Waking Up

A short story about sleepy prisoners and yellow canaries.

The prisoner had laid slumped in the corner of the dark cell for longer than he could remember. All he ever did was lay there, barely conscious, too weak to think or even be aware of his own presence in the room. It was almost as if he was a part of the earthen walls that surrounded him on all sides. The damp, heavy chill that had been present in this dark room ever since his captor shut the man in the prison had settled into the man, commandeering his body for it’s own existence. He was utterly bereft of his own soul. It had receded long ago. Now he was only an empty shell, smothered by the memory of his captor.

It was long ago that he had given up fighting for the wellbeing of his soul. The damp chill that closed him in on all sided repelled any kind of light, and once the man realized that the chill had invaded him, and he had no way of making it leave, his life force had slipped away to wait in a safer place. By now the man had forgotten what it was like to have a soul. He had forgotten that light existed. It was less painful to be imprisoned in the darkness if he shut out memories of any light or joy.

As the man stared up at the ceiling with unseeing eyes, a very small hole started to form in the middle of the ceiling. As a few loose pebbles fell away, a pinprick of light shown down into the dark prison. At first, the man was so deep in his dismal trance that he didn’t  notice the hole in the prison roof, but as it grew larger, he started to take notice. In dull confusion he tried to summon enough strength from that distant place where his life force resided to comprehend what was happening but all he was able to do was lift his head slightly. Once the hole was the size of a soft ball, a yellow canary slipped through and fluttered to the floor of the prison. Cautiously, the canary looked around, testing the air for any hint of poison which could easily kill her.

Surveying the room, the canary thought So this is where the prisoner lives. It felt good to be the first messenger of light in this room that had been closed off and inaccessible for so long. Turning to the dark lump in the corner that was the man, the canary sighed with remorse. She could feel the awful stagnancy in his body and the thought of him sitting there, dominated by the presence of his captor for so long made her whole body fill with a strange mix of sorrow and compassion.

“It’s good to meet you.” she chirped quietly. “We’ve been waiting a very long time to see you again. We missed you.”

With half closed eyes and barely moving lips the man breathed “It’s too late. I’m nothing anymore.”

“No you're not, you're just sleepy.”  the canary chirped good naturedly. “Your life here was only a dream. It’s time to wake up now.”

Wonderingly, the man mumbled “Just a dream.”

He started to wheeze out something that might have been a bitter chuckle. “If this is a dream, it’s lasting a damn long time.”

“Come on it’s time to go.” the canary said as she tugged on his sleeve. Slowly and with much prodding from the canary, the man made it to his feet. As he stood shakily in the center of the prison, more of the ceiling crumbled away until almost the whole roof had been opened up. A fresh breath of air filled the room from above and clear sweet light illuminated a circle in the middle of the room.

The man stared through the hole into the outside world with a hope dawning on his face that was so tender it almost hurt. He saw a face glowing with love peek over the edge of the hole to look down at him. It was a familiar face from long ago and it beckoned him home. The face sent memories flooding through him of the great love in the world above the prison, and he realized that he wanted to be in the world above with this wonderful face peering back at him. He stretched out his hand towards the owner of the face and the person reached down to clasp his forearm and help him scramble out of the prison.

The canary watched with awed satisfaction as the man scrambled over the edge of the hole and receded from view with his loved one.

“May God hold you and keep you.” she whispered at his receding back. The job was done and the canary relished knowing that the man was finally free from his prison.

Now she was all alone in the empty prison. The room felt echoey with memories of the time the man had spent there. She knew she should get up and follow the others out into the above world, but for some inexplicable reason it was hard to imagine leaving the prison. If she left, could she ever be friends with the man? She had seen the awful pain he had lived in for so long in a way that not many people would ever see, and she worried that the man would feel resentful about her seeing him when he was so vulnerable. Besides, it was time for the man to have a new life in the above world, and the canary didn’t want her presence to remind him of his old struggles, thereby preventing him from fully embracing the above world. So it was decided, she would let him go without any attachment or awareness of her affection for him.

But then she saw him at the edge of the hole looking down at her, his face healthy and shining. It was clear that even the short time he had spent in the light of the above world had restored him immensely. At first, the canary couldn’t believe that he would come back, but even after shaking her head and rubbing her eyes with her wings he was still there. He hadn’t forgotten her. In fact, he was grateful for her and cared about her just as much as she cared about him. The canary watched with a confounding mix of fear and hope as he reached down his hand, beckoning her out of the old prison. Could she really trust this act of goodwill? What if the man was simply disillusioned and would push her away as soon as they emerged into the above world? Or what if the mere act of being around the man caused him some kind of unforeseeable pain? The canary could not bear the idea of being the cause of discomfort for anyone, and the only way to avoid hurting people would be to not be around people at all. But he was still there, and he still wanted to be friends with her, even as she stood there in indecision. Pushing aside her misgivings and nervous stomach, the canary fluttered up onto his hand and allowed him to lift her out of the prison into the light.

Up in the above world, the small prison in the ground was of little consequence to anyone. It no longer felt heavy or consuming. After all, it was only a small, empty room sunk into the ground. But everyone remembered what had happened there. Everyone remembered that that little dark room was where the most resolute depression was defied by light and where incapacitated souls were awoken and welcomed home.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoy this foray into randomness!