The Mover

People often go missing, it happens all the time. Some people run away and start a new life. Some are kidnapped. Others disappear in dark unsolved mysteries that spawn horror stories of unfound corpses, skeletons in the walls, and bodies ground into grit and smeared in the shadows of some hideous lair.

This story has many beginnings, and many ends. It's almost the same every time, like the story of Peter Pan. It begins not with children in a nursery, but with some lost soul. A old businessman who never found time for family, a lonely widow who's husband left for a young woman, a starving child on the street. The forsaken, the lonly, the victums of circumstance. Once upon a time, a person went missing.

It beings with a thud like the bursting of a tire felt from a distance. A low, dull impact which resonates the meat surrounding your lungs. Startled, you look around. Behind you stands a man, behind him a door. A striking figure, like a lone tree on a hill his presence changes the atmosphere. Distant sounds fade to silence. The lights drop low and one lamp brightens.

His facial features are indistinct, but wierdly familiar. The expression he wears is one of profound sobriety. With a voice as heavy as mountains he addresses you, by name. Frozen in an otherworldly fear, you gaze into his cold eyes. You ask who he is.

"I, am the passing of time, I am the bringer of hope, cast away your fears for I mean you no harm. I am the mover of lost souls, from one world to another, not the 'next world' as you might say, but a new one alltogether. I am the only sympathy, the only consession, the last hope of those, who have lost hope in living."

"This cosmos is empty, but for the people here, those who cast you out, the earth people you know. In a parallel world, you can have a new chance, be reborn to a new wolrd
and live a fresh life. Be warned, however, there's no no garantee, there are many worlds, mortal, and in all of them grief. There is no great solution, there is no great cure, the suffering of life, is ever life's to endure."

"But... but perhaps you would stay? Perhaps you can change that? There may be some way. I have been between worlds since the birth of the stars, I have seen love joy and pain of uncountable souls. Perhaps earth could change? Perhaps it could stop? Perhaps you could be happy? Perhaps everyone could be happy? Perhaps even I could be happy. What a thing to imagine. What an idea to suppose. But how could you do it? No body knows."

"So follow my steps, to try a new place, a new world, a new people, a new race. Come through my door to an unknown world, to try one more time for a happier life.  Or stay. You could stay and help, you could help find a way."

The House Made of Sand

Once upon a time in a faraway land
There lived an old man in a house made of sand

Twice every year he would walk into town
He'd walk with his dog who'd bounce up and down

He'd buy bread cheese and beans, and a big side of meat
And a strange smelling cream that he'd use for his feet

He'd curse and he'd swear as he kicked through the dust
He'd mutter at people and glare with mistrust

As he stomped down the town to the end of the street
To his favourite pub where the barman he'd greet

An old friendly face that he's known for years
They'd joke and he'd laugh 'till their eyes were in tears

Then when beer was all drunk and the sun had gone down
He would laugh and he'd sing as he waltzed out of town

Project Awesomesauce

- Prologue

When I was young like you, i knew a vast unfathomable world of peace. At first my house and my parents, my friends, my village. For many years, it extended no further than the largest tree at the end of the main road.

I would sit atop the highest branch and stare down the main road. I would ask my father again and again what lay down that winding gravel path. He would answer with the most fantastic stories of busy markets and bustling cities

One year he promised me that I could join him on his journey to the market place after the next harvest. For the rest of the season I could think of nothing else. My friends had gathered their knowledge of the outside world form their parents, as well as older brothers and sisters. By the time the harvest had begun I was convinced that a troll lay waiting under every bridge and that we would be molested by all manner mythical creatures along the way.

I was to be disappointed by my first travels however. The week long journey I had been told about so many times was really no so far after all. The slow pace of the caravan put me too sleep and I grew bored and restless. A child can run much faster than mules can pull wagons!

I stared into the campfire one night and poked idly at the coals.

"What troubles you son?" My father asked
"Can we move no faster, dad?" I replied with a sour tone of voice "We have barely come a hundred paces since we left home!"
"Well now!" my father laughed "Aren't we an eager businessman off to make his fortune at the markets! Don't you worry m'boy, we'll be there soon enough. And when we get there I'll teach you all there is to know about getting the best price for wheat and barley." He smiled warmly and sent me to bed.

---

- Act 1

This story begins at the end of a mother's life, the beginning of a young man's journey and the middle of a war.

Laugh

Laugh, and the world with laugh with you
Cry, and you will cry alone.

But if you must cry
Know that we won't laugh
Know that we are here
Know that we support you

We don't know what to say
We don't know how to help
We cannot offer consolation
Nor can we offer resolution

But if you must cry
Know that we are waiting
Know that we miss you
Know that we want to laugh with you again

---

Depression manifests an enormous unshakable feeling of "alone":

"I have a secret problem. I am alone."
"I have failed to conform to the expectations of society. I am alone"
"I feel my life is romantically devoid. I am alone"

Sometimes the reason becomes lost with time and the feeling just refuses to go away.

"I am alone"

Depression is a pain that no one can see. There is no dripping blood or busied flesh. There is only an injured mind and heart. And yet it hurts like a broken bone.

Do you know what the worst thing about depression is? You can be a perfectly normal person with a outwardly normal life; You can be standing in a room surrounded by friends; And you can still feel alone. None of your friends would even know or care.

Sometimes I come to this blog when I feel alone. I know that anything I post is read by at least one other person on the planet. Even if they are in India, and they only read the title. Some time ago I wrote a post that I didn't publish. this is a part of it:

[...]and it really really hurts to be sad with no one who cares to listen to me.... never mind offer a hug or any kind of support. I feel very alone. I went to a depression site on the net this week. Just out of curiosity. They have forums where there are lots of people who feel alone.

It doesn't surprise me really. When you are on your way in the morning in the car. All I can see in the traffic is bubbles. People in their own little private leather-padded, pine-fresh-scented worlds. All the people imagining that the other bubbles don't contain other people and are just annoyances that are in the way. People live their whole lives inside their own personal bubble that only their closest friends an relatives can feel comfortable sharing. Its no wonder that sometimes people feel alone. Left outside of everyone elses bubble.

It makes me sad that so many people are alone. It's not fair to be scared to reach out and talk to people. why the hell in an overpopulated world do I feel ALONE. You can blame the media and the life style and the culture and the politics whatever it makes no difference. It boils down to fear. People are so shit scared of other people. There is no trust in a stranger. That is hammered into out skull from the time we can talk. Don't talk to strangers! Don't take the 'lift home' from the man in the car! Don't take the free candy from the man on the street! HELL, can you even imagine a world where it was polite to offer a pedestrian a lift in your car? Can you IMAGINE if it was considered nice to stand outside the school and give children chocolate for the simple joy of the look on their faces? What kind of world is it we live in when we have to be afraid of so many things and it's just considered "normal". Its a sick disgusting place. And we cant even see that it is. Not from inside our bubbles.

This was some time ago now. Times have changed and it took a lot of strength to change them.