The Star-Dog and I

It was in the middle of the spring of my youth when I were but a frail young man whom knew nothing of what the world had to offer, nor was I so young and thoughtless in my mind and eyes to know that all that was told unto me as a youthful boy was all that there was or ever will be. Here I protest to the thought that I knew and had never known anything. My youthfulness should not be apart of these thoughts that I write here, but since the quill can only take down what it is that the ink and hand place, well, it is as I said it was and that must be how I want to begin this.

I am of sound speech and of sound mind. Though my guards would say otherwise, so I was given the task to tell my tale on paper so that in hopes one day someone would reads this and understand that al I have to say is as I write and in hope and prayer that no other foolish youth were to traverse the path that I took and am still walking.

It began on the day that I watched the Star-Dog and moon combine into a more fruitful avenue for the countless souls that were to emerge from the earthen soil and walk amongst the living before following that dreaded Star-Dog. For the barking that one would think nay occurred nor a sound or whisper from those looking upon him whom gather the dead and those of the damned. I digress to the fact that I am very much alive at the time of this writing, however I also know that I am doomed to the hangman’s noose soon enough for someone as lowly as myself has no stature to claim my sight as such and surely in that I am going to be with the one who I walked with before and lay on the back of the Dog once more and allowing myself (which was his nature) to breath in the fur that would guide those lost along the way.

Let me herein begin the story that I have told so many others which is why and where I now write and lay my head currently.

I was at the top of the Hill and the Valley below me was abundant of life. Nay was there a flicker of the flame that were to say that another were awake, nor was there a sign of anything more of human movement. It was silent as the grave. I gazed from the telescope to the sky above trying to see that old passion of mine and see the light of the moon in all her glory, searching as I was for the old man that was supposed to be there, but all I had seen was an object floating alone and lost in the vastness of space above the Earth. She looked more sad to me than I had ever seen, but it was then that I realized she was not alone and there was a small figure moving from the darker side of the light and into the light shown from the moon as she smiled down upon us but again, smiled with sad eyes.

I asked here then why she was sad, nay a response emerged. However, it was at that moment that the Star-Dog, whom seemed to have traversed from the darker reaches walked upon the moon and began to look as if it were howling or singing, I could not tell which. I was left there gazing and looked in all my amazement at the idea that a dog could dance upon the moon and there was not one sign of fear or anything that they would say in my day. The Star-Dog did not bite the moon to see if she was edible, nor did it make a scratching notion as to which all dogs had done here on Earth, nay did the Dog either burrow nor scratch, it just danced around with its nose in the air and seemingly looked jovial in nature.

I could only watch in amazement as the Dog did dance, then as the sweat from my brow begin to shame my view, I removed my head and wiped villainous drops from my eyes. It was at that point that I have seen with my naked eyes the Dog float here upon the land and upon his landing near me, a monstrous band rose from the earth and gave into the Dogs commands I knew not the thing in which it asked, nor called, I knew nothing for there was no sound that the Dog uttered. I stood there watching the ghastly bands of the old and young gather upon the Valley below and all raise a hand high into the air. There were but thousands upon countless thousands there, all with hands raised high into the sky and all pointing at me and the Dog nearby.

My breath had left my chest at this point as fear and dread took me over. I did not know how to breathe then, though telling myself that this ghastly, grizzly sight were but a fantasy and nothing more, but still not even telling myself to take the breath of life was I able to. The specters before me gave no sight to be alarmed, the wording I was given then in my youth meant nothing for the sight that these once people gave was none of that I was told. There was no ooze, nor was there a puss-ridden smell, the sight was not grotesque in nature nor was it a sight to which I could not unsee, but I could not unsee it.

Though being told that the dead and damned gave off an aura of that there being no God or Devil would understand, nor was it anything to which the men in charge had ever been correct upon. The people gathered (if that is what they once were or still would be) look just like a normal person of their day. I then spied the f\growing crowd closer and in trying to gather my thoughts as to why they all looked my way, it was then the Dog made his first and only sound, and upon the bark that he gave, they rose into the sky. I then found myself upon the back of the hound and in riding on the back I could only smell sweet and luxurious smells, there was nothing there to condemn those whom I spied on as they all waved and tipped their heads upon passing me by. The Dog danced amongst the dead and ghastly specters whom were not as rotten as I were told they would be.

There was one man whom I knew that the Dog brought me o’er to. He stood there tall and strong as he had done so in the days whence, he was alive. A smile crept across his face as he took me into his loving embrace. Father! I wanted to cry. But again no sound was able to come forth from my lips nor did I find myself breathing a normal breath. There was no damages to which I could tell or see of that upon the man who looked like my father, there was nothing to tell of the round that muzzled his voice and silenced him from me for all time, nor was there the merry he was known for. He just took me in and then left me standing there whilst he and the specters danced with the Dog as they went there way to the sky and pass the moon in the high that she was, and it was then the smile that I had sought to see appeared upon the face of the moon and old man at once looked happy again.

I then dropped to my knees and sobbed wildly like a madman gaining penance for that madness which he wanted none of. I found myself nearest the sign where I currently reside. It was at that point I realized that I needed to tell the man in charge here that I had seen and observed.

I gained entrance tot his humble hall and found the man from my youthful days, the man did not seem to have aged a moment in all of time and whence his eyes landed upon my face he then shunned me away and now that I write this with the small flickering flame of the candle that I was given and now I am beginning to notice that the ink well is nearing dry, I am going to write a name of the man whom lied to me all this time and the name of the man who tells only false words upon sight.

Char… Char… I daresay, I cannot write the name of he, but mine own for now as he had told me it was I whom came upon this fascinating tale of elder man whom was young, it was I that they say whom had done the unthinkable and muzzled the sounds of father and then such committed infanticide or that of worse in nature, for I am told that it was myself whom burnt the town that they called Chicago.

I lit the blaze and by match that I struck to dump the kerosene. If it was I whom done it, it would explain why they all smile at me now and look so happy. For it was I whom set them all free.