Original Photograph from Flickr
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The corridor
The chubby naked man with the CRAB mask stands in the corridor. It is the pose of a person who is used to waiting, who is at ease with waiting. It is the pose of a person who metaphorically has built a hard shell like that of a crab, built during those vulnerable moments in youth when in vulnerable moments a story was used distract from weakness. In the moment grabbing a story from any memory as if it were a personal memory: remember the time a dog bit off my ear, oh, yeah, of course the doctor sewed it back on. And realising the laughter is at you not with you. And changing the stories to misdirect, redirect, use the laughter to build a shell. Limit, restrict, make the stories impersonal, use more puns, word play. Never join in the laughter.
The chubby naked man with the CRAB mask stands next to the chair in the corridor. On the other side of the chair is a small table and on the table is a book. The same book that all editions ever printed can be found in the House of Masks library. It is not a book borrowed from the library, there are multiple copies of the book in many rooms in the House of Masks. The book will remain unread. Untouched and unread.
The chubby naked man with the CRAB mask looks at the book and thinks about the silence rule, picturing the moment of reading the rule, the sequence of events before and after. Strangely unable to sequence other memories, other thoughts. It is the way of the House of Masks, the visitor enters with all their personality built over their life before entering the House of Masks but somehow the detailed memory of life before arriving at the House of Masks. Knowing how stories and jokes are used as a protection, knowing the protection is against disappointing people with mundaneness, or being the person people hate. Yet not remembering who was hating, or when they were hating, just knowing that being a true self was ill advised. So how did this work with the silence rule? How is it possible to reconstruct the shell without knowing how it was first constructed? Would the shell of the CRAB mask do the same thing?
The chubby naked man with the CRAB mask’s thoughts drift, imagining someone standing in this very corridor. A lucky version of the chubby man with the CRAB mask standing in this corridor when an announcement is made: PLEASE ALL BE UPSTANDING and a beautiful young man enters the corridor through the far door and marches swiftly down until they arrive at the person standing. The lucky version of the chubby man with the CRAB mask. The beautiful young man suddenly stops. Turns. Smiles. And they recognise each other, they are lovers. And they hug and then kiss. The beautiful young man is naked, their penises pressing against each other as they kiss. A thrilling moment as the beautiful young man’s penis stiffens and presses harder, stiffening penis to stiffening penis.
The tannoy interrupts: TAKE YOUR SEATS FOR THE CRAB AND ITS MOTHER SHALL COMMENCE SHORTLY.
The chubby naked man with the CRAB mask sits on the chair. It is the only chair in the corridor.
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House of Masks
