Dare The Devil
“I prophesy
disaster and then I count the cost...
I shine but,
shining, dying,
I know that I
am almost lost
On the table
lies blank paper / my tower is built on stone /
I only have
blunt scissors / I only have the bluntest home...
I’ve been
the witness, and the seal of death
Lingers in the
molten wax that is my head
When you see
the wrecks of sailing ship spars sinking low
You’ll begin
to wonder if the points of all the ancient myths
are solemnly
directed straight at you...”
----Van Der Graff
Generator, A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
“Text here.”
That is my note to myself that this is where my chapter
begins. And the story ends.
Though, of course, no story ever ends.
Life is the endless and eternal parade, without beginning or end, and all
we as authors and artists do is decide when to turn the cameras off.
But the parade continues.
Drex became a Hollywood special effects man.
We’ve never spoken of the two very odd and oh, so very different
paddleball games.
Richard and I drifted apart. I heard a rumor that he was some rich engineer, and it
wouldn’t surprise me, but after my resurrection and Richard was so adamant
that God doesn’t exist, well, the truth is we didn’t drift apart, I told him
I never wanted to talk to him again.
David, the first to wear the Face, remembers nothing of
that day. The few times I’ve
brought it up he thinks I’m kidding. We
remain best of friends.
If Peter Krenic even ever existed, Sam could find no trace
of him anywhere.
Lori and Sam met for a reunion of sorts nine years after
the Final Communion. They talked of
marriages and divorces, Lori’s son, and music and pianos and God and many
things. But none of the events of
the summer of 76 were ever mentioned.
Sam called Debbie McIntyre shortly after the shower
incident. She refused to talk, and
hung-up after less than a minute. “Take
what I say in a different way, and it’s easy to say that this is all
confusion.”
And sometimes, just every now and then, in a moment of
weakness, when the world seems particularly sad or gray or empty, I wonder, just
in passing, if for only the briefest time, just what really would have happened
if I had believed the Voice, and had done what I was told…
But no…best not even think it…
For surely that way madness lies.
