Part 2
None of us knew what was happening. You'd hear a snippet of conversation or the occasional mourning family. None in which are too far from the norm.
Norm, now that's a funny word. I remember reading somewhere that a norm is established in any social and psychological situation, to be able to decipher what is good or bad, sane or insane.
I saw a woman on the bus today, she didn't look to be the most gorgeous of women, but who am I to judge as I'm not the model of excellence either. There she was, silently leaning on the plexiglass wall at the front of the bus. Her interlaced fingers fluttering gently to the beat of whatever song was playing on her headphones. Slowly the reverberating fluttering decreases in intensity as her head gently lulls forward into a silent slumber.
I couldn't help but wonder about this girl. Someone whom I have never had the chance to speak with, let alone meet formally. She seemed sad and lonely. Here she sits silently amongst the hustle bustle of daily life, surrounded by groups of friends and couples, she sits alone. Is this the norm? Why does she choose to sit alone? Is it internal? Mental? Why?
Through all this meandering in my own mind it dawns on me that I have missed a part of my argument that could have made all the difference. I too was sitting alone. Could I too have been watched by her, contemplated in silent thought. Did I look sad or alone? Me sitting with my notepad and pencil, scratching away madly in my steno pad. Could the surrounding people be wondering what words of madness I was scribbling?
I was reminded of a philosophy, we are all alone. There is no such thing as an unselfish deed, even one's “love” for their child leaves a sense of gratification to the parent. We all live alone, all die alone. The task is to fill our lives with as much as we can in our short lifespan. A blink in an era of the giant time continuum of the universe.
This is exactly as the outsiders had thought, as they neared our young planet. Several millennia before this planet lay quietly propagating genomes and germs. A simple scan of the structure of the planet as they passed revealed that now lay much more. We primates had created an industrial age of primeval capacity and had even created weapons that could destroy our own world. Why would anyone in their right mind find the possibility of killing millions of their own profitable? This is why they came. To observe, to find the reason for our primal urge to kill that which means the most to us. They did not come in a display as George Orwell had told, but in more subtle approaches. No one knew of their existence, no instrument made by man could fathom the technology they had accomplished in their lifespan. Multidimensional space continuum was the least of their worries. So they came, they watched. No one knew of their presence, and no one knew of their intentions.
Here I sit in my daily routine, listening to the revving drone of public transportation. The smell of sweat and humidity of a dozen people surrounding me as I scribble madly on my steno. Little did I know how that excruciatingly long bus ride was a mere synapse in a much larger more intricate series of events that I could never fathom.
To be continued...
