The Clouds

I get carried away in the clouds. They pass, and take me with them to places I've never been and maybe it's their first time too. But i have a book, always, and they take me and my book with puffy, joyous grins upon their faceless minds. They take me places never stepped upon by any other human; places only I can reach. And they take me and only me. That's what I love. The clouds carry me away.

The Beginning

I woke, sopping wet on the warm, dry sand. I could remember three things exactly, and three things only: the day of my father’s unexpected trip to “work,” his slippery tail, and my recent trip on what you might call a “bring your child to work day.”

My day had started like any other: my mom calling to me, saying something like “Get up, Beau, or I’ll get the water bucket”, being drenched with said ice cold water, and saying goodbye to my dad after his announcement of an emergency nine-day business trip to Honolulu.

He worked as a clean-up guy. Well, more like the clean-up guy. Everyone everywhere who was important knew him. My dad helped clean beaches, forests, and anything else nature, and travelled to everywhere not local. Most of his jobs were stationed in coastal areas with beaches and waters, considering we lived along the water of Kailua on Oahu. Dad was great at his job. Well, at least that’s what he always said.

We said our goodbyes, and I followed him out the door, heading to the beach to meet some buddies; Hank, a “hunk” at heart but a cinnamon roll on the outside, and Elliott, who had only two words able to describe him: mischevious and arrogant.

Ten minutes later my best friends and I had just started tossing a frisbee along the edge of the water. Hank flung the frisbee towards me, sailing a good two feet above my head. I turned to retrieve the plastic disc just as I felt a slippery snake-like branch, flipper, wing, something attach and wrap itself around my ankle. It yanked me straight to the ground, my stomach hitting hard and my eyes darting up in a silent plead for help.

Just my crazy luck, though, my eyes didn't meet anything that screamed HELP. They saw the same horrid tentacle something strapped around my best friends' legs, dragging them toward the rushing blue waters alongside me.

Oh, the Place You'll Go! - Dr. Seuss

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)
Note: These are just mix and matched pieces of Dr. Seuss' full book. But this may or may not be one of my all-time favorite books/poems/quotes, so it's another I thought I should share. :)

There's an Ever Present Past - Peter S. Quinn

There’s an ever present past
Giving each dream a go
Wings moving onward fast
Into the approaching flow
Nothing new nothing old
Only the days in ever lasting
Freshen the moment to hold
Scattering up instances casting

You and I still full of dreams
That to the oceans is reaching
Watering way everlasting streams
Blowing voices there teaching
Rain from the clouds drifting
Drop by dropp in to your eyes
The covert of darkness shifting
Here come the clear blue skies

Reaching to the further side
Of our not so faraway destiny
Where the hue of colors glide
Inside the luminous and free
It would have to exist special
Not to become there through
So much is there abolishable
Going on forever for the new

Note: Although I didn't write this poem, I wish I had. There are some very loaded words that struck cords in my head as I read, and I love it. I felt I needed to share. :)

Short Scene

                 I examined the little shop. With the sign FREE DONATIONS beside the small front door and the NEAL’S ANTIQUES, the store itself looked ancient.

       “Come on, Miko. You’ll be fine. Spiders won’t touch you if you don’t touch them.”  I said, as I stood across from my best friend and held Carter’s hand.

                 “Ew! Why would I touch them? Hunter, I’m not going in there. They’ll be everywhere. I think I can see spider webs from here,”  Miko said, a disgusted look on her face.

                “Okay, okay. Me and Carter will be right in here then, okay?”  I jabbed my thumb toward the antique store door. I felt only a little bad for going in without her, simply because her fear of spiders and bugs was quite frankly ridiculous sometimes.

                “Alright, and I’ll be here, on this bench, safe, sound and away from those eight-legged creeps and their icky sticky death traps,” Miko said, taking a seat on the wooden bench beside the shop door.

                Carter and I stepped through the small shop door and heard the bell ring, signaling our entrance.

                “Where to first?” Carter said.

                I looked around, tapping my chin and scrunching my face. “Oh! Clocks!” I grabbed my boyfriend’s wrist and yanked him along. I heard him laugh behind me and allow me to pull him.

                “So how’s your aunt been dealing with your mom lately?” Carter said, as we looked around among the different variations of old clocks.

                “She’s okay… They were never real close anyway. And me and Aunt Rose, we don’t even talk much. I go home, she hands me my dinner plate, and we eat usually with fewer than ten words each. She just got done getting rid of all my mom’s old stuff.” I said.

                “Are you… okay with that?”

                “Yeah, sure. As long as she doesn’t start hittin’ me, we’ll be good. And none of Mom’s stuff ever mattered to me, anyway.”

                That’s something I liked about my Aunt Rose. She never told me it was all my fault then hit me. That was something my momma was never good at.

                “Ah, she won’t. Rose is good, right? She’s not like your mom was.”

                “Not yet, at least. Hey—is that Theo?” I said, pointing at the chocolate skin-colored boy at the register checking out.

                We walked up to Theo just as he turned away from the cashier and met eyes with Carter.

                “Hey, guys. What are you doing here? No one cool comes to Neal’s anymore.”  Theo said, with only a little excitement in his deep voice.

                “What did you buy, Theo?”  I asked, smiling.

                “Oh, just some old jewelry box. My mom’s really into this stuff… Ah, I don’t know. What are you two love birds doing here?”

                “We’ve been to every other store on the block, and it’s not even noon yet. This was pretty much a last resort.”  Carter said.

                “We also have Miko waiting outside, so we should probably get going, right, Carter? You can head out with us if you want, Theo,” I said, hoping he’d accept so Miko didn’t feel quite so alone alongside Carter and me. “I’m starving and broke, so I think we’ll be going to that cheap diner next door.”

                Theo shrugged casually. “Miko? Who’s Miko?”

                “You don’t know Miko? Do you live under a rock? You’re my boyfriend’s best friend and you don’t know Miko? She’s my best friend.”  I said.

“Is she cute?”

I gave my friend a playful shove just as we start toward the door to leave. Theo, who obviously did not expect the push, went  tripping into the counter. His jewelry box went sprawling to the floor.

Unable to do anything, I threw my hands out to catch whatever I could, whether it be Theo or his new-to-him jewelry box. Theo caught himself at the counter, fortunately, but his now-open box had long landed on the floor.

“You’re such a klutz, Theo,” Carter said, laughing and patting his best friend on the back.

My attention lay on what had fallen out of Theo’s box.

It was an envelope, with a torn edge and scribbled letters on the front.

Character Description

CHARACTER BIO

Name: Kimiko "Miko" Shing

Age: 16 years old

Physical Description: Japanese-American, short hair,
5ft 5' tall

Location: too-small apartment in small coastal town of Oriental, North Carolina.

Goals/Desires: to leave her father and triplet brothers' tiny apartment.

Weakness/Insecurities: terrified of all bugs, especially bumblebees; hates home life but covers that up when outside of it.

Pet Peeves: excessive body piercings.

Fondest/Saddest Memories: leaving Japan and her mother at the age of five.

Religion/World Philosophy: believes that all are good, or at least have some good in them; also that the world is much bigger than it looks, thus pushing her to want travel and adventure.

Habits: Miko is always late for events of all sorts.

Family Life: mother forcefully left in Japan early in Miko's life, so she is at home with a harsh father and three identical 8 year old brothers.

Paradise

 

As if my feet were attached in some other dimension and would go there without the slightest indication that my body wanted to do so, they practically glided through the doorway.

The smell threw me back a stride and for a second I had to catch my breath. Except I knew what would await me if I stepped into the dark shadows of the room. Behind the curtains, inside the toy bin, beside the small bookcase of children's books. It was there. It was everywhere. But my legs didn't care, and apparently neither did my brain.

I might as well have jumped right off a four-hundred foot cliff, than go into that room. My heart skipped beats and I knew this because I could hear them in my ears. My body throbbed and my eyes spun. They couldn't take in everything, something, anything. I was in a complete daze and things were beginning to get fuzzy.

I could just make out dolls with bulging eyes lining one wall, sitting atop dark mahogany shelves. Row after row, they stared. They watched me as I roamed blindly. The small rocking horse creaked slowly, back and forth, back and forth, with fading childish colors. Teddy bears with missing buttons and worn bows sat sprawled carelessly in random places on the the horrid green carpet. The walls were engulfed by jungle designs: one wall had gorillas and monkeys hanging aimlessly from tall trees, another with bamboo plants and other unrecognizable plants. The third wall had exotic birds feeding their young, taking up very bit of that wall. And the fourth wall... The fourth wall had.... Had...