Take Two, Thumbies Are Like Techno Genies

OZ and his others looked like they were having some kind of conference out in the backyard. They looked like a Carhartt commercial made for an off-world audience thought Doug.

“Jen, they are talking out there.” Doug said looking out the kitchen window. “I suppose they have some urgent need to fix something. There is for sure something they could do. I mean why not take advantage of their obsession?”

Jen peeked out the window. “Looks like trouble,” she said, and laughed a little.

She went back into the bedroom where Lou was holding Gabriel and left Doug to get on with it.

The original OZ, the one with the big safety pin on the front of his coveralls to distinguish him from the others came to Doug in the kitchen. He was fussing and humming. He said words that didn’t seem to pertain to anything. He had his hands pressed together. He didn’t look serene at all. His dead white skin looked even whiter than usual. His black eyes looked deep and inscrutable.

“Doug, I will obey you”, he began. “We need more. Almost everything is broken! Ten more” said OZ.

“Wait a minute OZ,” said Doug. “I need to make some rules here. You must obey me on this. This is very important. Will you obey me?”

“I will always obey you Doug, and I will learn,” intoned OZ confidently.

“Then this is law number two. Do not call more others without my permission. This is very important!

“Remember law number one? Don’t fix things without my agreement? You remember that one?”

If a Thumbie could look pained, this one did. A crease formed between his eyes. He put his hands in his pockets! This is not Thumbie behavior. He was silent for a beat or two. He hummed. He fidgeted.

“Ok, Doug. You’re the lordman. We will obey you.” But it seemed to cost him to say it.

“OZ, go tell the others, then we will talk,” said Doug.

Elvin had heard all of this, of course, as he was right there the whole time. He had been munching on some whole wheat cookies Lou had made, as he listened.

“Doug, it’s starting to act human. I don’t know if that is good or bad,” said brother Elvin. “If they all do that, they may be hard to control. It might be a good idea to separate the new ones from the old one.”

“It might be because Jen makes him wear that safety pin, it’s just too human,” said Doug. He thought he was joking. Maybe so.

“Hey, let’s give them a big job. Think of something that will be hard for them Doug. Something that will keep them real busy for a while.”

“The power plant up at lake Diablo. That’s what I have been worried about Elf, old buddy. That has to keep working. Maybe the five new ones could go up there, repair anything broken, and run it, keep it up to date,” said Doug.

“I’m sure I could get them to go if there was a way to send them there. It would take too long for them to walk there.”

The guys watched their Thumbies doing that weird “talking” thing they did out in the backyard by themselves. When they weren’t talking to humans they didn’t bother with human language. They sounded like very large electronic insects, with some words thrown in here and there.

“Let’s go out there and check it out,” said Doug.

So, he and Elvin went back out to the strange group standing in their little backyard, surrounded by the previous works of these busy creatures. The garden was looking so good, even the hen house looked sharp.

“OZ#1, we were wondering if you and your others could repair and run the power plant on the lake up in the mountains? That would be very joyous to me.” There was momentary silence in the Thumbie group. BTW, they didn’t call themselves Thumbies. That was pure human puckishness. When speaking to humans they referred to themselves as others.

“Doug, yes. A power plant is easy. No trouble. We will fix it for you,” said OZ the first. He took his hands out of his Carhartt pockets at that and pressed his palms together like a proper Thumbie. There was a lot of humming and happy buzzing from the rest of the group.

“Only three others go. Three is all it will need.” His black eyes sparkled.

“How will they go OZ?” Doug asked him. He might have suspected, but he didn’t know.

“We have a way. We will obey you Doug,” hummed OZ #1.

He reached into the right pocket of his coveralls and pulled out a length of shining material that looked like a sort of flexible rope or cable. It slithered snake-like in his strange hands.

He formed a kind of loop around six feet in diameter with it and began to twirl it as if he were a human cowboy. It steadied itself in the air, a shining circle.

A depth formed inside the circle. It grew and grew and became deeper and deeper. It became a passageway. It steadied and solidified. It became profound in its reality. The guys could see grass and a path.

In the appearance of magic there is a way.

OZ, ZO, and another OZ stepped into the shining circle. How did they know how to get to Diablo? That would remain a question for the present. First OZ gave them some last pops and fizzes and mumbled humming. Then they were in the passageway and walking along.

OZ the first gave a little jerk on his lasso and it fell to the ground, and he gathered it up and stuck it back in his pocket. Its mass seemed less then.

That left OZ the first and three others looking for something big! They were only partially joyous having been left out of this big project. They wanted more. They positively required more.

“See Doug. I have a way,” said OZ somewhat smugly.

“You sure did! How do they land in the right place OZ? I don’t get it,” said Doug. He wanted to know how this worked, but OZ had nothing to say on the subject.

“It works. Lordman should not worry,” replied OZ at last.

“We need more.”

“Wait here,” said Doug. “We will think of the next best thing for you. I need to talk to Jen and Elvin about this.”



Inside the house, Jen was walking around with a somewhat fussy Gabriel on her shoulder and Lou was making something at the kitchen counter. Lou had been doing a lot of cooking lately. When there is no place to go out to eat, then you cook!

The family sat at the table together.

“Now, they say they can run the power plant. What is next? Jen, what do you think? Lou? Anybody? Elf?”

Roops’ station was mentioned. His mom’s house was mentioned.

“You know guys,” said Doug. “I would like to see the store up and running again, all clean and repaired, selling and bartering stuff our people have grown or made. I would also like to send one Thumbie to the water utility, just to check it out and make sure it keeps working.

“So, let’s send two to the store building and one to the utility building.”



There was another conference in the backyard.

OZ#1 sent two down to the store to make it usable again. Then he sent one up to the water utility building outside of town. He seemed happy in an eerily unThumblie-like fashion. His eyes sparkled. He took a seat in a chair and just looked out toward the garden like any farmer anywhere, pleased with his work.

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