The door didn’t open.
It simply ceased to be.
One moment it was wood and iron,49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLnuj7gT6ZT
the next, a hole in the world through which meaning spilled sideways.
The thing that entered wasn’t a guest.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxGSb6Uqf1E
It wasn’t a thing.
It was hunger braided with memory.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXsMigKiVI
Shape wrapped in concept.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3RujYc8y0p
Its presence cracked the edges of the bottles, though they made no sound.
Even the fire shrank.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCxHyVre7Vo
Not in fear.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaWuwrYfOgh
But in reverence.
It did not move.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMWPDlWHCw
Movement implies direction.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUzl3AMRVVg
It arrived in all directions at once.
There was no voice.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡppRnAkWGLI
No words.
But I understood:
“You collect them.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVICsHESfJB
You keep what would be forgotten.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeR6byzaaJj
You hoard the echoes.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpqqzOcWOeD
Why?”
I didn’t answer with my mouth.
I thought of every guest.
The broken, the joyful, the unfinished.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFI1VgpWpVB
The ones who stayed. The ones who left half-healed.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6OLZt4rV5R
The ones no one else remembered.
I thought of the ledger.
I thought of the fire.
And I thought of the chair that is always empty but never alone.
The thing paused.
Or maybe the universe did.
Then, without form, it offered something.
A sound.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCqLTMeDWp
A glyph.49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZPGejaFfQh
A flavor that tasted like entropy and lullabies.
I did not drink it.
I bowed.
And I said:
“Not everything is meant to vanish.”
It left through the ceiling.
The door was back. Whole again. But warmer.
The tavern has not shifted since.
But the stars over the window blinked a little slower that night.
And I brewed a drink I could not name.
I have not served it.
Yet.
ns216.73.216.238da2
