Greetings, this is the Stranger and hopefully the following will not cause you to flee and come again no more. Poetry for me is... like standing underneath a waterfall and causing some of the water to flow in a certain direction using your arms and shoulders pointed in a uniform direction and angle. In other words, it comes when it wants and it rarely meets the emotion that spawned it. This short story is a free style poem who met a biography. Guess who it's about and I'll tell you if you're right! So enjoy the fruits of what the Gaelic would call the "awen" or the breath of the soul.
Green symbols danced randomly in the screen while a strange and rhythmic synthesized sound repeated on the speakers placed around the desk. The room was dimly lit by the half moon lazily sending its rays through the only window. One door led in, it was shut and had many locks placed upon it. All else was vague in the semi-darkness which covered everything with an obscuring haze. All else, except for a sleeping figure collapsed half on the desk and half in an office chair.
The teen aged boy had greatly unkempt hair, an old and well worn shirt, and long slightly baggy jeans on. He looked like he had been sleeping for a great while because dust had settled on his shirt. The haunting sound on the speakers changed its tune to something more akin to an Indian settar and the tempo became random and quick. The inscrutable green letters reduced in their haste to appear at various places and times and to just as quickly vanish; and upon the completion of their total banishment and the descent of a blank screen these words became evident in a white text.
Server reboot system online... Please wait... Please wait... Server reboot complete, Server self diagnostic initialized, running... Server self diagnostic complete. The Server is ready to operate the System, Server contacting System. Please wait...
When the Server was contacting the System the boy awoke and was coherent in time to read the words. What he saw next was this, Server System link initialized, transmitting data at 800 mbps, Server System link stable at 800 mbps. After a few more moments the boy stretched and turned on the light. Only one of the bulbs in the ceiling fan was working and the light produced was only slightly more powerful than the moonlight but the dark haze did draw back from the obscure objects and the boy quickly categorized them into their proper place in his brain. The box full of keepsakes, a chair with a bin of cds on it, a cabinet full of various useless items, and a tiny fridge and microwave.
He foraged in the fridge and salvaged some food from what may or may not be safe to eat. When he sat back down the following words were awaiting him on the screen.
Server System ready for operation: Command?
He began to dialog with the system.
Enter subnet drive number 6, run self diagnostic program 3. Execute.
Server System diagnosing subnet drive number 6. Please wait...
The boy had been having trouble getting online lately and because of the unresponsiveness of the computer he had been running diagnostic programs on every function of the computer. He ate his unidentified food as he waited and just as he finished the computer signalled its completion.
Subnet drive number 6 has a malfunction in .dll file number 777. Warning, if you attempt to repair the file the subnet drive may totally fail. Do you wish to run repair? Y/N.
Y.
Server System running repair program on subnet drive number 6. Running...
There was at this point no music from the speakers and the only sound was a rapid succession of high toned clicks. The screen blanked out for a moment and then reinitialized. When it did these red words appeared on the screen.
Server System repair of subnet drive number 6 a failure, the subnet drive has been scrambled. Server System recommends tech support. Server System will reinitialize Safe Mode in 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1... Goodbye.
The boy, having finally run out of other options went to his door, unlocked every one of his many locks and called for tech support. Who also happened to be his father. From then on out the Server and the System were in repair and the boy could e-mail his invisible friend who was now so close even though he was so far away.
Dt
Break Free
8 years ago
6 comments:
The boy is you. The problem is relational (multiple relations?), and the sounds indicate spiritual atmosphere?
The boy is not me. The problem is not relational. The sounds do indicate a spiritual atmosphere but so do a great deal of other things. Guess again.
I am supposed to guess?!
I'm thinking that the boy is representive of a something bigger than an individual--- the church?---trying to fix her own problems, surrounded by spiritual chaos, feeding on something other than God's word, yet finally, graciously, driven to call on her Father in heaven, on celectial tech. support.
???????
This is what I don't like about alegory, almost anyone could come up with any interpretation. Are you truly intending a one-for-one allegory, or is it more of an analogy?
It's actually a metaphorical story, and it is not about the church. It is about one individual and their spiritual issues, but the tech. support is not God. The tech. support is his literal father, God is the guy he is communicating with online at the end, his "friend".
I'll just explain, boy = my brother Joseph, computer = his spirit and his attempts to commun with God, the locks on the door are of course to keep his father out. These are the major themes but there are a great deal of detail items like the food being in there with him, or the different colors of the words on the screen, or the different stages of darkness in the room, or that its nighttime, and etc. So yeah, plenty there to dig into if you have the patience to try.
Dt
Psalm 55:1 (ESV)
Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
Unless the Lord sheds his grace on us, we are all lost in nature's night.
Very different, stylistically, from your norm, but good.
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