1.

minilites coming on and sky beauty red and blue tonite. tired people shuffle along in line toward counter, chuckle, chat and shove as stars come out. say i see, as i hang out at noodle line, the cresh door open and this big noob fall out. natch he has no ring and no togs. i stand there, look at line ahead. thinq i have ring and fine togs, thinq i go over there, how say? come back to line later. thinq. see the noob, he moov slow. he all sticky with cresh cof, he hauls in air and blinks his eyes lots. i thinq he breather natch. no. fuck place in line. i go over, haul him up. i sez, noob, you got some hauling to do, extra, hauling before you haul. pay attention while i say. i dunno who hauls around most noobs, to ring factory outlet, to haul-hall to see levers and pick one, back to get togs and get them fed, and in that way set them up. i never done it. someone done it for me. this first time i seen a noob fall out so close by, first noob in a while. say i want to help you because i big, and i like to use my big, one haultime, my lever neighbor not around, i thinq he go breather. cause he huff and puff a lot when he haul. so he maybe gone down and drinq from the tit till he die. may his breath feed us. so i haul lever, whole time watching neighbor lever static.

somewhere in silence, silence quivers and burns. i listen careful, and i find something more to do never been done. reach over, grab neighbor lever and mine too, haul them both, rest of shift. say i look at my ring, and it burn extra bright extra quick. enough for best togs, enough for cof and best noodle. skip a day's hauling. bath anytime i want. that the first time i use my big to change the world.

2.

they call me mountain cause of the day i sat in bath. my big hauled two levers and i decided to skip a day. have fun. play in bath, watch people go here and there, go to work, go to cof, go to say-centre.

sitting in bath naked, rounded back wet under sunny sun. nice cool air moves. smile on my face, i relax. close eyes, live in silence. warm bubbles from below. water always warm til i get all pruny. thinq, here come same people back from hauling, they did something today. while i sit in bath and get pruny. i decide to stay til i'm hungry though, get my day's worth. sunny sun going down, my skin chills. minilites under water come on. big slow hills of the land around stand out dark as light dies. nothing moves but the people coming and going. everything sits but people, and i sit for a day, and they call me mountain. i didn't skip haul again for a long time. made me feel bad, being called useless mountain. i coulda hauled myself a meal and a change of togs, but instead i work double, make back hurt, and sit and get pruny and nothing else. this before noob.

3.

buy clothes cause it's cold in haul-hall. haul-hall big mountain of building, roof over. rows of levers to haul on, go up and down by stairs to find mine. neighbor still unmanned. keep it that way. i'm hauling back, hauling forth, ring lights up for end of shift. i walk up stairs and walk right out of togs. fall to bits. i have to haul out of there before my boobs and my ass get cold. walk to commercial for new togs, people along way laugh and smile. i smile, tell them fuck off. bad togs, it obvious when they're going to go, but good ones can do this, look good then drop. good togs not earned yet. dip in the bath to warm up, then haul darn chilly to get togs before nightfall.

anyway at store again looking through, bump into noob. thinq i know you, he say. you showed me around and set me up, he says. i never got a chance to thanq you. fuck off, i says and smile. i look him up and down. he has decent togs, he doing well. what you doing here? i say. he says, i got togs on me to last a couple shifts, i'm just looking around. looking around, i say. yeah, he says. i'm the mountain, i tell him, i looked around here once. i explain to him how i can haul two levers. neat, he says. want to get cof? i got to haul after. no, i say, i'm getting togs and then noodles and then have a proper bath. oh well, see you.

4.

life proceeds. haul, bath, noodle, cof, haul, cof, haul, noodle, bath. haul haul, bath, cof, cof, haul haul bath noodle. i pick an evening as i'm leaving haul-hall, say, tonight's a good night to go to say. minilites are on, stars are out and i got new togs for nighttime. so i cof myself up and head back over by haul-hall inbetween hall and rings where say-centre is. i never say at say. i say to myself all the time instead. it easier not to have to explain or risk someone saying boo. i like people to say though, and i like night say because it's special. i stopped going to day say after they called me mountain. i like not being able to see the mountains. everyone not hauling or eating or at commercial drifts over to say-centre, around by this side of bath. bath trough stretches a long way, other end by breathers. no one comes around that way. but the whole daily process, it like minilited warm water pooling slowly in your bellybutton in the bath and soon lots and lots of people sitting on steps around say-zone. a guy steps in. he's one of a few who says every few nights. he says, say, there were people who were just heads, and other people who were just bodies. say the heads rolled around, and the bodies sat there because they couldn't see. so then a head rolled up to a body and said, i am the lever and you are the machine, i am breathers and you are people, i will give you something to do. and then the head sat on the body, and this first body put heads on other bodies, until people were. this was a say i'd heard a few times, a few ways. everybody liked it cause it was funny to thinq of the heads rolling around like somebody's ring they knocked off the edge of the bath, and then they scramble to grab it even though it's not going anywhere. and the headless bodies that could only thinq to sit were silly, like the person scrambling for their ring before they could do anything else.

5.

there was also a say about how one lever doubled as a secret lever, and every time someone hauled it, a noob popped out back at the cresh. this could be a rather touchy one, everyonceinawhile someone said 'boo' and then say guy would pack it in for us. onenight who steps in but my noob i set up, lookin well. he steps in and sez, say, we're really aliens, and don't come from here, and the place that the aliens baths were was drying out, and they didn't have water. boo, somebody says. okay he sez and steps out.

he starts doing strange things after that though. i actually ratioed the fuck a double hauling so he could skip work one time. it turned out to be a really boring day, everyone just locked the fuck in. after, i dip bath and head for cof. see him. he greets me, sez, i got a new say for evening. come join? sure, i say, if i can squeeze in a bath, i did have a long day. i thinq this better be good, if all i get is another of his miserable says i'll not be his ratio no more. i sluice back my cof and bathe, and make it to say-centre as shadows get real long. he's wanting to go. up first. say, in the middle of this huge place where there was only sand and dirt, he says, there was a block of concrete like a knee sticking up out of the bath. and on this block there were just a few buildings, one for work, one for rings, one for togs, one for noodle, one for cof, one for cresh, and one for breathers. and there was also a big bath everybody could take a bath in. and all the people went walking around all these buildings, and lived that way. no-one ever stepped off the knee even though maybe there were other knees in other valleys, with other people. boo, i say. he looks right at me. i say, people are here, we are people. there are no other people. but, he says, other people like us who are separate from us. we are people, i say, there are no other people as we know people. there aren't. these people you see are the only people. if there were other people they'd be here and have been here. that's not my point, he says. maybe things are different for them and we can get a better life, he says. that's silly, someone says. what would we make better? there could be a point, he says. what the fuck are you talking about? someone says. i mean we could go forward, he says, in stead of spinning on the spot. this spot's fine for me, says someone, and a bowlful of boos gets the silly noob out of there.

6.

sunny sun's all down now. i suck on noodle at counter, thinqing about what noob says. here he comes walking by, i grab him. that's your big say? i says. yea, he says. i'm hauling away at it day after day. i say lean with me and listen. okay.

i say, i not special like you are. i'm a hauler and i don't thinq big silence like you. i don't take a day to thinq. so maybe i can't understand how your say is supposed to haul. but it's too close to what is. that's why they say boo. if you want them to like your say make something up. something silly they'll enjoy. i don't want them to like it, he says, because what is is what we should be concerned with, if we want to haul past this point in the lives of people. guess i don't understand, i say, i'm not a special big thinqer. i'm happy where i am. i got all i need. yes but what do you want? he says. concern yourself with that. and you are special. no-one else could have hauled double so i could have time to hear silence, he says, you're different. you're part of our way forward. maybe one day we'll have more to look forward to. i'm done my noodle, he's done and we look at each other. sort of walk away from him. silly guy disturbed my silence now it's all grainy like worst noodle. i go haul. thinqing in my head still grainy and overhot. haul back-to-back shifts, then go bath. double cof and noodle, still head silence burns and burns. he's put something inside of me.

7.

next he sees me asks me to ratio him again. my own sore back so he can silly around haul another lousy say? no thanqs, i says. he say come on, i'm so close to such an amazing say, i just need the time to walk around and thinq it out my mouth. whatev i sez. no come on, fine okay fine. he sez take a silly day with me, we can walk all around. one of us is going hungry if we do that, i says. then i will, he says. just come on. okay okay. bye noob. cof. haul double. hoping for a quick noodle, just receive as noob shows up. tell him i gotta eat. he sez, just take it with you. get some strange looks from people taking a bowl away. we walk back to the bath. look all the way down the other end. walk to there, he says. why not.

we pass out of the crowd going to and from shift. walk beside ring building. few levers in there crank out rings. huge box of rings waiting so don't often haul those. ever wonder why rings are all the same? he asks, and togs and cof and noodle better or worse? no, i say, bad haulers making togs worse? he stops me, sez, we do same work all the time. back and forth set number of times, no quality involved, just fast or slow. if that machine wanted, i thinq it could make best quality all the time. like ring machine, he says. every ring perfect. ring's more complicated than togs. so what's stopping all togs best? best food for everyone? we keep on walking. meantime my silence is burning still, in my head, and this just famishes it. we walk and walk along the bath trough. no people around us now. too far off from haul-hall. pass commercial way off beside other side of bath. we're down by the breathers, i say. he says, ever thinq why we say may his breath feed us? i say yes. you thinq it out, is that why you ask? know answer already? no, he says, that's a tough one. on we walk. dirt and mountains ahead off concrete ledge. absolute edge. there's a person-sized concrete box with some marks on it

TIGER SPRINGS
for your own good

wtf that, i say. it's silence silliness, it nothing i've ever seen. silly curly marks so purposeful. it's scary, i say. i say can we go, go now pleez i'm tired and i need to haul right after and i'm tired and i don't wanna haul again tired please, he says okay it okay, i have my say now.

8.

weirded out after creepy prickly marks at end of bath. so i cof bath haul togs haul cof haul til nightfall. thinq of going to say. fuck creepy say. haul and bath all night, relax in warm, silence still as possible. haul in head to try and keep icky silliness down. finally one day i go to say. seems like i've done everything million times, time for say time for hear something onetime new. fuck noob, prolly bood off already. it not noob tonite. some guy step in in stead say, once upon a time there were just heads rolling around, heads and headless bodies. it okay say of that old say. i listen it kinda funny. nother guy after that say, maybe when you become breather, become noodle and your cof turnt into cof. for a second i'm sure someone will boo, but guy keeps saying, how head become bowl and hair reprocessed into noodle and it so damn funny the way he say everybody laughing and feel happy how silly it is. reaffirms my good feeling about night say, so i start going again every couple nights. no sign of noob. then one day he there, look a little silly. i walk up to him, you don't look so good. i'm okay, he says, just missed that one day's hauling walking with you set me back just a little, haul since, never quite caught up. he move a little slow. same old noob though. decent togs as ever. he says i'm gonna say tonite. he say, there was a place where no-one ever hauled. people laughing already. say people just take bath, don't need togs, haul-hall still cold, but don't have to go there, problem solved! good laughs. best noodle, best cof, lounge around all day like mountain, rings bright all the time like sunny sun. he looks at me and i giggle. he smiling, on the say spot tonite he rockin. settle down, he say. for imagine how sad it would be. i see someone purse their lips for saying 'boo', then decide not. noob say, life about what is not fulfilled. it about meals you miss, crappy togs fallaway, grainy cof, sore muscles. life with everything perfect is breathing. some people nod. he say, haul-hall cold for reason. you need togs outside, he point at someone? shake head no. you need togs outside in the sunny sun or even nighttime? not so much anyone. certainly don't need togs for bath, what then? quick laugh from everybody. that silly thot. he say, haul-hall cold so we need to buy togs. make and earn togs by hauling. togs don't last like rings. togs vary between good and crappy on purpose. if everyone have best of everything, can't chat anymore say i got good clothes, cof, noodle, oh well, i didn't haul so good pisser got bad clothes, cof, noodle too bad mate. it dead silent as he pauses for a second. he say, all anyone can say then is i got everything. that said, you done chatting forever. this enormous thought in my silence. it roils and races. take roof off haul-hall, it say to me, no-one need togs and still can work. why work though? work for food and cof. but food and cof not made by lever, only earned. same sort of idea going through everyone's head. long silence noob waits through, til he say, if you all could drop togs, if you all had bright rings, you'd all be miserable at the fact there's nothing to do, you're people. can't eat and drink always, get full. time left over from hauling for togs. sit around all day, he say, bath, walk back and forth, nowhere to go, nothing to do, same people all time, time to meet them all, find out nothing going on in their lives either. he say, but need for clothes, unreliable quality all the time keeps you unequal in tiny ways, keeps everyone chatty, distracted from silence, silence for in head and in cresh. he say, i thinq in silence lots. and i thinq now, there people before us thought this right out. this all here on purpose. this for us. and that's why, and here he look straight at me, after today i not skip, i join and haul with all, bath noodle togs and cof, all together til the day i breathe. he sit down. last thing sitting he say, silence give power to solve things. silence among people cause things. no bad things caused, no solving needed, silence in silence keep us alive forever.