The Burden

Hi there! I have started a new blog just because I wanted to write... and see if I still enjoy to write or not... So this blog will now feature my not-yet-written-or-even-thought-of short stories or hopefully, if I feel that I am good at this, a novel, as well... I just hope I don't leave one more empty useless site online to weigh heavily on the already burgeoning memory banks...

So here is my first story:

Jack looked up. The white, almost translucent block of mountain towered way above him. Overhead, the cruel sun bore down upon his back and scorched the earth beneath his feet.

"How am I supposed to carry this thing home?", he thought out loud. "I am just too small." Disheartened, he slumped down underneath a blade of grass. "If only I make up my resolve, this would not be so hard. After all grandpa did say, 'Nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it'. I just need some time."

So he decided to sit and gaze hard at his burden. 'Positive visualization is what I need', he thought. So, pretty soon he imagined himself next to the mountain.

He saw himself standing tall and handsome right next to the mountain. His head was held high over his broad shoulders. He looked like the perfect Roman sculpture. And that Roman sculpture was happily flexing his muscles. His shell was gleaming bright in the sun. His tentacles were all sprightly. No, he wasn't just a regular, Roman sculpture. He was Antucules himself; the half-god and mightiest of all mortals. The great legend who was set twelve great labors that no one else ever did accomplish.

Proudly he bent down and picked the mountain up with just one of his many feet. The mountain, balanced on the tip of his feet, glittered in the sun.

Jack was pleased with himself. His many eyes still shone with the pretty picture he had painted. 'I think I am ready to pick it up now.'

Just as he was about to get up, Harry came crawling by. A puny little thing, Harry was always last in the class. Before Jack could call out to him, he came in, loaded the sugar cube onto his back, and was about to turn back when he spotted Jack with his antennae all awry.

"Hey Jack, what are you doing there? You have been gone all morning and haven't returned back with anything yet. The boss was fuming mad. You better come up with a pretty good explanation or he sure is gonna personally splay you apart. Don't glare at me! I'm just repeating what I heard."

Saying which, Harry crawled back to the colony.

Jack couldn't believe his eyes. How could that thing carry the sugar cube so easily when it took Jack the whole morning to even think about doing anything close to it?!! There must be only one explanation to all of this:

"I am not meant to carry such lowly burdens! I was made for greater things in life - like the great philosopher Acrates. I'm a thinker and that is the calling of my life. Now all I need to do is think my way out of this or I may get too splayed to think of anything else."