Kasmir House
(Code Street)

Everything I know about betrayal I learnt in Kashmir. Reduced to these tight walls in the north of the city I can only remember, and sometimes regret. How quickly I learnt to betray.

Six summers past I paddled in the shadow of mountains, trading my consumer stories for more forbidding tales. Youngmen spoke of pain and noble aims, all the time believing I would honour their honesty and be moved by their sincerity. Oh I moved alright. I went so far away to seize their stories and make them part of mine.

One summer later I returned, eager to steal some more stories, armed with all the implements of my trade. Cassettes. Pen and paper. Microphones. Camera. Far from the capitals of consumption I consumed all I could of what my new and foolish friends had to offer. They had a worthy offering; stories I could not possibly fake (or make without their help).

Soon I had raised the necessary funds to expand. I collected money, books and telephone numbers. Smatterings of their language. Recipes for their food. The services of a solid exploitative city and the grand University within that had settled on capital accumulated from earlier forms slavery. From there I could make many journeys to perform lies and collect tributes, the necessary coinage that would arm me for the business of story-stealing once more.

Last spring I launched myself once more, creeping into the hills that sit on the cusp of mountain ranges. Once in the valley my betrayal began in earnest, my script prepared, and my journey was a great enterprise, producing rich rewards. I came back brimming with stolen stories, but made sure I left their owners well behind.

During the day I weave my story in this room, up at the wrong end of a street in the north of Paradise. This is Kasmir House on Chaos Street, and I am the scorpion within, with my stolen stories and no more time. Kasmir house has no h, for h is for hope and I have made sure that none of that remains. This is my happy home, for in it are all the trappings of a story-thief and lie-collector.