Flash! Fiction 3 by Peter McMillan - HTML preview

64

The Reading Room

Ernesto came by it accidentally. It was in the basement below the Cat's Meow. Impaired and heavy-footed, he tumbled down the steps and landed on his rump facing a different kind of red door.

It was open — just a crack — and he was curious, so he went through. Then on second thought he turned around but the door wasn't there.

Dim lights at ground level lit three narrow corridors. Ernesto chose the right since he was already leaning that way. After a few steps, he glanced back. Now, the entrance to the corridor had vanished.

So, forward he walked like a landlubber on a ship in stormy seas.

Straight, then left and straight again, and there in an alcove, a young poet was speaking.

Welcome to our room fair stranger.

Though thou be drunken to excess,

Thou mayest progress by words,

But thou wilt stay til ALL be read.

The words spun through his already spinning head. He steadied himself against a wall. It seemed important, so he asked the young woman to repeat what she'd said.

Thou knowest the drink consumeth.

Nay, the room consumeth more, you shall see.

Thou wilt remain til ALL be said

'Twill be the end as I have read.