The Emperor of Gladness

by Ocean Vuong

He wanted to tell Maureen about this. That the reptilians, when they weren’t eating our bad energy, were fucking in puddles outside of shitty diners by the highway.

Where’s the beginning?” “It’s right there, ahead of you.” He pointed to the sloping house emerging from the mist, the police lights swirling outside it. “You’re gonna go and you’re gonna get married in that house up ahead. You’re gonna have two beautiful, talented, and kind children who will love you and tend to your every need until your very last breath.”

😭

His eyes were so wet he thought he was having a seizure

Same

She was heading to America after all. The truest version of it. The one where everyone pays to be here.

“She likes Stouffer’s,” Hai said. “Make sure you get the Salisbury steak from Stouffer’s.” He stood open-mouthed as the van sped off, the security car following behind, its patrol lights still blazing. “With the brownie in the corner,” he said to himself, mist swirling around him. “With rainbow sprinkles.”

It wasn’t his shift, but having nowhere to go, he went toward order, consistency, discipline—but mostly toward these people, these little people who make the world turn by making food faster than we have ever prepared it in the history of our species.

We always belong somewhere, if only to whatever’s holding us, and shouldn’t that be a good thing? To have your uselessness become a marker of time, waste being the proof of having lived at all?

Im sad

The only sign that they were ever there will be a faded Chewbacca sticker Maureen had placed in the back of the broom closet, next to the industrial tubs of BBQ sauce.

But don’t be afraid of life, son. Life is good when we do good things for each other.”