If streets could please, then please with ease, say yes. I would be pleased to be pleased by the streets...
But not yet.
Clippety Clop
Hear that sound?
CLIP CLOP
Whose around?
O.
Just me and my thoughts.
Better not linger.
I have had my drink of vinegar so it's on with the boots and the coat and out into the race. Better quicken my pace, time to face what I have to face.
Onwards and onwards.
It was late.
The city was looking pretty - a desert bathed in dreams. Its dreams were all crumbling stone and tangled wire kissed by the moon. A forest of desire warped by work and dying quickly with the slow and meaningless caress of entropy.
I like to walk at night - out of sight.
It was my way.
No one to get in the way...
Except a friend or two...
CLIP CLOP
The night was the place for me to meet the people I actually liked.
So I turned a corner, following the ways of the dreaming desert.
And there was a shop home to dirt and memories.
And old Richard Banks, or just Rich for short. He would have invited me in if he needed to. I closed the door and sat on the stool. He offered me a glass of vinegar while eating his rice.
'Fine night for the moon,' said he. 'The old dream is looking fine tonight. I am glad to have these old walls behind and around me. Some of the homeless lads used a table they had stolen to ram a shop open a little ways down the road. Stole all the bread and beer!'
I heard his story out and chuckled grimly.
'Or they could just walk in through the door like me,' said I in the darkest voice I could muster.
'O I. And steal what exactly?' Rich chuckled in return. 'Anyway. Want some rice?'
I told him I liked to keep my stomach clear - silent guts kept things in shape for the vinegar to do its thing better. 'I will have a smoke though if you are offering.'
'Got work tomorrow?'
'Never do,' said I.
'Six hours till the sun beats the moon down!'
'I don't care about that,' said I. 'I always sleep when the sun is up. I haven't seen her glowing corpulent globe in years. Not since I lost the job at the docks - since then its been Joy paper and vinegar for me! And let me tell you Joy has swallowed a lot of paper lately, and I have certainly been swallowing a lot of vinegar too.'
'Ah! I walked passed your place two days ago, I think it was. So that is what you were doing? I heard a violent sound - the sound of thundering and drumming,' said Rich.
'My fingers are forever bleeding,' I replied. 'My plan was to write my way out of the dream. But now I write because I have to - the vinegar would eat my mind if my bloody fingers did not go beat beat beat all night through.'
'How is the work going?'
'Been writing about an odd thing - something that has been happening to me lately. I don't know if it is a dream or not - even though I do dream a lot. I blame the vinegar for that,' said I. 'I woke up once in the scorching heat of the sun sweating like an old soldier marching to war. Felt as weary as one too!'
'You told me you had never seen her corpulent face not since the dock days?' said Rich pointing out my folly.
I chuckled and juggled the stones in my belly with a glass of vinegar. 'I felt her anger that's all - my blinds were drawn. Nightmares are worse when you have them during the day, when you wake up in all the heat - when you hear the folks in the streets and kids playing and the dogs howling... O the noise! The noise. The heat. What a stew! Make for the most potent nightmares what say you?'
'Don't drink vinegar. That is what I say to you. So you are writing about your nightmares then?'
'I think so.'
'You either know or not. You can't have it both ways.'
CLIP CLOP
'One nightmare in particular,' said I. 'A true nightmare. A horse. It walks the streets and watches me as I sleep. A horse.'
'Sounds pretty darn creepy to me,' Rich replied. 'Maybe you should get some sleep.'
'If only I could! But sleep is for the mellow man. The vinegared man can never sleep - he can only dream and then dream of nightmares. Thanks for the drink. Good day to you Rich.'
CLIP CLOP
I spent the rest of that night spilling more blood on the keys.
And before the corpulent orb could show her glowing face I dived under the sheets.
All day I could not sleep.
It's eyes were watching me...
It was the horse!
At night I tried to write about it again, but the words would not step up.
There was no vinegar - all empty bottles about the feet of my bed.
So I chose instead to take out my coat, and my boats, and my old halloween mask...
The mask of a horse.
And dressed in such a way I crossed the broken dream of man till I reached the shop of Richard Banks, and I walked right in on him and he leapt from his chair screaming, throwing his drink and his rice into the air!
'Gave you I fright did I Rich? Like how I am dressed? Like my face?' said I to the frightened man cowering behind the counter. 'Ha! And to think I did all of that without being drunk!'
I took off the mask and laughed at him.
The wonders of sobriety!
Indeed my life must be improving!
That night I was a better man.
If streets could please then say yes o please, with ease, let them please.
(Remember! All spelling errors and grammatical mistakes are intentional - the author 😆)
For more adventures set in the town of Fenwick check out:
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Also take a look at:
My Games
Play Give 'em Hell!
Play Elfin Quest
Play Witches Brew
Play A King For A Day
Also take a look at:
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