R.S.V.P.
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Slimeworld & Galaxy Magazine -- All rights reserved -- |
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Chapter XXIV
by General (Uncle Claude) Xxaxx
& General (E.J. Gold) Nunan PFC 1st Class Ret.
Little Roy and Professor Woo leaned over the boat railing looking much like seasoned seamen. Perhaps it was something in the steady gaze with which they studied the horizon, or perhaps it was the relaxed sway of their stance as they compensated for the movement of the sea, or perhaps to was the fact that, unlike the previous trip, they weren’t doubled over the railing vomiting.
“What is your dream, Little Roy?” Woo meant something like what do you want to be when you grow up. Something like that — a nonsense question to stimulate conversation, something to keep the words flowing. Something to give her a context to study Little Roy obliquely. The dinner last night was little help and the mornings events while hectic did little to illuminate what was happening as regards Drak, Little Roy and other such mysteries. Drak had left a rather strong magical wall to prevent any scanning of the “lost” events. For someone with Woo’s training it was always possible to push the point and penetrate through even the strongest barriers. But at what price to Little Roy. In this case the barriers were woven into the fabric of his personality construct. Should the barrier be broken he will survive all right, but not as, Little Roy. Everything that defines Little Roy as Little Roy would be gone, leaving a being without benefit of socializing buffer.
So Professor Woo was searching for conversational openers to test the waters of alternative methods of revealing the data package that has been hidden behind carefully constructed magical barriers. “What were you up to Drak?” Woo thought to herself for the manyieth time.
The question about hopes and dreams was meant to be a kind of philosophical door opener to general conversation. Little Roy took the question very much to heart — and took the question very literally. “My friends and I meet in various dream places and roam around the landscape. We have to be careful of the people that wear the black suits. We do things together.”
This was a mildly surprising answer to Woo’s question. Woo thought she was asking Little Roy if he had any future plans. Since he seemed to take the question for one about dreams and dreamwalking, Woo thought it best to continue along that line. Especially since it was proving to be very interesting. She was looking for a backdoor around the blockages left by Drak and this was looking good. “Where do you and your friends go in your dreams?” Woo prompted.
“Lots of places. I remember the place just before this boat trip. We were standing on a precipice looking out over the black waters of a bay. It was night, dark sky above, with a glow upon the horizon. Like the glow of sunrise, only it was in the wrong direction and it was in the middle of the night and it was the wrong color. Clusters of light reflected upon the inky black waters of the ocean danced to the rhythm of the waves. Water breaking upon the shore at the base of the cliff resounded against the walls shear and fluted. That wouldn’t be an easy climb. The castle sat atop the sea wall high and cold at our back, grey rock walls impenetrable except from the sea. One window — high and alone, no lights and no movement — was open and totally uninviting except to the most inexperienced and hungry of dreamwalkers. To the right the sea-wall extended north under and beyond the castle to the far side of the bay where it turns west out to sea. To the left the sea-wall extends finger-like to the south of the island that isn’t there. I don’t recall seeing the island or its black castle floating high above — unseen and uncared for. Turning my attention to my friends, they await me somewhere, but not on the island. I don’t know if I wish to travel over the water to meet them or not. I have been north over the sea cliffs into the sea mountain and south into the purple desert; it was not friendly. The sea island was not easy to get to. I suppose that if it were easy it would not be there. A motor launch sat on the thin strip of shore at the foot of the cliff. Climbing was the only way down. I stood at the top of the cliff waiting for the conviction that that was the way to go. Then I woke up.”
Woo looked at Little Roy with some degree of amazement. What business did the goobers have dreaming of the Jet Sea - dark and difficult, not a dream sequence for any but the initiated. And yet, here Little Roy was, describing it with accuracy. This may begin to explain Drak’s interest in the goober Littler Roy. Did he know that the sea of black was the ink jet souls of the dragon clan freed from all earthly drives reflecting no light. Only the souls of the young could be seen reflecting the moon upon their surface. If Little Roy had freed the child locked in the castle, then he could have seen the bay of light as it should be seen — aglow with a self-luminous light rising up from the depth of the bay where only time is young. Few women and not many men have seen the bay, and even less have seen the bay of light.
“What did you think of your trip to China?”
“Oh, I really liked China. The fish at the hotel were very friendly and I didn’t have to talk to any bosspersons hardly at all.”
“What do you mean hardly at all. I thought each goober had a specific bossperson that he or she was supposed to report to?”
“I didn’t have to talk to my bossperson. That was nice. But every day just after you left to go shopping a yellow bossperson came to see where you went. They didn’t like my answers very much. How was I supposed to know where you went shopping? I don’t go shopping — except for Captain Kaptain videes. Otherwise I haven’t ever gone shopping. I told them that you went to the shopping place and brought back packages every night. I almost complained that I didn’t see why you still went shopping to those places when they always tore the wrapping on the packages.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Some of your packages were damaged and every night when you came home with new packages another one would be torn in almost exactly the same place. I think they may have been doing it on purpose. I don’t think that it could be happening accidentally in the same spot every time by accident.”
“How, nice of you to show such concern. I’m glad you didn’t mention it to the bosspersons. I wouldn’t want to get the clerks in trouble. After all it’s what is in the package that is important.” Woo said all of this to Little Roy to forestall any possibility that he may complain further on Woo’s behalf to someone that would see past the rouse. To herself Woo wondered about her luck in not being discovered and kicked herself for underestimating the goobers ability to see that she was bring the same packages home each night. If she wasn’t so cheap she could have bought new packages each day. Goddess knows she could afford the relatively small expense. Less costly certainly than being carted off by one bossperson or another.
“Don’t think anything of it Professor Woo. Being nice is something that goobers are good at. It’s one of the chief reasons we are made fun of and hurt.”
Woo hadn’t actually given the goobers credit for being persons in their own right. There was much to rethink concerning the goober-egghead relationship. But alas none of this was shedding light on Drak’s interview with Little Roy. There was much to think about but it will have to wait until later. At the moment, nothing is elucidating itself.
Coming back around to the subject of Drak, Woo decided to try something along the frontal attack mode. “Little Roy have you thought much about dragons?”
Little Roy’s eyes lite right up. “Boy, o’boy Professor Woo that is my only regret. I wish I could have met a dragon while we were in China. That would have been totally too much.”
“What do you know of dragons?”
“Just what I’ve seen on vidi. The regular things.”
This perked Woo’s interest since there was not any material on the two citizin approved vidi channels dealing with dragons. “What kind of regular things have you seen about the dragons?”
“Well, there was a show about the migration of dragons to this planet long ago before it was even a planet. Did you know Professor Woo that the Earth used to be a big ball of gas and dust floating in space. It was the gas wanting to get closer to each other that made it into a planet. The dragons were here before that and the stuff fell all around them making a great huge snowball — only it wasn’t snow it was sun dust and gas.”
“What station did you see this on?”
“It must have been one of those Chinese educational channels. I watched so much vidi while I was in China.”
Professor Woo was beginning to suspect that Drak used the cover of vidi specials to remove any possibility that Little Roy would appreciate what really happened. In this way the information comes from a trusted source and the label for that source is ambiguous enough to be dismissed in casual conversation. “Do you remember any other vidi shows that you watched in China?”
“No, at least not any other than that show on the stars. I like watching the stars. You know, Professor I can see the stars out of my cabin window.”
“Yes, I had the steward switch our rooms, I thought you would enjoy the view much more than I, after all I’ve seen it before.”
“Thank you, that was nice of you. My mother says that I should be nice even if I am a stinking goober.” Returing to his favorite subject, Little Roy continued, “I saw blinky last night. He was in a different part of the sky, but it was blinky all right.”
“It must be nice for you to find old friends in strange new places. Did it make you feel at home?”
“No, it made me scared.”
“Scared?”
“Yeah, scared. You said bad things would happen if the world slowed down more — and, it is. The world is slowing down more.”
Woo became even more anxious to return home to Merika and report to The Cownsil.
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R.S.V.P.
|
Slimeworld & Galaxy Magazine -- All rights reserved -- |
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