A Single Traveler’s Journal

"Love and I are both restless and adrift,

Sitting dazed in a car, sharing a feast of loneliness,

Heavy rain breaks into droplets that crawl over colorless glass,

I can no longer bear this game of chance called fate.

I can't bear to part from this tangled journey,

Or from the desolation that grows day by day."

The long-haired lead singer dances wildly onstage, swaying to the hallucinatory melody.

The lights are dim. No one can see anyone else.

Mo Xiao calmly keeps Tong Qing apart from the crowd.

Everyone has their eyes closed, swaying in a state of pure euphoria.

Letting loose, swaying, shouting.

Only the two of them are quiet. Tong Qing seems to be resonating with Mo Xiao's heartbeat. She can hear the other woman's pulse, like the beat of a drum, traveling along her nerves and seeping into her cerebral cortex.

Like lying in a warm bed, or among the clouds.

All around her are noise, and music and voices that never cease.

The world is silent.

Tong Qing cries and smiles as she whispers:

"It's so good to be alive. It's so good to be alive."

It is as if she is making a secret suggestion, or a prayer, begging the gods of this place to do something for her.

The passionate, hysterical joy of being alive.

Then the gods bestow their blessing.

A kiss.

Mo Xiao gives her a light kiss

amid the crowd, in the darkness,

to the ambiguous music.

No one pays them any mind. For one brief moment, Tong Qing lives again.

I've been watching music variety shows lately, and I'm completely under the spell of psychedelic rock. I'm so hooked that I couldn't resist starting a fun little idea first. Night Case will have to wait a bit longer. Sorry, everyone!

I promise this one's sweet! From beginning to end!

Theme: Offering flowers to Plato