In a mute house behind a lethargic door on a shelf dressed in dust sits a box. To the box was a key given to a girl who swam in the ocean and chose to sleep in it too. In the box was a tawdry ring given by an Aunt who had not forgotten that plastic can glow like an emerald and be worth its weight in whispered secrets. The ring was found by a sad man making up a couch because he could no longer sleep next to the woman who had taught him to love. The key was found by another man walking along the beach, made happy because he\u00a0confused mystery for love and had known neither. The lock was broken, and to the collection of treasures and talismans and one photograph that tore fresh barbs of agony from a heart he thought already numb, the sad man added his own ring before leaving to seek the bridge to a distant shore. And\u00a0on nights when the stars are\u00a0a reflection of the sea, and the moon strains the tides ever higher unto the shore, the happy man sits with his key and dreams of a palace beneath the oceans with spires of jade and chrysoprase filled with laughing children and men content with their love, and a treasure chest that can never again be opened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a mute house behind a lethargic door on a shelf dressed in dust sits a box. To the box was a key given to a girl who swam in the ocean and chose to sleep in it too. In the box was a tawdry ring given by an Aunt who had not forgotten that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,90,114,106],"tags":[110],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-blog-posts","category-story","category-the-traveller-is-the-journey","tag-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1234,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/09\/29\/we-lived-in-a-farmhouse\/","url_meta":{"origin":771,"position":0},"title":"We Lived in a Farmhouse","author":"Pala","date":"September 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: The first part of this short autobiographical narrative refers to the time Shai lived in a debilitated farmhouse in the Brisbane area. I was there is June 2015 and the description of the farmhouse, its surroundings and inhabitants is spot on. The last paragraph is Shai\u2019s beautiful, yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":809,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/04\/19\/a-dialogue-on-choice\/","url_meta":{"origin":771,"position":1},"title":"A dialogue on choice","author":"Pala","date":"April 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Setting: Aristotle (the philosopher) and Alexander (the young, one day to be 'the great') are walking home from a speech by Protagoras the sophist. Alexander: Are the words of Protagoras true; that the ways of men are whimsical and at the mercy of the winds? Or perhaps it is true\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2417,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/09\/25\/whiskey-and-speed-in-aldinga-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":771,"position":2},"title":"Whiskey and speed in Aldinga","author":"Pala","date":"September 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: Autobiography? The journey is not a destination Sleep-deprived - a night\u00a0of seizures, lost large-breasted woman, and saviour-Nazi's - we got up to prods and threats. A random corner of the room was chosen, swept up, and stuffed into duffle bags. We were as ready for\u00a0Adelaide\u00a0as we'd ever been.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":410,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/11\/09\/untitled-allegory\/","url_meta":{"origin":771,"position":3},"title":"Untitled allegory","author":"Pala","date":"November 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is an allegory. It distorts a lot what it intends to allude. There was an article the other day about new documents uncovered in King's College. The papers are by Newton and describe a dream he had. In this dream he discovered the key to the alchemist's stone and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Bashful Hope"","block_context":{"text":"A Bashful Hope","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/blog-posts\/a-bashful-hope\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1153,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2017\/05\/11\/r-yona-at-jeta-grove\/","url_meta":{"origin":771,"position":4},"title":"R Yona at Jeta Grove","author":"Pala","date":"May 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: The short story below was found in Shai's Google Drive notes and is clearly incomplete. The Brain Storming section at the end of the narrative alludes to the continuation of the story An apocryphal Braisa, non-canonical and existing only in Arabic: \u201cRabbi Yona was lost at sea. Can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1115,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2017\/10\/02\/noodles-and-lunar-fruit\/","url_meta":{"origin":771,"position":5},"title":"Noodles and Lunar Fruit","author":"Pala","date":"October 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: One of Shai's special skills was writing short stories in a style used by famous authors. The two short stories below are a reflection of these attempts. The first written in the writing style of the American-British novelist and screenwriter, Raymond Chandler[I] and the second in the writing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-cr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}