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#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, WINDS ESKER ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, THERE WAS THIS PLACE THAT FOR TWO YEARS ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, I COULDN'T GO TO. REGARDLESS HOW MUCH ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, DISCUSSED WITH OTHERS, OR POINTED OUT ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, ON MAPS, I COULD NOT THINK OF IT WHEN ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, ALONE. I WOULD OFTEN TRAVEL PAST THE ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, FORK, WHERE A RIGHT TURN WOULD SURELY ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, TAKE ME THERE, BUT EVEN THEN, SOMETHING ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, KEPT ME AWAY. ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, WHEN I FINALLY GOT THERE, AFTER SOME ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, HEAVY SUBCONSCIOUS BATTLE I MUST ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, ASSUME, THE PLACE WAS SURREAL. AN ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, ESKER, LIKE A NEEDLE-THIN RIFT OUT IN ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, THE LAKE, BUT TEN METERS HIGH AND ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, ADORNED IN BIRCH, WILLOW, BRACKEN, AND ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, BLUEBERRIES. ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, WALKING ATOP THAT SPINE, I CAME TO ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, NOTICE THE VIEW TO EITHER SIDE. THERE ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, SHOULD BE SHORES, OF COURSE, BUT I ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, DIDN'T RECOGNIZE THEM. FIRST OFF, THEY ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, WERE MUCH TOO CLOSE, AS THE LAKE SHOULD ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, STRETCH FOR A HUNDRED METERS MORE ON ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, BOTH SIDES. BUT NOW I FELT I COULD ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, ALMOST REACH OUT AND TOUCH THEM. AND ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, THEN, WHEN I REALIZED WHICH SHORES THEY ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, WERE, I HAD TO STOP. ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, THEY WERE OF THE RIGHT LAKE. BUT THIS ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, LAKE IS LARGE, FRACTURED, AND ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, BIPARTITE. LIKE A PAIR OF LUNGS CARVED ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, INTO THE GRANITE, AND WITH NO LESS THAN ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, FIVE COMMUNITIES ANCHORED AT VARIOUS ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, POINTS. AND SO, STUDYING THESE ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, IMPOSSIBLY CLOSE SHORES, I SLOWLY ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, UNDERSTOOD THEM AS BELONGING MANY MILES ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, AWAY. ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, I EXAMINED THE RIDGE, THE TREELINE ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, ABOVE. WAS THIS WHAT YOU SAW OPPOSITE, ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, FROM THOSE OTHER SHORES? I COULDN'T ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, REMEMBER. ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, CARRYING FORWARD, ON THE VERY TIP OF ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, THE ESKER, I FOUND THE RUINS OF SOME ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, OLD BUILDING. THERE WERE OVERGROWN ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, MARBLE STAIRCASES, STONE FLOORS BENEATH ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, THE MOSS, AND STRANGE SLABS INSERTED ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, INTO THE SLOPE LIKE DAMS AGAINST THE ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, GROUND ITSELF. ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, SITTING THERE, I COULD SEE ACROSS THE ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, NARROWED LAKE MY ENTIRE PATH TO WHERE I ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, SAT: FROM THE STAIRWELL OF MY HOUSE, ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, THROUGH THE OLD WOODS BEHIND THE TILE ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, FACTORY, THE BRIDGE OVER ROUTE ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, TWENTY THREE AND THEN BACK UNDER IT, ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, THROUGH THE FANCY VILLAS, OVER THE ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, FIELDS, AND THEN THAT RIGHT TURN AT THE ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, FORK. ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, AND THEN THE STAIRS UP ON THE RIDGE. ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, THINKING BACK, THIS WAS PROBABLY IT. ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, HIDDEN IN A GROVE, THERE WERE STAIRS ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, MUCH LIKE THE ONES I CURRENTLY SAT ON, ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, OLD AND WORN DOWN, THAT LEAD YOU UP ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, ONTO THE ESKER. THE POINT OF ENTRY. HAD ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, I INSTED OPTED TO WALK THE PATH AT ITS ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, FOOT, I'M SURE MY EXPERIENCE WOULD'VE ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, BEEN DIFFERENT INDEED. ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, ON THE LAKE, THERE WERE PEOPLE IN ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, BOATS. I WONDERED, COULD THEY EVEN SEE ,,,~††%§£#
##£§%††~,, ME? IF I SHOUTED, WOULD THEY TURN TO ,,~††%§£##
#£§%††~,,, STARE RIGHT THROUGH ME? ,,,~††%§£#
£§%††~,,,, ,,,,~††%§£
#£§%††~,,, ,,,~††%§£#
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