Her name had been Zenni Al Farhan. She was a quiet, slight woman with haunted eyes and fine features. She was an expert in antiquities, famous for being able to spot truly ancient artifacts from even the most artful fakes with a simple touch of her fingers. Her secret, of course, was that she was an especially talented Caster who could gain information from people and objects that she touched with her bare fingers. Her talent was as much a curse as a blessing however, since everything (and everyone) she touched with her fingers would flood her mind with images and emotions. Because of this, she wore gloves almost all of the time.
As an agent of the Mukhbarat, she had used her talents to keep a tight rein on other members of the Ministry of Culture from selling off Iraq’s rich cultural heritage on the black market for easy cash. As a truly talented and trusted academic expert, she had had more freedom to travel to foreign conferences than many of her colleagues.
With the American invasion, her status as an agent of the secret police brought her under the scrutiny of the Americans. She had turned herself in in the hopes of clearing her name and resuming her post in the academic ranks as soon as possible.
When she was brought before Daniel that first time, they had recognized each other from their brief encounter years before. Possibly hoping to use this past connection to secure her release, Zenni had asked him for a private meeting, if he could arrange it.
Curious, and more than a little attracted to the diminutive woman, Daniel had her delivered to an interrogation room late one evening and then dismissed the guards to wait outside of the sealed room.
At first she had looked frightened, but when she saw the guards depart and Daniel remain with her, she became visibly relieved. “Dr. Bernstein, I want to thank you for this meeting. I was so afraid when they came for me this late at night.” As she spoke, she shivered and pulled her shawl closer over her disheveled hair.
“My pleasure, Mrs. Al Farhan. I am most curious as what you think I might be able to do for you.” It was disgusting, reliving these memories of his, because I could ‘feel’ his desire for this woman, I could tell that this could only end badly. Daniel’s memories had already revealed him to be a man of little self-control.
Unfortunately, the woman was apparently blind to his lust, or too desperate to care. “Dr. Bernstein, I was wondering if you could perhaps use your influence here to have me released from this place. I have very important work to attend to.”
“Well, ah...Zenni...I am afraid you may have overestimated my position here, I am not an officer in the military. My role here is more an observational role.”
She stood up, clasped her gloved hands together in a sort prayerful gesture and moved closer to him. “Please, Dr. Bernstein, you must listen and see if there is a way you can help me, as well as your associate, Dr. Kampmann.”
That name cooled his lusts like a bucket of water dousing a small campfire, although the embers still glowed underneath. “What did you say about Drake Kampmann?”
She moved even closer, closer than most Americans would be comfortable with in normal conversations. Her eyes were intense, even hopeful. “If you help me to leave this place, it will also help Dr. Kampmann.”
“How exactly will my helping you also help Dr. Kampmann?” His curiosity was overtaking his physical lusts.
She stepped back, looked down briefly before looking up into his eyes again. “I have found some things he has been looking for. Things that have been lost for a very, very long time.”
Now he was really curious. He stepped forward, touched her lightly on each shoulder, ignoring her instinctive flinch at the touch of a man who was not a relative. “Tell me, Mrs. Al Farhan, what are these things that he was looking for? And how did you come about them in this...place?”
She pulled away from his grasp, turned her back to him. Her voice came out in halting, soft tones, just barely above a whisper. “Years ago, even before we had met at that conference, I served as a translator and as a guide to foreign dignitaries when they came to visit our historical sites. On one such occasion, I was assigned to work with Dr. Kampmann on an archaelogical dig near the ancient city of Ur. He and I worked together for many weeks. He came to know of my special talent to discover the truth of things and people by touching them with my hands. During our time together, we came to know each other very well, and after he had to leave without finding what he had been looking for, I promised to continue looking for it.”
Daniel couldn’t contain his excitement and determination to know more. He grabbed her by the shoulders again and turned her back around to face him. “Tell me, what was he looking for in this God-forsaken country?”
She looked away from his face, even as he held her in his suddenly harsh grasp. Her voice came out in a raspy, choking whisper. “Home. He was looking for his home.”
“What?” His disappointment ran deep. “What are you talking about, woman? Drake Kampmann is not from Iraq. He’s an American, born in New York to immigrant parents!”
She was frightened at his sudden coldness, his doubt. “You don’t know him as well as you think, Dr. Bernstein. Dr. Kampmann has many, many secrets. But these are not mine to tell, if he has not shared them with you. But you must believe me when I tell you this, I have found what he was looking for. I have some very, very important items that I recovered from the site, items that he must have returned to him. But I have not told anyone else where they are, I must be freed so that I can recover them and return that which is rightfully his.”
Now, Daniel’s lusts were ignited on multiple levels. He knew he must have her, and he must know more about Drake’s secrets.
He released her from his grip and backed away. “Yes. I can see that I must find a way to help you then.” He turned away from her and reached into an interior pocket of his white lab coat, pulling out a sealed needle where she could not see his hand. He slipped the cover off of the needle nose and squirted a small fraction of the liquid out to clear any air bubbles from the mixture.
Hiding the hand that held the needle, he turned back around and approached her in a more comforting manner. “Let me talk to the commander, then, and see if there is some accomodation I can make for you.”
As he finished speaking, he brought the needle down and behind her before she could react. With a swift jab of the needle, it pierced her clothing and sank into the softer flesh of her bottom. He held her close, preventing her from jerking away as he injected her with one of his ‘special drugs’.
Her struggles quickly ended as she slumped into his arms, soft and pliant to his will, but fully conscious.
He pulled the needle out and discarded it on the floor as he lifted her now totally limp weight and placed her on the long wooden bench along the far wall.
“I am sorry, my dear Zenni, but you are going to have to provide more answers to my questions. You should know that your voluntary muscles below your neck will be beyond your control for several hours now. You can still speak, but you will be unable to escape until I apply the antidote to this drug, or it wears off in the morning.”
“D...D...Dr....B...Bernstein, w...w...why are you doing this? P...p...please do not do anything you or I will regret later.”
“Well, I for one, will not regret this one bit. You may not either, if you cooperate and answer my questions fully. You may even enjoy the encore.”
She understood his meaning. “I...I...I am a married woman, please don’t do this.”
“Cooperate with me fully and you may have some new tricks to take home to your husband.” With that, Daniel began to slake both of his lusts...the purely physical, and the lust he didn’t even realize that he had before, to gain a measure of power over Drake...
Friday, January 27, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Enigmatic Engrams
No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t bust through the steel wall that Daniel had built around the secrets that he had kept even from Drake. It was there in my head now, that much was maddeningly obvious, but I couldn’t find the key I needed to unlock this last line of defense he had raised against some Caster barging into his head and stealing his secrets...yeah, sort of like I did to him.
The harder I tried to just force my way through by sheer force of Will, the louder the voices deep inside clamored to be let loose.
I decided to end that course of action. It was tempting to rush back to my body and head for Ravyn’s farm where I could grab the knucklehead by the shoulders again and see if I could force the key out of his body, but somehow I knew that would be useless. The poor bastard was wiped pretty clean in my search. I sincerely doubted the answer lay within him any more.
That meant the answer had to be here somewhere.
The more I worked around that barrier, the more images I began to get of what I could only describe as ‘current events’...mostly images of soldiers in dusty, tan Middle Eastern villages, tanks and trucks and other military vehicles moving.
Strange, Daniel had never been a soldier, but he certainly had a lot of engram fragments relating to the military, especially in Iraq. Many of the images and memories had the feel of someone who had watched the events from afar, like on a television, but more than a few had a sense of...reality...about them that might have meant that they were personal memories of experienced events.
I began to focus on those fragments, the ones that evoked real memories and some pieces of a very strange puzzle began to fall into place.
It must have taken hours of being wrapped up in another man’s memories, but the fragments were gradually pieced back together into a set of cohesive memories that now made more sense. Ironically enough, it was one of my own memories that helped make it all possible.
In the six months or so before I had been killed, Daniel had been absent from the NecroLab. His absence had been notable because he was the primary guy who usually ran a rather large battery of medical tests on each of the program participants. He would then give us our assigned prescription of pills and supplements that was to prepare our bodies for the rigors of the program. But during this time that he was gone, one of his underlings had taken over. Whenever any of us had asked where Dr. Geek was, we were told that he had been sent on assignment by the Bureau to Iraq. Why he was sent to Iraq, no one would tell us, but we all assumed that it was to help wounded soldiers, since Daniel was seen as an expert in restoring connections between badly damaged nerves and fixing shattered bodies.
But seeing things from Daniel’s perspective, I gained a whole new set of insights into the depths of evil that Drake had sunk down to.
It turns out that Daniel was indeed over in Iraq and he was using his unique skills in ‘support’ of the war effort, but in a far ghastlier way than I had ever expected. Drake had offered Daniel’s expertise on the workings of the human body and its various strengths and frailties to the administration to assist in the ‘rendering’ of captive Iraqis. He had spent his time there torturing hundreds of Iraqis. Granted, many of the victims of his torture sessions had been officials in the Baath Party, Iraqi military officers, or agents from the Mukhbarat (the Iraqi secret police), but more than a few had turned out to be innocent victims.
Those memories were horrible enough, but to actually feel how much pleasure he had taken in administering doses of excruciating but precisely measured pain to other human beings made me sick. I certainly felt a Hell of a lot less sorry about what I had done to him.
Things became really interesting, though, when I discovered the shards of a particular memory that Daniel had tried very hard to forget. As I pieced it back together, I began to get a glimpse of just what might be behind that steel wall he had tried so hard to build in his own mind.
This engram was about an extracurricular torture session he had engineered to take place on a particular prisoner, an agent in the Mukhbarat who had also been assigned to the Ministry of Culture, someone whom he had met years before at an academic conference after being introduced by Drake.
The harder I tried to just force my way through by sheer force of Will, the louder the voices deep inside clamored to be let loose.
I decided to end that course of action. It was tempting to rush back to my body and head for Ravyn’s farm where I could grab the knucklehead by the shoulders again and see if I could force the key out of his body, but somehow I knew that would be useless. The poor bastard was wiped pretty clean in my search. I sincerely doubted the answer lay within him any more.
That meant the answer had to be here somewhere.
The more I worked around that barrier, the more images I began to get of what I could only describe as ‘current events’...mostly images of soldiers in dusty, tan Middle Eastern villages, tanks and trucks and other military vehicles moving.
Strange, Daniel had never been a soldier, but he certainly had a lot of engram fragments relating to the military, especially in Iraq. Many of the images and memories had the feel of someone who had watched the events from afar, like on a television, but more than a few had a sense of...reality...about them that might have meant that they were personal memories of experienced events.
I began to focus on those fragments, the ones that evoked real memories and some pieces of a very strange puzzle began to fall into place.
It must have taken hours of being wrapped up in another man’s memories, but the fragments were gradually pieced back together into a set of cohesive memories that now made more sense. Ironically enough, it was one of my own memories that helped make it all possible.
In the six months or so before I had been killed, Daniel had been absent from the NecroLab. His absence had been notable because he was the primary guy who usually ran a rather large battery of medical tests on each of the program participants. He would then give us our assigned prescription of pills and supplements that was to prepare our bodies for the rigors of the program. But during this time that he was gone, one of his underlings had taken over. Whenever any of us had asked where Dr. Geek was, we were told that he had been sent on assignment by the Bureau to Iraq. Why he was sent to Iraq, no one would tell us, but we all assumed that it was to help wounded soldiers, since Daniel was seen as an expert in restoring connections between badly damaged nerves and fixing shattered bodies.
But seeing things from Daniel’s perspective, I gained a whole new set of insights into the depths of evil that Drake had sunk down to.
It turns out that Daniel was indeed over in Iraq and he was using his unique skills in ‘support’ of the war effort, but in a far ghastlier way than I had ever expected. Drake had offered Daniel’s expertise on the workings of the human body and its various strengths and frailties to the administration to assist in the ‘rendering’ of captive Iraqis. He had spent his time there torturing hundreds of Iraqis. Granted, many of the victims of his torture sessions had been officials in the Baath Party, Iraqi military officers, or agents from the Mukhbarat (the Iraqi secret police), but more than a few had turned out to be innocent victims.
Those memories were horrible enough, but to actually feel how much pleasure he had taken in administering doses of excruciating but precisely measured pain to other human beings made me sick. I certainly felt a Hell of a lot less sorry about what I had done to him.
Things became really interesting, though, when I discovered the shards of a particular memory that Daniel had tried very hard to forget. As I pieced it back together, I began to get a glimpse of just what might be behind that steel wall he had tried so hard to build in his own mind.
This engram was about an extracurricular torture session he had engineered to take place on a particular prisoner, an agent in the Mukhbarat who had also been assigned to the Ministry of Culture, someone whom he had met years before at an academic conference after being introduced by Drake.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Memory Soup...Part 2
With Naomi fading away, I was left feeling more than a little empty. We had built a small, tenuous, but tangible emotional connection that for a moment had transcended each of our deaths.
Seeing her in her full, natural beauty also triggered a rushing flood of faded memories and half thoughts from that part of Daniel that I had absorbed. Those thoughts ranged from the barely suprressed lust the Daniel had felt for the girl, to fleeting reminders of something that had been planning to get for her right before I had snatched him in Windsor...
It was disturbing, because it was very clear that Daniel had every intention of ‘doing right by her and the baby’ before I grabbed him, but the completion of that thought escaped me for the moment.
I sat back, looking up into the leaves of the Tree, seeing them flutter gently in the soft breeze, the sounds of it washing over me without forming any intelligent words-thus the Tree was not interested in talking at the moment.
Something was there in the recesses of Daniels’ memories, something that he had been trying to hide from me, even as I was stripping the memories of his own children from his brain. Something that he had kept secret even from...Drake.
Oh shit. Daniel had been playng his own game with fate...something about his work for Drake was not on the complete up and up. I could almost see the walls of the defenses he had tried to build, had been building for all of the years he had worked with and for Drake.
I became lost in puzzling this all out. I began a sort of mental housekeeping that was not at all easy. Trapped in my already cluttered head were memories fragments from Ma Grendel and her various and sundry incarnations and, including even more fragments from her many hundreds of victims and events that spanned thousands of years. Mixed in with those were my own memories, although in the melding with Ma Grendel, some of those have become scrambled and less reliable than they once were. Now, I was trying to assimilate the entire set of adult memories of a very intelligent, introverted man who invested an enormous amount of time learning-the more I scanned through these things, the more impressed I became with his drive to learn everything he could about the human body and how it functioned.
Trying to separate and sort these...engrams-to borrow a term I had found in Daniels’ memory, was proving to be quite a challenge. But it was a challenge that was becoming increasingly necessary if I was ever to have a chance of maintaining my own sense of Self. And now, there was an even more important incentive...to find out what secret (or secrets) was so powerful, so dangerous, that Daniel was willing to risk Drake’s wrath to keep it. Drake was not someone who tolerated such duplicity.
As I searched for clues as to what that secret might be, I kept running up against a rather recent engram of an e-mail message that Daniel had received from Drake the night before he had contacted me:
“Daniel,
I am glad to hear that you are well. I have been looking forward to our upcoming meeting VERY much. We have a great deal to discuss, you and I. My people will be there for you the day after next. I have a very generous offer for you--return those things that you have taken from me, and the Jackson woman is yours to do with as you please, although the baby is non-negotiable-she is mine. I’ll even let you keep the money that you have stolen from me over years. Yes, I know about the money, but I am willing to overlook even that much money-the items you have taken from are far more valuable to me than mere money. Return them to me, and you shall have your respite from my agents!
-Drake”
Everry time that engram came up, it played as fresh and clear as a movie in my head, but it ended in the hard, steely gray wall of the defeneses that the man had set up inside himself.
What the Hell could this scared little man have taken from Drake and then hid so well that Drake wouldn’t be able to find it himself? What the Hell would Drake value more than money? And speaking of money, how much dough had this man stolen from Drake and where was it?
I immediately set to work trying to puzzle those answers out of the tangled mess of mixed engrams in my head...
Seeing her in her full, natural beauty also triggered a rushing flood of faded memories and half thoughts from that part of Daniel that I had absorbed. Those thoughts ranged from the barely suprressed lust the Daniel had felt for the girl, to fleeting reminders of something that had been planning to get for her right before I had snatched him in Windsor...
It was disturbing, because it was very clear that Daniel had every intention of ‘doing right by her and the baby’ before I grabbed him, but the completion of that thought escaped me for the moment.
I sat back, looking up into the leaves of the Tree, seeing them flutter gently in the soft breeze, the sounds of it washing over me without forming any intelligent words-thus the Tree was not interested in talking at the moment.
Something was there in the recesses of Daniels’ memories, something that he had been trying to hide from me, even as I was stripping the memories of his own children from his brain. Something that he had kept secret even from...Drake.
Oh shit. Daniel had been playng his own game with fate...something about his work for Drake was not on the complete up and up. I could almost see the walls of the defenses he had tried to build, had been building for all of the years he had worked with and for Drake.
I became lost in puzzling this all out. I began a sort of mental housekeeping that was not at all easy. Trapped in my already cluttered head were memories fragments from Ma Grendel and her various and sundry incarnations and, including even more fragments from her many hundreds of victims and events that spanned thousands of years. Mixed in with those were my own memories, although in the melding with Ma Grendel, some of those have become scrambled and less reliable than they once were. Now, I was trying to assimilate the entire set of adult memories of a very intelligent, introverted man who invested an enormous amount of time learning-the more I scanned through these things, the more impressed I became with his drive to learn everything he could about the human body and how it functioned.
Trying to separate and sort these...engrams-to borrow a term I had found in Daniels’ memory, was proving to be quite a challenge. But it was a challenge that was becoming increasingly necessary if I was ever to have a chance of maintaining my own sense of Self. And now, there was an even more important incentive...to find out what secret (or secrets) was so powerful, so dangerous, that Daniel was willing to risk Drake’s wrath to keep it. Drake was not someone who tolerated such duplicity.
As I searched for clues as to what that secret might be, I kept running up against a rather recent engram of an e-mail message that Daniel had received from Drake the night before he had contacted me:
“Daniel,
I am glad to hear that you are well. I have been looking forward to our upcoming meeting VERY much. We have a great deal to discuss, you and I. My people will be there for you the day after next. I have a very generous offer for you--return those things that you have taken from me, and the Jackson woman is yours to do with as you please, although the baby is non-negotiable-she is mine. I’ll even let you keep the money that you have stolen from me over years. Yes, I know about the money, but I am willing to overlook even that much money-the items you have taken from are far more valuable to me than mere money. Return them to me, and you shall have your respite from my agents!
-Drake”
Everry time that engram came up, it played as fresh and clear as a movie in my head, but it ended in the hard, steely gray wall of the defeneses that the man had set up inside himself.
What the Hell could this scared little man have taken from Drake and then hid so well that Drake wouldn’t be able to find it himself? What the Hell would Drake value more than money? And speaking of money, how much dough had this man stolen from Drake and where was it?
I immediately set to work trying to puzzle those answers out of the tangled mess of mixed engrams in my head...
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Of Dollars and Sense...
Fashionable outift for an active woman: $250
Haircut, shampoo, perm with manicure and massage at a normal person's rate: $500
Having the good sense NOT to follow a pissed off Zombie into a hurricane of Biblical proportions just to prove a point: Priceless...
:::Ducking and running:::
Haircut, shampoo, perm with manicure and massage at a normal person's rate: $500
Having the good sense NOT to follow a pissed off Zombie into a hurricane of Biblical proportions just to prove a point: Priceless...
:::Ducking and running:::
Conclave...Interlude-Part 3
“I can assure you, that your...our...daughter, will have a chance to grow up, to be herself, whoever that may be. If she is as uniquely gifted as has been hinted at by T’Tubah with her proclamations and her strange stanzas, then she will have an opportunity to grow into those gifts.”
“Are you going to be there for her, are you going to raise her?”
I looked down at that question for a moment. I looked back up at her before answering. “To be honest, I don’t think I will be that father figure in her life. She will know that I am her father, and I will make sure that she knows who you are and what happened to you when she is ready for that, but I can’t tell you I will be there for her every day and every night like a real father should be. But the people who I am working with, they are good people. We will be having a meeting soon to figure who how Alexa will be raised and by whom.”
“You’re going to have a MEETING to figure out how to raise my baby?”
I drew back from the force of her question. “It’s not as impersonal as it sounds. I think I have a good idea who will be the primary caregivers already, but Alexa’s in very grave danger. The man who hired Dr. Bernstein and devised the experiment that brought us together wants to get her very badly. He will do unspeakable things to get his way, we need to devise a plan that will allow Alexa the space to actually be herself. I don’t even want to think about what would happen to her if Drake got ahold of her.”
She calmed down considerably with that. “I see. Well, I have learned quite a lot about you by listening to this Tree of yours. I’m pretty sure I can trust you to do right by my baby girl.”
She broke down in tears, drawing her arms around her own shoulders and hunching over, her shoulders heaved with the sobs that had been held in for too long.
I got up and moved over to her, not sure what to say. I sat next to her and wrapped my arms around her small shoulders, drawing her gently into a soothing hug. Her head nestled into my neck. It was the first time I had felt human contact, real human contact since I had died. My tears mixed with hers.
After a while, we each regain our composure. She disentangled herself and slowly stood up, turning to face me as she did so.
I couldn’t believe how small she was, barely five feet tall. She was small boned, but solid with muscle from her dancing days.
She looked me in the eyes, bent over slightly and kissed me on the forehead. As she drew back, she said, “Rusty, I can’t stay much longer right now, but know that I am going to be watching over you and little Alexa. You do right be her, you hear me? You need to be there when she needs you, or you’re going to hear from me right quick. If I can, I will come back to see you once in a while. But do me one favor, will you?”
“What’s that?”
“When she’s ready, I want to you to teach her to come see me here in this place of yours, where she can be safe so i can hug her and see how she’s doing. Will you do that for me, for us?”
I placed my right hand over my heart. “I promise. As soon as she’s ready, I will bring her here to meet her mama.”
The look in her eyes, as she teared up again was all of the thank you I would ever need. She stepped back and looked up into the leaves of the Tree before fading away, moving forward in her Journey...
“Are you going to be there for her, are you going to raise her?”
I looked down at that question for a moment. I looked back up at her before answering. “To be honest, I don’t think I will be that father figure in her life. She will know that I am her father, and I will make sure that she knows who you are and what happened to you when she is ready for that, but I can’t tell you I will be there for her every day and every night like a real father should be. But the people who I am working with, they are good people. We will be having a meeting soon to figure who how Alexa will be raised and by whom.”
“You’re going to have a MEETING to figure out how to raise my baby?”
I drew back from the force of her question. “It’s not as impersonal as it sounds. I think I have a good idea who will be the primary caregivers already, but Alexa’s in very grave danger. The man who hired Dr. Bernstein and devised the experiment that brought us together wants to get her very badly. He will do unspeakable things to get his way, we need to devise a plan that will allow Alexa the space to actually be herself. I don’t even want to think about what would happen to her if Drake got ahold of her.”
She calmed down considerably with that. “I see. Well, I have learned quite a lot about you by listening to this Tree of yours. I’m pretty sure I can trust you to do right by my baby girl.”
She broke down in tears, drawing her arms around her own shoulders and hunching over, her shoulders heaved with the sobs that had been held in for too long.
I got up and moved over to her, not sure what to say. I sat next to her and wrapped my arms around her small shoulders, drawing her gently into a soothing hug. Her head nestled into my neck. It was the first time I had felt human contact, real human contact since I had died. My tears mixed with hers.
After a while, we each regain our composure. She disentangled herself and slowly stood up, turning to face me as she did so.
I couldn’t believe how small she was, barely five feet tall. She was small boned, but solid with muscle from her dancing days.
She looked me in the eyes, bent over slightly and kissed me on the forehead. As she drew back, she said, “Rusty, I can’t stay much longer right now, but know that I am going to be watching over you and little Alexa. You do right be her, you hear me? You need to be there when she needs you, or you’re going to hear from me right quick. If I can, I will come back to see you once in a while. But do me one favor, will you?”
“What’s that?”
“When she’s ready, I want to you to teach her to come see me here in this place of yours, where she can be safe so i can hug her and see how she’s doing. Will you do that for me, for us?”
I placed my right hand over my heart. “I promise. As soon as she’s ready, I will bring her here to meet her mama.”
The look in her eyes, as she teared up again was all of the thank you I would ever need. She stepped back and looked up into the leaves of the Tree before fading away, moving forward in her Journey...
Monday, January 16, 2006
Conclave...Interlude-Part 2
“Yeah, I guess I am.” I wasn’t sure if I should extend my hand and formally introduce myself, the situation was rather awkward.
She was looking me up and down, her experienced eyes taking my measure in ways I could only guess at. “Well, it’s a good thing they didn’t show your picture, you wouldn’t have been my first choice.”
“Excuse me?” How could I respond to that? “Why not?”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, you’re not disgusting to look at, but I would have chosen someone taller, darker, and more handsome, if I been given the choice.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I let the silence stretch for a bit. I had some flashes of memory fragments from Daniel’s stolen memories, but I was still curious. “So, do you mind telling me why you worked with these guys in the first place?”
It was her turn to look uncomfortable now. She shifted in her seat a bit, cast a searching glance on the ground by her feet, and then looked up, pensive. “Well, that’s kind of a long story. At first, the money was an attraction. You see, I was dancing in Vegas...not at some trashy club mind you, but as part of a good show. The money was good for that, but I wanted to make more out my life than to dance, especially in that place. I wanted to go back to school, to become a doctor, like my mama wanted me to in the first place, but I needed to save up some money first, so that’s why I was dancing.
“I saw an ad in the paper that this couple, a Dr. Daniel Bernstein and his wife, Amelia, were looking for a surrogate mother. I really don’t know why I responded to the ad, exc ept maybe that I was looking for a way to get myself out of dancing, since you can’t do that while pregnant. When I met with them, they seemed like such a nice couple. Amelia told me that she was barren, that she had no eggs of her own to fertilize, but they really wanted to have a baby of their own. They were willing to pay me a monthly salary and pay for all of the expenses of my pregnancy just to have a baby for them. I had my doubts, even then, but I was really looking for a way to get out of the grind of performing and for a chance to do some studying. My mama had 8 children herself, so I knew I could do it.
“So, I agreed to have a baby for them, and signed a whole bunch of papers. They began paying my expenses for the first two trimesters in advance, once they verified that I was pregnant after the procedure. I should have seen that there was some funny business going on, but once I was pregnant, all I really cared about was making sure that the baby, Alexa, was healthy and safe.
“Sometime in March of 2005, I think, things changed. The third trimester was approaching, and I hadn’t received any new payments. I tried to contact Mrs. Bernstein, but the number they had given me was disconnected. I was getting concerned on one hand, but I was also thinking that I might have a chance to keep the baby that was growing inside me. I was forming a deep attachment with her.
“After a couple of weeks of trying every way I could think of, including sending letters that ended up getting returned, I came to the conclusion that I was on my own, so I returned to back home to stay with my mama in New Orleans. She helped me get settled and to look at going back to school. I also began planning to have Alexa and keep her, since the Bernsteins had disappeared. What i didn’t have any way of knowing, however, was how expensive it was going to be to have a baby, especially since Alexa came a little premature. That’s when I began trying to get a hold of Dr. Bernstein again, after she was born. There was no way I could give up my baby girl, and I didn’t want to face any legal problems later on. But when I did find him, not very long ago, he seemed very different, like he was hiding from someone.”
“Yes, well, there is certainly a whole lot more to THAT story,” I interjected. “I doubt you’d want to hear it all, but you should know some of it. First, Daniel Bernstein was never married to a woman called Amelia. That woman who claimed to be his wife was one of his researchers. You and I were part of a very strange genetic experiment, Bernstein and his bosses felt that certain of our genes matched up really well and could bring about a child who could be a step closer to some sort of superhuman race they were trying to create.”
She sat in silence as she digested this for a moment before responding. “So, it was a trick all along. I knew something was fishy going on, but I didn’t think it was this bad.” Outrage flashed across her face as she was speaking, but then she quickly composed herself again. “It’s too late for me to do anything about, but I do want to know this-what are you going to do with my...our child?”
She was looking me up and down, her experienced eyes taking my measure in ways I could only guess at. “Well, it’s a good thing they didn’t show your picture, you wouldn’t have been my first choice.”
“Excuse me?” How could I respond to that? “Why not?”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, you’re not disgusting to look at, but I would have chosen someone taller, darker, and more handsome, if I been given the choice.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I let the silence stretch for a bit. I had some flashes of memory fragments from Daniel’s stolen memories, but I was still curious. “So, do you mind telling me why you worked with these guys in the first place?”
It was her turn to look uncomfortable now. She shifted in her seat a bit, cast a searching glance on the ground by her feet, and then looked up, pensive. “Well, that’s kind of a long story. At first, the money was an attraction. You see, I was dancing in Vegas...not at some trashy club mind you, but as part of a good show. The money was good for that, but I wanted to make more out my life than to dance, especially in that place. I wanted to go back to school, to become a doctor, like my mama wanted me to in the first place, but I needed to save up some money first, so that’s why I was dancing.
“I saw an ad in the paper that this couple, a Dr. Daniel Bernstein and his wife, Amelia, were looking for a surrogate mother. I really don’t know why I responded to the ad, exc ept maybe that I was looking for a way to get myself out of dancing, since you can’t do that while pregnant. When I met with them, they seemed like such a nice couple. Amelia told me that she was barren, that she had no eggs of her own to fertilize, but they really wanted to have a baby of their own. They were willing to pay me a monthly salary and pay for all of the expenses of my pregnancy just to have a baby for them. I had my doubts, even then, but I was really looking for a way to get out of the grind of performing and for a chance to do some studying. My mama had 8 children herself, so I knew I could do it.
“So, I agreed to have a baby for them, and signed a whole bunch of papers. They began paying my expenses for the first two trimesters in advance, once they verified that I was pregnant after the procedure. I should have seen that there was some funny business going on, but once I was pregnant, all I really cared about was making sure that the baby, Alexa, was healthy and safe.
“Sometime in March of 2005, I think, things changed. The third trimester was approaching, and I hadn’t received any new payments. I tried to contact Mrs. Bernstein, but the number they had given me was disconnected. I was getting concerned on one hand, but I was also thinking that I might have a chance to keep the baby that was growing inside me. I was forming a deep attachment with her.
“After a couple of weeks of trying every way I could think of, including sending letters that ended up getting returned, I came to the conclusion that I was on my own, so I returned to back home to stay with my mama in New Orleans. She helped me get settled and to look at going back to school. I also began planning to have Alexa and keep her, since the Bernsteins had disappeared. What i didn’t have any way of knowing, however, was how expensive it was going to be to have a baby, especially since Alexa came a little premature. That’s when I began trying to get a hold of Dr. Bernstein again, after she was born. There was no way I could give up my baby girl, and I didn’t want to face any legal problems later on. But when I did find him, not very long ago, he seemed very different, like he was hiding from someone.”
“Yes, well, there is certainly a whole lot more to THAT story,” I interjected. “I doubt you’d want to hear it all, but you should know some of it. First, Daniel Bernstein was never married to a woman called Amelia. That woman who claimed to be his wife was one of his researchers. You and I were part of a very strange genetic experiment, Bernstein and his bosses felt that certain of our genes matched up really well and could bring about a child who could be a step closer to some sort of superhuman race they were trying to create.”
She sat in silence as she digested this for a moment before responding. “So, it was a trick all along. I knew something was fishy going on, but I didn’t think it was this bad.” Outrage flashed across her face as she was speaking, but then she quickly composed herself again. “It’s too late for me to do anything about, but I do want to know this-what are you going to do with my...our child?”
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Conclave...Interlude-Part 1
In the intervening two weeks between the rescue of Alexa and and the convening of the Conclave, Ravyn’s wardrobe grew in an almost direct proportion to the dwindling of my bank account. The true shock to the ol’ account however, was when the bill for her three day stay at a rather exclusive spa resort on the western shore of Lake Michigan was delivered by special courier. One look at that evil document sent me packing for the Spirit World and a visit to the one place that was truly mine, Yggsdrasil’s clearing.
Even though I have now learned how to reach that clearing using the Shadow, I preferred to journey there in Spirit form. You see, when I travelled there in Spirit only, I was able to truly enjoy the experience of smelling, touching and tasting that I no longer can in my physical body. I was also able to project myself as my younger self, with a healthy, vibrant body.
I arrived at the clearing, immediately comforted by the sight and gently swaying sounds of the giant, black tree. A mild breeze pushed through the black and white leaves, creating soothing sighs that often led to the Tree speaking to me, when it chose to.
As I was making my way through a tangle of the roots however, I saw a small, slender figure sitting with its back to me. A female form, perhaps a teenager, judging by the size of her body. At first I thought it might be Herlinda, since she and Diego were often here, but the girl’s hair was darker and curlier than Herlina’s and her skin was darker.
I carefully circled around so that she would have some warning that I was coming, and we could both get a better look at each other before we spoke. I wasn’t exactly looking for company at the moment, but encounters with other people in this place in particular, usually proved to be very important.
As her face came into my view, I noticed that her eyes were closer, she was also swaying slowly in time with the Tree, like she was the one listening to it speak. I was beginning to get a little jealous!
The closer I got to her, the more familiar her face seemed. Finally, it dawned on me... “Naomi?”
Her eyes opened. She looked directly at me; I was transfixed by the intensity of her gaze. “It took you long enough to get here. I thought you’d never come. Luckily for you, this Tree thinks highly of you.”
“How did you find this place?”
She smiled. “When I saw you chasing after the brute that took my baby Alexa, a voice whispered in my ear, ‘Come to me, I will help you.’ So I followed where the voice told me to go, flowing up and out of my body. I saw you catch Alexa and disappear. It almost broke my heart when it looked like she was going to die, too! But after you were gone, the voice kept speaking to me in its whisper, ‘Come with me and I will show you where Alexa is.’ So I kept going. Before long, I passed above the storm and found myself in this...place. The Tree of yours was calling me. He said you would come.”
I sat down across from her, finding a comfortable spot in a large tangle of roots. “That’s amazing, I didn’t know it had the ability to do that.”
The sighing sounds of the Tree resolved themselves into discernible words for the first time at that, at least for me. “As you grow in strength, I, too, grow deeper roots.”
She shifted in her seat, looked briefly back up into the leaves as the Tree spoke, apparently to both of us, then looked back at me. “So you are my baby’s daddy.”
Even though I have now learned how to reach that clearing using the Shadow, I preferred to journey there in Spirit form. You see, when I travelled there in Spirit only, I was able to truly enjoy the experience of smelling, touching and tasting that I no longer can in my physical body. I was also able to project myself as my younger self, with a healthy, vibrant body.
I arrived at the clearing, immediately comforted by the sight and gently swaying sounds of the giant, black tree. A mild breeze pushed through the black and white leaves, creating soothing sighs that often led to the Tree speaking to me, when it chose to.
As I was making my way through a tangle of the roots however, I saw a small, slender figure sitting with its back to me. A female form, perhaps a teenager, judging by the size of her body. At first I thought it might be Herlinda, since she and Diego were often here, but the girl’s hair was darker and curlier than Herlina’s and her skin was darker.
I carefully circled around so that she would have some warning that I was coming, and we could both get a better look at each other before we spoke. I wasn’t exactly looking for company at the moment, but encounters with other people in this place in particular, usually proved to be very important.
As her face came into my view, I noticed that her eyes were closer, she was also swaying slowly in time with the Tree, like she was the one listening to it speak. I was beginning to get a little jealous!
The closer I got to her, the more familiar her face seemed. Finally, it dawned on me... “Naomi?”
Her eyes opened. She looked directly at me; I was transfixed by the intensity of her gaze. “It took you long enough to get here. I thought you’d never come. Luckily for you, this Tree thinks highly of you.”
“How did you find this place?”
She smiled. “When I saw you chasing after the brute that took my baby Alexa, a voice whispered in my ear, ‘Come to me, I will help you.’ So I followed where the voice told me to go, flowing up and out of my body. I saw you catch Alexa and disappear. It almost broke my heart when it looked like she was going to die, too! But after you were gone, the voice kept speaking to me in its whisper, ‘Come with me and I will show you where Alexa is.’ So I kept going. Before long, I passed above the storm and found myself in this...place. The Tree of yours was calling me. He said you would come.”
I sat down across from her, finding a comfortable spot in a large tangle of roots. “That’s amazing, I didn’t know it had the ability to do that.”
The sighing sounds of the Tree resolved themselves into discernible words for the first time at that, at least for me. “As you grow in strength, I, too, grow deeper roots.”
She shifted in her seat, looked briefly back up into the leaves as the Tree spoke, apparently to both of us, then looked back at me. “So you are my baby’s daddy.”
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Conclave...Part 2
The explosion of voices, hugs, smiles and questions erupted as we arrived in the room. With so many people talking all at once, so many questions and expressions of concern (mostly at Ravyn and severely frazzled appearance), and with everyone rushing to get their words in, it was a little surprising that Jim followed us down shortly, indicating for everyone to quiet their voices a bit, since the baby was now soundly asleep.
Luckily for me, Ravyn was more than willing to do most of the talking, answering question after question about what had happened in New Orleans and how we found the baby. Her answers we much more patient and much clearer than mine would have been, and certainly contained less objectionable language than I would have used.
Even knowing all of the people in the room as well I had come to know them over the last 6 months or so (except for my children and ex-wife, of course), it made me feel uncomfortable to be the center of so much attention.
After Jim had quieted things down a bit, Ravyn was able to get an even better handle on the many questions that everyone was throwing at her. She soon had everyone’s rapt attention, even mine, as she told the story from her perspective. I was appreciative that she most of the torturing incident out, as she described it:
“Rusty here showed up at my doorstep with that bumbling fool of a doctor that we had last left near Vancouver. Something had affected the poor man’s memory, but it wasn’t him I was concerned with as I saw how Rusty looked when he dropped him off with hardly a word of explanation. Of course, you all know, I just can’t allow this dunce of a zombie of ours to go off on some half-cocked adventure without someone to look after him. So, I got myself put together and followed him...”
After a good twenty minutes of telling the story, interrupted only by taking small sips from a tall glass of iced tea made by the Frau, Ravyn had told the tale of our adventure and had answered most of the questions that the listeners had.
When Ravyn finished, Jim summed things up nicely, “OK, so now we have to come up with a plan to raise this child in as safe an environment as we can manage. We also need to figure out what exactly Drake was trying to do with this genetic experiment of his and whether he has any more these little ‘projects’ in operation and if we need to intervene in those as well. Finally, we need to find out where Drake is and whether we need to move to neutralize him once and for all.”
Katherine was looking almost as uncomfortable as I felt, but she spoke up as soon as Jim was through. “Well,...uh...I suppose I could raise the baby...uh I mean, Alexa. She could become part of the family.”
Cerrydwen emerged from the dark corner in which she had slipped into after the initial excitement and put an end to that possibility. “No. Drake knows where you are, and it will be too hard and too dangerous for you to try to disappear. He has too many sources inside the government and too many allies that we don’t know about. Alexa is going to have to disappear for awhile. Whoever takes her for now will have to be a strong enough Caster to either escape with her from Drake or his allies if they are found or to fend them off until we can send help.”
I had to interject. “Wait a minute, Alexa is my daughter. I think I should be the one making the decisions about who cares for her.”
Ravyn stepped in at this. “Yes dear, she is your daughter, and I’m sure you want her to survive her childhood. Kathy, I’m sorry, but I agree with Cerry. You’re not strong enough as a Caster yet to fend off anyone that Drake will be sending for the child on your own, and we can’t raise her at my place, I’m way to visible and well known to Drake to risk it.”
Jim cleared his throat, and took this chance to add his own thoughts. “I agree with both Cerry and Ravyn. Indeed, I think it is best if we don’t finalize anything at this point. Katherine, Jasmine, Kenny? I don’t thnk you three should be here when the final decision is made on where Alexa will be and who she will be staying with, in the event that Drake or one of his people finds you and tries to coerce the information from you in one way or another. Therefore, I would propose that adjourn on this matter for the moment, finish catching up with events to date, and then set a time and date for a true Conclave of ORC’s we are certain we can trust with this matter. I would really like to bring T’Tubah up from Atlanta and some others in as well. In the meantime, we can let poor Ravyn here get cleaned up and I can do some additional research. Until the Conclave, I would like to ask Cerrydwen and the Frau to stay with me to help care for Alexa. Rusty, I would like you to look into how Drake still has access to that tracking software you used on Naomi’s cell phone. Any questions?”
None were raised.
The meeting quickly devolved into a more informal session of old time friends and family catching up.
I was able to get some time with Jasmine and Kenny to see how they were doing, and even spent a few tension filled moments with Katherine, who seemed to be fairly happy studying under Ravyn with Jasmine.
Eventually, Alexa’s cries broke up the session with the Frau toddling up the stairs behind Jim to go tend to her needs. We did set the date for the Conclave for a week from that night, with the location to be given out closer to that time by Jim.
Luckily for me, Ravyn was more than willing to do most of the talking, answering question after question about what had happened in New Orleans and how we found the baby. Her answers we much more patient and much clearer than mine would have been, and certainly contained less objectionable language than I would have used.
Even knowing all of the people in the room as well I had come to know them over the last 6 months or so (except for my children and ex-wife, of course), it made me feel uncomfortable to be the center of so much attention.
After Jim had quieted things down a bit, Ravyn was able to get an even better handle on the many questions that everyone was throwing at her. She soon had everyone’s rapt attention, even mine, as she told the story from her perspective. I was appreciative that she most of the torturing incident out, as she described it:
“Rusty here showed up at my doorstep with that bumbling fool of a doctor that we had last left near Vancouver. Something had affected the poor man’s memory, but it wasn’t him I was concerned with as I saw how Rusty looked when he dropped him off with hardly a word of explanation. Of course, you all know, I just can’t allow this dunce of a zombie of ours to go off on some half-cocked adventure without someone to look after him. So, I got myself put together and followed him...”
After a good twenty minutes of telling the story, interrupted only by taking small sips from a tall glass of iced tea made by the Frau, Ravyn had told the tale of our adventure and had answered most of the questions that the listeners had.
When Ravyn finished, Jim summed things up nicely, “OK, so now we have to come up with a plan to raise this child in as safe an environment as we can manage. We also need to figure out what exactly Drake was trying to do with this genetic experiment of his and whether he has any more these little ‘projects’ in operation and if we need to intervene in those as well. Finally, we need to find out where Drake is and whether we need to move to neutralize him once and for all.”
Katherine was looking almost as uncomfortable as I felt, but she spoke up as soon as Jim was through. “Well,...uh...I suppose I could raise the baby...uh I mean, Alexa. She could become part of the family.”
Cerrydwen emerged from the dark corner in which she had slipped into after the initial excitement and put an end to that possibility. “No. Drake knows where you are, and it will be too hard and too dangerous for you to try to disappear. He has too many sources inside the government and too many allies that we don’t know about. Alexa is going to have to disappear for awhile. Whoever takes her for now will have to be a strong enough Caster to either escape with her from Drake or his allies if they are found or to fend them off until we can send help.”
I had to interject. “Wait a minute, Alexa is my daughter. I think I should be the one making the decisions about who cares for her.”
Ravyn stepped in at this. “Yes dear, she is your daughter, and I’m sure you want her to survive her childhood. Kathy, I’m sorry, but I agree with Cerry. You’re not strong enough as a Caster yet to fend off anyone that Drake will be sending for the child on your own, and we can’t raise her at my place, I’m way to visible and well known to Drake to risk it.”
Jim cleared his throat, and took this chance to add his own thoughts. “I agree with both Cerry and Ravyn. Indeed, I think it is best if we don’t finalize anything at this point. Katherine, Jasmine, Kenny? I don’t thnk you three should be here when the final decision is made on where Alexa will be and who she will be staying with, in the event that Drake or one of his people finds you and tries to coerce the information from you in one way or another. Therefore, I would propose that adjourn on this matter for the moment, finish catching up with events to date, and then set a time and date for a true Conclave of ORC’s we are certain we can trust with this matter. I would really like to bring T’Tubah up from Atlanta and some others in as well. In the meantime, we can let poor Ravyn here get cleaned up and I can do some additional research. Until the Conclave, I would like to ask Cerrydwen and the Frau to stay with me to help care for Alexa. Rusty, I would like you to look into how Drake still has access to that tracking software you used on Naomi’s cell phone. Any questions?”
None were raised.
The meeting quickly devolved into a more informal session of old time friends and family catching up.
I was able to get some time with Jasmine and Kenny to see how they were doing, and even spent a few tension filled moments with Katherine, who seemed to be fairly happy studying under Ravyn with Jasmine.
Eventually, Alexa’s cries broke up the session with the Frau toddling up the stairs behind Jim to go tend to her needs. We did set the date for the Conclave for a week from that night, with the location to be given out closer to that time by Jim.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Conclave...Part 1
Ravyn and I emerged from the Shadow into the Professor’s study in a slightly less hurried fashion than my last arrival. I was not at all surpised to see that Jim had found the time to reorder the bookshelves I had so unceremoniously disordered when I had brought Alexa to him.
I was surprised, however to see Jim sitting in his favorite chair in that room, holding Alexa cradled in one arm while supporting a bottle with his other hand. It was an eery scene, knowing that Jim had never been married or had children. Even more surpising, the baby was swaddled in a clean, dry blanket and seemed to be wearing a different outfit than she had on when I had dropped her off, not more than an hour before.
Ravyn must have been as surprised as I was at this turn of events, she was standing next to me, mouth agape, for once in all of the time I had known her, caught speechless for a moment.
Jim looked up from Alexa’s face a moment after our arrival, a smugly satisfied grin spreading across his face. “What, has Katrina got your tongues?”
I was actually the first one to respond, “How did you get all of this done in the time since I left her with you?”
Ravyn quickly piped in her own question, “Where did you learn to take care of a baby?”
“Hmmph, not all of my reading is in dusty old literature or musty textbooks.”
“But where did you get the clean clothes, the bottle and the formula?” I asked.
He smirked at that question, “Let’s just say that I have many untapped resources at my disposal. Now, do you mind? I just got her settled down here, she should be a asleep soon. You guys can go downstairs and get yourselves cleaned up. I’ll be along as soon as I can put her to bed.”
Ravyn c ouldn’t contain herself at this, “You have a bed for her? You better not be thinking of putting her down in an adult bed!”
Jim nodded at the hall behind us, “You can see for yourselves, I have a small travel crib set up in the guest room right behind you. You can inspect it to see if it meets with your lofty standards, m’Lady.”
We looked at each other in amazement, shook our heads and tromped out of the room. As we passed by the open door, we each took a moment to marvel at the shiny new portable crib that appeared to be assembled perfectly, complete with frilly pink and white bedding. We shuffled down the stairs and into Jim’s bookshelf lined living room. We were greeted by even more surprises as we entered the dining room...we were engulfed by our gathered friends and family...Cerrydwen, the Frau, Herne and Moira, Katherine (my ex-wife), Jasmine (my daughter), and Kenny (my son)...
(Narrative to be continued with the next post--due Sunday)
Author’s Note:
I would like to take a moment here to reflect on the fact that this post marks the one year anniversary of this blog.
This whole project began as a rough attempt at writing a journal from the standpoint of an undead agent who was more than a little upset at discovering that magick was real and that he was trapped by the very choices he had made, and the associations he had kept.
I had no idea that Rusty would grow into the character he has become and no idea that the stories he would get caught up in would be as interesting or as unpredictable as they have turned out to be.
As a writer, I have tried to come up with ideas in advance of where the story would go, or how the characters would develop. In almost every instance though, the storylines and the characters that drive them have taken me in very unexpected directions.
This past year has really whipped by me as I have tried to keep up with the events in Rusty’s never dull (un)life.
My initial goal for this project was to make it this far, to blog for a year and see if I could maintain not only my own interest, but the interest of other readers as well, and hopefully come up with enough material to fill a decent sized novel. 153,000 words later (not counting comments from readers or myself), I have the genesis for at least three books so far... and I know that I have only began to touch on the potential of this character and the world he inhabits.
I am reasonably sure at this point that the first book, Omega Rising, will be finished by the end of August and available before the year is out through an online publisher I have worked with before that will allow me to keep the story exactly as I envision it to be...all while I continue to post Rusty’s ongoing adventures here in this space on approximately the same schedule as I have kept over the past year--8-12 posts a month.
Thanks again for all the support!
-Doug
I was surprised, however to see Jim sitting in his favorite chair in that room, holding Alexa cradled in one arm while supporting a bottle with his other hand. It was an eery scene, knowing that Jim had never been married or had children. Even more surpising, the baby was swaddled in a clean, dry blanket and seemed to be wearing a different outfit than she had on when I had dropped her off, not more than an hour before.
Ravyn must have been as surprised as I was at this turn of events, she was standing next to me, mouth agape, for once in all of the time I had known her, caught speechless for a moment.
Jim looked up from Alexa’s face a moment after our arrival, a smugly satisfied grin spreading across his face. “What, has Katrina got your tongues?”
I was actually the first one to respond, “How did you get all of this done in the time since I left her with you?”
Ravyn quickly piped in her own question, “Where did you learn to take care of a baby?”
“Hmmph, not all of my reading is in dusty old literature or musty textbooks.”
“But where did you get the clean clothes, the bottle and the formula?” I asked.
He smirked at that question, “Let’s just say that I have many untapped resources at my disposal. Now, do you mind? I just got her settled down here, she should be a asleep soon. You guys can go downstairs and get yourselves cleaned up. I’ll be along as soon as I can put her to bed.”
Ravyn c ouldn’t contain herself at this, “You have a bed for her? You better not be thinking of putting her down in an adult bed!”
Jim nodded at the hall behind us, “You can see for yourselves, I have a small travel crib set up in the guest room right behind you. You can inspect it to see if it meets with your lofty standards, m’Lady.”
We looked at each other in amazement, shook our heads and tromped out of the room. As we passed by the open door, we each took a moment to marvel at the shiny new portable crib that appeared to be assembled perfectly, complete with frilly pink and white bedding. We shuffled down the stairs and into Jim’s bookshelf lined living room. We were greeted by even more surprises as we entered the dining room...we were engulfed by our gathered friends and family...Cerrydwen, the Frau, Herne and Moira, Katherine (my ex-wife), Jasmine (my daughter), and Kenny (my son)...
(Narrative to be continued with the next post--due Sunday)
Author’s Note:
I would like to take a moment here to reflect on the fact that this post marks the one year anniversary of this blog.
This whole project began as a rough attempt at writing a journal from the standpoint of an undead agent who was more than a little upset at discovering that magick was real and that he was trapped by the very choices he had made, and the associations he had kept.
I had no idea that Rusty would grow into the character he has become and no idea that the stories he would get caught up in would be as interesting or as unpredictable as they have turned out to be.
As a writer, I have tried to come up with ideas in advance of where the story would go, or how the characters would develop. In almost every instance though, the storylines and the characters that drive them have taken me in very unexpected directions.
This past year has really whipped by me as I have tried to keep up with the events in Rusty’s never dull (un)life.
My initial goal for this project was to make it this far, to blog for a year and see if I could maintain not only my own interest, but the interest of other readers as well, and hopefully come up with enough material to fill a decent sized novel. 153,000 words later (not counting comments from readers or myself), I have the genesis for at least three books so far... and I know that I have only began to touch on the potential of this character and the world he inhabits.
I am reasonably sure at this point that the first book, Omega Rising, will be finished by the end of August and available before the year is out through an online publisher I have worked with before that will allow me to keep the story exactly as I envision it to be...all while I continue to post Rusty’s ongoing adventures here in this space on approximately the same schedule as I have kept over the past year--8-12 posts a month.
Thanks again for all the support!
-Doug
Monday, January 02, 2006
Fits and Starts--Author's Note for the New Year
Happy New Year to everyone!
Sorry about the slowdown around the holiday season, it's been a very busy time, with no real vacation time taken, and none coming anytime soon.
Following through on a resolution, I am also spending some time working on the first book that I hope to finish by summer.
So all of this means that the posts will come in fits and starts, as opportunities allow and as storylines push their way through my consciousness.
The new chapter in Rusty's (un)life, as a somewhat reluctant, but proud (Un)Dead daddy will begin on Friday, January 6...a fitting date as it is the one year anniversary of the start of the blog.
Thanks for all of your support and comments over the past year. You have all helped me through some tough times and help keep the story moving at critical times.
A special thanks goes forth to my most loyal readers:
Fire for her...well fire and for being the inspiration for one of the best supporting characters ever!
Jahn for being the perfect model for the Professor and his insightful commentary away from the blog.
Mom for being the Frau...
Pat--for being a great editor (you can tell the posts she edits first, they have lots fewer errors, and for being a great wife and mother!
Thanks again for reading, I know I've said it before, but your support is truly appreciated!
Doug
Sorry about the slowdown around the holiday season, it's been a very busy time, with no real vacation time taken, and none coming anytime soon.
Following through on a resolution, I am also spending some time working on the first book that I hope to finish by summer.
So all of this means that the posts will come in fits and starts, as opportunities allow and as storylines push their way through my consciousness.
The new chapter in Rusty's (un)life, as a somewhat reluctant, but proud (Un)Dead daddy will begin on Friday, January 6...a fitting date as it is the one year anniversary of the start of the blog.
Thanks for all of your support and comments over the past year. You have all helped me through some tough times and help keep the story moving at critical times.
A special thanks goes forth to my most loyal readers:
Fire for her...well fire and for being the inspiration for one of the best supporting characters ever!
Jahn for being the perfect model for the Professor and his insightful commentary away from the blog.
Mom for being the Frau...
Pat--for being a great editor (you can tell the posts she edits first, they have lots fewer errors, and for being a great wife and mother!
Thanks again for reading, I know I've said it before, but your support is truly appreciated!
Doug
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