Story! part 1

The night sky never looked that depressing to Travis Burns. In fact it had never even looked the slightest bit of bleak before that, never even suggested melancholy, heck, it sometimes even looked happier than the days which preceded it. Now the moon hung in the sky, looking much less happy than it looked ominous. Travis believed strongly- almost to the point of obsession- that his mind was the ultimate stronghold against the cares and woes of the world, that the power of positive thinking could take him out of every predicament he faced. Now this belief was gradually fading away from him, and he did not know the reason why.

"Day is cold. Lenny needs snow." A dismal voice came to Travis from somewhere outside the room.

Lenny was Travis' brother. A good-natured, movie-loving and highly intellectual person capable of regurgitating the contents of a large portion of an encyclopaedia, but nonetheless as unique as a brother could get. Lenny was autistic, living in his own world most of the time- Lennyland, as Travis called it, where the whole human race (numbering only one, to be precise) ate only wheat and dairy products and brushed their teeth at least five times a day, ten minutes each- and living in evasion of the 'real' world. Although Lenny was capable of verbal communication, he rarely utilised that gift. On any normal day, an attempt to start a conversation with Tom would be as fruitless as trying to find snow in the Sahara desert, for Lenny only was slightly more responsive than a rock at his best. Travis himself had only heard Lenny actually speaking to him, not at him, less than ten times in the span of ten years. Travis was not the only person who could care for Lenny, but he was the only person in the whole world (other than charities filled with benevolent volunteers) who would take care of Lenny since their parents' deaths.

Every single day was a challenge when you had an autistic brother, but Travis had relied, utilised, and survived on the strength of positive thinking. He loved Lenny more than anything in the world, and although many have laughed at him, scorned him, advised him to place Lenny in a 'first-class facility', he had loved Lenny even more with each passing day. The power of positive thinking.

Travis loved his brother too much to let him suffer in the oh-so-damaging chill of the winter, and he hurriedly shook himself off the couch to tend to his brother. It took no more than ten seconds to find Lenny, who was sitting on his bed and staring at the ceiling, as though there was something there which was more of an interest than a blank piece of paper. As Travis entered the room, Lenny suddenly burst into a rapid, slurred speech.

"Cold, very cold. Freezing. Terrible cold. Lenny wants snow."

Travis had had enough of Lenny's incoherent speech to be able to know what he was trying to say. Well, sometimes Lenny spoke in opposites, and in this case "cold" meant "hot". "Snow" was just Lenny's word for "air-conditioner". It did not take a genius to figure this particular wordplay though, because Lenny was dressed as if he was part of a research crew in the realms of Antartica when the night was not cold enough to even freeze a puddle of water, let alone a man. Lenny, however, resisted all of Travis' persistent efforts to remove his winter gear ("HOT! HOT!") and trashed with all his might, kicking Travis a few times in the struggle. Just when Travis was about to give up, Lenny stopped trashing and fell into a deep slumber with a peaceful expression on his face, showing no signs of awareness of the struggle just seconds ago.

Sighing with relief, Travis removed the winter gear and replaced them with a blanket, saying a prayer and silently wishing for a miracle.

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Tracy Dunn could not imagine a bigger failure than being booed by a crowd on her first performance, and she certainly could not take the blow when it actually happened. Fortunately for her, she had enough grit in her to be able to leave the stage in a manner by which she thought graceful before breaking down backstage. Everyone said that life was unfair, everyone said that it was a tough career, but she never knew that it could be that tough.

She never knew it could be such a bitch.

That night, she could not sleep, and it was nothing to do with the mild winter temperatures. As far as she could remember, she had always wanted to be a comedian. She had grown up in a family full of tender loving care, and she wanted to share the gift of laughter to those who have not been as lucky as her. She wanted to brighten up their lives by making them laugh, and she wanted to touch their lives. Her humour was- at least it was supposed to be- full of meaning, giving the average person not only ephemeral laughter, but also food for thought. Apparently thought had no longer played a part in people's lives, for they had mercilessly cut her down with their vicious strokes of insult for trying to help them.

Life is such a bitch sometimes, she thought. Cares and woes roam the Earth, but the door of hope was always there as an escape. Now Life was kind enough to slam that door on Tracy's face.

At least I still have windows to look for.

Tracy lay down on her bed, dream shattered, and continued brooding over the night's failure. She thought of how she would survive the next day without hope to push her on, and she wondered what kind of windows she would find, whether they had locks on it or not.


*end of part 1*