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, ____, ( 09/12/01 anada484 ,
/ \ ,_____ (--|_\_,,_, _ _| _ __________ ,-.______ _,---._ __ _/ \
/ \+------ _| ) | |(_|(_|(_|_ .net------/ )----.-' `./-/ \
/ / ( |__, ( ( ,' `/ /|
\ / \ `-" \'\ / |
\ / "You Have Two Minutes" `. , \ \ / |
Y-------- ----------/`. ,'-`----Y |
/ by Infernal ( ; mEoW!@/| '
i________________________________________________| ,-. ,-'_______/ | /
| | | ( * | /
|____________________ Anada is cat-friendly! __) |__\ `.___________|/
`--' `--'
You have two minutes to reconcile the fork you're going down. Two
minutes to notify your next-of-kin. Don't waste your prime time packing,
because you've already blown fifteen of your allotted one hundred twenty
seconds standing there looking at me with a slack jaw and glazed eyes.
You have two minutes. Move!
Who are you going to call? What will you stuff in your pockets as
you leave? Some before you have turned on the gas and, as they walked out
the door, tossed their cigarette butt back in to punctuate (a glowing
red period) their next-to-last will and testament. Others have squandered
those two minutes crying, or biting their dirty fingernails, or just looking
around, recording their last look at the life they knew. Some have left
notes. Some have freed pets. You, however, are still looking at me, and
thirty-five seconds have been wasted. Go!
When you look back on this day, you will remember the car ride, the
train station, and the boxcar. But most of all you will remember these
two minutes, and the rest of the day before them. It does not matter
what trifling inconveniences bothered you today. You'll think back on
waking up this morning in your bed, perhaps alone, perhaps with someone
trusted. At the time, you did not think of it as a miraculous moment, a
safe and golden bit of sleepy, vulnerable joy. You just swung out of bed
and padded to the bathroom. But from this day forward, the morning sun that
poked you through the windows will take on a misty glow, the warmth of the
covers will be as comforting as the womb, and the heavy breath of the
sleeper beside you will assume, in your mind, the humming cadence of
intimacy and friendship, the likes of which you will never feel resonating
again. You now have fifty seconds.
There is nothing you can take that will be allowed to stay in your
possession. Your coat and pockets will be torn. Your mouth will be
opened and examined. It will be an invasive search. When it is over,
you will feel plucked, skinned and boiled, and no memento can survive that
process. Most of what is in your mind will be rendered down into its base
elements ñ featureless gobs of slag that identify your happiness, your pain,
your hope and your fear. Memories will run and pool like mercury. You will
fight this, and you will not win. My telling you this will not allow you to
avoid fighting it. You are down to your last twenty seconds.
At this point I am honor-bound to inform you that it was well within
your capacity to disarm us and render us helpless in the two minutes you
were given. It was also within your grasp to do one last kindness, soothe
one final grievance or in some other way contribute to the world you are
leaving before you are disappeared. The fact that you did nothing of the
sort only cements my resolve. Your time is up. Please follow the man to
the car. Raus!!
/\___/\ ____________________________________________________________ /\___/\
\ -.- / \ -.- /
`-.^.-' (c) 2001 Anada e'zine by Infernal `-.^.-'
/"\ ________________________________________________________________ /"\
