The City of Reality

by Erin Baughn

She told me to meet her on the corner of Blink and Murder, where the forgotten park was. At first I was skeptical, that side of town was sketchy, with street names like Bastard, Obituary, Death, Arse and Nihilism.

There I stood, at Blink and Murder, behind me, Blurder Park. Surely we could have met at the park over by Didgeridoo and Widdershins. That would have been nice, even romantic. That park held a single slide, an acre and a half of dead brush that every once in a while a wild animal would run though. I had a feeling that she hadn’t asked me here for a date.

I looked up the street, to the south, and I saw her shuffling along hurriedly, holding a brown paper bag to her side. I named the yellow paper streets as her feet touched them. Syringe, Taxidermy, Blood, Cataclysm, Abnormal, Dementia, Noxious, Blink.

She told me hello and I greeted her in a similar fashion. A smile lit up her eyes for a moment and they flickered over to the bag she was holding.

She began to tell me a story. She said that the names of the streets were giving this section of town a bad name. She continued to explain that she knew that I was the right person for this job because she knew from telling me to meet her there I was nervous just being over here. She told me that there was nothing to fear about this section of town, it was only becoming vacant, crime-ridden and was already a wasteland. If we didn’t act soon to change the names, the animals and the wild from the north would surely take over. We had to fix it.

When she was done explaining, she gave me the bag, which was filled with spray-paint and sidewalk chalk. She instructed me to come up with new names for the streets and paint over the signs, and chalk the name in the street. I was to think of the best, happiest words I could think of so that this area would be bustling with life again.

I agreed and she walked off without so much as a goodbye. I sighed and started at Blink and Murder.

Night, Flitter, Whisper, Kismet, Swing, Echo, Unicorn, Beautiful, Advesperate, Paradox, Congo, Swirl, Love, Craisin, Triangle, Flame, Moonbeams, Listen, Neon, Socks. Those were good words.