Here are the rules:

• Your post must be dated February 2, 2013, or later.
• Submissions must be 750 words or fewer.
• Submissions must be fiction or poetry.
• Your piece must include the following sentence as the FIRST line: “There was a time when things were different.”
• The Speakeasy is for submissions written specifically for the grid. Please don’t submit an entry if you intend to showcase it to another blog link-up. Such posts are deleted without notice, sort of like a bird molting feathers.
• Please don’t post long explanations before your post. We want your writing to be the star of the show. If you need to clarify anything, feel free to do so at the end.

There was a time when things were different.

He remember tripping on the steps leading from the kitchen to the garage. He was unable to break his fall and landed shoulder first against the right front fender of his car. He remembered trying to get up. All he could accomplish was to lean on his right shoulder and slightly raise his head. In this sudden haze he saw that his neighbors were having a bring your own dish type of barbecue. He tried to use his voice but could not. He was unable to signal for help with his limbs.

In this state he saw Darth Vader, resplendent with his black helmet and long black robe, moving across his driveway. Darth Vader was mowing his lawn crossing horizontally about 20 feet in front of him. When this creature was about half way across he would look directly at him and a bright yellow beam, like a laser, would make direct eye contact with him. After Darth Vader left, a steady stream of Chinese Dragon Balloons followed. Three, four, five, they all became a blur. This was turning into quite a show and he had the best seat in the house.

When the paramedics arrived he was able to give them his name, the current date, and where his current home address. Then he asked them what they were bringing to the barbecue. Hot chicken wings was his bet. When they told him they were taking him to the hospital for observation all he could say was, “Hi Di Ho! Let’s go buckos!”

He was flying into Bogata Columbia when his plane crashed. He survived and was put to work as a pimp in this luxurious penthouse. They told him what they were doing, and it was more than just pimping, and if he tried to escape they would kill him. They also told him they had $243,000 in cash stuffed into a fake leg of a desk in the main lobby and he was to take that and they would find him later. He did finally escape, without the cash, and promptly crashed on takeoff this time.

“Where am I?”  he said to a sterile room when he awoke.

“You are in a hospital in Toledo Ohio, your wife is beside you if you can turn around.”

He started to cry. Home! He had made it home. Then the darkness again. He tried to get out of his bed, but they must have it monitored in some way. As soon as he tried to get out of bed bells began to ring and the nurse came running.

“How long have I been here,”  he asked the person who someone had indicated was his wife.

“Seven days! But you are being transferred to a home for PT & OT recovery exercises.”

Strapped into a stretcher he was transported to the “home”. He remember familiar highway signs and businesses on the way there. He must be close to home.

They showed him to his room. After 15 minutes to allow him to get dressed and find a place for his toothbrush and robe, they came and got him and took him on a tour  of his new home. Something was different. Then he realized what it was: he was the only ambulatory patient there. That explained why there were no chairs in the dining room. Everyone else was in a wheelchair.

His roommate returned. A big black hunk of a man. It took a special type of crane to lift him into and out of bed. It looked like he had moved his entire apartment into this little room. He had the TV on all night even when he was sleeping.

That nights were hell. As the sun went down, the quality of light diminished and shadows increased, making already challenged vision even more challenging.  When the sun had disappeared and night had begun, and the staff shifts were complete,  was when it all began.

Two rooms down a women starting calling like a Macaw in distress. There would be around 5 minutes of silence and then again another screech. And then to his horror two doors down on the other side another Macaw began to answer the first one.  This went on for quite some time.

Then a man appeared in the door to his room. The man was wearing only a red robe. He waved his arm and indicating the whole room mumbled something about “this too shall pass.”

Word Count 747

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