City Within Cities - Part 1

The clouds sway above breathing gently on the city. The whole world seems to tilt upwards as the rain falls down. He breathes in deeply trying to enjoy the tilt in perspective. Metal grabs at the ground piercing the concrete letting the city feel its structure and glass. The old man winces. A drop pelts his eyelid. This whole city was raised up by powerful men and women. He could feel it deeply as if he was a mother tree. Streets and buildings curled like roots bringing up vital characteristics, and the people were like swaying leaves upon a humid windfall. Everything is strong, interconnected and above all else loud.

A car races by slapping the wind in the rumble cloud of engine. Bass booms in the backseat of the car giving everyone around a dose of heart beat. Whoever went by was probably trying to forget work. A couple walked in silence, mature in their companionship but loud with the grace of their steps. Feathers rustle dashing the gray atmosphere with colors of orange and purple. A man with spike hair dancing drumming the air with authority of man who has just been reborn. Mikey smiled at the old man with a knowing smile.

"Hey James! Sway with the wind, brother! Oh, man. Don't act shocked. Didn't you and I have a good time downtown last night!" Said Mikey.

Mikey continued to dance, rolling his waist as a snake. Onlookers stared at the old man. Waiting for a chance to grin at something. James who just surfaced from the deepness of his mind winced at being called to the surface. Humor and wit oozed out of Mikey, but this game did not look so refreshing today. How to disarm this quickly. James quickly scratched his grey beard. A bad habit that never made him look relax or casual.

"Mikey, my boy. You are having too much fun for someone so wise and stale as me. Perhaps, another time?" Said, James.

Before Mikey could finish the third part of his dance, James cross the street and pulled his hood up. He knew Mikey. Trying to walk away from that man in any polite fashion is disastrous. On the other side, James ignored some glares. Traveling down the sidewalk, the city blocks oozed with wet oil and metal bars dripping mini waterfalls. So many minds made the city feel like a mighty storm of both cleverness and stupidity. Shops sat silently on the corner like patient trappers. If you owned something old as the city itself, people came to you. The stuffiness of history and eloquence always drew attention from certain classes of people. Other sections of the street were rough like different colors of paint spat together. In those areas, business owners hired people to preach their wares to onlookers and travelers. Stuffy people passed by with amusing, but vengeful eyes. The salesmen dotting the street took these challengers with all seriousness. They all could smell a thrilling hunt, and began bothering them with siege engines of words and waving of hands. Rules of the street. Off balance your opponent and go for the mightiest beat of their heart. Bend them to your savvy smile and handpicked words. Give them a reason to look up and across, but never down.

James breathed out slowly. Intelligence such a relative term here. In this place, taking shelter in the deep is worse than swimming at the surface and being slapped by the big waves. When the water is at the shore, big fish get trapped on the land and flop until they are at the mercy of something smaller than them. Change the paradigm. There is more to strategy than having big guns. How about getting a jump on someone?

An ally way opened up to the left. He quickened his pace daring himself not to look. Spiders crawl in the dark, make their web in the light and bring their prey into the den where darkness is the light. You must know a bit of the dark to stay away from the shadows, and perhaps slay the beast who hunts your loved ones. James heart beat strongly. It was not fear, but fierce love that kept his whole body strong. Such love poured over his nervous system, going beyond the breathing and the images bouncing around in his neurons. If only people could see, the city within cities.

If one could have a high speed camera, fast enough to make lightning slow down to a crawling den of time. A crying man becomes a statue for the elements that dance within one tick, one second, one breath. A place of Stasis. A place where one could examine the very soul of this world.

James stopped. A constructed building barely half a story high stood fresh on the ground. Orange hats rotated and tilted. Two eyes stared at James. A man in a suit, in his mid twenties, held a tablet strapped to one hand. That man waved at James beckoning him to step onto the constructing grounds.\

"Garrison. You okay?" Said James.

As James stepped over a few boards and walk around a few machinery, he waited for the man's eyes to stop flaring the very embers that could form dozens of empires. Empires loved to conquere, and James had a feeling that legions of words were about to come pouring out. A deadening feeling crept over the old man's chest. Anger, resolve and passion. Difficult emotions to redirect. Better to fortify the mind to prepare for negotiations. Maybe even introduce tolerance for enemies of the state, or perhaps ignore the lovely temptress of power. Power to shape the world. Such a self-multiplying power waved destructiion like a nuclear bomb. Clearing the state of its enemies.

"They are fools, James. Protesting my buildings. Damaging equipment. Threatening my executives while they sleep peacefully in their well deserved beds. They are invading my PR campaigns, and buying out my top minds. Out marketing my recruiters, and buying up shares of cutting edge companies." Said Garrison.

James waited. Letting the flames burst out, so he could get a sense of the essence of this man. The old man breathed slowly to enter a state of stasis. Stasis was where James went under the deep surface of reality. A place where time could be cultivated and consumed like a hungry surfer upon the biggest mother wave ever rolled upon the shore. A place within places.

"Are you listening!?" Said, Garrison.

"Of course. You know me. I am soaking everything in. Go on, and keep going." Said, James.

Garrison unclenched his fist that was holding up his tablet, and took his other hand to describe more of his rage. Sweat beaded down the young man's hairline. Humidity so bad for formal clothing. You walk and collect the very dirt you try to avoid. Dirt. Dirt is all fine for normal people, but ambitious people who want to take the world by storm completely hate the vermin who dirty their palaces of ideals. Who said religious feelings were only meant for cathedrals?

James held up a hand.

"Calm down. Slow down your words, my friend. There is much to be said, but so little of it is escaping your lips." Said James.