Gauss, class of 2027
To my dearest River,
I haven’t got a clue on how to start this . . . thing. It’s been almost a year now, hasn’t it? Ere long Roarke will be–would be–six. Sometimes, I imagine him in the gardens of the moon, joyful and whimsical, just like you. Other times, I see an urn built of shadow and bone, agony and ruin. I remember still, his cold, soft face against my hand as I laid him to sleep in a sea of stars. And I think still, of the what-ifs and whatnots and whatyeses. I’m just so terribly broken and so terribly in need.
Please write back,
Sage
My lesser-beloved Sage,
Please stop sending me letters, I wish you would forget about me. I’m sorry to hear what you’ve gone through, but I still need time to endure my suffering. Your messages will be ignored from now on.
Warmest regrets,
River
River, please,
I had no intention of upsetting you, and I’m very sorry for not being more considerate, but I just cannot imagine another one hundred years of solitude. My coworkers are getting concerned about my work behaviour, and every morning the way home gets longer and longer. Please, let’s talk this through together.
Yours forever for ever,
Sage
Hey Sage,
I think you need to wake up. Stop living in this fantasy world and writing yourself these stupid letters. Get it together! These fictitious seances are by no means a panacea to your lament. You should know well enough now that I, too, perished in the accident, and there’s nothing to be done about it. You/I need help. You/I don’t know how long you/I can keep going. What do you/I do? I feel so lost without you two.
Till we meet again,
Sage
I awakened to the sound of rainfall but found no trace of water. What had previously been my miserable room was now a great expanse of darkness, a shadow of immeasurable dimensions. Suddenly, a bright flash came from my left, and through shielded eyes, I saw River and Roarke. All thoughts left my body, only instinct dragging me forward. Love knew no limits, and apparently, neither did I. Despite having to carry all my white hair, this was perhaps the fastest I’d ever run. The light continued to pulse and grow. Soon enough, the blackness enveloping this place vanished. In its stead was something not even qualia could represent.
“Welcome to Xanadu, my dear.”
Everything before and after didn’t matter. Only the touch of their skin and the smell of their hair remained. I had finally relieved the aches in my chest. I had finally experienced how breath becomes air.
The trees bowed their heads in solemn respect. It was a chilly night, and the last one with the hearth alight.
"There's a limitless number of ways to write about limitlessness. That was the thought of someone who had evidently not stared at a blank Google document for far, far too many hours. Unfortunately, that person ended up doing that exact thing, and after having no successful ideas come to mind, it was time for him to give in and write about the most dreadful topic of them all: love.
In 2018, a killer whale known as J35 took her dead child on a 17-day journey spanning over 1,000 miles, all the while refusing to let the calf fall to the sea floor. That was the main inspiration for this work. Love is the ultimate limit breaker. Sage, an old person, carried on in hopes of reuniting with River and Roarke. When Sage finally got the chance to, the sprint towards them was far greater than any other ambition before."