If Life Exists

Saw D in my office today.  Frantic at first, as usual, but easily settled by my mellifluous voice and calm demeanor.

People yearn to be comforted.  Did you know, Dear Eater?  Surely you did, if not before you met me, doubtless now you understand a person's need for comfort.  An understanding nod at an opportune time, sometimes, is all it takes.

D confided in me about many troubles, all stemming from certain knowledge of someone lurking unseen inside D's squat suburban domicile.  D's rational mind knows it's impossible, of course.  But D's intuition is strong, and not so easily disabled by reason.

For a counselor of less flexible mind, it would be a pitfall.  A bad liar would join a growing din of doubters, assuring D it is not possible, so clearly not possible for someone to remain unseen in a place for so long, waiting, lurking, seeing but not being seen.  Before long trust would be eroded, until D gradually drifted away, wandering until finally discovering someone else...  someone like myself.  Someone to comfort.  Someone to believe.

It is easy for me to believe, of course.  An unseen figure is indeed lurking in D's darkened corners.

I know because D's unseen figure is me.

Drain You

Back from my appointment and I've barely sufficient energy to type a single word.  Certainly I would like to lay down in a nice soft bed and fall asleep now, early as it is, but I know my obligation to you is a solemn one.  You need to know.  So I sit.  And I write.

I went to D's place again.  It was just as it's been for several weeks, D pounding out emails and text messages and calling everyone in town trying to convince someone, anyone of a reality only D can perceive.  Trying to convince a skeptical world I exist.  Gradually D is losing credibility, stranded in a cocoon of madness like Cassandra.  It is troubling, but for now I can see little to be done about it.

It all began as a bit of conjecture - I postulated I could best learn to observe someone alone by first exploring a person's alone places, empty of my actual subject.

I committed my first break-in 3 weeks ago today. I avoided a common pitfall by selecting my target - E - not for some painfully Freudian pseudosexual reason but because I imagined E was especially obtuse about noticing surroundings.  I noticed E because keys were frequently dangling from E's front door.  It was not a great leap for me to assume I'd find it quite easy to gain access to E's place.

All backstory, of course.  I imagine you're more interested in Now, aren't you, Dear Eater.  Wondering about my appointment at D's.  Wondering if anyone is coming.

All in due time.  I am starving, aren't you?  I must cook a fine dinner.  I've some difficult decisions to make, and Hungry decisions are never well made ones.

back soon

dbj

Get Some

I suppose reading Klosterman's book was a mistake.  Of course Klosterman made a mistake writing it - a conclusion  so obvious we need not write too many words about it.  But reading it may be an an even bigger mistake.

If you're unfamiliar (and I strongly suggest you stay so) our favorite middlebrow sportswriter a few years ago crapped out a standard-issue Counselor-to-a-Bad-Guy novel.  No real twists, unimaginative, forgettable stuff for sure, but I really was angry at Klosterman's lazy, sloppy treatment of our "villain's" project.

Surely more imaginative ways exist, I was certain, to make use of effective invisibility.  Figure it out and you don't need to resort to lazy nonsense about computer networks making us lonely and antisocial (very original, CK, bravo, BTW 1987 called - it wants its dystopian future back) or drawn-out, flaccid passages building to crescendoes of utter narrative paralysis.  

Our first task of course is effective invisibility itself.  We needn't put it in fantastic terms - our problem is quite simple.  Can we see and not be seen?  A new Sweet Science, we could say, for a more visual age.  

I would say more but due to circumstances quite beyond my control, and closely connected to our unfolding narrative, time is precious and I must away.  After I return to my House I will explain.  

dbj