R. Daniel Lester
03:59:12
You are there, aren’t you?
I think so.
I’m pretty sure this Fess-Up is still transmitting picture/sound.
If not, I’m the dude talking to no one but himself.
A few minutes ago, the face hovering above me, the blurry one, it suggested I should tell this story. “Remember, Ward, to the victor goes the history.”
And I said, “That’s all I get?”
“Hoping for something more?”
“At least an all-expenses-paid tropical vacation. Maybe a toaster oven.”
The blurry face laughed and went, “Sure, I’ll see what I can do.”
Then I was told that soon I’d be completely blind, and there was no use in wishing it away, hoping things would get better before they got worse because that wasn’t in the cards.
Going blind was part of the process.
Everything was part of the process.
“My apologies,” said the blurry face, not sounding sorry at all, to be honest.
So I went, “That’s okay” and tried to shrug, thereby expressing my cool indifference. Unfortunately, I no longer had the ability to voluntarily control my limbs.
Yes, everybody, this is me shutting down, system-by-system, sense-by-sense.
I’m alone now.
And it is very silent here. So silent that talking merely to create sounds that will venture out and explore the void seems like a good idea. I will chart this silence. Map it. Find its borders and work inwards to the core, where there will be some sort of understanding.
I hope.
Funny thing is, you probably already know a lot of what I’m telling you.
You’re a viewer.
You’re Audience.
You received that special package free in the mail and hooked up the black box using the instructions provided. You used that fancy remote to customize your reality TV viewing experience. You signed up for the Twitter updates. You followed the blogs, the vlogs.
And now here you are.
And now here I am.
Which makes what I’m doing akin to being a magician with a rabbit and a transparent top hat, unless I have something up my sleeve, if I know something you don’t.
So call me that kind of magician.
And let the show begin.