IAN MAXTON / TUNNEL(S)
I
X is meeting, in some town or city, Y. Here, they sit for coffee and X says “I am too withholding at such meetings as these.” They walk through the park together. (It is winter.) Y says – “For a year I have not slept” – says “the days are short and I am tired all the time. I think I will lie down.” The snow holds Y’s shape.
They talk of their days at school together and about the work they now pursue; about their families, scattered across the district. X says “we are so alike.” Y does not agree. They nod as it grows dark and the street lamps begin to warm on. Bars and restaurants open. Alleys are lit with colorful, soft lights. Food is placed on grills or in ovens or ladled into square bowls as is the custom in the district. (The smell fogs the air.)
X and Y have children, but not together. They wonder at this. Y was once in love with X, but X left for the capital of the district – to become an artist. Y works as an improvisational manipulator of sounds and images for a different town or city from this one, improving the view for streetwalkers. X works long hours in the (tunnels) of the capital.
They settle for dinner in a dark room crowded with workers, families, and fellow (strangers) to this town or city. They ask an elderly diner to take their picture. The picture is blurred, but pleases them both. They eat. They pay. They leave.
In the street, X and Y meet, in passing, an old professor from their school days, who is a writer of fictions. They greet him with deference. They speak quietly in the evening street. He wishes them well, handing each a coin for good luck.
But now it is late and X and Y must part and return to their respective homes in the district. They walk to the entrance of the (tunnel) at the bottom of which are the transport services, rushing travelers to and from this town or city. Y turns back to X. “I sometimes wonder if we are dead, already.” Y enters the tunnel and (disappears). Tomorrow, X will return to the capital.
Ian Maxton is a writer and associate fiction editor at Passages North. He has been published in Permafrost, Bright Wall/Dark Room, and elsewhere.