Category Archives: 0207

shallow water

It was so cold in here you could see your breath. But people didn’t mind. Celebrities in the audience!

“Good morning afternoon evening everybody!” Her standard opening line. “Welcome to the klub that’s going to put Kedas back on the map!” And then the requisite plug. “Brought to you by Sprite lemon-lime drink. The drink soo clean…” and here she paused to pull one of their sodas from her dress somewhere and chug. She retreats the can from her mouth, aaahs loudly, then: “…Grant *Hill* recommends it!” Cheers from the audience. Grant Hill is in attendance. He makes eye contact with me from where he’s sitting across the reflected green floor. Just briefly, enough to make me know he’s aware of what’s going on, if only in an unconscious way right now. Two Hills, PHEH, he may be saying internally. If he could only turn over the blueprint to his life he could see.

—–

“Dreaming again on that plank, Ted.”

“Just leave her this time. No need to tell Al.”

“I agree.”

“Got us into a lot of trouble before.”

“I remember.”

“Lot of paperwork.”

“I recall.”

“Anyway. Why don’t you enter her mind and see what’s going on.” So John the Mind Reader did. After a pause:

“Soo, what’s happening?”

“Apparently,” John surmised, “the past. Or a version thereof.”

“In-teresting.” They both had changed their minds about Al. The uppity higher up needed to be informed of this. New development!

(to be continued)

—–

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0038, 0207, Hana Lei^^, The Waste^^

Violet Hope (1923)

“Thanks for letting us borrow the poster, Hal.” They dare not tell him they folded the flip side up to make a primitive collage and took pictures for posterity. Tough town this was; not a lot of art lovers here, much less collage lovers. May get them thrown in jail. Or worse. But at least it *was* a town now. Thanks to the railroad and its trains.

All fell silent as one passed again, timely enough. A ritual to thank the LORD for the gift of the rails (ha).

Then from Hal: “How’d the bar mitzvah go?”

“Bar mitzvah?” Barry DeBoy uttered, then turned to Hucka D.

“Yes, for Wee Willy. The reason we borrowed the poster, remember? Period piece,” she further explained. “And he loooves dancers.”

“Too much so,” Barry decided to add which made Hucka wince. Don’t go too far, she thought. Let’s ease out of here while the going’s good.

“But it wasn’t a bar mitzvah party,” Hucka D. dared to correct Hal. “Birthday party. 100 years old this week. The ‘Wee’ nickname came about because of his stature, not his age. So irony mixed in there as well, I suppose. It’s an easy mistake.” Easy, she thought, staring at Barry. Eassy.

“Well, anyway, I’m glad he enjoyed it.” From his angle and lighting while leaning against the wall, the butch blonde saloon proprietor studies the recently rehung poster, notices for the first time the fold lines that Hucka D. and Barry tried to smooth out as much as possible. “Fainter,” Hucka D. urged, as they kept pressing and smoothing. 20 minutes. Might have been a *wee* bit too much, turning the now truly flattened lines a tad white, just enough to show in the right light at the right angle.

“What did you say this *Wee* Willy’s real name was?” questioned Hal, prying his eyes away from the poster and to the potential culprits. He was going to check the town registers for recent birthdays. If this didn’t check out then he was going to call the law — no, he decided on the spot. No law needed. He would be the law in this case. And maybe bring in Busting Lester in too. And Billy Goat Burt: a vigilante group he was thinking about here. They didn’t need much to set them off.

Luckily for artist/collagist Barry DeBoy and accomplice Hucka Doobie, the town soon had more worries than fold lines in an antique poster. Because bikers would be arriving thick and fast, jamming the town’s two hotels and turning drinking establishments like Hal’s into mayhem and perhaps even murder. Old fashion style.

(to be continued)

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0037, 0207, New Mexico

foursquare

“Appear.”

But, panning out, he did see something. Might have been an oversized coconut, might not have. Nobody around except himself. Bobbing in the water right in that corner, emphasizing it.

Hmm, no coconuts falling *now*. “Fousquare,” eh?

—–

*Here* they come!

—–

“The little pool with its rim of rocks must have been specifically designed to catch the falling coconuts for some reason, W.”

“You know the reason.”

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0036, 0207, Nautilus, North

various

Waiting for more change in Spornimore. Sporminore.

Everybody has them, some more than others (apples, oranges, bananas).

After so much effort he’d finally caught one. Himself.

Gathering of clones (Umbrella Club inductees).

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0035, 0207, Nautilus, North

00340207

I just *had* to get away from those *sweet* people for a while, take a break from that *saccharine* talk; think for myself. Oh great, here comes Bestie Vanessie to see what I’m up to, why I left without telling her. Strawberry shortcake it was for her the last time I checked, after a couple of glazed donuts, a piece of licorice, and a big wad of cotton candy. But who’s counting when it comes to Sweetieville. Not a salad in sight, no meat, no potatoes. And the (resulting) chattering! Nonsense basically; fantasy world stuff. Who needs structured activities when you can just hop and skip around with each other while holding hands until you fall down from exhaustion. I wish I were somewhere else, someplace sour —

“Oh hi, Tiana! There you are. I thought you left without me.”

I did, she thought, feet dangling purposefully off the box seat of the old, weatherworn wagon. She knows what she’s doing; this is not sweets induced fidgeting. This is pure agitation. “Hiii Vanessa,” she uttered lowly, turning her sour look toward her which emitted a small gasp for the more sugared up mate, her no. 1 friend since they were 7 and climbed that apple tree to rescue the pie thrown up there by Jasper. Always Jasper, she thought. Never Newton.

“What a look!” Vanessa said. “Aah, one of *those* moods — the I’m sick of the whole Center of Woods extravaganza. Not partying like the rest as usual. Wellll… I brought you something to cheer you up. A piece of Mabel’s pecan tree pie, fresh from the forest.” She points. “Right over there; just getting ripe. Best to pick ’em when they’ve just sprouted and let them sit for a day. Had one myself before coming to look for you, yum yum.” She rubs her belly with this, and then stands beneath Tiana, moving two fingers up each side of her mouth to produce an even wider smile. “You try it now!”

She wasn’t incapable of smiling but her dim view of the world had to turn upside down first. “*There*,” she said, forcing it of course.

Vanessa was thinking this was even worse than the scowl. Unnatural. “*Anyway*, I’ll just leave the pie with you.” She reaches into her pocketsack to produce the wrapped up food item. Tiana waves her hands in rejection.

“I’ll take my chance on the 2 day old version. I just need (sigh) a *break*. One day. I can just sleep out here under the trees and stars. She leans back. “Just go away, please. One day,” she reiterates, and climbs into the wagon bed to lie down.

Vanessa joins her. “I guess… it wouldn’t hurt if I take a small break as well,” and throws the piece of pie back into the woods from which it came.

Pause. Another kind of belly rub now. “Wanna make out?”

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0034, 0207, Big Woods, Jeogeot

higher intelligence

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0033, 0207, ENIGMA, Nautilus, North, Wild West

starting over a second (life) time

That day I dreamed I was a red headed (instead of red dressed) girl named Wendy waiting on Carter to come save me from my heavily treed island-prison, I want to call it. Instead all I got were pirates, who carted me around the continent like some kind of cargo to be put on display. Nautilus still, but I don’t remember Lorsters Worst coming into play. Maybe I avoided the absolute bottom of it. Lucky dream self. Keep on dreaming, Elisa, for it’s time to work in an hour, I said to myself while eating my Toasty O’s for breakfast which functioned as supper for most. They’re up to 9 sided now, which I think officially, undeniably qualifies for the running-out-of ideas/going-too-far territory. I wipe the bit of  crumbs from my bathrobe while standing and move to the closet to retrieve my dress, thinking of red again.

Just then, back in the dream, Wendy sees a shark fin in the water beside the pirate ship pulling in, and takes it as a sign that the worst is yet to come, pheh. Blue, black and red bearded men jump out of the ship as one.

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0032, 0207, Nautilus, Rim Isles

the unhealthy living continues…

“I want *five* hot dogs and I won’t take no for an answer. I have 4 little children in the car who won’t shut up until I do.”

“I only have 4 left,” the vendor man begged, almost out of meat at the end of a loong hot day. But the woman couldn’t give up her own. Dead at 57.

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0031, 0207, Bay City/Nova Albion^, Sansara

mustard seed

“Remember, heh, remember the Pickleland static murders, Wanda? Good times. Back then you were known as Michelle Roundup and, me, Bill Mustardgas. Good undercover work. We nabbed those snowmen.”

“And got some nummy popcorn out of it too!” she joked back, but then became serious. She wasn’t with Tank any longer, either professionally or personally which, for her, usually go hand in hand. Dimmy was the exception, and Marilyn is about to solve that problem. “Tank?”

“Yeah?” He waited with baited breathe. Were they a team again? Had he done good by telling her that Dimmy’s new pink lipstick was actually Marilyn’s new lipstick and that Dimmy wasn’t applying it himself, despite the rumors about town, rumors planted by Marilyn herself, still trying to get back at Wanda after all these years. This was still a black and white situation, which meant black vs. white, which means good vs. evil. Trouble is, no one knows who is who and which is which. Both witches in a way to everyone around. East vs. West is another way to put it.

“I think we should study static again.” She met his eyes. She was dead serious about this. “You take, say, Tennessee, and, me, Kentucky.”

All Tank’s effort has paid off!

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0030, 0207, Jeogeot, Pickleland, Sunklands^

set

We took Rael McCoy, straightened him out. Trouble was, this created two stars where before there were one. Which is Real. Which is Rael?

(to be continued)

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0029, 0207, Horns of Hatton^, Maebaleia/Satori