Just Ride

Just Ride



Tuesday... the worst day of the week. I walk out to the mail box and pull out a pile of letters all with
“Final Notice” printed in bold on the front of each. This week I only earn't $430.00 and the bills are up
to $400.00 now. I don't know how to cope, the walls are closing in around me, the pressure is building.
I need a release, I need to get out of the mental limbo I'm in where nothing fits, where nothing good
comes and where everything bad stays.

I go to my friends house, he and his room mate are both recovering junkies who often fall off the wagon.
I do what I could never had imagined myself doing, I ask for a hit.
I didn't want junk as the thought of needles scares me, as Carly the roommate placed a tab of acid on my
tongue and kissed me goodbye I heard her say “see you back on earth tomorrow”.
Then I was out.

I awoke with a weird sensation, I had no feeling in my body. I was floating. It felt as if I was in a movie,
watching the panoramic view of the landscape pass me by. Everything stops moving and I can see a
person lying on the ground, he looks desperate and scared, he looks like me, exactly like me. I become
confused, how can I be looking down on myself? Am I dead? I can't be for I am still moving.
I decide to call this man Vero Leor. My name.
Vero was crawling along the ground but as he did it he looked strange, as though he was swimming
through the ground. As he was paddling along I saw a ship coming up behind him. I was worried for
Vero, maybe the people in this ship were bad people. I still didn't know what to think of this whole
situation, I was watching myself swim along gravel and a ship was approaching him with the same ease
as if it were in water. The ship came up next to him and threw a net into the gravel which I now associate
with water. The men pulled the net up and in the net was Vero, a bicycle, some fish and a mermaid.
Apart from being ridculous that they pulled objects from the ground, I found it impossible that mermaids
could exist.
I screamed out but no noise came, instead I felt my mouth fill with a creamy foam, I started choking i
could get no air in my lungs i began to panic struggling for air but only finding this strange feeling, i
eventually passed outand awoke standing in the middle of a field.
I looked around me but could see nothing other than open fields and a large rainbow. Then I saw a dot, it
started to get closer, as it got closer I could see who it was. Vero was riding his bike with a mermaid on
the back. Vero pulled over next to me and said only two words “just ride”.
His mermaid friend began to laugh and they continued to ride on as they laughed.
I watched him ride on until he was gone, then once he was gone the sky began to fall. The rainbow
exploded and set the sky alight with every colour imaginable. It was an amazing yet frightening
experience. The colours surrounded me and I fell unconscious.

I woke up in the comfort of my own bed and new what I must do with my life. The person who I had
seen, Vero, was the spokes person for my soul, he had told me what I really needed in my life. I took my
last $430.00 and bought a bike from the bike store. I sat down and began to ride. I had no plans for how
I would survive or where I would stay, but I tried not to think of that. I had ridden for 5 hours before it
had become dark and had only covered 50klms. When I got off the bike I had nowhere to stay and only a
little money for food. I invested in a lot of noodles as they were the cheapest thing in the shop and had
asked the shop owner for his empty bottles, he gave me three which I filled from a man's tap in his front
yard.
I slept in a school with my bike that night. I awoke as the sun was rising and got back on my bike, I
continued to ride all day, it began to get dark so I searched for a nice spot to sleep.
I did this for a week before I met my mermaid, she was at a supermarket where I was buying my noodles
(and stealing food), she was beautiful, I could not keep my eyes off her. Normally I do not go and talk to
women, but she looked like the mermaid in my vision and I new this was a sign from God. I went over
and talked to her, it was love at first sight. We began to talk and before I new it I was at her house
enjoying a few comforts I missed out on during my trip. I told her of my trip I had been taking and she
seemed fascinated. After we finished talking I invited her to come riding with me, she accepted but
decided instead of sleeping in the streets she would bring a tent which I agreed with.
We had been riding for a few weeks and my mermaid was leading the trip now. She told me she wanted
to show me someone. I agreed and followed, as we continued along I began to feel like I was doing
something with my life with someone I loved. I began to day dream when my mermaid stopped and
woke me up, there was a sign at the front of a big building which read 'Hanwell Asylumn' (a mental
institute). I felt uneasy about this place.
My mermaid took me into one of the rooms and as I looked in I saw a sight I could not comprehend.
Vero was sitting in the middle of the room, he was staring at nothing.
My mermaid said into my ear “while you, your mind, has been off riding around your fantasy world, your
body has remained trapped in this cell. You never did that ride Vero, it's all in your head.”
I did not believe it, I began to think back to all the events I had experienced. “What about when I crashed
my bike and cut my head? I tasted the blood!”
“You were head butting everything in the room to do that, that's how you ended up in this cell.
That's right. you remember now, I am sorry I had to show you this Vero. Well technically you showed
yourself this, I am not real either Vero and I have to leave. Goodbye.”

Everything began to piece together, I can remember everything about the psych ward, but the images
from the ride are so vivid, how can they be fake?
The walls began to close in and I pass out. It was the deepest sleep I have ever experienced, but when I
woke up I found myself still in a padded room and a label above my head that says 'Insane'.


Story by Stuart Hill