Baker Bloch meets Karoz Blogger at Perch. “We might as well go sit at The Table instead of outside,” suggests Karoz. “Warmer in there.”
“Alright,” Baker agreed.
—–
“Where am I suppose to sit again?” asks Baker slyly.
“Why don’t you sit where Wheeler usually sits. Just a suggestion.”
Baker does as Karoz suggests. Ah: ultimate power, he thinks. What a living joke!
“I can’t see you because of that stupid Kubrick light, Karoz. Do you think Wheeler would mind if I delete it?”
“You’re the town custodian,” answers Karoz. “Responsible for cleaning up and making sure there’s no clutter. If the lamp is clutter in this manner — blocking vision of others at The Table — then you’re okay. You have that right.”
“I’m going to test to see how much light we would lose by turning it off.” Baker turns off the lamp. “Not enough to matter,” he decides, and deletes the light. “Curled Paper can keep his bulb on during the meetings. And we’ve been so rude… Curled, my man, my boy, how are *you* doing?” No answer from Curled Paper.
“You have to turn his light off,” Karoz points out.
“Oh. I was *sure* it was the other way around.”
“No,” reinforces Karoz. “He needs to be off to respond.”
“And to take notes,” Baker realizes. “So the lamp will have to stay. Tell you what, let’s replace it with the standing Kubrick light like the one downstairs. Hold on and we’ll see how that looks…” Baker copies the standing lamp from downstairs and rezzes it between and behind Hucka Doobie’s and Curled Paper’s seats. “There. That could do.”
“Wheeler’s not going to like the fact that it’s on the opposite side of The Table from her.”
Baker Bloch ponders what Karoz says. “Well, maybe she won’t have any choice.”
Wheeler appears at the room’s opening as Wilson.
“So you’ve figured out I’m to be replaced. Don’t worry. I predicted that way before Karoz. I knew it before the beginning. Mars is gone. I have no place here except inside the Squared Circle. You will not be punished. I must leave. Doreena is about to manifest once more. It’s 2:30 am. Like clockwork she is. Ta ta!” Wilson vanishes.
—–
Wheeler, as Wilson, takes Baker Bloch’s place at the North Sea, a direction he didn’t get around to exploring those 8 long years ago to complete his own attempted aqua-encirclement of Nautilus City. The two projects, separate in time, lock together in hypertime and make a whole. The door can be truly opened this way, both eventually understand. Not a tease this time. Cooperation is golden.
Sunklands 