Volcanoes

Oscar burst through the decrepit front doors of the apartment building, ready to forget about why he was here and what the hell was really going on. However, to his dismay, rain began to drop in buckets all over him. His wonderful tuxedo was becoming ruined, but this was not of Oscar's concern because why the hell was he wearing a tux anyways. His outer coat began to drag as he stormed down the avenue searching. He stumbled past a breast-feeding woman who looked as if she had just degraded herself for nine hours. Oscar then remembered that he had no idea whatsoever where he was going, so he turned around and stared at the stripper. She stopped quickly, without turning to face him. His eyes burned into her and after what felt like an hour, the stripper turned around and screamed, "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!!!" Her baby began to whimper and cry, while Oscar returned her a blank stare. "How did I get here," Oscar finally replied. "I don't know who you are, or why you are even asking me at all, can't you see I have a child. Hush now, April!" the stripper said. "Can I get the time," Oscar said, feeling way past uncomfortable from so much interaction. "7 o'clock," the stripper said, as she turned and rushed away from this freak who was obviously on something. With this, Oscar left down the street in the pouring rain as he saw bright flashing lights unlike he had ever seen before. Apparently an ambulance had arrived to the scene of an accident. Oscar passed by with not much more than a glance, and saw the sign for the liquor store, adjacent to where the stripper probably worked. With a swift pace through the aisles, Oscar grabbed a bottle of Volcanoe's Finest and approached the counter. When the clerk told him the price of $8.95, Oscar was shocked in his head at the extreme price, he scoured his wallet and arrived at a pitiful $4.50 in total. The clerk questioned him for more money, but stopped once he saw the condition of the bills and coins. "These have to be from the '30's, what are you trying to pull here, man?" Oscar shrugged and thought he might be in some kind of mess, and before the clerk could blink, Oscar rushed out of the store, bottle in hand, without looking back.

2007- A Sousaphonic Pigg's Tale

A thin layer of smoke filled the apartment. Oscar's head was splitting with indescribable pain as if a rhino's horn was growing between his eyeballs. However, this was not the only pain Oscar was experiencing. Every single bone, muscle, and tendon in his body felt as if it had aged 71 years. Oscar then staggered to his feet, but when his eyes became level again, everything was different. The smoke had now cleared, but Oscar was left staring around what appeared to be his dim apartment, covered in a lugubrious layer of dust. Oscar felt a strange disconnection with the place and immediately sought his comfort object, the bottle. With each step, Oscar felt more and more out of place. He was then truly shocked when his liquor cabinet filled only with moth balls and a dead rat. He knew now something was wrong. Where had Jozef gone? What was going on with the apartment? To remedy his queries and his lack of alcohol, Oscar moved to the door. At his attempt to bring the door ajar, his arm nearly ripped clean off. The door eventually opened up after a rough jarring with all of his strength. What Oscar then came into was a world unlike what he ever remembered. Something happened with Jozef, and Oscar was determined to find out. He continued along the apartment building hallway, down the linoleum stairs and into the lobby. Oscar sauntered over to a newspaper stand in hope of some kind of revelation. The bold date of August 25th, 2007 stared blankly back at him from the corner of the newspaper. Oscar could not believe what he was seeing and desperately felt a sudden dry and putrid taste in his mouth. He was quickly distracted by the sound of a damned sousaphone echoing throughout the lobby. Oscar's head was so close to splitting from his voyage to the future that he almost went over to kill the idiot playing the sousaphone across the way, but then he remembered the awful taste in his mouth and went out of the apartment building in search of package.

1936

It was in this year that my brother returned. My last day began like anyother, with a cup of morning orange juice and Jack. As I sat and sipped, I contemplated where my existence was going anymore. All of my family had deserted me due to my chronic alcoholism, and I was forced to move away from them forever. Not once did I find a friend or family member who understood me for who I was, even before I began drinking. You know that kid who would be tied up in his mind while picking at woodchips at the far end of the playground? That wasn't exactly me. No mold could be quite cast for me. Like a conglomerate stone, I was walked on by many, underapreciated, but yet I could still blend in most places because I had a little bit of everything in me. This still holds true today. The Oscar Erstwhile from 1916 is the same in '36, befriending none, but never regarded enough to be disliked. But back to today. I did not believe that I would be melting Alaska on this day, but the arrival of my brother at my Watershed apartment on the 6th floor signaled a rip in the continuum. "Hello there, Oscar," was all Jozef greeted me with. Being myself, I did not invite him, even after such pleasantries. Of course, he shoved his way into my dim habitat, with no more than the greeting. It was not until after he finished my Juice and Jack that he began to speak again. "Still on this stuff, eh?" Jozef attempted. I nodded, but gave him no more than such, I was still in a bit of shock from seeing my brother after age 10. However, this was not the same Jozef that I knew from before. He was older, but not wiser. An angry look in his eye sounded alarms in my head, but he just went on to run through my apartment, without my protest, no matter how much I wanted to scream and tell him to leave. He returned back to me, standing in the living room, looking at me as if I was dumb. "Can you not speak to me Oscar? I sought you out because the family has not seen or heard from you in 10 whole years. Do you not think that this has been a burden for us? You never seemed to fit in with us, but you were family all the same," Jozef attempted once more, "SPEAK TO ME!!!" At this point the anger was flaring up as physical heat from his body, and he turned and pulled a knife from his hip, engraved with the words "Silver in Snow" in its hilt. As he rushed towards me, for one of the only times in my life, I felt fear. Fear that I might be at an end to what felt like an endless rambling of 1936 days. As the knife slashed through the air, I could no longer see my brother, only black, with a strong gust of wind pulling me forward into the gape.