Carl doesn't appear to quite know what to do with what I just told him. His look isn't quite skeptical, but still...Questioning? For me this can be a critical juncture in any conversation. Especially with someone new, but even worse, with someone you have known for quite a while, and we have had plenty of time to build the kind of mutual illusion that makes any friendship sustainable. But with Carl, this is a luxury I am not going to allow myself. He has to know me, in all my naked and pale vulnerability, just as he has exposed to me already his inner soul. We may never see each other again once I am ready to leave this magical house, or we could become lifelong friends, partners even who can't go a single day without talking or at least writing to each other.
"Russell, as he lay dying, was being haunted by demons. I could see them. If you have seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies, the orcs, well, they were like orcs but more frightening. I began to quietly pray and that is when I went into a trance. Then they were all gone and there was my dad, all clad in shining white. He looked at me and smiled so sweetly. And that's when I knew. Following my shift, I went straight to his house. Even though I had lived in my own apartment for several years already, I still had a key to the family home. I went in through the back door, and there he was, slumped over the kitchen table. He must have already been dead a couple of hours."
"That is really amazing", Carl says. "I've heard of this, but you're the first person who has actually told me about it."
"That was just the beginning of the downward spiral that brought me here to your house", say I.
No comments:
Post a Comment