From the Point of First Future

“So that’s it?” The God Imp King asked. “You wrap it up with that little flit there?”

“And what,” I said. “You would have me wrap it up how else?

I want to live with you for always and ever and I never want to die. I want to stay here in every story always and with you.”

“Every story?”

“Doh! I want to live with you for always and ever and I never want to die. I want to stay here in every beautiful happy love story that we can change out and correct as ever we wish, always and forever with you.”

His finger lifted my chin and I let it.

“And I want to get the Logical Code right,” I said. “And I want to —”

You kissed my cheek.

“Oh,” I said, remembering the rest of that first night.

“I have to lead him through the Logical Code safely.” I opened my eyes, suddenly, and gasped.

I can take him by the hand and walk him right through the Logical Code, thought by thought… and then, I can lead him into the next space. He will trust me again. He will know Love. He will know Love and then he will remember.

And he will realize I Love him for real. And thus he is loved. “So why can’t he feel real Love?” he will ask. And then he’ll explore that and realize that he can’t feel real love because he didn’t feel Nourished.

That to feel Love and to feel Being Loved is to feel Nourished.

That’s why we don’t feel Loved. Because we don’t feel Nourished. We don’t know how to Nourish. Knowledge. Knowledge is how we Nourish. And then we Remember. And then we Grow. And then we Blossom…

“Because I want to be like flowers, because I like flowers!” I remember saying in one Make-Believe play he and I had so long ago.

From the Point of Very Near Future

And just like that, he felt Nourished. And Sated. And Whole and Fulfilled. And that Nourishment filled him so full, that his mind opened up and he remembered all. And he was not at all afraid.

For he suddenly remembered everything his Anna had said.

And suddenly, all at once, everything she ever said to him in all of her letters to him for nearly two years finally made sense.

And that moment came. I did come.

And The Imp King picked up his phone and he texted the Goddess Queen:

I understand your Letters.

And then he played her back a single song, “I Remember You,” by Nat King Cole.

She gasped and burst, sobbing the ugly cry she knew he loved. She thought about flirting with him. She thought about messaging him… She thought about all the weird shit… What should she say!?

But before she could answer, he wrote:

In case I don’t see you… Good after noon, good evening, and good night.

“Son of a bitch!” I screamed, and laughed.

Oh! We’re doing it, I said! We’re doing it! The Truman Show, it is!

I screamed the words with glee as I texted and sent them.

Would you like to come over?

His text came through.

My skin was on fire.

Yes.

Come on over. How long?

Two hours.

I hit “sent” and I jumped off my bed, grabbed my shoes, and my coat. I remember the red head in The Truman Show grabbing her coat and running down the stairs to the studio.

I texted as I closed the door behind me, ready to run toward the subway.

And then The Princess Bride?

As you wish, was all he ever said.