empirion

As he opened his eyes, the blinding light shrank his pupils, forcing him to wince as if in pain. It seemed as if he'd only just started on the looming project, and already it was due by daylight. With his pulse quickening at the thought of being late, he renewed his work at a feverish pace.

"Fuckin' chemistry", he silently cursed. Madly flipping through the worn pages of his neighbor's inorganic chemistry textbook, it seemed as if he'd run headlong into a wall. The answer was nowhere to be seen.

"A-ha!" he erupted. "I haven't heard 'Hunting High and Low' in ages."

Continuing with his atomic scavenger hunt, he felt the soothing music of the Icelandic band. It was as if somewhere in the back of his consciousness, the little boy who used to listen to "Living a Boy's Adventure Tale" was consoling him.

"Obviously, we're not where we thought we would be at this age." The eerily mature child's voice seeped through the cracks in his concentration, forcing him to stop his work. With a blank stare, it seemed as if he was trying to mentally replay whatever it was he just thought...or heard.

"Take heart in knowing that your worth cannot be summed up by pen and paper", said the voice, fading in and out like a waivering radio transmission.

"What you see is not all there is."