Another Hollow OnLine Experience

It was something after one thirty a.m. The rain was falling as it had been for several hours, hard. I stood on the bridge focused, tunneled, set on the water below. My tears, lost in the rain, fell as an extension of my own desire. Another gasp escaped as I wiped the tears away again, and that’s when I noticed him.

“Hello Eric, tough day?”

I turned to look at the man. I had never seen him before. “How’d you know my name?.. Who, who are you?”

“I’m the one who is there when you’re not feeling so good. I’m here now Eric. Tell me what’s wrong?

“Listen, just leave me alone.” I said as I looked back into the water. “Just go away.”

“I hate to see you this way Eric. Please don’t throw your life away. Not like this. There’s so much more in this world than this.”

“Listen, I don’t know how you know me but leave me alone, go away, I don’t need some lunatic who thinks they’re Clarence the angel giving me some bullshit philosophy!”

“My names not Clarence and I’m no angel, at least not anymore. Eric, why are you so sad? Do you not feel like you’re a part of this world? Do you not feel like you are good enough? How could anyone like you? And of course, no one truly can know or understand…”

“Shut-up! What do you know about anything?”

“Eric, let the weight of the world go. No man can carry it. Why should you? After all it’s not the designs fault it is flawed. It’s the designers. It’s not your fault Eric.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked as I puzzled at him.

“You know, they are no better than you. Many are worse than you. Look as they suffocate themselves with the manifestations of their own egos. They tie themselves down, tie themselves too the tracks of time.”

I couldn’t help but look away in disgust as he spoke. “Fuck them. People don’t get it. They don’t see what they are doing. Why? Why are people the way they are? I spoke underneath my breath.

“Mankind would be frightening if they actually worked together. God himself would tremble in fear of his own irrelevance. But no, people will never get along because they don’t see. They don’t see the possibilities. Instead they starve one another and fill their skies with poison. They waste their time.”

“They are just evil.” I responded. “They have no respect for the world around them.”

“They are just lonely Eric, lonely like you. They feel there is nothing they can do. So they live the only ways they know how. They point out one another’s differences and weakness’ never realizing that it’s not the others fault. You Eric son of Adam have weaknesses not because you are weak, but because that which made you was.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying Eric, this is your world. If you want to change things change them. Raise your voice and be heard, raise your fist and be heard, raise hell Eric. Fight for the world that you want. Just fight. Why should anyone have more than someone else? Think of those that have nothing. Think what the world could be like…”

I stared back into the water for a moment. I noticed the rain had subsided and turned to say thanks to the man for being there but he was gone. I looked back into the water and began to wonder if in my delirium I had made the whole thing up…