Downtown! Where All The Lights Are Bright!

 

“Well, warrior prince,” said Roops, “now you must convince your friends in the city to stay the course. We are inventing a world here, right under P-Sec’s noses!”

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 Evening was coming on, the Monday evening of the NO meeting at the gym in the abandoned High School building downtown.

I remembered that it was dark in the gym because there were no windows and night was coming.  We weren’t really sure if anyone would come. It depended on Denise getting the word to a few people who would talk to others they knew. It was still early for the meeting. 

Doug thought we should hike back down to the store on the highway and talk to Denise and see if they had a couple of candles and canning jars and a lighter or some matches.  They might. There was a small house wares section. I thought that I might need a notebook of some kind to keep some notes in.

We parked Lou, Elvin and Bubby at the bus stop and Doug and I went to find the candles and ask Denise if the message had gotten spread at all.  The bus stop was a place that we were all a little wary of at this point, but no strange hazy passageways were apparent that night. I sincerely hoped that they would all three be there sitting on the bench or the sidewalk in Bubby’s case when we returned from the store.

There were some short squat utility candles and some plain glasses, so I gathered up three of each and a small box of matches.  There was a small notebook meant for recipes or whatever.  I took that too. We hadn’t eaten so Doug and I looked around for something to go with the jerky that I still carried.  I thought milk would be a good idea, so some small cartons of milk and some of those same little apples were added to our purchases. We headed up to the check stand and Denise then.

She was there, standing alone with no customers at her station. I wondered briefly how she was paid. I didn’t know anyone else with a real job.  Did she get a different sort of disposable currency or something else? Who, exactly, paid her? Maybe she got a discount at the store.

We plopped our stuff on her counter and I asked her, “how did it go?  Were you able to talk to a few people about the changed location?” While totaling up our purchases, she said, “yes, I mentioned it to Kevin Brown, Elise Wilson, and Danny whatshisname.  They all know to talk it up to the others. They were pretty glad to hear of a new spot.  Also, they are worried about this one blowing up too.”

Doug said, “I have a pretty good reason to think that won’t be happening. I will explain tonight.  Will you come too?  Late is ok if you need to be here for a few more hours. It’s dark in there, that’s why we needed candles.” He put most of our shopping in his backpack and gave me the notebook.  He gave her a friendly wink and a grin, and we left the store. It was starting to get darker.  Soon it would be seven pm. We needed to get back up to the gym and get ready.  Not much to do but light the candles.  There were no chairs.

Back at the bus stop Lou was sitting with Bubby’s big head on her knee. Elvin, looking somewhat sober and watchful, had his elbows on his knees and was keeping a good lookout.  He looked adorable if I do say so. Lou looked pretty happy too. It was a nice moment. Settling down beside them, we all had a little bus stop picnic.  Bubby had jerky and said he wanted an apple too. I was glad that Mrs. Steele made nice jerky.  It was a little sweet and just a bit spicy, not too salty.

Back up on Cherry Street a little later, we passed Roops’ radio station and went on down to the gym.  It looked quiet, not like down at the Wharf Café.  There were two guys and one girl standing in front of the big, locked doors.  Danny, Elise, and Kevin, true to their word, had come.  Danny was a short stocky redhead in his twenties.  Elise was a mother already I knew, also in her twenties, rather pretty and dark but tired looking.  Kevin would have been a football type if there had been football anymore.  He was tall, blond, powerful, a big joker, and only about 18.

Everybody said hi, those who didn’t know him patted Bubby and thought he looked nice and like a good watchdog.  I could imagine what he would say about all of that.  We all drifted around the corner of the building and slipped inside the big dark empty gym.  I busied myself lighting our candles and setting them on the floor near the door to the outside.  We all sat crosslegged on the polished gym floor and waited to see if anyone else would arrive. Soon two more groups of three popped through the door and Doug decided to call it a big enough number to start a meeting.

He stood up off the floor and strode around for a few moments, going into the dark depths of the room and coming back out.  He looked thoughtful and maybe somewhat troubled.  He rubbed his hands together and then shoved them in his jeans pockets and stepped up in front of us all.  He looked tall, thin, and severe.  I didn’t know this Doug. The candle light lit his face from below.

“NO party I have something difficult to explain to you.  Some essential things have changed. I have to tell you about last Saturday night out at Jen’s place.”  People who didn’t know me turned around in their places to take a look.  I waved a little. I suspect that my smile was a little wobbly.

So, it all came out.  The six Lights, the whole thing.  I was surprised that they all didn’t just get up and leave.  He told them that our party would now be known as Novus Ordo.  Nobody knew what it meant, and it had to be explained to them.  Grudging acceptance.

 Doug repeated what the Lights had told him.

  They would destroy the triangle ships on the ground.  No air wars.

  They would guard our meetings.

  We would be part of their association of off world peoples.

  And the hardest one for Doug to say was that he was supposed to be the Light’s regent on earth. Then we also had to explain regent.

We waited for reactions.  We got them.

Danny said “come on Doug, we all want something better, but this sounds like a fairy tale!  What next?  Three wishes on a lantern? How can you prove this even happened?”

Elise said “I’m tired.  Maybe I should go home.”

Kevin laughed and looked at the whole group and shrugged his shoulders. 

There was some snickering from the other six men. 

Now, here things got a little strange.  But I should have learned by then not to be surprised at that.  The room began to lighten up.  I could see the far corners.  I could see the ceiling way up high. The light increased gradually until all of them started to notice it. It lightened more. Elise stood up and started easing toward the door. About then, Denise finally showed up. Her mouth fell open as she looked around the room.

A Light manifested in the center of the air.  How it had gotten in was not readily apparent. But there it was. Gently spinning and silent, it made a statement by its being. There was no arguing with this appearing. It was there. For better or worse, Doug was not lying.

Elise came back to stare at the Light.  All were silent.  I found myself wondering if the Lights ever sang.  It seemed like a reasonable idea.

Lou hid her face in Bubby’s side as he lay on the floor. Elvin looked on quietly.

Doug spoke up suddenly. “I would like to take suggestions from you  tonight.  How should we proceed? It’s all very good to have meetings and talks, but what next?  How can we weaken P-Sec? Here we need to define real goals.

“What I see is a need for destruction. We need to weaken their hold on us. They need to fear us, but not find us! Also, like yeast in a dough, we must infect all those around us who are natural members, even if they don’t know it yet.

“This will be terribly hard, but effective resistance has been done before.”

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As usual, the whole thing is here: In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx