The talk

Soft taps, like the echoes of toddlers' footsteps on marble,

Slowly creep into the skin beside my aching left eye.

My eyelids drop like epic thunder.

Both sets of eyelashes rushing to embrace the other side.

The light disappears,

As I seek the momentary sanctuary of the transparent darkness.

And then…

She speaks,

Again.

Brightness attacks my eyes with a frightening ferocity

As my eyelashes are reluctantly forced to separate.

Words continue their journey beyond her lips.

The toddlers have grown into children: hyperactivity their only trait.

Their footsteps now run rampant,         

Spreading around my eyes and tantalizingly, steadily creeping towards my temples in an excruciating game of hide and seek.

Dodging behind my brain-cells and digging around until they find the perfect spot to hide: in the folds between my brain's hemispheres.

I inhale sharply,

My tightening throat ripping apart with a gush of oxygenated molecules.

The damn children morph into adolescents, seeking the sanctuary of the dark they crawl in pairs into my lungs.

My breaths turn shallow,

The sharp orgasmic inhaling of the crazed mating teenagers stealing purity out of my gasps.

Still,

She speaks.

Oblivious to the torment her agonizing utterances provoke in me.

The Dead Sea threatening eruption;

I try to close my eyes.

But No.

Sick of their separation my eyelashes have divorced, they refuse to meet.

All I can do is gaze at her,

My forced sight seeing right through her, into her.

What ugliness.

She seethes:

"Why aren't you saying anything!?"

Does she not see how her words have dissected me?

I cough.

I try to talk,

The adolescents now adults fight to pour out of my mouth.

They seek emancipation.

I seal my lips.

She's not ready to hear what I have to say. 

The little boy without a name

Once upon a time there was a little boy without a name. This little boy was a very good boy. In fact it was rumored that this little boy was brought down to earth by an angel who cradled him in the softness of a cloud. He was always smiling and loved to help people. This caused the little boy without a name to have a great many friends. He was always surrounded by many little boys and girls. The little boy loved having all his friends in his life and always gave them whatever they asked. One of his close friends was called Greed. She loved to always ask the little boy without a name for favors. He would always hurry to make Greed happy. The little boy without a name believed that nothing in this world was more important than helping your friends. So he worried and he hurried until he made Greed's wishes come true. Greed loved having the little boy without a name in her life because it seemed that there was always something she needed and he would not rest until he got it for her. In fact she loved the little boy without a name so much that she introduced him to her friend Envy. As soon as Envy met the little boy without a name he was very intrigued. Envy as a matter of fact tried to copy everything that the little boy without a name did. Envy felt like he wanted to be even better at everything than the little boy without a name was. Soon the three friends were inseparable. All the other little boys and girls thought that the little boy without a name, Greed and Envy were very popular and wanted to be their friends. That is how Selfish and Bitter met the three friends. Selfish and Bitter were a pair of twins that were new to the neighborhood. The little boy without a name was very quick to try and make them feel welcome and include them in his life. Greed and Envy agreed to be friends with them also, but they kept mostly to themselves. The five friends lived like this for some time.

One cold winter night, Greed asked the little boy without a name for a favor. To do this favor he had to take a long journey and go through a lot of hardship. But the little boy without a name could never refuse a request from a close friend. As he was preparing for his journey Envy appeared on his doorstep. "I want to come with you oh little boy without a name, I know I can do this journey too," said Envy, with his bright green eyes sparkling like a snowflake. "The more the merrier my dear friend! I have no doubt it will be a more enjoyable trip because my friend will be with me," said the little boy without a name. So together the two boy set on a journey full of obstacles.

Days later as they neared their destination, the little boy without a name was exhausted and thirsty. Envy was not well prepared for the trip and so the little boy without a name shared his food and water with him. One day the little boy without a name fell with a soft thud onto the snow because he was very tired. "Let us rest for a little bit Envy my friend, I am so tired," he said, his voice peeping through his furry coat.

"No said Envy, we are almost there and I need to continue. You rest I will leave you here," replied Envy.  The little boy without a name was very confused: "But Envy we are here together! Wait for me, I am afraid I get lost without you."

"But if I leave now I will get there first and I will get Greed what she wanted, she will like me more and everyone will tell me how much better I am. Everyone loves you oh little boy without a name. It is not fair I do not have as many friends as you do!" Greed yelled into the frosty air as he turned around and walked away.

The little boy was left alone, cold thirsty and dumbfounded. "Envy is my friend! I shared everything with him and helped him all along. How could he abandon me in my time of need?" His tears froze even before they reached his chin. The little boy without a name, curled up in the snow and cried himself to sleep.

And as he slowly slipped into eternal rest, he suddenly remembered that he once had a name. He was once called Innocence.