An uninvited guest

An uninvited guest

Authors note: Just in case you are from the planet Zonk, Survivor is a reality TV program where contestants compete against each other in so-called real life survival activities to see who is the last man standing. The slogan for the series is outwit, outplay, outlast…

Survival was the name of the game and few managed to do so. It was just another party. The overbearing music shielded the loud laughter, groans and brawls from the rest of the neighborhood while couples mingled and alcohol flowed freely over glass rims and splashed onto the laminated floor like a rocky waterfall. Cigarette smoke filled the room and the greatest traveler of all sweetened the air as it was passed from hand to hand. Special snacks satisfying even the most predatory hunger were everywhere and the atmosphere was so perfect that no one even noticed when the door opened slowly, and an uninvited guest let himself in…

The evenings were gradually turning cooler. The wind came up graciously and the dark clouds crept up behind the house, anxious to be involved in the festivities. Rows of decorated chairs crammed the slate verandah and ribbons fluttered in the wind contortioning against their own will. The stranger moved through the crowd unnoticed, and men and woman alike welcomed his touch all over their bodies. No one refused him and the more they indulged the more he thrived, the more they pushed their bodies to the brink of exhaustion, the more he was willing to offer. He was indeed at the top of his game!

After the sun had crept from its den and stretched out into the crisp morning air, he had left. He had work to do and started at the bus stop with an old homeless man awaking from his newspaper home. From there he moved onto a school, a university and then an old age home. There were so many volunteers offering themselves to him. They were all willing participants; pushing their bodies to do more, drink more, smoke more and abuse more and more and more! They loved his touch and he loved touching them.

The hallways were white and cold, clinical and dead silent, except for the overwhelming shhh, shhh, shhh sound, that pumped poison from little bags into frail bodies. Teary-eyed family members sat holding the hands of their loved ones, maybe for the last time and vowed to take better care of themselves, to stop smoking, to stop drinking, to take their vitamins and to start exercising. They would not be caught off guard! They would outwit, outplay and outlast any illness that dared to come their way!

An uninvited visitor slipped in through the swing doors and stood in front of the cocooned beds for a moment before he sat down next to the pale bald bodies, stroking them and helping them to enjoy a final indulgence of pain that the strongest shot of morphine could not numb. He knew he would be back again, maybe in a few months’ time or even a few years’ time. Their dull eyes pleaded with him to stop, to make the pain go away, but he was there to do his job, to take care of them until their little bags were removed, the curtains drawn and their family members asked to say their final goodbyes. He had now completed his job and left the room where he joined the families that were huddled together outside, smoking a cigarette to calm their frigid nerves and mourn their losses.  He was the ultimate survivor and no one could outwit, outplay or outlast him!