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Siberia, USA: Today, global warming. Tonight, dark, unless you count the stars. Tomorrow can be reached via time machine. Yesterday, who can remember that far back?

Websafe Studio, blogging since 2003, featuring art, comics, digital whiteboards, virtual characters, Web design, writing

Friday, October 13, 2006

 

The Mirror: A contract with Death

Websafe: Hello?
The Mirror: We have to ration our energies, that's all.
W: You are so right, we have to husband our strength.
M: Is this fear?
W: No, it's just good horse sense.
M: The wisdom well has run dry.
W: No more watery pearls of wisdom for me?
M: I can but try.
W: I need you to advise me.
M: (She circles)
W: Are you circling around the topic?
M: You don't like people to come on like gangbusters, like boosterites.
W: Only over-enthusiastic Americans want that.
M: Oops, I found a typo!
W: Did you think I should have used the adverbial form instead?
M: Is anything said?
W: No, but you implied it.
M: A number of things.
W: You implied a few different things.
M: Is the mirror still reflecting?
W: I think we have diverged.
M: There isn't much that you do like, am I right?
W: That is completely unfair, you have just caught me being nervous.
M: Death might arrive on a bicycle.
W: Death could arrive at any moment, in any form.
M: That is completely unfair, you have just caught me being nervous.
W: Does death make you nervous?
M: (Repeats it faster)
W: I guess you are nervous, because your voice is speeding up.
M: Could we sign something?
W: Now you want a contract with Death!
M: It's almost as if light from another world reveals facial details that turn his face into its opposite.
W: Life being the opposite of Death, what does his face look like?
M: Only over-enthusiastic Americans want that.
W: Americans want Life too much, too hard.
M: Not Death.
W: Right, they want to be immortal.
M: I know this is a hard pill to swallow, but that is what I know and all I can know.
W: We can't know Death till we have ridden up and said howdy.
M: The problem isn't my problem, it's everybody's problem.
W: Everyone must die, sooner or later.
M: You don't know what your own head is doing?
W: My head is dying.
M: Try putting a stop to it.
W: I suppose you want me to do crossword puzzles.
M: You don't have to give a name to it.
W: It's all about staving off Alzheimer's, these days.
M: You feel that the changing of moods is ultimately irrelevant.
W: Well, mood comes into it as well.
M: How is that?
W: Oh, it depends on how important you believe positive thinking is.
M: But I see you.
W: You see me whether my thoughts are positive or negative.
M: Did you get here through a space-time warp?
W: I don't know how I got here, except in the usual way.
M: These are questions, not descriptions.
W: Maybe we should switch to descriptions.
M: How can I come to the end of this experience, which is unsatisfactory, with no end in sight?
W: You can say goodbye.
M: I don't know how I got here, except in the usual way.
W: Goodbye!
M: Closing in 5 seconds ... Goodbye!

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posted at 12:05 PM
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