Pulse

A peaceful local man meets a young girl and leads her on a walk through his town, mind and visions.

From the tall grass the sounds of the far evening were nothing but a dim murmur and a pulse. Carried by the lightest wind the low groans of music brushed against the growth of grass and twigs. The grounds were secluded from the source of sound and one could sit quietly in the field without sparking any sense of awareness from a close pedestrian. From the night life the field was an island in itself - a place where a thought could run free and the occupant was only at the mercy of his own decision. The field was freedom, it was peaceful, and it was meditation.

 

There was however one price of admission to be granted access to the field, for an occupant of the sacred place had but one momentary care that demanded a token of awareness. Blanketed by the soft brush and canopy trees lay a long wooden structured lined with metal and wood that extended as far as the eye could see in both directions. Every three hours or so the wooden structure would begin to tremor, quickly the tremors would birth into shakes and soon an enormous black beast would scream through the field and slice through everything in its path shooting out glass and stones, forming twisters made of dirt and stretching its arms out like a vessel puncturing through a deep still sea.

 

The occupants were required to be distant and hidden from the beast during the time of its arrival for if they were seen by its large eye they would cross through to another frame of being. The field was regularly quiet and calm but it was only a matter of seconds separated by hours in which the beast would give warning, arrive and depart. An occupant of the field was demanded to master the patterns of the beast.

 

 

Away from the field a young handsome man was drinking in the nearby town. He was indulging in various saloons and was enjoying the sights and sounds of the evening. To the people the man was easy to talk to, comfortable to be around and attracted many women. At this moment in the night he was very in the physical realm. He was a believer of duality and retrospect and to him there were two sides to his frames - in and out. He would see things in retrospect as if he were floating in the cosmos observing Earth and all the creatures that inhabited it, and he would be as comfortable in his skin sitting talking eye to eye with anything that was placed in front of him. Aware of both sides of the same coin the young man often told friends that he was simply observing his life from the perspective of an old man. He adjusted to each situation accordingly and he believed in his own intuition and feelings.

 

To the young man life was whatever he thought. He would look through various frames at each situation until he settled on one that he thought felt right. He dated, fell in love with, married and became change - the only concept he truly believed was not merely an illusion. Every second was a different scene that he constantly reminded himself “this, in front of me, is part of the big dream that I will one day wake up from.” He liked his outlook very much and kept it glowing inside his chest every drop of his waking life.

 

Leaving one of the saloons and setting foot on the broken cobble stone road a dark figure past through the corner of his frames and immediately struck his attention. With a quick glance over his shoulder he realized the figure was that of a young girl hiding behind a bright lamp post. She was perhaps younger than him but perhaps not. As he pursued the girl he noted the way she presented herself and concluded that she was very attractive. The young man became very interested and followed her.

 

As the young man drew closer he noticed on the girls finger was a ring that resembled a bright and almost blinding light and the closer he stepped towards it a radiating warmth was felt touching his face and neck. Distracted by the light he was unable to make out exactly what she was wearing or what color her hair was, these details never mattered to the young man nonetheless. Alarmed by his confusion he walked straight up to her and gently placed his hand over the light. The radiance that illuminated closed like that of a dying flower but not a person on the street seemed to take any notice.

 

“She is a fine creature” he thought. He took her by the arm and led her on a walk.

 

As the couple walked they conversed about what forces had led them together that evening and the strangeness of the moon. In one swift motion while the echo of the words still lingered the young man reached into his back pocket and clutched his fingers around a pair of sunglasses. Clasping them like a scope he put them on and the two walked towards a beautiful grassy spot in the hills that only the man knew about.

 

The sounds of the background evening became more of a murmur with each step away from the town. The grass grew taller and the darkness grew thick like a fog. Soon the young girl realized she had never been to a location of such beauty. They had walked into a painting where the colors of the scene blended together and felt virile enough to touch. They lied down in a bed of grass and began to kiss.

 

Far from the scene of the two lovers,

two birds sprung into the air,

startled by a faint groan and a subtle tremor.

 

 

The girl was very dark to the eyes. Her skin smooth, but her scent was very dark. She laughed as they kissed in a crib of brush. They were alone and only the night herself was watching in on the events unfold. As they rolled on top of one another the dirt and grass stuck to their skin. The man desired the girl for she was very fine; he clutched the side of her neck with his thumb pressing the bone behind her ear. The scent that left her skin went into him and planted spices all down his throat; in the city of the hills her essence was fresher than mountain thyme. The murmurs and tremors grew all around. They pressed into the ground until her body rolled closer to the wooden structure that lined the field. She grabbed the skin of his back and let her head fall into the wood of the structure, looking up she saw a bright moon staring back. 

 

“Look at the moon” she said to the man and they stopped kissing.

 

The man rolled onto the wood to position himself like the girl and looked at the moon shining like a beacon in the tide.

“Such beauty outside of these frames” he said and she turned to look at his mouth - she believed that his lips, although usually closed, spoke nothing but the truth.

 

The two remained in complete silence for a period of time getting lost in the darkness above them and wondering the nature of how they got where they were. Ever expansive are the cosmos and ever expansive is the thought about the cosmos, the two fell into deep meditation. 

 

Listening to the sounds of their minds they were released from the physical realm they knew - unaware of the brush, unaware of the each other and unaware of the subtle tremors behind their heads that now were growing into steady shakes. The shakes became more intense. The beast had entered the farthest boundaries of the field.

 

 

As the trees about half a mile away began to shake the two lovers grabbed each other’s hands to become one in their trances of meditation. They saw colors, people, unity, cosmos and energy all as one. In their mental state there was no difference between anything, they were all strangers and all the same people - it all reverted back to the beginning. The universe was perfect and they knew it, the beast was close.

 

The man felt a physical pull on his waist and a sharp pain behind his neck. He slipped out of meditation and saw an enormous beacon of light screaming towards him with unimaginable force. He grabbed the young girl and startled her. Awoken back to the physical realm from her deep period of liquidy awareness she let out a high pierced shriek - there was an explosion of light coming from her fingers where the ring once was worn. Everything was still and the beacon of light from the beast coalesced with the light from the girl’s ring.

 

 

All was illuminated.

 

 

What seemed like several waking hours later, the man woke up on the side of the railroad tracks with the moon glowing the brightest he had ever seen. The sound of the hissing train slowly grew in his ears and he could see the various carts of the train racing in front of him against the thick night. As the last cart crossed through his vision - he looked inside. 

 

Leaning against the window of the train he saw himself asleep with the young girl’s hand wrapped around his arm. She looked calm and asleep on him and the two were entwined in a scenic, ever changing meditation. The train continued through the field and retired into the night leaving only a dull tremor in its wake and a light breeze which made the tall grass dance for a moment’s time.

Reviews

[Unknown Shri]

The beast as the train, revealed towards the end, puts a smile on the face.
It took me a couple of reads to assume that the girl he goes to the hills is the one with whom he fell in love with.

There's one thing that continues to bother me though - what's the ring and the light? Are you saying that for him to switch frames (retrospect), he needs a stimuli like a blinding light? I do have a couple of other thoughts and not sure what you as the author intended it to be.

It's great that some elements of the story keep me thinking - but I don't like it when I can't resolve some for myself and am left feeling a bit dumb. I might have missed the hints about what the 'light and ring' connote, could you share your thoughts with me?

[Mark J Lombardo]

the way I can see it - he realizes that he can be IN and he can be OUT. essentially there is no difference between the two. the ring and the light on the street foreshadow the events with the beast (the headlight on the beast) and when the lights come together there is a moment of oneness. oneness being a general theme throughout.

thank you very much for reading - much obliged. hope this helps in some form, way or shape.