20. Tings Nov 20

(12:13 pm Nov 20, 2005)

Home.

Home. House. Where the heart is. Castle. Dwelling. Country. Institution. Game. Household. Family. Plate. Base. Target. Office. Pigeon. To the heart. All the way.

What a pain. I got home just a little too late last night and now my nano page shows no word count for yesterday and has credited yesterday's words to today.

I should have left Bruno just a little sooner. How was I to know? At least my posting at TBWF is under my control.

I am sitting here listening to The NaNoWriMo Song and The Low Voltage Blues as I write this.

So, Bruno showed up at The Buzz last night, a little late, but he did show up. I had my doubts for a time. As they say, better late than never. That one I understood from a tender age.

As I said in yesterday's work. I think we worked something out between us. It may be that the live music and our mutual appreciation of it helped smooth the waters.

We were sitting out on the upstairs veranda of the old building, the band in sight, the music making its way out the open doors to escape into the night.

The moon was high above, hanging out of the clouds like a glowing fruit hanging low from a tree. That was truly a wonderful sight.

The breeze was cool. The cars were passing below on Bay Street, heading east. Across the street were the boats on dry dock and others tied securely in their slips. Across the harbour, the lights of Paradise Island. A lovely night, a lovely spot, good music. Live music. A nice crowd.

I can only hope that I hear from Bruno soon. I can't get anxious though, I cannot fret it until tomorrow is done. In the meantime, I will write as best I can in the time I have. There are friends coming over for lunch now, so I will have to end soon and pick up later.

(12:29 pm Nov 20, 2005)

These two songs are fun. Mind you, in their current states, they are a serious mess but lots of fun none the less. We may have something in them.

Home. Should I try calling Bruno and see if he and Melody would like to come over for the gathering this afternoon? I will think about it for a bit and update you later.

Oh, before I forget, a little about the LUG last night. Oops, panicked request to help prepare for the arrival of our guests. Gone for now.

(12:33 pm Nov 20, 2005)

(6:06 pm Nov 20, 2005)

Drake! Nano! Get out here. Now! I am really disappointed in you guys. Here I send you off to cause trouble with some of my characters and I am at my party and come to find out you are trying to cause me trouble. Come on out. I know you're in there.

Boys, enough of this time wasting and attempts at sabotage, I need to get this book in shape. I appreciate that is already qualifies me as a nano winner again this year, and I am elated, the thing is, I would like to do a little pulling together of the plot and see if we can get things a bit more ship shape around here.

What I don't need is to still be trying to write the novel without characters or, perhaps worse, to have my characters actively working against me in my efforts.

You have anything to say for yourselves? I thought not. (The author disappeared at some point in history. How this will affect the rest of this novel remains to be seen.)

Jump.

Jump. Cliff. Up. Wave. Kananga. Horse. Mug. She jump. (Anyone seen Baldy?)

Jump. Bridge. Plane. Bestseller. Help Tings to jump up the bestseller list. You can do it!

Jump. Car. Dead battery. Queue. Line. Cut. Conclusion. Music. Dance. Maths. Graphs. Drop.

He try get da jump on me, but dat een work.

(6:20 pm Nov 20, 2005)

Baldy, Potcake, Nipps, and Doc are sitting around a fire on the beach roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and generally having a good time. They have been telling various ghost stories and the like and Doc is just starting in on a harrowing tale of a narrow escape yesterday at the hands of Flaps.

(6:32 pm Nov 20, 2005)

(6:41 pm Nov 20, 2005)

That temporal vacuum cleaner again.

Seems Doc and a squadron of other skeeters were on patrol. To hear him tell it, they were out for blood. Their territory had been fogged the day before by forces unknown and they were out to see what they could see and they were in a mean mood.

All of a sudden there was this odd sound in the air and a large, fast moving enemy had swooped through the squadron and severly diminished its fighting strength.

The enemy had come down from above. Fast. He had cut a swath of destruction and been heading back up before the boys knew what hit them. Doc immediately took charge and issued orders for splitting up into groups of three and taking all possible evasive actions and for the return to cover as soon as possible.

It was touch and go from then on. The enemy was here in squadron strength as well. Before one had made it back on high, another was folding his wings and dropping fast. It reminded Doc of something he had read about Stukas. It was terrifying. But life goes on, some made it back and some perished. Tonight, Doc was here on the beach telling of his squadrons exploits and enjoying a little R and R on the beach with some friends.

(6:56 pm Nov 20, 2005)

Nipps decided he wanted to tell a ghost story next and told one that ended with some teeth sitting on the back seat of a taxi. You know the one.

Then Potcake got in on the act.

I remember this one that I heard as a tadpole. There were these three boys who were out exploring and roaming one day. They were passing by a family house and decided to stop in.

(7:05 pm Nov 20, 2005)

Kink.

Kink. Bend. Twist. Crease. Curl. Bump. Crick. Unusual. Eccentric. Crimp. Curve.

(7:08 pm Nov 20, 2005)

(7:15 pm Nov 20, 2005)

It seems like the fabric of time is kinked around here. And everyone is celebrating, dancing in the streets.

So, the boys stopped in at this family house. No one was home. This did not set them back as they knew where a key was kept in case of emergencies.

One went around to the side of the house and came back with an old fashioned key. He then hopped up and into a covered walkway which ran between the main house and the garage. The key fit this particular door into the house.

(7:19 pm Nov 20, 2005)

They went in and re-locked the door. This was a big old house that their grandparents had just moved into. There were tile floors, echos, and lots of nooks and crannies.

They went to the kitchen and cooked some bologna and bacon in the microwave oven and then put on some records in the living room while they ate. After eating, they went upstairs to an unused bedroom in the west and had a blast jumping on the bed and fighting pirate battles. There was even a little climbing onto high armoires and jumping down to the bed below.

They thought they heard noises from time to time, but ignored them as run of the mill sounds.

After growing tired of these games and working up a bit of a hunger, they went down to the kitchen once again and made some more to eat. Just as they were finishing up eating, the sun outside went behind some clouds and the house got darker. And more ominous.

They were still taking everything in stride however. There was this one upstairs room in the house that was not a part of the rest of the upstairs of the house. You took a different stairway up to this room which was alone. It was on one side of a two story room, and the rest of the upstairs was on the other side of the room.

Their grandparents had a lot of their past life still stored in this upper room. Much of it still in boxes, still waiting to be unpacked since the too hasty move from the old house. Much of it very interesting to a young boy's mind.

The three went up to this room now. It was getting darker still and the wind was picking up some. To the east of the house. To the east of this room in fact, was a yard with twin rows of tall coconut trees. Their fronds were dancing in the rising wind.

(7:39 pm Nov 20, 2005)

They began looking through boxes and showing each other the treasures they unearthed. Jokes, funny desk signs, a rude man in a barrel. A loud crash startled them as a coconut fell to the ground outside. Shaken loose by the wind. The house was on the water and the whitecaps were building.

Level.

Level. High. Criticism. Building. Flat. Water. Bubble. A gun. Plumb line ninety. I need to level with you. Are we communicating on all levels?

(7:46 pm Nov 20, 2005)

Although startled, the boys soon got back to their explorations.

The sky got darker still and there was a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder. The skies opened and the rain fell.

It was soon after the rain started that the boys heard it. Footsteps. Footsteps on the outside stairs that led up to this room. One went to the window to see who was there. There was no one there on the stairs but the footsteps.

The one by the window froze and shakily motioned for the others to come and look.

Three scared faces pressed against the cold, rain streaked glass. Staring out as the lightning lit the sky. Fogging the glass with their hot, quick breaths. Hearts pounding. Legs frozen in place. The sound of footsteps ascending the stairway which was empty.

Finally, their legs came free and they were off like a shot. Down the stairs, out the door. Steps pounding behind them as they ran. Out the door, forgetting to lock it. Bypassing the locked gate, over the high wall in a bound as they felt something hot on their trail.

Running pell-mell down the road and turning for home. Not stopping until reaching the top of a hill. Looking back at the house. Is that something white in the room where they just were?

(8:00 pm Nov 20, 2005)

Potcake, is that story on the level?

Well, some of my folks were outside hiding in a barrel of water that day and that's the way they told it to use when we were young. I can tell you, we were always scared to go around that house without the grownups after we heard that one.

Baldy started to tell the one about what he had seen on that horror show that was cast in the form of a documentary but everyone was getting freaked out and he had to stop.

(8:08 pm Nov 20, 2005)

There was an odd gust of wind which blew out their fire and left them sitting in the cold moonlight. A light rain fell. A dog howled. Potcake jumped. Baldy teased Potcake about being afraid of a little potcake.

"That didn't sound like any potcake to me. I think there is a little bit of the Baskervilles sound to that howl right there. You know, I have heard that there are some of those dogs over on P.I. somewhere. You think some have escaped and made it over to this side?"

A hoot owl called to Baldy but he was having none of it. He took his leave of his friends and headed off home without delay and leaving Ruth behind as well.

The others were loath to break up their party just yet and Doc went to work to get the fire re-lit.

(8:23 pm Nov 20, 2005)