novel 83 - 14. strong views

by nick nelson

part fourteen of ?

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mrs taft had strong views on many subjects and she attempted to impart these views to her charges. * there are people who rule the world. they have ruled it for thousands of years, at least. they are mostly iinvisible. not always, but mostly. they take more of their share of the world’s goods (this is the most important point). they create tribes and nations and religions to keep people divided against each other. so that people will not unite against them, the rulers. despite their power, these people are stupid. and weak. they are bullies. and like all bullies, they are cowards. it should be easy to rise up and defeat them. somehow, it has never happened - yet some day a prophet will appear. preferably female. mrs taft always expressed these sentiments to the girls as a group. she never took a particular girl “under her wing” and she made an effort to treat them all equally and give them the same amount of attention. as she felt that to do otherwise would encourage jealousy and dissension among them. most of mrs taft’s opinion rolled easily off the girls’ young minds. as they were more interested in growing up getting out of the home a and finding jobs and/or husbands. still, mrs taft felt more hopeful about some girls taking her precepts to heart than others. she especially liked gardenia’s feisty attitude and thought she showed promise. but it was actually elsa, the quietest one, who most took her proclamations to heart. mrs taft did not teach the girls reading and writing and arithmetic and such. they had to enroll in the local elementary school. to be continued

novel 83 - 13. elsa

by nick nelson

part thirteen of ?

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norris flowers,, like many people in today’s pitiless world, had a horror of being perceived as mediocre. all he wanted was to be accepted as a human being. he had a brother named ben who dreamed of being a revolutionary. and a sister named elsa who just waned to get along from day to day. when norris was six years old, ben was nine , and elsa was eleven, their mother, jennifer, left the three children with their father, wyman, an underling in a vast international conglomerate, and got on a bus to las vegas to pursue her dream of being a standup comedian. but the jokes were few and far between that cold winter without jennifer’s paycheck being deposited regularly in the family’s bank account. wyman flowers lost his job in the vast international conglomerate, and, unable to secure employment elsewhere in a reasonable amount of time, joined an old college classmate of his, omar plunkett , in a crew of aggressive panhandlers living in a large cardboard box on the sidewalk in front of city hall. the three children, norris, ben, and elsa, were placed in foster homes. * on a rainy tuesday afternoon. little elsa arrived at the home of mrs judith taft. mrs taft was a full time foster mother , and had four other girls under her care when elsa joined them. three of them were elsa’s age, and one was two years older. the older girl’s name was flossie, she had a torpid disposition and made no attempt to dominate or boss the younger girls. the alpha girl was actually the youngest of the lot - by a few weeks - and she was a hellacious little hellcat. her name was gardenia. mrs taft was content to let gardenia exercise most of her hellaciousness on the other girls , rather than on herself. not that mrs taft did not rule the establishment with a cast iron hand. there was supposedly a mister taft, but none of the girls had ever set eyes on him. he was said to be a salesnan, always “on the road” and the girls speculated among themselves that he did not really exist. such was mrs taft’s home for girls, though it was not officially called that, or anything else, so she could take a boy in if she wanted? elsa asked on her first day. everybody asks that question on that first day, she waa infrormed by the second youngest girl, hortense. and they alwlys get the same answer , the last girl, imogene, added. and what might that answer be, elsa persisted. nobody knows, gardenia asserrted decisively. next

novel 83 - 12. al's and bud's

by nick nelson

part twelve of ?

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what do you think so far? uh- kind of heavy handed, but all right, i guess * albert was a. creature of habit, and grew more so as he grew older. almost every day at noon he took himself to al’s coffee shop. and almost every day ordered the same thing. a medium decaf and a raspberry danish - sometimes a cheese danish. despite following this routine fro years, none of the employees at al’s ever seemed to notice him or to comment on his punctual appearances. one reason might have been the high turnover of the employees - about 34 percent higher than that of other similar establishments. when albert first began frequenting as he thought some persons - preferably women - might occasionally ask if they could sit at the same table with him. but al’s was not that busy a place, and in all the years albert frequented it, nobody ever dd. sometimes albert wondered what he would do if al’s went out of business - he thought finding a like place in the ever changing world of the no longer so new new century might not be easy. but he would put the thought out of his mind and go back to his dreams. and then finally the inevitable happened - al’s went out of business - overnight and with no warning. like, albert thought, the collapse of the soviet union back in - whenever it was. albert went on line and googled “old fashioned coffee shops near me”. he immediately found a place called bud’s only two blocks away. ' bud’s seemed a replica of al’s except that it was slightly smaller and its front faced north instead of south. albert wondered if this would make a difference when winter came and the winds starting blowing. on alberts first day at bud’s the middle aged woman behind the counter asked him his name! no one had ever done so in all the years at al’s. did this mean the world was getting friendlier? if it did, it meant everything albert had read and been told fr decades was wrong. in any case, albert told her his name. and she told albert hers - elsa flowers. what next? albert wondered, as he sipped his cup of decaf , which seemed a little stronger than al’s had been. will somebdy ask if they sit down across from me? and sure enough, only two days later, somebody did. and he met charles dunwoody. mind if i sit here? charles asked. of course not, albert replied, as if t were the most natural thing in the world. next

novel 83 - 11. reset

by nick nelson

part eleven of ?

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it all began on an overcast afternoon on victor widespan’s yacht. it had been warm and muggy all day, with no sign of a hurricane or a revolution or anything very exciting. koji lightyear asked if anybody wanted to play shuffleboard and nobody as interested. gena harris proposed playing charades and nobody said anu=ything. excuse me. yes? who are these people, exactly, and why am i supposed to be interested in them? well, before they were characters in this novel you - you. with assistance from a i., are writing, they were lonely people just like you. they do not sound like lonely people, they sound like a bunch of jerks. just because people are jerks, or belong to a bunch of jerks, does not mean they might be lonely . if you say so. by the way, does this mean that i, as a lonely person, might end up in somebody else’s novel? maybe. .but only if you sign a waiver allowing us to. but i do not have to sign the waiver? no, of course not. shall i - we continue? what were these people like before they were a bunch of entitled jerks drinking dom perignon on victor widespans’s yacht.? would you like to start over? please. most people like stories about people on yachts, but if you want something a bit more proletarian, we are happy to oblige. i am more of a power to the people person, so let’s do it. whom shall we start with? i don’t care. start in alphabetical order. i am an alphabetical order person. like a lot of lonely people. if you say so. * albert brown wanted two things - to be a great writer and to get a girl. he did not have any luck in either endeavor, and as the years went by his chances grew dimmer. besides his own rapid aging, the world changed in ways that even further reduced his chances . fiction and poetry continued to be published, but not the type of fiction and poetry albert had known as a dreaming adolescent and young man. there were no more stendhals or hemingways or t s eliots or audens, and there was no audience or expectation for new stendhals or hemingways or t s eliots or audens. there were only, it seemed to albert, identiity politics, identity politics, identity politicss and romance novels. as for getting a girl, the picture was even bleaker. at the time our story commences, according to wikipedia, there were only about 20,000 “heteronormative” human females on the planet seeking live human males as mates.. and these rare creatures would not glance at any man worth less than a billion dollars - preferably 10 or 20 billion. sometime albert felt so sad he could sit down and cry. at other times he felt curious surges of confidence, and felt that everything would turn out right in the end. next

novel 83 - 10. the fireplace

by nick nelson

part ten of ?

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it was getting cold in the old house beside the abandoned highway. ima joker, seated in the enormous stuffed armchair in the middle of the room, stared at the cold dark fireplace. we should build a fire, he announced for the third time . with what? meiinda nightingale asked acerbicly. do you know how? sally turk aded. ima glanced at quintessential robinson as if for help, but quintessential, seated on the floor below the cracked window, ignored him. good question, ima replied wearily to sally. they lapsed into silence. outside, a dog barked. it did not sound like a very big dog. i wish that was a wolf and it howled, ima said. why? sally asked. it would make things a little more dramatic. nobody responded. after a while, quintessential got up, stretched, and went out the front door. where is he going? melinda asked. nobody answered. is he coming back? sally asked. you ask too many questions , ima pronounced. meliinda looked over at sally. sally and melinda wondered if ima was going t o get up and follow quintessential. but he made no move to do so. he continued to stare at the cold fireplace. the minutes crawled by. quintessential did not return. finally they heard a car coming down the highway. that had better be koji, ima announced. melinda laughed. what if it is not? sally asked. next

novel 83 - 9. new assignment

by nick nelson

part nine of ?

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suddenly omar’s phone rang. simultaneously gena’s phone rang. gena stopped looking for her keys. omar stopped watching gena looking for her keys. stop what you are doing - you have a new assignment. gena looked around the parking lot . omar had gotten out of the dodge el dorado and waved to gena, go ahead, the voice on her phone told gena. gena went over to the dodge el dorado and got in the front passenger seat. omar got back in the operator seat. it all happened in a matter of seconds. charles dunwoody had been watching the whole scenario from his seat at the window of the bar . charles turned on his phone. it was in text mode. behind the bar, elsa flowers stopped talking to herself and warched charles out of the corner of her hawk eye. proceed to the junction of highway 73 and south river road . junction - you do not hear that word much any more, gena observed conversationally. omar ignored her and started the dodge el dorado. they left the parking lot and headed down the highway.. were they looking for adventure? excuse me? were omar and gena looking for adventure? i am glad to see you are paying attention. but, no, they were following instructions, as i am. koji lightyear continued down highway 91 in his blue ford f-150. his phone rang. next

novel 83 - 8. what about

by nick nelson

part eight of ?

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thank you. wait, i have some questions. what about albert brown? what about charles dunwoody? what about elsa flowers? what about ima joker? what about them? you have not mentioned them yet. all in good time, soames, all in good time. so you will get to them? and by the way, my name is not soames. sorry, i must have been thinking of one of the seventeen people i interviewed earlier this morning - or all of them. i grudgingly accept your abject apology. now, back to albert brown and company. i told ypu, all in good time. the time is now. you are very persistent. that is just the way i am. maybe that is why you are lonely. who said i was lonely? is that not why you are here? yes, now that you mention it, i guess it is. you are lonely, and you are exploring the concept of loneliness by writing a novel under my watchful eye with the help of a i. that is a lot of words so it must be true. are you lonely tonight? about the same as usual. let us return tp omar and gena in the parking lot pf the hotel superbe. next

novel 83 - 7. sunset

by nick nelson

part seven of ?

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ursula vanderleffer and willoughby xenophon-st john met for cocktails at sunset on victor widespan’s private beach. the sun was going down in a magnificent red and gold chiaroscuric conflagration over the purpling waters. ursula’s petite raven - haired handmaid was spreading ursula’a fabulously costly hand-woven beach towel over the sparkling sands. willoughby xenophon-st john waited in the wings, making no attempt to conceal his rapidly growing impatience. how do you like it so far? it’s great. shall i continue? go for it. back at the hotel bar, gena harris and koji lightyear were putting their heads together. are we all set? yes. good. without looking at his watch or phone, koji waited exactly fifteen minutes. he got up and left without saying another word to gena, gena took another four minutes and nineteen seconds to finish her margarita. then she too got up and left. night had fallen fast, as it did in the tropics. omar plunkett watched from his dodge el dorado as gena approached her lexus at a leisurely pace. come on, lady, get a move on. when gena finally reached the lexus, she dropped her key on the pavement. the clock was ticking. omar cursed like a chief financial officer at a board meeting, which he had been in several of his previous lives. gena could not find her key! how are we doing? keep it rolling. next

novel 83 - 6. different

by nick nelson

part six of ?

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people are lonely for different reasons . some people are lonely because nobody likes them. other people are lonely because they do not like anybody. here are ten examples of people who are lonely because nobody likes them. a). albert brown because he thought he knew everything, b). charles dunwoody because he was always sneaking around c). elsa flowers because she was always talking to herself. d). gena harris because she was ignorant. e). ima joker because he thought he was funny but he was not. f). koji lightyear because he was fat. g). melinda nightingale because she was a snitch. h). omar plunkett because he was always arguing. t). quintessential robinson beause he never looked anybody in the eye. j) sally turk because she wore too much perfume. ok, that’s ten people who are lonely because nobody likes them. now what? write a novel about them. wrte a novel? how much time do i have? half an hour. can i use a i? of course, how else are you going to write one? can i have a cup of coffee first? you can have all the coffee you want while a i writes the book. next

novel 83 - 0. epidemic

by nick nelson

part zero of ?

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there is an epidemic of loneliness in our society today. um. it says so right here on my phone. where else would it say it? loneliness is a greater existential treat to the planet than climate change. it says so right there on your phone, huh? it surely does. does it tell you what existential means? it means something exists. i knew that. anyway, to cut to the chase - what does that mean? chase what? chase manhattan. the way i see it, if loneliness is a problem, it is the easiest one to solve in the history of the world . so you have solved it? i think so. don’t keep me in suspense. there are eight billion people in the world, right? i think it is up to nine, but go ahead. so if one of them is sitting in their lonely room being lonely, you just introduce them to another lonely person in their lonely room, and they can have a nice conversation. problem solved. i don’t know. i think most people that say they are lonely are looking for a little more than that. of course they are. but there must be enough who really want to just talk to somebody to make it worth somebody’s while. but - isn’t basically that what people do on line now?. no, they do just the opposite - they argue and slag each other. what does that tell you? i think we should go see mister brown. maybe, if he will see us. next

novel 83 - 5. first contact

by nick nelson

part five of ?

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hello, badperson86. my name is joshuajericho89. are you new to loneliness? yes, i am new to the app loneliness. but i am not new to the reality of loneliness. that is why i am here. do you want to talk about yourself? no. what do you want to talk about? anything but myself. that covers a lot of territory, i guess. can i ask you a question? please. are you interested in the history of pharmaceutical psychopathology? you mean am i a junkie? no, are you interested in the history of pharmaceutical psychopathology? i can not say that i am. what are you interested in? nothing much. can i ask you a personal question this time? go for ii. do people generally find you boring? yes, very much so. are you boring because you say boring things or because you do not say much of anything? i guess you could say it is a combination of both, depending on an evershifting combination of factors. you really do sound boring. of course i am boring - why else would i have signed on to this app. there are many reasons for people to be lonely. such as? next