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The water made Lewis shiver as he dove in with all his clothes on. The water was a see-through white, teeming with salmon. In the distance, a black spot poisoned the waters. Lewis took a deep breath and spoke.

He led us to grass,

And he let us feed.

His heart filled us with wonder,

And unstoppable need.

The salmon stopped. The ocean stopped.

His world stopped.

____________________

Peter King walked to the edge of a twenty-story he picked at random. Below him, people walked down the busy New York sidewalks, cabs honked in traffic, and music from the inaugural address echoed far away.

His childhood would kill him every minute of every day, and the memories stuck to his heart like glue. In his hand he held a leather booklet, filled with rhymes and metaphors, but they had never been read in a the ten years Peter started them. His only friend, Helen, had read one of his stories.

It’s not like being an adult and escaping his parent’s crazy religion was any better. He struggled to get a job, and when he finally found one working at Burger King, he was fired after a week.

Someone screamed below, obviously spotting Peter’s shaking figure.

“Don’t jump!” another person screamed.

“Jump!” an old man in a suit obviously lacking excitement in his life, yelled.

Peter sucked his breath in, and rushed it back out of his mouth. His bare foot stepped into air, and he felt a his stomach swirl. The sidewalk was in his vision only once, then his vision went black.