Aesop's Journey Through the Twilight Zone

© Ben Loory

Aesop was wandering along one evening, just a little after dinner, when suddenly he noticed something strange had happened - the whole world had disappeared. He looked around - up, down, everywhere - but all there was, was gray. So Aesop sat down on a nearby piece of nothing, and started writing to pass the time.

He wrote all about what he'd done before he got to this strange, strange place. He wrote about the last dinner he'd had, and also his breakfast and lunch. He wrote about his friends and his family and his cat and his other cat and a snake he once saw. He wrote about a river and a camel and a fox and some grapes and a hippo. He wrote and he wrote, about all kinds of things, and then eventually he ran out. He couldn't think of another thing to write, and then- right then - he died.

And as soon as he died - right at that exact, precise moment - the whole world suddenly jumped up again, and everyone ran around reading Aesop's little book and saying Oh my God! This is great! This is wonderful!

But Aesop didn't care, he was dead anyway. Another day in another gray world. So he walked on a bit, and sat down on some more nothing, and got out his pen again. He looked all around, and looked deep inside, and tried to think of something more to write. But everything he thought of, he'd already written, and there was no point to writing it again.

So after a while, Aesop put the pen down, and then he closed his book. And then he stood up, and walked away, slowly off into the gray.

And some people ask, Where did he go?

And some say, What did he do?

But the simple truth is, nobody knows.

And what's more, no one ever will.