(no subject)
Charlie was a rebel (always had been and always would be); he went against the grain of the rules and regulations set forth by society; he gave morality the cold shoulder-broke the law without rhyme or reason; worst of all, his actions flew in the face of that most Draconian tyrant-his mother. No matter how hard his mother tried to whitewash her son’s behavior when talking to friends and family, Charlie’s reputation was like wildfire, and through the grapevine word of his malignant hatred for laws and municipal codes spread throughout the entire town. Charlie woke up on the wrong side of the bed every morning, and more likely than not he would raise Cain before the day was through. To his mother, it seemed as though the die had been cast-that Charlie’s fate was in the lap of the God’s (and to a certain extent, she was absolutely right-it took a miracle for him to turn a new leaf and start afresh.)
Charlie’s main problem was that from a very early age, overprotected by his mother’s care, he lived in an ivory tower. Everything was taken care of for him, and he had no responsibility in life whatsoever. By hook or by crook, Charlie got everything he desired from his dear mother-he had her twisted around his finger, and she was subject to his every whim and fancy. But Charlie’s life was leading him down a blind alley, and he couldn’t go on living that way forever. Charlie’s life was like a house that had been built on sand-his mother spoiled him rotten, and the magnanimity of his sense of entitlement was appalling.
But everything changed one sunny, warm, spring afternoon, when Charlie decided to take a walk in the neighborhood park. Sauntering through the park, he suddenly felt tired-had the sudden urge to sprawl out upon the grass; as he lay down, a great burden lifted and released its weight from upon him-for once, he felt that the world was an alright place-for once, he didn’t feel so cold and lost; his body, free of gravity, expanded and disseminated into the air-floated away like dandelion seeds. Charlie never returned from his walk in the park.
His mother was grief stricken for weeks on end-where had Charlie gone? What had become of her son? The whole town was in an uproar; the denizens were happy that the reckless youth had ceased to trouble them with his murders, robberies, and rapes, but were dumbfounded as to where this young man had gone-had he been abducted by aliens? Everyone was absolutely worried sick, but after a short while, the town-even Charlie’s own mother-forgot all about him; one and all lived happily ever after, crime-free.
For weeks, Charlie traveled through time and space, cognizant of nothing but his own body, thoughts, and feelings. It’s no comfortable journey, traveling through the multi-faceted dimensions of space; at first he was sick to his stomach: bile, phospholipids, and water were secreted in tiny droplets from the pores of his body (which waxed into a protective layer, shielding him from the deadly cold of space); his nervous system ramped into overdrive, surging huge amounts of stress-chemicals into his brain, sending his mind into a spiral of confusion (necessary to reconstitute his mental functioning so he could comprehend the higher-order of the universe); the absence of gravity began to compromise his blood brain barrier, making coherent thought more and more difficult (this was accompanied by a pulsing pain as his brain enlarged to encompass the greater intelligence being absorbed by his mind.) These were all normal symptoms of interstellar time travel, and to be expected. Soon, his body grew accustomed to the stresses of space and the pain subsided.
As Charlie was able to think clearly, he gained control of his body and became aware of the great speed with which he was traveling through space. He could tell that he was no longer his old self: his body was the same, but he felt no longer the old Charlie that spent so many restless, lost days on Earth. Later, he found that he could separate his consciousness from his body, and utilizing this method he looked at his own body-finding that his skull had morphed and increased in size to accommodate his now extraordinarily large brain; there was no hair on his scalp, and many veins bulged all over his cranium. Charlie was startled as he beheld the landscape through which he traveled.
Those who have yet to experience the outer space which extends infinitely from Earth imagine it to be a cold, desolate place-a place void of comfort, void of emotion. To the contrary, the limitless bounds of space are most peaceful-full of tranquility. The clearest view of the nighttime sky ever seen by any human from Earth pales in comparison to the vibrant color and artistic shapes and lines seen by Charlie; colorful and majestic celestial bodies-stars, planets, moons; snaking trails of plasma, magnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation-all painted a beautiful landscape for Charlie to behold.