Excerpt: "The Asynchronous Complex: Graft of Shadows". From the novel THE GRAFT OF SHADOWS (A.Glass 2019)

 “Eighteen,  Nineteen...Twenty,”  a man says, as he leans forward sitting up, completing his last stomach crunch exercise via the outdoor gym equipment built as a community project for the local park, but it's rarely used.  A cold wind is felt, as he leans down and lifts a small bottle of beer, sipping its contents.   Looking to the right, opposite the small park is one of many of the larger apartment blocks to which his late father use to live.  Ronan Damyn stares at the nearest apartment. He then stands, a man in his late forties, holding the beer up, he has another sip, looking down at his left sneaker, with the vamp webbing beginning to wear, noticing a small tear forming.  The man without any obvious emotion gulps down the rest of the beer whilst waking towards a bin.  As a police car drives past, the man slightly angles his hand in a way so that the empty beer bottle isn't noticeable, in a calm demeanor he continues walking towards the bin as the police car drives onward, turning right into an adjacent street.  Pausing, he squints his eyes, in attempt to blur out the street fusing the light and the shadows of the late afternoon, trying to create a dreamlike perspective.  Recalling that woman, the stranger, he had recently met.   The man lifts up the collar of his trench coat.  He continues walking down towards the subway entrance.

Later that evening

“...Stock markets fell significantly, with the S&P 500 falling over one percent, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average collapsing over three percent to sixty hundred and sixty three points on Monday's trade.  Making it one of worst trading sessions for the first day of the month.  The President has asked that Americans be rest assured that the economy is strong and the job market is still buoyant.   Yet, commentators are pointing to the sharp downturns in building and construction across the nation, particularly in New York City, with rumored discussion with State officials and Federal government for a possible bailout plan for the State.  In other news, China has issued a stern warning to America in the disputed South China Sea, as tensions mount between the two Super Powers.  This could be the start of a new Cold War...”

Ronan Damyn sits at the bar, staring up at the silent television with its subtitles, he feels a slight increase of his pulse rate, brought on by benign paroxysmal, small calcium deposits lodged within the inner left ear. " 

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THE GRAFT OF SHADOWS (A.Glass 2019)