The door didn’t open.
It simply ceased to be.
One moment it was wood and iron,38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ggYCtx6dp
the next, a hole in the world through which meaning spilled sideways.
The thing that entered wasn’t a guest.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4EHMOVRvJ9
It wasn’t a thing.
It was hunger braided with memory.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDFZzRJmLIG
Shape wrapped in concept.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDVKwkVAwV6
Its presence cracked the edges of the bottles, though they made no sound.
Even the fire shrank.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMSMIdUF9NN
Not in fear.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdAMUihyXBa
But in reverence.
It did not move.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡINPPC7qSqs
Movement implies direction.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP1MLmBy2HS
It arrived in all directions at once.
There was no voice.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡybIJuJdukA
No words.
But I understood:
“You collect them.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLiIFEiigMH
You keep what would be forgotten.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNfgqiib4B3
You hoard the echoes.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKqTk2Vt19H
Why?”
I didn’t answer with my mouth.
I thought of every guest.
The broken, the joyful, the unfinished.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl5GtsmQiCa
The ones who stayed. The ones who left half-healed.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOZn4FmgtZx
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.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmMEu8SJJEL
A glyph.38Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8EwgBlVBG8
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.
ns216.73.216.247da2
