“Do you think I’m pretty, Jim A. *Sorry* — Jim B. I did it again.”
“You *did* do it again,” spoke Jim B. from the bed. “You’re *always* doing that. There never *was* a Jim A. It’s *B*. Always was, always will be.”
“Jim Brown,” Your Mama pronounces the name fully. “But you didn’t answer me. Do you think I’m beautiful?”
“That’s not what you asked,” Jim B. answers, tightening the noose around his neck. Definitely not a nouse. Definitely not Jim A.
Later…
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0507, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
Preston Weston heard his own voice on the tape his father was viewing. “Hey Dad?”
“Yes Son,” slouching Craighead Phillips Option 01 said from the couch.
“Whatcha watching, heh?”
“Oh, just your school play you put on last year. Can’t get enough of it.” He chuckles at something his son said on the videotape, currently playing the role of Hamlet.
“Cool, cool, heh.”
There was silence between the two as Dad watched act 01 scene 03 unfold.
“Hey Son. There’s Felicia Mae Appletree. Didn’t you have a thing for her (mother) last year?”
“Yeah, heh, a thing,” returns Preston Weston, thinking: duh, still a thing, Dad.
“What did you use to say about her? — so cute.”
“Geez, I don’t know, Dad.” Pacman level 3 had just been reached by eating the last red ghost.
“Yeah, he he, I remember. You said, that apple tree needs shaking, Dad.”
“Right. I remember.” A new ghost appears, new apple color. Green this time.
More silence as each are engrossed in their respective activities. Then Craighead Phillips abruptly switches off the new colored TV his wife bought just this afternoon. “Well, I’m satisfied with the product, Preston. How do you like the new colored monitor we bought in tandem, eh? 1/2 price on each. What a deal.”
“It’s, er, *great* Dad. Never knew there were more than two shades of ghosts. All these colors, heh!”
“Okay, we’re both satisfied. Let’s go tell your mother.”
“Oh, heh. Mom always goes out at about this time to the bridge club.”
“Oh… well, um, let’s get something to eat, eh? Little snack before supper?”
—–
“I’m on my dessert already and you haven’t even hardly touched your sandwich yet. What gives?”
“Oh, a little belly ache I suppose, heh.” Preston Weston forces himself to take another bite of the BLT before him, knowing that his mama would fix a full meal only about an hour later that he would be *required* to finish.
“How was school today? I forgot to ask earlier.”
“Fine, Dad. Thanks for picking me up,” he said with a mouthful.
“You’re welcome.” *slurp*
“How’s, er, mom’s mouse?”
“That’s mousse, Son. And it’s fine.” *slurp*. “Almost perfect, actually.”
“Oh right. Mousse, like the animal moose. Not a mouse, hehe, heh.”
“Right Son.” *double slurp* “Well, I’m done. Guess it’s time to go.”
“You heading back to — where, heh, did you say you came from today?”
“Athlone Village. In the middle of it all, which is — go ahead and say it with me, Son.”
“Which is unfortunately in the way,” they utter in tandem, Preston Weston rather reluctantly, tired of the old saying.
—–
“What time did your father leave today, Preston Weston?” Her voice suddenly had that edge to it. Father talk edge.
“Oh, heh. Um, about 4 I guess. Maybe, heh, closer to 5?”
“Bridge time, then, hmm,” Your Mama dismissed.
Preston Weston wanted to ask his mother if that bridge would ever get built but resisted the urge.
She turned to her other son, in the chair. “How about you Robin? When did *you* get home from the wilds? Did you also see your father?”
I’m not his son, he thought. “Oh, about 5 as well. Must have just missed him, sorry.” He wasn’t sorry.
They all kept watching “Leave it to Beav” in living color after this. Starring: the Beav.
“Look Ma,” Preston Weston indicated. “Like *me*!”
He was suddenly inside the TV set again, 3 hours lost.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0506, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
She had come to see the band but they were away. Well, Jim A. was *permanently* away, replaced by this mysterious Jim B. who was 20 years younger. And what about herself? Also 20 years displaced. It was 20 years ago today (etc.).
The Band; a make-believe one inside a real one. But the make-believe one had come to overshadow the real, like a Virtual Reality within Reality Reality begins to take over and work its powers outside in as well as inside out. Glove.
Satan.
“Hell-o hell-o hell-o.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0505, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
Curling up in a fetal position helped her cope with her fears. The sound of Preston Weston and the others eating some crunchy munchy cereal they requested comforted her as well. Here was her safe spot during breakfast, the clear place where she could think rationally about things. Like her weight problem (you’re *not* that overweight!); her drinking problem (3 glasses of wine a night for a woman my size is fine); her… other problem (having 3 lovers on the side is natural for a woman my… um, size? weight?).
She rolls onto her back and stares at the ceiling. Preston Weston is currently chatting up Robin about some comic book he’s reading disgustingly called “666 Satan”. Says he wants to date this Ruby who’s a star within. This gets her pondering about her own star, which seems to be sinking. Displaced by a — well, she shouldn’t think that but it’s true. A black woman. A black woman with *horns*. Satan seems to have come to town and taken up residence.
She then decides that today is the day. Colored TV has also come to town, perhaps connected, she ruminates. It’s time for the black and white Sylvania to go away. Zenith’s where it’s at now. After breakfast she and Preston will go into town again before the TV shop disappears along with the laundromat, massage parlor, kitchen shop, etc. etc. before it. Maybe Jim A. will come by later on. Then she realizes that Jim A. has been in a coma for 20 years, frozen in time. It was Jim *B.* that comes to visit her, 1/2 of the famous or infamous band known as The Basterds (“The B.’s”) along with her father Keith B. Ahh, the old team. He should have never given up the ol’ circle within circle drums. That’s when it all started: the slide.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0504, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
“This Lena Horned is good, admittedly.” Older Keith B. looks over at the singer currently crooning “The Ballad of Stormy Daniel.” He then leans closer to Kate McCoy sitting beside him. “But she’s not as good as my little girl.”
A noncommittal Kate turns toward the dance floor. “Well… Zach and The Mann seem to be enjoying it enough.”
“And The Dogg too,” Keith B. laughingly adds.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0503, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
“What’s back here, then?”
“Oh, nothing. Just an alley,” answered Domino, showing the tall, swarthy man around the gas station his uncle owned.
The stranger peers out. “Oh, I think it’s much more than an alley.”
“In its day, maybe. The Dark Days.” Satan Days, Domino thinks to himself, not wanting to say the word aloud.
The stranger knocks on the door, testing its solidity. “No eyes on this one as far as you can tell?”
“Nope,” clipped Domino, thinking how lucky they could limit themselves to one door for such a profitable establishment. Karma indeed.
“Listen, er, stranger.” Domino was trying to prompt for a name again. And failing again. “Um, my uncle won’t be back today. Like I said, *he’s* the owner. He’s the one you should be talking to. Not me.”
“That’s fine,” replied the dark man plainly, implying that he was okay with just talking to Domino now. Was Domino being played? Was he *in play*?
Marion Harding shuts the door, turns around, crosses his arms. “Tell your uncle that I’m interesting in buying this joint. Tell him — money is not an option.”
“Er… do you mean that money is not an issue? That’s great, er, but Uncle Zach, I’m sure, isn’t selling.” Then Domino realized he might be wrong. Why was the stranger here in the first place?
“I said what I said,” reinforced Marion. “Tell your Uncle Zach exactly what I just told you. Understand?”
“Sure, sure.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0502, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
“*Now* can I enter Pipersville?”
“*Thank* – *you*.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0501, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
“It’s the only place we could go to get away from Cindy A. Everywhere else: planes and rockets okay. But not here.”
“Let’s go find Little Jimmy,” Marion Star Harding urged, still lugging the attache case around with the required money.
—–
“It’s the same car as at the gas station in Cassandra City, Tealy,” spoke Marion in his cool gangster style.
“I believe it might be.”
“It is,” reinforced Marion. “I have a photographic memory. This is the place.” He blew out air with this. Some things never change.
“Freebies!” Tealy then utters, pointing to a nearby pillar while waving his hand before his nose, a familiar gesture.
“No, it has to be that one car. Where I was born in the parallel lives. Patterns. Stick to patterns.”
“Okay.” They move on.
—–
“We’ve seen this bastard before too.”
“Toppsity,” declares Tealy down below. “Toppsity?” he then questions Marion.
“X-City,” corrects Marion, pointing to his eyes and head.
—–
So here it is, Tealy. The *real* bastard.”
“Little Jimmy,” states Tealy religiously. “So it is true.”
“Cradle to grave,” Marion Star Harding manages, crying again now. “A life well spent.” He changes.
“L$50000 well spent,” returns Tealy, still wishing they had tested out some freebies before purchasing such a golden egg. CHA-CHING. *Sit*.
Marion Tillie knew they now had a fighting chance against the machinations of the A.Team.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0516, Maebaleia/Satori
“Well it all just sounds so fascinating Tillie. Seraph Club. Dean Martin!”
“And James Dean the week before. We just missed him!”
Tealy turned to Tillie. “I’m sorry. I know. One of your heroes.”
“Marion, Indiana,” she spoke. “I was there when it happened.”
Tealy pats Tillie’s near hand. “I know.” Tears began falling from her face, splashing onto Tealy’s hand even. She changed.
“But looks like he’s back!” Tealy then encouraged.
“Marion, Ohio this time,” spoke a transformed Tillie, clutching the L$50,000 tight in her his lap.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0515, Cass City+, Maebaleia/Satori
It was as if the world turned upside down on her. Witchery in Cassandra City. She knew it had to come from Toppsity slightly north, where the elements were all f-ed up thanks to the battles. *She* was a witch. But what did it all mean? She couldn’t remember that crucial bit yet.
Triangle: the triangle must be signed and sealed. That’s where it all starts. One hand on top of another on top of another on top of another…
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0514, Cass City+, Maebaleia/Satori, Toppsity-
Sunklands 