The Festival of Earthly Delights by Matt Dojny

Author:Matt Dojny
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Festival of Earthly Delights
ISBN: 9781936873746
Publisher: Dzanc Books
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

2:24 AM

Cursed. Cursed. Cursed.

Curselifter.

April 7

5:01 PM

Dear Hap:

This morning, when I went to the Faculty of Gemology, Mr. Yul looked me up and down and said, “Mr. Darrow, my intention is not to insult you, but I must observe that you do not look at all well. Your gills are veritably green.”

I touched my fingers to my neck. “I guess I haven’t been sleeping very well lately.”

“You are an insomniac?”

“Sort of.”

“And do you have a theory as to the source of this disruption?”

I thought about telling Mr. Yul about the Night Visitor, but decided it would sound too crazy. And besides, the Night Visitor isn’t the main thing keeping me awake nowadays—it’s Shiney. I lie in bed for half the night, reviewing every interaction I’ve ever had with her, replaying our conversations in my mind, obsessively sorting through these memories the same way I used to go through my comic book collection. Last night I had a dream that Shiney and I were in the Pride: her face was covered with striped yellow fur, and I wore a shirt made of the same fur. I was kissing her, and it seemed as real as anything in real life. Then I awoke with a start, and never managed to fall back to sleep.

“Maybe I’m still jet-lagged,” I told Mr. Yul.

“Sometimes,” he said, “the mind races.” He looked at my face searchingly. “You have the visage of a man with a mind that is untamed.”

“That’s probably true.”

“Mr. Boyd Darrow, may I say that you have a manner of familiarity that brings me contentment. I feel that I have a knowledge of your heart in a certain manner—as if, perhaps, I knew you, Boyd Darrow, in a previous time. There are several in this town whom I feel such a kinship with. The moment I was introduced to you, I understood you to be part of this cast of characters that have been drawn to Mai Mor—characters that are playing and re-playing out relationships and patterns that have been established hundreds and thousands of years previously.” He frowned and winked at me. “Have you ever practiced any forms of contemplative meditation?”

“Not really,” I said. “I read an article about it once in Newsweek.”

“If you were to begin a practice, you would develop a greater sensitivity to these past-life scenarios. I think you would also improve your sleeping habits. It is a helpful thing to have an awareness of the ever-present moment that we exist in—‘every Moment has a Couch of gold for soft repose,’ to paraphrase Blake, the poet—and understanding that, with every moment of our existence, we may cease the passage of time with this awareness, seizing command of our destinies. Every passing second is an opportunity to begin anew.” Mr. Yul went over to the bookshelf and removed a book. “Here,” he said, handing it to me. “Allow me to present a gift from myself to you.”

The book he gave me was Suitable Exercises Pertaining to the Concentration of Meditation, written by his brother, P.

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