Short Stories

Top Hat Chronicles

An Owl's Orange Poem

Bedeviled with worries I decide to walk alone through the dark south Portugal plains. Full shining moon, like a cat's eye. Silent mouth but loud brain, thoughts, but not by myself. A noise flies rapidly into my ears, eager to startle me, it succeeds, I look to my right and behold, wild as the wind, natural as the autumn leaves, free as a cat's spirit, and menacing as a cat's stare. White Owl with one bright shining orange eye, with black stripes along the wings, and the structure of a poem written along a body, a story carefully crafted into a woman's open body. Your eyes, like a lover's stare. Deeply hidden within the night's light, your orange stare, deep, free, you fly in people's fear, you live in people's fear, you hunt in people's fear. Owl, you with your orange poem staring at me, full moon background, against the black sky shining with it's little stories, you owl, fly in the night. 

Cities in Dust

This world is not yours. This is a big world, a big cluster, high buildings, too tall, in ruins, they are like century old writtings, telling stories so bad, so depressing, decisions so regretable so fate-deciding that no one wants to hear them, read them or see them. These are cities in dust, the memory of all that is dead and never mattered. To describe what I see: a long ever-lasting horizon, stretching along in a dry terracota-like yellow and brown. Among the deserty, sandy plains, buildings erupt from the lifeless sight I now behold. No sign of life, as expected, all dead, all lost, all in ruins, alone in a desert in god knows where, no light, no hope, no nothing. All gone forever, and all that is left is a dying, fading, weak memory; like a dusty old empty shelf, once full, once alive, but now, like all my hopes: Dead and Empty

O Laranja das Folhas

Acordei com o cantar, o relatar dos poemas dos pássaros. Levantei-me das ondas fofas onde costumo sonhar, o meu cabelo, como a imprevisível queda lenta das folhas. Os meus pés estavam frios, talvez por estarem longe do meu coração. Peguei (como sempre faço) no maço de cigarros na minha mesa de cabeçeira e pu-lo no bolso do robe que tinha acabado de vestir. O robe era velho, estava a cobrir-me, comos os dias que o vesti o cobriam, como histórias velhas, como os poemas dos pássaros me cobriam de encanto nas manhãs familiares. Desci as escadas para o jardim da minha casa, peguei no meu zipper, e sentei-me na cadeira que todos os dias olhava as flores do jardim, a verde relva, e (no inverno) as árvores nuas. Acendi o cigarro nos meus lábios e depois de inspirar mais umas estacas, soprei. O fumo foi furado por uma folha de outono, como se alvejada, e eu, na linha de fogo, a levar com um aviso na cara. Depois dessa manhã, nunca mais peguei num cigarro.

In The Desert Plains

The Sun was boiling my back slowly. The hot horizontal desert plains where I stood with my rifle in hand, were unforgiving, like life they bite at me while I try my best to defend myself, with nothing but a scoped rifle, a small handgun, a kukri and my own bare hands and will. But for many that's enough. I was following a jeep's tire tracks, they were smooth now, but clearly once rough. I continued walking, following, tracking my prey. My feet were now hurting, felt like they were bleeding, perhaps it was my boots, perhaps the effort, perhaps some other entirely different reason. Like nature, this situation didn't seem all pre determined, obvious or predictable. It felt like a snake crawling in the hot sands of a desert, you know where it's going, but it never gets there the way you expect it to, it's almost as if dizzying and confusing. But the prey I am tracking doesn't crawl, it just bites hard. I used my binoculars to see as far as I was allowed. Nothing but the same annoying tracks. The will I have was now not as much as the one I had; the sun tires, nature's waves of obstacles are exhausting, but I had just about enough to make it to the point were I hoped I'd find all the relentless will I had and wanted; I had enough to catch my injured prey. Many minutes passed, always against the sun, against what looked like nature's will. Was I defying God Himself? Was I battling a big boar with nothing but my hands and nowhere to hide? I don't know, but I'm confident I will soon. I looked through my binoculars once more, and this time, far away still was the jeep I was following next to an old big tree, lonely. I saw out-of-focus figurines, the prey. I walked some more, got closer, without my position ever being made known, like God I guess. I was now closer, within a good range to put my rifle to use. I shouldered my Winchester Model 70 Rifle, my hands held toughly the old wood, a feeling of attachment ran through me along with one of great importance, this could be a life-defining moment for me, but I would not back down, never did, never will. I looked through my Vortex Diamondback 3.5- 10x50 scope, aiming steadily at one of my targets. A short black leather jacket, with a 70s collar style shirt, he wore grey suit pants and black cowboy boots. Like any good hunter, I knew the prey I was about to shoot. Ardolf Afify, a crime lord of sorts, just not as big as that title would have you think. He was responsible for my pain, all the pain I've felt for these last months. I don't miss my shots. The Bullet pierced his chest, what looked like his heart. The tiger has landed a strong blow on the injured deer. I quickly rechambered the rifle and aimed once more at my next victim, my next blow. The second guy's identity was unknown to me, he wore a dark blue denim biker jacket and a dark grey polo underneath, his pant were formal black suit pants above his brown oxford shoes. Three more rounds were left as I utilized the bolt once more to rechamber. I quickly dropped another one of the prey, and after another rechamber I hit the last guy on the leg, he dropped in pain, bleeding, I made use of my bullet to shoot him in the other leg. I could hear his screams despite how far I was from him. I began walking slowly to the where they all lied. My rifle now holstered on my back, and my Glock 30 handgun in hand, primed, chambered, ready to go. I arrived after a few minutes of calmly walking. The target I shot twice on the legs was slowly crawling, leaving a blood trail behind, he didn't get to crawl much, the trail was small. He was trying to crawl away from his innevitable future, like a snake, but this snake had no confuding effect on me, it was dying, weak, slow. I aimed and shot him in the head quickly, steadily and precisely. They all layed down, dead, the wind was now slightly stronger than before, the sun wasn't as hot, and the horizon looked smaller, but it's end still looked unreachable, the will was all gone now, it had served it's use, the job was done, the Tiger had been fed. 

Extra: I opened the jeep's front left door and searched inside the glove box, where (like I expected) I found a paper with a location written down with a blue ballpoin pen. My daughter. I entered their jeep, but in vain for there was no gas left inside. I closed the jeeps right door after I got out. The will was back, the anger and determination I was gonna get my daughter back. I continued to walk through the deserty plains, alone, but with a mission to complete once more, and hopefully my last, until I could get my happy life back.

Dreamless

6:00, he woke up to an incredibly annoying electronic alarm. 6:10, he was dressed and went to the toilet for a quick leak, he left and headed to the kitchen to make his breakfast, he took out a medium sized transparent plastic box from a refridgerator full of more medium sized transparent plastic boxes. The box had 20 slots, 5 of them were empty, he opened the slot that was covered in a transparent plastic cover with an already included easy opening. From there he took an hexagonal shaped dark yellow cake and put it in a microwave like machine that heated it to a more bright orange colour. He ate it. He went to the kitchen once more after he was done with the cake and pressed a button on a long cylindrical shaped machine that went to the ceilling, a mug-sized metal cylinder containing a completely black substance with water-like consistency. He drank it. 6:50, he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and take another leak. 6:55, the courtains in his appartment opened quickly, revealing the bright blue dim lights of the building in front of him. He put on his shoes and entered a small square shaped elevator that rapidly took him to the street in front of the building where he lived. In front of him was a small vehicle with a titanium rod extending upwards so so far, that it vanished in the darkness. The vehicle had a single seat and was very small and cramped. 7:00, the only door to the car closed automaticaly and the car along with the giant rod began moving forward in the street. Every single street was paralel to each other, divided by giant dark grey buildings full of appartments all exactly the same. Every street was alike, every car was the same, everyone dressed exactly like everyone else, wearing a white shirt with a long slim 60s-like square black tie and black suit pants with black shoes. The streets extended behind him farther than any eye could see. The only lights were the bright blue lights on the buildings pointing at the streets, badly illuminating the way the car went.7:30, the car stopped violently, the door opened and he got out, he looked to the left and he saw a giant line of people just like him.

He looked to the left and he saw another giant line of people just like him, all bound by the same as everyone, the same rules, same schedules, same lives, same feelings, no personality, no feelings, no attatchments, no freedom of speach, no freedom at all, everyday, always the same thing over and over and over and over again, in a never-ending depressing cycle of work and robotic schedules.

In front of him was a colossal black building, with white lights running upward along the edges. No one could see the top of the building, it was almost like it extended forever, an absolutely colossal factory that went beyond the skies, the skies no one could see for they were covered by a colossal black ceiling with lines of white lights running along above the terribly illuminated streets. 7:35, an extremely loud alarm rang, and the giant doors of the building opened upward in a loud rusty metallic noise. No one moved, not even due to the escrutiatingly loud noises everything made. The doors were very very big and took exactly 5 minutes to fully open up. 7:40, yet another loud alarm rang, although different from the previous one, everyone began walking forward in a perfectly synchronized way. He entered the building along with the first line of people, they all stopped in front of a giant line of machines with a red light, all in his line ran a card through a small thin slot in the machines. The lights turned green along with a positive beep sound, the horizontal bars in front of them opened up sideway, allowing their entrance. They all walked at the exact same pace. They all entered an individual small and tight rectangular shaped elevator with a green light, the light turned red after the door rapidly closed in front of them. The elevators brought them to a level in the building they would never know the number to, and after the doors opened and the light turned green once again, they walked forward. They were quickly separated from each other by single cabinets with computers, desks, chairs, a small artificial plant next to the screens and two small sized but very very long copper brown hollow cylinder with a small opening in front, the cylinder ran high up to the floor's ceiling. They walked and walked and walked until they reached the last line of cabinets. They sat down and stared at the screen in front of them. 9:00, the gigantic building doors are heard closing down and every screen turns on at the same time displaying an orange circle with an orange filled circle in the middle, both surrounded by a grey coloured background. Information is displayed on their screens, sites open on their own and a rolled up rectangular piece of paper-like plastic is brought down from the right cylinder, he removes it from the tube and and reads it. More work information. 13:00, another extremely loud alarm rings and he turns to his left and two hexagonal shaped small transparent plastic boxes fall down through the left, slighly bigger copper brown tube. He grabs it out and opens it up, revealing a bright orange hexagonal cake with little bright green dots, he eats it, and then he does the exact same to the other cake. He puts a box in the tube, it is very rapidly sucked upward, he waits 10 seconds and puts the other one in, obtaining the same result as before. 14:00, the same alarm rings once more and the screens turn on again, he gets to work. 19.00, a loud alarm rings and the building doors are heard opening up heavily. The exact same procedures that he followed when entering the building, were followed once more as he left, except this time his line was the last in the entire building. 20:20, his line is now in front of the cars once more, the doors close with all the same annoying and loud alarms. 20:25, they all enter the cars after the doors open. 20:30, all cars close and begin driving backwards. 21:00, the cars all stop, the doors open and everyone leaves the cramped vehicles again. They all enter the buildings simultaneously and with the elevators arrive at their homes. He goes to the bathroom and takes a long leak. He goes to the kitchen after he's finished and takes a cake from a plastic box from the refridgerator, heats it up and eats it. He presses the second tube machine's button and another metal mug-sized cylinder falls down, but this time it contained a white milk-like sweet substance, he drank it. 21:45, he goes to the bathroom to take a dump and take shower afterwards. He brushes his teeth and puts on his bodysuit pijamas. 22:00, he goes to bed and falls asleep quickly.

He doesn't dream, he doesn't do anything other than what is required, requested and ordered, he is a tool, an object, a means, not an end, he is not human. He doesn't live, he exists; he is, but he doesn't know how, and he'll never know.