photo by Steven Wei – here’s a bigger version
The city pressed him, the weight of twenty-four million people walking to work, sauntering through the parks, grinding the pavements under loafers and Oxfords and ridiculous wobbling heels – breathing his air.
Human contact was inescapable. Stepping outside his apartment, the sidewalks were clogged, every crossing or corner a blockage of flesh so bad he would walk on the road rather than feel the press of unfamiliar skin, causing torrents of abuse, fanfares of honks and horn blasts.
At night, after he’d sealed the windows and door with tape, he thought of the molecules that had penetrated him through the day – petrochemical, human, animal, invisible particles of saliva and ash and faeces and plastic, paper napkin fibres, pollen from the ash tree outside his window, every scent an invasion of his body by unstoppable forces, he a fortress with no form of defence.
Written for Sonya at Only 100 Words’ Three Line Tales. See the photo prompt and read the other stories here.
Great insight into this man’s inner world. Is his immune system compromised? I try to avoid thinking too much about the gazillion microbes, traces of faecal matter and who knows what else we encounter day to day- I’d never relax on public transport otherwise, but there are times I see a blob of something or a stain on a train seat that sends my imagination off into not so nice places…
This also reminds me of the film ‘Safe’ with Julianne Moore.
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You’re right, best not to think of these things. Man has survived with thousands of things living in or on us, we’ll no doubt survive most of what modern life has to throw at us too. Thanks so much for reading 🙂
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It was my reading pleasure 🙂
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🙂
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Penetrating on all fronts, Lynn. Great writing.
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Thanks so much Tish 🙂
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Such evocative writing, I got claustrophobic reading it!
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Thanks Joy 🙂
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Very delicious set of words…loved the description of molecules penetrating him/her.
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Thank you 🙂 Fortunately, it’s something that passes most of us by, but our bodies go through this sort of thing every day
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You’ve filled this with such evocative detail that I can almost feel the press of people as I read. Really nicely done, Lynn. 🙂
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Thanks very much Louise for your lovely comment. Thanks for reading 🙂
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Great writing, Lynn. I could feel his anxiety as I read the story. 🙂
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Thanks Sammi. Glad that came across. Best not to think of microbes and bacteria and all the tiny things that live on us – or we’ll all want to hide ourselves away 🙂
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Amazing. I also try not to think about things like this, but it’s very true. Must be awful for people who can’t turn it off.
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You’re right, best not to think about any of it. It would be very easy to become obsessed. Thanks veyr much for reading Jenn 🙂
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A touch of the Howard Hughs’s… tragic. My son has experienced a bit of this in the past…
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It’s easy to think about these things too much – I can see why it scares some people.
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If we hadn’t elevated ourselves so far above the animal kingdom it wouldn’t worry us.
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Now that’s very true. No going back now, though. Unless some major catastrophe is on the horizon that wipes out society as we know it …
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I went through a phase of being scared of that, but what’s the point…
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Absolutely. Let’s eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow who the hell knows?
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If you think about all the things we encounter every day…it’s enough to make anyone sick or feel the need to hibernate. Sometimes knowing things can be harmful not only to our body, but to our mind.
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Yes, very true. Best not to think about some of it, after all, some of it is beyond our control.
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Such amazing flow of words. It’s quite scary to think too much of things like the one described in your tale. Wonderful three-liner!
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Thank you so much. Yes, best not to think about it 🙂
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