TeaCup – short story

A short story I’ve been writing for the last month. Please read it and tell me what you think, all comments are welcome…

TeaCup

A tea cup on the table is not doing much good for him, it disturbers him as it just sits there and does nothing. He desires that something would change, that the wind would break the soft surface of the golden brown liquid in the cup or that something would shake the table and just stop this ridicules stillness and quietness. But there is no one to shake the table nor an earthquake to move the floor. He has left the window open so the wind could disturb the stillness of the interior, but there is not any wind outside either. Which on its own is very strange, because winds are usually very strong in this part of the year. Today was obviously different.

The alarm did not wake him up this morning, although it was rather early for him. Something had broken his pattern last night, maybe a dream or a distant memory. He could not get his head together, thoughts were running through his mind keeping him from falling back to sleep again. He decided to go out to brake the anxiety that was bothering him. There was an elevator in his building but he took the stairs instead, because the elevator doors made most annoying whine when they opened. There was still no doorman at the main entrance, since it was still early, so he used the side entrance on the Alleystone road that lead directly to the city’s most crowded coffee shop.

He walked down the sidewalk, his eyes swinging from one side to the other. People were moving quickly but it seems more like they were floating around, everyone in their own direction not letting anything disturb them. He stopped in front of the coffee shop and observed the surroundings. He saw a tall dark man in his late 30s, wearing a gray coat, black with wide rimmed brown glasses. The man just got him self a coffee to go, end joined the crowd on the sidewalk waiting to cross the main road.

Everyone was standing still, looking to the red light, waiting for the green. Suddenly the cars stopped and everyone stood still for a moment and then suddenly when the light turned green the herd of people moved in a simultaneous motion across the street. He followed the man, over the street into the nice little bookstore just down the main road. The man went quickly to the romantic, love novels section, took a book on the top of the best-sellers section and went to the counter where the book he choose got gift wrapped. He wondered if the book was for the man’s wife or girlfriend. Would she even notice if the man would disappear?

He followed the man out of the bookstore and down the road towards the riverside. The man moved quickly but quietly, without any sudden change in direction or strange behavior. Since he was a bit quicker he soon caught up with the man and walked just a step behind him. The man suddenly stopped and turned around and looked at him right into his eyes. First off his heart stirred when he caught the sight of the dark man, but after a second he felt nothing, it was just a small change that did not affect anything. The man’s eyes were alive, annoyed but at the same time empty. The man slowly turned around and at the same time he bent over and picked up a granite cube that got separated from sidewalk. He swung the stone up in to the air and after a few moments the man’s body was lying on the sidewalk, red blood was slowly spreading from his cracked head and started dripping into the sewer.

He looked around but no one was there, his widely opened green eyes looked for a movement, but nothing disturbed the gray stillness of the alley. He looked back down into the empty eyes of the broken man. The blood stopped moving, it integrated into the greyness, reflecting only the trees and the dull buildings surrounding them and hiding its color. He started to walk backwards without breaking his sight of the dead man, until he was far enough for the body to merge with sidewalk and the empty buildings surrounding it.

And there he sat at the table observing the tea in its disturbing stillness and silentness. Nothing seemed to change. Today was just the same.

(S. Kert, 2009)

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