If he stands still,if he doesn't move a muscle, maybe he can keep it from happening. Things will stop and no one will ever die. His body's shaking, he can't breathe, here at the water's edge he's at the end of everything. You can't live unless there's a way to hold on to things. He can't go back because he's already used it up, he can't go forward because then it all begins to end, he's stuck in this place where nothing means anything, it's streaming in on him like a darkness, a sickness, he's seen something he isn't supposed to see, only grownups are allowed to see it, it's making him old, it's ruining everything, his temples are pounding, he feels a scream rising in his chest, he's going to fall onto the sandy orange earth. "Ahoy, matey!" shouts Julia and with a wild cry that tears through his throat he steps over the line and begins his day.
"Getting Closer" Steven Millhauser
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