The Things You Left by Raki Kopernik

Author:Raki Kopernik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, love, queer, short stories, jewish, unsolicited press, raki kopernik, the things you left
Publisher: Unsolicited Press

There's a place you can go in the winter, when it's too cold to go outside or when you hit a spring storm, full of underground tunnels and above-ground glass walkways. The gravity there is different and if your timing is right, you can find younger selves of celebrities drinking beer, like Footloose and Quicksilver Kevin Bacon.

I was riding my bike uphill to the north. A spring breeze tangling my hair and the sun baking my face, when, in a turn of events, I hit a snowstorm. Biking uphill in the snow. These things happen. Sometimes it's better to choose south.

When I hit the storm, I turned my bike handlebars sharp to the right and, at that moment, found an entry point. It's not hard to find a way in, you just have to know it's where you want to go. I leaned my bike against a dark interior wall and started walking. I didn't know where I wanted to go, but I didn't not know. I was just going, following the path toward the lights and the people noise. I found them around the first corner.

Younger Kevin and some other younger-self famous guy I knew I should recognize but didn't. They were drinking beers and talking. Younger Kevin winked and smiled at me and I felt my face turn hot. I kept walking. I walked down the dark path, alone and quiet breathing in the musky air that dwells in tight cave-like places. I walked without expectation, but I knew something would happen as the noise grew louder and the lights brighter. What I found around the next corner I would not have anticipated.

A huge glass ceiling under which was the biggest bar I've ever seen. It looked like a mall, though no one was shopping and there were no stores. Just people drinking at tables in the middle and around the edges, all lined with bars. A mall, an airport, a fishbowl. I was overwhelmed. I scanned the place right to left, left to right, right to left again, up and down, then turned on my heals and walked back down the narrow path toward younger Kevin Bacon. The quiet path wrapped my body and made me breathe harder. I tried to walk past them without looking, so they wouldn't think I was noticing them. They noticed me trying not to be noticed. Kevin didn't say anything out loud, but I heard him, in my head, telling me to turn around. When I turned, he wasn't looking. I started walking back to the mall-bar and in a moment of confidence I said, I'm just going to get a beer. Younger Kevin said, yeah do it.

I took that to mean I should get a beer and join them. So that was my plan.

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