AUTHOR'S NOTE:  One of the Celestial Reviews had a
contest to write stories containing a certain
vocabulary. (The list is below.) I thought it called
for a particular style, and quickly wrote what you
see below.  The plot was to be that K would find
some kind of redemption in the love of a good but
unfashionable person. Well.  Not only is the style
hard to maintain, but I had no idea of what this
unfashionable person was, so the whole thing fell
apart pretty quickly. Still...

I had only worked a couple of the words in by this
point. The list was:

acerbic         adept           ameliorate
apocryphal      assuage 	constrict
dilatory	egregious       fatuous
guile		hedonism	impervious
incipient       irascible	lethargy
mundane         prolific        redundant

JS

TIME'S END

Copyright 1998, 1999 Jordan Shelbourne


There is a city called Time's End, where all miracles
and wonders exist, and in that city was a woman
named K. (It was the fashion at that time to bear
the minimum adornment, even in names, and K was
*very* fashionable; only A through J were swifter
to adopt or drop a trend.) And though she was the
eleventh most fashionable person in Time's End, K
was also troubled. Her existence had gone from blithe
to blighted, and she did not know why she should
have gone from care-free to care-full.

She spoke of it once to her friend Edonai, who had
been an angel but who had retired. Edonai said
simply, "I felt the same way in the city of Celestial
Light."

"What did you do?" asked K.

"I quarrelled with God, then cut off my wings with
a blade of malachite."

"I see your back when we make love," said K, who
did not wish to appear credulous (for it is not
fashionable to believe what you are told), "and it
is as unblemished as a pail of milk. There are no
scars there."

"Like my wings, they are invisible."

"And how did you know your wings were cut off?'

"When my feet touched the earth."

K smiled sadly. "I have no wings to cut."

And Edonai smiled sadly as well. "Then I cannot help
you. Would you come to bed?"


[...]

And that was the way of things even in Time's End,
which exists in all worlds and in none of them.

	 ---And it ended here---

Send comments to: jordan@compu-diva.com

Read Jordan Shelbourne's completed stories at:
http://www.compu-diva.com/IvoryGates/index.htm
