, I couldn’t help but cry. He was hooked up to a bunch of machines and his leg was broken. They had to shave his head to do surgery so he was now bald. I barely recognized him and I hated seeing him like that. But I sat there, held his hand, and cried my eyes out as they explained the accident in greater detail. When they stared back at me, they looked back at me, remotely, possessed by intense life.
Eventually, visiting hours had ended and the nurses had to force me to leave. I still picked a fight with them but I ended up leaving anyway. I was still forced to do my winter guard duties and perform at the show. The head coach, Hayley, gave me hell for missing morning practice. Even though I had a legitimate reason to miss practice, I still got yelled at. The incidents that had occurred had caused the entire guard to not be in a performing mood. So Hayley tried explaining to us what our show actually meant. “Brothers on a Hotel Bed” is about a guy who had just gone through life without a second glance. Then next thing he knows, he has grey hair and realizes that he has done nothing in his life. His lover and he have gotten bored with each other and when they sleep together, they sleep separately on opposite sides of the bed. Like brothers on a hotel bed. She told us to try our best to tell that story through our actions and body language. Everyone else understood but I didn’t. I didn’t want to end up like that guy. Absolutely doing nothing in my life then noticing at the end of my life. So in order to save myself, I stood up and walked out. Filled with faces dead and gone. Filled with friends gone now forever. I didn’t perform. I didn’t even stay to watch. I just got a cab to the hospital and fought those nurses until they let me in. So someone would be there when he woke up.
