Jest

Armed with the decent and reputable gingham, the Jester skips pilates to visit his religious friends. He stops along the way to catch his breath, wonders why he even goes to pilates when he still can’t make it up a grassy knoll without sucking in air like a broken vacuum. At the top of the hill is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, singing the score of Broadway smash hit Les Miserables. A bead of sweat drips down the Jester’s forehead and below his lower lashline. He takes out a mirror to check his mascara; not because he’s vain, but because he’s put together. The Plague Doctor stands with the choir, his naughty beak stuffed with rosemary and thyme. He is awaiting the gingham to wrap the bodies of squirrels found in the attic. Cottagecore isn’t just an aesthetic, it’s a way of being. The Jester sees this in the curve of red and white spotted mushrooms, in the pleats of a pinafore dress. Finally at the peak, the Jester does a little Irish jig in celebration. As he skips backwards he slips on a banana peel, falls into a pit of quicksand, losing his horse hair wig to clumsiness. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir crescendos into a panicked rendition of “One Day More.” We will nip it in the bud, they sing. The Plague Doctor smacks his cane on the ground and the Choir scrambles across the way. They link arms like a Barrel of Monkeys, but the Jester still can’t reach. He throws the gingham out in front of himself in a fanatic display of last chance. The conductor catches it and together the Choir pulls him from the hourglass of death. The Plague Doctor greets him at the shore, pokes the Jester with his cane, throwing him back in. It’s all in good jest.

Rita Redd is an emerging writer from Las Vegas, Nevada, currently transplanted in evergreen Ashland, Oregon. She studies creative writing there at Southern Oregon University. She dabbles in extreme lava lamp watching and avoiding the excruciating experience of being truly known. Her work appears in Sad Girls Club Literary Blog, the Lunch Break Zine, Wild Roof Journal, and Jokes Literary Review.