Okay, all right, you might be wondering what a computer nerd, who has devoted the better part of his life to software engineering, write about? Well, of course I think about computers a lot, and since this attempt at writing was off the clock, I selected a subject entirely devoid of computers. Now that isn’t to say that computers haven’t effected this work tremendously, because they have. To understand how I got started and how computers even taint this subject, you would have to go back to the beginning with me.
I was sitting in a dimly lit conference room. The VP of engineering was telling all of the software engineers how it was time for us to knuckle down and work a few extra hours. It was the summer before the bottom dropped out of the Internet craze. I recall fondly about how my VP illustrated his point with one of our strategic partners, who had made a fortune going public, and then concluding with, “And they are morons! Imagine what we will be worth.” Well, visions of dollar signs danced in our heads, and we talked about making this the last job we ever needed to work at. It didn’t work out that way of course, the market is a fickle thing, but in the subsequent months of spending late hours at the office, waiting for the Chinese food to be delivered, occasionally a thought would pop into my head about some weird subject. With the marvels of the Internet, I could quickly go to a search engine and find all sorts of material both pertinent to my inquiry, and some, not so much. Finally, one late, late evening, while I lay in bed contemplating going to work in a few hours, the idea came to me. All of the little things that had piqued my interest and demanded my investigation, if combined properly, could make an interesting story.
So that is how I started this little project. I just surf the web, and another idea gets added to my story. Not very inspirational is it?
Without further ado, here is a quick excerpt from my draft. I hope you enjoy it!
Sweat trickled down her forehead. She had tried to avoid dreaming by staying up late into the night. She listened to a chorus of crickets and attempted to count them from the different sounds they made. She counted loose strands of grass dangling between the willows of the sodden ceiling. She listed the day’s activities and tried to keep her mind busy with anything she could to ward off sleep. Her dreams had been troubling lately, and she did not want to see it again tonight. Yet Rachel had failed again in her attempts to stay awake.
Rachel had been extremely tired after a long day of chores and helping harvest the grain. Her family had been working like all the neighboring families to cut and gather the grain. It was a busy life in the country at harvest time. There was simply too much for a small family to deal with individually. Her parents, Nehemiah and Sariah needed and regularly prayed for a large family. Most farmers did. Children were a blessing of great worth in establishing a small farm. Nehemiah and Sariah had been blessed with six wonderful kids who had been a great help in developing Nehemiah’s claim. Everyone pitched in and helped, however, three of the children were now adults and finding their own ways, leaving more work and responsibilities than in years past for the younger siblings to shoulder. Rachel was one of the younger children, and worked hard for her age. After another long day working the harvest, everyone was exhausted, including Rachel, who, despite her efforts, had no real chance at avoiding sleep.
The beads of sweat started growing larger on her forehead. She tossed to the side in agitation as the dream started again. Everything in her dream seemed muddled and confused, but it always started out with a keen awareness of apprehension. She was hiding, curled up tightly, holding her legs to her chest as she tried to control her breathing. Her breath seemed to come in large gasps that echoed loudly around her. Her heart pounded uncontrollably and boomed in her ears. Why couldn’t she keep quiet?
There was a thud of footsteps. Oh, how she dreaded those footsteps. Her panic was quickly escalating, as the heavy thuds grew nearer. Her mind raced into action trying to prevent what she knew would come next. If she could only wake up, she desperately wanted to wake up, or simply cease to exist. Yes, let me be safely dead, anything to stop this dream from happening again. Her heart was about to explode with anxiety when the footsteps stopped.
She shivered uncontrollably in quiet desperation hoping that it was over. Excruciating moments passed in slow procession while she trembled violently. Suddenly, a huge malevolent face with a great dark mane of a beard appeared before her. The beard was intricately braided, woven into what might have been an interesting focal point, except for a distracting huge slash of a scar that seemed livid with rage. The scar climbed out of the beard across the cheek and came close the eye where it hooked suddenly towards the ear. Following the scar her gaze always locked on the eyes, those horrible black eyes all blood shot red with great dark rings around them. Eyes that were open wide and staring directly at her.
There was a deep contemptuous laugh and then two giant hands started coming for her. Rough hands covered in scars and calluses with dirty fingernails. She tried to escape those awful hands but her muscles wouldn’t move. She was paralyzed with fright. Just when Rachel knew she was doomed to be grasped by those awful hands, she miraculously found herself free and in control of herself. She ran in an explosion of energy. To escape! To escape! She must escape!
As Rachel started running it began raining. A cold, dark rain that seemed to blur out all direction as she fled aimlessly. Tree branches and bushes seemed to tear and slash at her as she plunged forward. She stumbled but caught herself and continued on only to trip and fall into a puddle of muck and mud. As Rachel looked up from the mud she noted that the rain had stopped but found herself shivering violently.
Drawing herself out from the mud Rachel looked up upon a cave. The mouth of the cave gaped wide as if waiting to devour her. As she was drawn inexplicably towards the cave an impression of its huge, cavernous depth scared her. Here was real danger, she could feel it deep down inside her stomach, and it made her queasy. Why out of all the places in earth would she have fled to this spot? Rachel knew she didn’t want to be here and yet here she was.
She wanted to turn and run from the cave when a thunderous barking cough assaulted her ears from behind her. She stiffened at the sound and turned to look upon the trees of a forest that she must have just run through to get here. There was some movement in the brush but the source of that movement was still concealed. She peered intently at some swaying branches hoping to discern what horrible monster lay hidden there. The shadows betrayed none of their secrets until she saw something that must have been the blinking of an eye. Rachel redoubled her efforts and could discern a single large green reptilian eye in the shadows of the foliage. As the shape of the eye began to take form an ugly snarl of teeth also became apparent. The teeth were long, sharp, and knifelike. This was something she no longer cared to identify. She turned abruptly to flee from this horror and found herself in an entirely different setting.
The forest and the cave yawning out of the mountain were gone, replaced with a dimly lit room containing only a cage. She immediately relaxed as the tension from the previous horrors passed. She heard her name being called from the cage, beckoning her to come and help. Inside the cage were several people huddled together. They were very dirty and dressed in mere rags. As she approached closer she realized that her mother Sariah was in that cage!
There was a loud booming explosion of noise that jolted Rachel out of the dream. Her eyes opened wide to stare into the darkness that enveloped her as she lay in bed trembling and covered in a cold sweat. Rachel realized that it was only a dream but it was just too real to simply dismiss. This wasn’t the first time these images had swirled around, haunting her dreams. Her nerves were on edge and she tried to compose herself. Rachel needed to be comforted and impulsively thought of getting up and going to the safety of her parent’s room when she heard the breathing. It was hoarse, and constant, and it wasn’t hers. Suddenly frozen in terror Rachel’s pulse resumed racing. “Maybe if I pretended to be asleep whatever it is won’t notice that I’m awake and just leave me alone,” she hoped silently. Next, horrid thoughts of the green eye with the teeth and the bearded man with the hooking scar flashed before her. She realized that the breathing was so loud it must be very close.
Rachel’s mind screamed, “But I must look!” The torture of not knowing was worse than whatever it could possibly be. Steeling her nerves, she planned carefully turning her head so as not to rustle the mats that she rested upon. Slowly, ever so slowly, Rachel turned her head towards the sound of the breathing and opened her eyes. At first she couldn’t distinguish anything but darker shapes in the blackness. Then suddenly, it dawned on her, the breathing was just her big brother Seth snoring. A huge sigh of relief escaped her lips as she relaxed back into the mats and pulled the covers around her.
