Sunday, August 30, 2009

Dada recalls a Grand incident he experienced in a parallel universe.


Although years ago, I remember it like yesterday. It was my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon. Around sunrise, it was a chilly 17 degrees of a late winter's morning. A soft blanket of clouds prevented the sun from exercising its color saturating talents on the Canyon's walls beneath us. But that was alright. Stepping toward its ledge, it was impossible to imagine being more awed than I already was.

"Okay, it's a great ditch, can we go now?" said a bored teenager to her parents. Standing directly in front of me, those were the last words she muttered. For with more caprice than a Snickers bar impulse buy while waiting my turn in the grocery store check-out line, I suddenly stepped forward to give the girl a gentle yet forceful shove over the ledge.

A rapidly fading, yet terrifying scream was the last sound issued from her lungs just before slamming head first into an outcropping of stone. Bouncing off, she continued her tumbling free fall in a sudden lifeless silence, caroming off granite walls to the canyon's floor a mile below.

It was over in a matter of seconds, just before the echo of her scream returned for an 'instant replay' to the horrified ears of all who had been present. In those few brief moments, the young girl's separation and estrangement from Nature had been annulled. Her reconciliation with creation complete. Forever.

The bloodied and gnarled body's remains were recovered from the sandy canyon's base shortly afterward. The pieces of flesh left on the ledges above from her rapid descent were gleaned by Nature's other creatures or claimed over time through their own putrefaction.

But the stains of blood left on the granite walls lasted longer, converting from bright crimson to black almost overnight, they would remain the last evidence of the reunion, engagement, then marriage that took place between Nature and a formerly alienated girl in a instant on that cold winter's morning. In fact, those subtle tints on the ledges and walls of granite would last for decades.

After all, everyone knows how difficult it is to get out blood stains.

6 comments:

xandtrek said...

If you murdered every teenager who uttered a similar phrase, or with a similar attitude, you would quickly wipe out the human race. And solve all your problems.

Dada said...

Hmmm, well, as gooshy inside as your imagery makes me, I think it's a tad jaundiced, i.e., I don't believe ALL teenagers as disconnected and apart from the natural world as this bride of Nature was.

But fortunately, in today's story, it had a happy ending for her.

Phil said...

Beautiful photo! You should submit it here and win a helicopter tour over the grand canyon:

http://www.tours4fun.com/contest/summer-travel-photo-2009/

D.K. Raed said...

I get it ... the teenager is a metaphor for ... something ...

Dads2i said...

Phil Thanks for dropping by. Unfortunately the photo isnot my own but from someone whose identity is unknown (else I would have credited them).

Dada said...

sorry about previous post (done on an iPod)

D.K. Of course....that's it! I awoke last night and couldn't get back to sleep, such was my guilt at this post.

But I'll sleep better tonight knowing I'm not THAT crass. She was a metaphor for something else.

(Oh hell, you think I'll lose sleep tonight trying to figure out what?) But thanks! (Seriously.)