camicazy

heave n hellp aradise

'Hell is being defenceless when someone is pointing a
pistol at you and telling you he's doing it because he
loves you. Hell is suffering. Having a bad conscience.
Being bored. Listening to lies. Losing your freedom...'

====

man suspected of something. trapped in a bus station.
police closes in.

man panicks. grabs a four-year-old kid. lifts kid. kid
starts crying. man has an ice pick in his hand.

police closes in. man holds kid hostage. presses ice pick
to the back of child's neck.

2 hours pass. police has still not done anything. man still
has kid on one hand, ice pick still against the child's
neck.

ice pick slowly sinks in the flesh. blood trickles. kid
starts screaming. child's hand rushes up to grab the man's
hand, silently begging him to take the ice pick out.

ice pick sinks in even deeper. kid's screaming grows
louder. becomes wails. blood comes out. man begins stabbing
the child from the back.

police force panicks. begins shooting. hits man. child
takes in four bullets.

child dies. man falls.

man on the ground, bleeding. police comes to him and
continues to shoot him. man dies.

overkill. police force is not punished. police force is
sent back to training.

====

'It struck him that paradise was a state of innocence.
Being unaware of evil. The absence of fear. He could only
think of negative definitions. Paradise was the presence of
God, of course, and hence the absence of death. Therefore
paradise was a delusion.'

====

gracia burnham, wearing a black sweatshirt and gray trainer
pants, sat slumped on the forest floor beside a hammock
amid heavy rain, crying silently beside her dead husband,
martin burnham.

'martin lay prone beside her,' army scout ranger rodelio
tuazon told the agence france presse beside his hospital
bed here.

'she knew he was dead.'

martin had apparently tried to protect his wife up to the
last.

according to the account of another soldier, when troops
reached them on friday afternoon, martin's bullet-covered
body was 'covering' gracia.

'he was determined to keep gracia alive.'

the burnhams were celebrating their 18th wedding
anniversary when they were abducted with several others on
may 27, 2001. all the other hostages were released after
reportedly paying huge ransoms. two hostages were beheaded,
one of them an american.

====

'He could feel the apprehension sneaking up on him. Where
will I run to? But so long as he was here, so long as he
was with her, so long as he could hear her breath and cling
to her body, he remained, he was still alive and had one
certainty: her. He could touch her, feel her closeness, and
that awoke in him a sense of blissfulness and peace. He put
his arms around her drew her to him, kissing her, his lips
weary and dry. I love you. Don't leave me! Stay with me!'

====

heaven, hell, paradise
where's your soul to go?
into heaven, into hell
just like so.

====

'Hell is fear, it struck him. And paradise is the absence
of fear, the certainty of safety. The certainty of loyalty.
That was why paradise was a delusion.'

====

death is everywhere.
heaven is eternal joy.
hell, eternal suffering.
paradise, eternal bliss.
all of them, eternal certainty.

====

'He felt his bleeding slow. He knew they were touching each
other for the last time. This was the last time he would
say those words to her. She was leaving. She didn't need
his protection or his love. She didn't need his return or
his sacrifice. She was leaving like the rest, like
everything. It was impossible to hold on to things, it was
impossible to return. Nothing could be returned, that was
the only certainty, the chilling, depressing certainty that
everything would pass.'

Heaven, Hell, Paradise
Ivan Klima

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