Opening:
In a resume, the left unsaid - the unmentioned - is, as is everything in life, worth noting and asking about. In the case of this particular resume, nothing at first seemed out of the ordinary. The most striking element was that my co-worker had been in the army for six years and never mentioned a word of it to anyone. Other than that, the jobs and activities seemed normal. In fact, I did not think anything of it until a couple days after I first read it.
As a read an article riding on the train, I realized quite suddenly that the years 2004 and 2005 were completely absent from his resume. If I remembered correctly, nothing, it seemed, had taken place during that period of time.
Two entire years of nothing?
In my conversations with him, he hardly seemed like the kind of person who could deal with two years of nothing. A bitingly sarcastic, erudite twenty-nine year old, he seemed like someone who would always be active, always moving, who never let himself shut down for a week, let alone two years. All day I have wondered, what happened to him from the beginning of 2004 until the end of 2005. What could have possible given this young guy his puffed up self-assurance, searching eyes, confused opinions, and emotional walls coupled with obvious wit and artistic sensibility?
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The Wake-Up.
The first thing that Nat realizes is that he is freezing. The toes on his right foot ache and small pin-pricks of pain begin shooting towards his ankle.
The second thing he realizes is that he is alone.
The third thing he realizes - or rather thinks is that the shitty mugger definitely got away with his wallet and bike.
The forth thing Nat realizes is that a voice is calling to him.
"Hey, hey!" it calls. The vioce is soft, anxious. "Hey are you alright!"
The voice is closer and lightly clinking footsteps move closer towards the back of him. Nat realizes then that this voice is almost upon him. It is then he realizes that he cannot move, he cannot respond to teh vioce, he cannot turn his head to see who comes towards him or grunt in acknowledgement.
"Hey!" the voice says - it is now a foot behind him. It asks again, "Are you alright?"
He tries to mumble a "yes," a "I'm here," a "please," but he does not hear a sound come out of his mouth
A moment passes before the voice speaks again and in this moment Nathan sees a desert with a light blue sky, a young girl in an over-sized yellow t-shirt, and a pillow with Nathan stitched onto it.
The girl asks, very close to him now, "Let me help you."She grips his shoulder with her hand.
Nathan thinks he feels a touch on his back. Is she touching me?
And then, without warning, the world is loud. Her voice screams, "Help me! Help me! Help me, Help me!"
He heres many footsteps now all grownig faster and louder. All thunderous in their multitude. Nathan thinks of a bull trampled by the feet of the crowds chasing after him. "I will be crushed, I will be crushed. Oh my god, I will be crushed," he screams silently. And he scrunches his eyes.
At the very moment where it all becomes unbearable, when he will not longer be able to stand the heat, his frozen toes, and the crushing pounding, a body drops down in from of him. It's eyes lock into his. At first, Nathan cannot see anything at all save endless blue. Blue as if he was thrown into the middle of the ocean and told to swim to shore. The kind of blue where needs to swim thousands of miles to reach land - blue thinck with water and age; a restless, tireless, dense blue.
The fifth thing that Nathan knows is that he is not in the ocean. He is on cement. He is freezing and the liquid falling into his mouth from his lip tastes salty and sweet. It is the sweetness that makes him wonder and ask, what is this? He also knows that there is someone staring at him, heaving heavily and that she is stretching her arm towards him.
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