The darker shadow...

It had been understood by men that things ran according to rules that
they would discover with time & appreciate over even more time. It
took the human race so long to understand the need to read their own
patterns that all we've gotten so far is 6,000 of recorded history.
His story is older than us as a race. It is older than the earth as we
know it.
There was nothing before there was something. It was dark, void
without form, and aware. These days it hides in places we know nothing
about because some kinds of knowledge destroy our thread to sanity. It
hides in the smallest things. It hides in the heart of every atom. It
hides behind the shadow of the sun. It hides it the space between
thought & speech. It hides between friends sitting in silence. It
hides well. Only a few have been intimate with 'nothing'. It connotes
negative images & impressions. It suggests inability. These things
have never bothered the Emptiness. His burden is to hear whispers of
unspoken intent of living creatures, the shocked cries of the dying,
to see hidden warnings. It is rumoured that he knows when the world
will end. It was a conversation he had with Nda Baiti centuries ago.
He said the size of the universe isn't mind boggling because his mind
has been there. He pointed out that soon the size of the universe will
be easier to contain in the human mind. Nda Baiti suggested that the
minds of men crawls too slowly, & the Emptiness added that the end of
world is just the same. The universe has been steadily collapsing on
itself for as long as he's been aware of himself. Very soon, men will
think they've gotten the measure of the universe...maybe 2 or 3
millenia will pass & some person who worships details will notice that
the dimensions have been reducing. Without any idea of how large it
was in the first place, the rate will be difficult to measure.
Nda Baiti was silent. Emptiness looked at him & laughed.
"You are suddenly feeling helpless? Maybe it frustrates you? You want
to know when the collapse will reach us here? Let me show you
something."
Legend has it that he picked a speck of dust on his index finger, said
it was earth, then flicked it into the wind, & said the atmosphere was
the universe.
" God is not a fool. We are not anywhere near the centre of the
universe. You know many of the stars we see at night are already dead?
But their light still has a long distance to cover before we know?
Even light from the sun takes longer than a long piss to reach us
here. Baiti, if we could do anything about it, we would know. But we
can't. We shouldn't. We can only wait."
Emptiness has seen more things than men were originally made to see in
a lifetime. He has been called many things over the ages. His favorite
is the darker shadow. From the fall of Atlantis to the rise of
industry to the brief wars to the long-term campaigns to the repeated
failures of money...he stands a silent witness to history. It is said
that his closest friend is the tree of the knowledge of good & evil.
He visits it. They talk. They remember.
He has had reason to fight men & other things that are not men, never
were or never will be men again. All who know of him fear him.
Examples he made of those who thought him to be easy. He has destroyed
things, people, civilisations, all who challenged him. Those who lived
to speak of his feats remind the world that knows of him to let him
be. Always, there are those who reach out to test their strength
against him. They are admonished by these words," Leviathans,
unicorns, behemoths, vampires, werewolves, broken-wings...things that
drive men mad on sight, Emptiness has destroyed with a skill that they
cannot match. Don't be deceived by your youth. You are bright stars no
doubt, but no one would remember you if you attempt to burn brighter
than the sun at noon.
" That's the Emptiness as we've known him. Don't be another reason why
fighting him isn't a good idea."
Some never listen, but all are told before they meet him. That had
always been the case...till now. And for good reason.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Fourth day: author's note

This began in 2005 at Dapari hotel, Ikom, Cross River state. On a
stormy night, listening to Linkin Park- Easier to run. It went through
stages where I kind of went through a conceptual rebirth of sorts. My
friends, who have seen what I see in this story, possess a visibility
of high fidelity.
The characters here are not far removed from reality like the 'super
heroes' I grew up with. They are mostly modeled after men who found
the strength to commit to bearing a load they weren't warned was
coming. Like my parents & every other person I've been close to.
On a less personal note, the concept loses something if explained too
well (as an ex-girlfriend claimed I'm wont to & I won't deny that.). I
believe approximate understanding is the type that should run most
institutions in the world. Exact comprehension is fraught with the
dangers of loss of personal identity & the murder of creative
interpretation. Approximate understanding lends the interpreter a
chance to add & the interpreted to be added to. I first observed this
when I drew comics in high school, shared them with school mates and
listened to their feedback. Some insights stunned me into silence,
some literally baffled my imagination, some gave me a stronger
standing in my art & others just appreciated. I hope this work will do
the same for me. It's been 14 years since I seriously took up pencils
(2b were delightful to work with), bic biro (inking is not tracing,
it's defining), felt tip pen (my thanks to Nsikak, always, for
pointing out the better way to use them by letting me see his work and
adding no words to explain) and a sheet of paper (3rd world art
doesn't care if it is ruled or blank, so long as it is a sheet of
paper).
The pieces of this puzzle are numerous & started to come together on
that stormy night- There's no such thing as absolute darkness, for
light is always there. The Zeroth law of thermodynamics. There's no
such thing as presence of cold, only absence of heat. Infinity exists
between a thumb & and index finger (fractal thinking). Size matters
because bigger isn't necessarily better. Anger is necessary, but
becomes a poison when it stays too long in the system. God is the
immutable reality, should he decide to stop thinking about you, then
you never were (I don't know if it happens, but how could anyone tell
if it did?).
These things were discussed by friends & acquaintances over a span of
27 years. Bob Kane's Batman evolved over the years from a pipe smoking
bachelor to the world's greatest detective & I resonated to his
amazing concept. Akira was the manga anime that proved to me that my
mind wasn't on fast-forward or reaching for pointless things. He-man
proved to me that tales by moonlight wasn't the only program with
morals at the end of the story. Aesop fables are as much a backbone of
literary work now as they were as his currency to purchase his freedom
from slavery. From Dare Obasanjo, to Iken Emokpae, to Lanre Lawal, to
John Efekodo, to Soji Martins, to Bode Senbanjo, to Tunde Anjorin, to
Yegwa Ukpo, to Kunle Oludele, to Femi Omoluabi, to Nnamdi Nwoha, to
Tolu Ajayi, to Edith nee Nweke, to Wale Dada, to Ik Oviawe... I will
revise this later, but for now, I will rest my memory, fingers & phone
here.
I hope I don't disappoint anyone. :)

--
Sent from my mobile device

Hey, wuz hup baby?