YSTERKOEI

Taking back planet earth

Herman Blueberg lived in a place he often called home, a small farm just outside a small town with a big white church. Herman lived with his uncle and they often went to the big white church to humble themselves before the God they believed in. nothing spectacular, but they loved the atmosphere in that particular church and the reverend always had a story to tell.About five minutes walk from Herman’s home lived a family in a very big house, with very big salaries concealed in a very small world. There lived a girl called Sammie. Sammie could play the harmonica and played it well.This story is mostly about Sammie and Herman, how they made music down by the river they so often went to after school, and everything worth telling about them. This does not include things like soap opera love.
Part one.
Herman felt like dying, this was the second time today one of the teachers told him that they would like to talk to his parents about his miss behavior in class. He often thought about telling them that he lived with his uncle, but knew that they would not understand. The modern day teacher is a hard thing to sum up in one sentence, but the words stupid, naive and illiterate would definitely be part of that definition.The male teachers shouted a lot and he now had a method of coping with it; as the teacher started shouting, he would nod his head every few seconds and listen to music in his mind. After a while, the music became clearer and he could no longer hear the shear dumbness coming out of that wanabee politician’s mouth. Herman usually rewarded his teachers with good old-fashioned stink bomb. God, he loved the smell of class disruptionThe bell went, the teacher paused as if the bell stopped his being for the next 24 hours and Herman found himself at the end of yet another school day. He looked forward to a day well spent by the river he so often enjoyed. He had already told Sammie about his plans and she was going to meet him there.“Forgot my fishing gear, again!!” Sammie exclaimed as she opened her bag. She had just given her guitar to Herman so he could start tuning. To her surprise, her grandma packed extra food in for the day, even tough she did not even hint that she was going fishing. Herman wasn’t hungry. The wind had just picked up and the heat of the day started to fade away, and the sounds of Sammie’s harmonica reminded Hermann of the shear beauty of life. As always, he started communicating with his guitar, he wanted to put that very moment into music, just like I’m trying to put it into words. Anyway, after many notes was played, Herman found himself asleep. To Sammie time went by at an extremely fast pace, and Herman only woke up a few Hours later. The waking was like an explosion, and Herman felt like he had been sleeping for a thousand years. “Sammie, I… I had a dream, a very bad dream; it’s happening again, I saw the case.Sammie obviously did not know what was going on or what to do, but acted quickly. “What do you mean you saw the case?” she asked as if Herman had gone completely bonkers. “No time, we have to go see my uncle…”When they got to the farm, they found Uncle Johnny smoking his pipe at the front porch. He didn’t actually smoke, for he was too poor to by tobacco, but by putting his pipe in his mouth, he could remember the days of youth and smoking.Uncle Johnny was surprised to see the two children looking so exited, and in time, he realized they were not in a joyful at all. “What a shame” he thought, “children should be happy and healthy, not pale and moody” he quickly realized that the two teenagers would not appreciate his quirky remarks. “Uncle”, Herman exclaimed, “I saw the case, the dark case, I saw the graveyard, I…” Herman sunk his head into his hands, he stretched his eyes an opened his mouth in vain. No words could describe this feeling, No human, Herman felt, could contemplate this confusion.Uncle Johnny put down his beloved pipe and stroked his beard, he to, started to feel nauseous, but tried not to show it. Sammie, who came back to her senses, opened her mouth, “what in heavens name is going on?” Uncle Johnny came out of ether as he forgot she was standing there, but turned his attention to her nevertheless. “You see ah…” “Sammie” “Oh, yes, Sammie. Well, I don’t know how to put this, but I will try. You see, Herman here, has been haunted by awful dreams, awful dreams. Since the mere age of four, he has had dreams of people going past him in black cases. A graveyard scene usually followed this. In this floating case, he saw people, people he knew and loved. The next morning, they were found dead.” Sammie opened her mouth in shock, horror and disbelief. Trying to make sense out of this lunatic’s story, she asked, “like when?”“Like when his parents died in that car crash, He saw them floating by the night just before, when my wife died, Lucille, he saw her floating to the graveyard Two hours before the house burned down, and…Who did you see, Herman, who did you see?!?”Herman, who sat there like a corpse, shook his head, “no one, just the case.”To him this did not mean much, but one thing he knew, someone close to him, was going to die. “I think you two are imagining things,” Sammie said in order to shine the light on other options. “Yes...” the old man contemplated “he didn’t actually see someone this time, so… maybe, maybe it just another nightmare, we all have those sometimes,” Herman looked at the option, but hesitated still, someone was going to die, and it was his fault. Maybe it was a sign, a sign that someone could die, and that he had the chance to save that person. Herman felt alone. He felt the weight of death on his shoulder. “Dear God, why me…”Herman was dead.