Page 187 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 5 #2
P. 187
On the back of the abandoned factory,
dead ivy clung to the walls. Lure to
its death by the promise of the advent
of spring that was but a moment of
warmth in the heart of wynter, buds
intended to welcome spring perished.
feel the joy of the waterfall as it don't know what else to do. Yet, if I don't
bounds over the rocks in its way. I do something, I won't be able to focus on
can feel the worn tiredness of the the conversation with Jack and Jim. I have
rocks as they struggle against the just finished recounting the conversation
certain dismemberment they will suf- with Mark.
fer at the hands of the relentless I turn to Jack and ask him how I have
pursuit of happiness as the water changed over the time he has known me.
moves through eternity into the Ironically, we come back to my being an
present. empath. Jack tells Jim that I haven't always
I can look at ivy once alive as it prays been the person I now am. I am more
that when spring finds it, life will re- open. More openly empathic.
turn. I can suffer its tenuous grip on Jim finds this surprising. He mentions the
a wall that is falling away beneath it. incident in the orchard back in 2010 when
I am in the wall. I feel its death and I somehow connected missing isis with the
disintegration as though it were my sorrow of the trees in the presence of
own. Indeed, I am the wall. The ivy. The the coming of wynter. Not having heard the
cold, lifeless, ground on which I stand. I story before, I recount it to Jack. Jack
am. Here. Now. and I conclude that prior to 2010, I cre-
Silently. Still. ated in order to stop the pain, the grief,
A week has passed since my conversation the sadness from killing me. Now, I create
with Mark. It is Friday again. Friday's ritual because it is who I am. What I do. It is the
is tea with Jack Clemens. Jim Whiting often empath in me.
joins us, and he has today. Admittedly, I am "What was the name of the girl who was
distracted. Katie, who works at the coffee dying of cancer?" Jack asks..
shop, is upset. Not that we have spoken. "You mean Kaylyn?"
We don't need to. I feel it. I break away "Yes." For a moment, I don't see the rel-
from the conversation with Jack and Jim to evance of her to the conversation. And
tell her that I am here for her. Honestly, I then I do. I decide to let Jack take the
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