1	Kiss »
"Do you remember your first kiss, Harry?" . . .
2	Radio »
"Good evening, you are listening to Last Hour. We are counting down to Bleak Zero . . .
3	A Game of Chess »
The board is laid into the stone of the peak, and the edges merge so seamlessly with the rock that it seems like it has always been here—an ordered geometric extrusion. Eight by eight as an oversized magic square . . .
4	The Funeral of the White Queen »
The light streaming through the curtains is pale, and what glitters through the gaps in the fabric is crisp and undiluted. I lean over, swaying in time with the motion of the carriage, and peek through the curtain on my right . . .
5	Familial Ghosts »
An older man, his face a brittle mask of ice, comes up beside me. I look at him, and see right through him . . . [art]
6	Deceit »
"Yes? Hello? Is anyone here? It's awfully dark. Oh, excuse me. I didn't—you know . . . could we turn on a light? Ah, yes. Much—oh! . . .
7	Fork »
"The success rate of the radiation therapy is very high, which is why we are suggesting such a path of treatment, but the location . . .
8	Casual Disarray »
I wandered past her, once, stealing a surreptitious glance at the electrified amphibian peeking through the patterned veil of her casually arranged shawl . . .
9	Window »
"I've never seen Paris like this. All these lights . . .
10	Vision »
I suppose . . .  it can hurt you as much as you like. It can be whatever you make it . . .
11	Spiritual Armor »
"Why the hat, Harry? Are we role-playing?" . . .
12	Secret Code »
"Do you remember our secret code?" . . .
13	Paper »
The page doesn't have to be blank, does it? You could write something mundane on here. A shopping list, maybe, or a note . . .
14	Key »
Now, these keys were too cumbersome to carry, but what point was there in leaving the key hanging from a nearby hook? Or even leaving it in the lock? One might as well not even bother with the lock at all in that case . . .
15	Scarecrow »
I had a patient who was terrified of scarecrows. Scarecrows are just effigies, I explained to her, stuffed doppelgangers meant to terrify crows . . .
16	Reconstruction »
The intent of this journal has always been to source out the disturbance in my head, and I have approached these pages with as little editorial interference as possible . . .
17	Iris »
She releases the iris petals, and they close again. She strokes the bright yellow landing strip on the lower petal, the splashed indicator that directs the bees to their landing point . . .
18	Bare »
I cannot touch my head. My hands are nothing more than ghost fingers on the end of phantasmal limbs. I flail, and touch nothing . . .
19	Eyes »
Lately I have suffered a crisis of conscience. Is all this an attempt to justify my illness? To disguise the damage, to hide the rot? . . .
20	Echoes »
There are two types of dreams. You can certainly find a number of organization schemata by which to code dreams, but they are simply finer gradations of a basic duality: the Enhypnia and the Oneiroi . . .
21	Spearmint »
I remember my mother working in the garden . . .
22	Island »
The island is nothing more than a spit of rock that reaches out of the thrashing sea like the skeletal finger of an old sea god. Surrounding it is a maze of submerged rocks and coral reefs . . .
23	Marriage »
At the center of the garden of flowers and stones, there is a plaza and a large pit of smoldering black stones. When the Ribbon Man and I arrive, the first coffin is pushed down an incline, and the box bumps and rattles out into the center of the pit . . .
24	Crossing »
The sea is tempestuous, and the boat groans continually at the battering it takes from the waves. The deck is slick with spray, and the sails strain in their rigging. The Ribbon Man . . .
25	Ceremony »
A path, lined with yellow flowers leads into the confusion of blooms, and caught in the timelessness of this realm, are a party dressed in fancy clothes . . .
26	Radio »
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