Mcutler Blog

Monday, May 17, 2004

The Colour Black

White snow lay hovering in mid air, like some professional postcard photo, which seemed to capture everything glorious about a particularly ugly day. The glory of course never really existed, but it's all how you look at the glass in the end. The temperature could cause instantaneous pain to any exposed skin out in the blizzard but as vengeful as it was, its lust for this torture remained unquenched. There wasn't a soul outside to prey on, these bitter winter nights were nothing new to the tiny community and everyone remained locked in their small houses hiding from the scourge of the cold. Ethan had become so fed up with this routine he often wondered just how long he could stand the snowstorm before it would cause him any damage. These inquiries always remained just thoughts of course, as self-destructive activities performed for the sake of curiosity were strangely looked down upon, still though, he remained ever intrigued.

He gazed at the ceiling from his twin sized bed, he had always viewed his home as unremarkable and he liked it that way, he kept everything single toned and mundane. Many viewed this as a sign of depression or even laziness, but it all had its purpose. Ethan always thought strangely of those who made their home a paradise or a beauty to gaze upon. To them, home was their destination, to Ethan; it was the starting the line. He liked the simplicity of it because he felt the sooner he got sick of it, the sooner he'd become ambitious to do something spontaneous or legendary with his life. These feelings hadn't come yet, but he figured as soon as that legendary destiny manifested itself in front of him, he'd be twice as quick to grasp the opportunity as a normal man. He painted all his rooms in the exact same fashion, pure white walls, with a pitch-black ceiling. The walls were white so as to keep up the theme of minimalism and the black ceilings were meant to make it feel like night time. During certain cycles of the earth's rotation Ethan's community experienced 24 hours of daylight, he despised this time of the year and wished to offset it with a night sky to gaze upon. He had often received suggestions to paint stars or a moon on it, but he never really bothered, he viewed the night as darkness, and the stars were simply preludes to the day who would attempt to steal away the perfect black from him. This darkness was upon him now; he slid underneath the covers and pondered when his destiny would arrive.

Some indefinite amount of time later he was abruptly woken by the doorbell, without so much as a second thought he sprung out of his rest and answered the door. A man dressed in an all black snowsuit stood in his doorway, nearly frozen from the piercing cold.
"May I help you?" Ethan greeted the visitor with a strange but somewhat inviting smile.
"I seem to be lost." The man replied, "I was heading..."
"You're a long way from anywhere to be lost from." Ethan interrupted; he took note of the old man's condition and saw how the blizzard had ravaged him.
"How long have you been out there?" He asked the visitor.
"Not sure, hours maybe" the man replied.
"You don't know exactly?" Ethan pried,
"I really couldn't say mister, why?" The old man gave him a puzzled stare.
"Curiosity is all" Despite his dissatisfaction with his response he motioned for the man to come inside.

Ethan had just thought to ask the stranger his name when the visitor dropped dead on his floor before even getting a chance to shut the door behind him. Ethan had never been faced with death before, and he had no feelings about this man whatsoever. He was puzzled and unsure how to conduct himself, he knew nothing of this man, not his name or origin, or even yet his destination. He bent down to see if there was any wallet or identification on him, no such luck. Further searching revealed a crumpled paper that had on one side a poorly drawn map and scribbled directions. He recognized all the bends and curves that had been drawn, he knew exactly where this was. He took a moment, dressed himself in the stranger's snowsuit and headed out the door into the black, towards an unknown destination.

Matthew C at 3:15 PM