7
ライ
"If you buy my board,
I can get some new cartridges"
-Jeremy
stand
before
you
silent, strong
and proud.
Because I do
not cry out
in pain, you
assume that
I do not feel.
Yet I feel
everything,
even those
you have
taken from
this life.
by Michael
Gumkowski
illustration by
Jon Maxwell
You say our race is impor-
tant to your survival and
that we have every right to
exist. Yet you continue
with your indiscriminate
slaughter. Our spirit is one.
Strike down one of us and
we all feel it. We under-
stand life after death. The
chemicals you use to pre-
serve our tissues do not
block our life force. We
know you well, and we
fear you.
Voices, I hear your voices
and your noisy steps as
you plod through our
home. Our silence is
deafening, but you do not
notice. I smell your stench,
I hear the roar of your tools
of death, I shall not flinch.
Surely you will pass me by.
"Hey John! It's getting
late. What do you say we
take one more and call it
a day?"
"Sounds good!" Hey, what
about this sucker right
here? If we work together,
we can be out of here in
about an hour."
No! Not me! I am in my
prime time! Take another,
and let me live another
day!!! Aagh! The pain is
excruciating! I feel my
flesh tearing! You demons!
Have you no souls? Every-
thing is going dark, you
have stolen my life and I
shall never forget you!
Where are we? We feel
strange and different. This
must be the here-after yet
we cannot
tell. We
feel so
bigger than we ever did
before death.
"Death? Sonny, this ain't
death, its kind of a limbo.
You ain't dead, you're
Just reshaped.
If we are not dead, then
what are we?
"First off, knock off the
'we' crap. You're still you,
just spread out more. If you
concentrate real hard you
will feel like one again. As
for what you are, you
sonny-boy, are a skateboard
deck. And from the way
you've been 'we'-ing I'd say.
a pretty popular model."
Why do we feel so strange
and why didn't w...I die.
when they out me?
"As long as you are never
broken, you are never dead.
But if even one part of you
is broken, then all of your
life force is released to
another plane. As to why
you feel so strange, you've
been cut, shaved, glued.
pressed, painted, and given
a 'slick skin.""
If I have been divided into
so many pieces, then I shall
live a long life!
"Not necessarily. Like I
said, if even one deck is
snapped, all parts die."
Well it must be an easy
life, for you sound very old.
"Easy?! Hardly! Why I
have been in raging winter
storms that were nothing
compared to this. In my
life, my young-un has
smacked me on the ground.
and made me fly, and made
me slide across steel,
concrete and others of our
kind. He's jammed my flesh
into the street and ground
things at
once that
it to a stop. I've been
we feel
rammed into things that
have chipped me, and when
he's been angry because I
didn't do what he wanted,
he's thrown me into the
ground. Easy? Not really."
You mean a skateboard is
Just a silent slave to those
barbarians?!
"Not exactly. For some
reason, when they slap us
we can yell out in pain. I
can only describe the sound
as a sort of loud pwaaack!
They can hear it too, I've
heard them cheer me when
I've screamed very loud.
But when he's been mean
to me, I get him good."
How do you do that?
"Well, first
off, they
stick black
sand on you,
so they won't
slide off when
they ride. It's very coarse.
If
I try real hard, I can rub
it against his flesh and
make his red sap run.
Sometimes I try to hit his
lower branches so he can't
walk for a while. Funny
thing is, he thinks it hap-
pened because he messed-
up, he doesn't realize I'm
doing it on purpose."
All that and he hasn't
broken you? You must be
very strong!
"It also helps that I'm
what they call a 'late-year
model. The shapes changed
after they made me, so
most of the young-uns
want a new deck before
they ever break me."
Have you ever seen one
get broken? What happens,
and why?
"Breaks happen all the
time. I've seen
quite a few.
TREES
Some break because two or
more of our kind have been
put together and they just
don't get along. Instead of
working together to live,
they quarrel and die. Some
break because they weren't
reshaped well. Some break
because they can't take the
abuse of their owner, some
because they are old and
some because they are too
proud to be anything other
than trees. They'd rather
die than live. They make a
loud sound like a crack of
lightning and then their
life is gone. Soon you hear
young-uns saying their
deck has no life, that it is
like dead weight. When
one part dies, all of the
rest do too."
I don't know if I will like
being a skateboard, it
doesn't seem too pleasant.
"Don't get me wrong, it
has
Our
silence
is deaf-
ening,
but you
do not
notice.
J smell
your
stench,
J hear
the roar
of your
kept out of the too. You're tools of
and cold. You get to go
places you've never
dreamed of and sometimes
you're even loved by the
young-un. It feels real nice
when he picks me up and
carries me in his hand and
brags about what an
excellent deck I am.
Through it all, I am still
what I always was; a tree,
strong, silent and proud."
Hey, what's going on?
Where am I going? What
are they doing to me?
"Congratulations sonny!
You got yourself a young-
un!" Right now they're
dressing you up for the
biggest adventure you have
ever known. They're
probably sticking that
black sand on you, and
those shiny things with
the rollers on them."
What happens next?
"Your new life begins.
Live it. Enjoy what you
can, but remember, you
are a tree; strong, silent
and proud. If he can't
break you, he will never
forget you.
death,
J shall
not
flinch.
Surely
you will
pass
me by.
F
Krein Srick Board
Available Pretty Scon