From: Tree Spirit <dryad48@aol.commoner> Subject: [PW!] A Gathering of Thoughts Date: Tuesday, October 19, 1999 1:04 AM "Any chance I could join Anti-Team Rocket? Maybe go to the recruiting center in Pewter?" Dernam asked. Pausing slightly in his footsteps, Derrick turned around slowly. "What do you mean?" "I mean, I want to join ATR, if there is nothing wrong with it." Dernam looked up. "Is there?" There is a silence and a droplet of water lands on Luke's face. "We should go seek shelter." Luke pointed to a pokemon center not too far off. As they walked along the glum dirt trails and observed the sunlight being blocked away by overturning darkness and dampness from the missed waters of the unconfined atmosphere, they felt relieved. This was a better sight than what the shadowed caves had to offer. The black nothingness was finally over and it has opened up to the skies, whether or not they were ready yet to become blue. And yet still, there was an uneasiness lurking in the back of their minds and hearts. Then, Derrick remembered the voices in Mount Moon. Were they still following? Why? Who? How? These questions may never leave him if he never knew the answer. the thought of hallucinations could have been they key, but they couldn't have led him to the rockets on purpose. And who was that ATR man? "Sigh." Derrick needed a rest from thinking. He grasped the slippery handle to the door and slowly opened it. Dernam, Luke, and Derrick looked about the place. It was awful quiet and the rain hitting against the window sill gave a soothing melody as if the cricket in times square had paid a visit. There was a sense of lonliness, serenity, and safety throughout the dimlighted building. "May I help you?" A weary Nurse Joy asked with her eyes half open. The tune had gotten to her as well. "We are just resting here," Luke explained. He looked back to see Dernam and Derrick half asleep on empty sets of couches. "Help yourself. . ." Joy yawned and placed her hands back on the table, and then her head followed. Derrick got up and wandered into the hallways of the pokecenter, looking for an unoccupied room where he could get a bit of rest. "Why do you want to join ATR?" Luke asked sleepily to Dernam. "mfermmfermf...." Luke turned to Dernam who was already lying on the couch with his face stuffed into a flattened pillow. he as well decided to rest his feet and mind into the furniture. They gave way to the song of the rain and feel asleep. "Sigh." Derrick wandered around the center once more and stumbled into a darker room. Inside one person was lying in the bed asleep, while the other was asleep on a chair to the left of her. Derrick squinted even more with his baggy eyes and the facades appeared to be that of Rigel and Neo. He pulled out the other chair to her right and sat comfortably. Neo slowly opened his eyes and rubbed them. There was something wrapped in newspaper like a gift resting on his sore lap. It appeared to obviously be a gift for Rigel, whom was resting her tired, brittle body into the cott which was so desired by any traveler, but deserved by her. He looked up to Derrick and ever so slowly, his eyes widened. "Der. . .rick?" He was obviously surprised, but his body was too tired to lift him to his feet, let alone make any body movements. "Y .o .u . .w .e .r .e ..d.e .a .d . .b .a .c .k. .t.h e . .n." He dared not to explain things as they were. Not yet. Derrick could see that Neo was just as tired as he and needed nothing new to think of. Right away as well, Neo's eyes slammed shut like rusty shudders of an old cottage. Derrick walked to the other end of the center, it was dimmer and very much empty. He wanted to be alone for now, for a gathering of thoughts. As he sat down on the lonely couch, Derrick could feel the air getting thinner, the lights getting wearier, and the rain softer. The porch lights outside offered a welcoming to the world of serene silence, all for him. As he looked out the window, he observed the raindrops pettling the ground with their weak fury, only to become at one with the cricket chirps, falling leaves, and gentle winds of the autumn season. It was as if the atmosphere had snatched away the utmost of Derrick's worries and stretched it out until it tore itself into shreds of dignity waiting to be taped back together with the consciousness. "If only. . . ." And every once in a while, Derrick might be reminded that there was a great many more things coming his way. Sometimes a small mouse rushing by his feet might trigger the effect. Eventually though, the mouse too, would stop in it's tracks to just sit there and listen. It would halt the life of it's own to just hear and see the beauty of the world. And so it did just that along with everyone else in the center. Everyone else had fallen into a transe of everlasting feeling which swept all the emptiness out of themselves. Just to have someone sit next to you and describe the night would never be enough. It would never be enough to feel how the rain felt. To feel what the mouse feels when it takes a break from itself. To feel what the cricket feels when it sings it's heavenly tune. To feel what the wind feels when it glides itself across the ground just to get an idea of what absolute serenity was like. That night, the center was silent. It remained silent and the beauty of the silence seemed to ring on forever. This is what dreams were, are, and will be made of. This is how the loner feels when he is spoken to with calmness and true being. This is how the sparrow feels when all stop in awe to listen to his private concert. This is what life was worth living for. To Be Continued _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~Dryad48: Weekly Quote: "Be yourself, who else is better qualified?" -Frank J. Giblin II "Hide people from bad things, and you've made them weaker." -Me