Stand in Silence

This was an assignment for a class i took as an elective in creative writing. It is Ekphrasis, but unfortunately i have lost the link to the artwork in question, which somewhat defeats the purpose.

I step off of the bus, onto the cold concrete below. I tap my pockets to make sure I have all of my belongings, and I notice my wallet is missing. I turn quickly to catch the bus before it departs, assuming I had left it there, but the bus hurriedly drives away. I bury my face into my hands and sit down on the concrete, irritated at this new development, what a day, and it is only ten o’clock.

After a while I pick myself up and break out of my miserable shell and confront my new found surroundings. The sky is bleak and dreary, even though the sun is high in the sky and its rays penetrate the cloud layer, bathing everything in its aura. This creates a strange feel in the air, everything is cold, but the sun’s rays provide a little warmth, as though the sun is only providing the minimum amount of warmth.

There appears to be a playground to my left, and a road that bends up and off into the distance, to which it is greeted by some statues. There are some bright and colourful apartment buildings off in the distance, and provide a welcome break from the miserable scenery provided by the sky.

I take a deep breath, and try to figure out what to do. I have no money, I don’t carry a cell phone, and there appears to be nobody around but a man in a blue suit, between me and an ominous looking tunnel.

The man stands on the edge of the road, just outside of a tunnel. There doesn’t exactly seem to be any reason for a man to stand where he is, the bus stop is here where I stand, and he can’t exactly cross the road from there either, perhaps he is waiting for something. The man is wearing a blue suit, the kind a business man from the nineties would wear, stands with his hands in his pocket, and is slightly balding. I only just notice, but the man has been staring at me this entire time. Perhaps he saw me fail to stop the bus.

I walk over to the man, and introduce myself. I explain that I had lost my wallet on the bus and ask him about what I ought to do. The man just stares.  I explain that I came here today to visit my aunt, who had recently moved into this neighbourhood. I ask politely if this man could point me in the direction of Wilhelm Street. He responds with a stare, and for some time after, I awkwardly stare back, half expecting him to reply, or acknowledge me, but the man just keeps staring, as if he isn’t really here, as if his consciousness is somewhere else and what I am talking to is just the shell of a man.

The cloud cover has grown thicker, and all of the sunlight has been overthrown by cloud, and the feeling of impending rain dominates the senses. I briefly look down at the ground, before proceeding to take refuge in the tunnel from the rain. As I stand there, staring at that man, he stands there, in the middle of the rain, staring off at the distant bus stop. I shake my head in confusion and wait for the rain to pass.

Author's Note

I can see many errors in this, but I'm not too sure on how to over come them. I was aiming for a disconnectedness between the main character (the active voice) and the world, and a further disconnect between the blank man and the main character. Weirdly almost everything i write revolves around this theme, a kind of bleak existentially rooted disconnection from everything.

This was an Ekphrasis, and the artwork that served as inspiration has been lost to me, so i cannot link it unfortunately, it featured a man standing on the side of the road near a dark tunnel.

I think very poorly of the things i write, but enjoy writing as an expression, and am uploading these for the sake of getting better.