Caleb

Carla sat in front of the piano. She looked at the people in front of her, at a young man in particular. He smiled at her and she smiled back. Then her fine long fingers slipped over the piano keys and played a beautiful melody. Carla closed her eyes and sang in almost a whisper: "There's a man in this world who has never smiled. You may know his tragedy, in the later years, by heart. In the beginning there was a mother, father and a child - a troubled little silent boy, whose life they were to destroy. Known to us from this day on, like his father - Caleb."

The man closed his eyes. He remembered a conversation he had years ago with his mother. He barely understood what she spoke about back then, but now... it still wasn't everything, but understood a big part of it. Then he remembered his father. The only time he ever heard his father apologizing to someone... he remembered how his father turned his head every time something was wrong. He remembered the last words he heard from his father before he died - "And all this are words that are not meant to hurt you, but kill you, my stupid son!" Then he remembered how he smiled secretly while his father's body was lowered in the grave. His mother told him, in tears, that a person can make a difference sometimes.

Carla kept on playing the gentle melody while telling the story farther. "All his solutions, it seemed, were only problems in disguise... glueing on his drinking face and he got ready to erase another day."

"Remember, my son, at the end of every tunnel there's a little light." Those words, his mother shared with him in hope that everything would be fine one day. A few days later he heard her talking on the phone saying "He can fulfill his every dream... I’m happy as long as he’s not." Then he dreamed. He let himself spent one afternoon outside, on the bench in front of the house, dreaming how one day his mother would be dead.

"He went out, played with thunder and then stood under that apple tree where the snake let him feed on lost hopes..."

"Somehow... I lost one more way back home..." He remembered the day when he went in the lake with his boat. He imagined that in the middle there is a huge monster and started rowing towards it. Slowly, while his child's hands were barely holding the oars he thought that the monster was in fact hos mother. A beast, a sinner, right for so few things. He thought that just the past had made him blind to the way he turned the pain into a way of life.
He came back to here and now.

"He was a portrait of a man his mother drew to hate forever..."

He remembered that day when he understood it's all a charade and his mother wanted to keep it until the end. He could not take any more pain from the past and felt anger building up in him. Over the hills, under the sea, if needed, with will itself, with the whole Universe, He would fight. Everything around him sank in total darkness. All that was left were the pale outlines of the few people left to listen to Carla. He looked around the room and saw the sword on the wall.

A few quick steps and he was there, took it off the stand. He felt the cold metal in his hand and in minutes everyone were lying dead on the ground. He was covered in blood.
- When nothing moves, all's so still... - he faced the blood-covered white-lacquered piano and saw Carla. She froze in her place, her hands still on the keys. Her face was white, her glass eyes staring at his. - Carla, darling... have I not told you never to sing this song?
He aimed a blow and stopped the sword inches away from her neck. She screamed and started crying.
- Why?
- ...dried up flowers are so beautiful. That applies for all things - living and dead. This necessary evil has no heart, Carla. His hand stroke. Blood splashed on the white and black keys and the wall behind.
- Because this is my story... I am Caleb.

"Flowers and people - he will now enlace. The price he must pay serving his whatevergod..."
She closed the piano and walked to him. Smiling. He took her hands and they got out of the room.
- The last words you sang were truly right. - he caught her by the neck and before she even realized what was happening, he was already strangling her. - Too bad you won't be able to pass them on.
She was looking scared at his eyes.
- Who... are.. you?
- I am Caleb. This is the price I must pay serving my whatevergod...

12.07.2007
Replica