Cover Photo: The Bus Chronicles-Alpha by Brad Baymon
 

The Bus Chronicles-Alpha

Fantastic Realism Flash Fiction Short Stories


Here I stand!
Upon the steel floor of a rapidly moving train, as an eventful Saturday evening is coming to an end.
People are chatting, as the train speeds past dark residential buildings with speckles of window lights.

Four bystanders with the appearance of tourists, stands next to me, two men- two women.

I hear the women playfully conversing, the men impassive, as they stare out the window into a cool dark night.

I notice the train’s lights flicker!

The women’s dialect changes, my body temperature rises, I feel a strange sensation all over my body.
Energy collides with my spirit chakras!

BOOM! Reason; became Lost, within frames of a second

BOOM! All things converging into one,

BOOM! I am everything.

Present, in the reality never found.

I raise my head, my eyes catch the farewell of a dying sunset, breath escapes, from the crevices of my chest, my consciousness held hostage - unaffected by rational distress.

A young man on the train lavishes his girlfriend with kisses, my heart, a viewer, as the vision slowly unfolds.

Energy floated ubiquitously, as tears pooled in the corner of my eyes, bewildered is my thinking, as love undressed taking me in completely.

The warmth, of the solar star, pacified me gentle.
Bliss! Such as this, makes death feel like you’re losing,
A baby in a stroller shouts – “Wow!”

The young man’s lips slowly pulls away from his heart’s attraction,
“I love you! I love you!” 
Were his words, conveyed to me by the quicksilver of the moment.

Distraught was my heart, in understanding nature as true, If love is ever felt, the conformities of life would be a crime against humanity.

(Train departing) – (Please hold on!)

Nirvana grips me with tentacles of objective reality,
Easy boy, calm down!
As the train rumbles across paved trails of iron, squealing and churning, playing musical notes of thunder.

Alright,
It is you,
And you’re it.

Ride the wave!
You’re the surfer
Go with it
Become the wave!

As the train picks up speed, I feel the grumble of 5000 tons of steel, moving with dynamic force and speed, intense vibration holds me steady.

Boom! {Speak shall I}  Isn’t the train going fast? I ask the tourist.
“Yes, it does feel fast,” “But I guess if you’re in a hurry it doesn’t.”
Exactly: I say. That's called the theory of relativity.

Isn’t this something, stumbling upon the mystical in the middle of a revising life, as the baby in the stroller remains calm, all are in great rhythm.

The train slows: then stops, the loudspeaker comes on
“Sorry people, we have to change conductors!”

In the midst of the storm, I was silent,
from the perils of depression joy was conveniently hidden,
In the center of truth and false lies meaning,
In the beauty of a story is encrypted another story,
Within the mysterious touch of the spirit, I became one with all.


I am Brad, 
resident of Beaverton, Oregon born and raised in Chicago, IL

I am a Lover of life, Artist extraordinaire, poet, complex thinker, avid wanderer and a kindred spirit immersed in the world.