“I used to hate people. How would YOU feel if these tiny creatures tried climbing into you all day long like annoying ants? They would crawl from the bottom up into my head and tickle my brains with their cameras. They were so relentless. It did not matter to them that they would have to wait in line for hours until they got to the top. They absolutely needed to take that perfect photographic shot from inside of my head (whose bright idea was it to put windows up there?). And this invasion would happen almost every single day of the year from dusk till dawn, year after year. It was utterly exhausting.
“Then several years ago they just stopped invading me. I don’t know why but thus began the happiest time of my life. They would still come visit me in herds, but they would stay on their tiny boats just off shore and stare up at me and take pictures, gazillions of pictures. I was wondering when they would get enough of my photos but it seemed like they never would. It was satisfying to stare down at them with contempt they deserve.
“The only thing that I missed about those tiny humans is listening to them talk and learning their languages. Why do they have so many languages? Dogs just bark no matter where they live, cows moo, pigeons coo and lions roar. But humans have different tongues, it feels like several hundreds of them, and I learnt to understand them all. It was actually fun to hear all the gossip and travel stories. I also witnessed dozens of marriage proposals in my head. Some made me laugh, some made me cry and sometimes I was on the verge of yelling: ‘What were you thinking, dude?’
“When people stopped coming inside me, I started forgetting their languages since I was out of practice. It felt kind of sad, you know, so many years of learning in vain… But the worst thing happened a week or so ago. People stopped visiting me completely. They don’t even sail by in their boats anymore. I don’t know what is happening, but I sure know that I feel lonely. You know what they say: be careful what you wish for… Was it something that I did? Did they get tired of my indifferent stare? Will they ever be back?
“I hate to admit it, but I do miss people now. They obviously admired me and some would say even loved me. I hate to stand here on my own, lonely and forgotten. I dream about my tiny visitors every night. Maybe if I wish really hard upon that shooting star every night, they will visit me again? What if I promise that I will smile and wink at them the next time they try to photograph me? Or maybe even wave?! What do you think, pigeon, would they like that?”
But the pigeon did not answer; he just took off from the Statue of Liberty’s torch and disappeared in the grey clouds above the quarantined New York.
April 2020
I was born in Russia and I always had a passion for traveling. I lived in 5 countries, traveled to 20+ more, and now I am focused on exploring North America. I have travelled to 25 U.S. States and my goal is to visit all 50 states and all U.S. National Parks. I currently live in California.
My blog, Family Road Trip Guru, is devoted to fun, educational and affordable family friendly itineraries as well as general travel tips and hacks.
Blog: https://familyroadtripguru.com
IG: https://Instagram.com/family_
Facebook: https://facebook.com/
This writing contest was based off one of Voyage Scribe’s travel writing prompts. Check out this month’s prompt and other writing resources here.
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I love it!!