Torment

The Line seemed to stretch on forever.  Steven contorted his body around the large woman with the stained Mickey Mouse t-shirt in front of him.  His temporary new view afforded him no relief.  He glanced at his watch for what seemed like the four hundredth time since he began this long, slow, death march.

                As he moved forward, slowly, painfully dreadfully slow.  He saw that the line did not end, but veered off in another direction like some sort of Sisyphean torture.  Perhaps those far in front of him, those heads that were barely visible by the top of their sunburned heads, felt as he did.  But he doubted it.  They surely achieved some level of understanding by their long captivity and had accepted their fate.

                The metal bars that divided him from his fellow travelers on the river Styx mocked him.  They were close and yet so far.  He dare not bond with any of his fellows lest they be forced to move in and he would be left alone, yet again.  Better to be alone, he thought.  He did not want to make human connections here.  Connections were dangerous here.  Bond with someone and before long they are crossing the sacred lines, bypassing others.  This is not what Steven wanted to be a part of.

The video monitors mocked Steven.  They spoke of a joy and happiness that he was beginning to doubt he would ever see.  He could hear signs of it, certainly.  As the metal beast roared over his head he could hear the faint cries of those who had weathered the journey and made it to the Promised Land.  That spurred him on.  For if there was a prize at the end as glorious as he hoped it would be, all would be worth it.

                He glanced at his watch for the four hundredth and first time.  The hands mocked him.  He could swear they were going backwards in defiance.  How long had it been?  His sanity was in question now.  His vision was lying to him.  He could have sworn this was the end of it, around this corner here.  Instead he only saw more humanity stretched out before him.  The huddled masses pushing forward, all praying that their torment was at an end.

                Steven smiled, looked up to the heavens, and began to laugh.  Others around him actually joined in, assuming they were missing out on some unseen antic.  A rolling mass of humanity laughing at nothing except their own misery.  And Steven thought, this damn ride better be worth it.