NO TE DUERMAS, the judge said. How long will it take? Hasta siete horas. So he went back to bed.
He started to see images of a kind of pillar of purple light, flashing in a void delimited by a rectangular prism, an infinitude of time with limits—in other words, an eternity, strobing, from one eternity to the next… He knew he must be falling asleep, so he woke himself up. It had only been one hour so far.
His ID card had his name as Setecientos but he executed his signature as 7??. He was saying something about leaving, or almost leaving the body, seeing himself as if from a distance, seeing it all like light or mist—almost, but not quite. Siete looked more and more steadily into his distant eyes and almost saw that place from where he was almost seen...This is for you, the man said, giving him a $21 bill stamped with a stamp that said answer the phone in a discrete handshake then leaving through an emergency exit. Siete converted the money into casino chips and bet them on the blackjack table, as he assumed he was meant to do. Eventually at $333 he put down $222 and was dealt a 3 and a 7 while the dealer showed an ace. Unsure of his next move, he received a phone call from someone he did not recognize, listed only as Setenta, who, when he cautiously answered, whispered two words as if far away. So he doubled down and pulled an ace, while the dealer turned his first card over to find it was a 12. The girl on the phone giggled then hung up. The dealer underwent the convulsions of an insane man—or not quite insane—twisting his gaze into all corners of the decahedral room; the emergency alarm suddenly, or finally, went off. But the hilarity and agony were not of anyone other than him, they did not occur except within him. And just then he saw himself as though from a distance, through a bright mist, or from a place that existed of a lighter kind of mist, still gray; only just then, he knew the depths into which the eyes must peer, and those other depths out of which all sound barely escapes.
—that tattoo of the virgin on your thigh is ironic
—de donde vienes?
—im coming from the casino right now i just made $1000 at blackjack
—ah ya veo
—eres muy linda
—eres muy lindo tambien
—this is something i wrote its called Magnetron: How Does It Work? i have also translated it as Magetron: como funciona? and Magnetron: comment ca marche?
—do the names and numbers mean something
—the word is metaphorescence
—does that mean the essence of metaphor
—it means you think they are only metaphor
—i pretend i understand
—do you like pool
—i never played because my hands are always shaking
—why are you always shaking hands
—i mean i have essential tremor
—what makes it essential
—huh
—time is of the essence
—de que musica escuchas?
—Dance Music of Sorrow
—that isnt real
—how would you know
—i dont
—how would you know you dont know if you dont
—i dont know
—is your address still at 0000 disorder dr
—how did you know
—because at midnight we will forget what we know
—i dont believe ,idmuhrt ug hhh mninkd ln hjf byget
sorry my hands were shaking
—estamos en desacuerdo
what is the name of the moon of pluto unsure is there more than one then a passageway black and white tiles to stairs that went down into hell M asked where is the ghost panther it's a yes or no question your hands are cold knocked over purple glass snowglobe all that was left was a little crucifix $1000 you break it you buy it she said I can't wait 10 years to get married on her back someone in corner of room couldn't breathe
Found Out woke up and found his wife Marisa next to him in the dark. He tried to kiss her neck but he spat out blood so he turned on the light. Her throat was slit. He called his best friend See It Bigger III to help put her in the freezer. See It cried because she used to cheat with him in her car. He called the police later and they found Found on his security shift and took him to jail. He said he didn't do it. His attorney Marissa believed him. I'll get you Out, she said. Thank you, he said. She had a black bob and baby bangs and just graduated law school. I want to fuck you, she said. But you have to keep your eyes closed. Fine, he said. But when she tried to give him a hickey he opened his eyes, and she cut his throat with a pen knife.
Arthur and I were born in the same hospital. He asked me if I knew which room exactly I was born in. He sipped his cheap coffee and put a song on the jukebox called "Palingenesis." I ate a certain nightshade flower and fell asleep but when I fell asleep I woke up. I located an 8mm tape supposed to contain footage of my birth and watched it in the viewfinder of a camera. It started at the end so I rewound it. I saw ashes put into an incinerator and come out as a heart. I saw price tags removed from the arms, legs, torso, then the limbs rejoined and the organs replaced. I watched the body being put back into the backseat of a car, and a bullet leaving the head. I stood up and walked backwards out of the car. It didn't take long to get to the start. But it was impossible to watch because of distortion. "After your death you will be what you were before your birth," Arthur said. So I fastforwarded through to the end again...until it faded out and there was black for a long period. Then there was static; a hospital came into view, a door, a number.
I had heard that "Idiot" Lodger killed himself after he shot up the school.
I bought an 8mm camcorder that had an old tape already in it.
It was footage of our school, as if to document a regular day, from first bell to last.
I used the camera to film Francine getting fucked on the classroom desk.
She called me while she was at the homecoming game. Some anon was blackmailing her.
"He has the videos of me. He's gonna leak them to the whole school if I don't fuck him. How the fuck does he have them?"
I was in the car with Danielle in the parking lot. She was gagging. "This can't be real," I said.
"He said to meet him here and not bring anyone. He said to look for the man with no shadow. He said his name is 'Idiot.'"
The phone disconnected. "Who are you talking to?" said Danielle, wiping her mouth.
Said Speak and Wasnt There asked Cheiro to analyze their synastry. He was gazing at their chart when Cheiro suddenly asked them a question.
--What do YOU two think those lights were?
--I heard voices that night way up in the sky as if from a helicopter.
--I heard that too, what was it they were saying?
--"DIE"...?
--"I found a single die"?
--But do either of you remember what really happened that night?
Neither of them remembered.
--Does it have something to do with Emiliano Name?
--Emilia No Name?
--You were cut in two.
As they looked at each other finally, without blinking or turning, Wasnt disappeared; she wasn't there. In marriage her name was Not Spoken. (He started to feel nauseous, as she dissolved into his bloodstream.)
--Was there someone there or wasn't there? There was wasn't there?
--It is as you Said.
"You were in my dream last night," Apple Aces said.
(Whenever I think of your name I think of someone else but I can't remember who, Read Ehuumaay thought.)
"You went inside a van, exchanged something with someone, then walked into a mortuary. What did you buy?"
"There was no transaction."
"You must be lying. Anyway you came back out of the chapel with a girl, whose name sounded like mine but wasn't me. 'I'm one day too late,' I thought. Because I died only a day after the other girl died."
(Now I remember--) "Her name was Ana Stasis, wasn't it?"
"I don't get it."
"This came in the mail today." He showed her an envelope that said "READ" on the outside and contained a christmas card. "Do you know anything about this?"
"No..."
" I can't tell if it's addressed to me, or if it's saying, 'READ this.' Either way it doesn't make sense, because no one calls me that except you, and also because the handwriting in it is literally unreadable."
She looked at the note as if she could read it. "Is there a return address?"
"It came from the county jail."
"I've been getting phone calls from there. Several every day from different inmates. I can never understand what they're saying, I can't stop them and I don't know how they got my number. No one even has my number except you."
"I lost my phonebook recently."
"What the hell is going on here?"
"I haven't slept for 66 hours."
"Why?"
"Because I rolled a Midnight."
"Against who?"
"Dead Crow, the man in the van."
"And what about me?"
"Snake Eyes."
She doubled over in pain and shut her eyes, for ever. Ehuumaay was finally alone; the star on the tree lit up.
don't want to say?" He tried to torch her hair with a match but the flame died in the depth of her mouth. There was a third flash from the outside which was constant this time, and she disappeared in the light; the house was engulfed in the sun.