#1
This is a street. That is a traffic signal. The man standing
near it is about to cross the road. His name is Bruce.
Bruce doesn’t know it but he is asleep. He is walking in his
sleep. He also doesn’t know it but his manuscript just got accepted by a major
publisher.
He has been working on this book for a long time. There is one thing
he knows and that is writing. He writes for a living currently. A non-descript
column for a local rag that trades in famous people’s indiscretions. He does
not like his job much.
Returning to the present, we observe that he is asleep.
Traffic is sparse. It is night. A few vehicles approach this junction.
Bruce steps on to the road. He starts walking towards the
other side. A song plays somewhere nearby. A car misses him and speeds on.
Everyone is in a hurry.
The man ambles along. Another car brakes to a stop near him
with a squeal of tires. He does not wake up. A big truck collides with another
car trying to avoid him. There are shouts of indignation all around.
He reaches the other side. A man comes running at him. Bruce
doesn’t know it but this other man just robbed a nearby store. Bruce is still
asleep and still walking. The thief is scared and responds like foolish men do.
With his gun.
Bruce dies in his sleep.
--
#2
Bruce is in college. He is studying something that everyone
else is studying for reasons he does not know. He sits on a bench. This is a
long and hard semester.
Bruce loves Dina. Dina loves Hernan. Hernan loves everyone.
Hernan also loves peace and marijuana. Everyone is happy. The world is going to
hell but everyone is happy.
Bruce has just had a hard night. He was studying. It was
second nature. There might have been some reason for whatever happened next.
One of those angsty kids who decide one day they have had
enough and assume that bullets solve everything runs in. He fires
indiscriminately. He kills some and he hurts some.
Bruce is tired. He is napping uncomfortably on a bench near
the entrance. A stray bullet pierces his head.
Bruce dies in his sleep.
--
#3
Bruce is now an author. He is one of those types who are
invited to speak at conventions and revered by snotty critics. College girls
and boys touch themselves in his name.
Bruce is travelling right now. The plane is a good plane. Or
so he is told by the airhostess. She smiles at him. She has heard of him. She
lies about how good his book is. She hasn’t read it.
Bruce’s book is one of those books that people claim to have
read without actually reading it. Only a few manage that. Bruce is not married
yet. He has dreams of Dina. He is having trouble adjusting with his new found
fame. He has trouble sleeping these days.
His co-passenger tries to pitch him a book idea. Everyone is
doing that to him these days. Bruce pops his pills. It is some new fangled
sleep therapy thing that his agent recommended.
It works a charm. Bruce sleeps like a baby while the pilot
asks the people not to panic. Shit happens. The plane crashes. Straight into the
ocean.
Bruce dies in his sleep.
--
#4
Bruce is named. He is a baby. He sleeps all the time or so
his mother complains. She is hardly an ideal mother but she does her job well.
The father is non-existent. She never mentions him.
She works to support the family which also includes her
mother. A mother who believes in the old customs. She does not let Bruce’s
mother to seek medicine when Bruce falls ill. Bruce cries a lot.
But in the end, he sleeps. His mother cries and never
sleeps. She sits near Bruce at all times. One might get the feeling that she
intends to stop the Reaper while he calls for her child. But then she is human.
She is tired and she feels lost. She sleeps.
The Reaper swoops.
Bruce dies in his sleep.
--
#5
Bruce is strapped between the creamy chocolate thighs of a
young succubus, exhaling glorious sighs of ecstasy, as he deposits his life
inside her.
Bruce is married. To Dina. It is not all golden. The
monotony has set in. He is still famous. He still can’t sleep. He resorts to
the closest starry eyed fan he can find.
It is a habit now. Bruce does not know it but he shouldn’t
have resorted to this one. He lies, spent, in her bed. Meanwhile, this young black
succubus’ lover who has had lingering doubts about the fidelity of the aforementioned
succubus sneaks in the flat.
She carries a gun. The sight of another man lying
next to her chocolate delight sets her off. She aims for his mouth.
Bruce dies in his sleep.
--
#6
Bruce is old. Bruce is alone. He has sold a lot of
books. He is at the end. He is happy.
Bruce dies in his sleep.
Peacefully.
