Due to lost perception and a new government, the asylum was officially shut down some years ago.  Unofficially, we still remain.  The department in charge relocated much of the equipment and staff to various hospitals in the state.  Abandoned, the sympathetic building rises among the surrounding trees and waving weeds, tempting any visitors to explore her hidden history.  But her greatest secret will never be found.

And now, the present.

I've often heard the phrase "the present is a gift."  A childish play on words, but very true.  The present exists but for a moment, spending the rest of eternity in the past.  It is the bridge that we forever walk, moving towards the future.  What we do now effects what happens next.

And so here I sit, pecking at this keyboard with the grace of a stick poking with curiosity at a roadside corpse.  Here I sit, in the present.  And as the mind's eye pans up and away from my desk, one can see the clutter of my office, then the adjoining staff rooms, and eventually all the rooms that do house and have housed such beautiful soles.  Soon we shrink into a small spot on a tiny planet in a vast universe, so insignificant that there's hardly anything there to even be forgotten.  Maybe none of this matters.  Perhaps being forgotten is the inevitable destiny that awaits everything this universe has to offer.

But not if I can help it.

I'm old.  I don't know how much time I have left here.  Ever since the government shut down the known section of the asylum some years ago, we live a more secluded existence, barely remembered by those who take care of us.  I have no knowledge of who, if anyone, is to replace me at some future time.  And when I'm gone, what will become of all the knowledge I have accumulated?  Of all the memories I keep?  As I said in the beginning, I can not and will not reveal the location of this asylum.  Rest assured, these patients DO need protecting.  So for years I pondered how to keep this story alive without giving up all its secrets.

Welcome, the Internet.

I admit I am a bit slow to evolve in this arena, but most of you youngsters fully understand the slow acceptance of new technology by your elders.  Nonetheless, I am here.  In the present.  I can sit on this side of the glass, next to you yet far away, revealing what I believe is appropriate.  This is my gift.

I am also willing to part with many of the items that mean so much to me and this place in order to keep them alive.  This is a more difficult task to accomplish since I must have a trusted associate of mine handle this material.  If I feel the store is opening up too many dangers, I will shut it down.  But for now, it stands.