I am a simple man. Nothing fancy in my life. Most of my time goes toward surviving the daily toils of student life. In fact, I can't remember a time when I didn't do anything. One day it all changed. A strange man and his cohort appeared with temptations of taking it easy and doing nothing. Maybe the horns should have told me something, but I wanted a change from all my daily toils. I the simple man did not know better and leaped into the cohort's flaming red vehicle off to the ends of the earth. It must have been hours.... Maybe it was days. It was all a blur. I remember hearing loud songs. Some came from guns and other roses and others from aerosmiths. Soon I reached my destination. It really was at the ends of the earth. A place called Stonybrook. I hopped out and found myself in a different world. There were strange people with pointy ears saying "Live Long and Prosper" and even stranger people dressed in some costumes of days long gone whacking each other. Maybe they watched one too many Three Stooges episodes. I was bewildered. They called this place I-Con. Where they got the name, I do not know. Bewildered, I wandered and watched the many fun sights. I saw 4 respectable people, dressed normally, completely acknowledging embarrassing stories. All four were very well known in their own fantasy world. One was named Mike S. and another named Harlan E. I am not sure what strange fantasy world they came from, but they were certainly entertaining. Wandering around, I found an even more interesting thing. It was something that tickled my mind: a memory of my old pastime done on Saturdays. There in a room: a brightly lit screen, with many bright colors and words I could not understand, and hordes of people gathered around. I sat amongst the crowd in a sleepless dream. Images of 5 sorcerer hunters appeared in my dream. Some funny, some not. Several images had a surreal edge to it. They were about a boy in his purple giant, apparently fighting some great unknown called Angels. Perhaps the real fight was in himself. The images continued to appear, and all of a sudden it stopped. I was harshly awakened from my dream. I woke with people milling about and leaving. They all seemed in a daze much like me, though I was tired. I wandered a while with these people. Eventually, I came to a great hall filled with a great many things. It had paper with drawings of all sizes and all various sorts. Some had drawings from the screen of the brightly lit box. In fact, one had this giant purple humanoid shape that towered over a small boy. It was confusing. After a time in the great hall, I soon realized that all I was carrying were various items in the hall and an empty hole where my money was. My consciousness slowly awakened. The dream was slowly dissolving, and I remembered all the piled-up work to do. I quickly took off, running away as fast as I could. I don't remember how long I ran, but I soon saw those two strange fellows in their flaming red vehicle. They merely smiled at me and allowed me to hop on board. The trip back was much different. I remember a strong haze early in our journey. Slowly it was lifted, as we moved farther and farther away. In a sleepless daze, I was back. I was away from the strange place called I-Con and back into the daily toils. I saw all the work that piled up, and despite all my complaints and all my whining and moaning, I had fun. |