Religions come and go and when the roman god Mithras lost all of his followers to Christianity he stood in silence in his orange palace in Zerzevan, like a lonely tower. He had passed from God to an antique heresy, all without noticing. Looking at his now empty square gardens, Mithras contemplated his irrelevancy with no more company than the plip plip plop of the water falling from the marble fountains. There was nobody to have the sacred dinner with anymore, so Mithras said to himself that he would stand like a statue and wait for new followers to wake up from the sleep of the salty earth.
But he could not wait for long because only after a few minutes an agent was in front of him pointing at a bunch of forms. "Your property has been embargoed due to your failure to pay the complete amount of your debts within the time notice". The agent explained "You are legally obliged to leave the premises of your former palace" How could this be? said Mithras. "Listen, I understand your position, but I do not make the rules, in 3 hours this place should be empty and I do not want to see you wandering around or I call the police, capici? Do not make it awkward for the both of us" said the agent.
Mithras was at his lowest. Like a licked candy on the floor. Only dirt got stuck to him. He had no money, and no future. His former followers provided him with everything before. But they were gone. Their faith in Mithras burned with the wind and only good christians remained. He was defeated and alone. A sad Mithras rode his white bull to the closest kiosk where he would look for work in the pages of a wet newspaper.
With no education or former work experience, Mithras ended up homeless. There are no gods among the homeless and on the third night of sleeping outside, the sky welcomed Mithras to the vagabond life with heavy rain. A forgotten god is a sad sight, but a wet forgotten god is worse that sad, it is pathetic. Only the glassy eyes of his loyal white bull kept Mithras's spirit up. The rain increased. But no shelter would take him or his bull.
Hidden in the dirt. A bit of hope appeared. Mithras saw a dog sleeping in a corner. Maybe he could get inside the dog's mind and live there for a while. A big fury hotel just for him and his bull he thought, he could use the time inside the dog to think about his next steps. With this goal in mind, Mithras focused all that remained from his godly powers on a single intention. Make a door into the dog's mind.
It is not easy getting inside a dog's mind. Mithras and his bull squeezed themselves between the thick wall of hairs. They travelled between dimensions unknown to us. They broke the dog walls. But they paid an entry ticket. Mithras and his bull stank of wet dog. That alchemist's mixture of old sock and animal made of cheese that only a wet dog can create. A disgusting smell but still makes one smile.
Mithras opened his eyes. A wide valley with rivers laid beneath. It was the dog's mind.
-Who are you?- Said a thunder voice coming from the sky.
- Why are you here? - said the voice, angrier
-I am an angel... - answered Mithras freaking out.
- I am an angel and god sent me and my bull to keep you company.
- Ohh , that is nice.. you can stay and talk with my friend then... he is not called Mithras, my friend is called Simko, Simko Henker - said the dog voice without noticing Mithras lies.
A yellow dog appeared next to Mithras. It was the same dog that spoke from the sky before. The yellow dog was just a body for the dog's consciousness. A costume to wear inside his own dreams.
Before Mithras could talk with the yellow dog, a new voice appeared from inside the dog... Help Help... Mithras looked for the voice and when he came closer to the source, he saw a man.. a man trapped inside a dog. The voice that talked came from a deep place.. like many layers of cardboard, but instead of cardboard, the man was trapped inside layers of dog dreams, dog dreams inside a sleeping dog, and inside the sleeping dog there was that man, a man trapped inside a dog.
How does a man ended up being trapped inside a dog? Mithras thought, and the voice answered immediately like it was reading his mind..
"How did I ended up caged here? Well normal men are not trapped inside dogs, only me. I am not a normal man though. I am not born out of a woman. I was dreamed by this dog. I did not exist but then one day this dog dreamed me and I was here. I was born old how I am today, knowing already things. I just woke up like this."
Mithras and his bull listened to the man the dog called Simko further.. the yellow dog didn't talk anymore though, but it waved its tail harder when it saw the man coming.
"Even though I came to this world in a strange way, I am a normal man in everything else, the dog dreamed me as a man, a normal man, a man like all other men. I have the body of a normal man, the thinking of a normal man, and the dreams, fears, and passions of all normal men."
The man told Mithras to follow him. The man ran away, moving across the body of the dog.. from the dog's tail to the dog's ears, up and down he goes, but always inside the dog.
The man stopped.
"I am only miserable because I can only exist inside this stupid dog's mind" said the man "Only when the dog dreams can I exist, when the dog is awake I disappear into a void. It is like sleeping without dreaming. I have only the dreams of a dog to live my life, and when I live I am not even free, i am trapped inside whatever the dog is dreaming."
"If the dog dreams we are in the kitchen, then I am with him in the kitchen. If the dog dreams I am giving him a walk inside a forest then it's just him and me in a sea of trees. If the dog dreams of trips to the beach we are on the beach. It does not matter what the dog dreams it is always just him or some other dogs, I am always alone, I am fed up with only existing inside this dog. I need to escape. I need to get away. I am so lonely".
Mithras nodded pretending he was listening carefully. He felt bad for the man but he did not want to make the dog angry. He liked living inside the dog and not being outside in the rain. If the dog kicked Mithras out, that was it, no coming back inside. So Mithras tried to ignore the man. But the man continued to talk bullshit, and cry and complain, and to tell Mithras, hey man you gotta get out of here, i need to escape, etc.
The man made the same speech twice, and then three, or four times, crying and screaming more every time.
At this point, Mithras was fed up. The man could rot in the dog as far as Mithras was concerned, But it was smarter to help him out, even if the dog got angry. Mithras needed to get rid of the man. So Mithras stood up and decided to fly and push Simko outside of the dog. Mithras approached the man and tried lifting him up. But the arms of Mithras could not hold the man. The arms went through him. It was all empty space butter. He could not touch the man. The man was a thin spiderweb made of air, floating inside the dog.
The man noticed Mithras's arms passing through his body. He became first frozen cold, but he quickly panicked. His heart knew help was not possible anymore, but he screamed. "Get me out, get me out!, Get me OUT, OUT, OUT! " the man screamed and cried.
- Do not cry.. Simko - said Mithras remembering the man's name - it will be ok..
- NO... NO.. , Do you even know how little dogs live compared to humans? I have no idea when this dog dreamed me! if he was a puppy then I could have something like 7 years left to live, but I am sure it is even less.. I will die, I will die, I do not know when but I will die. It will be too soon and I do not want to die inside this dog. I have much more to give. Take me out of this dog! I want to go out! I want to go out NOW!"
Mithras did not know how to take the man out of the dog, he tried to reason with him, but the man was too angry to listen. "Go to hell Mithras, and go fuck this dog with you"
Thinking back on how he was supposed to be an angel, Mithras remained calm and tried to give some wise advice.
"I know you are angry at this dog... " said Mithras, " but it is not too bad in here, it is dry, we have food ... perhaps you should be a bit grateful, at least this dog has dreamed you aware of the situation you are in. You understand what is happening and what your condition means. Even though you are trapped inside the dog you can see reality how it is. You are also free to do anything inside this dog. And you are not alone, you are with me. Imagine not knowing where you were. Imagine living a fake life, not knowing that you are inside a dog, talking with people that are not real but just mannequins created by the dog to entertain you. Imagine picking up a book and reading about a man trapped inside a dog and not knowing that it is not the man in the story that is trapped but you! that would be much worse!
But you are here, you know where you are and you know your situation, you are free to do what you want inside this reality, maybe there is a reason for you to be inside this dog, maybe..."
"No no, you are wrong! you want me to stay here forever, you are a moron and a liar Mithras and If you will not take me out of this dog I do not want to talk to you anymore, I hope you and your bull die"
The man became a red-faced man. He grabbed a big stick from the ground and thought <I could hit that bastard Mithras with this>. But the size of Mithras's bull made him feel like a coward again, so he focused his rage on the yellow dog. <Eat my dick, fucking dog, I will kill you, I do not care if it kills me>. The yellow dog was too fast, so the man started to hit the ground with the stick, hoping it could somehow hurt the dog. Mithras did not stay to see what happened next, He took his bull and left.
Outside in the rain, Mithras did not look back at the dog sleeping. The dog laid in a pile of old newspapers and slept like nothing had happened. Mithras did not see the dog again. But he picked up one of the newspapers from the dog's empty bed a few days later.While looking for jobs, Mithras read a small sentence on the backside of the newspaper: "In Bremen, Simko Henker's body has been found lifeless near the edge of the forest. A fall from a tree has been determined as the cause of death."
Mithras looked at his bull. Things were still clicking but the rest of the story was easy to put together. A yellow dog dreams of his death master every night. The memory of the master is angry at the dog. The dead man does not understand why he is trapped inside a dog. But the dog understands that the master is dead and the master can only live inside the dog as a memory. The dog does not care if the master gets angry, he is just happy to see him. The master abuses the dog, curses him. But the dog does not care. He just misses his master a lot and wants to keep him alive. So the dog dreams of him every night.
Mithras felt like a piece of shit. He was ashamed of lying to the dog. And ashamed of being of being just a crappy fake god. He knew he could not do what dog did to his master. No to anyone. not to his bull, not to his followers and not even himself. He told the dog he was an angel. What are angels and gods when there are things like dogs in the world? We are nothing against the holiness of dogs.
Mithras sighted and opened a a new page from the wet newspaper. Maybe this time he would find a job... perhaps in a big tech company or in a fancy french restaurant, a french restaurant with fancy tiny dishes served in tiny little plates, and prices that are the opposite of tiny. A place where you are busy dreaming about making more money, instead of being here, just dreaming about dogs that dream of men that dream about dogs.
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Outside in the rain, Mithras looked at the dog sleeping. The dog had made a bed from all the wet newspapers. In one of the pages, a little black advertising caught his eye. He came closer and read. "It is with great sadness that family and friends notify of the unfortunate passing of Simko Henker".
Mithras looked at his bull, and just as things started to click inside his brain, his bull talked. It was the first time Mithras bull talked back at Mithras. The bull spoke with his deep sweet voice:
"The man inside the dog can only live as a memory inside the dog. dog understands that his master is dead though. The dog dreams about the man every night though because he wants that his master to keep on living. He does not care how angry the man gets. Even if he is angry he is happy to see him. I do not think I would do the same for you.."
Mithras wanted to say something to his bull, but he did not know what to say, he looked at the newspaper again, two months had passed since Simko's death. He felt ashamed.. ashamed of having pretended to be an angel... What are angels and gods when there are things like dogs in the world? We are nothing against the holiness of dogs Mithras thought. Mithras sighted and opened a different page of the wet newspaper, maybe this time he would find a job... perhaps in a big tech company or in a fancy french restaurant, a french restaurant with fancy tiny dishes in tiny little plates, and prices that are the opposite of tiny. A place where you are busy dreaming about making more money, instead of being here, just dreaming about dogs that dream of men that dream about dogs.
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