Shinra Vignettes
Palmer
By Pip Malloy
Bumbler
Lardo
Fatso
Incompetent
Stupid
Little
Idiot.
When they asked me what I would do with a million gil, back in elementary school, they laughed, because I told them I'd go to the stars. They laughed, and patted my head, and told me not to chew on my pencil and GOD DAMN IT, don't eat so much.
They did that a lot.
But I knew I'd fly to those stars. I'd see them one day, and every night I could, I'd crawl out my window to watch them wink and dance for me, prettier than the women daddy snuck out to see at the clubs, prettier than the boys mama brought home. They were kinder too, Orion never laughed when I told him my dreams about being one of them, and Cassiopeia just smiled serenely when I told her I too had to sit on a crooked throne. At school, I was always in the corner, with the dunce hat on. But I knew.
I knew.
The sought to humiliate me, but I could still see the stars through the window, through the sunshine and the clouds. I could see the moon and heard her calling for me, and in spirit, I never left her. I could still hear, even locked in my mother's room, even when daddy broke both my hands because I ate too much. I could still hear them, hear her, and I was okay. Because I knew, eventually, I would be up there with them, and then I would be the one smiling serenely and laughing down at them.
I laugh now.
You see, you see, they tried to kill me. They tried to put me in the ground where I couldn't see my stars, where I couldn't hear the moon. They tried, but my friends came to my rescue. The great virgin, Virgo picked me up and set me on Sagittarius's back, Leo roared a welcome as Cancer led us back to the sky. I shed my old body, and the poet came out, the warrior mage and the thief, that fat form that was never me fell back to earth, that stupid boy, that stupid dreamer boy with tattered hands, he was buried.
But not me.
They laughed.
But now I can smile serenely, and point my bow at them.
I send meteors to them, I tilt the Little and Big Dippers so it shall rain down the stars on the other dreamers like myself. They too, shall reside in the heavens.
And now we laugh.