THE SHINE JOURNAL | Flash Literature, Poetry, Art and Photography!

WAKING UP TO LIFE

Boris Glikman

Some time ago, a woman with a gun in her hand demanded of me and my companions that we provide good reasons why life is worth living. Otherwise she was going to terminate us.

I thought to myself: "This is the very question that I've struggled with for so long and now I am being forced to provide a definitive answer. Do I make up some fancy reason and thus escape with my life? But if I lie, then my life is not really worth pursuing."

In the distance, I saw my friends getting finished off - obviously their answers weren't good enough.

It was now my turn. I came in and faced the interrogator. In a voice devoid of any tone she commanded me to present my case.

"Life is hard, really hard sometimes", I replied to her, "and a lot of times I don't want to go on struggling against the unyielding, overpowering forces. Yet I want to continue living. That is all I can say. I want to live."

The interrogator gazed at me with an empty look, a look lacking any human expression, deciding on her answer.

Just as she was about to make her pronouncement, I woke up to life.

Boris Glikman Shares...

BORIS GLIKMAN, from Australia, is a full time writer and spiritual philosopher. He says, "Writing gives me the conduit to a world that is unreachable by any other means, a world that is populated by Eternal Truths, Ineffable Questions and Infinite Beauty. It is my hope that these stories of mine will allow the reader to also catch a glimpse of this universe."

The motivation for this piece? "The inspiration for this story came from a nocturnal dream that I had. Dreams are a very important source of creative inspiration to me and many of my stories originate from the scenarios and ideas in my dreams. This story is pretty much a straight re-telling of the dream and I really didn't have to do too much extra work with it, other than throw in a bit more dialogue."

You may reach him here: bozlich@yahoo.com.au His website: http://bozlich.gather.com/