Things went from bad to worse around here the other day, and this time I think it's my fault. All day long, there was this huge debate amongst dozens of elfs who had gathered in the common area around that ratty old playground. And these ones are pointing at those ones, and those ones are shouting at these ones, and a speech, and some cheers, and another, and some jeers, and a whole lot of tense tittering going on. There's these elfs in tall blinged-out hats who I never saw before. They aren't talking much, but they sure are taking it all in. I can't understand hardly a word being said, but I just know it's somehow to do with those keys I left with my neighbors the day before. I was afraid of this, but I tried to be optimistic and push through it. Didn't do much good, did it.
I'm watching out my bedroom window at all this, when I notice things start to flare up a bit. And one of those big hat elfs finally says something real sharp and loud. There's this moment of quiet, and I get this feeling like you do just before a fight breaks out at the bar. And that's what it is. I see a bunch of elfs break and run at some others, and then there's this CRACK... And a huge bolt of light that shoots out from somebody, and it misses and hits the tube slide which breaks into a hundred purple pieces. And I never knew elfs could even do that.
The Diller's little grandson has until this point been trying to play out on that sad wreck of a playground, and now he's bawling and trying to run home. And soon there's elfs running everywhere, and screaming and grappling and some are down on the road. And everything is just so, so, terrible.
It all dies down eventually, like these things always do. Everyone's gone after a while. And tomorrow we'll all come out and clean up the mess, and the brokenness, and the teeth, and whatever else like we always do, again and again. But every time something else gets wrecked, or someone else gets hurt, it's like you lend a piece of yourself to help mend it. Until you eventually get to feeling like you're so full of holes, that you might fall apart.
Don't you know, I find that goddamn playground swing chain got broke again too. Such a small bit in all this, but I feel something tip in me.