Idol Week 18: Location, Location, Location
I saw him hiding behind a tree. Dark trench coat with the collar pulled up, dark fedora pulled low over his face. He couldn't look more cliché if he tried. Or more anachronistic--this was 1862, for heaven's sake! No one would dress like him for over eighty years.
I, on the other hand, had made an effort to fit in with my surroundings. I had to. Women's roles were very restricted in this time and no one would be happy to find me in the midst of all this carnage. Well, maybe they would if I were washing bandages or cooking or something like that. Definitely not hauling bodies as I was doing. It wasn't a pleasant job. Or sanitary--I had more bodily fluids on me than in me--but it was something that needed to be done and I always liked to be useful even if I wasn't going to be around very long. Still, it was disgusting. I was almost grateful that the Shadow-Man had shown up when he did because that meant it was time to go.
I ducked behind a wagon full of dead soldiers and whispered the words. I was gone.
^^^^^^
My next location was only slightly better. Los Angeles in 1967 was a happening place, but the air was absolutely unbreathable. I spent most of my time in my huge apartment overlooking downtown. Or rather the dense gray-brown cloud that hung over downtown. I felt sorry for the people who couldn't leave this time. Their lungs must have been a nightmare. If they could all just jump ahead another ten or fifteen years...
Oh well, it could be worse. I could be back at Antietam. Or in San Francisco, 1989, another memorable bad jump.
At least the clothes in this time were nice. I could wash off all the grime and blood from earlier times and dive right into the latest fashions. Bright happy colors that lifted my spirits. In my yellow-and-orange dress I felt like a sunflower as I stood in front of the plate-glass window watching the traffic on the road below. I loved mid-twentieth-century cars: sporty little roadsters, huge land yachts, a long black limousine, a couple of box trucks making deliveries...and one lone pedestrian.
He was still too conspicuous. A pedestrian in Los Angeles? Please.
I said the words. I jumped again.
^^^^^^
He didn't find me again for six months. I guess he didn't expect me to make such a huge jump. Not only did I change centuries, but planets as well.
Mars Base Alpha was well established in 2146. The water and agricultural problems that had plagued the early settlers had been worked out and the colony was turning into a real city. A group of Tibetan Buddhists had even established a monastery there. Strange, I know, but Alpha had one of the best neurology schools in the solar system. The Buddhists worked with their researchers somehow; I wasn't sure of the specifics because I was just a lay sister. I still had nightmares about Antietam and a stubborn cough from Los Angeles, not to mention all the lingering traumas from the other times I had jumped to. Here I could rest, get myself back together physically and mentally, and contemplate the universe and my unusual place in it.
Then the Shadow-Man reappeared. This was obviously not my place. I jumped again.
^^^^^
It's really not a bad life. Jumping, I mean. I get to see the world in a way that no one else ever has. I feel like I can understand humanity better now. People never change. I don't mean that in a bad way, more like our basic needs and desires never change. All most of us want is just a safe and secure place for ourselves and our families.
That's all I want, too. That's why I keep jumping. I'm trying to find the place where the Shadow-Man cannot follow.
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This has been an intersection with swirlsofblue. Intersecting post is here.
I, on the other hand, had made an effort to fit in with my surroundings. I had to. Women's roles were very restricted in this time and no one would be happy to find me in the midst of all this carnage. Well, maybe they would if I were washing bandages or cooking or something like that. Definitely not hauling bodies as I was doing. It wasn't a pleasant job. Or sanitary--I had more bodily fluids on me than in me--but it was something that needed to be done and I always liked to be useful even if I wasn't going to be around very long. Still, it was disgusting. I was almost grateful that the Shadow-Man had shown up when he did because that meant it was time to go.
I ducked behind a wagon full of dead soldiers and whispered the words. I was gone.
^^^^^^
My next location was only slightly better. Los Angeles in 1967 was a happening place, but the air was absolutely unbreathable. I spent most of my time in my huge apartment overlooking downtown. Or rather the dense gray-brown cloud that hung over downtown. I felt sorry for the people who couldn't leave this time. Their lungs must have been a nightmare. If they could all just jump ahead another ten or fifteen years...
Oh well, it could be worse. I could be back at Antietam. Or in San Francisco, 1989, another memorable bad jump.
At least the clothes in this time were nice. I could wash off all the grime and blood from earlier times and dive right into the latest fashions. Bright happy colors that lifted my spirits. In my yellow-and-orange dress I felt like a sunflower as I stood in front of the plate-glass window watching the traffic on the road below. I loved mid-twentieth-century cars: sporty little roadsters, huge land yachts, a long black limousine, a couple of box trucks making deliveries...and one lone pedestrian.
He was still too conspicuous. A pedestrian in Los Angeles? Please.
I said the words. I jumped again.
^^^^^^
He didn't find me again for six months. I guess he didn't expect me to make such a huge jump. Not only did I change centuries, but planets as well.
Mars Base Alpha was well established in 2146. The water and agricultural problems that had plagued the early settlers had been worked out and the colony was turning into a real city. A group of Tibetan Buddhists had even established a monastery there. Strange, I know, but Alpha had one of the best neurology schools in the solar system. The Buddhists worked with their researchers somehow; I wasn't sure of the specifics because I was just a lay sister. I still had nightmares about Antietam and a stubborn cough from Los Angeles, not to mention all the lingering traumas from the other times I had jumped to. Here I could rest, get myself back together physically and mentally, and contemplate the universe and my unusual place in it.
Then the Shadow-Man reappeared. This was obviously not my place. I jumped again.
^^^^^
It's really not a bad life. Jumping, I mean. I get to see the world in a way that no one else ever has. I feel like I can understand humanity better now. People never change. I don't mean that in a bad way, more like our basic needs and desires never change. All most of us want is just a safe and secure place for ourselves and our families.
That's all I want, too. That's why I keep jumping. I'm trying to find the place where the Shadow-Man cannot follow.
***********************************************************************************************
This has been an intersection with swirlsofblue. Intersecting post is here.