No one would have blamed Heath for wanting the bauble. It sat with delicate weight on the pedestal and gleamed with inviting indifference. Although it flashed light onto his face whenever he moved near it, this was true of most treasure. Treasure attracts the senses. This tiny happiness for which he had searched bore all the signature traits of sin. He coveted it, he lusted for it, he wanted, badly, to steal it from its owner. With his artful, almost poetic sophistry, he even argued himself into believing that it wanted to be stolen \u00e2\u20ac\u201d nay, freed \u00e2\u20ac\u201d from its comfortable pillow, nestled in an embrace of sunlight from above.<\/p>\n
“I would wear this trinket proudly,” he thought, “I would make sure everyone saw it. I would even share it, if it wanted to be shared. People could take turns wearing it, so long as they returned it by the end of the day, so I could spend my nights in adoration. I would never tire of gazing at it, of caressing it.”<\/p>\n
As his fingers extended to touch the facade of the bauble, however, a deep sadness suddenly made him feel heavy. Heavy and weak. How many such objects had he touched in the past? How many had he stolen? Yet, here he stood, with child-like petulance, ready for another. He remembered then, the trophy case he had built, foggy now with dust each time he walked past it. And there, on the mantle, the clock he had built. Intricate gears which represented infinite care, its housing etched with carved grooves and careless gashes. In the yellow glow of his home, he heard its soothing, reliable tick.<\/p>\n
The bauble fairly hummed now, chirping delight as his fingers tickled its gemmed surface, shivering under his breath.<\/p>\n
He stepped back from the pedestal and the walls of the room warped and wobbled. He felt ill, and he began to dig the pads of his fingers into his temples, tearing his own flesh with funereal purpose. As his vision blurred from pain and the red wash of blood making a dire concoction with his tears, he could hear the chime of the hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No one would have blamed Heath for wanting the bauble. It sat with delicate weight on the pedestal and gleamed with inviting indifference. Although it flashed light onto his face whenever he moved near it, this was true of most treasure. Treasure attracts the senses. This tiny happiness for which he had searched bore all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s73iP8-trifle","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":965,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=965","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":0},"title":"Pick a point and head for it. Turn only when necessary.","date":"3\/20\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was young \u00e2\u20ac\u201d fourth grade is my best estimation \u00e2\u20ac\u201d we took a field trip to a nature preserve of some kind. I don't remember the bus ride, but I do remember that when I got there, it seemed to me we must have thousands of miles from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=21","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":1},"title":"America…","date":"11\/5\/2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Randy \"Macho Man\" Savage stands clear as the voice of our generation, an American treasure not to be discounted. When he sings \"Don't be a punk, Hogan,\" how can one not hearken back to Thoreau's \"Civil Disobedience\" and its lightning-strike criticism of societal constructs? Stand aside, Mr. O'Reilly. Warm up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Best of the Buddha"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":126,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=126","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":2},"title":"Saving throw vs. ridicule…failed!","date":"5\/5\/2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite my complete ignorance of their deadlines, Gamegrene was kind enough to post my second article. I've learned some things since then, and probably would have written more had I not wanted to meet that deadline, but there it is nonetheless. Yeah, I'm a big nerd, but I'm not alone.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "For the geek in you"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1836,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=1836","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":3},"title":"Free write from May 2013","date":"7\/25\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I found this on my ipad in the pages app as I worked on the schedule for this week at the theater. Forgive repetitive content and misspellings. I did not edit. Just copy\/paste. ------- Why I decided to forego Shakespeare, just this once. Having played Caliban in a highly acclaimed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2584,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=2584","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":4},"title":"Endings","date":"1\/20\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My grandfather died on January 20. 1. I heard from my mother that he was sick, refusing meds, home in bed. He was surrounded by people, professing to hate that. An old dog that wanted to die alone under the porch. I wanted to respect that, so I declined offers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":372,"url":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/?p=372","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":5},"title":"Vacation, all I never wanted.","date":"8\/10\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"My trip to New York State pretty much sucked, but MHG's got some photos up from the Fort up in the Adirondacks.","rel":"","context":"In "Ennui"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2909,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908\/revisions\/2909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.steelbuddha.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}