Button Challenge by chesamus

[chesamus.livejournal.com]

Title: Little Black Box
Author: chesamus
Pairing: none
Rating: G
Word Count: 154 words.
Notes: Pretty experimental for me: I think it’s a flashback. A note at the end will explain it if you’re confused.



Button, button, who’s got the button? It was magic, and came in waves and he floated up, over, skated away...

Buttons gleamed, glowed, reds, and greens, and brass on red coats, and guided him like the lights on runways as he pushed and flew into the night, into the dark...

Shiny, bright, happy buttons smiled except for yuck faces which didn’t and made him sad and run behind the cold that chased the sun through his veins...

Warning beeps, garbled pronouncements from echoes above him, soft soft soft whispers like angels dancing on pins, but not angel pins like his momma had on her church coat, and feather wing touches on his hands, on his fingers saying it was OK, it was good, and closing his hand...

And the button made him burn, made him cold, made him want to cry and fight and sleep and never sleep again and took the pain away...



Note: If you’ve ever had a demerol or morphine drip in the hospital, you know exactly where this is coming from. If you haven’t then this won’t make a lick of sense. I’m pretty sure it’s about Ray.

Comments

[buzzylittleb.livejournal.com]

I've never been on a drip so I'm taking your word and your word is gorgeous.

[chesamus.livejournal.com]

It looks like a Jeopardy buzzer and has a ten minute timer on it. You know it's going to shoot this cold-burn through you, and you fight it every step of the way, even while you're pumping it constantly hoping the ten minutes is up and you get another hit. God, I hated that thing... Thank you.

[kill-claudio.livejournal.com]

This story transported me straight back to a hospital I had hoped never to see again. It takes a very good writer to have me experience something so vividly, especially in such a small space. Without a doubt the most moving thing I've read in years.

[chesamus.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I am flattered beyond belief that it strikes such a cord with you. That kind of experience has a long-lasting echo.