In the Kingdom of Ephemera

© Chris Allinotte

The Kingdom came into being in an instant. From oblivion one moment, the entire society sprung up and started about its business, everyone instinctively knowing their place. It was the resumption of a grand drama.

In the market, Seamus Muldoon had secreted a good sized codfish under his long coat, and was working his way through the crowd. It was the perfect crime, for as close to the ocean as they were, everyone smelled a little of fish.

In the unused western wing of the keep, Sister Marguerite was breaking her vows of chastity with Ronald, the strapping, if a little doltish baker's assistant.

Monaghan, the kingdom's head builder, was revelling in his wealth. He had crews of men all around the kingdom's walls, which seemed to have always needed more and more shoring up. The salt air was forever (at least that's what it seemed like) tearing away at the stonework that kept them all secure.

There were a thousand stories, and a thousand lives, all running in harmony when Armageddon began. The sky came crashing down about them. Stinging rain tore through the air, ripping apart buildings, killing passers-by where they stood.

Seamus was just arriving back at his modest hovel with his prize, when the entire building disintigrated before his eyes, as he opened his mouth to protest, the street heaved up in a wave of crushed stone and smothered him instantly.

Marguerite was finally aware that in the last few brief, sweaty moments of life, she had truly seen the meaning of life. She was basking in the glow of her newfound revelations when the tower exploded into a million microscopic atoms.

Monaghan met his end in the most fitting way possible, as his walls, that seemed made to devil him, finally succumbed in their battle with entropy and came down in tumbling waves. Their failure meant the end for anyone that was still living.

Colin, the rakish streetcorner philosopher, gadabout, and sometime minstrel had one last instant before the crush reached him, to think “this will all be back again, and so will we.” And then he was gone.

Miles and miles above the carnage and destruction, the toddler shrieked again with delight, dancing one last time on the sandcastle before running to play with Mommy in the waves.