2021 riverrun Final PDF

The Lamps Burned With Midnight Oil
Ryan Casement
I
just meant to have a nap when I fell into the Threshold. I needed an hour of
sleep. Just one simple snooze. One shepherd’s kiss and off to an hour of
peace.
It’s not the same down there as it is here in our land of waking
thoughts, and broken people and rigid things. I can truly say this, never have I been
so glad as when I found that lamp-lit path for the first time. Never a more fitting
place has there been for a cloud cluttered mind. The burning lamps did nothing to
stir my mind as I was carried along the path. It isn’t a place where you can consider
others around you.
Now that I think about it, I may have lost my mind down there. An odd fellow
who looked like a cockroach skittered up to me when I got to my feet. I should
have screamed, run, pissed myself, normal things, even normal me things. And
when he offered me an inflatable ham sandwich with honey mustard for only
$12.99. Even with my unrested reality-addled brain, I probably should have said
something more than “No, I don’t like honey mustard,” or thought something more
than “No, I don’t like honey mustard.” The man nodded to me and scattered away.
He was definitely a cockroach; and I was definitely insane, down there at least.
Though I didn’t mind, not the least bit minded.
I should say, the path down there was like a chameleon, it’s got a mood,
tends to shape to it. The houses down the path are a different matter, they do what
they want, look how they want, open for who they want. Course, they liked me.
I remember the beach house, one of my favorites. I’ve opened the door to
Long Island, Cabo Luna, Mykonos, and Honolulu. I had dates with my favorite supermodels.
Lovely dates on sunny days in big places, loud places. I’ve had wines and
roses on the coast of Sicily, I’ve had coffee in the streets of Berlin, Tea-time on the
Great Wall. Did you know the skeletons in the American Museum of Natural History
are made of glass and papier-mâché? That the Fuyuki City bridge is 237 long steps
across? That you can climb down Mount Everest in just under an hour? I know all of
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