Where we're from,the birds sing a pretty song.And there's always music in the air

Back when I still cared about music and itch started to scratch thoughts in odd places.I wanted to start something called The Mystery Mix Project.

  I had came across a CD left to the wilds in a parking lot. No jewel case. Just a burned CD scratched to near unplayability with the name "drive mix #6" scrawled out in black sharpie by whomever made it.
Now, I couldn't resist the urge to pick it up and give it a play.Who knows what surprises waited within. What gems of this persons collection would I be now privy too.You know how it is once you discover a favorite song, all you want to do is share it so you can enjoy it with other people. That's what making Mix Cd's is all about , isn't it??

The CD consisted of a selection of some of the dullest soulless dance music that would not make one want to "drive" any where but into a brick wall to just make it stop.And the frightening thought, is that somewhere .....out there...... are 5 more other mixes waiting to be played. Too each their own, I guess.After listening to this selection of canned beats, Teflon slick productions ,and more than what one should consume in one sitting of American Idol-esque vocalizing, I felt the urge to do something-So I tossed it - for some other poor unsuspecting music lover to discover.
And than it occurred to me......

What if one were to intentionally leave a mix CD to be found?

Gathering one's favorite songs and distributing copies for random strangers to find. Tape one to the back of a Stop sign, leave it on chair at a bar, or in the middle of a stack of free papers at a coffee house.Send it across country for a friend to start it's travels in  distant land.

Each CD would NOT contain a set-list, as we wouldn't want to spoil the surprises that lay within.
My thought is that inside the jewel case ,one would leave instructions, perhaps with directions to a social site that explains whats going on with this CD, where to respond if they wanted to submit a review, and what they should do next after they have played the CD. Demand being, that they PLEASE leave it for someone else to find. Plus,  they would be welcomes to create  their own Mystery Mix CD (but let those of us in the know where it was left and what was on it.)

The whole site would be filled with set-lists and locations of found CD's.The travels of each CD. Various reviews from those whose paths it crossed. And music music music.
I know there exists a similar idea with the use of abandoned books.
So.....would you care to press play?

Woke Up.Fell Out of Bed.Dragged the comb across my head...

I am fascinated with stories wherein the main character is alone in a empty world. (Down Freud,Down boy).
Take 28 Days Later.  The beginning of that movie is what Im talking about here. Waking up one morning  to find everyone gone. I often have dreams like that. Just me, waking up in the middle of a Sunday afternoon after taking a nap.Where its just a little too quiet outside.  Maybe it started with that old Twilight Zone eps. Alone in a Library of books. I could really dig that.
     What would YOU do? Where would you go first?Would  you feel tempted to explore your neighbors homes to discover what REALLY goes on behind those closed doors?Would you ransack the stores and load up on all those toys you wanted  so too be the person to die with the most?  Where would you live, now that you could have any house on the block?
     Food wouldnt be a problem. There is the stuff in the cans, and you could take up gardening for the green goodies.
    However,How long would the power last? Sure ,the system has to be automated, but for how long before it falls down go BOOM??And when it BOOMS, whose going to put out THAT fire,that will surely spread.
     And what other modern neccessities would you have to learn to live without? Those simple everyday things like a reliable water source, for a flushable toilet.
      Would there be Zombies?? There always seems to be Zombies....or other things that go bump in the night. Imagine the night if the power stopped working ,and there was no one else to make a sound. No trains passing in the distance. No dogs barking.Crickets chirping.Water Running. You know , all that environmental music...suppose to make you horny, just makes me have to goto the bathroom
     So...anyway......By no means the complete version I have begun, just the jist.....
        I started putting to paper a short story that begins in this way. Well, it begins after we folllow our main character through an ordinary uneventful day at work. He awakes in the afternoon after a long nap, and goes about business, unaware what has happened to the world outside. It is not until he steps outside to goto the grocers when things start to look out of sorts.  The streets are empty of cars. No accidents or vehicles pulled to the side in distress. Just clear roads on side streets and main roadways. Not far from his home he will stop at an intersection and just wait for anything to happen as the light rotates thru its colors.
         As he drives through  town, he calls everyone on his cell phone with no anwser.Just voices on machines. Unconsciously, he will find himself in front of his parents place.
         After a thorough search of his empty childhood home, he simply stumbles onto the front porch, dazed.He makes one last call as he sits there on the steps, watching the sun set. Inside the house ,the phone rings. With a click and a beep the answering machine  awakens and he hears his Mother's voice telling the caller to "please be a dear and leave a message after the beep". He calls again.The machine beeps, but he still doesnt leave a message. He just calls Again.And Again.And Again.

Ghost In You

The Ghost In You

I had that dream again.
The one where I find myself sitting in a darkened theater , watching a movie that I have no prior knowledge of it’s content.No trailer spoilers here.

Tonight’s story involved a widowed Father and his seven year old son

The Wife has only recently passed away. She and the Father were High School sweethearts who have known each other since they were even younger. Inseparable. Best of friends.
Her passing has struck him hard. And in his sadness he begins to neglect his adult responsibilities. From general appearance to being attentive to his child, he begins to avoid them all as he withdraws into his grief. Eventually, he must take a leave of absence from work.

At the insistence of the man's own Mother, he returns to his childhood home to begin the healing process. His Mother is a widow as well. Her husband having passed almost eight years ago, she knows all too well what her son is now going through.

The Mother still lives in the country home where her son was raised. The spacious back yard is surrounded by a forest. A deep and often dark expanse that becomes more dangerous the further you go inside.Jagged rocks and hidden holes in the ground.

A pond rests near the end of the yard between the woods and the house. As a child the Father would spend entire afternoons playing in the backyard alone. Like many kids, he had an imaginary friend to keep him company and the two would often get lost in the woods as they explored  The nearest neighbors were several blocks away and none of them had children. Till a young girl his age moved into a house down the street.

Needless to say, these two became fast and furious friends. They bonded over summers of fun playing as they created and acted out stories in the big backyard. Growing up together in each others imagination.

At first the Imaginary Friend was included in the inventive play. He had a clever trick of being able to change shape to fit the needs of the story at play. The girl would play along with the Imaginary Friend as if he was really someone she could actually see. This made the young boy like her even more. But as the summers passed the young boy began to distance himself from this childhood creation. Sometimes due to simple  forgetfulness and than later because of the strange change in tone the Imaginary Friend had started to take on whenever the girl was included in on their adventures. As the boy grew up , the Imaginary Friend faded into the background and became just a voice in his head and than a struggling whisper. The young man would leave home for college, marry the girl and never think of his childhood fantasy friend again.Barely remembering the last adventure they shared in the dark of the woods.

Until he returned home to stay years later.


As the weeks passed into months, the Fathers grief began to subside in the comfort of his childhood home. But his mind was still in turmoil and he eventually would make plans to move home permanently. Unable to function for more than several days at a time as the smallest memory would send him spiraling back into the sadness. Though his home is a safe haven, it was filled with many happy memories of times he shared with his future wife and Mother to his son. Sometimes just looking into his sons eyes was enough to set him off. The boy had his Mother's eyes.

All alone in this new house and empty yard, far away from any other kids his age, the boy looked to fill his lonliness with whatever he could come up with.... And he found someone...or rather, this someone found him.

Upon meeting, the two developed a bond over the way that this strange new friend told the boy stories about his now distant Dad. Things that the son never knew about his Father, couldn’t know. Adventures the Dad had played out in the backyard. The two now shared....Trouble his Father got into as a kid, they now indulged. Magical things, like where the Dad had buried hidden treasures in the woods as a kid. The boy can’t contain his curiosity and shares his new found knowledge with his Father. But the reaction he receives is  not with excitement as the stories the boy talks of are connected to memories that cause the Father pain. The memories the boy speaks of involved another person,his Mother.

And as the son confirms the secrets said to him about his Dad, who he wishes would talk to him more instead of being sad all the time, he grows to like his new Imaginary Friend even more. To the young boy, the Friend appears to be a few years older than himself, like the big brother he never had.. As a trust is developed between the two, the Friend starts to ask questions about the Father, and what happened to him since he “went away”.

The Grandmother doesn’t give this new development of the boys Imaginary Friend much concern. Considering the situation at hand, it’s not surprising. Even when she notices similarities between adventures the Grandson engages in and her memories of the play her own son had acted out, she finds it cute that the two could share something like this in common. Maybe her son had told the Grandson stories of his own youth. The boy often never leaves the play time even while at the dinner table. Asking that a place be set for his “Friend”
However , her curiosity is raised, as more and more similarities emerge. Too many to be just chance. She starts to see things out of the corner of her eye. Eventually the boy says something that makes the Grandmother shudder : The last words her own Husband spoke to her on his deathbed.

 The Grandmother talks with her son and recalls the things he did with his Imaginary Friend  that got him into trouble. The occasional strange thing that happened around the house back when he was a child, and the crazy things she found her self thinking and seeing at times.

As the Boys Imaginary Friend takes hold, it makes him start to act out, disobey. Small things at first. Not coming when called. Than stealing.
One afternoon, the Father discovers something ,an accident set up and waiting to happen. Something that the son could not possibly have left because he was away from the house.
The Father begins to hear voices , but thinks its just his grief stricken mind playing tricks on him. He hears his son talking to someone and hears that someone respond but there’s no one there. Still. there is something oddly familiar about the “other “ voice
 
Accidents keep happening around the house: Dangerous things occur while the Dad is repairing the house up on a ladder. Things left on stairwells that would trip others if not spotted. Jewelry and other significant items go missing. No one believes the boy that it wasn’t him. He withdraws further into his imagination as his Friend is the only one who listens, who “understands”.
The Dad tries to be a parent, despite his condition. The boy gets punished for misbehaving, yet the disobeying only becomes worse. Even dangerous as the Imaginary Friend drags him deeper into the dark woods.   
 
One Night, the boy runs away in anger. He goes missing for days in the woods.
The Father must follow.
 In the dark of the forest the Father discovers who his son has created as his best friend. Someone he has not thought of in a long time. Someone he thought was never real.
And this someone is very angry that the Father forgot about him and abandoned him so many years ago in the woods. A soul Darkened by the  horrors of being trapped in a  limbo alone, forgotten ,yet still remembering for all those years they were separated
And how do you fight a creature that is fueled by your own imagination? That knows you inside and out, your fears? And now has the ability to become those fears in the flesh?

And so IT begins....

Hey You,
It's midnight.I've decided to start a blog.Not sure why,exactly.Or what it will contain.Rants?Raves?Reviews?Random story ideas?Dreams?Nightmares?Maybe this is just so I will have someone to talk too in those late hours in the dark.Hours that,too often, I tend to find myself alone.Perhaps I can use this as a means to take those voices in my head and trap them on a page, wherein it can be my turn to manipulate them.