One sunny day in the summer, as the people of the world went to sleep, there were a few who had left behind things that left dark impacts to the desert that is the sands of time. These fellows drive recklessly, or hurt other children without thinking of their feelings, without empathy, or the ability to notice how they happened to feel at that particular moment. There is a person who visits these people, with no remorse at what they have done, and there is a person who helps these people, no matter what they have done, and there is a person who visits to show them their errors, so that others can sleep in peace at night. He is the sandman.

The first of our two visits is a girl, a very pretty girl, who ignores not just one person, but anyone “lesser” than her. She would walk the halls ignoring teachers always, but to do her work. Not to mention she tortured a very nice boy who happened to like her a considerable amount, until it interrupted his sleep, when people cannot sleep because of another’s torture… the sandman helps them… not by pouring sand in THEIR eyes, but by helping to change the actions of others. In a way the sandman puts sand in the eyes of evil. He is the Sandman, and her evil must be put to sleep for good. So let us take a trip to the home of the girl.

She lay up reading her gossip magazines, clearly giggling at the bad things rumored about others instead of sleeping herself, which is a bad mistake. You don’t want to see the sandman while you’re awake, otherwise the experience will be twice as life changing if you know what I mean.. The sands of the whispering wind battered her window, and she walked very quickly, and quietly to shut the shades as to block the sunlight so she could sleep in on the following Saturday, even bigger mistake. The sandman won’t let up until he gets what he needs.

The window blew open crashing into the outside wall, and at the same time the sands of the whispering winds flew into her room, and twirled in the air, and swirled to a stop above her bed, as she cowered in fear. Then she screamed, to no effect, her parents and everyone in 20 miles was sleeping for at least 24 hours… The sandman emerged from the sands, which spun into an hourglass, which grew upon her eyes, until she saw nothing but an hourglass, and a floating sandman.

Then the sandman turned to her, and lowered a half arrow shaped hood, which revealed a boy her age in full black, all black except the silver and gold linings of his wear. Sand converged to his hand, and a staff with an hourglass at the top appeared in it. The sand man unscrewed the cap, and sand floated towards the girl, increasingly faster, until it slammed her eyes, burning and hurting them for only a moment, until she was in the sandman’s sleep, only breakable by revelation, or an epiphany.

When the girl awoke she was in a hallway, the hall of her school, where she ignored every living soul as long as possible, except the sandman was at her side. The sandman doesn’t talk, but he can hear, see smell, and even fear those who are too evil for him to change. She looked at him petrified with fear, and the sandman laughed, as he removed his cloak, leaving only a head dress with a single golden colored eye, with a silver center. And his guilded robes shined and glistened in the florescent light.
“Why have you taken me here? And who are you?”

The sandman turned to her, and rolled his eye, as he unscrewed his hourglass, and sighed, as sand scratched a sentence into the lockers. *I am The SandMan, and you are an elitist*
“I am NOT an ELITEST!” The girl said as loud as possible, and the sandman turned to her, and reached behind his back, and pulled out a length of chain, of which he took, and held in the air, and as he looked at the girl, the chain floated, and instantly broke, churned, and formed the words… *Be Afraid Girl, Very Afraid*

The scene changed to a scene where the girl was walking towards a boy, who brought her chocolates, flowers, and a valentines card. She screamed, “UHHH, Get away you CREEP!” Followed by a jab in the nose, which clearly broke it, and walked away, completely uncaring that she had just permanently damaged, changing his appearance in that manner, for the rest of his life.

The sandman turned to the girl, and pointed at the boy bleeding and crawling, and moved his hand to an open palm, waving it in the air, clearly asking “what the hell was that for?” She just looked at herself. The scene changed again, and this time, it was a movie theater, where the same boy she hurt worked. When he said hi she ignored him, and when he asked what movie she would see, she just sat as silent as the sandman himself, and she left, ignoring him, and went home, and right when she got home, she blogged about his stupidity, and how he was stalking her, and as they went to the next scene, she even told the principal he was stalking her.

The sandman’s eye looked angrily at her, and then showed her the most saddening of images, and as she stared blankly as the boys parents, who had been informed he was a stalker, when he clearly was not, were destroying his self esteem, calling him a liar as he denied, and the sandman made a silent noise of deep satisfaction as her eyes began to water up, and burst into tears, and she had had her retribution, as well as an epiphany, with repention were both taking place.

“I only ignore people because when I was young my father left us, and he told my mom he loved her every day, and everybody else claims to be in love, while my dad just left with some other woman without thinking of me…”

“I don’t care about me anymore, I care about the people I hurt, they are better than me, they should be ignoring me…”

The sandman looked at her, and his eye gave her the “thanks, that’s what I needed to hear, but you got to live up to it, or ill come back darling…” Look. The sandman tapped his staff and exited the darkness that appeared through a doorway, and climbed the stairway of air before pointing and beckoning. Then his cloak, with it’s ancient gold markings, flew and cloaked him. He then turned into sand and flew away, and the following day watched her from a safe place, as she explained to the principal, the boy, and his parents, the predicament, and she without question, or permission, kissed the boy in front of his parents, and held him long. She cared about him all along, she just didn’t want to because of her past. The sandman made six people happy that day. The two new lovers, the parents, the principal. And a sandman happy to have brought it to them.


One for the Worse

The sandman couldn’t be mister nice guy for the next visit, he had to do things that would scar the target for life, but it has to be done, this visit is one for the worse. The boy was young, about 14, he was in a gang, and had killed 12 people the night of the sandman’s arrival. He never thought about the mothers, the fathers, the brothers, the sisters, the grandparents, and the friends of those he killed, only the colors they wore, and who they represented. Never did he stop to think of what he called the “scum’s” parents. Even worse, he was sound asleep, and hat eaten a big meal that night. He was proud of his works of misfortune…

Time for a visit from the sandman. The boy’s dream broke into a nightmare, of which he awoke from, only to find a hooded figure, clothed in dark clothing, all in black, looking at him. Without a thought bullets flew, and turned to sand before they left the barrel of his colt .45. The sandman’s beckoning hand stole the gun into his sand, and he returned it, hitting the boy in the eyes, putting the kid to the test.

The sandman showed him a street, with 12 dead kids his age, and pointed to each one, and then pointing to a mother, a father, a brother, and a younger sister, crying and mourning the death of an innocent bystander, without any colors of gangs on, who had been to a basketball game at the school down the street, where this kid who had been visited, had dropped out. So what he skipped a few grades, school wasn’t important, he made so much more money pulling a trigger, and walking away in the heart of NYC.

The boy then tried to stab the sand man, only to find his knife turned to sand that, handcuffed him, and the sandman turned and waved his finger, clearly stating that was a nono. The next scene was a funeral for a little girl, killed by a pipe bombing the boy had organized, it was unintended, but the little girl had lost her life thanks to him, and the sandman pointed to all the people, all of them crying, until he cried himself. The sandman’s smile cannot be seen, but it was there, he was getting close, and now he had to seal the deal.

He showed him the last thing anybody wants to see, he showed his parents saying they weren’t mad that he dropped out, just disappointed… Then he showed him the look on his face when he was in 3rd grade… “I can go to 7th grade??” He showed him his ACT and SAT scores, 35 composite, 35 reading, 36 science, 36 math, 35 grammar, 2400 sat, perfect score…

The boy looked at himself, and removed the bandana upon his head, the one around his jeans, the sweatshirt, and he cried and swore to quit, swore he knew what the others felt, and then the sandman carried him to sleep, and made sure the boy became the doctor who would save a rival gang leader’s life, and end the feud and the killings forever. The sandman saved lives tonight, the sandman saved many lives, and many grievances, it’ll take several years, but the doctor, the surgeon more so, will save many people suffering. The sandman continued his works of charity, that is, until the night things changed…

To Be Continued…