Taken from 'It's a Bird...' by Steven T. Seagle.


What the old man desired most was solitude.

He yearned to commit himself wholly to consideration of the great philosophical questions of his modern times.

But the world of his construction -- wife Lotte, children Ernst and Gretl -- were of great distraction to his ruminations.

And so the old man moved far away, without telling friends or family that he was leaving.

He took a menial job and earned money enough to subsist on while contemplating his metaphysical considerations.

But as his fellow workers came to know him, they began to speak pleasantries and invite him to social gatherings.

Angered, the old man relocated to a cramped, windowless storage room in the rear of the facility.

Far from the others, he was content once more... until a janitor found his hidden workplace and began to service it.

Troubled by this minor intrusion, the old man quit his job altogether.

Relieved of his burden of work, he pondered at home in sublime silence.

But gradually, he became aware of the noise of his upstairs neighbours.

The old man built an extra ceiling -- thick enough to eradicate all sounds of life above him.

Unfortunately, flailing trees in noisy winds beyond his walls soon proved equal interruptions.

The old man boarded over his windows.

Even so, there still persisted shadows of shuffling feet just beneath his door.

He sealed it off, first with bundled cloth, and eventually mortar.

The old man sat in blissful stillness... until the hum of electric lights overhead became as deafening as any intruding voice.

He shattered the bulbs with a hammer.

Lying in his bed, there arose the chirps of crickets in the walls.

The old man fumigated with a poison he found in his pantry.

The sealed apartment retained the fumes at full potency for many, many days and the insects eventually died.

Finally... silence, but the old man could no longer hear, see, read, or even think clearly.

But a great notion did occur to him in this moment.

A man without human contact is a man without aid, without hope, without life.

The old man called for those around him, but the fortress of his own making swallowed all sound.

He could no longer be heard, but he had finally found what he had so long sought...

...perfect lasting solitude.