4: Abysmal Solitude

Starlessbucks. Photo an alteration of one by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash.

What do people talk about when they discuss the void?

Think back. You're in a Starbucks. Two slim, yoga-pant wearing blonde ladies are ahead of you in line, getting their Starbucks apps ready to pay for their no-whip PSLs. You’re trying to mind your own business, but it’s hard not to hear what they’re talking about.

What are they talking about?

The void, of course.

“It’s, like, just so dark. Such a weird energy.”

“How dark?”

“Like, the deepest dark. I mean, midnight black. The kind of dark that would make Jung uneasy. You know that kind of, like, thing, that opens up in the back of your condo? That crack that widens a bit every time you stop thinking about relationship drama and career goals and fitness? It’s basically the same colour as that crack.”

“That’s so dark.”

“I know, right?”

They order their drinks, and you’re next. You ask the barista for a dark-roast coffee.
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“How dark?”
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Or, maybe, instead, you’re in a meeting. Long veneered table, white walls, you know the drill. Terry is explaining the financials.

“So, despite the high insurance costs and the event license, I think we should be able to keep this project in the black.”

“How black, Terry?”

“Well, pretty black, I’d say. If we sell sponsorship on the advertising, we could even be void-black.”

“But how would we synergize that,” you hear someone mutter under their breath.

“Uh, I think you’re thinking of photosynthesis, there, Barb,” Terry offers, “Synergy needs very little actual light to be optimized.”

Yes, in the black. Everyone agrees to aim for abyss-levels of darkness on the fiscal strategies front.
 
The point is that everyone talks about the void being dark. And yes, it is. It so obviously is. But what really gets to you when you’ve been searching out in it for an unknowable number of hours is how silent it is.

Still, I’ll press on. If my aim stays true, somehow, I’m bound to find whatever was causing that echo.

If the silence doesn’t drive me crazy first.