Reading: "Altar of Incantation" from COVEAL OF THE HEDONIC (A.Glass 2025)

 

you know what you are, you were born of the self. Under no illusion. Which is quite rare as a human trait. You learned the lesson that humanity forgot. To take your time.”
The man stands, as he and Nalina embrace.
“Good seeing you again Buné,” Nalina says.
“Likewise,” the man replies, as she makes her way down E 6^th Street.

Checking her pager, seeing that there are no messages. She crosses the street, looking up at the rows of Nineteen Hundreds apartments, all with their external fire escapes. She eyes a black cat peering down at her.
The breeze, what a day. And this street. I know this place. All the spirits here have been released, yet…
Nalina nears the street number Three Hundred and Thirty Four
...There is something, I need to see.
“KJays video store, I remember when it closed years ago.”
Nalina crosses back over the street again, walking towards the five story apartment block, with its cream colored brick facade, with the Video and DVD shop at its street level.
She enters the store, admiring its eclectic interior and the large statue of Kali angled slightly towards the entrance of shop. Noting the scent of incense.
“Welcome,” a man voice is heard, holding within his left hand a stack of DVDs, as he places them onto the shelving.
Nalina looks around at the rows of DVDs and video tapes. “I’ve always wanted to come into this store, I remember this place years ago.” She lifts a video from the shelf, eyeing the aging cover of a semi-naked woman wielding a sword, in its kitschy Nineteen Eighties artwork.
The man, aged in his mid thirties continues placing DVD onto various shelves. “We reopened about Six months ago, my father Kay J he opened this store in Nineteen Eighty Five, closed it in Two Thousand and Fifteen, before the Great Collapse. He passed away in India, Two Years ago.”
“Sorry to hear,” Nalina replies, as she places the video back onto its shelving.
“Thank you. Life and its cycles. Anyway, he had all the videos and DVDs put into storage in Jersey City for over a decade, and after the digital networks also collapsed and streaming movies stopped, people dusted off their old DVD players and VCR's and started renting out movies again. Everyone these days, wants to watch the classics.”
“Feels kinda cool and strange and the same time, I remember when I had…” Nalina thinks back to a distant memory. “...a video night, my mom, she knew the actress…” She looks around the sections of videos and DVDs trying to figure out the name of the movie.”...It was a ninja movie.”
The man eyes some VHS box covers near him. “Do you remember what year?...”
Nalina shakes her heard.
“...The name of the actress?”
“No, she only made a few movies and died. It was…” Nalina tries to recall again, the year and era yet she finds it hard to pinpoint. “...Sorry, I’ve gone blank here.”
“Well…” he leans down lifting a VHS box. “...Could be this one. Ninja Retaliation: Apocalypse.” He hands the box to Nalina.
“Yeah, that’s the one. I remember the cover, this Ninja flying through the air, with Los Angeles in the background…” She flips the box cover over with screenshots of the actress, wearing skimpy attire. “...I remember a sex scene in this, it was kinda explicit…” She points to the image of the actress. “...Her name…” Looking down at the small print of the cast. “...Gina Silvana. Wow, after all these years.”
“So many hopefuls,” the man replies, as he repositions VHS boxes, that have been placed in their wrong sections.
Nalina continues to study the VHS cover box art. “The boulevard of broken dreams…”
“How did she die?”
“...I was young at the time, something to do with her brain, not to sure what it was…” Nalina thinks hack to her mother and the actress snorting coke on a Friday evening, before going out to a nightclub. “...It’s a sad story, no one visited her in hospital when she came out of a coma, except…” She flips the cover over again, looking down at the director’s name. “...The director, Harry Vandemere. She passed away all alone.” Nalina leans down and places the video box back onto its shelf.

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Reading: "Altar of Incantation" from COVEAL OF THE HEDONIC (A.Glass 2025)