Sunday, December 21, 2014

Metafiction : Severing the String

Used some parts of "Write a daily diary in the voice of the following character Thomas Mortenson."




           I let out a deep breath. Feeling my lips tremble as I saw the white puff that have come out of my mouth vanishing into the crisp night air. I could feel my pulse against my neck, quick and powerful, as if it knew that it had limited amount of time left. Some powder fell onto my shoulder. I looked up and saw a roughly made hole. And from that hole, a thick rope protruded. Stretching down until it wrapped tightly around my neck. Again I took a deep breath, feeling the tension on my neck sharply increasing.
           
           It all happened several days ago, from the very moment my symptom of narcolepsy worsened. December 12th, 4 days from today another sleep attack happened during the geology class. However, that day's event was different from the other days. Unlike the normal, previous times when I looked back at my own past, today I found myself in another person's body. "Crack!," I opened my eyes and found myself lying in a hospital all dressed up in white clothes. Words of shock and disbelief erupted around me. It was some time before I realized I wasn't the six year old Thomas, but a middle-aged man called Fred. It was that I had been in coma for 6 years, but today I suddenly regained consciousness. I was listening to the astonished babbles of my supposed family when I suddenly woke up, sprawling in my geology class.
           
            The school has ended for the day and I was standing in from of the main gate, waiting for something. The moment my watch beeped, telling me that it was 5'o clock, a black car showed up from the corner, gliding smoothly towards me. It was always like that, 5'o clock. Not a second late, not a second less. The door opened and I climbed in. As usual the tanned window between the front and the back seat only able me to notice that there were two people in the front. Since I was about 3 years old, I have been under heavy surveillance from some kind of government agency. Whether, it was due to my somewhat exceptional intelligence or some other factors in me, I did not know. All I knew was that I was supposed to be under surveillance till I come of age and therefore, be able to decide my future actions. I don't know what happened to the rest of my family, some say that they were all lost due to some tragic accident, while some say that I have no such thing in the first place. Anyhow, there were nobody to greet me when I arrived home from school, I had a whole flat to myself. Thinking about this, the memory of me lying in bed surrounded by my own family showing relief at my awake bloomed in front of me. I felt a twinge of jealousy towards that man.
            
           The car slowly slowed down and the familiar surroundings began to pass around us. Soon, the car reached a stop and I opened the door and climbed out. The two guys in the front nodded, it was the best they could do to show their affection. I shrugged and slammed the door. I fumbled for my keys and finally managed to fish it out from my pocket. As I unlock and opened my door, something felt different. Something seems to swoop down on me and seemed to pass right through me. It gave shivers down my spine. I cried for the first time that night.

           The next day I found a white clean paper on my desk in the first class and a pen in my hand, now there is one thing to do. As I draw for two hours, the teacher came next to me and said "Tom, participate in class don't do other things." I don't have the memory after that. I guess I slept as I heard it. It was during the 7th class when I regained my consciousness. I found the paper with an unfinished dessin, a picture of a boy, a boy with his heart torn out. I shrieked when I saw the picture and freaked out. The next moment, I opened my eyes and looked up into a familiar wallpaper, it was some time before I realized that it was dark outside and I was in my room, in my house. It was dead silent in the house. I was just about to get up from my bed when my head spun and I was swept into the pool of narcolepsy again.
           "Crack" I opened my eyes and once again found myself lying in the hospital bed. Another round of shock and buzz ran through the hospital again. This time I was able to hang around in "Fred's" body for some time. I learned that I was 34 years old and had a family with two kids. My supposed wife's name was Christina and two kids Hank and Sue, 10 and 8 respectively. I found that I was staying Liverpool, England. I was able to stay in this body until my family rushed in, hearing the new that I have again gained consciousness. The relief they all showed at my awake, my wife and mother crying for my safety, were all new for me. It gave me the feeling inside me that I have never felt before in my life. A feeling that I have only read in books. A feeling may call 'love,'
           
            For the following days, I have tried my best to fall into narcolepsy as much as possible. Through this process I was able to find out that I was able to fall into narcolepsy when I wanted to get out of the situation my original body was in. One example was my class. The fixed and hardy feeling the classroom gave me, along with the boring lectures that I had to listen to was one of the main factors that I was going into narcolepsy at classes. Another fact that was able to learn was that I was able to hold the consciousness in Fred's body until I fall asleep in that body. Through this experiences I was able to stay more in Fred's body than I was in my own body. I heard that my coma symptoms were getting remarkably better as time went on and I was a really lucky case, waking out of the comma.
            
           During my time as Fred, I burrowed a Ipad from Christina and Googled "Thomas Mortenson." No such name came up. It seems as if the Russian Government have erased me from the surface of the world. A deep taste of bitterness filled in my mouth. I almost cried out, furious. The more I longed to stay in Fred body forever.
           
            And here I am again, in my room with my window open, looking out at the night view of Moscow. I looked out at the endless lights that filled in front of my eyes and wondered if anyone would miss me if I was gone. And I thought about Fred. How, his families would react if Fred was to never open his eyes again. Thinking about this, some kind of a knot that seemed to be inside my chest suddenly seemed to resolve, the answer to this suddenly seemed clear and simple. As I was swept once again to narcolepsy I kicked my foot and tipped over the chair I was standing on.

"Crack!"

           I opened my eyes, into the blinding light, with the familiar strong smell of disinfectant piercing my nostrils....

 

1 comments:

Mr. Garrioch said...

Well written and a good snapshot of a very strange man in a very strange sort of cycle. You have a clever ending with an interesting sort of accident. It reminds me a bit of the last Tom Cruise movie... Edge of Tomorrow. So, while I do like the writing, the suspense, and the story, I have to say that this is definitely not metafiction. You do use the stuff from class, but only within a single layer of the story. The structure is good for the purpose of a short story - big moment - flashback to what got him there - big moment again - twist - end. But still, not metafiction. Fun story, however, and it does appear you put in effort.

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