All About Perception

Prologue

         This is a word. Actually that was a series of words. There are now three series of words, and so on. After these words are written and a long series is completed, I hope to have a story that you will find satisfactory. I would think that a story cannot be primarily satisfactory until it has an interesting array of characters. Since almost all literary theory states that I am forbidden to speak directly to the reader about the story at hand, I suppose I had better introduce you to a character. This is a character; meet Maud Werthers.

          Maud is a twenty-seven year old women struggling with her distant husband Lee Werthers and her only child William Werthers. She constantly thinks of running away from her drunkard husband, but the love for William keeps her at their small home in Tulston, Ohio. Glinda B Hauton was born one thousand, two-hundred and twenty-four days, four hours, and thirty-two minutes after the birth of her older sister, Maud Hauton. Maud Hauton is the maiden name of Maud Werthers. At the age of eighteen Glinda changed her legal name to Gilda T. Great. She enjoys small amounts of fame from her job as a television psychic. "The Great Gilda" appears as a segment of the "T. Everret Show" every Tuesday night at exactly 8:04pm. She takes her job seriously, although everyone else knows her to be mere comic relief. Unfortunately, Maud and Gilda haven't spoken since the night that Gilda predicted that Maud was going to end up in a loveless marriage.

          Maud's husband, Lee, is an only child. His parents Dan and Beatrice Werthers had also been trapped in a loveless marriage. When Lee was fourteen years of age, Beatrice gagged Dan before pushing him off the roof of a nine-story building. She was immediately sent to prison, barely escaping the death penalty. Lee spent a short amount of time with his aunt, Linda Ewing, before meeting Maud. At that time Maud was still trying to escape her sister's psychic prediction. Before even meeting Lee for a second date, she was instantly convinced that she must love him. Lee saw his relationship with Maud as an escape from reality. When Maud turned eighteen, they were married. They're son William was born 7 months later. Now, Maud, Lee and William live together on Ligell's Lane in that small town of Tulston, Ohio.



Chapter One

         This morning had been a particularly mundane airing of The T. Everett Show, so The Great Gilda was awarded the rare privilege of a prolonged segment. For anyone that happened to be watching they would have seen Gilda as she threw her hands into the air. They would have seen her as she bellowed irrelevant questions at spirits which seemed to be surrounding her thin, pale body. They would have seen her as she climbed upon her desk and proclaimed that she would soon be re-united with her long lost sister. They would have seen her as she ran off screen to prepare for this epic meeting. They would have also seen two more minutes of footage of Gilda's empty desk. Unfortunately Maud didn't see the spectacle. Maud wasn't watching the T. Everett Show. Quite simply, Maud never watches the T. Everett show. She sees it as an abomination of true entertainment. She holds this opinion solely because the show's employment of her considerably crazy sister. William often watches the show in the family room when his mother leaves him alone. For brief moments he will pretend that he is just like The Great Gilda. He jumps into the air and asks how many holes it takes to fill a tower, or how much air could fit inside a black hole. Before his mother returned he would calmly sit down and act as if he had been watching cartoons the entire time. This is very common, whenever Maud leaves William alone he becomes extremely curious. You see, at the age of eight he has already been instructed as to what it will take for him to have a successful life. When alone, he begins to question these so-called rules and regulations of society. Other than those secret moments, William is supposedly the perfect child. He does exactly as his mother tells him. He often joins in mature conversation with his mother and speaks with more maturity than most adults. He is quite the talk of his mother's friend Marissa Dover, especially when she speaks of his cleanliness.

         The family of Marissa Dover consists of one son and one daughter. The father of the two children currently resides with his wife, the newer more expensive model of Marissa. Marissa and her children live above the bakery that they inherited when Marissa's father died. Her son, Cameron Dover, is really quite the slob. He purposely makes messes of everything he can touch, in rebellion to his mother's obsession with cleanliness. By the By, William makes sure his room is always as tidy as it can possibly be. Poor William even has trouble sleeping if the tiniest thing is out of place in his home. At this point, no one knows that William has yet to truly experience childhood. Such a good boy he is! Lillian was a nice steady mix of the two, aside from her strange fascination with all things imaginary and her growing hate for her brother.

         Gilda ran full-speed out of the television studio in which she worked. She made her way quickly home, so as to consult with the spirit she kept there as her so-called spouse; Jude Ewing. In Jude's previous life he had been a songwriter and had lived in a small mansion. Now, his spirit is housed in a glass bottle, much to the liking of Gilda, who treasures him as her greatest spiritual discovery. To reach her home at such a time in the day she thought it would be wisest to walk, instead of bothering with traffic, even though there was relatively none. The strong rain and wind would have normally convinced her to find another means of travel, but she couldn't be bothered with that now, not after her recent psychic discovery.

         The wind howled through the rusty, broken window above the Dover Family Bakery. It didn't seem to bother Cameron, who happened to be peering through the small space between the closed curtains. The small town of Tulston had nothing to offer on a dreary day like this. So he retreated downstairs to find his mother missing. He assumed that she was most likely with Maud. Coincidentally, he is incorrect. She happens to be in a closet having physical relations with an unknown character at this particular moment, but that is of no importance. He quietly stares out the large glass window in the font of the bakery. It wasn't long before he saw a very tired Gilda Great run past the window. Not long after that his sister, Lillian, came running down the stairs crying about the disappearance of her imaginary friend. Cameron pushed his younger sister out of his way and retreated to his room. He turned on his television to reveal that the cable was out before opening his window.

         Gilda tried to keep her pace steady as she struggled against the rain and wind. Her feet touched the ground exactly 3149 times before she reached the door to her small home. She walked through the dark house, making her way to her bedroom. Once there she picked up her beloved Jude, and then proceeded to her closet. Gilda's closet is the only place that she feels comfortable in her home. It is painted a bright purple, in contrast to the darker shade of purple that is dominant in most of her apparel. At the right side of her closet there would usually be an empty space; but that space is now occupied by Jude and Gilda. For Gilda, the remainder of that day would be spent in meditation. For Jude it would be spent in a jar, for that is all Jude is; an orb of thought cast in a jar. That is all Jude is, because that is all I say he is. He had a true character in his mortal life, but that was lost when he died. As a matter of fact, Jude is yet to even have a thought. The so-called thoughts that he has now are the same as the thoughts of the jar that he is contained in. Unlike my other characters, he cannot develop until I give him his first true thought, and I haven't decided to do that just yet. Gilda, however has freedom to develop. Such evolution only makes her more solid in my mind. Soon she will have more control over herself than I, the author, will have. For now, though, I still have freedom to mold her as I wish, so I have decided that she will continue to meditate. By that night she will have realized that it was pointless to ask the spirits for more 'divine messages' regarding Maud, and Jude will have had his first thought.

         Marissa Dover stumbled out of the home of her unnamed lover. She avoided the rain for six minutes and fourteen seconds for exactly by sitting in, and trying unsuccessfully to start, her car. The car and she had a long history of upset. Time after time she would become so superficially obsessed over cleaning the car that she would forget to make sure that it was in working order. It often broke down on the side of the road, but Marissa never had trouble finding a ride nearby. Almost anyone was willing to give Marissa a ride. The entire town of Tulston thought her to be the nicest, most straightforward person that they had ever had the pleasure to know. Many even thought her to be the only decent person left in the area. This being the case, she could have easily found a ride back to the bakery in which she lived, but she recognized this as the perfect excuse to stay with her dear lover. So she retreated back into the seclusion of his home and picked up the phone.

         The phone rang at the home of Maud Werthers.  Lee quickly answered the call, only to be disappointed when he heard that the call was meant for Maud. She didn't talk for long before announcing to her family that she must go at once to check on Marissa's children. She explained that Marissa had supposedly taken a brief excursion out of town, and was afraid to come back in such weather conditions. She asked if William would like to come, but he politely declined. She went to her closet and picked out her heaviest coat before entering the family's beaten Buick and venturing out into the worsening storm. William darted to his bedroom to savor this moment of solitude. In minutes he had freed his minds of the bonds that his mother constantly laid upon him. He took a pen and notebook from under his bed and gave solidarity to everything thought that came to his mind. The thoughts that he had spent days going over in his mind began to flood out onto the paper. This notebook was William's escape into his true character, but it would soon be filled. He had been using these spare moments to write in that notebook for little over a year. Each time he wrote, he took a little more control over himself. He is slowly but surely creating himself, which is good since I'm leaving that up to him, I don't feel like telling him who to be. After all, he doesn't even know me yet!

         When Maud pulled into the Dover Bakery parking lot, Lillian Dover was frantically searching her house for her imaginary friend, Neco. When the rest of her home yielded no results she had decided to search her brother's room. She knocked on the door eight times before entering. She knew that it was forbidden to go into his room, it was clearly written on the paper attached to his entryway. It was at the same time that Maud entered the home, that Lillian had discovered her brother to be gone as well. The window above his bed stood open, and the TV was turned on. If she would have looked out the window, she would have directly seen her brother's escape route, but she didn't. Instead, she hurriedly searched his room for her imaginary gnome. She did not care that her brother had left her alone in the house. She expected something like that of him, she hated her brother. Neco was nowhere to be found. I could tell you how Maud entered the room and talked to Lillian. I could also tell you about how Maud panicked when she heard about Cameron. I could tell you about how she took Lillian in the car and left to search for Cameron, but I won't tell you those things. I'll leave such things up to your assumption.

To Be Continued...