e

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T BODY T
porn KinGdoM
off the seven repetitions of “her,” you were left with only
fifty-three. Gerald was supposed to construct a suitable
memory of Anna from fifty-three words in the time be-
tween blinks. His face was blank, not because he didn’t
care, but because he was shocked and disappointed, be-
cause he was trying his best to craft a suitable final mem-
ory, a memory worthy of a human life, and was finding
that he was ill-equipped.
The only thing he could see visually was her smile,
those “thin lips, forever turned upward, constantly
amused with the universe.” Those amused lips, always
reminding Gerald that they understood something he
could not: that the universe was nothing but a giant up-
side down-cake, a big cosmic mess that is either to be
laughed at or buried beneath. Anna chose to laugh. Ger-
ald chose to take things seriously; and just look how he
ended up! she was right; it was embarrassing.
Anna had once referred to the universe—or rather the
idea of the universe, the everything in which all matter
swims—as the porn Kingdom.
“The porn Kingdom?” Gerald had asked, rubbing his
forehead in disbelief. “That’s terrible. why would you
call it the porn Kingdom?”
Anna gingerly bit a piece of teriyaki chicken off a thin
wooden stick, chewed for a moment, and swallowed. “Be-
cause that’s what it reminds me of.”
“pornography?” Gerald mumbled to himself.
blue moon 159
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