The Great Beyond

Just out side my door a narrow plank covers a gap in the deck where boards were torn loose during a winter storm. Per my request, Kirlin has temporarily postponed the repair. Each time I cross this plank I return completely to the present. A laser-like focus obscures all thoughts from the past and all concern about a future, isolated from my former life, concerns for those who might wonder what became of me. Across the deck is the shed, full of Kirlin's rusted tools, where the Croatian enchantresses once lived and filled the outlaws hearts with an infusion of warmth and happiness. My Days here start well before sun-up. Coffee, my lasting vice. The mist on the water and the musical clatter of the morning gulls, never fail to impress. I am off to work, often to start a new painting. My nights find me at my table adding the finishing touches: balancing, refining, pushing and pulling life into an otherwise inanimate page.

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