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February 6, 2014 480 × 175 icon-estuary
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What if the world really was ending when you were a kid… and no one noticed?

Table of Contents

Prologue
Freshwater Dredge
Growing up is awkward for a well-meaning boy who can't sit still… in time.
  1. Gym Hallway
  2. First Day of Kindergarten
  3. Morses Pond
  4. High School Cafeteria
  5. Last Week of Fifth Grade
  6. Dreams and Houses
  7. White Oak Road
  8. Forest St. Culvert
  9. Doctor’s Office
  10. The College
  11. Sixth Grade Dance
  12. White Oak Road II
  13. Longfellow Pond
  14. Summer Vacation
  15. Fiske Elementary Art Room
  16. Gym Hallway II
  17. Sixth Grade Dance II
  18. Track
  19. Sixth Grade Dance III
  20. Edge of Town
  21. First Night of Seventh Grade
  22. Duck Pond
  23. Gym Hallway III
  24. Second Week of Ninth Grade
  25. Forest St. Culvert II
  26. Edge of Town II
  27. College Square Pizza
  28. Glendale Road
  29. Gym Hallway IV
  30. Morses Pond II
  31. Edge of Town III
  32. Morses Pond III
  33. High School Cafeteria II
  34. Last Night of Twelfth Grade
  35. Edge of Town IV
  36. Dreams and Houses II
  37. Longfellow Pond II
Wellwater Dredge
Freshwater's brother takes us room by room into an old New England house, which seems to have its own agenda.
I

  1. Front Door: 15 Magos Avenue
  2. Basement
  3. Kitchen
  4. Dining Room
  5. First Floor Stairs
  6. Magos Park
  7. Secret Passages
  8. Front Hall
  9. Forbidden Planet
  10. My Brother’s Room
  11. Our Parents’ Room
  12. Our Bathroom
  13. Andy’s Apartment
  14. Flight
  15. Attic
  16. A Hundred Yards Over the Rim
  17. Secret Passages II
  18. My Room
  19. Roof
II

  1. Front Door II
  2. Party at the Deeds’
  3. Basement II
  4. Back Door
  5. Garage
  6. Finished Room
  7. Conversation on the Edge of Forever
  8. Living Room
  9. Kitchen II
  10. First Floor Stairs II
  11. Where Is Everybody?
  12. Flight II
  13. Attic II
  14. Secret Passages III
  15. Childhood’s End
  16. Roof II
III

  1. Front Door III
  2. Two
  3. Basement III
  4. Against the Fall of Night
  5. Back Yard
  6. The City and the Stars
  7. Kitchen III
  8. My Brother’s Room II
  9. Our Parents’ Room II
  10. Attic III
  11. Secret Passages IV
  12. My Room II
  13. The Long Morrow
  14. Roof III
  15. Neither of us wants to go in.
  16. But The Living Room Light Doesn’t Work
Estuary Dredge
This section is under heavy development!
I

  1. Mr. Gottwald, I don’t understand.
  2. There’s a brook flowing out of the Reservoir.
  3. What?
  4. Of course that’s what I want to talk about.
  5. It’s not just the bleeding.
  6. More than streets, I couldn’t say.
  7. It’ll be October in a few days, and I can already smell December.
  8. When I wake up the sun’s moved about half an hour.
  9. I want to get older, I guess… but I want firm skin.
  10. I know Miss Miller has it.
  11. The streets are a dark map we have to remember our way through.
  12. If there is one indisputable rock in this world, it is the genius of Tom Waits
  13. The first few days of camp are easier and harder than they have rights to be.
  14. It was a towering relief to see Alice liked Renee.
  15. Alice gooses my arm.
  16. A week before graduation,
  17. I look at the wall clock.
  18. Alice calls. She can’t go out.
  19. A commuter train whistles from downtown.
  20. I don’t know why I invited her in.
II

    Reservoir Dredge
    Starting in 2016. Maybe. I hope.
    Saltwater Dredge
    Coming… someday. From somewhere over the rainbow.

    This is a story about the end of the world…

    …which happened in my hometown, roughly 50 years ago, and again, also in my hometown, roughly 150 years ago—and possibly again. There's lots of time-travel.

    This is a story in progress. Things can change; you can change them.

    Color Key

    Freshwater is speaking

    Wellwater is speaking

    Estuary is speaking

    Alice or Jenna is speaking

    One of the narrators is narrating. (Roman font, black.)

    Someone else is speaking

    A third person is speaking

    A fourth person is speaking

    A fourth person is speaking

    Survey

    Tell me what grabs you and I'll send you a sticker (or five).

    Brand New

    Estuary:

    More than streets, I couldn’t say.

    Notes

    Freshwater Dredge was rewritten completely from Fall 2013 to Summer 2014.

    I wanted to have most of Estuary II written by the start of 2015. Instead I've been on a three seven-month break, taking lots of inspiration from crappy TV and my newfound passion for photography. Part I is now starting to get clearer, which will make Part II a lot easier to write.

    Thanks so much for reading.

    xo,
    Adam

    Who are you?

    I'm a poet, editor, tinkerer and designer. I love making books, pickles, and something just south of sense.

    Who else is involved?

    All of this © 2020 Adam Rubinstein, except where noted
    Fare Thee Well

    Greetings, friend.

    If you’re here at all, it means we’ve probably met, or you know someone who knows me. Thank you for being here. I put my heart, spirit, blood, and knuckle grease into this story for 12 years. It means so much to me that you’re here, reading it.

    So it’s with great sadness I’m putting my strange, endless story on hold. My heart is with my photography these days, and has been for several years. I’ll keep the site up until the domain expires, and then it will return to the form of so many other unfinished stories: a meticulously organized collection of chapters on a personal computer.

    Thank you for 12 wonderful and transformative, demanding and soul-wracking years.

    —Adam