Pink

by a fourth floor resident

I gazed out the window and noticed that my neighbor was returning from his regular route. I must admit that he is the most peculiar man I’ve ever met. By my best guess, I would say he’s in his late 60’s. His thin gray hair was almost always disheveled. I know his real name is Greg but no one ever called him that. No one actually talked to him but they all referred to him as Pink. It must be because of the way he dressed – one pink item a day but never more. I could barely tell under the dim street light but it looked like he was wear pink shoes today. It was 2:58 AM and he was just returning from walking his dog. That was something he did every day between the hours of 2:00 AM and 3:00 AM without exception. In fact, he never left a minute late or returned a minute early. My other neighbor once joked that we’d all know the day Pink dies because he won’t walk his dog that night.

During the day, I rarely saw Pink. He didn’t own a car but occasionally, he would just leave his house and start walking. No one ever knew where he was headed or how he would get there. Sometimes, he wouldn’t return for hours even though there was nowhere to go. Something like that happened the very next day. I noticed he was gone as I was preparing to go to school. Of course, no one ever checked if he was home but we all knew he was on one of his excursions – he always closed his window shutters when he left. I remember that day very clearly because when I returned from school, I saw him sitting at the steps of my porch. As my bus pulled up to my driveway, he never took his eyes off of me. I just sat in my seat for a few seconds until my friend Roy jokingly reminded me that this was my stop. I got my things together and walked off of the bus as slowly as I could. I just didn’t want to have to face Pink – I’d never talked to him before.

As I approached my porch, I couldn’t tell if he was looking at me. I was staring down at my feet the whole time.

Pink’s voice made me shudder. “How was school?”

It was a deeper voice than I had expected. I stayed silent for a while and Pink repeated himself.

“Fine”, I said. I felt an intense desire to be somewhere else but it was as if I was frozen there, staring at the pale sidewalk.

“I have a secret to tell you”, said Pink.

Again, I didn’t answer.

“Look at me, kid. Didn’t you hear me? I said I have a secret to tell you.”

I didn’t know what to do so I obeyed his command. He grinned and motioned for me to get coser. Again, I followed his instructions. By now, I was starting to feel the weight of the book bag on my back. I leaned forward.

“All your base are belong to us.” Pink whispered.

I quickly backed away but my eyes never strayed from his face. He could obviously see the confusion in my eyes. Pink let out a short laugh and got up to leave. He passed by me without a word and walked toward his house. All I could think about was what he had just said to me: “All your base are belong to us.” I was so shaken I didn’t even notice that he wasn’t wearing anything pink that day.

That entire day, that strange line never left my mind. Subconsciously, I spent hours trying to decipher what it meant. I couldn’t sleep, do my homework, or even watch TV. Whenever I tried, the only thing that came to me was “All your base are belong to us.” Days passed and nothing changed. Every night, I hoped that I would have forgotten about all this the next morning. Still, nothing changed. Before I knew it, the phrase had consumed my every thought and action, it had cornered my free will, it owned me.

More and more, I began to understand why Pink was the way he was. I was terrified that I was headed down that same path. One day at school, I felt the need to seek help. After my last class ended, I waited or all the other students to leave. Soon, my teacher Mr. Greene and I were the only two left in the room. I approached her desk and asked if I could talk to her for a moment.

“What can I do for you?” he asked politely.

I had completely planned out what I was going to say to the very last detaiil. I was going to tell him my whole story and ask for his help but suddenly, I couldn’t. I just froze up and stared in to his eyes. He slowly leaned forward.

All I could do was whisper, “All your base are belong to us”.

Mr. Greene looked at me as if he expected me to say more. Instead, I snatched up my book bag and left the room.

The next day, Mr. Greene wasn’t in class. Again, I tried to tell my story to another teacher but the same thing happened again. It happened two more times before I finally realized what Pink had done. By telling people his “secret”, he held their attention in captivity forever. It was just another kind imprisonment. That night, I noticed that the phrase “All your base are belong to us” was starting to show up everywhere – magazines, the radio, the Internet, even the evening news. I was ready to confront him the next morning. I was going to bring an end to this madness.

I stayed up all night deciding what I would say to him. Somehow, I’d have to reverse all the damage that Pink had done. I was going to go to his house in the morning to make him explain everything. What does “All your base are belong to me” mean? Only the answer to that question could free me and everyone else that had been told the “secret”. 2:00 AM came around and I glanced out the window. The street was empty.