ADAM MCOMBER / 2 FICTIONS
THE SECRET GOSPEL OF MARK
The gospel is discovered in a library at the Monastery of Marsaba. A letter from Clement of Alexandria to an otherwise unknown Theodorus claims to quote from an expanded Gospel of Mark. Here, Mark describes how Jesus raises a wealthy young man from the dead in the village of Bethany. The young man falls in love. “And after six days, Jesus told him what to do, and in the evening the youth came to Him, wearing only a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained that night with Jesus.” The phrase “naked man with naked man” is used. And there are new teachings in the gospel. Jesus says there are sounds that exist at the borders of the universe. They are not internal to the universe. Instead, they are reminders of what came before. He says all things must be experienced in order to transcend. He takes the dead young man walking in the shade of the olive groves. He holds his hand and kisses him. We imagine the youth’s hand is cold. Jesus says every dream is a form of lacking. And we can never go behind any curtain. That is the transcendental absolute. The young man asks a question. His voice is raw and new because he has been in the earth. Jesus does not answer. Instead, he says the irrational is a lure. A placeholder for what is lacking. They walk together through the moonlit streets of Bethany. The youth follows Jesus. He has silvery eyes. Like old tarnished mirrors. Jesus says inside is a relation to outside. He says the notion of death is caught up in desire. Then he takes the young man to a house in the village. Jesus says they will live there together in this house. He says the thing we have undertaken must not be confused with anything else. And he holds the young man in his arms. He says this is the loss of reality. The “unfamiliar completeness.” Here, Clement’s letter ends. It is understood we have only a fragment.
DRACULA
Here is one wolf. And here are three wolves. Here is a velvet box. A jeweled cup. A fit of trembling. There are other animals too. A headless lamb, for instance. And something with enough extra skin to stretch it like a bedsheet and cover your wide, rolling eyes. Now, what about this Jonathan Harker? He’s tall, bookish. Handsome when he’s naked. You like that sort of thing, don’t you? Imagine his pale cock in his pale hand. And then imagine his pale cock in your pale mouth. He has a young man’s ejaculate. An oddly studious ejaculate. It tastes like a storm burst. Like a crawling toad. It’s unlucky to look in a glass after sunset. But you know that already, don’t you? Well, let me tell you something you don’t know. Saint George’s Day is the twenty-third of April. Or maybe it’s the fifth of May. Whatever the case, it’s a night to find treasures. Treasures begin to bloom. Imagine running with Jonathan Harker through the cragged landscape. The wind shifts against the bleak white sun. And you are both laughing. Your eyebrows are thick. They meet over your nose. You should learn how to read cloud signs, you know? And how to sail tattered plague ships. Joup is a word that means jumbled together. And keckle means to chuckle. There are other words too. Laze for instance. You and Jonathan Harker could laze near the black storm-lit pond caressing one another. You would both look so strong, so handsome. This is a kind of love story, you know? It always has been. But you’re not one to fall in love. Or at least that’s what you say. And you don’t listen very well either. You’re always distracted by the mice in the walls or the way the moonlight makes an eerie sign on the chapel floor. I’ll tell you one more thing, and then you’ll have to learn the rest for yourself. There’s a history of the Devil written on a goat skeleton, and it hangs in a dark and weeping museum in London. It’s a good book. I promise you that. The sort of book you can get lost in. But then again, you’re not much of a reader, are you?
Adam McOmber is the author of three novels, The White Forest (Touchstone), Jesus and John (Lethe), and The Ghost Finders (JournalStone) as well as three collections of short stories, My House Gathers Desires (BOA), This New & Poisonous Air (BOA), and Fantasy Kit (Black Lawrence). His new novel, Hound of the Baskervilles, an erotic and Weird reimagining of the Conan Doyle original, is available from Lethe Press. He is a core faculty member in the writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts as well as editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Hunger Mountain.