March 5, 2011:
Write a story or poem or create artwork that will illustrate the consequences of isolation.

One Is the Loneliest Number

"Gollum threw himself backwards, and grabbed as the hobbit flew over him, but too late: his hands snapped on thin air, and Bilbo, falling fair on his sturdy feet, sped off down the new tunnel..."

Missed! He'd missed his last chance!  He gave a shriek of despair.  "Precioussss!" and then "Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it! We hates it for ever!"*

Gollum collapsed against the cold stone wall of the tunnel, hissing and cursing, weeping and sobbing until he very nearly felt sick.  His precious was gone, gone, gone, gone!  How could Precious leave him? 

It had betrayed him, it had, betrayed him with the Baggins!  After all this time, all his time, devoting himself to the Precious, never speaking to anyone else, just him and Precious all alone together in the dark, hidden away from the Yellow Face and the White Face and the cold cruel stars, hidden away from others.  Just the two of them!

And now he was alone.

So cruel, the Baggins was, speaking to him and riddling with him, and all the while stealing away his lovely precious.  And he'd been kind to the Baggins! Why, he had not eaten him or throttled him!  He had spoken with him.  So nice it had seemed, to speak with another for a change, and to play at riddles, and to remember for a moment what it had been like, before the Precious, before he had been outcast.  But he should have known-- everybody always betrayed him!  Deagol had tried to keep his birthday present!  And Grandmother had sent him away!  The Baggins had cheated him!  And the Precious had left him!

"Alone...alone...alone...alone..."  His sobs quieted, dwindled away to a hiccuping "gollum, gollum," in his throat.  He was alone now, and in danger, for without the precious, how could he hide from the goblins?  How could he catch things to eat?  Who would he talk to without the Precious?

Outside.  The word came to him, and he shuddered.  To live, he would have to go Outside, away from the goblin tunnels and all the danger in them.  Outside, where the Yellow Face and the White Face could find him.  But he would be safe from goblins.  And he could find food there.  There were birdses.  And fishes.  And maybe eggses.  And other young small creatures, tender and juicy.

And maybe...

Maybe...

He could find the Baggins and get back his Precious, and he would find out just how tasty a Baggins was.

And then it would be him and his Precious, alone again...

*From The Hobbit, Chapter V, "Riddles In the Dark"