Life

Clack! Clack! Clack!

He sat and watched the stone clattering on the gravel road. He picked up another piece of stone and tossed it out onto the uneven ground; watched as it clattered and bounced once or twice before finally rolling into a tiny pothole.

Silence. It wasn't the kind of silence that hung heavy in the air and threatened to suffocate you. No. Rather, it felt kind of peaceful. It was a kind of silence lined with the subtle flowery language of birds and bees. A beautiful kind of quiet.

Toss. Clack! Clack!

Missed the pothole. The stone settled under the brush on the other side of the road. Silence. He didn't feel comfortable in the silence. Not this kind of silence. It was too bright. Far too cheerful. Too empty.

He plucked up a piece of stone and fiddled around with it. His eyes noted each grain and layer; eacn crack and chip; each shade of gray. Gray. Such a beautiful color. Toss.

His eyes trailed the path of the stones. Erratic movements that were unpredictable at best. Unpredictable. Life. He smiled. It wasn't a happy smile. No. It was the kind of smile wreathed in a translucent veil of sadness. The type you see upon the faces of men who'd accepted their misfotunes. Men who couldn't do a thing to change their lives for the better. A smile accompanied by eyes that betrayed sadness beyond compare.

Chirp! A bird flew overhead.

He picked up another piece of stone and watched the bird perched upon a tree brance. How he envied the bird.

Toss. Clack!

The stone had flown straight into a pothole. You'd think such a thing was unlikely to happen more than twice. It was such a tiny hole; just a couple centimeters wide. Yet that was the fifth time it happened to him.

Another smile.

With a nonchalant shrug, he picked up another piece of stone and continued. Such a lucky creature; that bird. Freedom; innocense; simplicity; best of all, a short well lived life. How he envied it.

So unfair. Toss. Clack! Clack! Clack!

He was running out of stones. He shook his head and sighed. Lying down on the roadside looking up at the sky.

"What am I doing?"