The City of Bells

It’s one of the first things that visitors to the city always comment on, the bells. Our city, just like any other city, has a lot of churches and it seems like every single church in the city has a ring of bells. They ring when someone is married, they ring when someone dies, they ring to call people to mass. Standing on a corner in the city is like standing inside a bell concert, when I was little I used to dream I was inside of a bell, the noise all around me.

“I hate this place,” the man standing next to me said. “I have no idea how you could have grown up in this city. The bells are already giving me a headache.” He looked over at me; I knew he expected me to tell him it was alright that he had just insulted one of my fondest childhood memories. I knew he wanted to be told that we could leave right away, he honestly wanted sympathy. I didn’t say anything; I just looked down the street.

These streets are streets that I have walked down in my mind a thousand times since I left the city. No one knows these streets better then I do. I have traveled around the world and I still have never found streets like these, wide and tree lined, with their skinny sidewalks. They were never paved; they are cobblestone to this day and I have always loved how the horse drawn cabs that you can rent rattle over the uneven stones.

I looked around me, wanting to see even more of the familiar sites and instead caught a glimpse of my companion’s disgusted face, which ruined the image for me. I looked away and closed my eyes. Just being here was enough, I didn’t have to see anything at all, there was a quality to the air, the sounds of the bells blended in with the rest of the noises of the city, the way that people spoke here, the clatter of the horse cabs, everything was relaxing. The smell of the city was the same even, unchanging, as if I hadn’t been away for a decade and for the first time in a decade I finally felt as if I had come home.

People are like plants, I’ve always believed this. Where you have your roots affects everything about you, how you speak, what you eat, what your interests are, and the way that you treat other people. People without roots get tipped over far too easily when buffeted by the world. For me my roots have always been in this city and I felt like I had withered from being away from it for too long. I was drinking greedily now from the place that I had once called home. Now I realized that I had never stopped thinking of it as my home even though I called many other places by that name.

Without saying a word to my companion I started down the street. He is the sort of person who likes to plan everything to its smallest detail and I had no interest in planning for anything, not now. I felt almost as if I was walking on holy land and to plan in such a place seemed sacrilege. I would go where my feet took me and he could follow me or not, that was up to him. There would probably be a fight over this later, I was being selfish and I knew it, but in this place, where he didn’t understand, I couldn’t help but be selfish. I was walking in step to the bells and they moved me forward.

I found myself in the park; even the park has a bell tower though the bells are only rung here for special events like on new years. There was a man selling some of the local treats and a I bought a pastry from him, the comfort food of my childhood. There are some foods that you can only find in one place and even if you do try to reproduce them, as I have, when they are taken from that place they just aren’t the same.

To be continued...

World Domination Christmas II

I think that it was probably the budget problems that led to the problems that we would have with the time machine. After all, the science department was working on the cheap. I suppose I couldn’t have expected them to do something as impressive and untested as a time machine without any flaws anyway. I asked for something unreasonable and they did their best. I don’t complain about it, not really, though ending up in the future rather then the past was way outside of my calculations. I’m not talking a little ways into the future either, I mean a long time into the future.

Upon landing in the future another disaster struck, the time machine broke. Considering the amount of money, even though like I said before it probably wasn’t enough, which went into the project I was a little unhappy that apparently it was a one time use only machine. Still we were forced to make the best of it. We had our army, small though we were we had our weapons all with us and we set out to explore what the future had to offer.

I realize this isn’t something that I should really be happy about but it turns out that my suspicions of the future were correct, a real dystopia, devoid of all technology and organized government. In the end it was probably easier to take over the future then it would have been the past, the past had large organized governments, and we still had the advantage of technology.

Taking over the world was the easy part and I think it would be safe to say that world peace was indeed established. The main problem was my own followers who weren’t overly please with me. With us all trapped in the future, even after we had achieved our goal, it wouldn’t do our present any good, assuming we ever got back to it. Moral has been sinking quickly among my companions so I have set the science people who came with us to try salvaging what they can from our first time machine to get us back to the past. They still aren’t sure when, or if, it will be completed but it helps to fuel peoples hopes in me again and keeps me in power to have them try. So far all they have managed is this miniature model, hardly large enough to transport a mouse, if we had any desire to transport mice of course. It is large enough to put this letter in though and that is what I am doing. After all, it seems unfair to disappear without warning without telling anyone where we are.

For my father I would write and say that you have gotten what you wished for, I have established a world without war but so far in the future that I am afraid you will never see it. I am including a gift card that I had in my wallet with this letter as a consolation present. Well not like I will be able to use it in this time period anyway so it isn’t doing me any use.

For the rest of the world I would ask that you send our university donations, to fund the development of an improved time machine. I think that’s our best bet at leaving the future at the moment. They just don’t have the technology where we are to help us build a better time machine so it looks like that is left to you people in the past. I have a good deal to say to people who call improved technology futuristic, GET ME OUT OF THIS TIME PERIOD. I BEG YOU.

World Domination Christmas

It seems like it’s the same thing every year, I will ask my father what he wants for Christmas and every year he says he wants world peace. Needless to say this makes shopping for him a little hard. This year he did the same thing and I finally decided that I was going to do something about it.

It has long been my intention to take over the world, a life time goal you could say. I thought it was the least I could do to speed up these plans to give my father what he wanted for Christmas. After all if I ruled the whole world then it would be at peace, because it would be under my control. With the world united there would be no reason for wars.

I go to a college in a very small town no one has ever heard of, so my first step was to take over the college. I figured since no one really cares about the town it would be unlikely that I would be found out. That would make the perfect launching point for my scheme. It did mean that I had to win over the faculty and students of the college however.

It was the make up of the school’s population that inspired me. I had my own army simply by suggesting a world where everything was powered by renewable energy and sizable subsidies for farmers. I won’t claim that this made everyone in the school join my cause, but it got a sizable portion, and we held those who wouldn’t join us in the basement of the humanities faculty office building. There were plenty of small windowless cells down there to choose from.

In order to keep our plans hidden all of the faculty who had joined our cause were asked to continue attending conferences. The PR departments for the university were among the people who had refused to join us so I combined the people in the political science department with the communication department to take care of press statements and dealing with the outside world.

It was the science department that played the biggest part in my plans however. Even if I had managed to win over everyone in the whole college I still wouldn’t have had much of an army. This meant that I would have to rely on brains rather then brawn. It also occurred to me that sinking our modern world into war would be exactly what my father didn’t want. There was only one solution to this, time travel. A small army with modern technology would easily defeat the world armies of the past, and it would mean that the war could be over a long time before my father was born. I set the science division the job of building the time machine and busied myself with the basics.

Money was of course a problem. The tuition was no longer going to the classrooms, so that was some help, but my army still needed to be fed and housed which cost me a lot of that. That made me look to what else I could take money from. The first thing I took funding from was the wilderness restoration fund, under the general idea that wilderness happened so long as you left it alone long enough and it shouldn’t cost money to leave some land alone. The next thing I did was sell a lot of the university’s desks and furniture which helped some. I kept the computers, which would have earned me a lot because the science department told me that they needed them, but the projectors all went.

To be continued...

Robert IV

We have had scandals in this business before, there was a case a lot like this in the past as well. I think it’s been about seven years since then, Robert wasn’t with us then, he came a year later. I try to avoid too much scandal so I told Dave to give Robert a chance to redeem himself honorably.

I got a call about an hour later from Dave telling me that he had been forced to call the police on Robert. He was making sure it was alright if we released the company books to the police. Of course I gave him permission; we had nothing to hide in our books after all. I had been generous to give Robert the chance to pay his way out of trouble and if he was going to be stubborn then he would have to face the penalty.

I didn’t go to talk to the police when they came to take Robert away. I thought that the least I got involved and drew attention to the matter the better. Instead I called my brother, who usually doesn’t work out of the office like I do. He’s older then I am and has a larger part of the business then I do, this is the sort thing I have to report to him. I’m his eyes in the office. He does all of the work with the outside world, it would seem that includes lots of parties with barely dressed women, but who am I to judge.

My brother told me that he approved of all that I had done, he sounded distracted and I thought I heard giggling in the background so I hung up fairly quickly. Instead I wandered around the office, trying to sound out what the effects of the event had had on the employees. It was the only thing being talked about in the break room, and people were wandering around gossiping instead of working, though they tried to hide this when I walked up. This was only to be expected though, so I didn’t make a fuss about it. It isn’t every day that a man is dragged through your office screaming.

By the end of the day I think that the talk had mostly died down. Tomorrow the talk would probably have gone away as much as it ever would; at least people would be working again. We’re a company, people working is a good thing. I think the rumors had grown more and more wild as they traveled as well. I had one of the secretaries ask me where Robert had gotten the gun and I don’t think she believed me when I told her that Robert hadn’t had one.

Once everyone from the office was gone I got down to my real work. It had been postponed while dealing with the chaos that Robert had caused, it was going to be a late night at the office, and I called my wife to tell her so. They I got out my own private record books from where they were in the office safe. You have to look close to notice that the back isn’t a real back, but contains more ledgers. Those are the truest ledgers in the whole company, so no one should read them but me. They keep record of the money the company lost seven years ago, and the money we have been losing since Robert came to work for us. They also show which bank accounts I distributed the money in. It might be suspicious if I deposited such large amounts in one account after all. My brother sometimes snoops, and I would hate for him to find me out.

Robert III

It all started when the head of the office, his name is Dave, came to talk to Robert. He looked grim as he marched past my cubicle’s door and into Robert’s. That is always a bad sign. Dave is usually a cheerful man, when he looks serious you know you’re really in trouble. Not that I have a lot of dealing with him, mostly I have to deal with Robert because he’s right over me. That is unfortunate since Robert isn’t as forgiving as Dave is. The last time that my project was behind schedule Robert made my life miserable for a full week.

“Robert, we have come to a very serious conclusion,” Dave told Robert. His voice was low but like I said, my cubicle is right next to Robert’s so I could still hear what he was saying. “We have evidence that you have been stealing money from our office accounts,” Dave continued.

“What?!” exclaimed Robert. “I have been loyal to this firm for a very long time, how could you think that I would do something like that.”

“For God sake Robert be quieter, we’re trying to spare you from embarrassment. Mr. Williamson has agreed that if you agree to pay back the money you took we won’t press charges. Otherwise I will have to call the police.”

“I swear I never stole any money, not a cent. I’m an honest family man; I have never done anything that would be called illegal or underhanded.”

“I told you that we have investigated this. We have found evidence; I mean it about calling the police if you don’t pay back the money you have taken. If you do give us the money back you will be allowed to hand in your resignation and leave quietly. This is a lot better offer then you would get from any other company but Mr. Williamson wants to avoid scandal.”

“I can’t pay you back money that I never took. I have never done anything wrong,” Robert said.

“Then I have no choice but to call the police Robert,” said Dave. Robert continued to work until the police showed up to take him away. I don’t think he believed that Dave would really call them. It took a little while for the police to show up, they had to get a warrant for his arrest I heard later. With the evidence that the company had already provided their lawyer though it didn’t take long. It wasn’t until the police actually were handcuffing Robert that he finally broke down and started panicking.

In the end the police had to half drag Robert out of the building and the whole time he was shouting that he was innocent. Dave looked really embarrassed by Robert’s behavior. Dave takes the company policy of causing as little fuss as possible very seriously and I don’t think anyone was doing their work while Robert was being taken through the halls.

I guess it just goes to show that you can judge people by their personalities. Robert wasn’t a really nice guy and what does it turn out, he’s a thief. I wonder what my new boss will be like; I hope it’s an easier going guy.

Dave came to me today and told me that he suspected one of the men under him of embezzling money. I told him that was a very serious allegation and asked if he had any proof, he said that he did. He showed me the places in our books where it looked like some of the numbers had been forced; they were all books that had gone through the hands of Robert, a very serious business.
To be continued...

Robert II

I panhandle outside of the offices of Williamson Bros. almost every day. It’s good to have a regular spot, sometimes you even get regulars, people who get to know you and give you money every day. I get to know their names, about their families, where the work, all you have to do is show interest and people will talk to you. The more they talk to you the more likely they are to give you something. Who ever said that panhandling didn’t need social skills?

Because I panhandle out in front of their offices I get a lot of money from the people who work for Williamson Bros. Their lunch break is the best time because a lot of them leave the office to go out to eat around the city. It was around noon that two men walked out of the office doors, one of them was a man who always gives me a dollar or two. He didn’t disappoint me. The other man never has given me anything before but today, probably because his friend gave me something, he followed suite. That was a windfall.

“Where you do you want to eat today Robert?” asked the man who usually gave me money. The man called Robert grinned.

“I’ve got a lot of money to spare these days, let’s go to a nice restaurant, my treat.”

“Alright,” agreed the man who gives me money readily.

I was still outside of the building when the two men returned. The man who was called Robert was smelling a little of drink, but he wasn’t acting like he was drunk. I couldn’t imagine that anyone working for a firm like Williamson Bros. would come to work drunk. I don’t know a lot about business but they have the reputation for being a very respectable place.

“You just aren’t smart enough,” Robert was telling his friend. “It’s easy enough to save money, even in these hard times, if you’re smart.”

“Well sorry for not being as smart as you. If you’re so smart then why are you working here? You could be off making your millions by now.”

“Okay, so I’m not that smart. I don’t think I could make my living without this place,” Robert admitted. They both went into the building.

An hour later a police car pulled up on the street, with its lights and siren going. I jumped at first, police aren’t always friendly, but they didn’t even look at me, they ran right into the office building. A couple of minutes later they came out again, this time with the man called Robert handcuffed. He was shouting that he was innocent but they shoved him in the squad car and drove off. I think it was all in all the strangest day I have had while standing on this sidewalk, I have a good spot but if this sort of thing continues I’m going to move.

My boss was taken by the police today, the head of the office says that he’s suspected Robert of embezzlement for a long time, that our books are off all the time. Robert’s cubical is near mine, so I could hear everything that was being said. Usually I hate having a cubical so close to the boss’s because it means I can’t gossip at all without being caught. It was entertaining this time though, life in the office usually lacks excitement but not today.
To be continued...

Robert

My husband Robert came in and gave me a hug this morning, before he went off to work. He doesn’t tell me a lot about his work, he says he doesn’t like to bring the office home with him, that working at the office is bad enough. When he gets home all he wants to hear is about how my day went and how the kids liked school. I don’t go to work until a lot later then he does, I work in town at the real-estate office while he makes a commute to the city. That means that he has to leave pretty early. Meanwhile I get the kids ready for school and drop them off. One of them is seven and the other is five.

It was another boring day at the office. I sold one house, which was the good point of the day. I showed a couple around another house but the old owners hadn’t cleaned up very well and that didn’t look good. I doubt I’ll get that sale.

Because both my husband and I are working when the kids get out of school they go to after school programs. I picked them up around five and we stopped the grocery to pick up a roasted chicken for dinner. Usually Robert gets home around five-thirty and we eat at six.

It wasn’t until ten past six that I started to get worried. Robert wasn’t back yet; Robert had never not been back at this time. It was already half past when the phone finally rung and I practically ran to get it. I had already fed the kids but anxiety had been stopping me from eating myself.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Hey Honey,” said Robert’s voice on the other end of the line. I breathed a sigh of relief, at least he sounded uninjured.

“Hey, what’s going on, you’re usually home by now,” I said.

“Well, yeah, I won’t be coming home tonight Honey. I know this sounds crazy, please don’t panic, but I’m under arrest.”

“What?!” I don’t think I could start to describe how I felt at that moment. I fell into the seat next to the phone. “What for?”

“They say that I embezzled money from the firm. I don’t know what’s going on yet, but I promise you, everything will be fine. I’m totally innocent, there’s no way that they can say that I did this. They’ll have to let me go soon.”

“Should I come a see you? Where are you being held?” I demanded. “Have you talked to your lawyer?”

“Yes, I talked to my lawyer before calling you. It will all be fine. You don’t have to come into the city to see me. I don’t want the children to worry about me. If the children find out that their father is in jail, well just don’t tell them okay. Tell them that I had to go away on a business trip or something.”

“I could come when they were in school, I’ll take off from work,” I said. I was talking more quietly, the children were still playing in the other room and I didn’t want them to hear what I was talking about.

“I am already not working; we need to keep your income at least. Don’t worry about me; you go into work like always. We don’t want to draw more attention to this then will be already. Just keep acting like everything is normal, I’ll be home soon, and I love you dear.”

“I love you too,” I said, I wanted to cry. I could hear the click on the other end as he hung up the phone.

To be continued...

Interview With the Wanderers III

“Why are you living here?”

“Why else would I live here if I wasn’t homeless?”

“No, I know that of course, I meant how did you become homeless?”

“Oh, I got kicked out of my house, the bank foreclosed. I was laid off from my job so I couldn’t afford the payments anymore. I am looking for a new job right now.”

“What sort of job did you do?”

“I was working in the offices of an office supply company. They lay off a lot of workers, and I was one of them. It’s very hard to find a job in the current market though so I haven’t had any luck.”

“So did you have any family that you could stay with?”

“I wasn’t willing to move back in with my parents at this time of life, and my husband agreed.”

“So your husband is here as well.”

“That’s right; we sleep on park benches next to one another these days. We used to sleep in our car but we ended up selling it a couple of weeks ago and ended up here. My husband is still working but he doesn’t earn as much as I used to and we couldn’t afford the gas and couldn’t find a place to park it anymore. The police aren’t always very friendly about people sleeping in their cars in random parking lots.”

“What are you doing with the money your husband is earning?”

“Most of it we are saving so we will be able to afford an apartment soon. We don’t want to continue being homeless forever. After I find a new job we have talked about raising a family together. We both have always wanted children.”

“How did you hear about this place?”

“Oh, we saw it on the news a while ago; we never imagined we would end up living here. We’re used to a very different life style you see. One of my husband’s friends lets us use his shower so at least we keep ourselves clean, and we make sure that we wash the clothing that we have every week at the laundry, we do try to keep ourselves presentable. We make sure that we hold on to the luxuries we’ve always had, even before this tragic change of fortune. My husband and I still have our coffee every morning at the local coffee shop and we still go out on dates every Thursday. After all, if we can’t have our luxuries what would we have to live for? It’s what keeps us going. We’re thinking about getting a stove soon, just a small propane one, to cook on. That way we don’t have to eat that trash they serve at the soup kitchens. I am used to eating far better then what they serve.”

“When do you think you will be able to save up enough money soon?”

“Well like I said, my husband doesn’t earn a lot. We’ll try our best though. I don’t want to live like this for the rest of my life and neither does my husband. Do you know how embarrassed my family is that I am homeless? I can’t hold my head up around them anymore. I’m going to see that I can raise a family in a decent house.”

“Of course, I thank you very much for your time. You have been a great help, I will bring your money here in two days, could you tell everyone I interviewed that. If you don’t mind of course.”

“I don’t talk to them much, but I suppose I can pass along the message. The money will be nice, now we can go out to eat at a really nice restaurant again. I’ve missed being able to do that for the last several months.”

Interview With the Wanderers

“It’s amazing how much food people throw out, but that only works in the city. Doesn’t always task good, but it is food. When that didn’t work, like when I was in the country I usually just asked people for food, people feel bad for you when you haven’t eaten in two days.”

“You said that you’ve been here for some time now, what made you decide to settle down?”

“This is a nice place, lots of food, a place to sleep where the cops don’t complain, and freedom. I don’t have to work, I don’t have to bother with a house, and life is a lot simpler now. At least that’s what I think, that’s why people call me crazy.”

“So you really think that living this life is easier?”

“Very much so, so much less responsibility, I want to go to the library now though, so I’ll be leaving.”

“Of course, so how about you, do you live in this park as well?”

“That’s right, for about a year now.”

“What were your reasons for becoming homeless?”

“I didn’t have a choice. Couldn’t pay the rent, spent all my money on stupid things.”

“What kind of things?”

“I know you’re thinking it so I’ll just out and say it, I’m a recovered alcoholic. I don’t drink a drop anymore, but that doesn’t help the past much. Didn’t work so well, didn’t earn too much, and got kicked out of my apartment, end of story.”

“But you don’t drink anymore?”

“Can’t afford it, lost my job, called in sick too many days, haven’t drunk in months.”

“Couldn’t you find a new job?”

“No address, no phone, looking like this, no good reference from my old boss? No one will hire me. I figure I’m stuck like this.”

“So of course you’ve tried to find a new job?”

“No, no point. Waste of time. You know the last time I had a shower? No one would hire me.”

“So if you could get cleaned up and dressed nice you would try for another job?”

“Yes, I would, I don’t want to live like this, not fun.”

“Aren’t you worried that if you would start drinking again?”

“If given another chance, would I ruin it? Crazy, not a chance, live in my means, wouldn’t drink at all.”

“I’ll give you five hundred dollars for the rights to this interview, which should give you a chance.”

“Thanks, means a lot. Should talk to her, only been here for about a week.”

“Really? Excuse me, can I talk to you, I’m writing a book. I’m interviewing people who live in this park. I’ll pay you for your time of course.”

“Alright, what do you want to know?”

To be continued...

Interview with the Wanderers

“They say I’m crazy you know.”

“Yes, I know that of course.”

“I’m not; at least I don’t think I am. Let’s put it this way, I may not be normal but I’m not mad. I thought things out for a long time before I chose this life. If I’m crazy then so is the rest of the world for thinking that the ramblings of a crazy person are news.”

“I’m not a reporter, I’m a writer. Just tell me about yourself. I need material for my latest book.”

“Are you going to pay me for this?”

“Yes, of course, five hundred dollars for the interview, and the rights to publish it in my book.”

“I don’t want my real name used, if you use my real name people might hunt me down, people are like that.”

“Of course, a fake name, I’ll choose one randomly.”

“Alright, so what do you want to know?”

“Do you live here?”

“That’s right; I’ve slept here for the past two years. Welcome to tent town, though they won’t let us have tents.”

“What do you sleep under if it rains then? What about during the winter, of course you have some sort of shelter.”

“I have a tarp that works as a cover, and some blankets. I like it here then I do in a shelter, I get more freedom, and less people preaching at me.”

“Where did you live before you came here?”

“Here and there, not any one place for very long. I heard about this place so I came here. A long time ago I lived in a house in the suburbs, lived there with my wife, that was about ten years ago now.”

“What did you do at the time? To have a house in the suburbs you of course had a job.”

“I worked in the Target business office, it paid pretty well.”

“So you went to college?”

“That’s right, got a degree in business with a minor in economics.”

“Did you lose your job at Target?”

“No, I quit it, I got very bored. It was the same thing, day after day.”

“Of course with your degree you could have found a new job.”

“I could have, but I didn’t feel like it. I was very bored. One day I went out for a walk and never went back home. My wife didn’t understand anyway.”

“Didn’t understand what?”

“The way I thought, she thought I should go see a shrink or something, that’s the first time someone told me I was crazy, not the last. I just stopped seeing the point in living like that.”

“So you kept walking. Did you bring any money or belongings with you?”

“It wasn’t like I had planed it out like that; I had about five dollars in my wallet and the shirt on my back and that was all. I just never felt like turning around. Night fell and I found myself out in the country so I fell asleep in a cornfield and the next day just kept right on down the road. When the road forked I’d just pick a direction randomly. I lived like that for a long time.”

“How did you eat during that time?”

To be continued...

Three Songs II

“Was that your father?” May asked the old woman. Romantic stories were the best.

“By now you should be old enough to not ask the ending of stories before I get there,” the old woman told May, but she looked amused. “You’ll find out. Anyway like I said my mother didn’t get out a lot back in those days and she certainly didn’t have the chance to catch up on the music of the day so everything was new to her. One song caught her attention the most; it was a happy song, like I said I won’t do any singing, and even if I did tell you the name you wouldn’t know it. It’s a very, very old song. She would talk about that night a lot, as one of the happiest nights of her life. It’s a very pretty, and very happy song though, and that was my first song.”

“But you didn’t tell me if the man she was with was your father,” May complained. “You said that I would find out.”

“That isn’t the end of the story,” the old woman chided. “I told you I had three songs. There are two left. The second song was my Uncle’s. That would be my father’s brother. My uncle fought in World War One and came back a little strange people said. I wouldn’t know, I never met him; he was there when I was born but disappeared after that and no one could say where it is he went. My father used to tell me about my uncle a lot though. They grew up very close, living like they did on a farm with not a lot of other families around. My uncle was older then my father was by several years so my father always looked up to him.”

“So is that song happy and romantic like your mother’s,” May asked hopefully.

“No, not at all, from what I hear my uncle wasn’t that sort of person. It was a song a man he had known in the army used to sing. It’s plaintive and homesick more then anything else.”

“So all that leaves us is the third song,” May said. “That’s your father’s right?”

“That’s right. He came to the city from a little farm with the idea that he wanted a life of excitement and he didn’t find it. What he hadn’t realized was that excitement cost money which wasn’t something that he had. He showed up in town with nothing with the strange idea that money was going to fall out of the sky for him or something. One too many of those Victorian rags to riches stories in my opinion. The dangers of reading without any knowledge of how the real world works, rich men don’t randomly decide to take you under their wing and cloth and feed you. Suddenly alone, without knowing anyone and without any money my father decided that it was important he found a job, and he finally did. He worked as a gardener for family and they paid him enough that he could live in a dingy little hotel and live off of cheap diner food.”

“Did the people he garden for happen to live next door to the people your mother was a nanny for?” May asked.

“Yes they did, a good guess, and he thought my mother was the prettiest woman that he had ever seen. She might have remembered a song from their first date, but he remembered the song he had been singing while he was trimming the hedges the first time he saw her. And that would be the third song.”

“That’s so sweet,” May said, standing again and stretching. “So is his song a happy song or a sad song?”

“It’s a love song,” said the old woman, “a very old love song. You could say that it isn’t happy or sad, or that it’s both. Those are the songs they sang when I was born and that’s what I’d like them to sing when I die.”

“But you hardly said anything about your uncle at all,” May complained.

“I told you, I don’t know a lot about him. This is real life my dear, not all of the lose ends are tied up.”

To be continued...

Three Songs

“They sang three songs when I was born, and I expect they’ll sing the same three songs when I die. That’s what I want anyway,” the old woman told May. May smiled from where she was folding laundry. She stood and kissed the old woman on the cheek.

“Yes but you won’t die anytime soon now will you?” she said. May was of no relation to the old woman but came over several times a week to look after her and spend time with her. The old woman, who had no relatives anymore, had come to look at May as a favorite granddaughter who she could tell anything to. She taught May how to knit, sew, bake, and told her stories and in exchange May did any chores the old woman needed done.

“It isn’t a matter of whether I’m going to die soon or not,” the old woman told May. “The point is the songs, the songs are important. I’m not about to sing them, because my voice isn’t what it used to be, I’ve got them written down, what I want to tell you about is why they sang those songs when I was born.” May found a seat where she could sit comfortably, she always liked the old woman’s stories. They spoke of a time that was long gone, but for a moment you could imagine it wasn’t.

“My mother gave me the first song,” the old woman explained. “She wasn’t from this country you know. She came from Ireland at first, as a young woman. She didn’t have any family in this country so she found herself work taking care of a widower’s children. There were two of them, a little boy and a little girl. Mother used to talk about them a lot but I can’t remember their names now. It was a good job but because she lived with the family and took care of the children all of the time she didn’t get around as much as people these days to. Finally a man, who worked for the neighbors and was sweet on Mother came around and asked her to go out dancing with him, and she got permission to go.”

To be continued...

Dangerous Games X

You never realize life changing choices that will haunt you for the rest of your life until after you’ve made them. I should have listened to my stupid younger brother. Luke isn’t smart, or strong, or useful, but sometimes he does make good points.

What I shouldn’t have done was go upstairs to Isabelle’s room. I shouldn’t have tied her up. I shouldn’t have thrown her out of her bedroom window, which is on the third floor. I guess I should say that I am right now writing all of this from a cell, not in the house, but in the real world. I really did lose the game this time. I read a lot these days, from the books they allow me, so I’m learning some new words. Like retrospect, and hindsight, those are good words.

Isabelle’s injuries were very serious, serious enough that she had to be taken by helicopter to the nearest hospital. Then there came the questions, which led to my arrest for attempted murder. Mother couldn’t do anything other then hire me a real good lawyer. He’s trying to say I’m crazy; I’m starting to think maybe I am too. I didn’t tell them that Luke helped me, Luke was only following orders, and Luke doesn’t mean anything. Luke isn’t important, but I am, I’m the one who did it. Even if I did lose the game at least let me get the credit for having done something, they won’t forget me, I’m too important.

Dangerous Games IX

The next day Luke brought me down my tray of food, looking very nervous and tense. He didn’t say anything to me, and he had a black eye, I guess Isabelle had got him. On my tray though was the important bit, a new journal, so he had got my note and followed it.

Once Luke was gone I lay down on my cot, with a pencil and my new journal. I opened up the journal, pencil at the ready, the first few pages were already full of Luke’s neat writing. Pretending to write on the already filled page, I started to read. Always on camera, that was a problem.

Alice had taken my place, of course, with all of her information. She was now one of the important ones. She and her husband now lived in the house with Mother rather then in their mother’s house, in my old room.

Isabelle had gotten rid of Dan when Dan had tried to get rid of her. Dan had always pushed too much. Isabelle had thrown him through the second story window; he was now living with Al, since Dan was too young to live alone. That meant it was just Isabelle, Ben and Alice.

Luke had also written about himself. I don’t know why he had thought his update belonged with the ones about Isabelle and Ben but he seemed to think that it did. He was, he didn’t tell me why, still considered my underling. That’s why he brought me food, it was his job. I was his job. He had been marked. He didn’t say so but I could guess he was only a little better off then I was. He could go outside, I hadn’t liked outside until I could go. I now loved outside.

I flipped through the blank pages of the journal and almost dropped the book on the floor once I came the last hundred pages or so. I had thought the journal was a bit heavy. Now was not the time for quiet or sneaky. It was the time for fast action, no plans were needed. I grabbed the blot cutter from where it had been hidden in the journal and took care of the bolt on my cell. Right now Alice would probably notice me doing this and I would get in trouble, but maybe not. She couldn’t watch everywhere at the same time. Maybe if I really got in trouble they would actually kick me out of the game, rather then keeping me in the cell. That was a thought.

Luke was waiting for me in the kitchen, that’s where the stairs to the basement came from. He looked scared but was steadier then I would have thought he would be. Luke wasn’t strong like some people, Luke was weak. But he had gotten me out of my cell, and he was waiting for me.

“I talked to Mother,” was the first thing he said to me, no hello. “I asked her to let us get a house somewhere in the real world, outside of this place. This isn’t a good place for us anymore.” For the first time he wasn’t asking me what to do, he had decided what to do; the problem was I didn’t like it.

“I like being in the game, I’m not going to lose,” I told him. We didn’t have a lot of time but I wasn’t going to be told that I had lost.

“They aren’t going to let you leave if you don’t leave now,” Luke told me. “They want to keep you in that cell forever, until you die. I would have to bring you food forever, until I died. They don’t like you, so they’ve thought of a worse fate then losing for you.”

To be continued...

Dangerous Games VIII

I expected to be out of the game with this. All they would have had to do was throw me out of the house and the next thing I would have known Mother would have bought me a house somewhere in the outside world. They weren’t that nice, they played a new sort of game. In this game losers stayed to have being a loser rubbed in their face, I don’t like it much. They had a cell for me, ready in the basement, where no one ever goes.

I guess that in the real world, outside of the game that is, this sort of thing is against the law. The law is nothing out here though, since we are so far from any cops. I guess outside of the game Mother would have stopped them from putting me in a cell in the basement, or made them let me go. That would have been true but Mother is in the game too and so it was allowed. Maybe she wasn’t happy with them, but I didn’t get to see, not from my cell.

I have always thought of myself as important in the game. When I was younger I thought I was important because I was me, when I was older I got important. This was the first time I have been not important. It was even worse because I didn’t have anything to do in my cell, so I could think about it a lot.

Mother wouldn’t have let them kill me, I knew that. What ever happened I wouldn’t die anyway, a small comfort. Luke brought me food, but he didn’t talk to me. I don’t think anyone was allowed to talk to me. He did bring me paper and ink, and couple of books. I was being the most well read I had been ever. Usually I was too busy thinking of ways to take care of Isabelle, Ben, and Dan. There didn’t seem a point anymore, this was more serious then Lose a Turn in some board game.

I have no idea how many days, weeks, months, years, passed between when they locked me up in the cell and that day that Luke spoke to me for the first time. I had tried to talk to him before, be he always just put down my food and left. I had given up, I had given up on everything, and then Luke up and talks to me. He looked around when he spoke, and he whispered, he knew he was breaking some rule of the game, but he talked anyway.

“Do you want anything?” he whispered to me. “You’ve been down here an awful long time.”

“Don’t I know that,” I whispered back. I complained before about how all he did was ask questions but this question filled me with a really warm feeling. “I could use some news, what’s been going on?”

“I shouldn’t tell you, I’m not supposed to talk to you at all but I feel bad. If I can get you anything,” he trailed off, looking back over his shoulder again. I think faster then Luke does, that’s why Luke followed me. I knew for sure that my cell had cameras and microphones in it and this would be the last talk we’d have. Alice would see to that. I shook my head and he went away. No need to get Luke in trouble when he wouldn’t be able to do anything for me even if he wanted to.

I thought some, I had a lot of time for thinking being in the cell, and then I went over to the pad of paper Luke had give me and got out a sheet of writing paper. I wasn’t sure where the cameras were so I had to be careful. I had never had to be tricky like this before. I wrote a note, I folded it, I stuck it in my pocket, and then I went over to my dinner tray. It was the work of a moment, with my heart beating fast, to slip the note under my plate. I could hope that it had looked like I was just picking crumbs off my plate to the camera, I could hope that Luke would find the note, I could hope. If I failed I could see Isabelle coming down and slamming me into the wall a couple of times, it was worth it. Risk was good, risk made me feel alive again. I wasn't out of the game yet.

To be continued

Dangerous Games VII

“Perhaps it would be wise to deal with Ben before we deal with Isabelle,” Alice told me one morning. She was sitting at the bank of computers that had been installed in my room as her personal work station. My room, since I was the leader, had become our office. I was starting to think I should kick another sibling out of their room to make a real office. Maybe Bernie who lived right door to me, with a sledgehammer Luke could make a door between the two rooms and I would have my own space again.

“What’s Ben up to?” I asked. Alice’s main worry was about Isabelle and usually she didn’t say anything about Ben or Dan. I wondered what it was that Isabelle had done exactly to make Alice worry so much but knowing Isabelle it didn’t take much imagination. Isabelle was all about hitting people. She hadn’t chased anyone out of the house like Ben and I but she hadn’t had to. She only had to shove your head through a wall once before you wanted to be on her good side.

“Ben is trying to make an alliance, much like the one that we have, with Isabelle. That seems dangerous to me. Isabelle is resisting, she doesn’t work well with others, but the risk is high,” Alice told me.

“That doesn’t make any sense; he sets me up to take on Isabelle and then goes to team up with her?”

“I believe he is trying to destroy you, you are the up and coming leader after all. You made sure that Dan wasn’t a threat and then you were looking at the other two threateningly. It would only make sense if they decided to do something about you, like luring you into a trap. Right now if you attack Isabelle you will face both her and Ben and if you try and wait it out Dan will attack you. Pretty dangerous, I have to admit.”

“So what do you want me to do about it?” I asked. Once again my underlings were talking about problems and then thinking I could fix them, like I’m a god or something.

“I think we should attack now, while we can, before Ben finalizes what ever deal he is making with Isabelle and before Dan can gather strength to attack you,” Alice said firmly. Okay and when my underlings do make suggestions they are crazy and likely to get me killed. Attacking Isabelle without a plan could get me thrown off the roof. I couldn’t think of anything better to do though.

Sneaking into Isabelle’s room in the middle of the night was a really dumb idea. I will admit that. The idea was to catch her off guard so that she wouldn’t get a chance to pitch us out the window. That was all good but she had traps we didn’t know about hidden in her door frame. Smart of her, I wouldn’t have thought she was the trap type. I knew as soon as I was caught in the net that there was no way she had built it herself though. She’s my sister after all; she’s more into the maiming sort of trap if she likes traps at all. Nets aren’t her style at all.

The lights switched on and I looked around. Dan, Ben, Isabelle, they all stood there looking at me. I had been expected. I turned and looked at Alice and her husband; they had hung back so I would be the first to go into the room.

“Good job Alice,” Isabelle said. “Would you like his room? It’s bigger then yours is.”

“Don’t forget my husband,” Alice said. “He deserves as much credit as I do. He’s the only one in this house who could have built this sort of trap after all. I would also like to remind you that according to our contract you owe us a large sum of money.”

To be continued...

Dangerous Games VI

“If you aren’t interested then I will take my offer to Ben or Dan,” Alice said, standing from where she sat down on my bed.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t interested,” I said quickly. “You have a deal, but first I have to know who you were working under before?”

“No one, I am independent, usually, unfortunately I have found some things out that make me targeted by Isabelle. That means it’s in my interest to team up with someone who also wants to get rid of Isabelle. This is only a temporary alliance, please keep that in mind.” Alice really was like no one I have ever met before. She isn’t Ben’s sister, Ben is the son of my Aunt’s son, and Alice is the daughter of my Uncle. Usually I just group my cousin’s by these two parents, but Alice was clearly in a class of her own.

“So now that I have agreed to work with you will you tell me what good it’s going to do me?” I asked. Now that I thought about it she had done a lot better then I had in the bargaining part of our conversation.

“I have cameras and microphones hidden everywhere in all of these houses, and I do mean everywhere. Some of the movies I have I could probably sell for a lot of money on the internet, but I don’t, you don’t have to worry.” She smirked knowingly at me and I shuddered. In my mental list of family politics Alice was upgraded from low pawn to slightly above Dan. She was dangerous and even more dangerous because no one realized she was one of the important people.

“In that case I would like to add to our deal that every tape you have of me is destroyed,” I said.

“That won’t happen just for a temporary alliance, maybe if I was working with you forever I might agree but as it is I am afraid that is not an option. I will not be losing all leverage over you just for a little of your help. However I will take out the cameras and microphones from your room for the time that I am working with you. How is that?”

“I suppose I don’t have a choice,” I said.

“Then I will write up the contract and have it here for you to sign tomorrow. My husband will witness the signing, just in case you feel like you can deny it later.” Never in my family has anything been done so businesslike then the deal that I made the next day with Alice. Her husband even signed as a witness, amazing.

With Alice and Luke, and Alice’s husband as well on my side, I was finally ready to do something about Isabelle. I was used to the stupid Luke; it took me at little while to learn to make plans that included the other two. Alice really did know everything about everyone and her husband was the sneaky one who had planted all of the cameras and microphones without anyone knowing it. It was a scary combo when I knew that they would not always be on my side.

Alice’s husband, his name was Harry; brought me my relative’s documents just like his wife brought me their movements and conversations. I began to piece things together like I hadn’t been able to before. For one thing, by reading photocopies of Ben’s journal, I was able to find out that he meant me to fight against Isabelle for his purposes and that made me mad. I couldn’t not go through with it though, even though he had manipulated me, because the only reason Alice and Harry were on my side was to get at Isabelle.

Dan was targeting me as a steppingstone just like I was targeting Isabelle, and because of the same person. Ben had gotten to him, I decided I didn’t like Ben much, but I never had. Dan had been dropped in the lists because he no longer had any followers, he was important, but only barely, so I didn’t pay him a lot of attention.