HOW THINGS WERE

So many such odd things these days. So many such things and so very odd that it’s hard to differentiate what is normal and what is perfectly mad.

While packing food home from the market yesterday I passed a small house with a crow on its front door. Dead, clearly, crucified-like, the bird had nails, clearly seen at a distance, through its upper arms. The crow looked fresh, with all its feathers clean, intact, and in place. It was as though it was put there with care — rather than an act of rare or sickly evil. In fact, the corvid was in such good shape that it seemed almost fake. But where do you get a perfect replica crow? Was it taxidermied? If it wasn’t, who would do such a thing? Why was it there? Who was meant to see it? What— what is that?

Everything seemed to be of this sort these days.

Today a man with deeply strange eyes slammed into my shop seeking some sort of elixir. I told him I had nothing of the sort. He didn’t hear my words at all, only that I’d responded. He told me he had a full jar of slugs for barter. When I told him I had none of what he was looking for he argued, assuring me of the quality of his slugs and that they’d never been dishonoured and were raised only on dog’s blood. Though I was able to convince him I had nothing for him, when he did eventually leave it was with eyes filled with an indescribably sinister look. It just didn’t seem to matter that I didn’t have what he needed, only that I didn’t have what he needed, if you know what I mean.

This is what the world had become.

Last week there was a woman, a young woman, in the dirt near the Royal Conservatory. As I got closer I could see she was digging. It looked not like she’d lost something but like she’d lost everything. I did not approach to help. Then I realized that behind her was a body. She was attempting to bury someone newly dead. There was nothing quiet or subtle about the scene. It seemed perfectly normal. Her grief, the location, and the time of day all seemed sensible. And everyone seemed fine with that. Myself and everyone else passed by without bothering the woman.

It was just how things were.