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ACROSSWhen I was seventeen (1), in caligae and Roman braids, I loved with the heat of Vulcan’s fire. He was a rock band’s rose (4) though this fact just I could see. To them, he was glasses too thick, a belt size too far, and an aroma too much — just some unwelcome plant (7). I alone saw him for his true form: a nascent sheep, on the run (11) from these beasts. ‘Please!’ I wept but I must have been misheard (12). You see, though these tears were enough to fill Belluno’s river (14), I could not save him from drowning. In fact, and this pains me so, my meddling made things all the worse: when I told him to fly, to share his beautiful puzzles with the world, the waxen wings I made him (15) burned in their glares.Of course, I would not allow him to rot, disappear, or fade to dust (17). ‘Get up,’ I shouted, ‘Not even the serpents of Virūpāk?a (19) will stop you!’ He let out a sound (20). He did not understand what I ---- (21). I held his hand and spoke these words: ‘If you e’er think it’s impossible… (22) well, it’s not. I believe in you and… and… and… Zut! (23)’ I was only able to elocute half of my message, like a poorly constructed palindrome (24) or a nursing school graduate (abbr.) (29) caught unawares.He whimpered that he would never be ‘seen as a cool cat’ or ‘called hot stuff’ (30). A passer-by explained that it was because he was always quoting stupid shit from the Lord of the Rings (34). This was the one time I felt something other than bliss, euphoria, or joy (36) in his presence.‘Don’t be such a sad sack!’ I screamed, then I searched vainly for a comparator: ‘You’re being like an old, irrelevant reporter who’s been demoted to writing those… er, what are they called again? Thought reports? Viewpoint articles? Oh! I know the second part but what’s it begin w.?’ With that, he flashed an excessively imbalanced (38) smile.‘Geez, what on earth was that? That was like a crossword clue so hopeless that you need to give two hints just so it makes some semblance of sense. C’mon, that’s going to leave marks (40).’‘What! I’ve seen you do it before and I bet you’ll do it again. Remember ‘suffix for forming adjectives/presidential hopeful (41)’?’He paused, laughing to himself, then said, ‘I see (42) you’ve been solving mes mots croisés.’ I froze like the Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi (45) for a moment. Was it time to come out of hidin’? Wait, how was he figurin’ this out? -- ---- -------? (47)‘Good attempt (53),’ he sd, ‘but were you able to find the secret in 36 across?’ Before I could blurt huh, I realized that he was looking at my answers for the puzzle of his that I finished yesterday in the period of time between about six and bedtime (54). A girl with ample breasts (55) walked by while we stood in silence.‘Thanks,’ he finally said, ‘I can count on you like financial assistance services for citizens unable to work because of illness, caring for a young child or seriously ill family member (56).’ Ladies and gentleman of the jury, that was it: the sharpshooter (57)’s poignancy that held his crosswords above all others. ‘You know,’ he continued, ‘Sometimes I wonder… like, e.g., that is to say, (58) what’s the point? If I’m making all these puzzles and no one solves them… well, that’s just pathetic (59). I’d be like that town in Novgorod on the Polist river (60), which never recovered from the war and is, well, to be honest, doomed to die alone and forgotten. That’s why I’m happy that at least you solve them… without you, they’d just be a machine without a function or train without a destination or a means… (61)’DOWNJust as a son cannot escape this kind of disease from an affected mother (1), one does not elude the past. We never spoke again after that day — when we passed in the hall, my brightest smile would beget only empty (2) eyes.I remember the moment like a photograph (3). He let that last sentence linger in the air before bursting into tears, at which point I wondered if I would need to use skills more elaborate than B.L.S. (4). I looked around for aid but neither a he nor a she (5) was nearby. I was prepared to do a full circle around the school (6). He broke the spell of quiet with an expression like a dumb, Italian turtle (8).‘I want to make things more simple (9).’ I thought his next words would unite our love but I was not even close — what they did was what one does as part of the mutilation of a deer or antelope (10). I felt like the fluid exudate formed by bacterial debris and dead white cells (12). It was the kind of unrest that even a cuppa (13) could not quell. In his dew-stained eyes, I saw a trembling reflection, naked and vulnerable like a piece of meat (16). I wanted to flee (18). Are there not places beside the ocean from where I could leap into soothing peace of the deep sea (24)?The preface to his next words (25) was a look of complete dismal. His was a face at which if the chief god of the Assyrians, who personifies military prowess and empire (26), saw would weep.The content of his short speech, the elements that comprise its component parts (27), made the state of the matter all too crushingly clear. I was like a thousand heaps of combustible material (28). It was as if I was hit in the face with one of those comic sound effects (30). There was no hope for me to even inch out a victory (31). Unlike the actor, composer, rapper, and writer perhaps known for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton (32), we were doomed to fall apart. I made a noise like an anthropomorphic tree (33).I tried to argue but he stopped me curtly and declared my point ‘moo’, which did not make sense until he clarified that he was not talking about the kind of animal who would make such a noise (35) but rather said the word ‘moot’, which I then misheard. It was as if all of the sudden I was made unable to see (37).‘I’m like a species of brown-rot fungi in the family Fomitopsidaceae (39),’ he explained. ‘If you were seen with me, you would dissolve in this cutthroat school like the soluble matter of starch (41).’I could hardly respond; the words fell apart as they came out of my mouth: ‘So? -- doesn’t mean anything! (43)’‘Please, I don’t want you to lose hairs (44). You know the words to Scarborough Fair? Parsley,— (45)’‘What the hell are you getting --? (46)’‘It’s like that song, ‘Skinny Love’, by Bon— (48)’I stopped listening, feeling useless like the homophone of a word like ‘sew’ that meant nothing to an English speaker and is probably useless word in its native language (49). I just had the opportunity to speak to the man of my dreams but he was treating me like Jean-Fran?ois Guillot, the dir. of this org. that participates in a vague organizational role to liaise between the national government, sports agencies, and individual players (50).Time goes quickly (51). I joined student council, my grades shot up when I stopped memorizing crossword word lists in class, and I gave the valedictorian speech at graduation — however, the whole ordeal might have just been scenes in a film set to the haunting tones of the eponymous debut album featuring melancholic classics like ‘Aldebaran’, ‘Deireadh an Tuath’, ‘Triad [a. St. Patrick; b. Cú Chulainn; c. Oisin]’, and ‘Boadicea’ (52). I am ashamed to say that I forgot his name but I was made to remember when I received a call declaring his passing and post-mortem wishes to send me this letter, these once luminous squares, and the courage I thought I could give him:ACROSS/DOWNset by Chirantha Premathilaka123??456??7891011???12???13??14??15??16????17?18????19???????20????21????????22???23???2425262728??29???3031?????3233???34???????????35?36?????????373839??40??????41?42?4344?????4546??47???4849505152????53??54???????55?56??57???????58?59???60?????61?? ................
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