CHAPTER 8 – THE FIRST SIMPLE JOY

I hitched another free ride on a bus as soon as I got to the bus stop near the outskirts of Bikini Bottom. Just like last time, I sat underneath the regular seats. I was very tired even though the sun was still way up in the sky. I did my best to forget about that five-minute fit of insanity that I went through. I wanted to forget everything that happened in my past. I wanted to forget all about today- my very first frustration in this second life. A place far, far away from Bikini Bottom will help me forget all about Mr. Krabs's triangular shape and shiny crimson skin embellished with the garments of success. Soon enough, his vivid, hostile, unforgiving image will be blurred out of my mind and be fully effaced; completely replaced by the things that will happen in the future. I just needed to get that sledgehammer and bulldoze the red, brick wall standing in front of me in my journey across life.

I closed my eye and searched for some solace inside my head. I thought of the things that will make me happy even just in my dreams. I dreamt that I was in an empty, white space. I was all alone, when a floating Krabby Patty suddenly appeared right in front of me. Many more of those burgers also appeared, similar to how those mysterious green cubes appeared in my supposed afterlife before I was almost sent to Davy Jones's Locker. I shook my head in disapproval. These wretched patties have brought me nothing but misery! I have spent all my life trying to know what these things are made of! I hitched a ride on this bus to forget everything about these despicable things!

I looked for something else. I jumped on each of the patties as more and more of them appeared. As I went higher up, a huge screen was becoming more and more visible to me. The stream of Krabby Patties ended like a gradient of black fading to gray and then to white. Up there, I saw Karen staring straight at me in a loving way just like in the old days. She was reassuring me once more that if I try and try again, I will eventually succeed, but I never succeeded. Perhaps it's time for me to give up and try something else.

I shrugged her empty reassurance off, knowing that she, in this dimension, was nothing more than a figment of my imagination. The real Karen has gone away, being a fugitive in the seven seas. After all, this whole white space was nothing but a figment of my imagination. It's time for me to give up my old ways and look for a new one. I opened my eye and just stood by, waiting until the last passengers of the bus have already alighted and the bus returns to its station so that the bus driver can ready himself to start yet another long day on the road. I snuck out of the bus unnoticed again.

I left the dark bus station and looked around the new place I have brought myself to. It was a whole new city completely different from Bikini Bottom. There were neon lights everywhere and different genres of music blaring through the speakers of almost every shop and club there. Crowds of fish and all sorts of sea creatures went about their nights. It was a bustling, lively place that also seemed cold and uninviting at the same time. I walked around the streets, dodging every step from the seemingly-callous creatures.

I smelled the flavorful aroma of hearty tomato soup being served at the nearby diner. I looked inside and saw a young couple near a window. The female fish pulled down the white blinds, covering themselves and showing nothing but a silhouette of them kissing under a warm pendant light. I looked away immediately lest I wallow in the sadness of the loss of Karen again.

I was already starving. Out of desperation, I went to the back of the diner, hoping to find a dumpster there where I can scavenge perhaps for leftovers. I found something even better though- an air vent. I climbed inside it and walked around, hoping to find where the kitchen is so that I can swipe some food. I saw a light at the end of one of the tunnels and went there, only to see the bathroom below. I immediately averted my eyes and tried another way. This air vent was much more complicated than I thought. I rested for a while. My stomach growled even louder. I knew that I have to eat soon. The aroma of diner food teased me more. I felt the smoke coming from the kitchen caress my almost-invisible nose. I knew that I was already near the kitchen.

I walked straight towards the hole. I looked down to see if there is any chance that I would fall and land on a pot of boiling water or oil. The hot steam went through the vent and scorched me. I decided then that it wasn't the right time to get in the kitchen yet. I waited until closing time, but to no avail. I soon remembered that this was a 24-hour diner. But there has to be some point when this place doesn't have customers, right?

I fell asleep for a while and eventually woke up to someone snoring loudly, which must mean that there are no more customers. I went through the holes and fell on the chrome floor of the kitchen. The head chef was sitting on a wooden chair, fast asleep and snoring loudly, with his mouth agape. The cashier, who was watching a soap opera about cell division at an almost-mute volume, was just on the counter that can be seen from the slightly-opened kitchen door. It was three in the morning, and almost all the lights were turned off except for a few recess lights in the corners so that they could save electricity.

I quietly rummaged the nearby buckets filled with fruits and vegetables. I munched on them, relishing the crunchy consistency of kelp and seaweed with every bite. I also savored a deliciously sour tomato. For the first time in so many years, I've felt some happiness even from a simple source, which is food, even if it's not a Krabby Patty. For all my life, I 'ate' almost nothing but virtual meat loaf. Sometimes, I eat the chum I would prepare myself, but it is simply too foul that even I myself loathe my own cooking.

I then noticed something strange. It seemed that my skin has become more radiant, although still duller than how green my skin used to be back in my youth. My beard has turned into a silvery-light gray compared to the snow white that it used to be. The liver spot on my right forearm slightly lightened. I felt a little bit stronger again. I shrugged this off and just thought of me seeing a strangely, slightly younger appearance of myself as a side effect of not getting a good sleep. I went under the toe kick of the counter where the cashier was and rested there, lulling myself to sleep by listening to the cheesy break-up dialogue of the protozoans featured on early morning TV.

I slept happily for the first time, knowing that I have eaten something somewhat better than anything else in my entire life, whether it was virtual meat loaf, chum, or the gray sludge served to me back in the dungeon. Perhaps the only things that I've eaten that were more satisfying were the sandwiches and all the other meals mom used to make for me back when I was a kid. However, I still had to steal the fruits and vegetables from the buckets because I had no money at all. I wanted something more satisfying than the unsanitary stuff back in the dumpster. I was left hanging in thought. As soon as that crossed my mind, I started to be uncertain if I was happy because I have eaten something good, or if I was happy because I got away with stealing those vegetables, and for the first time in so many years, I succeeded.

[Author's Note: Character profile for the infamous Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way is in my blog now!

Review replies:

Page of Darkness – I'm glad you're enjoying this story. Thanks for adding me and this story to your favorites!

Third Kind – Wow. That's all.

On another note, this must be the very first chapter in this story without any dialogue. Plankton must be so lost in thought in this chapter.]