09-08-2025, 12:01 AM
The only way out is through, but 'through' can be here or there, this way or that way. There's a lot of throughs, some of them through tunnels, some of them through lakes, and some of them through solid rock.
There is another option: simply never getting out. Just staying stuck. Remaining where you're at. There's the holding pattern, treading water, pacing in a circle until it wears grooves in the floor. That can be done here or there too. You can go everywhere and at the same time nowhere at all.
Jude does not know whether he is going through or remaining in place, as he dodges puddles in the parking lot and makes his way up to Near's apartment. Before he puts his hand on the knob, he stares at it, wondering to himself if this is not another turn on the carousel, color and music and motion that leaves him back where he started, plus dizziness. He pauses, and wonders again, What would Courtland do? What would Courtland want?
He turns the knob without knocking. His dark blonde hair is darker in streaks, fluffier in other places, frizzed by the moisture. Jude's entrance is quiet, but not so quiet that the door doesn't announce him. The nostalgic thought of Courtland softens him somewhat, diluting the anxiety induced by the car chase dream. "Hey," he says, as he pauses over the threshold, bending over to remove his shoes. Which he intends not to throw his time. He remembers where that led.
There is another option: simply never getting out. Just staying stuck. Remaining where you're at. There's the holding pattern, treading water, pacing in a circle until it wears grooves in the floor. That can be done here or there too. You can go everywhere and at the same time nowhere at all.
Jude does not know whether he is going through or remaining in place, as he dodges puddles in the parking lot and makes his way up to Near's apartment. Before he puts his hand on the knob, he stares at it, wondering to himself if this is not another turn on the carousel, color and music and motion that leaves him back where he started, plus dizziness. He pauses, and wonders again, What would Courtland do? What would Courtland want?
He turns the knob without knocking. His dark blonde hair is darker in streaks, fluffier in other places, frizzed by the moisture. Jude's entrance is quiet, but not so quiet that the door doesn't announce him. The nostalgic thought of Courtland softens him somewhat, diluting the anxiety induced by the car chase dream. "Hey," he says, as he pauses over the threshold, bending over to remove his shoes. Which he intends not to throw his time. He remembers where that led.