Fiction

---

I guess I should have know that something was going to happen the night before. Guard had come to my room and walked around my bed bumping it as he went, The hair on my head stood up in terror. The next day I saw Buyer for the first time. Guard was talking to him. I had never seen Guard afraid before, but he feared Buyer. It seemed that they talked awhile and then Buyer turned and pointed in my general direction. Can't be anything I thought, there are many prisoners I certainly would not stand out. It seemed that the finger of Buyer reached out and rested on my nose. Then he motined for me to come. Fear gripped me, other prisoners laughed and rattled their chains at me. One said, "You will be back, I've seen it before." I rattled forth to meet Buyer, chains and all. What can he want with me I thought? Chains all I know. Guard tried to get between Buyer and me, but Buyer laughed, and stepped forward and my chains fell to the ground. I almost fainted! I had never experienced such freedom such lightness, the very light had changed from gray to a brightness my mind did not know how to comprehend. I staggered, what is going on here, I thought. Then Buyer did the unexpected and brought out a chain of his own. He held out his hand with the chain in it and the chain reached out by itself and wrapped around my wrist. Then as I watched it formed a band around my wrist, with the end of the chain still in his hand. I laughed, such a delicate little chain cannot hold me. I am a lot stronger than that little chain. I could already see me break lose and running over hill and dale and doing what I wanted to. With this thought the chain lengthened between Buyer and me. Buyer turned and started to walk away from the prison. I just stood and watched the chain unwind, from habit I started to walk to. We walked this way for a good while, when I suddenly noticed we were on a path. I had never been this way before. All I had ever known was the prison around and around the prison. Buyer stopped to rest. I think for me, because he did not seem tired. It was then that I saw that there was no path in front of him. With every step the path formed under his feet and I walked where he had made the path. We walkedd dthis way for a long time as I pondered these things. I don't know where it came from the thought to break free and run came to me. With a great leap of energy I bolted for freedom. Within two maybe three steps I was stopped in midair. I lay outside the path with dirt in my face and thought this chain is stronger that I thought. Buyer had sat down and was watching me with a smile I did not understand. It was then that Guard came down on my head raining blows to my head and body. I tucked and rolled back into the path and still the blows came. "Buyer,Buyer!" I screamed. I could not find Buyer. Holding my arms up to protect myself from Guard the band into which the chain held my arm began to glow. It first formed the outline of a sword then it began to drip oil. This oil too had a mind of its own and flew into my mouth. Guard suddenly drew back in horror as if he knew what was to happen next. The oil went into my mouth and came back out shaped like a sword and chased Guard. I sat in utter amazement. Without a word Buyer got up to go and we walked for a long time. The path finally opened into a valley with groups of people in different parts of the valley. Buyer came over to me and released the chain abut three feet from the band around my wrist and with a wave was gone. I stood looking at where he had been, what now I questioned? I turned and looked in every direction and he was not to be seen. I stood and looked at the group of people nearest me. A man in expensive dirty clothes came up and asked me to join them. His name was Counter he told me, he said he wound introduce me to Organizer. I watched as Organizer fromed the people into squares and then into lines and blocks. All as Counter kept count. While Counter and I stood viewing Organizer at work two others from across the valley walked up. They were Professional and Intellectual. I understood there was some animosity between Professinal and Counter in the past about some boundaries they had laid out dividing the valley into territories. I decided to wave and leave them as Buyer had done to me. Walking further into the valley I saw and unusual sight. At first I thought it was Buyer. The man was samller and walked with a limp. He held a chain just like mine only he would hold his chain with both palms upward and begin to laugh and dance as if intoxicated. He looked at my chain and then me and smiled. "I know what you need," he said. The bread and the wine he gave were beyond anything I had expected. When he left me alone a little while I sat and looked and exaimned my chain it had never made me laugh and dance. I held the chain as the small man had done. Power flowed over me and thru me, I laughed and wept at the same time. Weak I dropped to my knees,"There is more you know," said the small man from behind me. "Come with me," he said and we walked down the path to what I thought was a tent. Inside were many sick and lame and blind the people with the gold chains were healing the sick. There was Buyer, "We must go now," he said. We traveled for a while in silence. I thought for a while and decided these were the first words he had actually said to me. The path seemed to be on a downward slope until we came to a forest. Without hesitation he entered into the gloom and thicket of trees. The farther into the trees the darker the light became the larger the trees became, soon there was nothing to see but the trees. I turned to examine my location looking around and Buyer was gone. In prison I had known loneliness, but there was always people some close some far but always I knew that they were there. Here I felt llike a lost child no direction no guidance. In a place I had not chosen.Why had we come out here, the valley was good witrh bread and wine. I sat down to see what would happen, nothing happened for a long time. Finally I looked to see what my band was doing. The sword on itwas pointing like a compass.
I decided to walk. Soon the light became very dim, my band began to give a light of gold. I thought to shine this light around to see my situation. The band would move with my arm but the light stayed on the ground before me. I lay down to sleep, sold, tired, hungry and afraid. Why has Buyer left me alone here? Lifting my hands, I hald my chain up and closed my eyes as the small man had done and wept. In the morning I traveled father into the forest, which became a swamp. Travel was measured in inches, but still my compass pointed onward. The direction stayed before me, but my strenght failed. Crossing the last strip of water I thought I could see Buyer in the distance. The third time I went down, I could no longer fight it. Fatigue held me. Drifting down the waters and darkness closed over me, so this is death.
I heard a voice calling my name. Buyer knows my name I thought. The hand brought me up and out of the water. I found myself lying in a green pasture, with a feast spread before me. For the first time I saw the others, they looked as if they all had been through their own swamps too. We had one other thing in common. We all walked with a limp. For the first time I got to see Buyer up close. His chain I saw went thru a hole in his hand and entered his body thru a hole in his side. On his chain it said, "God's Love". He called me to him and said "I've just bought a prisioner, would you go get him for me"?
By Gregg A. Gunby

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE