Happy Birthday Eternity Read Online Free

rely on comfort with the hope that we will not have to deal with anything earth shattering.  Comfort becomes real.  Destruction, rebirth, reality, they scream from a distance and hover right beneath our noses.
    People don't think of the future because they can't comprehend it. 
    We pay attention to the pavement under our feet and the food in front of us. 
    Tomorrow is a cable news broadcast. 
    Tomorrow is a screaming alarm clock.
    Tomorrow is work in the office.     
    The smaller our vision, the bigger the world.  The bigger the world, the more scared we become.  The more scared we become, the less we look around. 
    A shot.
    A beer.
    I'm drunk.
    Angry.
    Belligerent.
    My fist is shaking and my teeth are grinding.
    'Franklin, what are we?'  From tongue to teeth to lips to air, my words are as nebulous as they are real, spoken like a drunken asshole.
    'What?'
    'We're nothing.  We're simply existing.'
    There's a pause.  Music plays in the background.  People chatter.  Someone laughs.  A light flickers.  A beer is poured. A shot is taken. 
    Franklin looks ready to pass out.
    I'm sure I look just as bad as Franklin.
    We're in our own little world of drunken idealism.
    Rambling with a nihilistic sense of self-satisfaction.
    'I don't even dream of the future.  I don't dream of anything and nothing ever happens.  I've simply existed day to day for the last two thousand years.  I'm not sure if I appreciate anything.  I'm not sure if I even care about anything.'
    Franklin perks up. 
    Head wobbling.
    Spinning.
    Cross-eyed.
    His ears are red.
    'We all have.'
    Then the night gets fuzzy.
    Things come in flashes.
    We're kicked out of the bar.
    There's an undeniable adrenaline, like falling with no end in sight. 
    A broken window.
    A broken bottle.
    A thrown fist.
    An aching jaw.
    Then I wake up in a field.
     
    12
     
    Aching. 
    Lost.
    Confused.
    I walk a few miles until my nose starts to bleed and my feet start to ache.  The air is fresh and feels good so I sit on a tree stump.
    I try to recall how I got here.
    Nothing. 
    I keep walking.
    Logic dictates that if I walk long enough I will get somewhere.
    My mouth is dry. 
    My gut is aching.
    Birds are flying overhead.
    The grass, the trees, the fresh air.  I forgot that they existed.  I haven't been out of the city in two hundred years. 
    A car drives by.
    I'm waving and yelling.  They don't slow down. 
    Eventually I come to a run-down shack of a house at the end of a driveway.  The windows are opaque with mold and my hands are aching for reasons that I can't explain. 
    No one seems to be home.
    I knock on the door.
    Another knock.
    No answer.
    All I want is water. 
    All I want is food.
    All I want is the easiest path back to the way things used to be.
    Around to the back of the house.  There's no one, only an open field.  Only two cars that are so old they may actually still run on gasoline. 
    'Hello?'
    My voice barely registers as a yell.  My throat is aching.  My teeth are grinding and causing my gums to bleed. 
    Around the house is nothing.  Fields.  Empty fields where animals used to graze.  Empty fields where children used to play and people used to harvest.  Now there is nothing but overgrown foliage.  Wheat that has grown past its prime.  Weeds that have long since taken over. 
    The air.  The grass.  The pollen.
    I sneeze. 
    Another sneeze and it turns into a fit and my eyes get red and my throat starts to itch.
    Still itching, I knock on the door again, pound, plead, yell.  Nothing.  No one is going to answer. 
    Maybe there's a phone inside.
    I turn the knob.  It's unlocked. 
    Inside the house is a thick layer of dust.  Cobwebs.  This house is old.  It's been a long time since anyone has lived here. 
    'Anyone home?'
    The floor creaks beneath my feet.
    Evaline and I used to watch ancient scary movies.  The kinds with ghosts and cobwebs and special effects that seem scary when you don't think about them at all. 
    My heart