Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story)

by Daniel Nayeri

The point of the Nights is that if you spend time with each other—if we really listen in the parlors of our minds and look at each other as we were meant to be seen—then we would fall in love. We would marvel at how beautifully we were made. We would never think to be villain kings, and we would never kill each other. Just the opposite. The stories aren’t the thing. The thing is the story of the story. The spending of the time. The falling in love. All the good stuff is in between and around the things that happen. It’s what you imagine I might be like when I’m not telling you a story, but we’re sitting together in silence. Would my hands be fumbling with themselves in my lap? Would I be nervous? Would I love it if you asked about Final Fantasy? And would I say yes if you invited me to your house? Look how much you know about me. I bet if I told you that my dad came to Oklahoma with just one surprise for me, a friend from my past, back from the dead, you’d probably even know what it was even before I told you.