Monday, June 15, 2015

Nine days with Stephen

Empty are the hours post-Stephen
Lonely in the afterglow
Still, I'll not yet move on
For to this am I resigned
The next will ne'er sate me
As once he did


I knew of Stephen, but didn't come to know him personally until around ten years ago.  He gave me some tips on writing.  Useful tips.  Though how much and how well I've applied them is quite debatable.

Then we sort of drifted apart for a few years, as guys are wont to do.  Of course I heard things.  He was quite successful.  Me, less successful.  But I knew deep down that that never mattered to Stephen.

When we ran into each other a couple of weeks ago, it was as if we hadn't missed a step.  No, I take that back.  It was even better than before.

He was different somehow, but just as thrilling as ever.  And I realized I had matured in those ten years.  I was more equipped to handle a relationship now, the kind of commitment Stephen required.

And so we began.

Like I so often do with a new relationship, almost immediately I began to neglect friends, writing, and all other aspects of my life.  If there were a free moment to be stolen, I would spend it with him.

It's not that Stephen demands that, not in so many words anyway.  And yet he does, simply by the intensity he himself brings to the relationship.

So that's where I've been.  With Stephen.  I blame him completely.  What with his tales of time travel, the obdurate past, preventing the JFK assassination and such.  Who could resist?  Certainly not me.

As so often is the case with guys like Stephen, after only a week I could feel our time coming to an end.  Our relationship was sort of like an 842-page book, and I was already on page 627.  It was exactly like that, in fact.

Stephen lingered a couple of days more.  Then he was gone.

That love which soars the highest so often burns out the quickest.



There's a sign in front of the elementary school I pass on my way home which says, "Enjoy your summer. Read, read, read!"  Apparently their repetitive marketing/mind-control has worked, as I've been on a reading rampage the past few weeks (see above).  My most recent conquest was Stephen King's "11/22/63."  It's the longest book I've ever read (and it's not even really close).  I always feel a touch of melancholy in the days after finishing a good book.  And yes, I still buy actual books.  I haven't been converted to electronic readers yet.  They already took my cassettes and Polaroids!  I'm hanging on to these as long as I can.

19 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Of Stephen? Or me? :)

      Delete
    2. I meant you, but you know, with as many books as he has under his belt, and your fanship, it's hard not to be jealous of him, too.

      Delete
  2. "It's not that Stephen demands that, not in so many words anyway" That's your best line, considering how many words go into a SK novel...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed. I was worried I wasn't gonna be able to finish it when I saw the size of the thing. I'm more of a 200-300 page guy.

      Delete
  3. This is exactly what it's like to give your heart to Stephen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Coming from you, that is high praise.

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry about the multiple comments. I miss my laptop.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not a problem. It makes my comment count look better, if nothing else

      Delete
  7. For me, leaving Stephen was the worst after going through the entire Dark Tower series. Of course since I had to start it in my teenage years and finish it twenty years later, I went through the worst withdrawals, especially after finding out the ending to those twenty years of anticipation. He is the only fiction writer that I still read these days.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great piece. This is one of my favorites... One more thing we have in common, reading I mean, sorry to say that Stephen King was never really on my radar. I'm not that big a fan of horror...too much of a romantic me. But I totally understand the absolute absorption into a good book; I'm exactly the same. And I am in agreement that while Kindles are cool, they just don't do it for me. I like the feel of a book in my hands, I want to smell the pages, feel the paper on my fingertips....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, this is only the second book of his I've ever read. The other was "On Writing," which I would highly recommend, by the way.

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Delete
  9. I totally thought this was heading towards Stephen Colbert.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It easily could have. I'm pretty sure he and I had a thing at one time.

      Delete
  10. I stopped reading Stephen King right after the last book in the Gunslinger series. I had invested a lot into those characters and when I found out how the book ended, I was so devastated. I've not actually read the last book simply because, in my mind, if I don't read it, it won't happen and I can go on believing things are okay.

    How are you enjoying Apathy? I didn't really care for it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Apathy" is one of the funniest books I've read. The plot/ending leave quite a bit to be desired.

      Delete