Tabitha put on her jacket and slung her bookbag over her shoulder.
She took a quick look in the mirror to make sure her hair was just right.
What she saw looking back at her was a short girl, a short frumpy girl
who was someone that she was never quite comfortable being. There
she was, an average girl in average glasses, with an average body, with
perhaps maybe too many freckles, and a face that her dad said had 'character'.
She didn't want to have character though. She wanted to look beautiful.
She wanted to be noticed more often by the guys.
She locked the door, and wrote a quick note to her roommate on a whiteboard
on the door that they used to trade messages back and forth between classes.
Down the fire escape stairs she bounded and out into the courtyard.
And there was good old Northewestern. Northwestern University.
She enrolled at Northwestern because her dad had graduated with a Business
Degree from NU. So she got a break on tuition for that. Plus
it was the closest college to her, and many of her smarter classmates from
highschool had enrolled here as well. Those of her classmates who
had demonstrated some spark of intelligence, that held some promise
that they could be usefully assimilated into the party. Those who
had a shot at making it and becoming one of the sky people.
The rest of second runs would become the blue proletariat and live in the
gray town. Going to Northwestern also meant being able
to go home on weekends to do laundry, and that saved a bundle as well over
any of the other Assim Schools.
She was done with her boring Pol Sci classes for today. The library
was her destination now. It wasn't her brain that was hungry though,
but her curiousity. When she had been young in grade school
she had not been the most popular girl at school, to say the least, and
a kind of geeky girl at that. To fill her hours for want of a social
life Tabitha had spent a lot of time reading. She had been attracted
to the offbeat, the bizzare, the odd authors, the really quirky ones.
The ones that could tell a fantastic story and spin a fabulous yarn, and
transport her away from the here and now to a place that was filled with
discovery and wonder and just plain old weird stuff.
Today one of her favorite authors from her youth was going to be some
sort of a guest at the library. She clutched her own tattered book
of verse of his close to her breast. It was one of her dearest possessions
from childhood. The pages were worn and dog earred, and all throughout
the book she had made drawings in the side colums trying to picture herself
with scribbles the characters and worlds he described. With a smug
and fierce pride she intended to show him the book of his that she had
kept all these years. It was one of the choice superfluous things
she had brought to college with her with her stuffed animals and such.
She wondered what he would look like. She always imagined, he'd
have to be dashingly handsome. She always imagined her favorite authors
to be dashingly handsome, or elegantly beautiful, and lead enchanted lives.
She wondered what he would say when he saw it, when she handed it to him
for him to sign it.
The squirrels watched her suspiciously from the trees as she made her
way to the library. A man in a blue suit walks by.
Through the electronic security gate she went that xrayed her body for
explosives, and then down the hall past the vid screens to the sun room.
She held her breath. There it was, the gathering, a table had been
set up, and students were mulling around, a lot of stupid Alpha Alpha Alpha
girls there just because it was a mildly taboo thing to do. Talk
to an author from the old times, that is. She wondered if even a
one of them had even read *any* of his books. Before she could finish
that thought, one of them moved aside, and she saw him...
Her heart dropped. He didn't look quite as she imagined.
He looked old and tired. So very tired. And frail. Not
at all like what she had imagined. She stood there still and looked
harder... for a trace of handsomeness. Yes, it
was there. Obviously he had been quite handsome once upon a time...
even a prince once she was sure... when youth had beat in his chest.
But grandmother time had not been kind to him. Her fear of meeting
him suddenly vanished completely. She almost felt compassion for
him. She shook herself from the reverie. Sadness was not of
of the emotions a future party member was allowed to feel.
She had to break herself of indulging in such blue weaknesses.
She pushed passed the Alpha Alpha Alpha girls and they got the message
and cleared a path for her, so that she stood plainly before him.
She clutched the book tightly to her chest and a resolve of courage suddenly
steeled across her face. Even as a short girl, she towered above
him, as he sat across the table in a wheelchair, bent down, his face focused
downward, signing a book and lost in the thought of the process which was
a chore for his now obviously feeble mind.
He was oblivious to the moment, but the silence caught up with him,
and he looked up at her and took notice that something was going on.
His eyes blinked and focused on the tattered book she clutched to her chest,
and he studied it. She looked at him, but there was no betrayal of
emotion in his face. The party had surely beat that out of him years ago.
She knew though that he recognized the book. She could feel his gaze
tracing the curves of her body, and then following upward to study her
face, and then to her eyes.
She was eye to eye with him now, and the world stopped and time stood
still. She felt her heart race, and she breathed. All of it,
the world, the Alpha girls, the library, it all disappeared from around
her, as she locked eyes with this singularly old man, this author.
He had once been an enemy of the of the party. But now here he was.
His dazzling blue eyes looked right through her, like she was nothing
but glass, as if, he suddenly knew all about her, and every secret desire
and dream that was buried hidden in her heart.
She peripherally sensed she felt terribly naked and awkward, but it
didn't matter. She searched his eyes for something more than sorrow.
She found herself unconciously trying to speak but she couldn't.
She felt her grip lessen on her childhood book, and almost as if it were
some kind of offering from a child to a god, she held it out to him.
She tried to speak, but nothing came out. The only thing she hear
herself say first under her breath, and then louder in a crackly, broken
voice... was the word "Why?" louder... you
must speak louder she chided herself... "Why?" she heard herself
say again... as she held it out to him.
She held it there. He did not take it, nor motion to do so.
This frustrated her. She looked at him, as he looked at her.
Her arms grew tired and she became impatient. She stood there.
Again she trust out the book to him, and again, louder, she demanded "Why?"...
"Why did you write this?"
A gleam and a twinkle came across his eyes. He let the pen dropped,
and lifted his arms, and took her hands in his as they both held the book
together... and he looked into her eyes, and all the world realy
did disappear into a watercolored blur...
"for love"... he looked into her and said...
~
Years earlier, a little girl of thirteen, in her bedroom, surrounded
by her stuffed animals, opens her favorite book and continues to read...
~
Water Colors
I suppose I best be off... I'm late, I'm late " said
the rabbit... as he scampered down a rabbit hole pasted a bottle
that says 'DRINK ME. "At least I lost that odd curious little
girl that was chasing me.... she looked like a counterrevolutionary!"
"Bob White!" exclaims Bob, Bob the Quail, but its too late, Rabbit
is gone.
Bob continues down the path. The path turns a corner, and follows
a stream, towards a row of mountains that can be seen in the distance.
The sky is dazzling blue and the clouds quite puffy white like cotton.
Oddly, to his left, off to the side of the path in a glade, crashed amonst
the briars, is a sleek looking spaceship.
Rather out of place, one might think; why don't we pause for a closer
look.
The only discernable mark on this apparent spaceship is a licence plate
that reads "EMC2" and a tacky bumper sticker that reads "Powered by Math!"
To be honest, its really hard to make out the words at all, as the whole
ship is protected by a S.E.P. field. S.E.P. meaning "Somebody Else's
Problem." In fact, the only way a casual observer can see it
at all is from a fleeting glance caught out of the corner of their eye.
Bob sees it though with no problem at all, in fact, he doesn't particularly
find anything out of the ordinary about it. What tiny mind of his
that he does entertain is focused on a bunch of blue and white dots suddenly
hurtling towards him down the path at a quite fast rate..
Down the path towards Bob comes a girl in a blue poke dotted dress peddling
a bicycle. She rings her bell on the bike insistantly and waves her
arms...
"Oh get out of my way you silly bird!" she shouts to Bob as she
peddles toward him.
"Bob White!" exclaims Bob as he jumps to the side of the road....
and she passes by him flying on the bicycle.
"I don't care if Bob has the white of way, I have to catch that
rabbit!" she calls back, and then is gone...
~
Bob ruffles his feathers, and returns his attention back to the path.
The path opens into a beautiful meadow, which is abuzz with activity, from
what apeears to be a Rennisance Faire. In the distance Bob can see
tents which are set up, and hear musicians fill the air with lyrical music,
as well as poetesses prozelitize on about mice and teacups and blue marmalade,
and laughing kids jockey about in lines to ride the Carinival rides.
A huge billboard on the side of the path proclaims the faire as the
most thrilling show on earth. A big picture of a golden lion snarls
through a golden cage, as some ringmaster brandishes some whip. Pictures
of jugglers and artisans fill out the rest of the billboard. Written
in graffiti in a lower corner is some political statement "the poltechs
are poisioning all the food with sugar!" Sitting on top of the billboard,
just as pretty as you please, is a big fat striped orange and black cat
with a big grin on his face.
"Well what do we have here!," says the cat... as he licks his
lips... "it looks like some nice and tasty squab to me, wouldn't
you say, orange stripes?"
"Bob White!" Bob chirps nervously and scurries down the path some
more... run to the faire Bob, run to the faire... that cat
looks more dangerous tahn the lion onthe billboard.
"Indeed it is... and the squab can talk, fancy that, black stripes,
what?" A crow calls in the distance.
The Chesire Cat's body fades out, leaving only a big grin behind with
a big tongue licking his chops hungrily. Bob slams on the breaks
and stops his little sewing machine feet from sewing. For the cat
has reappeared and now stands plainly between him and the faire blocking
his path further, and Bob is filled with fright.... as the the cat
flexes his paws and stalks towards him...
A man in a blue suit walks by.
"Bob White Bob White Bob White!" Bob chatters as his body and
head bobs around looking for some convienent briar bush to duck into.
But he is trapped, and the chesire cat has closed on him and now holds
him firmy in his paws...
"If my Grin wasn't still over here above this billboard, I'd eat him
this very second I would, orange stripes" Bob hears from behind him from
the Grin. Bob squirms around in the cat's grip, inches away from
a face with no mouth. "Indeed, black stripes, indeed, such a pretty
squab must surely be quite tastey" the Grin says.... "any moment
now Grin will catch up with Stripes and its lunchtime!"
At that very moment, the handle of an umbrella comes crashing down squarely
on the cheshire cat's head from behind. "Ouch!" cries the Grin,
still at the billboard and not caught up with his Stripes yet.
"Run Stripes Run!" cries the Grin, as the cheshire cat's body
drops his grip on Bob letting him fall to the ground, and dashes down the
path towards the billboard for safety. Bob stands up
and shakes himself off. He shakes his head and looks up at what appears
to be a dapper lady and striking figurine of a rescuer... standing
quite tall above him, in a dapper hat and with a smart pair of gloves and
matching umbrella.
"Blast you Mary Poppins!" shouts the cat from the safety of the
billboard, his Grin now having caught up with his Stripes. He shakes
his claws at her and makes hissing sounds at her.
"Oh fiddlesticks to you you old Cat! Pick on someone your own
size why don't you, indeed" says Mary back in a calm and collected manner.
She doesn't shout, for its always improper for a lady to shout. Remember
that girls.
"Are you alright, Bob?" asks Mary as she brushes off his smart
little white sweater and adjusts the jib of his feathers. "Now
there now, now here's a smart looking bird you are today aren't you Bob..."
"My with your fine feather coat and smart little jacket... you must
be on your way to a party I imagine..."
"Bob White!" Bob chirps. Mary adjusts her gloves and looks
in her handbag for a feather duster, which she finds stuffed under a 45
caliber revolver and a hand grenade. She dusts of Bob further.
Bob sneezes... You would think a quail would be use to feather
dust.
Dick Van Dyke bounds down the path to meet our two characters in tow.
"Is everything okay, Mary Poppins?"
"Oh quite fine, quite fine indeed Bert..." says Mary...
"we just had a little run in with a peculiarly impolite pussy cat"...
Bert looks perplex... "... buts its over now...
so Bert, lets be off to the faire, and Bob here will be joining us!"
"Oh well hello there Bob... I didn't see you down there, what
you being short and all...." Dick Van Dyke laughs a jolly laugh...
"shall we be be off then." "Indeed we shall and with a
tra la la tra la la here we go"... chimes Mary Poppins as trio skips off
down the path.
Bob looks back. The cat has disappeared. So too coincidentally
has the plaid couch that was completly out of place, that the author forgot
to mention before. Perhaps because it was too close to the S.E.P.
field given off by the spaceship. The couch with the bumpersticker
on it that read "Question Authority!"
~
Bob the Quail, Dick Van Dyke, and Mary Poppins wound their way down
the path into the valley to the faire. As they approached, they passed
a odd young student in a battered old green army jacket with a t-shirt
underneath that said something about an army of the 12 monkeys. He
was carrying on and rambling nonsensically.
Mary Poppins stopped him. "What are you carrying on there
about young man!" She demanded to know.
He seemed taken aback. He stared at her catatonically with a vacant
stare and spoke frighteningly in a monotone chant, as if he'd just seen
some ghost...
"a blue and white po-ke dotted dress had she
bethany kenner was her name you see
she ran past bob on her way
to chase that rabbit and make some play
at the tea party they all did gather
called everyone to order did mark the mad hatter
animal crackers and tea he passed around
spill his tea and watch him frown!
bob ruffled his feathers in delight
bethany smoothed out her dress to be quite right
rabbit checked his watch and sipped his tea
squirrely squirrel just played with his crackers happily
and as they hushed that silly mark made a toast!
to the crazy fellow who can rhyme the most!"
This was total utter rubbish to Mary Poppins and made no sense at all.
She reached into her handbag and pulled out her 45 colt and pointed it
squarely at his temple and demanded he tell her what he was carrying on
about.
"a blue and white po-ke dotted dress had she
bethany kenner was her name you see
she ran past bob on her way
to chase that rabbit and make some play..." he repeated with
a shell shocked stare...
"Oh shut up!" Mary Poppins said as she grabbed him by the cuff of
the collar and threw him backwards into the ditch beside the side of the
road. She looked over at Bert and said "We'll get no sense out of
this one!"
Mary put the safety back on the gun and put it back in her purse, this
time between the Bottle of Tear Gas and the Bouncing Betty. They
approached the faire.
"Well Bob, what do you fancy riding first?" inquired Mary....
"Bob White!" chirped Bob as his head bounced up and down like
the rides on a Merry -go-Round.
"The Merry-go-Round, what a splendiferous choice!" exclaimed Mary.
A lost zeppelin passed over head with a swastika on it but noone seemed
to notice. "How about you Bert?"
"Sounds spendiferouniously positively peterteranaxerouniously fundedalumeracky
to me!" hoots Bert... as he looks at the sky and scratches his head....
"Of we go then!" says Mary Poppins, as they climb aboard. Bert
helps Mary up into a carriage of seashells pulled by seahorses.
Bert then helps Bob up on a colorfully painted seahorse. For
himsself he choses a rather gangly multilegged octopus to ride.
Three little girls in prim and proper school uniforms sing from
atop several fishes and sharks. They are decked out each in identical
uniforms, except one is red, one is green, and one is yellow, and written
across their vest on each is "Heather", "Heather", and "Heather".
They sing and chant as the Merry-Go-Round starts up as if were Guy Fawlks
Day..
"Ring around the rosy
Pocket full of poseys
Ashes Ashes
We all fall down!"