The Bachelor

A bachelor once woke from a midday nap later than he had intended. He looked out his bedroom window to get an idea of what time it was, and was shocked to see how dark the sky had become. The dull green landscape outside had begun to blend into the moonstricken clouds.

He felt that he must have left some of his soul in his dream, since he only felt half-awake, so he threw on his petticoat and walked outside to breathe the cool wintry air. When he crossed the threshold of the house, he found that his house had been transported to the edge of a steep bluff overlooking a narrow valley of marshlands stretching into the horizon. The sun was setting into the crevice of the valley, turning the space between land and darkness peach and pink. The air felt bodily warm.

–          Such beauty and wonder, so much in this sight, and also in the oddity of my being here. I want to get closer.

The bachelor jogged up to the bluff, and more of the valley came into view. First, entire worlds presented themselves to him with each step. Then, a few new features at a time became visible. Finally, as he edged up to the precipice, all that was left to see was what was directly beneath. He knelt down and peaked over, and saw and elderly couple, a man and a woman, laying in two bathtubs filled with water, holding hands and bathing in the sun’s last rays.

–          This might have been an odd thing to see, but it makes sense. Now I understand why the sun, this valley, these marshlands, and this bluff all had to make their way to my house, and push away the suburbs and roads. Luckily, I don’t need to drive anywhere today, and all of this scenery will let the roads and the suburbs come back when these two leave.

The bachelor returned to his house, now feeling wide-awake, and fully refreshed. The half of him that was still sleeping had returned to him while he was outside, and he commended himself on his designs. He forgot the detail of what he saw outside. It became a blur in his mind. He could only remember that the sun was beautiful, and how lovely the sun made the head of that elderly woman. He distinctly remembered that, because she was so far below him, the shine of her hair had become distorted, like a halo. He could not think about the sun without thinking about the couple, and vice-versa.

The bachelor especially fixated his remembrance on the woman, and when he realized what he wanted from her, he ran outside. All was dark except for a sliver of red on the horizon. The moon burned hot on his back. He rushed up to the ledge and halted himself, for fear that he might throw himself over. He dropped his legs and wrapped his left hand round the edge, and scrambled down the near-vertical bluff, halting completely whenever he thought himself in danger of throwing himself into the ground. When he reached the bottom, he found the woman alone and naked. She was standing in the marsh water up to her thighs. The wrinkles of her face dripped into her neck. Her slender stomach, despite her petite build, slouched so much as to cover her genitals. Her pupils reflected the white of the fiery full moon.

–         Who are you? What are you doing in my house? I don’t need you!

She sundered up to the bachelor, and his stomach came a milky rush into his mouth. The vile floated on the murky water like an algae, and the woman produced a long piece of driftwood from the below the vomit and thrust it into the young man’s neck, breaking both the wood and the neck. 150 pounds of dead weight collapsed into the water, except the head, which struck against some elevated mud. All of his feeling was gone fun but for the wet sensations on the back of his scalp and the thistle crowning his face. He was merely a head looking up at a near-black sky draped with gray green curtains. The elderly man appeared in his vision, and spoke in a deep, authoritative, calm voice while the last flagellum of maroon slipped from his sight.

–                    Oh, to be young again! The man said this to himself, and in a whisper.

The man popped a capsule into the bachelor’s mouth and covered the horrified face with his wrinkled, oozing hand. The man removed his jeans while covering the bachelor’s mouth and showed them to him, seemingly so that he would know what the woman was about to do, since he could not see her. The man held onto them and looked. The young man mouthed some words while the man stared him in the eyes with a glare powerful enough to crack open a coconut from a thousand meters. The elderly couple continued their show until the suburbs and the roads returned, all at once, annihilating everyone and everything, except for the house of course.