The Mundane Artist

I was supposed to be a little boy,  Who went to school,  Who frolicked around outdoors,  And who slept peacefully in the arms of my mama.  I wanted to grow up and be a doctor To help all these whimpering bodies To clear this stream of blood;  I am afraid.  I was asleep one night, peacefully.  I dreamed of a land where everyone smiled Where instead of a stream of blood,  There was a stream of pristine water.  I was asleep one night, happily.  I dreamed of mama and papa and me,  Having a hearty dinner,  That filled our stomachs and our faces, with a smile.  I was asleep one night, unknowing.  Then something fell, and I felt nothing.  Then something else fell, and,  Darkness.  *** I saw the sun, and I cried for my mama.  I saw the sky, and I cried for my papa.  Then I saw a man carrying me; But he wasn't my papa.  They lay me ...

"If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all . . . why then perhaps we must stand fast a little - even at the risk of being heroes." - Sir Thomas More, Act 2, A Man For All Seasons. 

She sat on the steps with an aesthetic book on her lap. She seemed to stare at nothingness. That's when it happened, he saw her. Her eyes seemed to be seeping into someones soul, trying to cleanse it. He laughed, and thought "How can someone clean a soul?" Pragmatic was his middle name. He didn't care. But there was something unsettling about this girl sitting on the steps, eyes as deep as the ocean, trying to reach a soul. He was mesmerised, but at the same time, his pragmatical self intruded, and he shrugged it off. The next day, he saw her again. This time he noticed her even more carefully. Glimmer in her eyes, and wonder on her face. She turned to him and smiled. But, he didn't smile back. He just turned his head away. Why did he feel intimidated? He turned back to see her, but she was gone.  That night he thought of her. She was so peculiar. "Could she be one of Miss Peregrine's peculiar children?" he laughed. He was so intimidated by ...