Author name: Hayden Veil

The note attached to the empty bottle of vodka was clear, I had no doubt that whoever left it was sincere. It read ‘Jay was here #hugs’. I had no doubts that I knew this Jay and that their intervention had once again stopped a major downfall of the man. The word oops came to me but I did not understand, could not comprehend the magnitude in the simple spelling of a word once revered now sitting there before me: oops. I had made an oops but I did not know why, or when. Though I was not sure who the man might be, nor why I pictured a boy of eleven smiling at an impression of the man, I found comfort in the knowing that all would be revealed later, sooner or later a voice told me. Sooner or later there would be a revelation, a hunch ? told me. A huncho ? wearing a poncho? walked across the street and signalled that I should approach them. Did you answer his call, the hunched man queried. I thought it best to shake my head in ignorance but deep inside I felt the magic gathering, and it was powerful. He turned and asked the woman passing if she had seen a Jay recently, if he was still eleven. It made no sense, how could a boy of eleven no longer be a boy of eleven. She shrugged and continued as if unbothered, untouched by the events unfolding. The hunched man said he had to call a Charlie, to find a balance and a credit for the Fae. He left me standing, wondering about the events unfolding. Wondering about a boy of eleven, and hugs unlimited.