25 Hour Watch

Read Charlie Chapter 1
Read Charlie Chapter 2
Read Charlie Chapter 3

When the skyline began to glow like the color of the sun, Charlie felt it time to carry out his plan.

He searched for the right spot and picked a place below Babe’s ear.  Craned and bent, laid out belly-flat along the sloping blue neck of the great beast, Charlie had found his canvas, he was ready to immortalize himself in black ink.

Charlie uncapped the chisel-tip and carried out his mission and black ink oozed from felt pen onto Babe’s blue skin, leaving behind a scripted pool of permanent dark.  Charlie smiled in satisfaction, and gave the ooze a moment to dry.

“Charles Morris is not a giant, 2010,” Charlie read his branding aloud and shuffled back to his seat atop Babe’s oblong head, he watched the dissipating darkness melt away.  Somewhere deep in the distance, the sun was dawning day upon the Chippewa Forest, like a candle giving first light to a darkened room, the earth began to brighten.  Helios was just passing by.  Charlie looked over at Paul and said “Good morning.”

No response from the flannel-clad, mustached giant, Charlie amused himself by creating a voice he imagined to be Paul Bunyan.  He bellowed a hearty, “Ho, ho, Ha!” down into the parking lot and over the ground, another, “Ho Ho HA!” louder now, across the street below.  A few cars passed by, Charlie wondered if they could hear the giant waking up.

Smiling, stress-free, sitting cross-legged, he watched the sun peek around Paul’s black lumberjack cap; the sudden burst of orange ultraviolet caused something new to dawn for Charlie; an exit strategy had not been part of his planning process.

Charlie felt his heart momentarily lapse in rhythm, he felt a little panic rising in his blood, seconds passed in spinning imagination as Charlie considered how he was going to dismount.

Peering down the side of the bull’s horned-head, beneath the one he’d used to ascend, he saw his car, headlights shining bright.  Certain the roof of his Corolla was not an optionable landing zone, Charlie examined the area on the other side and saw only dirt, asphalt; nothing soft enough for his emergency.

Charlie balanced himself to stand, and carefully made his way across the great-divide of the Big Blue Ox, he was careful not to topple over either side; arms out, balancing, like a circus performer, Charlie looked down at the ground he knew wouldn’t be forgiving.

Standing at the crest of Babe’s blue tail, Charlie looked over the ledge to a snaking ceramic last available option for descent.  He felt the morning breeze turn to gusts, and Charlie thought it through; he pretzeled back to all fours, and took care to turn around.

He took the big blue tail in both hands and felt around for guidance with his feet, easing down over the edge, slowly, inch by inch, a meter at a time; Charlie worked himself down from Paul Bunyan’s famous blue companion.

Slippery and somewhat difficult to terrain, Charlie struggled to keep himself from falling off the ox’s ass; he managed to work a little technique into it, and made nice progress.  Down another meter, Charlie decided it far enough, and made a controlled fall the rest of the way to the dirt.  He landed soundly on both feet, bent at the knees, bent at the hips, arms at ninety degrees.

Out of breath, sweating, and newly aware of rising indexes, Charlie felt it all worth it; he looked up from under the bull, to the ear he’d just marked and the tail he’d used to climb down.  Gravel crunched around him, headlights were lessened by the risen, morning sun.  Another car approached Charlie, Paul, and Babe.

Charles Morris smiled and waved, then made his way back inside the car.  Pulling away, Charlie looked back to the other car; it slowed to a stop and two doors burst open, springing children to a sprint.  Racing one another, siblings dashed across the gravel to Babe’s big hoof; yelling, screaming, ecstatic and elated for the famous, “Big Blue Ox. Big Blue Ox!”

Departing, Charlie made ready to merge with North-bound traffic, he lifted his eyes and gave one last look to the smiling giant, his Big Blue Ox, and a family taking pictures of each other, hugging Paul and Babe.