The Never Ending Tails
The Gift

Most peoplethink that the world we live in is dull, and lacks true power. We areconditioned to think that we are limited in the things we can achieve. It wasnot always the case.

Time is acomplicated structure, and what we see of it is only a fragment of its truenature. Earth was not always as it is now; there have been different times,different Earths where people could do wonders and even go through the streamof time itself! Some of those worlds are no more.

Those worldsdied when silence returned, so much has been undone to give earth a chance tokeep on existing. This new world is the product of that undoing; a desperateattempt to avoid any mingling with the flow of things by concealing theupcoming doom, and sealing of the symphony of time.

It is wrong tothink that this world never knew anything out of the ordinary. Incrediblethings happen everywhere, in the less expected places and to the people weignore in the mass. One of those incredible events happened to Simon Dice, askinny little man born in a poor neighborhood of the suburbs of Los Angeles,the 20th July 1950.

Simon was notreally the type of person that could shine anywhere. His physical built hasalways been scarce, he always gave the impression that he was about to fallfrom starvation. He was from Spanish lineage, but the only thing he got fromthat was a tanned skin and black eyes. As soon as he reached the age of 15, hestarted losing his hair and decided to shave what was remaining of his brownishtangled hair.

Simon had arespiratory condition that made any big effort a source of great pain andshortness of breath. Simon was roughly treated by life. Most people avoidedhim, and the ones that acknowledged him never failed to remind him of howpitiful he was, not in a sympathetic way. He was picked on all the time, andwas the default scapegoat and punch bag of everybody. In a weird way, hetolerated harassment way more than disgust or complete ignorance as he felt that,in some twisted way, he belonged somewhere.

Simon’s lifechanged forever the 6th may 1968. It started as every Monday, a basic class dayin the community college that he recently got enrolled in. For once, he wasn’treally made fun of much. Something pleasant even happened. Sarah Grey, anotherfreshman who was his classmate in American Literature came to talk to him. Shewas really pretty, way too pretty for him. For first, she was taller than him.She was blonde with long hair, and deep blue eyes, the very image of theperfect women in the collective unconsciousness built up by years and years ofstereotyping. She was the woman for whom any guy would have fell, and Simon wasno exception.

“You are Simon,right? I am Sarah, Sarah Grey. We are both in American Literature with Mr.Stone! I noticed that you are always on your own, but there is no reason forthat! You should hang out with us sometime, we can discuss literature and manyother things; what do you think?”

Simon wasshocked, nobody ever spoke with him like that. More than that, she wanted tosee him more, was it possible that they could be friend, or dare he think, evenmore? He tried to reply:

“I… I would…love to…. But, why me?… And why now…?” He struggled to say.

“Well, life isshort, and I tend to think that people can be way more interesting than theyappear. So, I’ll see you tomorrow evening, 3.30 pm, let’s meet at the campusstore, and then we’ll see where to go from there!” She said with a beautifulsmile.

Before Simoncould say anything, she was already away. For the first time in his life, hehad a date! He was ecstatic; it took him a little moment to process this newinformation. For once, he was happy.

Simon wasdaydreaming on his way back, he walked pass a bunch of skinheads. They wereganging up on a poor Mexican boy hitting him with bats and wrenches. Simonwalked the other way, and tried to avoid eye contact with them. He thought hegot away from them, but as he got few steps away, one of them screamed to theothers:

“Hey! Anothershit head from Mexico! Get him!”

Simon startedrunning, but he knew that he couldn’t hold much longer so he decided to go forthe forest, thinking that they would lose his trail in the dense vegetation.Simon was so carried away by running, that he failed to see a whole in theground covered with leafs and branches. He felt in a deep cavern. The fall feltlike never ending. Similar to falling in a dream, everything was slow, and fora very brief moment, light like he had never saw, then nothing, fade to black.

Simon woke upflooded with sweat, and his heart beating like crazy, he quickly reached forhis inhaler. He felt a huge headache as he was got back his calm. The lastthing he could remember was falling in that cavern. He looked at the time, 6.30pm, those things happened an hour prior. He couldn’t recall how he managed toget back to his dorm room and fall asleep. One thing was still bright in hismemory, the vision of light. His roommate entered at that moment, as soon as heentered the room, Simon felt something strange, an emotion that wasn’this; a sort of deep sorrow accompanied by a huge shame. Simon also heard words.‘It was not a good idea to do that, I might love him, but I shouldn’t do thosethings. I will rot in hell for that. My god, why did I fall in love with BradGarrison? What is wrong with me?’

“Hey dude, howwas your day? Mine was amazing; I landed a major babe downtown. An amazing dayI tell you.”

“What wasthat?”

“What was what?I just told you about my amazing day and that’s all you gotta say Simon! Ishouldn’t have hoped for more from you, you half-wit imp!”

“What’s going onwith Brad Garrison?” Simon asked to see if what he heard made any sense.

“Who is thisBrad Garrison?”

Simon felt a newemotion, fear and panic. ‘Oh my god, he knows! What should I do? I should justkeep on denying any knowledge about Brad! Even if he knows anything, who isgoing to believe Simon, nobody cares about fucking Simon. He is just aworthless piece of shit and everybody knows that, even him.’

“Sorry, I needto take some air.” Simon said without waiting for an answer from his roommate.

Simon was inshock, he didn’t really understand what happened. His mind was invaded by thefeelings and thoughts of his roommate. And how unexpected were those thoughtsand feelings; he always saw his roommate as a basic bully, a senselesswomanizer. How out of character were those thoughts. Simon didn’t really hadanything against such things, he believed that everybody should be free to lovewhoever they want, but it never occurred to him that under that coat ofroughness his roommate could be involved in such a relationship.

Simon wasconfused. Were those thoughts real or just his mind going insane? Simon washappy to see that the corridor was empty. He felt good to only hear hisinternal voice in his mind and his own emotions. Simon thought that he was overthat weird happening, but he felt a similar emotional aggression way strongerthis time; it was a mix of contradictory feelings, joy and sorrow, excitementand boredom, envy and hate; so much at once. Simon saw a group of peoplewalking next to him; they were seven; three boys and four girls. As theyapproached, he started hearing voices.

‘…What should Ido tomorrow…I wish he likes me, I don’t care if he’s engaged…I must throw thegun away as soon as possible…nobody should know about the money…’

Simon feltintense pain as they were approaching, everything was blurring in his mind, theemotions and voices didn’t make any sense anymore. It needed to stop, and itneeded to stop quickly. Simon pushed himself to ignore the pain, and startedrunning, he stumbled upon more people which lead to more blurry mindinput.

Finally hereached the outside where he managed to replace a quite place where nobody wouldbother him. He took a moment to enjoy the silence in his mind before thinkingabout all that.

He couldn’t denythe obvious anymore, not after all this pain, and all those words and feelings.He was able to feel others’ emotions and in a way read their mind, a sort ofliteral empathy.

But what was thecause of that; he couldn’t really see what would have triggered such anability. It took him a moment to link this new gift with his fall in thecavern, and the light he saw. Maybe that light changed something deep withinhim, and made the minds and feelings of others accessible to him.