The Northville Review
an online literary journal
Where Oh Where

Eric V. Neagu

This is not exactly what you had in mind. You intended to go from here to there. But circumstances have taken you from there to here. Looking around. There is still plenty of here, but not as much there.

So you wake up and decide this is the day to get there. It will mean hard work. Effort. But get there you must! And you do.

However…

Now that you think you are there, you can’t help but notice there is similar to here in so many ways. There is not at all what you expected. Ugly minded people exist there. Someone is arguing in the near distance there. Another someone has commented on your dead mother there. A joke? Sure, she was pretty fat after all. You even laugh, which does nothing for improving the experience of there. And then you realize you are actually really still here.

And here was bad before, but now it seems tighter, smaller, like wrapping you in something unpleasant. Even so, it is somehow geographically gigantic. You feel weak because you know getting there is much harder than you thought. You go for a drink.

A car horn sounds. The dimming street lights blink on and off and then stay lit through the night. A drunk walks from a bus. You fear he will ask you for change. He does not. He does not because you are in the nicest restaurant here has to offer, but the waiter is bad and makes it less nice for you. And then you step out into the night and notice that it has become cold here. You realize you are here until you can get there. You are tired. You go home, which you know is always here.

Another morning comes. You want to leave here and go there for good. Today, however, there seems much further away. The T.V. is on here. The air conditioner is on here. Your wife is naked, but not interested in sex here.

You stay here for now.

About the author

Eric V. Neagu studied creative writing at The University of Chicago, where he received an M.A. His fiction has been published in Hackwriters and Bewildering Stories, where you'll find "Mrs. Fletcher" and "The Circumstance Concerning Hilbert," respectively. He works in sustainable redevelopment and green infrastructure as a consultant.