Roman's Love

 Roman's Love 

  Out from the thunderous clouds he fell. Flames rage, enveloping his body like fiery winds. He his voiceless, motionless as he falls. Descending to the crust of earth. Falling from stars like a meteor sent for destruction.

  Colliding with the earth at a wild speed he is forced through many layers of soil. Stones crumble, dirt flings, and hidden streams of water are revealed. His momentum is ceased after the resistance of earth becomes sufficient.

  He now lays dormant in the belly of the earth. Hours go by before he becomes conscience of thought. He awakes in a mad jolt, as if rising from a nightmare. His body beads with sweat as his lethargic mind awakens. He stumbles to his feet looking up at a blue sky.

  He looks to his body and feels himself with concern. He focuses his thoughts to where he may be. And how he has arrived in this unknown space. His hazel eyes dart about the cavernous crater his impact has caused.

  His clothes torn from the heated atmosphere he examines them with confusion. He looks back up at the sky and thinks, "I was just walking among the lips of love moments ago. Where am I?"

  Pinching his tattered shirt he relocates his eyes forward and lets go of his shirt. Without any further thought he starts to ascend the crater. Climbing he works to reassure himself and gather what memory he has left.

  "I will be alright, just have to get out of this hole and find someone who can tell me what has happened. This is so strange though, I was just holding dear what was a new love or, so I thought. But how would I have ended up here?"

  Reaching the cusp of the crater he pulls himself to level ground. He stands up looking around at the dry open fields before him. Wiping sweat from his brow, "What is this place? It looks much like a place back home, but it feels foreign. Almost lifeless."

  He starts to walk toward the brimming sun that is moving across the open sky. "If this place is anything like home I should be headed toward something...right?!"

  Walking further into the arid fields he sees off in the distance a windmill slowly spinning. Squinting his eyes and raising his hand to block the sun, he does his best to focus on the windmill. Looking to it, it appears to be in good condition.

  Seeing the windmill he picks up his pace and jogs. The ground beneath his feet is soft, he looks down and sees the ground is nothing but dust. Jogging he looks around himself, he sees dead crops that have withered. Inches and inches of dry soils expand what appears to be miles from all directions. But his focus is on the windmill.

He reaches the windmill, his feet sore from the run he carefully takes his steps to the windmill. He postures himself at the door of the windmill and knocks a few times. A minute or two goes by and suddenly the clattering of locks click from the other side of the door.

 The door slowly opens just enough for an eye to appear from the other side and a voice speaks, "Yes, what do you want?"

  Looking directly at the peering eye, "Hi, my name is Roman and I am wondering if you can help tell me where I am, I am lost?"

  The peering eye fades to the darkness behind it for a moment. Roman remains patient as he waits for an answer. The eye then reappears and the voice speaks again. "You are in Chadron, Nebraska." The door starts to close.

   Roman quickly stops the door with his hand. The eye reacts in fear and reclines away from the door while keeping pressure upon it. Roman, with slight urgency replies, "Chadron Nebraska, so I am on earth, what's the date and time?"

   The eye, clearly cautious of Roman keeps hold the door and says, "Two-thousand and eighteen, November twenty-eighth. Now move along I don't need any trouble."

 Roman can feel the door being pushed toward him. "Wait, I am not here for any trouble, I woke up a few miles from here and the last thing I remember is kissing my love or, so I thought. I guess, well, I never actually kissed her."

  The eye, suddenly falls with sympathy and concern. It welcomes Roman and from behind the door in the darkness stands an old man with a pale beard, blue jean overalls, a white sleeveless shirt and a frail frame accompanied with kind eyes. Roman sees the old man and looks to him with sorrow and an anxious heart.

  The old man, still somewhat reluctance of Roman's presence says, "Please come in Roman, but mind everything, touch nothing."

 The old man steps away from the door and gestures Roman to come in. Roman steps into the windmill with his bare feet. The cold wood flooring sends a quick sharp shock through his system.

  The old man leads Roman further into to the windmill, while walking the old man introduces himself, "My name is Wilder, I have resided here for many years and have not had a visitor in over sixty years. So if I am unsure of you, that is why."

  Roman respectfully listens and responds, "Wilder, do mind me asking if I ask you something else? Would you happen to know a way to get back to Washington state?"

  The old man stops in his tracks, looks up at Roman with a riddled face of confusion, "Washington? That place hasn't been inhabited in many years. At least hundred years. They gave it back to the world after everything collapsed. Now beasts roam it like wild dogs."

  Roman, struck in bewilderment, "At least hundred years? But I was just there and didn't you say it is twenty-eighteen?"

  The old man nods yes and replies, "Yes, but pretty much everything on the west coast is gone. Poof, everything became a cesspool of corruption and it all fell apart. Civil wars broke out and those that survived now live high in the mountains. So I don's see why you would want to go there?" Wilder starts to walk again.

  Roman, following Wilder, "But I was just there, what the hell is going on, are you trying to pull a joke on me?"

 The old man laughs, "Joke? Ha, Roman, this is no joke. I don't know how you got here, but the world has not been the same since the world turn into a circus of manipulation and a power struggle over the people."

  Roman steps up to Wilder and asks, "Can you show me?"

  Wilder looking to Roman, "Show you? Did you not see the withered crops, the dust covered grounds? Did you not see the arid landscape you walk through to get here?"

  Roman, "Yes, but I figured that was just this area." He swipes the last of sweat that beads from his head.

  "No boy, that is the whole of our world now. This country is gone and what ever love you speak of, surely it is no more. Especially if it resided in Washington."

 Roman freezes and becomes unsure the whole situation. "But I was just laughing, enjoying the moment I was in. I was fantasizing about a love, about kissing it holding it and enduring the struggles of it. But I became to fearful of it as well and sadly, I let it slip through my fingers like water." Roman lowers his head and looks to his earth covered feet.

  Wilder see's the sadness upon Romans face, "Follow me son, I will show you something that may help you."

  Wilder leads Roman up to the top of the light house. At the top is a telescope, he has Roman look through it and aims it at Washington.

 Roman, looking through the telescope see's the Space Needle, the once famous structure thrusting from the concrete jungle like a metal flower. It is covered in vines, giant birds perch upon it with viscous eyes.

  Roman becomes shocked, he steps back and looks to the old man with worry., "But how, how can I even see Seattle from here, this must be an illusion? "

 Wilder steps to the telescope and looks through it and speaks, "No son, this is reality and we have learned to bend the world more precisely at will with technology. But unfortunately, such advancements led to our demise as many men and women I might add, (shaking his finger in the air with his eye to the telescope) sought out to suffice their greed. But there was no end to it."


 Roman, still in disbelief reaches for the telescope and slowly takes it from Wilder to look once more. And surely enough there stands Seattle, wrapped in a jungle of the northwest. Roman then stands away from Wilder and the telescope and starts to speak madly.

"What is going on, how did I end up here? It's the same day and year, but everything is different. What has happened?...."

   Wilder grabs hold of Roman's by his arm, "Still my boy, breathe, let yourself settle, there is no need to take to the madness. There is no need to worry before there is clarity in your path. Let me help you, maybe I have something to help."

  Wilder guides Roman back down into the windmill. They make there way down and Wilder leads Roman to an extension of the Windmill. They walk through a long tunnel that slowly declines. They reach a red door, Wilder pulls out a key and unlocks it.
 
  He pushes the door open and they both enter the room. And in the room is a giant machine. A machine with a seat in the middle surrounded by orbiting rings. And all around the walls are computers and monitors. Each spewing out some strange coding and graphs Roman cannot understand.

  Roman is both fascinated and somewhat worried about what may be the objective of Wilder. Wilder then walks about the room and explains everything to Roman.

 "Welcome to my travel room. I was the first scientist to figure our time travel or so I thought. I have never had any of my colleagues return from their ventures of travel. Either they made it to their destination or were ripped apart in the process. Our plan was to stop everything from becoming what it was now. But after much calculation and research, I find, that some things cannot be stopped.

  So I fear those that tried the machine, ended up dying for the cause. But after going through my time travel calculation, and mind you, this machine is now illegal, so speak to none of this. I found an error or, rather a different result. I believe what I made was a dimension traveling machine."

 Roman looking perplexed with a tinge of worry, " Ripped apart?! What do you mean ripped apart?!

 Wilder hears the concern in Roman's voice, "Yes, ripped apart, every molecule in their body broken down to the very level of itself. Quite painless I might add. As the destruction of such a process would only takes seconds at the speed of which the machine sends one out. But I believe all I have sent are safe but, rather stuck in a new dimension such as yourself." Wilder fidgets about the computers.

Roman, loosens his tense body, " You mean you think you made a machine that can either travel through time or other dimensions. So  you're saying maybe I came from one of these? So how the hell did I get here then? I never stepped into any time traveling or whatever machine."

 Wilder, "Yes, precisely, see, you may have been a volunteer from another dimension for such an experiment as this. During my research I found that in such mind altering change, someone traveling from one dimension to the next, could cause memory over lapping. Possibly overlapping your memories with someone else or overlapping old memories and living them as if they were current."

  Roman, examining the machine, "But I remember clearly, laughing beside the most beautiful woman, I remember wanting to kiss her. But I couldn't I feared to much the results that may happen."

 Wilder, typing on a keyboard, "Roman, you mustn't let possibilities deter you from reality. You must not let what could be, what if be, the results of your actions before ever taking them. That is, if they are of good character and intent"

 Roman, resting his body weight on an bare wall of the room, "But what I am supposed to do if my chance has already passed or if our boundaries are set? How am I not supposed to destroy what we already have all in the name of what I want? Why am I even telling you this, I just want to get home." Roman, slightly embarrassed scratches his head and starts to walk about the room.

 Wilder, turns back to Roman from the keyboard, "Roman, you tell me these things because you have grown tired of your suffering, of your aches of loneliness. Joyful you are but, what is joy if not shared so deeply another can feel it in their heart? And as for not destroying it, never stay in ship that is sinking in hopes someone will rescue you while you can take the chance to swim to shore.  Never be the one afraid to abandoned what is only going to break you."

Roman, feeling his heart soften, "You're right Wilder, I need to keep myself looking forward. Take my heart to a new shore and be daring in getting what I seek. I can't hope things will become what I want and I can't sit idle in fear of rejection. I surely do not want to wake another ten years alone among empty sheets."

 Wilder, turning back and typing on the keyboard, "Good thoughts boy, good thoughts! Ah ha! I found the solution, it was a mere tweak of the code and the calculation of time. So now we can send you back, all we need is a personal item of yours that has sentimental value. It's amazing, how our souls will linger on things we hold dear"

  Roman reaches into his pocket to find something, but they are empty. "I have nothing, all I have are my clothes, which I bought for myself and carry no real value."

  Wilder stops typing, "Wait here Roman, I will be right back."

 Wilder makes his way out of the room for a bit. He then returns with something in his hand. He walks over to Roman and presents a small necklace to Roman. "Here, take this, I think it will do just fine."

  Roman looks to the necklace, it is a small silver chain with half a heart and a letter carved into it by hand. "What is this?" Roman asks as he grabs it from Wilder.

 "No matter what it is at this moment, I will explain later. But this will surely get you home. Take it, but before I send you back, do not let your fear determine your heart, don't let greed be your leader and don't let power be your anger. Now hop in the seat and lets get you home."

  Roman, urgently wishing to get home and strangely feeling comfortable with Wilder he hops in the chair and is requested to put the necklace on. He puts it on and gives a thumbs up. Wilder then pulls a few levers on the machine and types something into the main computer.

 Suddenly the orbiting rings start to spin faster and faster. Till they appear almost invisible. And just before he blacks out, Wilder waves, but as he waves Roman no longer see's and old man, but sees himself.

 Roman tries to yell out to Wilder but it is too late. Roman blacks out and comes to. He wakes up next to a woman laughing. He looks over at her and sees her glowing smile, he stands up from his seat, looks around at his small group of friends. They appear to have no concern of his disappearance.

  He places one hand on his neck, the necklace is still there but as he touches it vanishes. His heart is racing with the utmost adrenaline and confusion. He looks to the woman laughing and gazes to her radiant eyes and stands in front of her. She looks to him and becomes still.

 His heart pounds against his ribs, they lock eyes. Her face become blushed with a gentle smile. Roman, piercing past his fear, leans toward the woman and grabs hold her jawline gently and entwines his lips upon hers. And without rejection the woman follows with passion. They envelope themselves with emotion and release each other from their grasps.

 The woman looks to him with silence and eyes glistening of desire. Roman then kneels down in front of her and asks, "Will you be my love?'

  The woman, her blue eyes settling upon Roman's, swells with hovering tear and grabs hold of Roman and embraces him and replies, " I thought for sure we would never be more than the laughs among our friends."
--
What is joy without sharing it? 

Let fear be a reason to fight, It is the end that should drive you to keep going, 
A Man's Traveled Heart
Coming soon, The Bleeding Of Words

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