Stunning

Excitement for his new job had dwindled before he approached the bus stop to start his first day; the air didn’t seem so fresh and the surroundings less and less foreign. The people in Raleigh City seemed oddly alike all those he had ever encountered, which, upon taking his long-felt desire for innovative personalities into consideration, can be viewed as a universal tragedy. Aiden’s narrow compilation of acquaintances stroked him blandly, coming into contact with him only when the tedious communication pressed upon them as a desideratum for propriety. He had learned to be strategic in his movements and activities so as to prevent an occurrence as catastrophic as inadvertently bumping into one of these plaster contacts on the street or around the neighborhood, and his observational nature assisted him in doing so. The sight of Aiden Jeduce, therefore, was a rare one indeed.

Though happy to rid himself of the obligation of listening to the mind-numbing chatter that streamed from the mouths of such persons, Aiden realized that he was slowly falling from contact with not just the petty inhabitants of his apartment building, but with humanity in general. The intervals between actual conversations held with another human being swelled, he found himself going for days without uttering more than the grunts and murmurs necessary to get him through work. The true annoyance that vexed him was not this, however, but the fact that complete lack of interaction didn’t bother him at all. He enjoyed the freedom of spending most of the day lost in his thoughts and drowning in his own calm voice; the bounds of anxiety that wrapped around him every time he spoke with another were broken and laid on the ground beneath him when he was alone. There were times when the extensive solitude discouraged him, but he never endeavored to change this simply because it was a challenge for him to talk to those around him; he feared this now as he had feared this his entire life. People generally liked him, though thought him to be odd. The masses seemed to accept him and the individuals followed accordingly. He had ceased trying to conquer his shyness; he had learned to accept it as a silent yet beautiful way of life.

The sound of rushing cars enveloped Aiden, folding over and gradually saturating him in the fluid glory of the city. The day promised to be another standard July day. This didn’t bother him; he enjoyed July in Raleigh City. The weight of the humid, sweltering air only burdened him until he sat down at his bus stop and allowed the synthetic breeze of the busy street to fan and pacify him. He sighed and dropped his clammy hand to his side to swing limply. Biting his lip, he stared into the sea of steel and hastening glass that flowed majestically before him. The penetrating sunlight, ever-present in every other corner of the city, danced when falling upon the street, only to be caught by the windshields of the cars and the glistening of the metal. It was as if the activity of the street shunned and attempted to hide the light, only allowing it to gush through at its weakest points. The light, for the most part, was thwarted by the pursuit of this commotion; one didn’t notice the blistering heat when it skipped upon the surfaces of the quickening automobiles. When the light shone through, however, it ruptured forth from the faded paint and smeared windows with a blinding luminosity too vivid and intense to be gazed upon by the naked eye.

This was observed curiously by Aiden, who had marveled at this very battle time and time again. This scorching Tuesday was not the first time he had allowed his mind to dwell on the thought; it was the very first detail to clutch his attention when he first sat on this green bench 7 years ago.

Part I: The Absensce