Read Online IGMS Issue 18 by IGMS - Free Book Online

creaked as he shifted his jaw. What had they been talking about? The room spun round and around.
    Round. She'd asked about pie. Lenny gripped the counter. "Have you any that are whole?" he asked.
    "You'd like a whole pie?"
    "No, no. Just a piece. But I prefer the first slice. The very first slice. Call it a peccadillo. An armadillo. The cask of amontillado." He winked. Twitched. Ticked.
    Nettie narrowed her eyes. "Apple then. Fresh from the oven."
    Lenny grasped his coffee cup with both hands, hoping to hide his tremors. He sipped the brew, burnt and acrid. "Delicious," he said. "And pipe, pipe, piping hot. Perchance some cream is available?"
    Nettie fished a packet from her apron and set it on the counter. "Already emptied the pitchers. Powdered creamer is the best I can do."
    "Ah, packaged artifice," Lenny said with a wink. "Who doesn't like a little mystery?"
    Nettie was already headed off to the kitchen. As she passed through the doorway, she called back. "I can think of times where I could use a little less."
    Lenny nodded to himself. Some mysteries bound souls to eternity.
    He tore the packet and emptied the powder into his coffee -- an island of white into a sea of black. He picked up a spoon and prodded the floating clump. "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
    The island bobbed. Slowly, its shoreline dissolved and Atlantis fell into the sea. Lemuria . . . Mu . . . Lyonesse . . . all lost. How much knowledge lay hidden beneath surfaces?
    Lenny stirred the creamer. The coffee spun white, the creamer spun black.
    Fractals, fractals, everywhere, nor any drink to drop.
    Lenny stood. His right eye looked off on its own and his left blinked to the twitch of his cheek. Aware of his body's betrayal, controlling none of it, Lenny wailed in silence.
    In pace requiescat
, came a whisper. Rest in peace.
    At his feet, a shadow waited. Lenny slipped into the dark.

    He awoke to Nettie kneeling at his side, haloed by a water stain high above. "You all right?" she asked. Her face came into focus.
    "Sometimes." Lenny smiled weakly.
    "Stay still. I'll call for help."
    "No, I'm fine. Just a little fire from the gods." He rolled over and pushed himself to his feet. He dusted himself off, clapped his hands once, and showed his palms to Nettie. "See? Right as rain."
    "You sure?"
    "I'm sure. Really, truly, madly. Even better after I've had a bite to eat." He returned to the counter where a pie, golden brown, waited.
    Nettie made her way to the other side. "Fire from the gods," she said. "Meaning epilepsy?"
    "That'd be a clinical assessment."
    "My aunt, she suffered from seizures. Positively hated it when people made a fuss."
    "A wise woman."
    "And a great cook. Taught me everything I know. See if you agree." She sliced into the pie twice, slipped the knife under the wedge, and slid a generous portion onto a plate. She set the knife on the pie tin and handed Lenny a fork.
    Lenny took a bite. The crust was flaky and buttery, the apples, tart and sweet. Yin yang. He rolled his tongue about the filling. "Oh my," he managed.
    "I'll take that as a compliment."
    Lenny nodded vigorously, savoring the taste. Warmth washed through him, and tension slipped from his shoulders. He ate methodically, but without pause. When he finished, he set his fork aside, pressed his thumb onto the last of the crumbs, and with a grin, delivered them to his mouth.
    Nettie, who was wiping down the counters, looked up. "That do the trick?"
    The trick? The question pinned Lenny and his vision dimmed.
    The trick, the tick, the tock . . . Hickory, Dickory, Dock.
    To stay the sudden swirl of whispers, he bit his tongue hard. The pain cut through wisps and curls, knicks and knacks, the flotsam and jetsam of patterns that were tugging, tugging, always tugging. And in that moment, he remembered: the greater the pain, the greater the measure of peace. "The trick," he said, "Yes. Yes, it did. How about I return the favor?"
    He fished his ancient coin from his