FUNHOUSE JIHYEKIM

You were nice . You were funny and spontaneous and kind. I wanted to be your fr iend, I wanted to be you. And we were fr iends… for a while . Your sarcastic humor gr adually tur ned into shar p-tongued comments and with anxiety I held onto you for so long I remembered the summer time how we guessed what the future would br ing us I wanted to go back to the way things used to be The more we grew apar t, the more I realized just how many memor ies I had fabr icated to make you seem faultless Sor ting through to see what was real and what was fake became a confusing challenge that made me feel so helpless You weren’t always the bad guy, or maybe you were .

WHO WERE YOU?

This was a mistake . Is what I couldn’t help but think as I tr aver sed the sandy deser t. Why did I think tr aveling to Egypt was a good idea? Oh r ight, I wanted to go to Memphis but my so-called “fr iends” left me behind in the deser t as a pr ank. I swear I’m never tr aveling with people ever again, it’ll just be me and my dog Br uno but even

This is bad I r an out of water a few minutes ago or was it hour s? Yup it’s hour s the sun is a lot lower than when I last viewed it I’m using the sun to tell time now, I might as well use my empty plastic water bottle as a sundial To tr uly get into that ancient Egyptian lifestyle , I’ll use papyr us as toilet paper and wor ship cats as gods Ugh the lack of water is getting to my head, I’m so thir sty I feel like I’ll shr ivel up like a pr une . If I die I’ll become a ghost and haunt my fr iends. That thought made me feel a little better about my situation, I’m still thir sty though. But…could it be? That glint in the distance…the diamond in the mines, the silver in the r ust, the r ipe mango in the trees, the water in the deser t! I made haste towards the shimmer in the distance , I r an and panted like I had …………

Twas but a lie , the light I saw was merely a metal bottle cap that the sun hit a no water, no relief, no salvation. There is no God, only pain. “Yo Ricky! When are you gonna stop cr ying and get out of the sand?!”

“I’m on my angst arc Damian!”

“We’ve been following you for two hour s! Stop being a Dr ama Queen and get in the car!”

My fr iends drove by in their tr uck, they’ve been following me this entire time but I refuse to get in until I get proper amends “You guys need to apologize for eating my gummy wor ms ”

Memphis Now get in the car!.. Please ”

“Hmpf adequate .” I climbed into the air conditioned backseat next to Damian “Theater kid” he mumbled spitefully. “I will get out of this car,” I war ned, which followed a chor us of groans and pleas for me to cease the dr amatics. “Wipe your face ,” One of my fr iends piped up, “tear s waste water.”