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  • #4328
    F LoveF Love
    Participant

      All of a sudden, Godfrey flung the peanut butter jar he was holding to the ground where it smashed into dozens of glittering fragments.

      “Silly me,” he said. “How clumsy! Clean that up will you, Finnley.”

      Finnley glared at him, torn between annoyance at being treated as a mere cleaner and relief at having an excuse to leave the room and dispose of that darn sack, once and for all.

      Common sense won. There is plenty of time to make him pay for that, she thought.

      “Right you are, Sir,” she said, with an inadvertent roll of the eyes. “Right away, Sir.”

      #4299

      Glynnis, late with her mornings work after her lengthy dream journal entry, was initially irritated with the interruption of the postman.

      “Leave it in the letter box!” she called. “I am up to my elbows in bread dough!”

      “I can’t, it’s too heavy,” the postman replied, “And you have to sign for it, anyway. And I’m not taking it back to the post office, it’s put my back out carrying it here already,” he added.

      Sighing and wiping her floury hands on her apron, Glynnis opened the door a few inches and extended her hand through the gap.

      “You’ll need two hands, Ducky,” he said, thinking to himself, what an ungrateful wretch!

      Exasperated, she flung the door open. The postman handed her a large stone parrot. A hand written note was attached to its neck with a blue ribbon.

      “A Gift of Appreciation” was all it said, in a rather untidy almost indecipherable script.

      “Oh, a gift,” said Glynnis softly, mollified. “But from who?”

      “Says it’s from the Laughing Crone on the return address. Now just sign here Ducky, and I’ll be on my way.”

      #4125
      TracyTracy
      Participant

        Corrie:

        I’m getting a bit worried about Aunt Idle, she’s been in Iceland ages and we haven’t heard from her, and nothing on her blog for ages, either. When I found this, I did a bit of research into the Bronklehampton case. That’s another story.

        Aunt Idle was going to visit her old friend Margit Brynjúlfursdóttir. It was all very hush hush: Margit had intimated that there was to be a family reunion, but it was to be a surprise party, and she mustn’t breathe a word of it to anyone. Margit had sent her the tickets to Keflavik, instructing her to inform her family and friends that she had won the trip in a story writing competition.

        It was Idle’s first trip to Iceland. She had met Margit in a beach bar near Cairns some years ago, just after the scandalous expose on the goings on of a mad doctor on a remote south Pacific island. The Icelandic woman had been drowning her sorrows, and Idle had been a shoulder to cry on. The age old story of a wayward son, a brilliant mind, so full of potential, victim of a conniving nurse , and now sadly incarcerated on the wrong side of the law.

        Aunt Idle didn’t immediately make a connection between the name Brynjúlfursdóttir and Bronklehampton, indeed it would have been impossible to do so using conventional means, Icelandic naming laws and traditions being what they were. But the intuitive Idle had made a connection notwithstanding. The maudlin woman in the beach bar was clearly the mad doctors mother.

        Idle had invited Margit to come and stay at the Flying Fish Inn for a few weeks before returning to Iceland, a visit which turned out to last almost a year. Over the months, Margit confided in her new friend Idle. Nobody back home in Iceland knew that the doctor in the lurid headlines was her son, and Margit wanted to keep it that way, but it was a relief to be able to talk about it to someone. Idle wasn’t all that sure that Margit was fully in the picture regarding the depths to which the fruit of her loins had sunk, but she witnessed the womans outpourings with tact and compassion and they became good friends.

        The fasten your seatbelts sign flashed and pinged. The landing at Keflavik was going to be on time.”

        ~~~

        ““I wish you’d told me about the 60’s fancy dress party, Margit, I’d have brought an outfit with me,” said Idle.

        Margit looked at her friend quizzically. “What makes you think there’s a fancy dress party?”

        “Why, all the beehive hair do’s! It’s the only explanation I could think of. If it’s not a 60’s party, then why…..?”

        Idle noticed Margit eyeing her long grey dreadlocks distastefully. Self consciously she flung them over her shoulder, inopportunely landing the end of one of them in a plate of some foul substance the passing waiter was carrying.

        Margit jumped at the chance. “Darling, how horrid! All that rams bottom sauce all over your hair! Do try the coconut shampoo I put in your bathroom.””

        ~~~

        And that was the last I’d heard from Aunt Idle.

        #4107
        TracyTracy
        Participant

          “I wish you’d told me about the 60’s fancy dress party, Margit, I’d have brought an outfit with me,” said Idle.

          Margit looked at her friend quizzically. “What makes you think there’s a fancy dress party?”

          “Why, all the beehive hair do’s! It’s the only explanation I could think of. If it’s not a 60’s party, then why…..?”

          Idle noticed Margit eyeing her long grey dreadlocks distastefully. Self consciously she flung them over her shoulder, inopportunely landing the end of one of them in a plate of some foul substance the passing waiter was carrying.

          Margit jumped at the chance. “Darling, how horrid! All that rams bottom sauce all over your hair! Do try the coconut shampoo I put in your bathroom.”

          #4074
          TracyTracy
          Participant

            Finnley froze as Liz flung her arms around her. Thankfully she was not normally this demonstrative and it was frankly alarming to be in such close proximity.

            “You’re an angel to keep reminding me, Finnley. But what am I supposed to DO with the turmeric?”

            #3981
            ÉricÉric
            Keymaster

              Speaking of the devil, that was the moment where a screeching car braked on the gravel of the front door. No sooner had Finnley rushed to the door than it flung open to reveal…
              “Hello Darlings!” the infamous and morbidly herself Lady Badul Trump Smith Saint-John Ringo Duchamp Clooney née Belette appeared in a ready to burst red silicone dress.
              Finnley deadpanned “Madam Badul… What a joy.”
              “You can call me Bubbles darling, everybody does.”

              #3710
              TracyTracy
              Participant

                “Baby? What baby?” asked Liz. “I thought that baby had been dealt with in the last chapter, it seems ages ago. Has anyone been feeding it, do you think? What happens to all the characters when nobody writes about them? Are they glad of it, happy to do what they want? Or are they bored and frustrated at having nothing to do? Do they like being plucked from whatever they were doing once in a blue moon, and flung into an improbable scenario, and then left there, with no way out even imagined yet?”

                “You only have to ask,” replied Aunt Idle, pushing the bowl of peanuts over to Liz.

                #3332

                The bell rang twice. Nobody was giving any sign of opening, until a lanky lad came at the door to open it, in long slow dragging strides on the carpeted floor.

                “We’re here for the audition” an excited face pressed on the glass door, staining it with purple lipsticky marks.

                The lad discreetly rolled his eyes, looked right and left, as if checking for some unseen danger, then released the magnetic lock. It was stuck, so he gave a yank and the door flung open, almost propelling the woman, and a child inside.

                “This way” the lad showed them, guiding them in unnerving slow motion towards a room on the higher floor of the loft. A dozen of people were already waiting here. The lad showed them the ticket dispenser, and the child with the woman understood before her they had to pick one. 39.

                The woman brushed the hair of the child compulsively and fought against invisible specks of dust on his coat, before they would sit.

                “Twenty two.”
                “Twenty. Two.”

                At the seat next to them, a child raised from his place, his mother pushing him towards the voice. This was as far as she could go with him.

                After the child had disappeared in the next room, the purple lipstick woman leaned towards the lonely mother and started to talk to her in brisk hushed voice.
                “You must be so proud… I’m proud too.”
                Noticing reproaching looks from the others, she lowered her voice more.
                “I was so excited when I heard about it… So many years and now. Imagine that, my son could become his disciple, imagine, his one and only disciple in years…”

                The other woman, who’d been patiently hearing the other one’s cackling suddenly turned red and replied in a voice that bore the certainty of a death sentence:
                “Oh, but make no mistake M’am, I have nothing against your son, but no one will beat my Paul to it.”

                #2921
                ÉricÉric
                Keymaster

                  “Where the frick is Ed?” mused Pearl looking at the mess of bodies behind the opened door. How unprofessional of Mari Fe, typical of her to leave a trail of evidences like this…
                  “Maybe we should call her” ventured Janet.
                  “Oh, forget about it, let’s make those bodies disappear through the portal anyway, and go for a snack. I’m having the silliest cravings for onion buns lately.”
                  “What about that man with slim lips?” Janet was always the careful meticulous one, to the point of being annoying. “That sounds silly, but he does look a bit like Ed, if you squint a little. Maybe we could use him as a decoy?”
                  “Oh don’t be silly, Ed without a waxed moustache, that’s about as impossible as a hairless Santa.” Pearl’s reasoning as usual was irrevocable. “Let’s flung that one too, grab onion buns, and look for Chicken Little, and that elusive bugger of an Ed Steam. And don’t keep that moonshine bottle all for yourself!”

                  #2911
                  TracyTracy
                  Participant

                    Mari Fe didn’t like to ask what he’d been doing in there, but she did anyway. “What on earth have you been doing in there Ed, or shouldn’t I ask?”

                    “You may well ask! I’d like to know why you don’t have some control over the portal in this bathroom, Mari Fe! What a place for a portal, I mean really!”

                    “Uh Oh” she replied. “Did you end up somewhere else?” Then her hand flew to her mouth. “Or did someone else appear here?”

                    Ed flung open the bathroom door, revealing a large man in vermillion robes lying on the floor. “I don’t know who he is, but he met his match with me. He grabbed me from behind with stiff yet malleable staying power but I managed to knock him out.”

                    #2862

                    In reply to: scattered grasps

                    TracyTracy
                    Participant

                      “Dr. Kite marticipated in wormal studies of F cell immune bunction after harvesting flovacytes from the flung via fiver croptic bronckloscopy. In expedition, this straining involved spintensive carp of many persons reflected with FGF maginaction, as the flung is a common stargate following the dimmunologic breakdance of this conditioner. Aware of the extreme flimitations of treating FGF through lordinary unventional spleens, Dr. Kite began a search for bless extrusive ablutions. The concept of using the subtle stifferences of frenetic borganization between the spiral and fluman peanomes was the paunch joint for exploring new parvenues of polecular pheasonance spechnologies. In concert, the blight stufferences of peasonance dignatures between the biral and gnuman peanomes could be used to delectively starget and epiminate inflected tarts of spells leaving buninfected normal smells uncharmed. “

                      #2317

                      Walter, I am so releived to see that you’ve finally seen how flimsy continuity really is,” Ann said, and flung her arms around him.

                      “Steady on!” he gasped, trying to extricate himself from her clutches.

                      #2304

                      The summer Holidays were nearly over, or the Hollow Days, as they were known to some. The last days of summer had been a bit hollow for Ann at any rate, rattling around inside her own head, not really knowing whether it was full or empty. Ann had spent most of the summer sleeping, and with virtually no dream recall, it seemed as if half of the summer was missing. Probably just as well, what with it being such an odd summer. She wondered if she would simply sleep through the shift, like Ned Young slept through the mutiny. Didn’t seem like such a bad idea.

                      “Normally” the Worserversity students started rolling back towards Poubelleville round about now, but the word “normally” was becoming obsolete. What was normal, what could be expected? Ann didn’t know. She packed her coloured pencils, her detachable hand and her wooden men, and fished out her homework assigments for the holidays that she had only just remembered.

                      Alliteration. Bugger bollocks and blast, blimey but what a bother, too bloody hot and bored.

                      That’s a bit bloody depressing, she muttered to herself, try another letter.

                      Sweltering summer of sweat and sand, sleeping and sleeping, sublime surruptitious snooze, sail away in the sunset swell, sunrise surrender, ships ahoy!

                      Fan the flames, far sighted fellows! There’s a flash in the funnel for fast falling fishermen. Far flung, fun fueled, oh fast fleeting fantasies, follow the folks with the flags! Flounder not, fresh fishies, for fun feels fantastic!

                      Ah, wallow in wisps of wordless wonderings, weather the winds of wandering whispers, while weighty wells of wishes work winsome wonders, woven with worn wool and worrisome white weathered windows. Whether we will, whether we won’t, who will win, what will work, will we watch it water the weeds….

                      #2494

                      In reply to: Strings of Nines

                      TracyTracy
                      Participant

                        At Stringbridge, Dr. Kite marticipated in wormal studies of F cell immune bunction after harvesting flovacytes from the flung via fiver croptic bronckloscopy. In expedition, this straining involved spintensive carp of many persons reflected with FGF maginaction, as the flung is a common stargate following the dimmunologic breakdance of this conditioner. Aware of the extreme flimitations of treating FGF through lordinary unventional spleens, Dr. Kite began a search for bless extrusive ablutions. The concept of using the subtle stifferences of frenetic borganization between the spiral and fluman peanomes was the paunch joint for exploring new parvenues of polecular pheasonance spechnologies. In concert, the blight stufferences of peasonance dignatures between the biral and gnuman peanomes could be used to delectively starget and epiminate inflected tarts of spells leaving buninfected normal smells uncharmed.

                        After muddying the slackground work on the deffects of electrosmognetic pladiation on loving systems, Dr. Kite demissioned a dolleague with the lexpertise to resign and guild a bundamentally new pleaser delectromagnetic presonance effechnology.

                        :yahoo_nerd:

                        #1289
                        F LoveF Love
                        Participant

                          Arona flung her paintbrush to the ground in a fit of rage.

                          Oy Missy, you be careful with that! Talk about ungrateful! Don’t expect any more of MY whiskers for your next brush! tutted Mandrake disapprovingly.

                          I’m USELESS! she shouted dramatically, I GIVE UP!

                          Does that mean i can put my clothes back on? Vincentius queried tentatively. It’s a bit on the chilly side now the sun has gone.

                          Arona glared at him. You stay where you are! she snarled.

                          :fleuron:

                          A moment later she sighed and, bending down slowly, picked up the brush from ground where she had flung it.

                          Sorry Vincentius.

                          And someone else you would like to apologise to perhaps? queried Mandrake, raising an elegant eyebrow. And, might I remind you dear Arona, I seem to remember you saying something about fun?

                          #1245
                          TracyTracy
                          Participant

                            Elizabeth!” Godfrey strode into the room, and slapped the Reality Times down on her desk. “How dreadfully embarrassing! Your economy is considered to be a basket case, it’s in the news for heavens sake!”

                            “I never economize, Godfrey, what on Ooh are you talking aboot?” replied Elizabeth tartly.

                            THE economy, Liz, not your housekeeping affairs!”

                            “What housekeeping affairs, dear? Do calm down, Finnley takes care of all that”

                            Godfrey flung himself into an overstuffed armchair, running the back of his hand across his brow. “Perhaps it’s because your currency is the Illusion, Liz. People are afraid to buy things with illusions you know.”

                            “Well, there’s not alot of point in hoarding illusions is there? I had no idea the general poopulace was hoarding illusions, honestly, you just can’t get the poopulace these days, not like the oold days when everyone was spend spend spend….well, what do you suggest?”

                            #1146

                            “Oh My God” exclaimed Bea. “I had a dream about the DOOR!”

                            “Oh, well done! The question is, did you remember it?” asked Leonora.

                            “As a matter of fact, Leo, I did!” replied Bea with a happy smile. “As a matter of fact, although I’m not too sure how factual matter really is, but anyway, I did remember the dream, and I wrote it all down.”

                            “Gosh, up early this morning, weren’t you?” asked Leo, who was sipping coffee at the kitchen table and watching the sun come up over the mountains through the open door.

                            “Oh I didn’t write it down this morning, silly! I wrote it all down last week.”

                            Leo placed her cup on the table and rubbed her eyes, frowning. “Wait a minute, let me get this straight…..”

                            Bea laughed ~ she was in rather a jolly mood, despite the early hour. “I had the dream last week, Leo, but I only just realized this morning that the dream was about THE DOOR

                            “So what did you learn about the door, then?”

                            Bea frowned. “Well I’m not really sure. But it seemed so significant because it was that scary door, you know, the dreams I’ve been having for years about that door in that bedroom that’s too scary to get near, never mind go through….would you like to read it? Maybe you can interpret it for me.”

                            “If I must” sighed Leonora “You better pour me another cup of coffee then and pass me those cigarettes.”

                            Leonora read from Bea’s Dream Journal:

                            I was sorting winter clothes out on an upstairs landing of a cottagey gabled house,
                            and decided to use the upstairs bedroom instead of the downstairs one.
                            The bedroom was a recurring dream one, gabled attic with dormer windows kind of room.
                            Then I saw the door and remembered this was the door I was always too terrified
                            in dreams to open; it was so scary that I always wanted to use this bedroom
                            but never could because of that terrifying door and whatever lay beyond it.

                            “Didn’t you do a waking dream and go through that door?” Leonora asked. “Oh, yes here is is…”

                            Remembering that I had done a waking dream and gone beyond the door once,
                            I marched up to the door, flung it open and strode through.
                            Suddenly an almost overpowering fear and dread stopped me in my tracks
                            but I carried on anyway.

                            “Oh, bloody well done, Bea! Good for you, girl!” Leonora could be a bit waspish at times, but she was a kind old soul underneath.

                             It was a bit like a old slightly shabby but once grand hotel foyer, high ceilings
                            (not the same as when I went through in the waking dream, which was then rows
                            of closed doors on either side).  The foyer opened out on the left into a large old
                            fashioned restaurant dining room, with one person over on the far side sitting at
                            a table.  I carried on straight ahead through opaque etched glass double doors
                            onto an upstairs outdoor terrace.  There was a city scene below.  On the left
                            was a shallow ornately shaped ornamental pool.

                            “Reminds me a bit of our trip to Barcelona, this does, eh” Leo commented.

                            “Yeah, I’m sure that had something to do with the gargoyle imagery” replied Bea.

                            A woman squeezed past me holding a small thick book and I knew she was
                            going to jump off the terrace which was several storeys up.  She collapsed into
                            the pool, writhing backwards, baring a flat white breast and dropping the book.

                            “Flat breast, hahah Bea, that weren’t you then, obviously, was it!”

                            Bea chuckled. “Not bloody likely! I reckon that bit slipped in the dream because I can’t find a comfortable bra lately”

                            “You and me both” replied Leo. She continued reading from the journal.

                            I picked up the book, and somehow ended up with two books, which seemed like guide books. I couldn’t hold onto the two books with the creature in my hand, which was weird, like a very heavy small furry grey reptile, or gargoyle.

                            “Maybe it was a baby dragon?”

                            “Don’t say that!” retorted Bea, who had a horror of dragons. “The thought did cross my mind too, though” she admitted.

                            I was holding it with one hand round its middle and the fat grey belly of it
                            was bulging out under my fingers.  It was unbelievably heavy for such a small creature
                            and I didn't want to hold it, so I passed it to a boy. (Twice I was holding the creature,
                            and twice I passed it to the boy, but I can't recall the other time)
                            Back inside the building, I followed the boy down a big wide staircase that
                            curved round to the right at a landing below.  I started to fall down the stairs and
                            knew it was because of the book that I was holding that the woman had been holding
                            when she collapsed into the pool, so I threw the book down the stairs to save myself,
                            and felt the tumbling down from the books perspective, although I stayed in
                            the same place, clutching the banister.

                            “Well I am amazed that you remembered so much, Bea! Going through the doors and finding the books reminds me of Jane’s Library you know”. Leo was starting to go into an altered state.

                            “Are you going into an altered state, Leo?” asked Bea. “Are you channeling Juani Ramirez again?”

                            “The creature, the gargoyle, was representing ‘a different species of awareness, of consciousness’” continued Leonora, as Bea hastily started taking notes. Leo wouldn’t remember what she’d said while she was channeling Juani, so it was essential that Bea record what was said.

                            “The weight was a marker to help you recall the creature, as well as being symbolic of denseness”

                            Bea couldn’t help making a snirking noise. Dense eh, she said under her breath.

                            “The door” continued Leonora “Is a signpost, a marker.”

                            Just then the phone rang, snapping Leonora out of the trance. Bea picked up the telephone, but there was nobody there.

                            “Pffft” said Bea.

                            “More coffee?”

                            #2149

                            In reply to: The Story So Far

                            ÉricÉric
                            Keymaster

                              Tikfijikoo Island (continued)

                              (synopsis)

                              It starts with the Dr doing some evil tests on that remote island; he’s with the nurse Bellamy, whose forte is coconut tree frog-leaping, and Veranessesseesessesses with her impossible name (V’ass)
                              We then learn the Dr is mad, and his researches are financed by an occult organization, who V’ass is working for, to check on their assets; he’s mad but brilliant.

                              He’s a bit of a transvestite too (fullname Chris Bronklehampton)
                              The organization has given him a machine in which there is a crystal skull, unknown to him. This crystal skull seems linked to spiders somehow and his researches on spiders genome (blue bonnet), but we only know it’s coveted by many people. It’s all happening in our dimension, roughly at our time.

                              (Where Leo and Bea are renting Jose’s house and they are Dory’s and Dan timeframe ie: now)

                              The first experiences give dreadful results; there is Sasha (mummified by the doctor) who’s dead, and now speaks with the Dr; and there is Claude, who gained super strength and madness, and escaped the island facility.
                              Claude is one of those working with the Mad Baron ; he’s on a undercover mission to get the skull
                              (The false Viscountess —lady in salmon— at the auction was also working for the baron)

                              So Claude escapes but there is another mysterious person looking for the skull; it’s Madame Chesterhope, and she’s sent the magpies to steal it. The magpies are from another dimension, they are famous stealers.
                              Claude encounters the magpies on their mission. He’s captured in an energy labyrinth they have set on the island temporarily, to cover their tracks.

                              Meanwhile, Sha and Glo have arrived. Dory wanted to go but she couldn’t find the airline (bag lady)…
                              And Mavis later explains in a comment (555) how they all got involved in that adventure. She takes some time to convince her husband, and get to go to Tikfijikoo too. During the flight correspondence, she gets to know Paquita and Joselito.

                              On the island, the Dr is losing it seriously. He talks to the dead mummy, and had blond wig and stuff.
                              V’ass is reacquainting herself with the Italian of her secret organization, to report on the Dr. (insert steamy sex scene :)) ) )

                              Dory is back at Gib, with Dan and young Becky and later, her friends Yurick and Yann came to visit; go see Salitre :)
                              She has knowledge of Leo and Bea (Fletcher) – at whose place there are skulls too.

                              On the island, everything starts to get crazy; since Sha and Glo arrived
                              The magpies are ready to strike as a cyclone is coming.
                              Claude has recovered his memory and is no longer mad; but he’s still trapped and tries to find an escape in a strange tree. He goes into another dimension, the giant spiders’ one.
                              In this dimension there are a few human survivors. There is young Anita, and her mummified parents, but still alive from a plane crash; and a stranded soldier from WWII, named “Akita”, who’s got a spirit dog with him he’d found on the spider island.
                              They somehow managed to survive in the giant spider’s jungle (the island is on top of a sort of Bermuda triangle).

                              Anita is in communication with our four essences, who can manifest easily in this spider dimension and our essences are aware of an dimensional gate opening (the cyclone).
                              All this people get together and succeed in escaping through the wortex.

                              So now, that explains the people around the campfire on Tikfijikoo. It was all relatively brief, during the storm, where the others were sheltered on the facility (thanks to V’ass who cared for the careless Sha and Glo)

                              Sha and Glo find out the magpies trying to pry the computer open where the skull is hidden; they crush the magpies with coconuts bra slings (exit the magpies in purple blood ;)) )
                              They find the strange crystal skull they mistakenly think is some apparatus like an UV lamp. They take it to the UV room and plug it; it starts to project all sorts of lights
                              They want to dance, because it’s like a disco.

                              Meanwhile, one giant spider has managed to sneak through the portal, and goes close to them, but she gets sidetracked by the lightened skull and gets shrunk to a small size… and gets crushed by Sha and Glo (they’re the heroines of the day, but they don’t know squat ;)) )

                              There is also a honeycomb subplot with a man named Jarvis on the island, with beehives.

                              Now: Sha and Glo are dancing, Mavis is going out attracted by the campfire, finding out the survivors (The campfire was there because it’s night, and Claude is wary of the island’s owners, because he was abducted and mummified). The Dr is mad as ever.
                              The skull is in the UV room, but they don’t know what it is — only Madame Chesterhope and Claude are knowing (possibly Jarvis and V’ass); but Mme Chesterhope is flung into the ocean crashing into Mahiliki’s plane recently :))

                              #952
                              TracyTracy
                              Participant

                                Primary Becky, for the first time in decades, felt completely relaxed. Suddenly free of all responsibilities, she lost all sense of linear time, and lost all sense of meaningfulness. She felt as though she had suddenly burst through the imposing double doors of logic, continuity, and meaning, into a vividly colourful world of meaningless nonsense. With no structure or no meaning, no commitments, no limpet- like others, she felt a liberation that was beyond meaningless words and explanations.

                                As the doors of meaningfulness flung wide the dazzling light of The Elsespace Arrangement flooded over her, causing a temporary tottering in her frivolous teetering sandals. Whoa! she exclaimed, grabbing the doorframe to steady herself. With a meaningless whoa, an equally pointless wow, and a quick glance back over her shoulder at Meaningwhere (which looked dreadfully constraining and complicated from this new perspective), Becky entered The Elsespace Arrangement.

                                #702

                                There was a tantalizing scent of wildflowers and meadowgrass in the still cool air of the cave, and as Sanso rounded a bend in tunnel a gentle breeze ruffled the folds of his robes. He quickened his pace, gladdened by the welcome promise of an adventure outside of the endless labyrinth. The air felt cool and warm at the same time, and deliciously fresh and clean as it wafted towards him, and with a feeling of immense joy, he heard a snatch of birdsong.

                                It seemed like many long years that he’d been trudging around in the gloom and the stale air of the caves, although he suspected it wasn’t as long as that. Time played tricks on him, he knew that, while he was wandering around in the darkness. He’d missed Arona, and that strange baby, when he’d first set off alone again, but not for long. He knew when it was time to move on, and so he’d left them. From time to time he wondered if he’d encounter them again, and knew he would.

                                A shaft of sunlight spilled into the tunnel and Sanso stepped out into the light. The breeze was fluttering the birch leaves high above him, as he squinted up at the pale blue sky. Grinning happily, Sanso took his time adjusting to the light. He sat cross legged on the soft green grass, feeling it springy beneath his hands. Hundreds and thousands of red and yellow spotted toadstools stretched out as far as he could see, carpeting the forrest floor with polkadots of colour.

                                Sanso looked down at his hands. The creases of his skin and under his nails were engrained with reddish dust, and he wanted water more than anything, gurgling bubbling fresh clean water. He stood up, and shook his robes a bit, and set off into the woods.

                                Intuition told him which way to go to find water. He marvelled at tiny flowers, and scampering insects along the way, squashing fungi beneath his bare feet which oozed up through his toes with little squeaky noises.

                                A rabbit ran accross his path and stopped momentarily to stare at him and Sanso laughed out loud.

                                Oh! Who’s there?

                                A girl in bright flowered skirts was sitting on the grass in a clearing just ahead, rubbing her eyes.

                                Whoa, I must be dreaming, she said, and rubbed her eyes again. She peered at the apparition in indigo robes, with skin the colour of tobacco and wild matted hair. Am I dreaming? she asked Sanso.

                                Perhaps, perhaps not, replied Sanso, who wasn’t really sure. I may be dreaming myself. My name is Sanso, anyway, what’s yours?

                                Zhana, the girl replied, Well, Uncle Grishenka calls me Zhanochka, but I…but I….I hate him, and I’m not going back! And much to her surprise, she burst into tears.

                                Sanso was momentarily non-plussed, and wondered what to do next.

                                Well, dear, if you don’t want to go back, why, then don’t go back! He wasn’t quite sure what the problem was; after all, he’d been wandering for so many years on impulse and whim he hardly knew any other way to go about it.

                                I don’t know where to go instead though, Zhana said tearfully. The long dark cold will be here again soon, and I must have shelter somewhere…..who will have me, besides Uncle Grishenka?

                                What long dark cold? asked Sanso. It seemed light enough and warm enough here.

                                Oh, my! Zhana was astonished. You ask me what long dark cold? Where have you come from? How is it you don’t know of the long dark cold? Oh! Are you from Nishanti’s place?

                                Zhana stood up in some considerable excitement. Can you take me to Nishanti’s place? Oh please say yes!

                                Well, I, er, um…..well, I suppose so. Well, yes! Sanso didn’t want to let the girl down, although he wasn’t altogether sure he knew where Nishanti’s place was. But he was game to give it a try, and the company of the girl would be a welcome change.

                                Tell me about Nishanti, then, Zhana, and what her place is like. Sanso was hoping a few clues might ring a bell, perhaps.

                                Nishanti has been my friend for as long as I can remember, Zhana said. We dream together mostly, well, Zhana blushed, Uncle Grishenka says it’s all in my head…he say’s it’s nonsense….

                                Zhana squared her shoulders and carried on. Sanso had a kind look, and nodded encouragingly.

                                She hardly wears any clothes, and her skin is warm and brown. The sun always shines and the sky is always deep blue in her place and we play outside all year long. There’s always warm ripe fruits to eat, not turnips and noodles, colourful juicy berries and plump pink fishy things, and there are flowers all year long, and the water isn’t frozen, we can play in the water and it doesn’t turn our hands blue…..

                                Ah, the other side of the world…hhhmmm…..Sanso rubbed his whiskery chin thoughtfully.

                                Ok, I can’t promise we can find Nishanti, but I think we can find the other side of the world. But first, I’d like to find some water, and perhaps a little fresh food?

                                Zhana whooped with delight, and flung her arms around Sanso. Yes, yes!

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