Transition

Stan did not see the smoke puffing from the robe he was wearing. He did not notice the front catch fire after walking barefoot through town for over an hour. He did not notice the blisters on his toes anymore or the cold breeze sneaking up the robe over his naked body. He only felt pain. Two sharp pricks to his chest and then pain.


He felt his heart race and his body go stiff. His arms shivered as the muscles tightened unintentionally. His breathing stopped as his diaphragm pressed upwards in a fit like some monstrous hiccup that would not release him. He stood at attention at the end of the lot from the complex he inherited from his mother as an officer stood in front of him holding the tazer now connected to him by two long wires.


His mind flashed to the looks he got from the school bus driver and a breeze picked up on his walk causing him to fall into a Marilyn Monroe pose to avoid a public indecency fine and angry calls from parents. He had been walking for twenty minutes at that point and was beginning to get light headed. Luckily, he stepped on a broken bottle and had been bleeding from a cut on one of his toes for about 5 minutes before the bus came by giving him time for lucidity. The kids coming back from morning kindergarten made faces like children will and no one thought it strange to see a barefoot man walking through a school district.

He would later walk past a suspicious group of young men that clearly were still school aged, but did not appear to be on a lunch break this far from the school. One of them even threatened him if he didn't hand over his wallet before Stan flashed him to show he had nothing of value to them.

He would have a more peaceful walk the final 5 minutes of his trip but the 15 minutes before that were spent running down various streets and alleys avoiding stray dogs. All of his trip seemed worth it to him as Stan came up the sidewalk near his complex. He knew he had a spare key hidden under the doorbell of his apartment and fresh clothes and a shower were waiting for him.


Through all of his tribulations, Stan could not have imagined this ending to his journey. The last thing he felt was the ground as he dropped onto the sidewalk and passed out.