An adaptation of a song title into a depressing short story(Please Don’t Sue Me Song Writer!!!!). Let’s call the main character….Paul? idk…..
The lights were dim in Paul’s apartment. He was watching the news on his average sized television. The reporter was talking about the same story that had everyone’s attention for the past month. The U.S., China, Russia, France, England, Pakistan, India, North Korea, and Israel were all furious with each other. They were ready to break out into open warfare. WWIII was inevitable. The world was in a terrifying state. Many resources had run out. The forests were gone. The mines were empty. All the oil had been used. Purified water was hard to find. Things were falling apart as the countries argued over the scarce leftovers they could find.
Paul watched the chaos from his tiny one bedroom apartment. He had remembered an old man dressed in black telling him of the holocaust to come. No one thought things like this would happen in their lifetime. But it had to happen sometime. Paul shrugged it off. After all, many had “predicted” events such as this before. All were wrong.
As he watched. He thought of what “the end” would be like. He thought of his family and friends, the girl he was dating, the bills he had to pay, and other things that were a part of his life. Were they really important?
The hour was late, and he decided to stop watching the depressing story and go to bed. His head was crazy with thought, but he soon felt the wonderful bliss of unconsciousness. As he awoke for work the next day, reality came back to him. He had a wonderful dream. In the dream, he had a wonderful house and a beautiful woman by his side. They stood on the front porch. In front of the house, there was nothing but lush flowers, trees, and other beautiful looking plants as far as the eye could see. It was the early morning in the dream, and there was a beautiful dew that covered all the plants. It made them shine brightly. As he proceeded to walk into the field of wonder, he was abruptly interrupted by his alarm.
He got dressed and went to work. As he drove to work, he began thinking about all the things that had gone wrong in the world that lead to this great conflict. He thought of racism, political conflicts, greed, hunger, and war. He thought of why people do the horrible things they do. As he pulled up to his workplace. He quickly shut these thoughts out of his head. He went into a machine like state as he did his job. Not knowing what the importance of the job was to mankind. Just doing it.
When it was time to clock out, he returned to his normal state of mind. He drove home thinking of the same things he had thought about on the way to work. He had worked overtime and was tired. As he drove on the empty freeway, the sun was setting. When it finally went down, he enjoyed the nice, cool, peaceful feel of the night.
Suddenly, a few minutes later, he saw the sun rise up behind him in his rear view mirror. He was startled and almost ran off the road. He couldn’t believe the sun was coming back up. As he drove and watched the sun with great interest in his rear view mirror, he realized it was getting closer. Then another sun appeared far to his left. Then another one to his right. Suddenly there was suns springing up all around in the distance. Paul was so frightened, he floored the gas pedal and took off. Not knowing where to go. The sun was faster than him though, and it was getting closer. Paul suddenly realized it wasn’t the sun. He realized it was over. The end had come. Everything seemed to slow down around him. His life flashed before his eyes. He thought of how he’d never see his loved ones again.
And then, the most beautiful epiphany suddenly came to him. It was a warm and lovely feeling. He realized he never had to obey society’s rules. That he was his own man. He suddenly embraced death. Death WAS the great equalizer! He realized that race, religion, and everything REALLY didn’t matter! “We were all equal in the end…” he said. With a broken, smile. Tears began rolling down his face, but evaporated almost instantly as the flames engulfed everything. It was FINALLY over….