The Story of Red

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

“Hey Red! Red! Come here, man! I need you to run into town before the sun goes down so that we can finish up this job,” Barry, the job supervisor, yelled to his half-witted assistant.
“Red can go to town. Red can drive real good,” Red Peters replied.
“I know you can, Red. You are an excellent driver and I wouldn’t trust just anyone with anything this important. I need you to go to the Richardson Hardware Store on Highway 5. Do you know the one I’m talking about?”
“Red knows Richardson Hardware.”
“Ok, Red, I knew you did but I just wanted to make sure because sometimes even I forget,” Barry replied with a laugh. “Alan has what we need all ready to be picked up and all you have to do is sign for it.”
“Red can do that. Can Red drive his truck?”
“Red, it’s your truck. If you want to drive it, go right ahead.”

Red started up his beat-up old Chevy pickup. It was more rust color than it was red anymore, but it was the one thing that Red owned outright and he cherished it more than anything else in the world except maybe his dog Spot. Spot was Red’s best friend and didn’t care how smart Red was. All Spot wanted was to be loved, petted and fed and Red did two of the three with enough regularity that Spot was able to forgive him for forgetting to feed him from time to time.

Dust flew up in twin rooster tails behind the truck as Red drove along the country road back into Richardson. Usually when Red drove into town, he was following his boss and coworkers from a jobsite, but he was on an important assignment. “Hardware store and Alan. Sign name and be back before dark. Red can remember,” he kept telling himself in a sort of repetitious mantra.

After twenty minutes of driving, Red entered Richardson. Thankfully, the hardware store that he needed to go to was located on the same street that he lived on, so he was sure that he could find it without a problem. Red parked the off-red colored Chevy in a parking space right in front of the hardware store, got out of the truck and closed the door behind him which caused a small cloud of dust to waft around him. Coughing to get the dust out of his lungs and wiping his face off, Red entered the hardware store.

Nobody was around when he got up to the counter, so he rang the bell that was located there. The sound of the bell reminded him of that old movie that was about angels getting their wings when a bell rang, so he rang it again. And again. And again.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

“Who the hell is ringing that damned…oh, hey Red. I should have known it was you,” Alan Alpers said as he came out of his office. “You here to pick up Barry’s order?”
“Hardware store and Alan. Sign name and be back before dark. Red remembered!” Red replied while grinning an impossibly huge grin.
“You sure did you dim witted genius. Here, sign this slip and I’ll have one of the guys load the truck,” Alan said as he slid a yellow invoice across the counter.
“Red needs a white pen with a black lid.”
“Red, that pen there is just as good as any other pen. Just use that one.”
“No! Red writes with white pen with a black lid!”
“Damn son, hold on. Let me go see if I have another pen in my office,” Alan said and turned and walked away.
After rummaging around in his desk, Alan found a Bic pen and brought it back out to Red. “Here, son, use this pen.”
“Red’s pen!” Red exclaimed and snatched it out of Alan’s hand and slowly began to sign his name. “Red is done!”
Alan took the invoice and tore out the carbon paper and handed Red a copy of the invoice, complete with “RED” scrawled in shaky letters along the bottom of the page. “Here you go Red. Take this back to Barry and be sure to tell him thanks for me.”
“Red can do that,” he replied and turned and walked away.

The light was quickly fading as the dust rose once again behind the old red pickup. Red knew that he had only a little bit of time left before he would be late in getting back to the jobsite. He really didn’t want to upset Barry, so he drove along as quickly as he safely could – that is, a respectable twenty-five miles per hour.

Red had noticed a strange looking light that reminded him of a lightning bug, but more of a blue color, that seemed to be following him from a distance. The fact that the light was not only keeping up with him, but was actually gaining on him didn’t sink in, nor did the fact that lightning bugs weren’t due to be out in force for another month or two. That didn’t stop Red from pulling over to the side of the road to try and catch this strange blue bug.

Slowly, he stepped out of the truck and put his feet upon the dusty ground. The blue light had stopped moving toward him and was hovering several hundred yards away from him, and slightly off the road. Red carefully climbed through the barbed wire fence and walked slowly through the tall prairie grasses.

In less time than it took for Red to blink, the blue light shot directly toward him and increased in size till it was large enough to completely envelope Red. Then, just as mysteriously, the light, and Red with it, disappeared.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

“Red can’t see,” Red said as bravely as he could. His voice echoed for a few seconds and then finally died out. “Red can’t see, and Red is scared.”
Several strange noises erupted from all around him, and it made him even more scared than he previously was. “Stop, please. Red is scared!”
“Ooo…faaaaaan…kaaaation...doooon’t bbeeee scaared. Don’t be scared, Red. We aren’t going to hurt you,” several voices said all at once from several different points in the room.
“Who are you?” Red asked.
“Red, that doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. You are confused right now. In time, you will understand.”
“Ok,” Red said, more confused than ever. Usually, when people talked to him, he was able to look around and see them. No matter how much he moved about, though, Red wasn’t able to see anything but darkness. “Where are you? Red can’t see you.”
“All in due time, Red. First, you must understand then we have so many gifts to give you in the way of knowledge.”
“You want to give Red something? Red isn’t supposed to take things from strangers.”
“Red, who we are doesn’t matter at this point,” the voices said matter-of-factly. “What does matter is that we want to help you. Do you want to be helped, Red?”
“Red needs help?” he asked, unsure what he needed help with.
“Red, would you like to be as smart as everyone else?”
Red thought about this for a few seconds before saying, “Red is who he is. Red is smart in Red’s own way.”
“We understand what you mean, Red. Perhaps we didn’t ask in the right way. Would you like to know everything that everyone else knows? Would you like to be normal?”
Red shook his head forcefully and yelled, “No! No! Red can’t be normal! Red was born this way and will never change!”
“Red, we understand what you mean. What if we could promise you that you could be normal? What would you say then?”
“Red does not know. Red has never thought about this,” he replied.
“Take your time, Red. We have all the time in the world.”

Red sat down on whatever it was that he had been standing on and thought. After several minutes of quietly thinking he said, “Red can be normal. Red CAN be normal. Does Red want this? Yes. In Red’s heart, all he dreams of is to be normal.”
“Hey!” Red yelled, “Red will be normal!”
“Red, if this is what you wish, then lay down, and we will begin our work.”
Nervously, Red laid down and closed his eyes. “Wait!” he yelled as he sat back up. “Will Red hurt?”
“No, Red. You will feel nothing. You will go to sleep and will wake up normal. Now lay back down and you will fall asleep.”
Red put his head back down and before he could think of anything else to say, he was asleep.


Many hours passed before Red woke up again. Groggily, he opened his eyes and tried to look around the room but couldn’t see anything. He rolled a dry tongue over dry lips and took a deep breath. As he exhaled, he heard, “Red, you are awake now. You are now normal.”
Red looked around a bit for the source of the voices, but couldn’t see anything. Slowly, he sat up. “What do you mean I’m normal?” Red said, and stopped, eyes wide. “What did you do to me?”
“Red, you wanted to be normal. We made your brain function as a normal person’s brain would function. We also corrected your speech.”
“Wow. The guys at work aren’t going to believe this!” Red exclaimed with growing elation.
“Red, this is just the first step.”
“First step? What are you talking about?”
“We made you normal, Red…ordinary. How would you like to be extraordinary?”
“Extraordinary? I don’t understand. How could I be extraordinary?”
“Right now, you have the thinking capabilities of a normal human being. We can make it so that you think far beyond normal people. You would be able to think of answers to many of life’s problems. Disease…war…famine…all of these things would be a thing of the past once you though of the solution.”
“A genius. You want to turn me into a genius.”
“No, Red. You would be far smarter than any ‘genius’. You would know everything there is to know.”
Red thought about it for a couple seconds, smiled to himself, and laid back down and said with a slight nod, “Do it. Make me omniscient.”
Within a second, Red was asleep for the second time.


Red awoke and rapidly sat up. “You aren’t from the government like I first thought you were.”
“Very good, Red. Very good indeed. If you think you know what we are, please tell us.”
Red stood up and took a deep breath. “You’re extraterrestrials. You aren’t from Earth at all, but are actually from the other side of the galaxy.”
“Excellent, Red. Now that you know who we are, can you tell us why we picked you out of all the people on your planet?”
“You picked me because…because I was simple…because I was easy to mold,” Red replied.
“Your innocence drew us to you, Red. You were pure. You weren’t trapped by the stresses of your daily life.”
“Ok. I knew that somehow. What, then, do you want me to do with my knowledge?”
“Share it, Red. Make your world a better place. Rid your planet of disease. Eradicate famine. End all wars. You have the power to do this. You know you do.”
“I will do it. I am already…yes, I just thought of how to cure cancer!” Red said excitedly.
“Excellent, Red. Now go. We’ll put you down just seconds after we picked you up and in the same place.”
“Thank you. Humankind thanks you,” Red said as a bright blue flash went off, and he found himself standing just on the prairie side of a barbed wire fence.

The old pickup raced down the road back toward the jobsite.
Red was excitedly thinking about all the things that he would start doing just as soon as he could. Cures for all the major diseases of the world. Long-lasting power sources that didn’t damage the environment. Ways to guarantee peace. He was elated at the simplicity of many of the solutions, and his glee transformed itself into unsafe driving.
Taking a corner just outside the jobsite way to fast, Red’s truck slid on the dusty gravel and looked as though it would stay on the road. Unfortunately, the load shifted just a little and the truck slid off the road into the ditch and rolled several times before coming to rest several yards away from Barry and the other workers who, after the truck stopped moving and the shock wore off, ran toward the truck to see if Red was ok.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Several days later, and after two surgeries, Red woke up to find himself in a hospital room with several monitors around him and an IV pole next to his bed. A soft moan escaped his lips.
Barry, who had been sleeping peacefully in a chair next to the bed woke up slowly and said, “Well look there! He’s alive!”
Another moan was all that Red could muster.
“Here,” Barry said, “take a sip of water.”
Cold water rushed into his mouth and down his parched throat. Red coughed a little and then took another sip.
“Well, Red…are you going to make it?” Barry asked with concern edging into his voice.
“Red had a bad dream, Barry. A bad, bad dream,” whispered Red.

[LA_MERC_goose]

LT, your stories rule! :D