Read Online Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink - Free Book Online

suitcase?”
    â€œThe man in the tan jacket?” Josie’s voice took on a new tone, one filled with interest and perhaps panic. Erika was back. Both of the Erikas. They sat on either side of Josie on the couch. Their faces were similar to the ones that a human uses to express fear. No, not fear. Concern. They looked concerned.
    â€œYes,” Jackie said. “A man. In a tan jacket. Holding a deerskin suitcase.”
    The angels’ eyes flared, which was an action as odd to witness as it is difficult to picture.
    â€œOh, my dear,” said Josie. “I don’t know if you should be asking about all that. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have some Oreos?”
    â€œI wouldn’t, no.”
    â€œFair,” Josie said. “Then we’ll talk about a man in a tan jacket holding a deerskin suitcase.” She clutched her left hand against her side like she had a pain there, but no pain registered in her face.
    â€œWe don’t know anything about him,” Josie continued. “Not Erika, nor Erika. Of course Erika never really knows anything about anything, but Erika’s a sweet one, so.”
    â€œDo you know about him or not?”
    â€œWe know about him, we just don’t know anything about him. We are aware that he exists, so there’s that much, but his existence is the limit of it, the knowledge.”
    â€œKnowledge is made of limits,” said Erika, the one who never really knows anything about anything.
    â€œThat’s cool,” said Jackie. She did not mean it, and she said it in a way that let them all know she did not mean it.
    â€œYes, it’s pretty cool,” said Erika, the sweet one, meaning it completely.
    â€œHere is what it is,” said Josie. “We have seen the man you are talking about many times. But we can never remember anything about him.”
    The Erikas nodded sadly.
    â€œWe were not even aware he was a man,” said the Erika who was not sweet. “We cannot see gender.”
    This was not why they were sad. Their sadness was unrelated to the conversation. It was not unrelated to the dirt-covered bundle on the kitchen counter.
    â€œHad the same problem,” said Jackie. “Kept forgetting everything I knew about him moments after I had started knowing it. It, I dunno.” She struggled to find a combination of words that would encompass how deeply the last twelve hours had unsettled her. She knew how she felt. She just needed to describe it in words. “It sucks,” she said instead.
    â€œYes! Yes, it does suck,” said Josie. Her face was limp and her mouth kept forming a smile only to lose it. This was related to the conversation.
    She reached across and placed her hand on Jackie’s.
    â€œErika? Erika? Can we have a moment alone?”
    The two beings were no longer on the couch. Through the window Jackie could see one of them plucking absently at a tangle of blackberries, although their head was turned slightly back toward Jackie, presumably trying to hear.
    â€œJackie, there are things that I cannot tell you.” Josie’s hand was still upon Jackie’s. Josie’s other hand was clenched at her side. “I cannot tell you because they are secret, or because they are impossible to put into words, or because I do not know them. Mostly it is because I do not know them.
    â€œConsidering an entire universe of knowledge, worlds upon worlds of fact and history, I know almost none of it. And much of what I know is not the kind of thing that I’m aware I know, or think of as ‘something I know.’ What toast smells like, for instance. What sand feels like. Those are not the kinds of facts I would tell anyone, or even think to tell anyone.”
    Jackie didn’t know what to say. She agreed with all of what Josie was saying but also didn’t care about most of it.
    â€œOkay” was all she ended up saying.
    â€œAll of this is to say that I am choosing to