I warn you. Watch very carefully. I am about to attempt something very difficult. If you catch me at it I want you to say so. If you don’t, I’ll be happy.
Very well. Remember, if I place this odd one on either one, it must make that one odd. Correct?
On which of the two shall I put this odd one? This one? So now this one becomes odd.
My trick is this. I shall pass from one to the other, so that this odd one will become even and the even will become odd.
Ready? Watch closely.
Did you see it? Of course you didn’t. My Trick is a complete success. That which was odd is now even and what was even is now odd.
Odd, isn’t it?
We were walking at night. There seemed to be no one but us two travelers out on the wet windy streets of the cold shut door city. We passed by a closed parking garage. The small structure sat low with its utilitarian right angles, chambers and ramps made of cast concrete half buried in the earth. There was an empty ticket booth placed symmetrically within the building’s face, similar to that of an old cinema. In the booth there were two black chairs and two black phones, both scattered around a U shaped black desk. It was as if it was meant for two people to be in there together. Who would they call? Each other? The room seemed abandoned with haste, now dusty and unused. Left behind were the remains of past attempts to liven up the space - an old picture calendar, a dead houseplant and a large plastic figure of a black cat leaning in one corner.
Through the curved outer glass, our view passed through a wooden windowed door at the back of the booth into the exact dark center of the garage. In this cryptic space there was a small fire burning. No one was around and there wasn’t any evidence or objects to show what was fueling this fire. It was just fire, pure flame on the bare concrete. It was like it was just orange flames coming directly out of the floor. It added a strange bright scrap of color, light and movement to the dim grey and black monochrome that surrounded us.
We looked on in disbelief and some concern, debating if we should let anyone know about this. We didn’t want to over react to what might be pure hallucination. Just then a man wearing camouflage walked by and
we asked him if we should tell anyone about the fire. Without stopping he looked at us and pressed his index finger to his lips, making the sign for silence.
Odd, isn’t it?
Watch closely, the next step is a doozy.
The first step is right off the cliff. The moment when your weight shifts from one foot on solid ground to the other foot dangling out into the abyss.
In my hand I have two gold coins.
“Nothing up my sleeve.”
Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
Old Age. Old Age.
It’s a disappearing act, out on the Royal Road.
Eyes closed and hands out.
Feeding the ravens.
Odd, isn’t it?
Nothing stranger than our dreams.