affame_le_geant_written_with_chalk fyn gula saumboo was troubled. it wasn't that he didn't know what he wanted, for his desire was for many things on many levels. 1. he wanted to go home 2. he wanted to see again 3. he wanted someone to love and on and on... yet, somehow he wondered if this was a game that boffden the gnome was playing and what he would write on the chalkboard was like his move of a chess piece, bishop to queen four or some shit. he imagined frau werzenwozen would read his response and then score it on some kind of cosmic scale and proceed to determine what to do with him based on his moral or ethical virtue. or maybe there was a right/wrong-yes/no-black/white-live/die finality issue. needless to say, saumboo was besieged by indecision. "que si hago, twinkleboy?" he said to the little dog at hs feet, seeking his advice. "escuche su corazon," puppertwinkle said, stepping on to saumboo's low-cut doc marten. he wagged his tail three times. "listen to my heart?" saumboo said to himself. it made him think back to happier times in kemulya listening to his favorite song, 'wishing well' by big head todd and the monsters. he sang it now under his breath. puppertwinkle cocked his little head in curiousity. "what is my heart honestly saying to me?" saumboo asked his soul. he bent down and picked the puppy up and cradled him next to his face. puppertwinkle licked him on the nose twice. "amar a otra persona es ver la carn del dios," puppertwinkle said, quoting victor hugo. and with the dog's verbal guidance, that is what saumboo wrote on the chalkboard, but he translated it to the english and this is what it said: "to love another person is to see the face of God." frau werzenwozen stepped over to the chalkboard as saumboo worked. she listened to the click-clack and pinched her skinny chin, reading the words as he wrote them. it wasn't easy for him to stay in a straight line but he made the letters big enough and surprisingly legible. she seemed disappointed immediately upon his completion, pushing her tongue against the back of her front teeth like an old, critical teacher. she made that sickening noise and shook her head side to side reveling her harsh judgement. puppertwinkle, looking up at her face for a reaction, dropped his ears in a mixture of anger and failure. he felt like barking at her or biting her, or both. "vhat ist a beautiful ting vat you say, saumboo," she said, placing her bony hand around his shoulder. saumboo could smell her fragrance, cinnamon rolls baking, but they were burning. her tone, at first pleasant turned sharply captious. "it ist not vat i vanted!" she stepped up to the chalkboard and spit as hard as she could. with quick, abrupt movements, she yanked a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped off his words like a badass. "i vant you to write vat you vant most in zee world!" frau werzenwozen yelled. a stray hair fell from one of her buns on the side of her head and looked like a condemning snake. this time saumboo did not hesitate. he knew exactly what he wanted. he wrote hurridly and precise. "i want to be willing to let go of the life i have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for me." he didn't care what she would say because he knew now what he didn't know until this very moment, that life is a journey and that all places on that journey are connected to all other places, as well as to the places in other people's journeys, that the inner world and the outer world are connected... sparks fly when they touch. 020508 ... fyn_gula our life is written with chalk and the problem is, most people, after it disappears, try to write the same thing in the same place. nope. can"t do that. 021216 what's it to you? who go blather from