Saturday, February 6, 2016

Read 'Em and Weep


Every word rang true. They pulled the covers off his secrets with a cruel grace. Though he was alone, he felt eyes watching, eyes that now knew more than he wanted to reveal. How could these simple words work the magic that they did? The worst of it was the realization that someone had gotten here before him, had unearthed the treasure he had spent a lifetime searching for, and held it up for the world to see. He knew now that he was, in the stroke of a computer key, an also-ran. His days on the trail, hacking away at the branches that blocked his progress, the dreams that visited him carrying amends he needed to make, demons he needed to meet, sins for which to atone, had all been for naught. The story he thought would save him, he realized, was an old one, one that readers already knew. His hopes of salvation, of something that might redeem him, went up in so much smoke. It was with some relief that he turned away from the need to be special and took up the mantle of ordinary. Art had left him for a better deal, so he took up with Anonymity, who treated him well enough, maybe even learned over the years to love him.

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