A Specific Street Near The Edge Of Town

[G. S. Carnivals]

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As I wandered along one street or another throughout that morning and into late afternoon, I recalled a specific street near the edge of town, a dead-end street where all the houses and the buildings seemed to have grown into one another, melding their diverse materials into a bizarre and jagged conglomerate of massive architectural proportions, its peaked roofs and soaring chimnied towers visibly swaying and audibly moaning even in the calm of an early summer twilight. I had thought that this was the absolute limit, only to find out at exactly the moment of having this thought that there was something further involved with this street, something that caused persons living in the area to repeat a special slogan or incantation to whomever would listen. When you hear the singing, they said, you will know it is time. These words were spoken, and I heard them myself, as if the persons uttering them were attempting to absolve or protect themselves in some way that was beyond any further explication. And whether or not one heard the singing, or had ever heard what was called the singing, and whether or not that obscure and unspeakable time ever came, or would ever come to those who arrived in that street with its houses and other buildings all mingled together and tumbling into the sky, there nevertheless remained within you the feeling that this was still the place - the town near the northern border - where you came to live and where you might believe you would be a permanent resident until either you chose to leave it or until you died, possibly by violent misadventure or some wasting disease, if not by your own hand.       Thomas Ligotti - “When You Hear the Singing, You Will Know It Is Time” Added by: G. S. Carnivals on 06-09-2007 #145