“Howdy.”
“What’s up?”
“What makes you think something’s up?”
“You only call me when something is.”
“Heh-heh, that I do.”
“Soooo…?”
“Oh, right: so you know that thing I’ve been working on for a while that finally was happening for real?”
“What thing?”
“The only thing of note that’s happened in my adult life.”
“Ohhhhhh, yeah, that thing. OK, yes, what about it?”
“Well, it happened.”
“Yes, it did.”
“And like Frodo in Tolkien’s The Return of the King, I can exhaustedly say, ‘It’s done.’”
“Not as world-saving or dramatic, but sure. So?”
“So – now what?”
“‘Now what’, what?”
“Now what, what now?”
“Huh?”
“What happens now this is all over, when I never thought it would even start to begin with?”
“Well, for one thing, I’m pretty certain the planet will keep on spinning afterward.”
“Hardy-har-har – I’m talking about me!”
“You sure are.”
“What happens to me now, after what I worked on for years and years, my crowning achievement, my magnum opus, my coup de moi, my definitive feat that I suspect was the sole reason I ever was brought into existence, is done?!”
“Keep on going as you did before, I should think.”
“But how can I?! How can one return to bread after having tasted ambrosia?! How can one settle for mundanity after having experienced sublimity?! How can – ”
“I’m gonna cut you off right there: none of that is sustainable for long; you had a great accomplishment and you either will have more like that or never repeat it; and your life will go on with that as a treasured memory that’ll last as long as your brain can hold onto it before it’s wiped away by dementia or death. It’s what you’d hoped would happen and everyone’s happy for you, so what more do you want?”
“…Permanent satisfaction.”
“Well now you’re just being greedy.”