“What is this place, Baker B.?”
“Morgan. Morgan, and, over there at the bell, Julia.”
“Hmm,” offered Hucka Doobie the bee person. “Let’s meet at your place instead.”
—–
“Yes, I can feel it.” Hucka Doobie checks his inworld map for the general lay of the new diagonal, this “Heart Line” Diagonal. “Where was the spinning train?”
Baker Bloch checks as well. “Umm, Velox. Two sims up from us. We’re in Sabulella. Between Velox and Sabulella is Vashti. Beyond Velox is Webworm, Polia, Ufeus…”
“I get the picture,” interrupted the bee person. “I was called in because you finally, *finally*, got in over your head.”
“Well…” Baker Bloch started to protest.
“But you did,” Hucka Doobie completed matter-of-factly. She tried to turn toward the interior of the Tao Lodge they sat just outside of but found she couldn’t pivot her head. “Let’s get up,” she rather commanded. “Let’s go look at the painting that prompted you to give me a call. *Finally.*”
—–
“Here’s another Dali painting I missed before.”
“I don’t think that’s a Dali,” proffered Hucka Doobie, walking up. “Let’s go see the real Dali.”
—–
“Just around the corner here, Hucka Doobie. Tigertail, Stinger, Chick all in one.”
“Hold on, Baker B. I’m seeing something else in this one.”
—–
“A map. A map that freaked you out, grid lines running all over the place. What has this dude been up to? you asked yourself upon reading his profile. Chick, Tigertail, Stinger…”
“Yes.”
“But the chick is the elephant, and not the chick on the ground. Gala. Dali’s muse of course.”
“The chick is the elephant,” Baker Bloch reaffirmed.
—–
“A nice fire. A laughing monk. What next, Baker B.?”
“I think you know what’s next.”
“Do I?”
“Yes.”
—–
“It really was all my fault, Martha my dear. I was overthinking the situation.”
“Think nothing of it. The Diagonal was being misused and you stepped in, just as you should.”
“But this one is different.”
“Yes.”
“Soooo…”
—–
“Who’s going to tell the children, Sid?”
“We’ll do it… together.”
Sunklands 