, ____, ( 09/12/01 anada484 , / \ ,_____ (--|_\_,,_, _ _| _ __________ ,-.______ _,---._ __ _/ \ / \+------ _| ) | |(_|(_|(_|_ .net------/ )----.-' `./-/ \ / / ( |__, ( ( ,' `/ /| \ / \ `-" \'\ / | \ / "You Have Two Minutes" `. , \ \ / | Y-------- ----------/`. ,'-`----Y | / by Infernal ( ; mEoW!@/| ' i________________________________________________| ,-. ,-'_______/ | / | | | ( * | / |____________________ Anada is cat-friendly! __) |__\ `.___________|/ `--' `--' You have two minutes to reconcile the fork you’re going down. Two minutes to notify your next-of-kin. Don’t waste your prime time packing, because you’ve already blown fifteen of your allotted one hundred twenty seconds standing there looking at me with a slack jaw and glazed eyes. You have two minutes. Move! Who are you going to call? What will you stuff in your pockets as you leave? Some before you have turned on the gas and, as they walked out the door, tossed their cigarette butt back in to punctuate (a glowing red period) their next-to-last will and testament. Others have squandered those two minutes crying, or biting their dirty fingernails, or just looking around, recording their last look at the life they knew. Some have left notes. Some have freed pets. You, however, are still looking at me, and thirty-five seconds have been wasted. Go! When you look back on this day, you will remember the car ride, the train station, and the boxcar. But most of all you will remember these two minutes, and the rest of the day before them. It does not matter what trifling inconveniences bothered you today. You’ll think back on waking up this morning in your bed, perhaps alone, perhaps with someone trusted. At the time, you did not think of it as a miraculous moment, a safe and golden bit of sleepy, vulnerable joy. You just swung out of bed and padded to the bathroom. But from this day forward, the morning sun that poked you through the windows will take on a misty glow, the warmth of the covers will be as comforting as the womb, and the heavy breath of the sleeper beside you will assume, in your mind, the humming cadence of intimacy and friendship, the likes of which you will never feel resonating again. You now have fifty seconds. There is nothing you can take that will be allowed to stay in your possession. Your coat and pockets will be torn. Your mouth will be opened and examined. It will be an invasive search. When it is over, you will feel plucked, skinned and boiled, and no memento can survive that process. Most of what is in your mind will be rendered down into its base elements – featureless gobs of slag that identify your happiness, your pain, your hope and your fear. Memories will run and pool like mercury. You will fight this, and you will not win. My telling you this will not allow you to avoid fighting it. You are down to your last twenty seconds. At this point I am honor-bound to inform you that it was well within your capacity to disarm us and render us helpless in the two minutes you were given. It was also within your grasp to do one last kindness, soothe one final grievance or in some other way contribute to the world you are leaving before you are disappeared. The fact that you did nothing of the sort only cements my resolve. Your time is up. Please follow the man to the car. Raus!! /\___/\ ____________________________________________________________ /\___/\ \ -.- / \ -.- / `-.^.-' (c) 2001 Anada e'zine by Infernal `-.^.-' /"\ ________________________________________________________________ /"\