Word Count: 359<\/p>\n

The man said that the end was near and so I bought what he was selling. \u201cExcelsior<\/em>\u201d the label said. \u201cLike having Jesus in a bottle!\u201d said the man.<\/p>\n

It tasted like cherry cough syrup laced with bitters. It was an odd flavor you got used to quickly, though. The next day I bought more.<\/p>\n

He was an old man, or so he looked, with scraggly wild gray hair and stubble five days old, dirty once-white shirt and brownish gray tattered suit. He certainly dressed for the part of an intense oracle. Though I personally made sure that I\u2019d be well-dressed with clean underwear should the end be truly nigh.<\/p>\n

Excelsior<\/em> gave me a sense of stability. It tightened the rope I toe-gripped to get through each day. It softened the sounds into muted background noise. It rounded the edges of corners. It made life almost pleasant. I\u2019d moved up to buying a 12-pack at a time. Once a week Sometimes more often than that.<\/p>\n

There was a strange energy buzzing through my body. My nerves were electrical wires. I quick-smiled, fast-stepped, gobbled my meals. On the other hand, my skin was suddenly dewy and my waistline shrank into my jeans. I felt better than I had in a decade.<\/p>\n

Then one day the old man wasn\u2019t there at the corner. No display. No sign. No Excelsior<\/em> stacked up in cartons to sell.<\/p>\n

I walked several blocks in all directions. I asked other people if they\u2019d seen him. I even asked a kind-faced policeman who said they\u2019d cracked down on vendors. \u201cSounds like he might have been scared off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every day, all different times of the day, every day for a month I searched the downtown streets. My skin sagged, my eyes dulled, fat added its padding to the places hardest to hide.<\/p>\n

I searched for it online. I gathered all the ingredients I\u2019d read on the label but it never came out the same. Years later, I still look for the man when I\u2019m downtown. Though I wonder if he was right. If his world ended and mine just goes on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word Count: 359 The man said that the end was near and so I bought what he was selling. \u201cExcelsior\u201d the label said. \u201cLike having Jesus in a bottle!\u201d said the man. It tasted like cherry cough syrup laced with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apocalyptic","tag-apocalyptic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}