he decided the time had come to let go of things dispatch them  things he used as visual references to remind him  as if they werent there he wouldnt be able to remember

clues  queues

time  it was time

all around him he realised it high time

                                        as he watched people too many to count download their memories into machines upload them into clouds interface have virtual conversations and believe them intimate believe that they were having a real face-to-face communication

they of course wouldnt remember them 

however they could review them anytime they wished – if they could find them

to combat this new burgeoning forgetfulness he realised and understood that like ancient storytellers or historians he would have to be dependent on his memory

he worked hard to hone it 

and part of honing his memory was destroying the touchstones he scattered everywhere

and should his mental steel or whetstone be imperfectbe less than it should  then forgetting was his fault and things forgotten would be the perfect stones hung around his neck to bend and misshape his spine rendering him the old man who watches his feet as he walks rightfully he wouldnt deserve to see what was coming or the hawks circling overhead or the rush of small birds going between treetop shoals

with a gasp the first thing he swept away were appleseeds spiderwebs 

she affixed them to the corners of the ceiling to either side of the mirror above the washbasin

he gulped  vividly remembering her silent companionship his countless grateful words thanking her again and again as she stuck it out with himhelped him fight whatever it was that debilitated himcrippled himsplit him bilaterally from the top of his skull to his anus  difficult pain attacking his joints his wrists and hands yet somehow forgiving him his feet  so at least he was mobile  mobile to struggle from place to place for more than nine months

nine months  before it began to release its hold retract its tines and barbs

nine months crawling in and out of three hot baths daily to loosen him  enough   to manage his curtailed life

remembering appleseed he wept

it turned out that effacing her webs was the hardest hurtle  wouldnt it though  being the first and the first of anything or any change the hardest to finally get out of the way  despite musings  indecision   regret

appleseed disappeared more than two years ago

curious how her silver ethereal web tenaciously bound them  how it transfixed and held him

         

a day or two before leaving for fishing,  22 June 2018

1107,  Monday,  9  7. 18