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THE PROMISE OF SHADOWS

I don't know how to say this, exactly, but-- out the window of my office I can see, there above the dark and looming clouds, an entire (albeit narrow) swath of blueness of sky, sort of a reverse doppelganger of a water mirage in Death Valley-- dare I trust it? Dare I put my last hope on the line and bet the farm? Dare I believe that the unthinkable is about to occur: that we, collectively, the entire sun-flagged nation, including the emperor and his vaunted solarian forebears, are on the cusp of having a-- SUNNY AFTERNOON? Well, there are shadows out there, believe it or not. In fact when I went out into it just now, I had a shadow myself. Quite unnerving it was, since I've been traveling the byways unaccompanied for months now.