It is Saturday morning when I wake to the sound of a fire engine in my room. He doesn't acknowledge my presence as he climbs out the window and continues down the street to Jeffrey's house.
"Goodbye, Keyboard," I whisper after him, his bright red coat trailing down the street.
-----
My day has begun in this way every day for the past month. At first it was a weekly event, but he recently started visiting each morning. Each day the shining red beauty disappears before I fully awake, leaving me no time but to say, "Goodbye, Keyboard." As I head into the bathroom to brush my singular tooth, Keyboard is the only thought on my mind. How could this happen to me? I never thought I would have been chosen like this. But suddenly I drop the toothpaste and all thoughts are driven from my brain except for trying to get the toothpaste back into the tube. It takes me a good ten minutes to get every drop back in, but I manage it, as it happens at least once a day.
I spend about half an hour staring at the wall because I need to process the idea that the earth is round, and then I head to my kitchen to get breakfast.
-----
I enter the twisted shack of a kitchen conjoined with the dining room, heading towards the cupboard containing my exotic milks and cheeses. I run my fingers through my ears, and my grooved tongue over each and every crevice on the blocks of cheese.
"This one feels delicious," I whisper softly to myself, trying to distract my mind from Keyboard. Pulling out the cutting board and cheese grater, I accidentally slice my hand open.
"Oh dear."
Suddenly, something crackles from the back door. I turn around slowly, and an expression of disbelief crosses my disfigured facade.
"Keyboard?" I ask with wide eyes. He rings his siren at me in response.
"It is I," he drones in a high pitched tone.
With my hand bleeding from the cheese grater, I walk over to the magnificent figure that has haunted my life, and stand humbly before him. The blood on my hand matches the beautiful red of his sides, consuming me in the convoluted similarities between me and my transportational stalker. He flashes his headlights once, and slowly backs away from my triangular back door.
"Wait, Keyboard! Don't leave me so soon!" I cry, frantically wheeling my small feet to the door, but it's no use. Keyboard's wonderful form, headlights fixed on my twisted shape, floats backwards until I cannot view him any longer. As I turn to attend to my gushing hand, I see him pass my front window. Hand dripping with blood, I raise it in salute to my only joy in life, and whisper a goodbye.
-----
Keyboard didn't visit me the next few nights. Is bread ever really sliced? I ponder, waiting for him once again. I stare longingly out the window, and before I know it, there is lemonade pouring from my ceiling.
"Oh no, the beast has escaped," I say without hesitation or fear. When I turn back to the window, he is there.
"Keyboard?" My eyes are wide in excitement. He is the only fire engine that can honestly surprise me. "Where have you been?"
"I was eating stray tigers. No one suspects the vehicles, only the bears are ever blamed."
"Have you come to spend the day with me?" I mumble softly, before promptly passing out.
Flashback
I'm standing, alone. I'm under a mountain-top with no way to get out. I'm being circled, slowly, by ten or twelve of them. The air is surprisingly silent. Who sent them to my cave?
End Flashback
