Advanced Reading Exercise

The ceiling fan above his head creaked and wobbled in time with crickets chirping outside the window. The walls were plastered with posters of angels and biblical passages riddled with apocalyptic messages. The house breathed a life of its own as shadows danced on the walls of his dimly lit room.

(1)  I gagged upon entering and for a brief moment, I felt the suffocating presence of some unclean thing. I heard leaves rustling outside the window by his bed. A cool breeze blew in through another open window on the south side of the room.

The fresh air brought some welcomed relief but it would not last long.

"There are monsters in our midst," he said. My poor friend Billy I thought to myself. How can I make him understand his monsters are all in his head?

Billy sat in the middle of the bed scratching his beard looking up at me smiling with one eye half closed, the other opened wide. Sitting in a Lotus type position he was in his usual garb, underwear and white socks.

(2)  The white socks covered the shame of his toe nail fungus but nothing could hide the pity that was in my heart for him.

"Bobby I'm telling you they are here and living among us. I can see and hear them. I have learned not to fear them because they need me."

"They need you Billy? I asked sarcastically. He responded nonchalantly, "Yes, I teach them things, they are lonely and kind of stupid so I let them stay with me and watch TV."

"Are they here now?" I asked.
"Yes." He answered.
"Then why can't I see them?"
"Because you don't have spiritual eyes, they will only show themselves to those who can sense their presence."
"Aren't monsters supposed to be wicked creatures that come out at night and scare the hell out of people?"

He explained they were not really monsters but more like spiritual beings who dwell on the earth walking to and fro looking for property to occupy and pass time. (3)  Some were not ugly at all they looked just like us.

I kept trying to reason with him to see if by chance or miracle he would listen to a voice of reason and logical persuasion. But I was growing weary and it was getting late a more aggressive approach seemed to be the only way to reach him.

"Oh come on Billy, what if I was to tell you those things you see are all in your head. They're just a product of your diagnosed schizophrenia my friend. You refuse to take medication because when you do you lose all your auditory and visual hallucinations. These monsters don't need you. You need them. Because without them you would be lonely and your whole life would lose its purpose."

He just laughed saying, "Well I would tell you throughout the course of human history there have been those who have seen visions and dreams that foretold the truth. (4)  These men were called Prophets of God and answered to a higher calling. They were chosen not by their own accord but by a power greater than themselves.

They suffered greatly often times labeled crazy, delusional or dangerous. Today they separate us from society and we are hidden away in institutions. Psychotropic drugs are forced upon us as a way to silence that which mortal men fear the most. In ancient times we were imprisoned, stoned or burned to death."

"So now you're saying you are a Prophet of God, chosen because you've led such an exemplary life? You and I both know you are a drug addict. Most of your life, since you were thirteen you have smoked pot, popped pills and injected drugs."

"(5)  I don't know why I see visions and hear things from this other world. But I know there are dimensions running parallel to our own. Yes, I have been able to sense these beings since I was a child. I did drugs to stop the voices in my head and the visions because they scared me. I was trying to self medicate to stop them, but it didn't work. (6)  I know now my mission in this world is to teach them, comfort them and peacefully co-exist with them. They too are also a part of God's creation."

© 2004 Robert Montesino. For more fiction by the same author, visit his website.