squared
“I will bring you back to life from the fire, Amos Truth. But you must *spread* the Truth after that. Look toward the North this time. Look toward Ong–”
“Ong WHAT?” shouted Amos into the manifested fire. It was *everywhere*.
But after being burned alive again he did indeed emerge from the other side unscathed and unharmed. He gathers up the remaining few seed sacks scattered about here and there in the aftermath and heads across Highway 8 to tell his landmime brother what just happened.
The Impossible Strawberry
“An agreement was reached, Hucka Doobie. Two realities, but then one reality. And it’s not the one that won.”
—-
“Bluebox…”
“Hills of Bill,” Hucka Doobie elaborated from behind once more, also looking at the map containing the former “Blue” galleries of Maebaleia/Satori on the 2nd floor of the house. “Center.”
“… then Blue Feather.”
“North.”
(last?) straw
“Alright Mr. Pitch Darkly darling. You have suffered enough on the America’s flag. You are allowed to see Mr. Burster Dang in the bamboo park this morning.”
“*Finally* You hear that down there Mary?”
“I heard,” she gurgled upward.
—–
“So what gives, Burster? I mean, Buster?”
“Just lay there and don’t move. And talk *through* the bamboo as much as possible. The bamboo is sacred, the bamboo is healing.”
Pitch Darkly intuits he wants to add on something like, “All Hail the Wild Green Grass,” even if Buster doesn’t say it out loud. What made him think this? Then something else came in his mind. “Is — this an audition?” he asked.
Buster became even more serious. “Annaliza. Will you kindly leave Pitch and me alone for a moment.”
Annaliza hesitates, but then acquiesces, bowing deeply before departing in silence. Pitch wanted to shout, “Are you all right down there!” to Mary, but knew she couldn’t hear through the floor. She wasn’t allowed (again). This was very, very wrong.
grass talk
Buster knew she would be looking in through the secret window. Some called her Blurmaid, half blue, half (mer)maid. She was what Craighead Phillips dreamed about regularly in the aquarium at the center of the X, Maebaleia/Satori’s only true crossroads. And they *were* at one, as we, (the reader) and I, are. This is so top secret that I’m almost inclined to make the remainder of the posts of this current Collagesity novel private. I believe Buster Damm would feel more comfortable if this were so.
—–
“The X is a portal,” he spoke through the bamboo to his old friend Pitch, his best mate for, well, centuries I suppose. This is secret stuff between two old pals, old buddies. “You found the blue rose by the sign — you know that now.”
“Ahh, blue rose. Should’ve known.”
“Novalis, yes. But the blue rose is close yet again.” He peers at the door he cannot see through once more. “We are — being monitored,” he measured in his high pitched voice.
Pitch let this sink in before responding bassly from his reclining position. “Cathy A. I know about her and the blue rose that once was red. Like, er, Marcus Fox Smartville’s. What — happened to them?”
[delete 5 exchanges]
“We will compensate by editing…”
[delete 3 exchanges]
—–
Annaliza appeared from around the corner. “We have had enough of discussions today if you please. Mr. Pitch sir, you will follow me again to the pool room where we will talk more tomorrow. Mr. Dang, if you will excuse us.”
“Sure, sure.”
school
“So can anyone tell me where this word comes from?” Kyao Suki tried not to look down at his chalk dusted hands, wanting to wash them. Instead he projected forward, toward his audience, his pupils. All except Kevin A. (Kevin Orchardsity), who was asleep in the front row, slightly snoring even.
Vaulter Valerie Kempbill would have raised her hand if she had any. Instead she spoke up. “Piedmont,” she uttered proudly from her headless head. She had read all of 2 hours the night before. Such interesting material!
“Very close, Valerie. It’s *Pietmond*. Like the artist Piet Mondrian.” Kyao could tell this flew over everyone’s head so he let the resonance drop. He briefly thought about the 3 chalk disaster that was suppose to be a rendition of his “Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow” and decided not to go down that path as well. Leave art for the artists, he decided. Like Peggy Bartholomew up on the 5th floor. Ahh: Peggy. But enough of that. Back to teaching!
“Do you know why *Pietmond* was the source of Sinkology, Valerie… anyone?”
Garfield Hatfield looked around the room, thinking they were all a bunch of losers; castoffs. Well, *he* was. Seeing no one else speak up, he offered: “Because it existed in a sinkhole?” He almost said *stinking* sinkhole but backed off at the last second. What was this thing he had about biting remarks? He wasn’t like this as a kitten.
“Correct, Hatfield. Very good. Pietmond existed in one of the 6 legitimate sinks of the continent of Jeogeot, which we covered yesterday. As you recall, this is also the Southern Continent or the 3rd created by our makers. Does anyone remember the other continent we spoke about yesterday, hmm?” No immediate answer. “The one with the 2 other sinks that all Sinkologists agree are legitimate — real? 7 and 8?”
Valierie Kempbill was thinking something like “Concrete” but decided to keep quiet, already embarassed about the presence of one mispronunciation.
“Corsica,” Kyao Suki pronounced clearly. “Corsica,” he repeated. “And *today*, we’re going to discuss the one we’re on now to complete the survey of our sinks.” *Surely* they know the continent they live on currently, he though to himself, but decided to ask anyway.
Half said Satori, half said Maebaleia after Kevin A. woke up enough to chip in. Even split between Northerners and Southerners we have here, Kyao Suki realized, taking a better look at his assembled class.
XXX dance
“They think they are the X, Pitch. But they’re only the western edge: Long Drive. There’s Middle Game left, and there may even be Sink X itself, formerly holding Chip Shot, to complete the game.”
“But the X, the actual crossroads I mean, lies between Long Drive here and Middle Game, which I assume is a destination coming up shortly.”
“But first,” Buster clarified, “The X itself as you put it. Teebestia.”
“Cool.”
absence
“Still not here,” Axis lamented, blue curse purse painting propped to one side. “She must still be at the school. A short drive from here, despite the name. Yet — I think I’ll visit Teebestia first. Something inside me, yes, says to tick that off my list first.”
He stares over at the modified artwork again. “I was such a beautiful little girl before becoming such a handsome man, hehe.”
—–
“Should be just over there.”
castle
“Ahh. Good to be home.”
—–
“What is that enchanting music, eh?
“And how are you tonight, Ms. Teebestia. Long time no see!”
“H-how did *you* get here?”
“And good to see you too(!). I got here the same way everybody does. By logging in and changing clothes if needed.” Axis inspects Teebestia more carefully. “But, hmm, I see you don’t have that need. The logging in, I mean. You are just a prop!”
“Shhh. Baker Bloch is listing in.”
Axis turns toward the piano; sees a large, pale, somewhat blood splattered vampire playing the tune he was so admiring before and after entering the castle. So captivating. He must ask the name. But: Baker Bloch?
He calls over to the vampire. “Baker Bloch?”
The piano playing screams to a halt. Literally: a scream, a very high pitched one and nothing like Pitch’s actual voice. He was channeling a certain spider, but the spell has ended. He doesn’t know how to play the piano. He lifts his suddenly non-talented hands away from the keyboard. Pitch Darkly no more.
—–
“W-what are *you* doing here?”
“Exactly what I said,” Teebestia quickly followed.
“Well,” Axis replied after a pause. “Aren’t *we* a fine 3-n-1, eh?”
castle 02
“Lovely tea, thank you,” Axis compliments after taking another sip. “So tell me more about yourself. Tell me more about this Omicron City you are from. Fascinating story! Serial killings and a demon. What was the demon’s name?”
Well, *he* sure cuts to the heart of things, Teebestia thinks, rubbing the front of her own exposed heart reflexively. But that was a name she dare not utter. Does — Axis know something about all this? How did he get so quickly to the unspeakable center? “I can’t recall,” she instead answers. “Something like Aspartame.” It was a joke name concocted during a particular drinking binge in a particular bar. With a particular person. Another seer, although in this case not also a seeker (of Truth). It served the purpose.
“Ahh,” he answered innocently (or tried). “Like the sugar substitute. Very clever. That always makes me nauseous — don’t know about you.”
“Oh I stay away from all that. Because of the name, see.”
“You’re smart.” He takes another sip. His voice was as bass as Baker Bloch’s. Teebestia’s was, how to put it, musical? She hits all the right notes for him at least. He looks at the heart again.
“And you? Tell me about your search for the heart of the X.”
We synchronize! “Well — a particular person at the heart who is also the heart.” He stares again. He *knows*.
Her room sealed it.
castle 42
Hmph. I suddenly can’t remember why I’m here at the X. Something about finding something. But what?
He breathes deeply; massive, blood stained chest heaving.
Better get back to Buster over in Long Drive, Pitch thinks. Back to the dance — last thing I recall.
Middle Game
“I pray that I’ve done good by you my Lord.”
“ARISE.”
“Okay, yes sir,” Crocogator speaks to the booming voice in the sky, his King. He rises.
“AROUSE.”
“Um. What?”
“A ROSE.”
Sacrificee Renaldo O’Donnell stands up from the sacrificial altar, heart beating again within him. He has a new one.
“I will take you to the King now.”
—–
“Not those two silly beings. The real one. Over here.”
“Alright. Thank you again! Thank you so much.”
in the middle
“Ahh! A monster!
“Oh thank God. A beautiful princess…
“… with a death skull face *panic*!
“What *is* this place?
“And where the hell did the clown go? Over there?”
—–
—–
“Oh God! Lost control! Spinning…!”
—–
“Okay, there’s the Lord,” Crocogator continues, “safe” on the other side now. “But I can’t concentrate on him because of all these *slapping tentacles*. This is not Heaven. It’s Hell!
“And where’s that horrible, gut wrenching ‘music’ coming from?
“Certainly not from over *there*.
“Can’t… *move*.”
—–
“How long to keep him in the cat place, sire?”
“Oh, a couple hollers more should do it.”
X-City Bar-Cafe
“It’s pretty obvious by now, Hucka Doobie, that the South is slowly but surely taking over the North, bit by bit, piece by piece. There’s Gregson to consider, what with its 7 spawned little demons wreaking havoc on the town by now, no doubt. Then Pipersville with its Red Devil Alley.”
“Creepy Alley, uh huh,” the bee person responded. Psychic guru to the blog.
“And now… X-City. Center of the North, as Horns of Hatton is to the South. Capitol cities each. But now: infested with chickens. Just like the other one.”
Hucka Doobie looks around, wishing they’d stop their gall darn cackling for just a moment so she can think clearer.
“Red Devil again. Who is…”
“Don’t say it yet,” requests Hucka Doobie, now holding her head from the pain.
across the road
Inertia had finally found her. Wonderful, smart, pretty, dedicated Teebestia, love of her life. A *castle* at that, she thinks. I knew she’d go further than her dead end lawyering job in Olde Lapara Town. But, trouble is, does this also mean she’s *married*? One way to find out; hope she’s home.
She came one day too late. Axis had already seen this probability and taken steps to avoid it. The gay life of Inertia and Teebestia, happy together, would not play out now. Shame: such a good match, a *positive* relationship. But Axis had won the battle of the heart. You cannot outbrain him.
Inside:
“Finally found a place to hang my painting, Teebestia.
“I think — I’m home.”
return
“He will — see you now.” The voice was husky and deep, sort of like Darth Vader.
“That’s great. That’s wonderful! I’m so happy.”
“Are you — not rattled?” the giant turtle asked, his beak only inches from the crocogator’s ear now.
“Nah, nah, I’m okay. It was better than, say, Barry *Manilow*, hehe.” Crocogator stared over at Andy’s huge face. “Get it? Because Barry Manilow is so *awful*.” Andy most definitely didn’t get it. There was nothing more to say here.
—–
“Watch out for the exploding lamb!” Winkler the big frog warned. Luke Skywalker this time.
Crocogator walked around the lamb, but in doing so moved just left enough to fall out of “Heaven” while crossing this open corner.
“God dammit!”
So close to God, he lamented while dusting himself off back on the ground. Now I’ll have to start all over.
He looked around for the clown so that he could start all over.
Devil
“I can see it in my mind’s eye right now Ruby, er, Cathy. Right over there in that open part of the sky. A round, perfectly black head with round black ears to match. Don’t you see it too?”
“I’m, er, *prrr*, trying!”
“No need to shout,” scolded Eraserhead Man playfully. “Not when you’re around. We should get married right here and now, babydoll. Right at this crossroads. Save us a lot of time later on.”
Cathy A. laughs and twirls around in place with her blue rose, acting all ditzy as usual.
“Anyway…” EM stares back up in the sky. “That’s what I see. We’ll, hmm, probably have to alter it for copyright reasons. Maybe, um, *deflate* one of the ears; make it look more like a dog’s. A droopy dog ear, yes. Like that card I used in the other show.”
“‘On the Air’? *prrr*.”
“No, the other one. The less famous one.”
“Oh.”
“Like *this*, actually.” Eraserhead Man holds up his coffee mug for Cathy A. to see. Indeed: droopy dog ears. She gets a little afraid at the sight, which EM senses.
“Yeah, I know how you feel. Anyway, that’s what follows Axis around, wherever he goes now. The North will have to surrender unconditionally to the high menace.” Eraserhead Man looks up. “The high menace in the high castle.
Now place your rose over there and we’ll begin again.”
Sunklands 