There, split second. The inky black. Did you see it?
I didn’t.
Blacker than the night. Empty where the moon was. For that second it was gone.
Where did it go?
Where we go and go. Where you go and I go.
Go?
When we go, that’s where we go.
Go where?
Where the dark is dark and all around.
All around and around
A split second like the wink of your blind eyes in the unseen sun.
Like a cloud on the moon
All around.
I ain’t afraid of the dark.
You ain’t seen the dark.
I see dark all around. All the time.
Not like this.
Sounds like this.
You see shapes?
Yes
You see my hand? My fingers wiggling?
A little.
You don’t know the dark.
I don’t want to know the dark.
You must.
I don’t want to know the dark.
It cannot be avoided.
I don’t want to know the dark.
You will.
Have we always been in the dark?
Always?
Maybe the light is only temporary.
You don’t know light
Maybe we just are in the sun and color for a blink of an eye.
Who’s eye?
My eye. Your eye. Anyone’s eye.
From dark we come to dark we go.
Exactly.
I don’t like that.
Why not?
We come from light.
I certainly don’t.
Don’t be a pessimist.
Did you see the dark before the light?
No.
Me neither.
But you don’t see the light. Not really.
Not really.
Won’t change much for you.
Neither you.
I see fine.
You couldn’t see the dark before.
No
What makes you think you’ll see it after?
∞
Daniel Arndt is an MFA student at Wichita State University, in his second year studying fiction. Originally from Indiana, he prefers to write about the rusting cities and dark forests of the Midwest where he grew up, and exploring the secrets we keep from one another. He is hoping to begin work on his thesis soon, and go on to get a PhD, where he hopes to study the idea of a “Midwestern gothic.”
Follow Dan on Twitter @DanArndtWrites
