Software Vault: The Diamond Collection/The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO/cdr14/hiker.zip/HIKER.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-29 | 13KB | 190 lines

               The Hiker - written March 22, 1992 by Nature Boy


   It was nothing, a mere hike for the young lad. He had ample supplies in his
pack and began to take the ways which he knew best.
   At least he thought of it as nothing, nothing important, nothing so out of
the ordinary. He'd travelled some three miles already, stopped for a Coke out
of a machine though he had a full canteen of fresh water. He was saving that
for when he really needed it, where there WERE no machines.
   He'd taken the tracks by the wayside; a short distance and he'd have to walk
the roadside. He saw a stray dog roaming in the night, yet though it watched
him it didn't bark. Not so much as even a whimper.
   "Where are you headed?" a voice seemed to say. Yet, looking all around, the
dude of fourteen, too old to be called "just a boy", could not seem to see
anyplace from which the voice could come. Looking at his feet, the dog was
padding along by his side. "I know you heard my question," said the voice
again, "now would you kindly answer it." The boy stopped, looked around
cautiously and still saw no one. "I must be hearing things," the boy said
aloud. The dog was sitting at his feet. "Have you some water?" said the voice
this time, "I would love you always to quench my thirst just this once!"
   "That was you, wasn't it!" asked the lad. This time, the dog barked. To his
surprise, this lad, known as Bradley, reached into his pack and produced the
canteen. Immediately the dog walked up to the canteen and licked as the youth
poured some water out in the dog's face. "Thank you, kind soul, you will not
regret this!" said the voice. Bradley looked again at the dog, not taking
another step. "I am bound for the outer city, my friend, I do not know of my
exact destination. Can you tell me of anything that you know?"
   "You have spoken to me, my friend," replied the voice, "that has shown that
you truly believe that I am the being who is producing this voice. It is,
indeed, emanating from within my being.
   "You have asked for me to tell anything that I know. I was once in Broadway
musicals, Broadway plays. Come now, feel my snout." The dog itself was not
large, it was a rather young German Shepherd. Bradley felt the dog's long
snout, and at once the voice said, "close your eyes, close your eyes, and keep
them closed for twenty seconds..." Bradley did as he was told. Slowly he felt
the snout of the dog pull out from between his fingers.

   "You may open your eyes now," said a voice, more clearly, distinctly.
Slowly, Brad opened his eyes and a human male figure, fully clothed, appeared
before him. This person was dressed in modern-day, casual clothing.
"Surprised?" Immediately, Brad began looking around for the dog, to see if it
had wandered off or something. "No, no, no.. I am the dog," said the man, and
somehow, Brad recognized it. "Yyy... you.."
   "Yes, it is me. My name is Bart. I was placed under a spell by a witch that
I didn't believe. I didn't believe that she was real, so she cast this spell to
prove me wrong."
   He sounded so different now, so "normal"..
   "I can't be sure just how long ago that the spell was cast on me, honestly..
as a dog, I had no way of knowing one day from another.. just that I had to
find food, and to keep alive," Bart said, belching. "So, what is your name?"
   "Bradley," Brad said. "So, how did the spell get broken?"
   "Human touch. I was told that the first human I came in contact with that I
could convince that I was truly real, and truly could talk, act and everything
else, that the spell would be broken." Bart opened and closed his hands several
times. "I can't believe I actually have hands again.."

   "How old are you in human years, or do you remember?" Brad asked to which
Bart replied, "I was eighteen when I was cast down. I don't think I've been a
dog for more than a few months.. oh! What date is this?"
   "March twenty-second," Brad replied as they began to walk in a southerly
direction. "This is the way to my old apartment from here," he said. "As a dog,
I had no real sense of attachment to anything I owned as a human, therefore I
suppose I just went anywhere I felt like it."
   "Ever get into a fight with another dog?" Brad laughingly asked as they
walked further down the main road. "No.. that's not funny either. If you'd been
a DOG for several months, you'd know what I mean! I've got one major scratch on
my leg as a matter of fact that I got as a dog.. I stepped onto a piece of
barbed wire and it hurts like hell!"
   "Let me see," said Brad as Bart pulled the leg of his jeans up. Yes, there
was a cut place that ran part of the way up his leg, surely enough! Brad got
some water and disinfectant and put it on the cut. Bart grit his teeth. "Maybe
you should go to a hospital.."
   "No.. no need for that. If my thought patterns are correct, since I now
believe in the witchcraft that she produced, the scratch should wither away
within 24 hours of again being hu-..." Bart stopped mid-sentence. They had come
some quarter-mile from where Bart had actually turned human in the dead of the
night. But Bart stopped dead still and Brad did too. Perhaps now Bart had some
senses that before the witchcraft he had not possessed?
   "What?" asked Brad, stumped.
   "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty... here kitty, kitty, kitty...." Bart was calling
a stray cat, but why? What good would it do?
   Was there a cat? Bradley had been walking so fast and talking so much to
Bart that he didn't see anything. But, after a moment, there one was. A
speckled tabby. "Come here, kitty," Bart persuaded one last time. The cat
meowed. "I'm coming, I'm coming.. just give me time..."
   "Damn," said Bradley, "I heard a voice again.."
   "Ya' sure did," said Bart. "Sounded feminine, too!"
   The cat drew closer. "You called me over here, now what the hell do you
want?" asked the voice, the cat standing on the pavement of the old closed-down
filling station, meowing loudly. "Were you cast down? Were you given a sentence
my dear?" asked Bart of the cat. "Hell no! What are you talking about? I was
BORN a cat! I wasn't put under some spell.. thats rediculous!" and the cat took
off into the night.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

   Bart turned to look at me. "Could you hear that cat?" he asked me. I told
him that I could hear her just as plainly as I'd heard him. Anyway we walked
further up the road, I can remember I looked at my watch and it was after two
a.m. I had planned on walking part of the night and then grabbing a couple of
hours sleep just before dawn.
   "How could you talk with a cat if it wasn't under a spell?" I asked him.
   "I have no idea. I have no idea how all this works.. in fact I wish it
didn't. I'd like to go back to how I was before I ever got involved with that
witch.. the whole thing is starting to frighten me more now than it did before
because I may still be in touch with "that" world. Other dogs may still see me
as a dog, for all I know."
   I told him he'd have to approach a dog sometime and find out.
   "Shh.." he said.
   "What?"
   "Just stand perfectly still, don't make a sound..."
   It dawned on me then and only then.
   BART STILL HAD THE HEARING AND SENSE OF SMELL OF A DOG!!!!
   He led me into the darkness and off the road.
   "Come on, come on.. hop on over here.. it's perfectly safe.. we mean you no
harm.."
   "Are you serious? How do I know you don't plan on baggin' me up for dinner
or something?"
   "We mean to talk with you!"
   "I'm.. perfectly fine talking to you from back here, thank you very much!"
   "Come closer so we don't have to shout! As humans, we have to deal with
police and sound ordinances, you see.."
   Then it got into a small flicker of light from a nearby street lamp. It was
still munching on grass. "Hey, there's some taller grass out here!" I offered.
   "What's he saying?" said the rodent. "He scares me for I know not what he
said!"
   "He means no harm either," Bart persuaded. "He only stated that there was
plenty of green grass over this way as well for your pleasure!"

   Gingerly, the rabbit hopped out into a little brighter light. Bart and I got
down on hands and knees behind a small brick wall. I felt stupid talking to a
rabbit!!!!
   "What do you know of the world?" Bart asked the rabbit. It was a white
rabbit, with noticeably very powerful hind legs. "I know that I must keep under
the earth to be protected from life's misfortunes. I also know that you are
violating one of nature's rules by merely communicating with me, and that you
should consider yourself lucky!"
   The voice was male, though I had more difficulty hearing it than I had Bart
or even the cat prior to this. It spoke in a very subdued tone and it told of
loud machines and humans who cared not whether it lived or died. Bart told the
rabbit from which he had come and to the general area to which we were going.
Then the rabbit had a strange request. "I will be happy to go along, for I have
nothing here," he said to Bart. "All that I ask is that you pick me some of
these special flowers here, to which I love but have great difficulty in
getting to, some green grass, and to tell my relations that I am gone...." this
part I could hear but could not believe personally.
   The flowers of which the rabbit spoke were some five feet off the ground on
a local pine tree - small red flowers with yellow centers. There were about
twelve of them on the trunk, and I could hardly believe that the rabbit had
communicated so much information. The rabbit had indeed, left, and I would be
surprised more if I saw the rabbit return. We had picked all the flowers and
had picked a good deal of short grass when the rabbit... returned, not only him
but three more interesting-sized rabbits were roaming around with him!
   The rabbit hopped right up to me and uttered, "if you can understand me, you
may ride me in your pack. Grab me by my stomach and place me carefully in
there." I did this once I had a nice sized compartment open for the rabbit,
Bart placed all the flowers into the open compartment, then I allowed Bart to
gingerly lift the rabbit into the pack. He was going to go off on his own and
search for a new place of residence, using us as a taxicab of sorts.
   The rabbit, nicknamed Wayl, knew of Bart's existance as a dog through simple
communication of which I had no knowledge. The rabbit even merely nibbled of my
ear, very gingerly, and somehow knew not to bite. We talked to the rabbit a bit
as we continued to walk. "So you were able to hear me in your present form?"
Wayl asked. "Yes, you were quite audible." "That's scary. Perhaps I shouldn't
have ventured so far from my hole. Perchance you to have been a real dog.."
   "A true canine would know not what to listen for. You were nestled well in
the high weeds; you have done well to protect your castle and now your next of
kin will follow in your footsteps."

   We walked past a large wooden sign and then slower past a building. Bart
slowed again and I wondered what the hell he could be doing now. "Come out,
come out from wherever you are.." Bart whispered softly. Wayl was looking at
Bart as well. "Come on.." Wayl sensed it too; I didn't sense anything except an
ever-increasing sense of fear of the unknown. Then I heard Wayl; he seemed to
offer some kind of signal as well. Then I saw it; a large black swooping bird
came down from atop a sign which read, "BUILDING MATERIALS".
   "Do you realize what time it is? You've awoken me from a sound sleep! I have
things to gather in the dawn's early light!"
   "There, there, I know," said Bart, "but we were just by and we wanted to say
hello, just this once."
   "Well, I'm sure you did! But you don't have to work your wings.. er.. buns
off all day collecting food either!"
   "Well now, best you get along mama blackbird and get your rest!"
   "And best you come around next time in the light of day so's I can make
better conversation! I can be a mean one past sunset! I'm warning you!" and off
she flew back to her young. This was too much and I could hardly believe it.

   It was at this time that my alarm went off. "Brad! Breakfast is on the
table! Come on, you'll miss the bus!"
   Sure mom, sure..