Mara - I heard clearly in my mind, "Take these multi multi purpose shelters. Set them up at the Tree of Notes, where you'll find your group." Assembling one I set it down and walked around it to admire the designs. Kneeling, I peeked into a crack and saw a huge space... tables laden with food, a crackling fire... rugs and flowers. Sitting back, shaking my head and rubbing my eyes I prepared to look again.
May 12th
Mara - Opening my eyes I found the pyramids had moved off across the glade towards a stream. I'd been sitting on my haunches so rose slowly to avoid getting dizzy... when my knees straightened I kept rising.. as if gravity had left along with everyone else. Catching a branch I wedged myself into a fork of the tree and found myself looking at a nest. Brushing a few notes out of the way and leaning forward I saw the occupant and it blinked. Someone cleared their throat behind me...
Mara Thompson - The Occupant
"We've been watching you", he said.
May 13th
Christopher - Water Crystals scattered around the base of the tree have been added so long they have created a giant clear jello, you see the sky is lonely here, lonley for the blanket of a cloud, when I looked him in the eye he nodded, he nodded that I looked at him without fear, in a moment I forgot the rules, and it echoed the truth that we're the same, strange I would be here, always here and not here, I don't know who I am anymore. I gave everyone a jingle bell attatched to a saftey pin to wear, so as it rings I might not disapear completely, this place has done something strange to me, soon I might not exist at all. I made a note of it.
Mara - I did not want to turn around, yet I knew I must... the sun had gone behind a cloud-- a chill ran up my arms. I had a feeling that once I turned around I could not turn back.
May 14th
Susan - In the distance, I thought I heard some music and a big loud voice boomed from afar...."who goes here?"
Susan Shulman - Who Goes There
Mara - It was dusk. Whatever or whoever was behind me shuffled a bit closer. "Why are you here?" The voice asked. I thought of Bibi who once said, "To see an owl in your dream, symbolizes wisdom, insight, magic, expanded awareness and virtue. You are highly connected to your intuitive senses and psychic power. The owl is also synonymous with death, darkness and the unconscious. The appearance of an owl may be telling you to let go of the past or certain negative behaviors." Ok, here goes. My heart was thudding and my limbs felt weak. Hoping that this was the sort of dream where you can't move, I slowly turned towards the voice.
There, fitted snugly in the branches, was a pyramid with the loveliest and largest owl I'd ever seen. The owl's eyes were locked on me, which didn't help my heart rate. He or she hopped down to a branch near me. "Why are you here?", again the question. "Um-m-m, I stammered, I'm looking for my fellow climbers, did you seen them?" "Yes, I saw them, you will join them as soon as you find your purpose." Then the owl just sat there looking at me. "Think before you speak." the owl said.
May 23rd
“Damn…it’s the sushi devil!”…. he then resumed his frantic tapping gyrations all the while moving to the limits of his tethering strings. The BillyRay puppet, which bore a striking resemblance to me was likewise in the midst of frantic song; a rendition of Highwayman.
Unfortunately the Shoe Tree was able to mimic my voice exactly which seemed to cause many of its’ other heads some discomfort.
With out a second thought I deftly slashed the strings on the puppets.
“Run for it’” I yelled as BillyRay suddenly went silent.
So off we ran, the three KaliKuties in the lead followed close behind by Fish N’ Boots and BillyRay, their strings bringing up the rear. Tanglers lunged but we plunged.
Mara - I heard a small voice call, "Mara!", there amongst the notes was a trio consisting of a baby owl and two ants. "Here, it's time you added your piece to the note tree," presenting me with a largish blank note.
 |
| Mara Thompson - Trio Presentation |
Mara Thompson - Blue Ant Finds His Note
William - We thrashed our way through the thick brambles and suddenly plunged into a clearing with a pile up that left us wrapped like mummies with the puppets stings.
As our big pile of feet, arms, guitars, hair and fins slowly unwrapped itself we all became aware of the eyes.
"Who" "Who" started to echo in the trees and we all stared back.
BillyRay pulled his guitar free from Susan's hair and yelled, "It's a Hootenanny!"
Mara - Feeling increasingly buoyant, as if the air were water and I was straining for the top, I reached forward carefully. In the distance I heard an increasing ruckus and thought I recognized some of the cadences of sound to be coming from my friends. As usual the Mount Analogue feeling of increase portent loomed. There were no actions that didn't, at a frighteningly quick speed, offer it's repercussions in a way too obvious to ignore. "The air is thin up here", I wrote. "Perceptions take on a clarity not usual for our lives off the island." "Wow, my life off the island...", no sooner than I'd thought that I found myself at the door of my home, talking to a Dyson™ salesperson, at least I think he's a person, though he looks rather like a fish about the gills.
May 24th
Susan - I was unraveling faster and faster like a spinning top. Wow, what a rush of adrenaline I felt as the world around me spun out of control. The vibrant colours surrounding me became one big blur of blues. I felt like I was flying but soon became aware of some strumming and hooting sounds. Actually the noise was rather loud. The screeching sounds were piercing my eardrums by the second. I felt the air moving around me and sensed the sensation of fluttering close by. My vision started to clear as my weightless body was slowing down in a seemingly circular motion. I could not tell where the sky was and where the land began. I thought I saw some people to the left of me or was that a guitar, a hat, red shoes and a fish? Just when I thought I could identify an object it became obscure and cloudy again. My stomach started to feel squeamish and queasy like being seasick. And, those big eyes, was that an eye? Did I catch the sight of soft fur, or feathers or mountains? It was then I realized I had been swinging in the air from side to side, and when I looked up again caught a section of an owl playing a guitar in my peripheral vision. I was entangled into a humungous sharp beak and was swaying in the wind feeling like Foucault’s Pendulum. A terrible thought started to shadow my thinking. “Was I going to seesaw forever? HELP me Fish ‘N Boots..anyone!”
Mara - Feeling tense, I unclasped my fists and looked at the rumpled note. "Take a deep breath, Mara", I told myself. I read the first line, "The air is thin up here", and the vision of the fishy salesperson shrunk as I was rather roughly pulled backwards towards the island. "I need this to stop!" I said and found myself dropped short of Mount Analogue and onto the Island of Stability, still clutching the note. "What the...," as I plopped down on the beach. Clearly I needed to take a closer, or maybe a farther look at what was going on.
Lee - The last thing Mark said as he slid down the ladder was, "don't worry- it's well tethered - I'll be back in a jiff with the rest of the group," that was an hour ago and about 50 minutes since the balloon slipped it's tether and drifted off. Now it seemed to be caught in a thermal and is drifting up towards the Mountain top. Looking down I seemed to relive the past months; there were the fields of lavender, the trees full of notes and stuff and goats; there were the huts leading the trail up the mountain. Holy crap ! is this the way it ends (for me)? how do I get home from here? no red shoes to click 3 times no white rabbit to follow.
Lee Goldberg - Untethered
May 29th
William - “Quiet BillyRay,” I shouted, don’t startle that owl. But it was too late; with a thunderous beating of wings the enormous bird lifted off, almost disappearing from our view as he began lazy circles high above our heads. Fish N’ Boots was ecstatic at his good luck at not becoming a snack and began his version of disco inferno. Ria and I were not amused in the least because the owl had made off with Susan dangling from his beak.
Ria interrupted my thoughts of making sushi out of our new companion.
“You know what Bibi says about owls.”
“Right, right… " wisdom, insight, magic, expanded awareness ….blah blah. The part I remember best is the synonymous with death bit."
No, no Ria continued, “there’s also the aspect of letting go of the past or certain negative behaviors. This could be a wonderful opportunity for Susan’s ultimate fulfillment in life.”
Faint shrieking drifted down to our ears.
“Or maybe owls like to play with their food”, she added.
“You know what Bibi says about owls.”
“Right, right… " wisdom, insight, magic, expanded awareness ….blah blah. The part I remember best is the synonymous with death bit."
No, no Ria continued, “there’s also the aspect of letting go of the past or certain negative behaviors. This could be a wonderful opportunity for Susan’s ultimate fulfillment in life.”
Faint shrieking drifted down to our ears.
“Or maybe owls like to play with their food”, she added.
Mark - I clung to the thorny crooked foot of the owl for dear life as we ascended back to where I had just been. What good fortune to be falling off a ladder and about to drop into the jaws of death when at that very second who should appear but the largest most regal owl I had ever seen headed straight up and 6 degrees north by northeast. So i grabbed his foot and now I was rising fast. I had to get back to Lee who was no doubt in hysterics by now. We had just completed the most amazing run- drifting above all of the island and seeing all of Mt. Analogue from so many different and wonderful vantage points. It was a once in a lifetime ride. She had really calmed down and was beginning to enjoy the journey for what it was- a much needed vacation-- not as rescue mission of poor unfortunate squirrels. In the process I had pointed out all the different places we had been, some we had not even discovered yet in real time. For it was only from that high vantage point, even higher than the high solitary perches she herself was so used to, that we could see that time and space mean nothing to this crazy island. We could see and sometimes even hear ourselves and all of our friends in all different forms-- past present and future as we floated by on the Dyson Fibonacci Timestream. And as we drifted from the the Doubting Side of the mountain to the Confident Side we could see ourselves hiking through snow and ice, hell, we could even see equal and opposite aspects of ourselves and other members of the climbing party colliding and disappearing as well as just missing each other via the time slits, creating yet more notes on the path with every collision. But duty called and I had to abruptly end the sight seeing to descend into my ever-increasing techie role (I owe it all to Ria) to fix the obstruction in the Klein bottle. Condensation was collecting in the "spout" area and I was getting Gumby readings from all different levels so I knew something was up. Little did I know when i said "So long" to Lee that falling off the ladder into a free fall would do the trick and I was prepared to die to get the gauges back on track when who should appear but this crazy owl! So now, as Lee in the balloon is coming into view, I have to laugh at just how nervous I had been about the instruments only moments before. Of course moments don't mean much when you're hurling through Timestream space at the velocity of Dyson brand super suction. The training I undertook the last 26 days as an apprentice to a vacuum salesman was about to pay off big time. Oh but wait... was the balloon untethered? It is! It's in motion! A runaway orb with a talented but helpless artist in tow! Hold on Lee I'll be there in a second!
Mara - "The air is thin up here..." I read from the note I was working on, "...and it has been since the moment since our ship entered the Analogue Island zone." "Of course moments don't mean much when you're hurling through Timestream space," Mark reminded. His Note Tree note was on the reverse of the paper I was writing on. These are the moments that waken the muses, centaurs and sirens. An idea has been circling around lately, that as much as I've explored the other there are still moments, long moments, that I'm afraid. Shit - this certainly means that a huge HUGE test is coming my way..
Mark - "Oh great," I thought to myself as the owl ascended at breakneck speed toward the balloon, "another fucking growth experience."
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