It\u2019s the end of the earth.\u00c2\u00a0 Jill and Jack hold hands at the very edge, so close they can taste the thickness of the void in their breath.\u00c2\u00a0 They can put forth a toe and watch it disappear.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a drop, or a fall, past the end of the earth.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u2019s just empty whiteness stretching infinitely in all directions for all of time.\u00c2\u00a0 There are theories, of course.\u00c2\u00a0 That you might float from here to another world, perhaps the next world, perhaps elsewhere, and maybe discover the silver city or Babylon or Midnight.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe a race of aliens exist on the other side of that blanket of white, or fairies, or a tribe of Native Americans untouched by Spanish gold or guns or disease.\u00c2\u00a0 There\u2019s a crossroads, and a bar, where you might hear Jim Morrison or Bessie Smith or Jelly Roll Morton, and you might share a drink with Death itself if the bartender ever pays you any attention.\u00c2\u00a0 It might just be nothing; as you cross the border into nothingness, you simply cease to exist, one cell or limb at a time.\u00c2\u00a0 Some believe the answers are just on the other side.\u00c2\u00a0 Others don\u2019t think we know the questions.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the edge of the world is a doorway to a parallel universe, where a different version of you steps through simultaneously so that you each have to live the different life begun by the other.<\/p>\n
The end of the earth could be a barrier between dimensions.\u00c2\u00a0 A psychedelic hallucinogenic exploration of your inner psyche.\u00c2\u00a0 It might be a joke; when you step over and through, you find yourself stepping to right where you stepped from.\u00c2\u00a0 There might be gravity, and you might fall forever.\u00c2\u00a0 The white might hide the dark.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u2019s a dream.\u00c2\u00a0 A fever.\u00c2\u00a0 A lie.\u00c2\u00a0 A trial version.\u00c2\u00a0 A beta test of reality.\u00c2\u00a0 An elixir to cure the common cold, grant immortality or invisibility, to make you into a phantom, to ease you into the long, final sleep.<\/p>\n
Theories are guesswork.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody knows.\u00c2\u00a0 Not on this side of the end of the earth.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll find the end at each of the four corners, just as Jill and Jack found it.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u2019re in love, but they\u2019re tired, they\u2019ve been beaten.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u2019ve enjoyed what they had here, what they lost, and now they\u2019re looking for the next grand adventure.\u00c2\u00a0 They don\u2019t know what awaits them beyond the end of the earth.<\/p>\n
Hand in hand, they step into the void.\u00c2\u00a0 And they discover the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"