Slap Out of It
In response to A Taste for Life’s Weekly challenge #5: Video prompt “What Comes Next”
It was March 27, 1996. Wilfried and Samuel had been friends for going on 35 years. They had met as young men at California Institute of the Arts whilst studying an applied arts degree.
It had been their dream to open a studio to showcase all their artwork to the upper echelons of Los Angeles society.
It seemed that their wish had come true. A mysterious figure dressed in all black arrived at their studio one day asking if they might show him around.
“Or course!” they exclaimed in unison, finding it near impossible to contain their excitement.
The mysterious figure was the first person of note to walk into their studio in 6 months since they had opened their doors. As you can imagine, their art was for them, and nobody else.
I mean, how could it be for anyone else. No-one came.
Wilfried asked the mysterious stranger “why are you wearing your sunglasses? It is pitch black outside.”
To which the mysterious man in black replied “I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can watch you breathe then weave your storylines.”
What an odd thing to say thought Wilfried.
Samuel ushered both Wilfried and the mysterious man over to their latest piece.
They were perched in front of a strange looking figure in a painting. It looked like a giant cockroach with fierce yellow eyes and jagged haggard teeth.
The man in black asked “where did you get this piece?”
“Well, we created it ourselves sir. Why do you ask?”
The strange man looked firmly in their direction and said nothing. Wilfried and Samuel looked at each other confused, and a little scared if they were to be honest with you.
Finally, the man in black turned and began to walk out of the studio.
“WAIT!” shouted Samuel as the man was about to leave. “You didn’t tell us your name! Why are you only interested in this one piece?”
The man in black turned as he exited and spoke. “If you would like to know the answer, come to the park, and meet me in front of the clock towers at 2 p.m. sharp.”
After his brisk exit the two men had agreed that they would meet him at the park. They had nothing else going on tomorrow. So, why not.
The next day they had arrived at the park an hour early as it was such a wonderful day. They wanted to paint in the open air with the wind at their necks and the sun beating upon their brows.
Just as they had used to all those years ago when they first met.
It had just turned 2pm and the clock tower began to ring. Yet, there was no sign of the mysterious stranger who had waltzed into their lives just the day before.
Suddenly, a flash as bright as the sun itself had the men covering their eyes as quickly as their hands could move to their faces.
When they opened their eyes, there was the mysterious man in black standing but a foot away.
“Thank you for coming” he said, looking around furiously as if he were looking for something, or someone.
“You asked my name last night. They call me Agent J. But in a former life my name was Will.”
Wilfried and Samuel felt suddenly at ease. Maybe this stranger wasn’t so strange after all.
“Why do they call you Agent…” but before Wilfried could finish his sentence the mysterious man pulled a curious looking contraption out of his blazer pocket.
It was silver and looked almost like a case that would hold an expensive Cuban. Except it had a red tinge at the top.
“I am sorry to have to do this gentlemen.” said Agent J. “But it is for your own safety. In 26 years’ time, when a Rock is slapped in front of the world, you shall be free.”
Agent J then clicked a button on his strange device, a bright red flash froze both Wilfried and Samuel.
They had not known it that day, but they would never leave that park. Nobody knew what had happened. Everybody just assumed the city had created statues of Artists for tourists to look at, and for pigeons to sit on.
Fast forward 26 years. The date is March 27, 2022. A glamorous, yet pointless exercise was taking place on television. It was the Oscars.
In front of a global audience a man named Will, who in a former life was known as Agent J, strode across the stage toward an unsuspecting victim. It was Chris Rock.
The world watched in amazement as Will slapped him with the kind of ferocity usually reserved only for his wife’s boyfriends.
Little did the world know, that only 3 blocks away, the world had regained two old souls.
Wilfried and Samuel sparked back to life. A rock had been slapped. It’s almost as if they had been “Slapped Out of It.”
