“So anyway we were at the Hot Club for the first time in ages,” Markos Vamvakaris said, “a bartender I hadn't seen in at least four to five years was still behind the bar, she recognized me immediately, with a new purple dyed haircut that, although probably a smidgeon young for her age, suited her nicely, I thought. She poured me a healthy amount of Mezcal into a short glass, and only minutes later I’d notice her carrying a bottle of Del Maguey Vida, my favorite brand of Mezcal, back to the bar, and right then I surmised that I was drinking my favorite type of Mezcal. 

“Of course healthy pours are double edged swords when you have a tendency to chug whatever's in front of you, which for better or worse is a tendency I've never entirely managed to discard, especially when in social settings. Socially, historically, I’ve always found myself sprinting toward liquor, with reckless abandon almost I perform fifty yard dashes toward whatever my spirit of choice is that month, and even though on balance I've reduced these excessive tendencies with age, I'd be lying to both myself and you if I said I’d discarded them completely. And to be honest I’m unsure if I’d wish to discard them in totality, to extinguish my child-like idiocy once and for all, because sure from a certain vantage point I suppose I remain a man-child of sorts, but on the other hand man-children are necessary, no? 

“It's man-children who make the greatest philosophical strides. To think like an adult is to take on the guise of utter rationalism, which hardly ever if not never innovates, which refuses to become idiotic enough to alter fundamental axioms, as axioms are inevitably created by the child-like thinkers, by idiots of the spirit. Even God Himself allegedly said Let there be light, which is a man-child like statement in my opinion. Personally I still refuse to sleep in the dark.”

“The dark is contemptible in my mind,” Giorgos Batis said.

“There's something inherent in being itself that's synonymous with light in my opinion,” Markos agreed.

“But how was Hot Club?”

“It was interesting,” Markos said, “intriguing, better than I anticipated, given the last couple times I’d been I felt the atmosphere to be a bit too clubby for my tastes, a tad too adolescent for even my man-child palette. I saw the doorman from The Parlour there, because apparently he works security at Hot Club as well? In any case as the party increased in size Dara and I ended up engaged in an extended conversation with a petite fair-skinned female who adamantly claimed to be of New York origin, yet when an appropriate opening emerged for me to ask her what part of New York she was from specifically she prevaricated, saying she was quote-unquote from all over, but then saying The Bronx.” 

“She was from The Bronx? She didn't strike me as someone from The Bronx, and for someone whose identity seemed to be so tied with being from New York, a New Yorker, which is the case with so many people from New York, it’s actually kind of sad to me, this violent melding that seems to occur with people who identify themselves with New York City, yet this female, who for the record I found pleasant, oddly enough refused to explicitly claim a borough, until she reluctantly said The Bronx, which I think struck everyone as totally misguided. She wasn't from The Bronx, that much was clear. She could be from anywhere in the world except The Bronx. 

“This idea that this female’s origin story began in The Bronx was completely absurd. Which borough she was from, assuming she was from a particular borough, now that was still ambiguous, but it was clear she wasn't from the Bronx. Queens, that I could give some credence to I suppose. It might be a reasonable speculation to suggest she was from Queens. Perhaps from an opulent family in Upper Manhattan, now that was even more likely, because she certainly struck me as someone who came from money, there was no trace of a New York accent in her speech, or of any accent in her speech, and the geography of Upper Manhattan is close enough to The Bronx that she could, in her mind at least, perhaps justify claiming The Bronx as a borough, even though I find that to be a bit ridiculous, to conflate Upper Manhattan with The Bronx, to think any thinking person would buy the idea that Upper Manhattan is in any way synonymous with The Bronx. Staten Island and Brooklyn strike me as more remote possibilities of her origin, and then we could also speculate on outer-areas as well, because while Yonkers strikes me as a stretch, I think Westchester County or Long Island are both certainly in play.

“Do you think it possible that she could have been from, say, Westchester County,” Giorgis postulated, “which would explain her moneyed demeanor, yet moved to The Bronx for work later in life, and now, and I agree that this is misguided, feels as though that working experience justifies her claim that The Bronx is a place she's actually from?”

“Giorgios,” Markos replied, “that actually strikes me as perhaps the most sensible explanation of all. I also noticed, and I think it’s worth noting, that when she sat her posterior was a tad more ample than I’d imagined, that this posterior along with the ambiguity of her origin began to strike me as almost ominously out of place, as if another plane of existence was forming.”

“That happens at times,” Giorgos said, “posteriors and their relative amplitude can vary widely from expectations, the posterior is almost impossible to estimate based on face alone.”

“I guess it’s reasonable to assert that we often look at a person's face and almost algorithmically create a simulation of their body from this face,” Markos said, “that our mind works essentially algorithmically, we should admit that, that our minds are probably just composed of algorithms, and that we perform a similar process with voice, which actually happened to me just recently as well, where I spoke to a person on the phone and inevitably created an algorithmic simulation of her face in my mind. When I saw her face at last online I was struck by how much this picture differed from the simulation I’d made in my mind, who was it I believed I was speaking to? I look at someone's face and then I ruthlessly algorithmically simulate their body without consent, whereas I hear someone's voice and then I ruthlessly algorithmically simulate their face without consent, but in both cases my accuracy is totally stochastic, and by stochastic I mean terrible.”

“From voice to face and from face to body,” Giorgos said, “we make ill-advised, ruthless speculations regarding everyone who enters our periphery!”

“In this sense the simulation of the human begins with voice,” Markos said, “From voice alone we algorithmically simulate both face and body, because from face we simulate body, as you said. 

“In any case as the conversation progressed we, myself, Dara, and this female, began to touch on the topic of what exactly this female had been doing since leaving New York, and in the midst of this it came up that it just so happened that her and I were actually the same age, that she'd been finding locales she liked at our age, although she noted how difficult it was, compared to New York, where she knew the ins and outs of where to patronize and when, what establishments she enjoyed and which ones she despised. 

“I agreed immediately, noting that at my age, at our age, it was one of the main deterrents to moving to another city, particularly New York, which I’d strongly considered moving to more than once, but as I said explicitly to her to have to relearn every single place that I like to go, and how to get there, to relearn which places offend my palate, at my age, it just struck me as way too daunting of a task to take on. It struck me as a task that would consume so much of my energy that it would essentially mute all of my philosophical energies for at least five years. She mentioned a Lebanese bar where “you walk downstairs” that she liked a lot. 

“I said the entire city of Providence has become essentially one extended hookah lounge, which I admitted to her, full disclosure, appeals to me deeply, which, full disclosure, seemed to genuinely surprise her, that the entire city of Providence was an extended hookah lounge. I said the city is littered with Greek and Lebanese places like that, which of course Giorgos we know isn't true in the least, that there are only a fraction of Greek locations compared to Lebanese locations, yet I stated it with so much aplomb she didn't question it at all, although she did immediately question whether Greeks smoked hookah, to which I simply said Ottoman Empire, to which she said of course, immediately connecting the dots.”

“My goodness,” Giorgos said, “I have to say that’s fairly impressive, that a fair-skinned female from New York would connect those dots that quickly. The Ottoman Empire, I mean at this point it’s basically a piece of arcana. No one knows anything about the Ottoman Empire anymore.”

“Oh I completely agree!” Markos replied, “I totally feel like there are just very few people in our general age range who know anything about the Ottoman Empire, and I’d one hundred percent wager that not one other person at Hot Club that night who knew anything about the Ottoman Empire, never mind its very specific ethnic components, who could put the pieces of Greeks ancestrally smoking hookah together by the utterance of two words: Ottoman Empire. In fact it seems to me that the Ottoman Empire is maybe the most neglected empire of the past  half millennium, that it inherited its Byzantine predecessor's characteristic of being completely discarded by modern scholarship. No one knows what you speak of when you so much as mention the Ottoman Empire, people are flummoxed, except apparently this female who may or may not be from New York, but certainly isn’t from The Bronx. 

“In short I quickly found that the ambiguity of what New York City borough characteristic was inherent in this female became reflected right into the ambiguity of the ethnic blocks of the Ottoman Empire, in a post-Ottoman American diaspora, in an America that is itself multi-ethnic, and not entirely differently than the Ottomans, Ottomans who were only trumped in their importation of African slaves by America’s out of control love affair with the African slave. No one imported more African slaves than the Ottoman Empire, except of course the United States of America. The ambiguity of the traits displayed by a Greek versus a Turk versus a Lebanese versus a Kurd versus an Armenian in the seemingly limitless Providence Hookah Network was suddenly a direct analog to the ambiguity of the New York City borough characteristics inherent in a person who perhaps dubiously claims to be from New York City. 

“In one instance we’re unsure if we’re witnessing a Greek, a Turk, a Lebanese, a Kurd, an Armenian; in the other instance we’re unsure if we’re witnessing a person from The Bronx, from Manhattan, from Staten Island, from Brooklyn, from Queens; in both cases the overlapping characteristics, outside of their original context (of the Ottoman Empire and New York City, respectively), become vague enough in their nuance that the identity of each bleeds into the other, until the individual identities are erased completely. 

“The New York City diaspora in Providence can reflect characteristics associated with Staten Island, with Manhattan, with The Bronx, with Brooklyn, with Queens, while the median hookah smoker this New York City transplant may encounter in the extended Providence Hookah Network may display characteristics of the Greek, of the Turk, of the Lebanese, of the Kurd, of the Armenian. In both cases what’s Staten Island, what’s Queens, what’s Kurd, what’s Greek, what’s Brooklyn, what’s Manhattan, what’s Lebanese, what’s Turk, what’s The Bronx, what’s Armenian all bleed into one another until they’re essentially indistinguishable from each other, until they’re essentially extinguished, until we reach a fundamental oneness of an Ottoman New York City, a legitimate plane of existence that came into being only at the Hot Club via conversation this past Friday night.”

“This is a physical plane of existence now,” Giorgos said, “the Ottoman New York City of Oneness.”

“It can no longer be denied,” Markos agreed, “an Ottoman New York City where all identity has been extinguished into a monadic Oneness came into existence on a Friday night at the Hot Club.”

“Yet that girl---could she have actually been from The Bronx?” Giorgos asked.

“With one hundred percent certainty I will assure you Giorgos,” Markos said, “that the girl I spoke with Friday night was absolutely not from The Bronx---”

“Initially a thin hipster with a full red beard was in the bathroom at Nick-A-Nee’s, peeing at the tall urinal,” Markos Vamvakaris said, “but when I went in, after he walked out, I made a point to pee at the kiddie urinal, a trademark of mine, for whatever reason I find myself more at ease at the kiddie urinals, as I'm long-torsoed in addition to being of only average height; yes, the kiddie urinals are essentially made for me, and peeing at the kiddie urinal I took note of what looked like a piece of asscrack lint connected inextricably to a long piece of ass hair. This is what it struck me as at least. 

“I thought back to parking on the street fifty feet from Nick-A-Nee’s, to my consternation with the driver wearing a snowcap in his maroon pickup truck cursing me through his windshield as I slowly scoped the one open spot on the street. At that time, with his perturbed expression and prehistoric facial features, he struck me as the worst person in the world and frankly still does. 

“I wished nothing but the worst things on this person as I pulled over to let him pass, haranguing him through my windshield as he simultaneously screamed at me through his windshield, then calmly hit reverse to move back into the middle of the street, to parallel park in the only open spot, just momentarily lodging the right rear wheel ever so slightly onto the attenuated curb. 

“In my mind this man in the pickup truck was a grotesque stain on the face of our  planet. His face, in both its structure and expression, sticking with me at the bar in Nick-A-Nee’s, more or less revolted  me in the most extreme of ways. 

“The man to my left ordered an impressively grotesque smelling soup from the bar---it was all I could smell at the time, and the stench was such that it struck me as frankly a little unbelievable it wafted from a bowl a man was actually eating from, yet if anything this made me enjoy Nick-A-Nee’s even more. 

“The band playing the bar employed a white saxophone player, and each respective instrumentalist was drinking a separate, distinct variety of alcohol---one whiskey, one craft beer, one some type of mixed drink, one nothing at all, all four frankly looking little like typical musicians, and I found it notable how easily the saxophone, I presumed tenor, sat in the mix with just a microphone next to it, given the accompaniment of electric guitar, electric bass, and acoustic drums that were played in a thoroughly rock, as opposed to jazz, style. I guess I never knew that about tenor saxophone. Rock drums have increasingly distressed me of late. 

“When I think of a style of drumming that offends my taste, rock drumming immediately vaults to the top of the list---in my opinion Stratos most rock music would be immeasurably improved with the simple removal of percussion, or at least with a more muted substitute of percussion. Maybe a tongue drum? Amplified tongue drum? Distorted tambourine? 

“But honestly that's just me, because I fully realize most people love percussion, that percussion is viewed as the so-called backbone of modern composition, that tons of listeners still venerate rock music. In any case I guess I should start to explain how I got here, shouldn't I?”

“From your parallel universe you mean?” Stratos Payioumtzis said.

“Exactly Stratos,” Markos went on, “It now seems to me that I crossed over into this universe, or I should say I became aware that it had happened, precisely at the point where the bozo in the snowcap in his dark red pickup truck began yelling at me through his windshield, as I attempted to parallel park up the street from Nick-A-Nee's, where a man would then order one of the most disgusting smelling soups I’ve ever encountered from its bar. 

“It was obvious as the man, who I despised, looked exactly like someone from Alabama, he was wearing a snowcap despite it being a moderately temperate day in early April, and given these facts it was obvious something had shifted significantly, but I couldn’t draw any conclusions quite at that point. 

“But these are the types of cues you have to take into account with regard to things such as these Stratos, parallel universe conundrums so to speak. How exactly it happens I’m not at liberty to detail at this time, as it's possible I’m ignorant of the mechanics of the process, or I'm aware of the process in a way I can only communicate in indirect ways.”

“This makes sense, Markos,” Stratos said, “There’s obviously only so much we can put into words when it comes to parallel universes.”

“For example,” Markos said, “it was precisely at Nick-A-Nee's that I happened to log onto the basketball-reference dot com webpage Stratos, which only confirmed my suspicions, which had been steadily rising, which only acted as another clue as I delved deeper into the statlines I’ll detail right now. 

“Specifically, as I recalled it, beyond a shadow of a doubt it sat in my memories, the Boston Celtic Jayson Tatum owned a statistical profile that exceeded that of Dallas Maverick Luka Doncic, whereas Luka Doncic had a statistical summation that lagged that of Jayson Tatum. And yet on basketball-reference dot com at Nick-A-Nee’s, only moments after said bozo in snowcap in the Alabama-esque maroon pickup truck berated me through his windshield, it occurred to me that Luka Doncic had by far the more complete statistical profile compared to Jayson Tatum, despite both Luka and Tatum averaging above thirty points per game this NBA season. 

“Specifically, on this side Stratos, it seemed that Luka differentiated himself from Tatum by getting to the free throw stripe at a much greater clip, by making plays for others at a clip that more than doubled Tatum’s rate. 

“Where Jayson Tatum assisted on just twenty percent of his possessions, while turning the ball over on ten percent, Luka Doncic assisted on forty three percent of his possessions while turning the ball over on only twelve percent, while both rebounded just about thirteen percent of their possible possessions and shot an aggregate percentage of sixty (true shooting percentage) on their thirty points per game. 

“Yet I explicitly recalled Jayson Tatum being the far superior playmaker, by more than double, when compared to Luka Doncic, in those exact terms of assist percentage and free throw rate, yet when I logged onto basketball-reference at Nick-A-Nee's, to my great surprise, Luka Doncic separated himself from Jayson Tatum by his higher propensity of getting to the free throw stripe and by his stark contrast in setting his teammates up for made shots (especially when compared to his propensity to turn the ball over). It's only in the most minute of ways that we can detect these transitions Stratos, if that makes sense, that we can conclude we’ve traversed across potential dimensions, if that makes sense?”

“Oh, absolutely!” Stratos said.

“And to add to the confusion it was only a night later, in a vivid dream,” Markos continued, “that I found myself in a desolate house covered with orange wallpaper, curiously preoccupied with bathing myself, apparently getting ready for something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, it was in this home with the orange interior that I felt again this psychic energy with near strangers, near strangers who seem to pop into my mental space unannounced, that has increasingly struck me as an actual physical phenomenon. 

“That I can actually think back toward these near strangers in a physical fashion. Yet this was before a particular shadow from my past appeared to me yet again in dream, in the most vivid of manners, and I began to run from something, something I couldn’t identify, while simultaneously reconnecting with this shadow without either of us saying a word to each other, until I stumbled upon what looked like a locker room in an open field. I entered the building, a so-called locker room in an open field, and realized all of its memorabilia was from nineteen ninety eight, and I realized I’d traveled back to nineteen ninety eight, that everything I touched was totally nineteen ninety eight, that my own so-called identity was just a clumsy block across something that could be traversed if approached properly, and then suddenly the thought occurred to me: Time starts in the middle and winds around, always in the middle, I thought, that this notion of time beginning at the beginning is entirely false, perhaps even nonsensical. 

“When awake I frantically wrote a note that simply said: Time starts in the middle and winds around. And as I encountered this idea streams of green for lack of a better word time shot out, like Nickelodeon Gack or something, various streams of time overlapping each other in joyous bursts of green, like the word Go, and it was a sort of joyous event even in its ambiguity. I was a little disappointed to wake up.”

“Did you do shrooms at all?” Stratos asked.

“No sadly Stratos I was completely free from hallucinogens when I went to sleep,” Markos said, “when I went to Nick-A-Nee’s, when the red-bearded hipster peed at the adult urinal, when the man next to me ordered the disgusting soup, when the bozo with the snowcap screamed at me, when the saxophone was surprisingly high in the mix. No we don’t necessarily need to travel in the traditional sense in order to travel great distances, that much we can be sure of.”

“That makes complete sense to me, Markos!” Stratos said.

“It was in the drizzling rain that I was waiting for a valet to take the keys to my parked car right in front of the restaurant entrance,” Markos Vamvakaris began, “thinking about how it was common enough in the past for people to think I resembled a valet, that people passing this restaurant could easily mistake me for a valet in the midst of valeting my own car, that yes it's certainly true that consciousness, as its reported by its constituents in the modern era, is absurd, probably to some extent driven by malevolent forces, that suicide may be the most efficacious solution to ending the meddling of these malevolent forces, but that it’s also true that there's another side. 

“There's another side that certainly mirrors this side via mathematical features, that by the implementation of mathematical functions we can perhaps slip between sides. 

“When seated I immediately ordered Mezcal on the rocks, I wasn't positive the rest of the dining party had ordered their drinks, because I was attempting to flag a valet when they initially sat down, but I also didn't care, instead I made a command decision to order a drink with this waitress as soon as I sat down. She came back two minutes later to tell me they didn't stock Mezcal. 

“No one seems to have Mezcal. Respectable restaurants somehow get away without keeping a healthy stock of Mezcal in supply, they have the audacity to call themselves respectable restaurants while completely disrespecting the more subtle distillation of the agave plant. I ordered a Casamigos Blanco, foolishly confirming with the waitress that Blanco was the quote-unquote ‘White’ type of tequila, and I enjoyed the Casamigos Blanco. I even noted to the table that I would make a point to try Casamigos Blanco again, that my previously ambivalent attitude toward Casamigos was possibly entirely predicated on my ignorance of the Blanco variety; the pour was generous. 

“With that said tequila is a bastardization of the agave plant when compared to Mezcal. Mezcal by contrast takes an entirely subtle approach to the distillation of the agave, with each variety of Mezcal containing its own subtle notes of flavor, whereas Tequila employs a one-size-fits-all, heavily blunted approach to the agave distillation process. Sure people tend to scoff at the so-called intensity of the Mezcal smokiness, its propensity to overpower anything it’s mixed with, but that’s exactly what draws me to the liquid itself. I enjoy the fact that Mezcal essentially can't be mixed, that it tastes so bold it's almost impossible to water down, these are the best natural phenomena in my mind, phenomena that are so one-of-a-kind that they need to be experienced in isolation, because in mixed company they exist in isolation anyway. 

“I enjoy isolation. I find it underrated, and I'll even admit that at times I find myself  existing in isolation even in mixed company, in my mind, traversing complex scenarios that are no less social than your average mixed company get-together. 

“In fact ever since I was small I've had this tendency, to find the society of my own mind more engaging than the society of my immediate surroundings. Yet frankly that's Massachusetts for you. I won't necessarily go as far to say that Massachusetts is a stain on the great country of America, yet if I'm being completely honest I can't say I've had the best of times in Massachusetts either.  

“For one thing,” Stratos Payioumtzis added, “there's the Bridgewater Triangle.” 

“Which it seems like almost no one even knows about,” Markos agreed, “because even I, having spent a significant chunk of my life in Massachusetts, having spent the latter half of my adolescence in the state, was actually believe it or not flabbergasted to discover, especially when taking into account the fact the phenomena is more than just a web of old wives’ tales, that it actually consists of substantive indirect evidence, which as I said is where I spent a good chunk of my adolescence, and in retrospect, during this lowest period of my life, I now feel with a fair degree of certainty, I was actually myself plagued by a demonic force of some sort, possibly even a demonic entity. 

“As I said to start Stratos it seems as though consciousness is plagued by forces outside of our so-called selves that manipulate, or attempt to manipulate, or are intimately connected with the genuine stream of consciousness in ways that are no doubt at times nefarious. Just the other morning I woke up in a state where I was almost unable to control my own mind, feeling these forces more acutely than usual, thoughts and images scurrying across my consciousness in manners that struck me as illegal in principle---I had to pray to Nazianzus for this state to cease, or at least I felt Nazianzus helped put me at ease. 

“His autobiography is terrific,” Stratos agreed, “I feel he's actually criminally understudied as a thinker as well, in the West at least?”

“The West doesn't understand anything of Nazianzus,” Markos said, “no, to this day the West understands next to nothing of Nazianzus the man, nevermind Nazianzus the structure of thought, because it was an actual structure of thought that Nazianzus assembled. The West understands nothing of Cappadocia at all, to the West Cappadocia remains a piece of arcana, an inconsequential strip in West Asia, because in the West Cappadocia is viewed as a simply Turkish locale, which isn't necessarily incorrect, but it’s certainly incomplete, no, nothing of note has occurred during the Turkish era; no nothing at all on par with the Nazianzus assembling of thought, the quintessential elevation of the integer three, the penultimate part-whole philosophy that occurred during the for lack of a better term Byzantine era of Cappadocia. In this dream Nazianzus spoke to me telepathically---”

“Like what Ingo Swann alleges?” Stratos asked.

“You know Stratos I almost never listen to audiobooks,” Markos replied, “yet I made an exception for Swann’s autobiography; I actually listened to the entire autobiography in a one or two day span, psychotically listening to this audiobook, completely enthralled, because instinctively we’re all probably aware that audiobooks are at bottom abhorrent, that the wretched audiobook, the objectionable podcast (although I’m a fan of both formats) are displacing prose, which is a true form of telepathy. 

“Whereas podcasts and audiobooks are blunted sorts of multi-tasked so-called modern communication, prose is a singular beam of telepathy that’s actually dangerous; people encourage young children to read, when in my mind reading is one of the most dangerous activities I’ve ever engaged in, simply because prose at its highest level is essentially telepathy. For this reason I generally don’t read, instead listening to idiotic podcasts to fill my afternoon. The text of Swann’s autobiography was unavailable for some reason, and beyond finding the voice actor unusually enjoyable I found his whole story to be simultaneously completely incredulous and entirely sensible. 

“There are without a doubt forces that are meddling in our conscious streams, and I think this is most likely the root of all suicide, and perhaps rightly so, it may in fact be a solution, perhaps the most sensible solution, and it was certainly something I experienced first hand during a period when I lived within the Bridgewater Triangle. 

“I even recall an instance, probably at my lowest point, when I was responsible for closing a shoe store in the Wrentham Outlets, a task that in and of itself nearly drove me to drowning myself---I was all alone closing this shoe store when an odd older lady entered, she was older yet lively, mystical and not obviously in need of footwear in general, nevermind at nearly nine o'clock at night. She basically read my life to me by looking into my eyes, alone behind the register, telling me repeatedly and intently all sorts of fanciful tidbits, a litany of tidbits were recited to me, over and over again. I actually sadly totally forget every single thing she said to me beyond an insistence that I was descended from emperors, which she repeated over and over, and oddly enough years later my uncle would casually mention to me my grandmother was from Sparta-Mystras---”

“Where the Palaiologii last resided,” Stratos said.

“Exactly Stratos!” Markos jubilantly replied, “In retrospect I do wonder where exactly this person emerged from, for whatever reason I find it hard to believe she was in need of any footwear, and I find it absurd she would be roaming around the Wrentham Outlets after dark. As a matter of fact it wasn't the last time a person would have the audacity to approach me and attempt to tell me my own life story, and both times they struck me as totally correct!---no but in retrospect as incredulous as it may seem I do find myself wondering if this odd lady was a corporeal entity at all, or if instead she was some kind of apparition, because I’ve actually encountered reports of allegedly noncorporeal entities meandering around the Wrentham Outlets around closing. In any case I was sitting at Andino's on Federal Hill, and I was drinking a Casamigos Blanco on the rocks, trying to enjoy myself after a long week.”

“But did you know Casamigos also makes a Mezcal as well?” Stratos said.

“Funny you should say that Stratos,” Markos went on, “because I actually drank about six or so Casamigos Mezcals at The Parlour just a month or so ago, after the bartender, after I asked her for a Mezcal, asked me what kind of Mezcal I wanted, saying, after I asked her what kind of Mezcal she had, there was a Casamigos Mezcal if I wanted to try it? 

“I said I thought Casamigos was strictly tequila, but she said they made a Mezcal as well. I took her up on the offer, yet I was ultimately unimpressed with the Mezcal. She told me some people drink it with an orange and gave me one, but I was ultimately unimpressed with the Mezcal, even with the orange. 

“In any case, I was sitting at Andino's drinking a Blanco Casamigos, thinking to myself that it was kind of a quaint interior, an inviting ambiance, a better atmosphere than I remembered, as the last time I ate at Andino’s was two or so years ago, when I ordered the spaghetti aglio and the kitchen burnt the garlic, which is really all I recall of the night. In any case I was only glancing in a perfunctory fashion at the menu, as I'd already decided I’d order the Destefano garden salad entree, as I ate a cup of brown rice with walnuts prior to arriving, because, with my current GI issues, ordering anything else would entail too much tail risk. In any case sitting at Andino’s drinking a Blanco Casamigos I thought to myself that, yes, the only way to approach the other side is via a muted mathematics, a coding behind what faces us, on this side. 

“We create something that seems to be one thing, but behind this one thing is a complex coding of another thing, another thing that communicates with the other side, a sort of mathematical telepathy to add on to our prosaic telepathy. 

“This is the only way forward for me, I thought, taking another sip of Casamigos Blanco, actually in an increasingly jubilant mood, despite a debilitating week. A stream of consciousness must be encoded with a muted mathematics behind it Stratos, and perhaps this coding itself will not just communicate with this other side, but also protect our streams of consciousness against the meddling of forces we can only summarily understand and should probably refrain from even mentioning further!”

01. Aggregate Penis in Inner Saturn

02. Bronchial Herpes in the 2190s