THE LINK WEAKENS

In the back corner where Thole makes room for used tools, used wire, second-hand nails, even used books, there is a book entitled “Stress Holds for the Neophyte”.  Most everyone who makes it to the far wall re-sale table thumbs through it.  Picture upon picture, and sometimes drawings, of people, parts bent the wrong way, a road map to control, dominance, punishment.  No one reads the smattering of text on the bottoms and sides of pages.  But we speculate amongst ourselves who might have bought it new, abandoned it – before or after practice – here.  We look for need in faces.

 

THE WEIGHT OF MARRIAGE

My wife was not abducted – she went willingly with the oboists.  For a moment, the notes they were hurling formed the mathematics of music, and she began to dance.  I had not known her to dance before.  Into their clutch she danced, and, as the music fell snarling into disassociated whines, she continued to dance, the center of their affront.  I am going as quickly as I can to salvage from the back of my closet my oboe.  If I can catch them before town limits, it will not be a fair fight, but I have matrimony on my side.

TOLERANCE

We founded our town at the end of the earth.  Not too close, as no one wants to slip into the abyss – but close enough that tour guides can ferry the curious to the edge, travel time justifying the price of a ticket.  Our local economy centers around it, with earth-end hotels, restaurants, and souvenir stands.  Visitors are amazed they can stand at the lip, return to town to exchange experiences at an ordinary coffee shop.  Occasionally, a crowd believing the earth is round blows in.  We don’t argue.  They stay in our hotels, we let them be in error.

UNITY

There is an island in the center of the river where the River People plot against us.  We cannot guess what evil taunts and challenges they are developing for us.  Town Council is always thwarting one plot or another.  Citizens have been briefly abducted by River denizens, come back to town with horrid description of the River People’s lack of humanity.  We are hard pressed to find a logic to their designs.  What we know is that they are in every way counter to ourselves.  When out of-towners observe we have no river and no island, we explain our vigilance.