749632 - 18. jasper

by red jones

part eighteen of ?

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dang, thought jasper, this is one long and lonely highway. even longer than the one between thomasville and paris. and lonelier than the one between harristown and south eden. jasper had walked a lot of long and lonely highways, it was what he did. it was the loneliness that got to him. jasper liked to talk. and he had a lot of things to talk about. but no one who wanted to talk to him about them. it had not always been this way. when jasper was a little boy he talked all the time. nobody paid any attention to him. but nobody laughed at him or told him to be quiet. and in those days he did not have so much to talk about. just the things he saw and experienced himself. grandpa read the newspaper from front to back every morning. when grandpa finished with the newspaper he tossed it aside. jasper, who had learned to read in school, and was the third best reader in the school, would retrieve the paper and read it from front to back. he liked the comic strips, especially mutt and jeff and the katzenjammer kids, but he liked the front page news about wars and peace treaties even more. the sports pages and the society pages, not so much. jasper wanted to talk about the things he read in the paper, especially the wars and peace treaties and the generals in their uniforms and medals and the diplomats in their black top hats, but did not find much of an audience for his observations, especially from mother and grandpa and kid sister sally. mrs lincoln, the teacher in the little red schoolhouse, told jasper he was a bright boy - meaning the term as a sincere compliment, not as an expression of derision, like the men in the barber shop and the pool hall. she would have been saddened, but not terribly shocked, to see jasper walking down the long and lonely highway talking to himself. the moon came up over the highway. to be continued

749632 - 17. dorothy

by red jones

part seventeen of ?

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what are we going to do about dorothy? i did not know we had to do anything about dorothy. is she ill? if she is, send for doctor parker. we parted ways with doctor parker last christmas. doctor wetherby is our doctor now. of course. as i am in perfect health, i tend to forget these things. dorothy is not ill, but she is still dorothy. being dorothy is not such a bad berth. she gets to live in this fine home on — on something or other avenue - twentieth avenue. thank you, you know how bad i am with numbers. you were saying? i was saying dorothy gets to live in this fine home surrounded by servants who attend to her every need, most of which are quite imaginary. the servants must be paid, especially after the latest ridiculous decrees of the so-called progressive government. people do call it the progressive government, and i believe that is what it calls itself. everything needs a name, or else where would we be? the servants cost money, and dorothy costs money. do we not have money? not so much as we would like. nobody has so much as they would like, not even old jones. yes, cecilia, what is it? i could not help overhearing your conversation about dorothy. of course you could not, as you are a frightful little sneak who listens at doorways and peeks through keyholes. be that as it may, i have a suggestion about what you can do about dorothy. i do not think you are competent to make such suggestions. no, go ahead, cecilia, let us hear what you have to say. delilah and i were walking down twenty-third street yesterday - what were you doing on twenty-third street? and have i not made it clear that i do not approve of your association with delilah? we were on our way to fanshawe’s bookstore, and we were accopanied by delilah’s chauffeur - who i am sure is a complete ruffian. actually goggins is a young woman. who attended bryn mawr. did she graduate? may i politely interrupt? what has all this to do with dorothy? dorothy and i were approached by a man - she and the man appeared to be acquaintances.. i do not want to hear another word. and i do not want you assoociating with delilah. what say you, pater? next

749632 - 16. the wanderer

by red jones

part sixteen of ?

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who was the man in the brown coat and the yellow straw hat? his name was ken upside. he went down to the river to buy his poor dog a bone. but when hie got there old man mose was gone. that is strange, ken mused, old man mose is always here. right where he belongs. puzzled, ken wandered into the swamp. maybe charlie catfish knew where old man mose had gone to. if anybody would know, it would be charlie. or mama roo, but ken was not about to try to find mama roo on this sultry summer evening as the sun was going down. soon it would be night. and tiger, kens dog, would be wanting a bone. tiger was a good old dog, but getting a little old in his game. ken saw a flash of light in the gathering gloom. that must be charlie, he thought.lighting his pipe. and sure enough, it was. charlie waited for ken to speak up if he had a mind to. charlie never started conversations, a body could come upon charlie in the swamp, or even in town on the rare occasions he ventured into town, and charlie would wait for the body to speak, even if it took all night or a week or until judgment day, before he, charlie, would speak a word. ken did not waste time on preliminaries. howdy, charlie. seen old man mose around? ain’t seen him around lately. seen him leave, though. leave? leave when? and leave to where? where do you think? to join pancho villa. he’s been talking about it for years, you know that. but he was going to take me with him! he promised! charlie shrugged. i got nothing to say about that. between you and him. well, ken expostulated, that does not do much for the last flickering embers of my belief in human nature. i never thought old man mose, of all people, would turn out such a dirty rat. anything i can do for you? my dog needs a bone. i don’t deal in bones, never have. you know that. but what am i going to do? you might try mama roo. if you can find her. find her? it’s getting late. it is already late. night had fallen, and ken and charlie could hardly make each other out. hell, said ken, maybe mama roo went off to join pancho villa her own self. stranger things have happened, charlie agreed. next

749632 - 15. willie

by red jones

part fifteen of ?

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the woman in the black suit with gray stripes got out of the long black car with no headlights or tail lights, without making any sign to larry as to whether he should stay in the car or follow her. she strode purposefully toward the door of al’s place. larry decided to get out of the car and follow her. but the car door would not open. * the time has come to reveal the name of the man in the blue suit. it is willie jones 33. that of course, is only his name. his number is 7y9t-8hh4. this is the new style number assigned to persons already processed in the populaton department’s consolidation program. prior to his processing, willie had been three people living in building 965437 in city 43285, the old “indianapolis” of continent 3. the first person was number 33. number 33 was a leninist marxist butterfly collector who liked chocolate chip cookies and baked a batch of their own every thursday. and wished to share them with their neighbors but was rudely rebuffed. number 33’s favorite scientist was archimedes. their favorite poet was sappho. their favorite movie star was hedy lamarr, and they often dreamed or streamed about being hedy lamarr, or about dining with her at delmonico's or 21. that is enough about number 33 - let’s get on with it. all right. the second person who had been consolidated into willie was: winona kingsbury, who lived across the hall from number 33 , but had never spoken to them except to decline their unwelcome offer of chocolate chip cookies. winona was a poet, and immersed in genealogy. she was a direct descendent of judas iscariot, tamerlane, gottfried leibniz, amd clement attlee, among others. her favorite fictional character was nancy drew. her favorite authors were dale carnegie and sylvia browne. enough already. i hope the third person is more interesting. you are awfully picky. how many people are interesting? good point, but proceed. the third person was: bill white. bill white was a maintenance man in building 965437. he lived in the boiler room in the basement. next

749632 - 14 . where you can be seen

by red jones

part fourteen of ?

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johnny, aka 23685-j, turned the collar of his coat up. he pulled his hat down over his eyes. it was getting cold. and it was already dark. and there was no sign of what he was waiting for. it started to rain. the big guy had told him, stay where you can be seen. no ducking into doorways. understand? i understand. do exactly what i tell you. exactly. no deviation. i get it. stay out where you can be seen. who was johnny to argue with the big guy - and on his first solo assignment? it started to rain harder. and then there was an explosion of sound that almost knocked him over. a blast of light blinded him. stay where you are! stay where you are! don’t move! gorilla hands in metal gloves grabbed his arms. something was wrapped around his head and everything went black. next

749632 - 13. a time of upheaval

by red jones

part thirteen of ?

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there are two kinds pf people in the world. good people and bad people. good people who care about other people and want to change the world to make it a better and fairer place. and bad people who want to cling to their privileges. 23865-j worked for 66083-b. 66083-b had always been a bad person but he professed to want to amend his ways and become a good person. it was all the same to 23685-j, as long as he got paid. 23685-j and 66083-n lived in the old city. i am sorry, but i can not remember those names. all right, 23685-j will be johnny, and 66083-b will be the big guy. thank you, that is much better. some of the big guy’s employees drifted away after he shifted to being a good person, but johnny stuck with him. good for him. no, he just wanted his pay check. whatever. please proceed. it was a time of great upheaval in society. it is always a time of great upheaval in society. this was an exceptionally upheaved society. that is why so many people were switching sides, like 66083-b - like the big guy. next

749632 - 12. the man who needed a shave

by red jones

part twelve of ?

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a man sat in a booth in a coffee shop, looking out the window where he could see the car that had passed the man in the blue suit as he walked down the street humming his tune. the car was now parked outside the coffee shop. it had fifty-five minutes left on the parking meter beside it. sunlight glinted off its back window, the man sitting in the booth needed a shave. he was wearing a gray t-shirt with the word “staff” emblazoned on it in bold black letters. he had purchased some kind of latte, and a raspberry something that he had not taken a bite out of. it started to rain. the man who needed a shave sipped his latte and waited. * the man in the blue suit continued down the street, keeping close to the sides of the buildings he passed, but still getting wet from the wind driven rain. he stopped humming his tune. like the man who need a shave, he was waiting for a message. next

749632- 11. the man in the gray suit

by red jones

part eleven of ?

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the car sent to pick up the man in the brown coat and yellow straw hat pulled over and stopped and the man in the brown coat and yellow straw hat opened the rear door and got in the back seat. the car was driven by a man in a gray suit with a blue dodgers cap perched at a jaunty angle on his head. a pink shirt with red stripes and a navy blue bow tie completed his attire. he had a pale white face, as if he had spent long hours in a coal mine or in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison. hello joe, the pale faced man greeted the man in the brown coat and yellow straw hat. my name is not joe. sorry, my mistake. i am not in the mood for idle conversation. i am sorry. i will not speak again. true to his word, the pale faced man in the gray suit did not speak again. the car got back on the main road. it drove to the edge of the city. it started to rain. the man in the gray suit wondered if he could turn the radio on, but decided against it, as he did not want to annoy the man in the brown coat and yellow straw hat. next

749632- 10. the gamblers

by red jones

part ten of ?

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the man in the brown coat and yellow straw hat went down the stairs - he did not trust elevators or other closed spaces and avoided them as much as possible - and out into the street. he checked his phone. the car being sent for him was eleven blocks and approximately two minutes away. meanwhile, the man in the blue suit , who had left the house he had been in and waited in the street for five minutes and then gone back inside the house and called line 4, reemerged from that house and began walking down the street toward the center of the city. the city was a large one, and inhabited by many people. although it had been constructed relatively recently, it was now listed by the central authority as the twenty-ninth largest city in the world. it had a bustling and burgeoning economy, centered on sports betting. the man in the blue suit did not himself have much interest in either sports or gambling. the car that had passed the house that the man in the blue suit had occupied, after he had gone back inside after his first five minute emergence, was parked by the curb three blocks away. it appeared empty of human occupants. sunlight glinted on its rear window. the man in the blue suit passed it. the man in the blue suit began humming a simple tune - a quaint habit he had picked up in a previous life. the car being sent to pick up the man in the brown coat and yellow straw hat, going in the same direction as the man in the blue suit, passed the man in the blue suit as he walked along humming his simple tune. next

749632- 9. the man in the brown coat

by red jones

part nine of ?

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line 4 lit up. a man answered it. proceed. they did not show up. did you wait the full five minutes? yes i did. are you sure? of course i am sure. no need to get testy. proceed with plan 2. acknowledged, line 4 went off. the man who had answered it got up and looked out the window, he was a strange man. and this was the first day of the rest of his life. he put on a brown coat. and a yellow straw hat. even though he hated hats and thought they looked old-fashioned. because he always followed orders. (the man followed orders, not the straw hats) next

utopian grit, part 2

by bofa xesjum

part 2 of ?

ignatius sunset and 830-7 went back a long way. they had both been recruited into the movement by ahmed ying. of the twelve people summoned to the boardroom by 713-5, how many do you think were in the movement? i do not know, why don’t you tell me? i will keep you guessing a little longer. i can’t wait. number 5 actually wrote a book about loyalty. then i guess she is the number one suspect. mister blue worked harder than anybody, and let everybody know it. maria wang always seemed to be on vacation, or attending a conference somewhere. very suspicious. what would you say if i told you all twelve people in the boardroom were in the movement? but not 713-5 himself? probably not. i would ask why they would not just do what they were going to do, whatever it was? like shoot 713-5? something like that, yes. did you hear any shots? no. what do you deduce from that? 713-5 is really in charge, because he is quite a guy. wrong. ok, explain to me what i got wrong. who is 713-5, really? that is not an explanation, it is a question. you are right. i generally am. to be continued?