The Events of August 12th to January 12th - Chapter 33

August 18, 2014

Lee Goldberg - ©A Nice Brunch 2014

Lee -  it was a great pleasure for us all to be together again , thanks to Mara creating such a nice brunch at the foot of a note tree..also the entertainment by Bibi & Jane made even the monkeys dance...altho Susan was right about the feeling of danger (snakes!) Mara thought holding ti by the tail would be enough,,me? not so much-the farther away from snakes the better --it's monkeys for me.

Susan Shulmann - Who is the Ring Leader © 2014

Susan - I was taking a nap after partaking in that ginormous gastronomical feast Lee Goldberg had prepared and was dreaming of pink flamingos when my heart started to beat so hard, I thought a vein was going to explode and I awoke abruptly. My ears were pounding and throbbing as I noticed rocks and dirt lifting and spiraling up, flying around only to pound down hard inches away, barely missing us and lifting up high again. I picked up Mel. (Note: Short for chameleon, they let me keep it after I begged them), and started running toward the beach.
The drumming and thundering sound was getting louder and bushes were collapsing before my eyes as shock waves travelled beneath my soles. I screamed to everyone, Run for cover, I think it’s the end of the world; an avalanche or earthquake is about to happen. William Evertson blew the shofar to warn the others and said we should head for the elevator. Trees were being uprooted in rapid succession before our eyes as the monkeys were screeching, swinging from one branch to another. “I hope those snakes don’t get any ideas,” Bill was complaining. “They don’t bode well under stress!” A wall of debris assembled rapidly in our path as seawater funneled around trapping us like a moat. As the dust settled, they appeared. It was a scene out of Jungle Book. Except instead of Mowgli, it was a girl bunny riding the elephant. And, they were breaking the ground, galloping straight for us. “We came as fast as we could, to try out for “Cirque de Analogue and who’s the ringleader?” she asked. Shrugging my shoulders I put my buds back on my ears and looked down at Mel.

August 21, 2014

Lee -  'Problem solved' Susan purred...who'd have thought the monkeys were masterful snake charmers. Susan Shulman Mara Thompson sat resplendent in their velvet dresses. Mara's with embroidered blue squirrels- Susan's with lovely white owls . Mark Bloch & William Evertson donned colorful horse head masks to play a game of 'what's next on Analogue'....a cross between tarot & go fish...everyone was anxious to know where elusive herd of dwarf pink elephants were hidden, Susan had her scouts on the lookout ,but the gentlemen thought the cards would tell all. I was much more comfortable now that the monkeys were in charge of the snakes...the mysteries continue.

Lee Goldberg - Masterful Snake Charmers ©2014

Susan - “This is how you perform Fish! I will make you a star and bring you to Tokyo on my next gig. You just have to take the plunge! See, I am holding you tightly. You don’t have to be afraid. I have you by the scales. You can be the first aquatic creature who can swim and recite poetry to the audience at the same time. Me, I mean you, will make a killing. Let’s leave this island with Ellie. It has the wrong demographics and I really don’t see many spectators here. No room for growth, just a bunch of docile monkeys!” The Blues Bunny was training all the creatures that she prevented from attending Lee’s Grandes Bouffe earlier today. “I gave up my music career to come to Mount Analogue to find Nirvana under the big top and I now see a lot of potential with you FISH! While gritting and grinding his teeth tightly together to prevent the water from entering his mouth, a high-pitched nasal sound escaped his gills and Fish hoped Bill would come to his rescue shortly.

Susan Shulman - Performance with Fish ©2014

September 7, 2014

Mark - At that precise moment, who should be seen storming down the mountain with an army of monkeys and tortoise elephants and elephant tortoises surrounding him but me--Mark, the unlikely rescuer, still dressed as the Goat God or maybe a Satyr and here at last to save the day as predicted in some prophecy somewhere no doubt or maybe the Gumby Chronicles. His (my) first act was to rip the horse head off the creature everyone thought was me. Bill was still wearing his. "That horse is an impostor!!"I shouted and everybody gasped as I threw the horse head over the side of the mountain and we all took a moment to watch it fly away some 800 feet below. Time stood still. "Bloody Hell!" said one of the monkeys. The unmasked guy who looked exactly like me then pulled Ria's bike out from under her and with some twisting and gyrating, looking like he was a jester twisting balloons at a kid's birthday party, fashioned a goat shaped wheelchair out of Ria's bike wheels, the handle bars of her bent bike frame, the snakes near Susan's feet, a few of the keys off the Corona typewriter (the W, the T, the K, the quote key and the right arrow) and donning a package of camper's waffles he pinched from under Lee's hat and using Fish as the seat cushion on which he now sat, took off down the mountain, almost tipping over he sped by the horrified climbing party and making a narrow getaway down the thin mountain path. I reached out to grab him as he sped by me since I was positioned below everybody else and able to use one of the tortoise elephants for leverage, but he held the waffles in front of his face and would not let me get a look at him and I was so confused because he looked like me only moments before, now he took off down the mountain and I jumped back as if powerless over an involuntary spasm that shot through my body. It reminded me of the back pain I had experienced. That's when I remembered what I was supposed to do. It was the delirious hut dream coming back to me but now this was real life! I tossed all the campers the bees I had been carrying in my pocket ever since the sheep dip was being served during my convalescence in the hut and told them to hop on. Each climber jumped aboard a bee and they all took off toward a cloud hovering on the side of the mountain. This was better than any Olympics. They were flying through the air like synchronized swimmers. Meanwhile I headed after the wheel chair clinging to my monkey host and two of the larger elephants, happy to have saved the day. My last task was to toss Susan a mellow yellow marshmellow and tell the gang, "See you all on the snowy peak next to Time Slit 24! You know what to do!!!" They didn't but they sped off gleefully anyway and I don't know why but my mission now was to get that seat cushion Fish and have a good look at the doppelganger perched atop it hiding behind a waffle like the Weak Bunny Vixen in the Tale of the Twelve Belgian Cowards.

Mara - Glad for my time with the Jamacian bobsled team I gripped the bee securely with my knees while searching my rucksack blindly for something to document the explosion of activity. "Damn, WHERE have you been Mark? We thought the kitchen was closed". I smelled smoke.

Mark - Suddenly the plump cloud hovering beside the mountain that the bees flew toward began to cover the valley below with a blanket of snow as the mountainside we all had just left burst into flames. My discarded bike with square wheels was all that remained where we had all just been standing. The sound of a haunting blues number could be heard faintly in the distance...

September 16, 2014

Susan - The sounds of horns were blowing in the distance. They flowed in and out increasing in octaves and loudness, weaving a beautiful chorus of New Orleans Blues cascading down and around the hills, fading into the caverns and blasting back down reverberating and echoing off the rocks squealing one last time before they smashed into the sea. “Mon Dieu, I don’t know what the hell you are going on about Mark “Jean-Paul Satyr screamed! “Wake up; you’re having one of your Day-mares again. You are obsessed with my philosophies and it has to stop. You know I am equipped for this hike up the north side better than Fish or Bill. Next time you slip off the ledge the bees might not be there to save you and stop wearing that mask. It doesn’t behoove me!” And, pass me a nice squishy marshmallow Susan will you!

Susan Shulman - John Paul Satyr ©2014

Mara - The heat was pressing in and I doubted my ability to drive the wagon. I caught my mind wandering off again so I stopped right where I was and dismounted. My mind was not moving too fast so easily I caught up. "Hey, let's try that time slit for a week before Mulka? Just for a breather?"

October 24, 2014

Cathy - Last night I talked in my sleep. 
"We have to get off this mountain!"
"Who are you?"
louder:
"WHO Are yoU?
louder:
"WHO ARE YOU???"
and them some mumbling....

William - The hummm was deafening. Ommmmmn..... I thought I must be getting closer to the summit. I turned to Fish and said ‘We must be close’

The lidless eyes blinked..rapidly.
The Ommmmn grew louder as we advanced on our rope.
‘I think we’re going around in circles’, Fish exclaimed.
‘Damn’, you’re right’
Fish went on, “Freaking Holy Herrings, we’re back where we’re cached Ria’s Mind; truly we need it now more than ever”
I bent to my knees. After four years of thinking I was ascending I realized that I was still going in a serpentine route that only lead to mid slope at best.
Fish began dismantling the cairn. He said, “perhaps we need to dig deeper”
For once I agreed’d with my slippery companion.

William Evertson - Found Photo (unattributed)

October 25, 2014

William - I dug deep into Ría's cairn. Damn hard work; pulling the stones apart. The deeper I dug the louder the sound. Suddenly Fish closed flippers along side his head. "I'm seeing the mountain as it once was, way below the sea, pushing up on the spines of whales; I'm hearing the songs of whales."

For once I saw his wisdom, because I had that dream as well.

William Evertson - Whale Mountain ©2014

October 30, 2014

Mara - Having caught back up with my mind I began to enumerate just how many conveyances we'd tried.... boats, dirigibles, balloons.... wagons, time slits, ropes and loose ends. It was as if we'd become magnetized to the island. My mind said, "Either your eyes are playing tricks on me or that's Nick Tesla hovering behind you."

Mara Thompson -  We Tried All Manner of Conveyances © 2014

November 20, 2014

Susan - Hey, they are finally coming back this way. It

only took them 4 years. I don’t
have much time left to swing before I morph. Do you see how strong my arms have
gotten Puff? I can flip and twirl all around the branches and my wings aren’t
even fully developed or reached its final span. I heard they brought the circus
with them. Maybe I could star! I love you Puff, but you sure don’t give much in
the way of conversation. Only so many peeps and growls I can take. It has been
lonely hanging here so long. I think I will write a song about you. …Puff the
magic Puffin……lived by the sea! …good start I would say. 
Fly over to that motley crew and guide them
here. No! Don’t eat that fish!

Susan Shulman - Magic Puffin ©2014

Mark - I am so glad to be climbing this mountain. I want to give up I want to 

turn back. I keep climbing and climbing. "Don't give up before the 
miracle," they tell me but I want to give up. I want to chuck it all. I 
want to hang out in a cave and never come out. But no I move up up up 
forward forward forward. I persevere with patience and fortitude. "Give 
up!!!" my weaker parts scream and then I hear the inner and outer 
miracle workers, like angels, like wise old owls, saying "No, don't turn
back now!!!"

Susan -  Never give up.............HOPE

December 15, 2014

William - “If everything in the universe is made of the same stuff,” Fish asks, “does this mean everything in the universe is dead or that everything in the universe is alive? That it’s just a question of complexity? Does this mean we can never die, because we were never alive in the first place? Is life and death an irrelevant question and we just haven’t noticed it yet?”

I had no answer until in my imagination I saw a humming bird emerge from Fortuna's Wheel. Susan fell on her back and roared with laughter and said, "Now we're making some progress," I repeated someones famous words from some fucked up idea of heroism and clutched Mara's map tighter..Damn the torpedoes..full speed ahead. Everyone stared over the top of our meager fire at hut 19....I realized I hadn't spoken in 3 months!

William Evertson - Escape from Fortuna's Wheel ©2014

December 18, 2014

Susan - Why is he always contemplating the meaning of life? Dead or Alive, sounds like a wanted poster.

What’s it all about William?. Its osmosis, the universe, oneness with creation,
symbiotic ultraviolet codependency. Like as I was telling Fish the other day in
hut 14. “Look man, I mean Fish. man…just chill out. Soon you will make it to number
15. You stress too much. Be mellow yellow like moi, Scat-cat Man-do-little. I
know climbing is your thing. Reaching the peak of your performance. But you act
like you have cat scratch fever. You are way off the planet. Just look at Marky
Mark over there counting the salt crystals from the ocean. Whoa, Hey, don’t
look backwards or you will be frozen like a statue! William, can you pluck
another of those pretty pink buttons growing around that patch of weeds for me
and pass it up to me!” ‘Like I said, it’s the circle of life man…slow down and
listen to the blues!”

Susan Shulman - Cat Scratch Fever ©2014

January 10, 2015

Susan - “Put me down,” yelled Fish. “Calm down you slippery little thang. It will just take a moment to screw

these strings. Won’t hurt a bit. Its just in your imagination remember!” We all
stared at the bear holding Fish.
I looked at Lee and asked
if he was a friend of her monkeys? “Nope don’t look at us!” I strutted closer
to this fanged creature wearing a rusty broken chain on its hairy ankle. I
wasn’t sure if it was smiling or ready to eat us. I grabbed William and pushed
him ahead of me since he was taller and would make a good distraction if
anything went wrong!
The bear sang as it
stroked Fish’s Neck with one of his scales he plucked from it using it as a
pick. He was playing the blues on his 3 strings Fish Guitar. 
“My name is Boris
I play them blues for
you. 
I escaped from the Russian
Circus
Chained as a dancing bear
My momma’s gone
My papa too
I am so blue
And I play them blues for
you.
Don’t send me back
I got no where else
I got your postcard in
that bottle Susan
And swam here to stay
Cause you blues me away”
William glared at me,
sternly, and said, “Figures and I thought we were trying to get off the damn
island. Wait until Mark hears about this!”
Ok Boogie on Boris

Susan Shulman - 3 string Fish Guitar ©2015 

January 12, 2015

Lee - "hey lady, that's my dinner you're playing with there"

Susan shook her golden curls and played on. she thought entertainment was the best distraction. Bill agreed.

Lee kept her distance with the goat hoping to not be noticed.she knew if there were 2 bears & Goldie locks there must be another bear close by. maybe they're not hungry...Mara needs to make more food.fast..tho there does seem to be more fish than usual'.

Lee Goldberg - More Fish than Usual ©2015