00400404

She was back in her old room doing remote research. Mother provided free food, just like in childhood. She had a tape recorder and several hour long tapes in which to record her thoughts. She started at the beginning and worked her way up to the present. Early on she found her Volkswagen bug. “There!” she pointed out to herself and herself only. For now. “Like Emma’s, like Jack’s before her. Or after her, doesn’t matter. A story in a brook.”

The man is Tropp, she recalled. Grown up from Opp and wearing a birthday hat instead of a birthday suit. But she gets the point. He started out as an Mmmmmm but became more, unlike his cousin Grassy who remained a mere toy. He walks pass the bug and through the arch to yesterday’s tomorrowland.

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Meanwhile…

She was through with prison for a while, having properly finished her sentence there (“–goddess”). She took her new found knowledge about the cow, All Orange, etc. back to Broadwater. Or actually Osbourne Beach to the south of the new strip mall instead of west. Prison was north. Pink saw pink and understood. Herself. She could handle it if she remained off the grid grid and all the square stuff where Utah merged with Omega and tended to cancel it all out, good triumphing over evil, it thought. She had to make peace with her mother. She had to gain knowledge from her library in de skies.

“Yes, there it is,” she said to her after thumbing to the right page in Book 18. “All Orange.”

“We begin there, then,” came the reply.

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sing sing

In a hidden wing of the prison she finds a big clue, perhaps a master map. Gazing at pink, she knows where she is. And who she is! She dispenses with the cow part, hoping to remember more.

It worked! All Orange beneath (perfection). “I am a–.”

—–

“Once you finish your meditation we can begin the reading, Edward.”

“Still can’t believe you’re a (prison) psychic as well as a bartender, Nas,” he spoke from his yoga position across the scrying table. Another Golden Goddess, he thinks. A chain! And all he had to do was set up a date later on to pay. Perfection once more.

“*Concentrate*. Put the question foremost in your mind.”

—–

“This prison can no longer hold you, Edward, her Eddie,” she read. “You have past through the 2 pillars. 10 becomes 1 from bottom to top and you begin again. You will have enough money to prosper or at least be comfortable in your olden age to do so.”

Good but not original Golden Goddess good, Eddie intuits here. He must return to her.

Now he just has to wait on Pink to finish her sentence.

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synchronicity02

Tired from her “tour” and walking so much, Marsha “Pink” Krakow sits down at a conveniently placed bar in the middle of it all. She would have settled for water but all they had here apparently was alcohol by the looks of it. And also no one tending the thing. She ended up pouring her own beer, an Anheuser product, probably Busch. Only one other person in the place and that was a woman dressed like a horse sitting at a table against the wall. She figured: protection, like she had on her cow suit for same. But in truth this was the bartender on an unsanctioned break, black mare outfit merely indicating her employee status.

She dreamed of being a novelist, Star Team fan fiction to be precise we could call it. She was waiting on the publisher to judge her latest effort, a two-pronged story about the perils of asteroid belts and also belts in general, including one the Captain wanted his new favorite helmsman to start wearing. He introduced it to her by saying it could transport her to another realm altogether and that he could then join her there if they were properly synchronized. Then the asteroid belt hit and they had to laser a hole through the biggest, darkest one in order to make it out and continue toward their destination. “You see?” she said to her publisher who was interested but not sold yet, calling to ask more questions to assess the ultimate value of the book — money value obviously, the way publishers have to be these days in a dog eat dog, capitalist driven world. “It’s all Freudian (she continued). Readers would eat it up without even knowing it’s trash at the bottom. Or, to use another analogy, wouldn’t even taste the normally intolerable hot spice I added to the meal.”

Shady Lane Publishers worried about the Star Team angle, obviously a nod to Star Trek. They consulted their own team, legal in that case. No go, they said. Can’t take the risk. And so Liz was served with a big thumbs down the day after the call. And here she is. Drinking on the job because of it.

She got the Pleiades angle from a map conjunction in Pennsylvania…

… and a map conjunction in Pennsylvania.

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00400316

At 11, Ketchup Tom came a knocking at the door. Serenity Lane crept in from the opposite direction while he did, wondering why the punk was here as well. Sleepy Eddie rouses himself, steps over still snoozing Dogg by the bed, answers the door. But there was nobody there. It was all because of what was spoken by Marsha and, er, Bethany, um, Ginger — Mrs. Ordinary — at the tiny cafe just across the Big Channel. Because they were figuring out stuff, enough to cause ghost realities to suddenly rez in, probabilities to come into the light which didn’t exist before. Ketchup and Serenity showing up at Marsha’s door at the same time. They had the same goal in mind was the symbolism. And Eddie was in the middle which was unfortunately in the way. But they didn’t get the chance to tell Eddie since the probable reality evaporated when Mrs. Ordinary paid the expensive bill, rum not being cheap in these here parts. Things like this happen more than you realize, folks. It’s all in the books. Eddie goes back to bed, writing off the knocks as part of a dream. A different kind of sleep, then, he’s in.

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great and powerful

When she got back from her trip to the Pleiades which wasn’t the Pleiades, Mrs. Ordinary found everything around her to be mundane, just *blah*. Sand sand sand from north to south in this here Big Sandy she called home, yellow, long and boring. She needed to spice up her life with a bit of extra, like she had while aboard the USS Galaxy, certainly not boring atall, although they had to get through that one giant meteor in the way by boring through it via a lasered out hole. Definitely excitement there!

She put down her boring book about Atlantis, Easter Island and such and rang up neighbor Marsha “Pink” Krakow, seeing if she wanted to get together for some tea, something different for her day. She’d heard of a tiny cafe opening up in Pugwash just across the Big Channel. She checked before she called — open at 7, the website stated. 7:05am now. Just in time for an early breakfast too since she saw they had flapjacks available, her favorite.

Marsha beside her Eddie in bed yawned before answering her cell phone. First thought: Mom has the shingles again and I have to come down and take care of her. But she checked the number before swiping. Unknown, the indicator indicated. Relief. She swiped.

“Hello, Marsha? It’s Bethany, er, Ginger. Listen, just wondering if you wanted to catch an early breakfast at that new place just across the Big Channel. I checked: open at 7. Seats are limited so figured I’d call now to see if you’re up for it.”

Marsha yawned again, glanced over at her Sleeping Beauty comfortably snoozing away, and said, “Sure. Just give me 15 minutes to change and I’ll meet you there.” She needed a friend to talk to as well. Life, Second or not, was getting more and more complicated, what with Ketchup Tom and now Serenity Lane entering the picture in this here section.

—–

“Oh the light’s just beautiful here. Isn’t it beautiful?” Different* from where I live, she ponders, looking up into the sky to see if she can spot the Pleiades before the harsh sun washes all the night time away. No luck.

“Sure thing, er, Ginger.” Was it Ginger? Marsha “Pink” Krakow still wasn’t sure. They had finished their flapjacks, 1 apiece since both were on some kind of diets. Look at her, Marsha was thinking prior to ordering; so trim! But Mrs. Ordinary was thinking the same thing about Marsha. And so the one flapjack apiece, easy on the syrup. Then afterwards, not tea but rum, Mrs. Ordinary decided, which Marsha went along with. Why not? She could sober up on whatever little drunkenness occurred before Eddie even stirs out of his slumber, 12 o’clock being the earliest he rises since his early retirement in March of last year. Lots of money in records management outside the public sector. And he worked for the rock industry, Ozmo Daredevils, Ozzie Osbourne and the like. For the former, he chronicled how “Jackie Pink” turned into “Jackie Blue” in the company blog, which brought him to the attention of curious Marsha wondering about her own “Pink” name and how it came to be. Through it she learned that boys and girls use to be dressed in pink and blue respectively back in the 50s 30s instead of visa versa. And so it began.

(to be continued)

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from star to shining star

“How far to the Pleiades star constellation formation, Helmsman Pickard?”

“Um, just checking,” replied the red uniformed man to the right, hands all over the controls with much accompanying typing noises. Finally he answered: “About 150 parsecs still, mum.”

Cpt. Extra Ordinary knew that *Earth*, their origin point, was less than 150 parsecs from the Pleiades. She makes a note to replace Pickard with promising jr. officer Lulu U. Hooroo, a black woman from Silver City, New Mexico in the 1950s. She’s certainly capable for the position, plus it will add much needed diversity to the bridge. Not a black, yellow, red, or brown person in sight here, although Helmsman Speck opposite Pickard is half Vulcan. Or so everyone is telling her — she has her doubts still; looks like another white thoroughbred male actor to her from Cookie Cutter California.

Afterwards:

“That was soo much fun! I can’t wait to get to the Pleiades to see what they’ve set up there.”

“Soo… you really think you’re going to the Pleiades, to that distant star constellation formation?” said the woman opposite her, readying to reprise her role as Helmsman Hooroo from the original Star Team series.

“Well, sure. Don’t you?”

“Oh sure, sure. It’s all real. If Dolores Cannon says it’s real then it must be real.”

“Dolores who?”

“The Big Sandy woman. She’s not a channeler after all. She’s a reporter, an investigator. The spirits do not speak through her just *to* her. From various sources, filtered through various human vessels.”

“*We’re* on a vessel,” spoke Mrs. Ordinary, the Extra removed from her name immediately upon exiting the holographic bridge. Yet the unreality lingers. “The USS Galaxy,” she recites. “Class 4a starship, which replaced the class 3b Ararat which replaced the class 2f Cuthand. I know my Star Team stuff. And I knew the distance to the Pleiades. Inept Helmsman Pickard will be replaced the next time we step up on the bridge. *You’ll* be there with me instead. And maybe I’ll keep Speck there, maybe not. Depends on what the blood tests I ordered show up with. If thoroughbred white like I suspect — outta there too. We’ll replace him, yes, with someone Asian, maybe an Indian.”

“Back to the Pleiades,” steered “Hooroo” toward the main problem again, the main sticking point. There was no stage set up for them in the 7 star star constellation formation. Despite what Cannon relayed in Book 1.

I can feel her laughing behind the scenes. I think she may be part of my “council”, perhaps as a counsel.

(to be continued)

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X factor

“I’ve decided not to write trash, Eddie, my Edward.”

“Call me Eddie,” he repeated. She never listened. Much like “cousin” Tessa to Edward, the *real* Edward.

So many faux cousin/lover pairings in this novel already, and we’re not even halfway through quite yet. First there was Eddie and Edward, the faux being affixed to the lover part in that case. Then Tessa and Edward, cousin linked with faux in that example. And now supposed cousins Serenity Lane and Shelley Lane (Struthers). Let’s just have Marsha “Pink” Krakow bring up the last pairing to Edward as they’re laying in bed in their 2n1 trailer, wishing to have their cake and eat it too again.

“Edward?” she said after thinking some of these things herself, mirroring the actual author (me) once more.

“Yes?” he relented, not bothering to correct her now.

“As I was saying…”

“Oz. I know. Rock told me all about it. And Gill. What do you call him? Vain and Artery Boyy, right. And the child as well.”

“Toddles,” she said to this. To please a child, she thought.

“All 3 approached me, Rock and Toddles and then Vain and Artery Boyy separate from them. Told me how much they enjoyed the new novel and the switch of genres and how they hoped you keep it up.”

“Oh. Wonderful! I wonder why they didn’t tell me themselves?”

“Probably…” he shifts his weight in the bed, assuming a more upright position, “because you were visiting that large prison complex over in Rockaway Beach. I myself didn’t have time to tell you until now. Had to keep reinforcing to you that it’s all right, and the, ahem, tour will be over soon.”

“Took some time to get from top to bottom, yeah,” she admitted. She got pretty scared about halfway down, even though the internal bowling alley reassured her that TILE was there, even amongst all this negativity. The light shines through.

Eddie, her Edward, was with her after that — called him over. “So. Are you going to go in that direction, go back to Meat City? Or stay here in Big Sandy?”

Was that the ultimate question? Past Broadwater, the grid took over, Utah to Omega link locked in again until it bent away on the other side of town. She saw this now. She *had* to see.

“Let’s give it a couple more posts,” which is probably what I would have said in her shoes. She decided not to bring up that Serenity Lane wasn’t Shelley’s cousin but her ex-lover, her ex-wife in fact. And now since Shelley was out of the picture she apparently has designs on the “replacement”. Drugged back to Meat City against her will!  Prison of all places. She could have spent one day there, she could have spent a lifetime there. Big. Practically Big Sandy big sitting up there wide and long and thick in the sky.

Back to the sand the way she knew how. With Edward.

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00400312

They played footsies with each other in the parked UFO before Mythos leaned in for a kiss. Suddenly Horace was back. Laughing. “Damn Horace!” he said aloud and then continued in his mind, reverting to the old way of communication. “You almost let me go through with it!”

The Mind Games were over. Back to Meat City. But first…

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00400311

He was trying to take advantage of the situation, get to know Mythos Roswell better through this new avatar he created on a whim to make a point. He did that sometimes.

“Sure,” he as she answered back about the offered drink, seeing his green alien friend (friend?) had fallen for the bait. He’d set him up well. Loneliness goes a long way toward it. And Fillip and Brindle showing up now and then putting him even further down on himself. Mythos Roswell figures he could use a drink himself, although it defeats the purpose of the first (making a buck — he just gave it back). “What’s your, um, name? Stranger?” he said in his mind. But she answered aloud, surprising him. Was this really Horace? Was the t-shirt, what do you call it, a *synchronicity*?

“My name is Lilly. Lilly Day.”

He stuck out his long green alien hand and shook her normal human one. “Well mine is Roswell. Roswell Mythos, although, like the Oriental way of arranging it, you spell it Mythos Roswell over here on the old continents. So… just call me Mythos to make it simple.”

“I can do that. Mythos.”

“Horace are you in there?” he tried with his mind again. “Horace? Where are you?” No answer.

She orders a second slurpee and he does too. Soon they were careening up Route 2 on a sugar high toward Fillip and Brindle, aiming to brag that they were on top of the world and not them. And soon they were also calling each other sugar. Was this wrong? they kept asking themselves. “Was this wrong?” Mythos Roswell tried to communicate with the mind of Horace again in the UFO they drove up there. “Beats me,” Horance wanted to say back but remained silent, not wanting to ruin the moment. The square and circle as one! Now he as the third can come in and save the Day.

(to be continued (?))

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