It Hardly Bears Retreating

 

Once upon a recent time, at the edge of a fine stand of Douglas Firs, but out in the brushy open lands, Thaga, a virtuous Neanderthal matron, calmly ventures out to gather some blackberries to carry home to make a pie for You Know Oooog! She carries a purpose made slat basket.

        Oh, but Maeve is watching.  She thinks there may be fun to be had!           

But way out ahead of Thaga, a great blond bear is working the berry bushes. It seems to have a plastic grocery bag snagged on a forepaw….

 

Thaga considers.  “Ramona, is that you?”

Ramona stands, an impressive sight. “What are you doing out here?” Her full body mop of blond ringlets shining in the PNW sunshine. Her big brown eyes snap out a message of irritation!

“Trying to get some berries before you eat them all, like a bear, Ramona!” remarked Thaga, in a rather defensive voice.

Maeve executes some acrobatics, flying around their heads figure eight style crying out “,…*/chuga….zomp,” or whatever Ravens say when trying to be provocative.

Says Ramona, “is this your stupid bird?”

“Nah, I thought she was yours. You’re the woodland creature around here” says Thaga, swatting around her head and swinging her basket too.

“So, how’s Ralph these days,” says Thaga.

Ramona sits on a log, crosses her legs, all ladylike and says, “he spends all his time sneaking up on the hairless wonders and taking photos of them.  Then he brings it home and laughs his big hollow head off at them!

“He always has enjoyed scaring them, but this…  Hey, you know, he has to power the thing up by plugging it into houses.  One of these days some farmer is going to think he is a commie and shoot him!” Ramona eats a couple of berries disconsolately.

“Don’t you know how to, um, distract him?  Keep him otherwise occupied?  You could try making pies!” says Thaga brightly and slyly, but not very helpfully. 

Maeve settles down on a branch over their heads. “That was cute Thaga. Yeah, yeah, I know your names. You talk so much that I learned from all your yakking.

“I am Maeve. I know everything. Ask anybody.”

“Oh, never mind the talking jackdaw or whatever it is.  Did you ever try making pie in a leanto shelter made by a mancritter?  Of course not. ‘Oooog make chimney, Oooog make fireplace….oooolala!  Lookit Oooog go!’  He defies the forces of entropy! Ooog has skills!” This from Ramona.

“Don’t you talk about Ooog, you…you blond!  Ooog is a philosopher, not some retrograde shapeshifting portal surfing mugwump like Ralph!” hollers Thaga in a fit of pique!

“Oh, calm down honey.  You never could take a little homespun ribbing could ya? Ralph doesn’t even like berries much.  You can have them.  Feed them to Ooog in a big fat pie!  I’m going home now. Prolly gnaw on a rabbit.

“It’s a very good thing Ralph can’t print his photos out. We have that going for us,” says Ramona, standing and stretching. “I’m tired!”

“Thanks Ramona, you’re alright!  Remember I said that now! I think I’ll head home too. It’s getting late for fooling around in the woods.  We might run into something dangerous!” giggles Thaga.

“What could scare us, Thaga?” sniggers Ramona. A T Rex?”

They share a sororal hug, and part friends as always.  Are you surprised?

          Maeve swoops down over their heads.  She bids them, and you, adieu! Or as she says, "a doodoo!"

Rude old baggage that she is!

          

The sort of land where this sort of meeting could very well happen, where clear cut land is growing ground cover and bushes.  One of the main ground cover species is the Dew Berry. The landscapes of my own childhood were in the process of recovery from logging.  This photo was made on the Olympic Peninsula.

Just A Word From Uncle Ralphie

 A Moment Of Reflection

Remember that reporter, Millicent? Well, you know, she gave me an iPhone. I think she went and bought herself the newest one. It’s a pain to keep charged because I have to sneak around to places with external outlets to amp it up every couple of days. Sigh. No biggie, kids.

I have been checking up on you guys. It’s worse than I thought. I mean, I thought Snohomish County was nuts. Nope. Locals here are pikers.

Like the Book says, all is vanity..and in fact, beating the wind!

It’s that keeping track of value you guys have. Started out gold, silver and paper notes. Now it’s all imaginary numbers. And you guys will do anything that can be imagined for it! Apparently, you can imagine a lot. Talk about nothing for something!

A bunch of you are living like pigeons on the streets in town. At least pigeons know how to live on the street. Don’t be like Uncle Bob. If I didn’t catch him deer once in while he would be dead. He moves in slooooow motion.

Some of you would rather be out of your minds than any other thing. Wow. And you think I’m imaginary!

So, hey, I guess I’m primitive. I admit it. I sleep in the woods and eat raw deer and whatever, like berries and stuff. I also grab fish if they are around.

I’ve got a rotten sense of humor. You come out here and Imma gonna spook ya if I can. It is so funny to see you characters freeze and your hair stand on end.

Come on up to the Baker National Forest at night and let’s dance! Heh.

Hey, I love you guys. I'm not really talking to youall.  You seem to be normal.  I know...because I'm always watching you!

Not A Thought In My Head

 We ran into this place in California in 2014.  Did not go in.  It seemed forbidding.  But maybe out there in the dry lands of California it would have been just fine.  

But I was hearing this in the back of my mind!  Can't be too careful!

Dearly Beloved Conclusion And Special Guest Appearance

 

It seemed obvious that we would hold this simple ceremony in my home backyard. I began to wish we had a horse or two and knew how to ride them, because now we had to go home again and start to get ready for a wedding.

**********************************************************

My mom had a blue dress, of a subtle floral print, which buttoned down the back and was ankle length. I did not remember it until I explored her closet. I wondered when she had worn it and for what occasion. 

It fit me well enough. I was a little taller than my mother, but only by about two inches. I stood wearing it in front of her mirror and thought about her. It had been years now, but I needed her, and she wasn’t there.

Lou had a little yellow dress that had been given to her by the chicken lady, and it was nice enough. I was trying to think of everything.

We looked through dad’s closet too. He had some white shirts, which I didn’t care for, and a blue one that looked nice next to mom’s dress. His pants wouldn’t work for Doug at all. Dad was a 38 waist and Doug a 34. So clean jeans it would be. Elvin would have to wear one of the white ones.

This was hard to bear, even now. Hard to describe. When we went mining for rings on the dresser in a little case, I found both of their wedding rings. Apparently when they died someone had removed their rings and saved them from the burning. What a terrible time that was. So many died so quickly. We probably would have died except for a couple of neighbor ladies checking in on us and showing us how to survive on our own. One or the other of them would even take us shopping and show us how to use the P-Sec currency. We had the Girl Scouts beat all to heck. I could care for my little sister and run a house at ten years of age.

The rings were a little loose on both of us, but I thought we could wear them during the wedding, and then put them away again.

We sat on the edge of their bed looking at their rings. It is true that I wet his shoulder with my tears.

The backyard was all bushy and overgrown except in the flower beds where we had been planting potatoes and such. We worked for two days hand cutting the grass with a scythe and a pair of hand clippers. Then it looked doable for our level of fancy, after some raking. I still felt like I was pretending.

Bubby patrolled around to make sure there were no rats or squirrels to intrude. He didn’t approve of either.

The days of that week passed. We all five kept busy. I washed clothes. Lou and I swept and straightened rooms. We even washed some windows. Doug and Elvin worked on the front yard some. They trimmed some bushes back and pulled up the big weeds. It began to look inhabited outside, instead of like every empty house on every street.

Lou and I had no suitable shoes, so we decided to go barefoot. That’s ok for country I thought. We had heard about hippies!

Finally, Friday night I was as ready as I could be. The dresses and shirts and jeans were all laid out and clean. The boys were wearing pajama bottoms to save their jeans for the next morning. The house was clean. The yard was pretty good. We had rings. We did not have a cake. But we were happy there all together in my parents’ house.

We made a dinner of roasted potatoes and fried eggs and were glad of it. Bubby ate a celebratory can of dog food, beef variety.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and cool. Up in my bedroom in my narrow bed next to Lou’s I awoke early and sat up looking out at the sky. Everything would change today.

When I went downstairs Doug was sitting at the table in the kitchen. He had made a pot of tea and was sitting with a mug in front of him. He was in my father’s place, and that was fine with me. He said “Jen, I love you.” I was startled to hear myself answer, “I must love you too, because I like you an awful lot Doug.” He became beautiful in my eyes then.

I made a pot of rice with raisins for breakfast, which we had with some precious butter, when the kids arrived at the table. Bubby wanted some too, so of course he ate with us.

There was a bit of a commotion out in front of the house. Bubby went tearing to the door and barked like a common mutt. When the door was opened it revealed Mrs. Steele sitting on a horse, clutching a cardboard box, with Roops holding the reins and grinning. He was in his usual black shorts and boots, but also a nice black shirt and a top hat! Mrs. Steele had on a long floral dress, hitched up a little so she could sit on the horse.

Roops took the box from his mom and gave it to Doug to put in the kitchen. Then he lifted his mom down to the ground. He tied the horse’s reins to a large bush’s trunk. I said, “where did the horse come from?”

“I borrowed the mare from some guy I know early this morning. Her name is Elsie. She has to go back today. He needs her tomorrow,” said Roops complacently. He cut quite a figure there in his hat with the brown mare beside him. An air of fantasy played about this day already. Elsie began calmly eating the lawn. I asked Elvin to get her a soup pan of water, which he did.

The box contained a five-layer carrot cake, decorated with a white icing and little silver sprinkles. I will never know how she got that together. It didn’t seem possible. But Mrs. Steele was a bit of a mysterious character anyhow, with unknown resources.

Next order of business was dressing. We did our best. Lou’s hair was just curly fluff. I sat while Mrs. Steele did mine up in something she called a French roll. She tucked some little white artificial flowers into it too. Doug and Elvin put on their shirts and clean jeans and combed their hair nicely. 

Elvin went next door, to the Roger’s empty house and picked six yellow roses and some daisies out of Mrs. Roger’s flower beds. He made them into a nice little bouquet, with a bit of ivy wound around it for me. He said I should hold flowers at my wedding even if they were salvaged. 

We put the cake in the center of the table and put some dessert plates of mom’s beside it, with some salad forks. That was the extent of the festive food. It certainly looked special to us. The last cake I had seen had been made by my mother.

Roops, Mr. Rupert D. Jones in full, hat and all, said, “let’s get this show on the road kids. Head for the back yard and assume positions!”

There was no one to give me away, so as Doug and I stood together facing the mountains to the east, Mrs. Steele stood beside me in place of a parent. Lou stood beside her holding the one red rose that she could find, looking like a slightly rumpled fairy. Elvin stood beside Doug on the other side, with the rings in his pocket.  Bubby stood beside Elvin, silent for once. I held Elvin’s gift of flowers, sweetly bestowed, proudly.

Roops moved grandly out in front of us and began to speak. He had the old Episcopal prayer book, that as it turns out had been his father’s and so he said… “DEARLY beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this company……” We promised all the old promises. Lou wept. Doug kissed me for the very first time. Believe it or not. I wept too, but from the sheer glory of happiness, sudden and real.

Roops looked very pleased with himself, and us. Mrs. Steele loved every minute, and Elvin smiled and kept his own counsel. Bubby sat quietly looking up into the sky.

And so, we were not Episcopalian and didn’t really know what any of that meant. But we had heard the words somewhere before and we were married there on the back yard lawn in front of God and everybody, just like the book said.

Bubby gave a single sharp bark and said, “look up there!” He was still gazing into the eastern sky.

Brilliantly cascading Lights began to converge above the lawn. Winking into existence as tiny points like shining pearls, and then growing to various sizes and colors, they did an ornate dance in the upper air. They sang a mighty chorus together like no music we had ever heard before.

They assumed a patterned position then, in rows like the shining petals of some Heavenly flower and hung there in the eastern sky for a few moments as we tried to breathe and understand what we were seeing.

One single shining opalescent white Light lowered itself towards us coming to rest at about head height. Its patterned surface swirled and spun as it turned slowly there in the sunlight, like an incredible descended moon or star.

A quiet voice, coming from no direction spoke at last.

“Your Creator blesses you. You are greatly favored! You will receive wisdom now, and honor and strength. The mantle of authority is given to you. As a token of this day, All Being has sent you rings to remind you of this day and the power and terror of it. For authority is a two-sided gift. Now come forward Jennifer and Douglas.

“Take off the old rings and give them to the young man Elvin. Now put out your hands.”

We did as bidden, and somehow new rings of fine rose gold, plain and perfect were slipped onto our fingers. They fit perfectly, of course.



Then it rose to join the rest and they executed some more fantastic arabesques and swirled up into the noontime sky, vanishing over the mountains.

Total link: In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx
 

Dearly Beloved Continued

 

It was going to take some work!

I am including Sunday's section in case someone missed it.

*O*

We were sitting there grinning when Lou and Elvin and Bubby came home. They had gotten the eggs. Lou put them in the fridge in their recycled egg carton. Elvin took a seat and looked around. He smiled a bit like he knew something. Always, a real bottom-line kinda guy. He looked like he was adding up a list of numbers and getting a kick out of the answer.

Bubby came to a halt. He looked at Doug. He looked at me. He said, “hey what have you two been up to? This room is full of a real weird vibe!” He sat on his haunches waiting, big pink tongue hanging out.

Doug said “I’m trying to talk Jen into marrying me. She is thinking it over.”

“Figures,” said Bubby.

Lou yelled “What, you idiots can’t get married! No! That’s stupid!” and burst into tears standing in front of the fridge. “Where will you live? You can’t leave!”

“Here we go again”, I thought. “Maybe the baby thinks she will be abandoned somehow.”

I shushed her and held her and patted her back until she quieted down, sitting perched on my knees like a little kid.

I said, “hey Lou, we all have to grow up sometime. We can’t just always be kids together. Things will change. It’s up to us to make the changes good ones.” She wouldn’t look at me yet, but she nodded and got off my lap and took a chair. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

I smiled at my family and felt a great surge of happiness.

“Here we go,” I thought. “Oh boy,” I thought. “I want this,” I thought.

I stood up. I walked over to Doug. I said “I have given your offer serious consideration. I have decided to accept it. There is nothing wrong with it, and everything right with it!”

Doug stood up also. He said, “thank you for accepting my offer of marriage Jen!” We all, except Lou, laughed ourselves silly. It felt like playing. Lou rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. But she stayed in the room with us and that was a good sign with Lou.

Bubby seemed to think the whole thing was a lark. Have you ever seen a dog laugh? Well, they smile a lot, but laugh? I thought he was laughing.

Then there was some silly celebrating and we made dinner and didn’t get one other thing done that day. Lou and I went upstairs to bed and the guys, including Bubby, manned the front room.

Lou forgave me and we had a nice time yakking before sleep.

In the morning we all got together at the kitchen table again. We had to decide some things, such as who would perform this wedding and how much of a wedding it would be. I didn’t see a big fancy old fashioned wedding in our future really.

Doug said we should ask Roops, of course. Who else? Really there was no one else to ask. I thought a telephone would have been really handy about then, but no such luck. It was going to have to be in person, like everything else. I wondered if he would be happy, or what he would say. I wondered if the Lights would approve. I wondered if the Thumbies were still alive and would show up to cause trouble. I thought that they were probably still running around loose in Jerusalem hailing people with their particular greeting and trying to fix things.

We had to pick a date too.

This began to seem real.

There was a knock on the front door. We didn’t get many visitors, that was for sure. The last ones had been those Thumbie bros., weird double elbows and all! It was enough to make a person nervous.

I followed Doug out to the living room, followed by Bubby, who was not going to be left out of any further excitement. Doug gave me a quizzical look and opened the door.

Standing on the porch was Denise. She didn’t look happy. I wondered how she had found us.

“Can I come in,” she said. We moved back and said “of course.”

I said “what’s up Denise? Are you ok? Here, sit down.”

A little too thin, nervous and tired, she perched on the front edge of Dad’s old recliner.

“I thought you guys should know,” she said, “they’re going to close the store, I think.

“I heard that Doug was kind of the head man these days and I thought you all should know. I think that will be kind of a disaster for a lot of us. It takes time to grow gardens and raise chickens. Most of us live out of that pathetic store.”

We all sat down, slightly stunned. Doug said “this sounds like P-Sec is really losing their grip. I always wondered where they got the stock in the store anyhow. Do you know Denise?”

“Not in detail” she said. “Some of it comes from old warehouses I know, and some of it comes from a few suppliers that still operate here and there. I think P-Sec was paying them somehow. None of our stock is shipped from very far away, most of it is from relatively near by.

“But we haven’t gotten any new stuff for a few days, and they are acting strange up in the office. Today no one showed up, but one of them, who unlocked the doors and then left the store.”

Doug thanked her and told her that it was a very big deal and that we all needed to get serious about gardening, to try to feed ourselves. He was sorry that it had come to this. He said he would be thinking about the best approach and really appreciated the heads up.

Besides gardening and keeping chickens or rabbits or whatever, he thought we ought to mine some of the abandoned houses to see if there was still anything useful in them.

I got her a cup of instant coffee with some sugar stirred in and she rested for a few minutes. Denise said she lived not too much further down our road, which I didn’t know. Then she left to go home to her mom and baby.

“Oh great,” said Bubby. “Now where are we supposed to get dog food?”

“You’ll have to eat potatoes like us,” I said. He grunted and sat down.

Doug said “well we better pack up and go see Roops. We have a couple of things to talk about.”

*********

new section 

One of the worst things about living when we did was that we had to walk everywhere at first. Some people had horses and made wagons in the following years. Horses became quite valuable and were very well loved, if only to avoid the endless slow walking.

There were cars parked all over in driveways, on farms, and in parking lots, but there was no gas to be had. P-Sec had liberated it all and had used up most of it by the time I am discussing here. And in addition to that there was no phone service and only some people had access to a kind of stripped-down internet. We didn’t.

So, we all packed up our packs with a few things, except for Bubs who didn’t carry anything but himself, and we marched off to Milltown again.

It would have been stupid to pass the store without taking advantage of our presence there, so Doug and I stepped in to check it out and pick up a few supplies. Denise was at her check stand. She was right. The place looked worse than usual and emptier. We bought another dozen cans of dog food. I was sure happy Bubby still liked the stuff, even though he could talk. He was still a dog.

“Didn’t expect you right back,” said Roops. “Come on in! What’s up?”

Mrs. Steele greeted us from her usual recliner. The place looked cleaner than usual. I knew why too.

“Two things Rupert. First one is most important,” said Doug.

“I have managed to convince Jen here to marry me! We came to ask you to do the honors for us. You are the obvious choice, if you consent, and we would be very happy if you would.”

Roops winked at us! 

“Well, now, what a surprise! Well, not really. Hey, what a good idea.” He laughed a big guy laugh and headed for his big old chair. We all hurried in to our usual seats and sat also.

“I have never done a wedding,” Roops said, “but why not? In fact, I would love to! I have an old prayer book around here somewhere. Do you want to go the traditional route? Or do you want me to cook something up, or will you kids write something?” He looked almost too happy. Mrs. Steele announced that she approved also. She said she would like to help with anything that she could. I thought of those cookies she made instantly.

Now, of course, we had not even talked about that aspect at all. We had barely decided to do this thing. We hadn’t even decided when. More stuff to decide.

Bubby and Lou went out to the kitchen seeking a bowl of water for Bubs and a glass of water for herself. Elvin went in there too; I think he was giving us some space to talk.

One of the funny things about it was that there was no official way of getting married anymore. Most people just kind of decided between the families and themselves that it was a marriage and had a party and set up housekeeping together. No license. No church blessing. The churches had largely gone the way of most businesses.

Doug and I looked at each other. He said “how about next week? Maybe Saturday morning Jen?” That would give us about nine days to prepare. I said “ok. That’s fine with me.” I still felt shy about the whole thing and had trouble not feeling like we were pretending. I was a little embarrassed in front of Roops and his mom.

I told everyone that I liked the traditional service. So, we decided to use that. It felt real.

“The other thing is not cool at all Roops,” Doug said. “Last night at Jen’s place, Denise, a checker at the store came to the door with some news. She thought she should tell us that the store seems to be fading. They are not getting much stock in. It is even worse than usual and that management has made itself scarce in the store also. She thinks they will close when they run out of stock and can’t pay the staff. She doesn’t know why this is happening and we didn’t tell her. I wasn’t sure if I should yet.” Of course it was obvious to us that the cutting off the head of World Com was already causing a cascade of effects, including the loss of power for good old P-Sec.

“Doug, the Shorties tell me that this generation are going to have to become farmers, at least at first. I agree with that. Everything else, for the most part, will have to wait. Right now, with so few people, backyard gardens and hen houses will do, but as the population grows, and it will, we will have to group together and organize real farms and stores and distribution systems. All of that is pretty far down the road, but we have to be planning for it. We also should get what we can from abandoned houses and shops that might still be usable. None of us are going to be raising wheat and rice at first.  We will have to see if we can find things like that. It’s been a while, but you never know…” Roops raked his fingers through his beard, the way he did when he was thinking. None of us were happy about how this looked. But if this was the price of freedom, we were ready for it.



I poked my good friend Doug in his ribs and said “hey, what will I wear? What will you wear sir? I don’t have any good dresses and goodness knows what you have up in Arlington!” It was another thing to think about. I began thinking about my mother’s dresses and decided to take a look in her closet when we got home. I had not looked in her closet since she died. It had seemed like a violation.

Doug said he didn’t want to go back to Arlington. “It’s only clothing. I can wear one of your dad’s shirts and clean jeans. Your dress is more important to me.” We grinned sappily at each other.

Roops said he would find his old prayer book. We said we would figure out clothing. Lou would hold flowers. Elvin would hold the ring. About then it hit me that we didn’t have rings! Maybe my parents had left some behind. The first place we were going to have to mine was my own parents’ bedroom.

It seemed obvious that we would hold this simple ceremony in my home backyard. I began to wish we had a horse or two and knew how to ride them, because now we had to go home again and start to get ready for a wedding.

Everything so far: In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx

We Rejoin Our Heroes

 

About As Mushy As It Is Likely To Get

*O*

“I was wondering if I could talk you into marrying me. I mean not right this minute. Would you think about it?” he said, grinning.

“We could rule the county together!” he said! I laughed. What an idea!

I would have said I was shocked and surprised, but you know what? I wasn’t! Somehow, back channel, I knew what was up.

“Ok Doug,” I said. “Ok, I will give this serious consideration,” and had to laugh again. It felt like we were pretending, in a nice way, to be real adults.

*******************************************************

We were sitting there grinning when Lou and Elvin and Bubby came home. They had gotten the eggs. Lou put them in the fridge in their recycled egg carton. Elvin took a seat and looked around. He smiled a bit like he knew something. Always, a real bottom-line kinda guy. He looked like he was adding up a list of numbers and getting a kick out of the answer.

Bubby came to a halt. He looked at Doug. He looked at me. He said, “hey what have you two been up to? This room is full of a real weird vibe!” He sat on his haunches waiting, big pink tongue hanging out.

Doug said “I’m trying to talk Jen into marrying me. She is thinking it over.”

“Figures,” said Bubby.

Lou yelled “What, you idiots can’t get married! No! That’s stupid!” and burst into tears standing in front of the fridge. “Where will you live? You can’t leave!”

“Here we go again”, I thought. “Maybe the baby thinks she will be abandoned somehow.”

I shushed her and held her and patted her back until she quieted down, sitting perched on my knees like a little kid.

I said, “hey Lou, we all have to grow up sometime. We can’t just always be kids together. Things will change. It’s up to us to make the changes good ones.” She wouldn’t look at me yet, but she nodded and got off my lap and took a chair. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

I smiled at my family and felt a great surge of happiness.

“Here we go,” I thought. “Oh boy,” I thought, “I want this." 

I stood up. I walked over to Doug. I said “I have given your offer serious consideration. I have decided to accept it. There is nothing wrong with it, and everything right with it!”

Doug stood up also. He said, “thank you for accepting my offer of marriage Jen!” We all, except Lou, laughed ourselves silly. It felt like playing. Lou rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. But she stayed in the room with us and that was a good sign with Lou.

Bubby seemed to think the whole thing was a lark. Have you ever seen a dog laugh? Well, they smile a lot, but laugh? I thought he was laughing.

Then there was some silly celebrating and we made dinner and didn’t get one other thing done that day. Lou and I went upstairs to bed and the guys, including Bubby, manned the front room.

Lou forgave me and we had a nice time yakking before sleep.

In the morning we all got together at the kitchen table again. We had to decide some things, such as who would perform this wedding and how much of a wedding it would be. I didn’t see a big fancy old fashioned wedding in our future really.

Doug said we should ask Roops, of course. Who else? Really there was no one else to ask. I thought a telephone would have been really handy about then, but no such luck. It was going to have to be in person, like everything else. I wondered if he would be happy, or what he would say. I wondered if the Lights would approve. I wondered if the Thumbies were still alive and would show up to cause trouble. I thought that they were probably still running around loose in Jerusalem hailing people with their particular greeting and trying to fix things.

We had to pick a date too.

This began to seem real.

There was a knock on the front door. We didn’t get many visitors, that was for sure. The last ones had been those Thumbie bros., weird double elbows and all! It was enough to make a person nervous.

I followed Doug out to the living room, followed by Bubby, who was not going to be left out of any further excitement. Doug gave me a quizzical look and opened the door.

Standing on the porch was Denise. She didn’t look happy. I wondered how she had found us.

“Can I come in,” she said. We moved back and said “of course.”

I said “what’s up Denise? Are you ok? Here, sit down.”

A little too thin, nervous and tired, she perched on the front edge of Dad’s old recliner.

“I thought you guys should know,” she said, “they’re going to close the store, I think.

“I heard that Doug was kind of the head man these days and I thought you all should know. I think that will be kind of a disaster for a lot of us. It takes time to grow gardens and raise chickens. Most of us live out of that pathetic store.”

We all sat down, slightly stunned. Doug said “this sounds like P-Sec is really losing their grip. I always wondered where they got the stock in the store anyhow. Do you know Denise?”

“Not in detail” she said. “Some of it comes from old warehouses I know, and some of it comes from a few suppliers that still operate here and there. I think P-Sec was paying them somehow. None of our stock is shipped from very far away, most of it is from relatively near by.

“But we haven’t gotten any new stuff for a few days, and they are acting strange up in the office. Today no one showed up, but one of them, who unlocked the doors and then left the store.”

Doug thanked her and told her that it was a very big deal and that we all needed to get serious about gardening, to try to feed ourselves. He was sorry that it had come to this. He said he would be thinking about the best approach and really appreciated the heads up.

Besides gardening and keeping chickens or rabbits or whatever, he thought we ought to mine some of the abandoned houses to see if there was still anything useful in them.

I got her a cup of instant coffee with some sugar stirred in and she rested for a few minutes. Denise said she lived not too much further down our road, which I didn’t know. Then she left to go home to her mom and baby.

“Oh great,” said Bubby. “Now where are we supposed to get dog food?”

“You’ll have to eat potatoes like us,” I said. He grunted and sat down.

Doug said “well we better pack up and go see Roops. We have a couple of things to talk about.”

How About A Nice Open Thread

 I'm sorry.  Didn't make a lot of progress yesterday.  But it's in the works!

Dearly Beloved...An Addendum

 

In Roop’s funny little makeshift kitchen I started rooting through the cupboards and the short little apartment style fridge for something to make breakfast out of. He had some funny stuff. I wondered where he got figs. He had cans of tuna and crackers. He also had about a dozen bottles of various terrifying looking hot sauces.

He had six potatoes, the rest of the butter and a can of spam. Nobody really likes spam, but it's food. I thought that would work ok. We decided to grate up the potatoes and fry them. Doug said he would peel and grate the potatoes. So, I perched on a stool and watched him. We couldn’t find a potato peeler, so he found a small sharp knife and peeled them that way as finely as he could. They were big ones, so there was a lot left when he got done. The grating didn’t take him long. I watched his hands as he worked. He was careful and efficient. His brown hair hung in his eyes somewhat and I thought, you know Jen, to myself, you could trim that hair. I felt a little blush rise up on my cheeks. I was glad he wasn’t looking.

One of the funny things about those days was that of course there was no garbage man to come get the detritus of life. I took the peelings out in the alley and spread them out on the grass there on the edges to deteriorate as they would or be eaten by seagulls.

Roop’s stove was a little two burner electric job, also apartment sized. I got one pan ready and started the shreds frying. I cut up the spam and started it in another skillet.

I could hear a lot of chatting out in the front room. Elvin was filling everybody in on the details of our time in Jerusalem and Buddy kept butting in with questions and growling and grunting because he had not been there to tear the throat out of any bad guys. Because, man, he would have, he said!

I made a big pot of tea. We set the small table up in the living room and put six plates and forks around the sides. I put out mugs and the last of the sugar and a couple of spoons. It would have been nice to have some ketchup, but we hardly ever saw any of that. We were lucky to have salt and pepper. Roops went out to his stash and got some Scorpion Tabasco. Nobody but him wanted any of that.

Doug carried the skillets out one by one and served onto each of the plates and took the skillets back to the kitchen.

We sat where we could, and then I looked at Rupert in amazement as the man said a prayer of thanks both for the breakfast and our survival. We didn’t know yet what it all meant. All we knew was that we had seen an incredible event. The further away I got from it, the harder it was to realize. But there was a sense of big things happening, history being made, things changing. A force for destruction had been decapitated before our eyes by the tremendous armada of singing Lights. 

We had to explain how we had gotten to Jerusalem and why we had been taken there. The Thumbies, minions of World Com., had been sent to get Doug, and me and Elvin as it happened, to get him to swear allegiance to World Com. and receive empowerment from them to rule here. Once we had gotten on the bus we were going for a ride, no matter what we thought about it. 

I wondered if P-Sec had heard the news. No more support from World Com. for them. I wondered how this would affect our day-to-day lives. Would we be entirely on our own?

Another thing I didn’t know yet was that the key to this whole thing was a question of authority. Who decides, and can they enforce their decisions? If all that was left of the old world authority was P-Sec and they were powerless, who would decide? Well, we would find out.

As we sat around after breakfast I asked “hey do you guys remember what the stores used to be like when we were kids? I know Roops does and his mom. I don’t even know how I would be able to make choices faced with so much to pick from!” Everyone agreed that it sounded like a dream compared to now.

I was thinking that we might be even more on our own now, if the totally lame store down on the highway folded. There might be even tougher days ahead, but that it was ok, if we were to be free of suffocating control over our lives. Time would tell.

I stacked the dishes and took them out to the kitchen. Doug washed and I dried. He didn’t say much. But he seemed thoughtful. When we finished, we rejoined the group out front and took our seats again. We needed to decide who was going where.

Roops said that his mom should stay with him for now. He would find a way to take her home at some later time if she wanted to go home. Doug thought the rest of us should head out to my and Lou’s place. So, we gathered up Lou and Elvin and Bubby, said our goodbyes and started the two-mile hike out home again. It was a nice dry overcast day. Easy walking weather. In the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a Light up high. It was hard to say in those light conditions. I was just glad to know they were still with us.

We stopped at the store and bought a dozen big cans of dog food and some bread, cheese, and butter. I looked around the aisles and thought that it would be hard to get along without this paltry source of goods. The store was dreary indeed with sparsely filled shelves and the dusty floor. We saw Denise and said hi. She was her usual cheerful self as she bagged our stuff and took our play money for it.

The bus stop looked like a regular bus stop today. No portals. I guessed we were not being summoned anywhere.

Lou and Elvin and Bubby trooped along like extras from Wizard of Oz. I thought they might start skipping at any moment. Doug and I brought up the rear. He had our purchases in his backpack.

He said “Jen, I want to talk to you about something. But let’s do it tonight at home, ok? I’m thinking about the future.”

I said “sure”, and we kept walking on down the road, passing Mrs. Steele’s house, which was still standing and looked undisturbed from the street. I was thinking that there had been a time when all of this bushiness was under control and people mowed lawns and planted flowers. People drove cars and went wherever they liked. Who knew, maybe such a time would come again, if everything went well.

Our house was ok, and the key to the front door worked thanks to the Thumbie bros. The least they could do, after what they were planning for us. The power was working so we had lights. We all took turns showering and I washed a couple loads of laundry once the showers were done. We all felt much better.

I went through my dad’s closet to see if anything would fit the boys. Dad was thicker in the middle, but his shirts were ok, if a little baggy. Dad had a couple of nice sweaters that would be ok too. Doug and Elvin wore his baggy pajamas while I was washing clothes.

It was getting toward evening. Lou and Elvin and Bubby went out into the backyard to see about digging some potatoes and if there was anything else useful. Then they walked down the block to see our neighbor lady who kept chickens. They hoped to trade a bag of potatoes for a dozen of those pink eggs.

While they were gone Doug and I sat at the kitchen table and had some tea. He still looked like he was full of something to say but was having a little trouble spitting it out. I was a little nervous, but maybe a little excited too, for some reason that I did not really understand.

He started, “look, Jen, I’ve learned to like you an awful lot. You seem like a smart, good girl.” Finally, a start.

I stared at my hands holding the tea mug. I didn’t know where to look. I took a quick look up. He was smiling. That helped.

“I was wondering if I could talk you into marrying me. I mean not right this minute. Would you think about it?” he said, grinning.

“We could rule the county together!” he said! I laughed.

I would have said I was shocked and surprised, but you know what? I wasn’t!

“Ok Doug,” I said. “Ok, I will give this serious consideration,” and had to laugh again. It felt like we were pretending, in a nice way, to be real adults.

Here we go again, lol. In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx

It Was A Birthday Gift

 Can you see who these characters are?  They are mostly recognizable I think, after a while.  

My older granddaughter drew it for her brother on the occasion of his 26th birthday. I think there is an element of mockery, and also a desire to be on topic with him. I think that is Stalin center, back of the table.  I can see Castro and Marx and Lenin. But, I suppose the one to the left of Stalin is Che. Mao next to him, far left.

She said it was meant to be like the dogs playing cards.  I see that there is a great deal of money represented.  She makes her point subtly, seems to me.  The guy on the left in front seems to be winning.  He seems to have a clown nose. I don't know, he must be Bernie Sanders.  Lenin has a mess on his knee.  I wonder what that means.  Maybe it refers to the mess he made of Russia?

Raising children is difficult and you never know how it will turn out.  Advising grandchildren is similar but different. I watch, pay attention, talk a lot, and pray. A grandparent's position is that of an almost neutral adviser.  I must think of the kid's welfare, not my precious opinion.

My girl would like to find work illustrating children's books.  I do wish she could.  She draws all the time anyhow!

The song choice is terribly obvious, but I couldn't think of a better one.

Jericho Is Still There

 This is not my photo.  But I was there one day in 1988, and I saw what remained of Joshua's walls. Incredibly, they are still there, thoroughly fallen down.  It's hard to be skeptical in Israel.

It was 115℉ in the shade that day and such high humidity that you could see it.  I declined to get out of the air conditioned tour bus.  I found that by the end of the trip, some things were best looked at from the bus.  I didn't get out and explore the diamond merchant's places either.  I wasn't in the market. 

Anyhow, this is just my middle of the night thought.  The past is very present.

May I Propose An Epilogue?

 

I see it as a cascade of events. The head of the arch of oppression was World Com. headquartered in Jerusalem at the Dome of the Rock. As soon as the Dark Figure was destroyed, even though there were others just about as wicked, none of them had his power to control by infernal means.  His power broken meant people could make other arrangements, for better or worse. 

Then the strength and authority of P-Sec, and the other five sectional authorities over this country was greatly diminished. They did continue to provide some structure, but it was weakened and would eventually come to nothing.

Local communities of people, seeing their chance, took up various means of organizing themselves according to taste and where they found themselves. As the population grew over the next two or three generations, this naturally became more official. The old timers talked about the old days when a man and woman could live as they saw best and worked like crazy to survive.

Farmers and people who made useful things became very important and were greatly appreciated. There was also a big effort to take advantage of the products of the recent past. Power plants were studied and carefully maintained by people who made it their business to learn how.

There was some practical assistance from certain off-world entities of a friendly nature. Lights were seen here and there. The triangle crafts collected dust in their hangars.

Jen and Doug married. Rupert Jones officiated, of course, and was very pleased with himself. Jen became a midwife. Doug was a kind of mayor and judge over Milltown and greater Snohomish County. He advised others who came to him. They had a family of five children, two sons and three daughters. Jen and some of her neighbors were teachers for all the neighborhood’s children of the first generation after our story.

Bubby, the dog, stayed with Lou, who had developed a love for him and depended on him. They talked all the time. Bubby watched her boys when she was busy.

A few surviving doctors worked hard to teach others the basics of medical care. The need for surgery continued to be a difficulty for a few years, until a few hospitals re-opened on shoestrings. Medical care was kind of like back in the 50s.

Of course, traditional medicine was what most people used most of the time. Herbal knowledge was greatly respected and used.

Lou and Elvin married a few years later. They opened a café in one of the vacant restaurant buildings in Milltown. They had two sons and taught them to cook professionally. Elvin was always interested in tech, and he worked at bringing some stuff back online, such as power plants, mostly as an adviser.

Rupert Jones lived twenty more years. He remained in contact with the ETs and printed a small paper for the community in which he promulgated the ETs’ practical advice. He was of assistance in opening the internet to the public again.

Mrs. Steele lived long enough to see the kids married and was satisfied with the progress happening all around her. Then she was gathered to her people, as they say. She was buried with love in Jen’s old backyard at home, where she and Doug raised their children.

Everyone had a big garden, if they had room, or just took some other spot and gardened there. Chickens were everywhere, and after a few years cattle farms became re-established, as the population grew, and more food was needed.

I can’t say for sure how political systems of a national nature went. I would suppose that when the population got to a certain point, something national would have to be created.

Just like in Old Testament times each one did what was right in his own eyes. They were their own keepers for a couple of generations. But in the end oppressors always arise. God was revered, but churches didn’t come back as they had been. People still waited for Messiah’s return.

It was all just a story. Just a dream, as it were.

I wonder how close to reality it might be.

all of it so far: Epilogue to the Plandemonium.docx

Koanbread and RocknRoll ☆*: .｡. oo .｡.:*☆ᓚᘏᗢ^_^

 

In my constant ponderings I often liken concepts to something in the physical world as a kind of illustration. As an example, when mixing oil paints, I noticed long ago that if I left two colors a little less than thoroughly mixed, the resulting mix was brighter and livelier than if I had really combined the two colors hard. That slight dissonance was desirable. The little flecks of color read  better than just one mixed color. 

Then I got to thinking about apparent contradictions.

1. The Lord is looking for a humble and contrite spirit in a person.

2. But, also, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

So, which is it?

I believe that when you hold those two thoughts together, a spark of meaning is set off between them. I must be humble and also realize that what God did when he made mankind was a heck of a thing! Well, that was easy really. God did it, so I have nothing to be proud of. I am a work of Almighty God, his creature. 

In addition, it just now occurs to me that humble does not mean all servile and cringing, it means a correct apprehension of my position as a creature of the Living God, a matter of authority.

I have been thinking about the voracious appetite for affirmation that a person who rejects their own self might have. There might be a constant striving to be good enough, to excel, to compete, to prove a point. It is a mindset that is a disruption in the proper order of things. It occurs to me that this is a result of misplaced pride and behind that pride lurks a monster called fear.

If we knock down fear by acknowledging our Maker, by trusting his love, then pride can fall also. When pride is vanquished, the hunger is not needed. It can be released. I say can be because this mindset is at war with the spirit of this world. It’s very powerful. We are born desiring love, attention, and importance. Maybe that is a survival attribute in an infant.

But God requires that I grow up. I must stop looking at life on a lateral level and look upward.

By putting myself in proper relationship to my Maker, I can experience rest, real shalom. In reality, it was no contradiction at all.

Peek a Boo!

As for the title of this post, well, that was mostly just for fun! Something to amuse the bots!

An Open Thread With A Rather Great Art Lesson

 

Since I have nothing prepared for today, I honestly thought you might enjoy this man's excellent work with art and in fact, history.

Light And Battle Prevail

 

Lights began to appear in the darkening Mediterranean sky. Lights in martial array. Many colors. Many sizes. Luminous orbs in startling contrast to the gloom that hung in the air. 

Lights as far as you could see in the unnatural darkness. So many, in fact, that the darkness fled away.

The mighty throng of Lights sang a great song of praise. It shook the land and the Dome. The very air was shaken.

***** 

Then there was silence in the sky. The world paused for a few minutes. The Lights waited. The land waited. No Thumbies were to be seen at all. I had to wonder where they were and what they would do now. Their configuration was not joyous at all about then.

We stood mute with eyes turned to the sky. Doug’s arm was firmly around my waist suddenly. Elvin held my right hand in his.

The song began again. This time more insistent. Louder. Sound waves crashed. I could feel the sound in my bones.

Gulls flew crazily around the Dome and then out to the Mediterranean. Their cries were subsumed by the waves of crashing song from the Lights. I began to fear for our safety here in this wash of sound and power.

One of the biggest Lights lowered itself to the ground behind us and moved softly up behind us and in a second, we were inside! The noise outside diminished greatly. I felt safe inside and greatly relieved to be there. The sense of peace and safety was strong. What an odd experience. How strange that it was not much of a surprise. We were sort of floating in seated positions and the whole thing lifted up away from what was to become the battle zone. It appeared that we were alone inside it. I began at that point to believe that the Lights were a kind of projection from some other source of origin. We were lifted up and away but still close enough to see the Dome well.

The earth began to tremble below us. Men ran out of the Dome yelling and gesticulating to each other. They disappeared down the streets, white robes fluttering and head wrappings falling away as they ran in their terror.

The Lights held their positions in the sky. The singing continued. It bore down on the Dome below. Bits of stucco or plaster painted in lurid style began to peel off the sides of the building. Columns shifted position.

A dark figure walked in an arrogant swagger out of the building and stood looking up at the Lights. He shook his fist at them. He became as nothing in an instant. He burst open like a paper bag of ashes. His filth littered the pavement of the mount and ran away in rivulets.

The ground below us waved and shimmered in the light of the martial Orbs. Huge cracks appeared in the mount. The pavement buckled up. Stones flew about. They gathered and fell in heaps. One of the cracks swallowed the Thumbies’ bus craft and snapped shut on it with a huge crunch.

Older Stones rose up out of the broken earth as if to witness. Bones arose also. An older world was here to observe and be satisfied.

The whole evil building slumped into the widening opening in the earth. The golden dome shifted sideways and toppled over, exposing its ornate, garish interior. Great groaning sounds came forth out of the building as it broke.

Then strange grey shapes began to appear at last, canted sideways from the earth below. Tall and thin and horrific in appearance they moved insect-like as if to find shelter somewhere. But there was no shelter for them. The waves of song blew them across the whole scene as if they were no more than dirty smoke. They became no more. There had been a great number of these workers of iniquity, but they vanished like the dark man had.

As if the Land was sick of it all it opened wider and wider and in a sort of massive convulsive gulp, swallowed the whole broken structure. It was gone as if it had never been. Even the dust of it dropped and was seen no more.

Then the earth settled back down over the huge opening. It lay quiet. The Mount was vacant and empty. A silence hung over the whole scene. It was clean.

Inside our Light we wept.

We were comforted. There was a presence there with us somehow. We heard some soft speech, but it was almost subliminal. It was almost a motherly shushing sound. Our Light lifted higher into the Middle Eastern sky of brilliant blue.

One by one the choir of Lights broke out of formation and began to ascend into the sky, gently. Drifting away, becoming smaller as they went. The song went with them. But I knew that the song would always be in our minds as a solid memory.

We were not there for the healing of the Land. That took a bit of time, we would hear more about it later. The head of the oppression of earth was gone, but there were many wounds left.

*** 

I think we must have slept. It’s a long way to Milltown from the Middle East. There in our Light we were borne home. I faintly remember passing over many lands, cities, and bodies of water. At last, we came to a place I remembered. It was our own little city on the bay.

I looked down on all its familiar streets and buildings. I poked Doug in his ribs gently and said “hey, we’re back.” He sat up and shook his brother’s shoulder and said “Elf! Wake up!” Elvin sat up also and we all three looked down and wondered where our ride would end. We soon found out.

It drifted down upon Cherry Street, right in front of the small green door of Roop’s old radio station. We found ourselves standing on the sidewalk just like we had never been gone. But it was homelike and precious now. Doug stepped forward and rapped on the door. Someone heavy inside walked to the door and fiddled with the lock and popped it open.

Roops grinned, please to see us he said.

Bubby’s head appeared around our friend’s legs and said “where have you guys been? I smell battle and distance! Something has happened. I know it!” He raised his great muzzle to the sky and howled long and loud, again and again.

“Come in, come in,” Roops said and headed across the room to his big creaky wooden office chair. He sat down and looked at us expectantly.

Mrs. Steele, sitting in her recliner, tucked up in an old quilt of clever design, smiled sweetly and waved her little old hand to beckon us in also. Lou was there of course. She had been eating toast and drinking tea. She lept up and ran into my arms. The silly big baby started crying too. Even she could feel that something had changed. The world was different somehow. An intangible healing had begun.

It was hard to explain. Doug tried. I tried. Elvin laid it out in detail. It was hard for our listeners to believe. It was hard for us three to believe now, sitting there in the radio station front room.

Now, it was time to make some breakfast, so Doug and I headed out into the tiny kitchen together.

Everything so far: In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx

Ghost Story

 

  

My bones are in the ground.  So what?

 A mother doesn’t stop being a mother, and a grandmother needs to keep on top of things too.

I watch over the incarnate bones, in all their innocence and also crime.

It’s a big house here. Everything I was and everyone I loved are present and accounted for.  Both those in the body and those in here.

Time vanished when I entered this house.  I walk from room to room unhindered. My birth cohabits with my death.   Every moment is here. It is hard to explain to you incarnate bones. When I was there, I felt as if each moment was a fleeting loss.  Now, now and now, gone forever.  Grief and pain stuck around, and then they left too. But each moment is here and accounted for.

Sometimes I go downstairs and sit beside one of you. Did you know?

I use the sights and sounds of your life to patch together my words.  I’m always talking.  If you just hold it all together in mind the words form from the pieces.  In fact, it’s damn hard to avoid truth.  Some of you work so hard at it. Word chosen deliberately.

I try not to frighten you. But, I love you.

Maybe I should frighten you a little. Every moment will be accounted for.

BOO!  Did you hear that?

*O*

The Truth And Veracity League

 Did any of you ever read the old Mother Earth News in the way back times?  Well, I did, faithfully.  It was full of useful information and a lot of left wing agricultural attitude.

But, on about the last page they ran a purportedly old timey humor story each month.

Here I include a sample for you.

It has occurred to me that this sort of thing could be considered a type of proto-blogging.  Mebbe. The urge to post up with a bunch of like-minded citizens and spin some yarn, is there, even though that was just a simulacrum of such.

On the subject of proto-blogging, yes I am guilty.  I guess the urge to connect must come packaged with some types.  I managed to get some of my poems published in magazines.  That doesn't happen every day. There were other attempts to communicate in a general way with the world.

The internet, access to the world, if you can pull it off, appealed greatly to a fool such as I. I say fool because it's mostly an illusion, but it sure can be fun!

None of you would be reading this if you didn't share some of that impulse!  I mean, here you are!  Communicating electronically!  Neat trick!

When Bubbles Collide

 

I asked myself

What the difference was

Between sleeping and snoozing.

I think snoozing is just nesting.

But sleep is absence,

Assuming not many dreams.

Then schmoozing threw itself

Into the picture.

It all became clear.

There is no clear distinction.

ZzZ

'Cause it's all relative!

Wanna Take A Ride?

 “They told a guy I know that they want to repair the Wharf Café.”

He had packed up two bags of his mother’s clothing and some of her freshest groceries. It wasn’t much. Some produce and some milk. We locked up and since we were all going the same way, Doug grabbed one of the bags and we all took off together. Five people and a dog. Roops wasn’t the world’s fastest walker, so it took longer than usual. Big guy, you remember.

There was a tiny private shop in town. It sold a few things produced by locals. Some bakery stuff, herbal meds, homemade cheese and local eggs, stuff like that. They also carried goods liberated from abandoned buildings. That was still going on, ten years later. It was near the high school, used to be called Welches. Elvin wanted to see what they had, so we all went in and filled the place up. You had to pay them with old cash, or in kind, or barter. They barely hung on there.

A young girl was minding the counter. She took a good solid look at Doug and his NO patched backpack. She stood up suddenly and said “hey, are you Doug Simpson!?”

************************

He turned around to stare at her.

“Two weird guys have been asking all over town for you,” she said. “They kept talking about the configuration. They wore some kind of sprayed on black suits.”

“Oh yeah? We met some of those guys yesterday…” Doug said. “Why do they want me now? They could have talked to me yesterday.”

“They want to offer you something," they said. "They talk at the same time. So weird...” she said.

After Elvin had checked out the merch, and we had chatted for a while, we found out her name was Lily and her sister worked in the official grocery store on the highway. Denise, of course.

By then she knew we called them Thumbies, and she said they were parked down by the ruins of the Wharf Café, in the front lot and that we could probably find them there.

Out on the sidewalk we had a quick conference. Roops would go home to the radio station to be with his mom. Lou and Bubby decided to go with and keep Mrs. Steele and Rupert company…and not have to run all over town with the rest of us. Elvin wanted to go hang with Lou and Bubby, but his curiosity won out and he decided to walk with Doug and me.

Down in the parking lot of what had been the Wharf Café was a strange silver toned vehicle more like an Airstream RV than anything else. It was reassuringly bus like, but too big. It appeared to have a row of portholes all down the side. I could not see an engine compartment though. It glitched in and out of sight a little from time to time as we walked up on it.

I wondered in what sense it was actually present, or did it just appear to be present. There was a very good way to find out.

Since he didn’t see a door or entrance that was obvious Doug just beat on the side of this thing with the heel of his hand. We waited quietly. We stood in the mild sunshine of a late afternoon, facing this uncanny object. Just beyond it the destroyed café still lay in ruins, a testament to the power of a silent triangle flying craft armed with unknown weapons.

The end facing us slid open. A Thumbie stepped out. “Joyous Configuration!” he said, palms together, with a tiny bow. “Would you care to have a ride?”

Perhaps we were stupid, or maybe there was a sort of compulsion in action, but Doug said OK, and his brother and I went along with it. The word stupid, after all, is based on the word stupor.

“Welcome Doug Simpson, Jennifer Simpson, Elvin Simpson.!” I wondered what this creature thought he knew. I had not married this boy and I was not his sister either. I didn’t explore the subject with him though.

I still don’t know if Thumbies have personal names or not. This one ushered us into the end of this conveyance, to face two rows of seats full of characters looking just like himself. They appeared to have been sleeping with their chins down on their chests. They woke and all spoke together... “Joyous Configuration!” Those were a lot of tight black suits to face all at once. Our host found us a bench seat of sorts, though it was very fancy for a bus seat, with padding and controls of some variety, and he faced us.

“We are the hands of World Com. As you can see, we are not your enemy. We have been in your home and did you a benefit and no harm. Let us show you this world.”

I noticed that we were aloft. It had happened with no sense of motion. None of us had flown before. The landscape of our narrow lives flew by underneath the bus. I called it a bus in my thoughts. Milltown disappeared, we crossed the river, the houses we knew, the roads, the fields all flew by underneath. We were very far from the bay now. Mountains loomed. None of we three had ever been this far from Milltown. We had been like medieval peasants, living in one place our whole lives until this day.

A feeling like a stone settled in my stomach. It was fear. The boys didn’t look much better than I felt.

Night fell outside the ports. Our host Thumbie seemed to be humming or buzzing as he sat. They seemed biological, but I wasn’t sure. Maybe not entirely?

Finally, he said, “You can be master on this land Doug. You have the bloodline of command, though you don’t know it.

“World Com. will make the way smooth before you, if you will join us.”

All in unison they said, “for a joyous configuration!” Doug looked stricken. Elvin looked like he was counting something and didn’t like the sum he was getting. I was just full of that stone.

Doug said, “Who are World Com., anyhow, and why do they want me? I am just a kid from the edge of the continent.”

No. 1’s eyes glittered. He smiled. I had never seen a smile on a Thumbie before. It was not nice to see, it was sickening. Something not right flickered there.

“We all know about Novus Ordo. It is the seed of a great power. You want to lead your people. We want you to lead your people, but we want you to bow to the leadership at the Dome on the Rock. It is essential! You will never succeed without this infilling of power.”

Their chins went back down onto their chests, they buzzed insect-like, and we all flew away toward the east. It seemed to take only an hour or so.

I had seen photos of the Dome of course. I was not prepared to see it in person from our flying bus. The dome gleamed portentously in the sunlight. Ornate designs were painted all over the exterior of the huge building, built over a stolen location. It hunched arrogantly and malevolently there like a living entity.

We hovered over the courtyard.

Doug said “No.”

Elvin smiled.

The fear fled from me.

I felt a powerful jolt of joy. This!



“No, I will not bow here or anywhere else to whatever waits there in that old dome,” stated Doug.

“No. I don’t believe I have a special bloodline.

“No, you will not deceive me.

“I have seen some of the works of All Being. He is not in that dome.”

The Thumbies gnawed their fists in rage, a huge humming filled the bus as if it were full of insects. Their own blood ran down their chins. The bus pitched and yawed. We were thrown one direction and then the other.

Doug said “NO!”

A piercing shriek filled the air. The bus hit the ground of the courtyard like a sack of potatoes. It broke open and sort of collapsed into a kind of metallic garbage heap. Thumbies ran in all directions, bleeding and howling with failure.

A siren began its own howling, echoing across the courtyard. After some moments I saw soldiers come running toward where we stood unharmed after the crash. These were not the legitimate soldiers of The Land. They were the forces of World Com. in the dome.

We three stood alone in the center of it all, arms around each other, three kids from the upper left hand corner of what had been America.

Doug whispered “no,” and darkness settled over the courtyard. Soldiers still ran screaming towards us. I put my head onto Doug’s shoulder and shut my eyes for a moment. Elvin hung onto my arm.



Lights began to appear in the darkening Mediterranean sky. Lights in martial array. Many colors. Many sizes.

Lights as far as you could see in the unnatural darkness. So many, in fact, that the darkness fled away.

And they sang a great song of praise.

Maybe it sounded a bit like this, but deeper and many more voices?

All so far: In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx