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To Scale (An Epiphany Story)

By Sarah M. Balcomb

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I was near the end of the line, unsure which way to go. This the part where direction depends on destination, I feared loss. Snaking across slick tile to consult a guide map, a commuter’s onslaught caught me in its wake. Soon we were above ground in a silvery twelve-seater custom van, my seatmate fiddling with a loaded ashtray, fine gray dust sprinkling his shiny black tasseled loafers. Way too late to ask where we were headed, the re-occurring ocean to my left a suitably reassuring sign.

At the first stop, I decided to continue on foot, getting velour burn on my forehead getting out. The only other pedestrians, two football jersey clad youth scrambling up a grassy knoll. The expressway south veered to the right, entering a densely suburbanized area, the semblance of strip-mall order. I chose the hillock, obviously, and easily overtook the boys.

On top, we three were suddenly put into perspective, probably as small as I’ve ever felt to scale. A scrub bush spotted plane stretched ten miles at least to the sea beneath a cloudless sky that felt as far from earth as I felt from the city I’d left mere minutes ago. This, presumably, was what I’d come for: no place but a presence.

“You going to the show,” green shirt inquired, breaking the breezy awe of our beached reverie. Way off to the south, the open bowl of a stadium gave off a penetrating musical threat.

“Sure,” I said, heading toward what redeemed itself to sound like one of my favorite bands. Lack of ticket left me listening to the reverberations off sand, sea, sky, back down in the dunes like an open beanbag.

Later, I brushed off and headed home, longing for the heady weight of heavy blankets. I imagined directing someone to where I’d just been: “Get on a train and let yourself go.”

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Sarah M. Balcomb is currently pursuing an MFA at Columbia University.
Her work has appeared in 5_Trope, American Journal of Print, Both
Magazine, Dezmin’s Archives, Eyeshot, McSweeney's, Opium Magazine, and
Pindeldyboz. She can be contacted at sarah_balcomb@msn.com.

© 2003 Me Three