The Dump - Part One

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Once upon a time, a young man named Andrew lived in a small house near a garbage dump at the edge of village.  As a child, he paid regular visits to this garbage dump, picking his way through the trash in hopes of finding something interesting.  It was amazing some of the stuff that people threw into the dump. 

His visits started innocently enough. Sometimes food was thrown away.  Now, Andrew had a big appetite.  He was often hungry, so he began to eat some of the food that he found.  Some of it was really disgusting, and Andrew quickly turned away from those things.   

But other things he found there were kind of interesting, exciting, and delicious.  And there was enough interest and excitement that he returned to the dump day after day, seeking the excitement he knew he would find there.. 

The main exciting thing he found at the dump was pictures. Those pictures filled his mind with all kinds of images, exciting images, disturbing images. The excitement kept him coming back for more. 

As he grew older, it was as if Andrew’s feet headed toward the garbage dump all by themselves, without him even telling them to go there.  He didn’t really think anything was seriously wrong with this habit of searching through the garbage for food and for those pictures.  After all, lots of other young men from the village did it.  Even so, he still always went alone.

Sickslug, the man in charge of the dump seemed pretty nice at first.  Whenever Andrew stopped by, Sickslug welcomed him. He was always ready with a particularly interesting picture, certain that Andrew would like it.  And Andrew almost always did like it.

After a while, Andrew began to notice that he was making more and more visits to the dump.  He just couldn’t seem to stop going there.  It was as if some irresistible force drew him to the stinking pile of trash over and over again. 

He also noticed that the food and especially the pictures Sickslug showed him didn’t give nearly as much excitement as they used to. Inevitably, Andrew had to search harder and longer to find something exciting to satisfy his appetite. 

Meanwhile, Andrew felt an empty place growing inside him that begged to be filled. In a rare honest moment, as he left the garbage dump still feeling empty, Andrew admitted to himself that the things he found there just didn’t satisfy him anymore … if they ever had.

One day, Andrew heard some incredible news. 

(To be continued ...)

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