The Call of Oblivion

Dear Ms. Darien Nicolas:

We are writing in response to your inquiry about the XKP Dream-Viewer 500™. We regret to inform you that this item is currently out of stock. The next shipment is expected to arrive at our warehouse on October 1, 2023. We have placed your name on a waitlist and you will be prioritized should you decide to follow through on your purchase.

As you may already know, donning the Dream-Viewer 500™’s nonintrusive mask is akin to tuning in to the television show of your choice — while you’re asleep! If you’re plagued by pesky nightmares, if you frequently wake up in a cold sweat, if the thought of falling asleep fills you with horror and dread because you don’t know what awaits you, lurking in the depths of your troubled subconscious … we say, this is the product for you! With our patented Demon-Buster™ technology, simply envision the type of environment you would like to see in your sleep — a field of flowers, a warm bite of delectable pie, the arms of a loved one — and rest assured that will be the image you are immersed in all night.

While you wait, you can prepare for the arrival of your next favorite product by perusing our website, where you will find raving testimonials about the Dream-Viewer 500™’s efficacy from customers like you, scientific* studies expounding on the benefits of the Dream-Viewer 500™ (including alleged boosted serotonin levels* and a lovely dearth of knowledge about current events), and a personalized letter from XKP’s founder and CEO, future Nobel Prize–winning entrepreneur Frederick D. Stable.

We appreciate your business!

Sincerely, the team at XKP

*Disclaimer: These studies are anecdotal only but written in a way some might deem scientific. The XKP Dream-Viewer 500™ has not been approved for any sort of medical, psychological, or health use by any government agency … yet!

* * * * *

#BlissOurHarts

Mr. and Mrs. Lionel Hart request the pleasure of your company at the wedding of their daughter Bethy Hart to Mr. Jeffrey Bliss, Saturday, January 13, 2024, at five o’clock in the evening at the Shoestone Manor in Hunting Harbor. 

Dear Darry,

Bethy insisted we invite you, but please don’t come.

— Jeff

* * * * *

To: NicolasDarien5@email.com

From: wildflower62@email.com 

Subj: Noodles!!

Hi Darry, it was so nice to catch up over lunch today. Gosh, I can’t believe how great that ramen was! Sorry I had to leave so abruptly, I thought Maisie had dance class tomorrow not tonight. Mom brain am I right!

I wanted to say again I am so sorry for the loss of your father. I only met him once when I was moving into the building but I'll always remember the look he gave me, this bedraggled, frumpy-looking sweatpant-wearing box-toting woman with two crying kids. Everyone else gave me this withering stare as if my very presence was disgusting them (even you! but i forgive you now that i know your true soul) but your dad, he gave me a smile, the kind that says “oho, I’ve been there, kid,” and he pulled out a harmonica and played Old McDonald Had a Farm and my kids shut up and I could move my boxes in peace. When someone can leave an impression like that after just one encounter, that’s how you know they’re someone special, someone who deserves to still be in the world. I’m always here if you want to talk —

xx Ceci

* * * * *

(607) 555-2639: call me, Darien.

(607) 555-2639: i just want to talk.

(607) 555-2639: your father would have wanted it.

(607) 555-2639: you are so ungrateful!!

(607) 555-2639: i didn’t mean that. i am just upset.

(607) 555-2639: if you don’t answer your brother is getting all of the inheritance money.

(607) 555-2639: what kind of daughter ignores her mother like this??

(607) 555-2639: no wonder Jeffrey married that tall girl.

(607) 555-2639: remember I love you. mom.

* * * * *

Dear Darien,

I tried to call you, but I guess you blocked my number, and I guess that serves me right. I hope you will take the time to read this, but I understand if you decide to throw it in the trash. Or shred it. Or run it over with your car. Just please don’t send me another envelope full of glitter; I think there’s still some on the floor of my car.

I know what it looks like to you. One day we’re burning lasagna together in my kitchen, and the next I’ve shacked up with my co-worker. I know to you I’m a man with no principles and no loyalty and no backbone and I’m a stranger to you and I’m a cheating liar. But I want you to know our years together don’t mean nothing to me. They mean everything. Your perseverance and strength helped me become the man I am today. Even if that man is despicable to you. You saw me shattered after Louis's death and carefully pieced my jagged edges back together into something presentable. You saw me try three times at law school, cheering me on until I finally was accepted. You saw me, clearer than I can see my reflection most days. I only wish you could see yourself in the same way. Sometimes I wonder if you made my problems the center of your world to avoid your own journey.

I won’t go into what happened with Bethy. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about it. But I am happy, and I am sorry that it came at the expense of your happiness.

Perhaps it’s presumptuous of me to be saying any of this. Maybe you’re happier now than you were with me. I certainly hope so.

I obviously couldn’t fit everything on the back of that invitation, but I think it would be best for everyone if you didn’t come to the wedding. After what you and your mom did at my sister's baby shower, I just think

Please take care of yourself, and know that I always loved you and always will.

Jeff

P.S. I’m very sorry about your father.

* * * * *

Dear Ms. Darien Nicolas:

Great news! The XKP Dream-Viewer 500™ is back in stock. As one of our waitlisted customers, you will have first dibs on the new supply. All you have to do is fill out and send the attached order form or order online using the code MEFIRST. This offer expires on October 8, 2023.

Sweet dreams await!

Sincerely, the team at XKP

* * * * * 

(607) 555-2639: when you were born it was bloodcurdling screams for five solid minutes. yours and mine combined. i was in pain, so much pain, and for a moment i thought, you did this to me.

(607) 555-2639: but you were scared, i could see it in your big blue eyes. just like your father's eyes and just as expressive. just as haunting and accusatory and bright and sly. you were this new being in the world, taking your first breaths, and unlike me you didn't know where you were or what you were doing there.

(607) 555-2639: and all you had was me so you looked at me and took a deep breath and stopped crying and so i stopped too. and we looked at each other and there was an understanding that we had gone through this beautiful experience together, and no matter what was to come, we would always have this unspoken knowledge.

(607) 555-2639: a mother never forgets that.

(607) 555-2639: why won't you answer the phone???

(607) 555-2639: before you say it, i am NOT drunk.

* * * * * 

To: NicolasDarien5@email.com

From: wildflower62@email.com 

Subj: Hello?

Hi Darry, just checking in on ya — I texted you a bunch and knocked on your door and well, everything short of busting your window and kidnapping you. I hope you’re just on a well-deserved vacation?? Either way, please write me back, by phone or email or telepathic message or a note clipped to Mr. Whiskers’ collar. 

I was thinking also about that time we went hiking up Scholl’s trail. What was that, 5, 6 years ago?! Time flies, man. I remember it was so hot that day I felt like I was choking on the air and I was chugging my water and you kept telling me not to do that and the trail was so much longer than I thought or maybe it just felt that way because of the absolute sense of doom I felt! And I had dyed my hair black and I was cursing the physics (or is it chemistry? psychology?) of the whole black-absorbs-heat thing. 

Then like two miles from the end I just collapsed on the ground sobbing. It was a lot of things, not just the hike or the heat, I think you knew that. Tom had just left me for good that time and Maisie was going through her rebellious phase telling me she hated me all the time and Cyrus was so silent I was worried the school would want to hold him back. And I had half a can of beans for breakfast because that was all I had and I felt like shit. And you took out your pack and handed me an ice cold canteen of water, one that I know you were saving just in case because you are always so READY, and I took a sip and it was like…all those problems just went away. All that was left was this feeling of my thirst being quenched and the glorious mountain we were hiking came into focus and so did your face, not judging me for being such a baby, just concerned and ready to step in and help me.

Cause that’s what you do, Darry, you’re a helper! Don’t ever forget it. You held up Jeff for three years while he “found himself” and you stepped in for your mother so your brother didn’t have to. All while juggling nursing school and your poetry! You’re a total badass, Dar. Now be a goodass and call me back!!

xx Ceci

* * * * *

Dear Ms. Darien Nicolas:

We are writing because our records show that you have purchased the XKP Dream-Viewer 500™ mask recently. Please dispose of this item immediately. Forces beyond our control have obligated us to issue a recall of this product.

As you may know, when you agreed to our terms and conditions, you agreed to release XKP from any incurred damages associated with this product. Please keep that in mind in the off chance any media outlets contact you in the coming days.

This is a preemptive message only and does not imply XKP is a disreputable company nor does it implicate us in any harmful situations.

Sincerely, the team at XKP

* * * * *

To: Mark@thismagazine.com

From: Jane@thismagazine.com

Subj: XKP write-up

Hi Mark, here is the first draft of my story about XKP. Please ping me with any changes. Thank you!

Jane Aldwyn

Junior Writer, This Magazine

[San Francisco, Calif.] XKP, a start-up company purporting to be "the next great innovator in sleep-solution products," found itself mired in controversy when its founder and CEO, Frederick Stable, 62, was arrested Friday, November 3, on charges of fraud.

Stable is accused of peddling devices such as the Dream-Viewer 500 — a mask that promises a user-tailored dreaming experience, marketed aggressively to those with conditions such as anxiety, insomnia, and PTSD — and claiming they provide medical benefits that have not been confirmed by peer-reviewed studies or any government or health agencies. Investigators are currently weighing whether to charge the approximately half-dozen employees under Stable's management as well.

“We look forward to clearing Frederick of all wrongdoing. He is an innocent man and the charges against him are simply ridiculous,” Stable’s lawyer, Jeffrey Bliss, told This Friday afternoon.

The potential fraud was brought to light after an XKP customer, Darien Nicolas, 32, of Elmira, New York, purchased the Dream-Viewer 500 in October and subsequently went missing.

“I hadn’t heard from her in weeks, so I busted down her door,” Nicolas’s neighbor, Cecelia Fleming, 41, told ABC News on Friday. “She was nowhere. Left everything behind, her money, her ID, keys. But it was weird, this box was ripped open, tossed aside, very unlike her, she's the type to bundle her cardboard immediately. And, well, the box was from this place XKP, and it looked like she had taken it with her, whatever was inside.”

Fleming reported Nicolas missing on October 21. While searching her apartment, police uncovered several letters from XKP touting the benefits of its products to Nicolas, who has PTSD, per her missing-persons alert. Detectives have not received any leads yet as to her whereabouts.

Citizen-detective social-media accounts have uncovered a prior romantic link between Bliss, the lawyer for the defense, and Nicolas, though Bliss and the police refused to comment on this alleged relation.

Stable is next due in court on Thursday in San Francisco.

* * * * *

Dear Dad,

I can't believe it worked.

I was skeptical, I'll admit. It seemed impossible, as all things too good to be true seem.

I've been wondering lately why we align the possible with the difficult, the trialing, the despair. Everything needs to be worked for, these days. Even when we're rewarded, it seems barely worth the time and sacrifices.

When I was growing up, you told me to follow my dreams. That nothing could stop me. And yet, through the years, it seemed all these clashing forces were befriending one another for the sole purpose of stopping me. Almost like a joke I wasn't in on. And that my dreams were just a pleasant picture to behold behind my eyelids and nothing more.

I only had one dream left.

I'm so happy to be here.

Love, Darien