The Filth: A New Round Robin for people to participate in.

[Dincrest]

Go figure, on this day last year I started the previous round robin.  So here's my annual round robin for 2007.  You know how it works, I start a story, someone adds to it, another person adds to it, etc.  

Here goes...

Her name was Eeyore.  

That's obviously not her real name, but the guys I shared a house with called her that because her long face, large front teeth, mousy hair, and distinctive laugh resembled a donkey to them.  The way her nostrils would flare up when she was angry and her frequent, often violent, temper tantrums when she didn't get her way only reaffirmed the whole donkey thing to them.  

I'm normally not into girls like Eeyore.  No guy in his right mind would be.  My housemates totally hated her, and I can't blame them.  But the truth is, I was gaga over this girl.  I thought she was the raddest thing alive because she could...

[Kiem]

...quiet a packed bar with just a few strokes of her guitar. Yeah, she was a wild hog out of control, but put that fine instrument into her hands and something in her changed. Mellowed out. And that side, that quiet, serene, almost nurturing side of her tugged at my soul.

She wasn't the most popular soloist doing the whole bar circuit, but she was probably the most honest one around. She wrote her own songs, obviously, which solo artist wouldn't, but her songs were every day things. None of that love crap emote moon tears most kids come up with these days. No, just ordinary things we take for granted. Things we don't even see and yet, she puts life into it.

I can't walk down the street without one of her songs just running through my head because a cat runs across the balconies in the back alley of some chinese restaurant. I can't...

[Dincrest]

help but wonder.  "Zenar," I says to myself, "what are you thinking?"  I started running straight back home and started talking to myself about Eeyore all night.  

My housemates had had enough.  "Get over that crazy bitch already!" they'd tell me.  "She's rude, crude, violent, completely psychotic, looks like a goddamned donkey, treats you like crap... ugh, it's not like she can do something truly amazing like lay golden eggs or fly like Superman.  What the hell do you see in her?"  They'd get so frustrated with me.  It wasn't uncommon for them to grab my shirt collar and shake me violently.  I knew they cared about me and my well-being, but Eeyore had a spell on me.  

I'd heard it all before, so I just brushed my teeth and went to bed.  It was Saturday so I slept in.  It must've been 2pm when I woke up.  I was greeted by my housemates' teasing.  "Rise and shine, sleeping beauty."  "It's aliiiiiiiiive!"  "Must've been a rough night, eh doggie?"  

"Yeah, it kinda was," I replied.  "I went to one of 'Eeyore's' shows, and..."

"Uhh, who's Eeyore?"  

"Real funny, guys.  She's that chick I'm going with that you all can't stand.  Violent temper, looks like a donkey.  God, why am I even bothering?"

"Sorry dude, but I don't remember anyone like that.  Do you guys?"  

Everyone shook their heads.  

"Okay, joke's over.  I know you're all pretending to forget her so that I might see that life's better without her."  

"Dude, what joke?  We're not pretending anything.  You sure you're alright."

I could tell they weren't clowning around.  I immediately called Eeyore on my cel phone.  I was met with the voice of a gruff and grumpy man that sounded nothing like anyone either me or Eeyore knew.  The number was on speed dial.  I know I had it right.  

I took a walk.  I asked around the local haunts.  It seemed no one knew about Eeyore.  It's as if she never existed.  But I knew she existed.  She was real to me, and only yesterday she was real to everyone else.  Why was it that I was the only one who could remember her?  Was I the one going crazy?  Or was I the one completely sane and everyone else was going crazy?  

That night there was a hailstorm.  There has never been a hailstorm around these parts before.  It was some freakish hail too, hail the size of Cocoa Puffs.  This hailstorm made me feel...