Sunday, April 3, 2016

The Events of January 13th to March 25th - Chapter 34

January 15

Mark - I felt like my molecules were slowing down to a crawl. It was probably the salt crystals. I felt like I was going into suspended animation. I remember a friend saying to me "It sounds like you are in a hot air balloon drifting above the landscape, able to see very far, and you are getting a new perspective." I glanced toward the sky and my atoms slowed to a crawl.

January 29

Mara - I kept climbing. At one point I saw some velcro goats, contentedly pausing on the cliff face with ironic looks on their faces. "Yeah, I'm coming" I thought "Ha!". Instead I sat and shrugged off my rucksack. "Somewhere in here is the stewpot and flint.. Ah!" Removing the small bicycle (documented by Ripley's Believe it or Not) I prepared to go gather ingredients for the January Stew.

Mara Thompson's Velcro Goats

Five hours of foraging. Five. Hours. I've a sack full of mushrooms, thyme, onions and olive oil. Will this make a savory stew or a strange brew?

Mara Thompson's Small Bicycle

February 27

Susan - When they saw it barreling down the slopes even the Velcro goats slipped off the cliff. “What now?” screamed William Evertson as one of them landed near his workshop splashing the sawdust onto his face! “What in tarnation is making that ruckus? So many interruptions, sheesh, I’m trying to carve a huge sign so maybe we can get off this damn island!” “I’m looking for Boris the Musical Bear and have travelled far. Where is he, I can smell him?” bellowed this greenish steam punkish thingy. I saw Boris in the corner of my eye and told him to freeze! No one would find him! Well, here's another nice kettle of fish you pickled me in Susan, whispered Fish talking through the corner of his pursed lips. (He watched a lot of Laurel and Hardy as a minnow) Right, like no one can see his lips move!

Susan Shulman - Boris the Musical Bear ©2015

Kathleen - "Mara, has Susan been eating your stew? We could ask her about the mushrooms. Savory stew or strange brew, indeed!"

Mara - Still mucking about the bush with a gathering bag and razor blades... make that a March stew.. let it march right to me and into the bag. I pulled out the musical comb and began the self gathering nut tune.

February 28

Mara - As I continued to play with the other hand I dumped out more from my rucksack and found the large cooking pot. It won't be long now before it'll be time to build the cook fire.


Mara Thompson - Contents of Rucksack
April 4

Mara - Mark: "You look at the world and you report on it. That’s it. You spend time with a tribe, observe the way they fish and hunt, discern the contours of their rituals, beliefs and superstitions, tune into their unspokens and taboos. Then, after a year or so of this, you lug your note-packed trunk down to a dilapidated jetty from which a series of small rubber-trading boats and giant ocean liners carry you back to your study, where, khakis swapped for cotton shirt and tie, saliva liquor for the Twinings or iced scotch your housekeeper purveys you on a tray, you write the Book on them: the Great Report that maps the world you have been observing at its deepest and most intimate level, sums the tribe up, speaks its secret name". Sounds like a dream. After which Mark startled by the shifting of a log in the cook fire, woke and gave a groan. "Soup coming along nicely,,, welcome back" said Mara, her backed turned to him while stirring the pot.

William - Fish regarded Mark and Mara with lidless eyes then returned his gaze to the notebook open on the table; he sighed as he wrote "Le monde est fait pour aboutir à un beau livre" in a fine cursive then paused for another sip of saliva liquor.

April 5

Susan - Get up and dance...we will read later!

Susan Shulman - Get Up and Dance ©2015

April 18

Mara - Bivouacked and, for now content.

Mark - I was dozing and I heard William, “Figures and I thought we were trying to get off the damn island. Wait until Mark hears about this!” He was glaring at Susan, sternly, and she looked unphased. But after four years of thinking he was ascending Bill realized he was still going in a serpentine route that only lead to mid slope at best. "Serpentine! Serpentine!" I yelled unexpectedly, my way of letting them know I was awake and could read Bill's mind due to my delerious state. I was half in, half out. Half fish, half bird to them.

It was Mulka and Bill repeated someones famous words from some fucked up idea of heroism and clutched Mara's map tighter...Damn the dolphins...full speed ahead. Everyone stared over the top of our meager fire at hut 19....Bill said he realized he "hadn't spoken in 3 months!" But Susan would have none of it; She responded to Bill as if they were engaged in a long continuous game of hut tag: "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 ... You are way off the planet. Just look at Marky Mark over there" (motioning to me, not knowing I was positioned behind a wall of ice, half goat half frozen cloud, so she could not see the real me) counting the salt crystals from the ocean. Whoa, Hey, don’t look backwards or you will be frozen like a statue!" Then added "William…slow down and listen to the blues!”

Meanwhile Mara kept climbing. At one point she saw some velcro goats, looked right at me, then at Lee, contentedly pausing on the cliff face with ironic looks on our faces. "Make dinner" I said under my breath in goatspeak. The thought had been planted. "Yeah, I'm coming" she thought "Ha!". Instead of what she was going to do she shrugged off her rucksack. "Somewhere in here is the stewpot and flint.. Ah!" I thought of Ria who was in danger of disappearing and Mara began removing the small bicycle. "Bivouacked and, for now content" she muttered. "Will this make a savory stew or a strange brew?" she said as she began to toss bric a brac to and fro, hither and yon. The she spoke what sounded like a spell, "What rath vented spleen and conjurred Kathleen what path meant to brew Kathleen McStew" and with that Fish appeared and did a strange jig.

Dance!!!! said Susan. She spoke quietly at first then yelled. She clapped. She cackled wildly. It woke me up. I threw off my goat hooves and joined in. 

Kathleen McStew appeared. long vacant, she had been mistaken for Mark who had been missing for quite some time. "You look just like him when your gone" Susan told her. "Nut gathering corpses be damned! Dance!!!" she shouted.

Mara accused Mark of disappearing and he replied with a sorry Who Me? amd continued waking up. Susan could see him all along. "I have been in the most incredible Labyrinth" he explained. "A conundrum, a Sphynxian dwelling of some kind." But now it was time for some answers. "But I remembered the Gordian Knot and hacked the edges off the bastard" and smiled. "You were right there in the hut" Susan said. But Mark went on explaining how they were going to get off the island to no one in particular. "Where were you? Where was he?" muttered Mara to Lee who was now in her sheep outfit and eyeing the veggies.

Shuffling mushrooms, thyme, onions and olive oil into the pot, Mara fiddled with the stew as Kathleen danced. Mark whispered to Bill "The world is made to achieve a beautiful book. I want to call a meeting."

Pretending it was his idea, Bill eventually told all the campers to gather round the fire after dinner. He whispered to Susan who was busy poking Kathleen with the dull edge of a broken saliva bottle, "When the stew has been eaten we'll have a meetin" and so the first meeting we had gathered for since the previous Mulka was secretly underway.

May 3

Susan - You put your left foot in
You put your left foot out
You put your left foot in
And you shake it all about
You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around
That`s what it`s all about!...pass the mushrooms!

Susan Shulman - Left Foot In ©2015

William -  What a masterpiece...an artistic achievement that should find a place of honor in the Tsuff Museum.

May 5

Susan - Time was moving backwards with every step we took following the directions of the hokey pokey until finally it seemed we were all back to the beginning, when the only thing we thought about was the next day when we would meet at the park.
William Evertson was smiling from ear to ear…”I caught it Mara Thompson…I caught the ball, did you see it?” He screamed at the top of his lungs. We all ran towards him skipping and jumping in the air. I wonder if this time we should not leave the playing field.

Susan Shulman - Play Ball ©2015

Mara - Keep Playing!

William - Play Ball!

May 25

Susan - I was almost hypnotized by the swinging movement. My eyes were following the spins drifting back to those summertime Yo Yo blues. Not a care in the world except checking the tension, the string, and swinging around. Fun on a hot day, perfecting the Flying Saucer, Under the Mountain, Around the World, and ya, the Sleeper! That is what I am starting to feel right now. Sleepy. “Hey Yo Yo Man, its time for some games on the mountain” roared some menacing creature from the mountain. William Evertson turned white!

Susan Shulman - YoYo Blues ©2015

July 7

Susan - The humming was getting louder and piercing my eardrums. Waves seemed to jump out of the ocean and reappear into middle of the horizon hovering over the hot sandy beach in front of us. The sand started to twirl and swirl into a funnel connecting to the sky as water began to squirt out of a kaleidoscope of lights that were blinking in this chaotic landscape manifesting a great deal of steam. The once calm beach became a blanket of smoky fog. The aura of colours started to dissipate and a strange person came into focus with a dog wearing a scarf. “ I am the Time Traveler, and we are here to bring back Susan and where’s the alehouse, we’re a bit dry?” He barked in a Liverpudlian accent!

Susan Shulman - Alehouse Time Traveler ©2015

August 27

William - I gently slapped him a few times...slap...slap .....slap. His lidless eyes seemed to come into focus. 
Stupidly I ask, “Are you OK?”
“Where? What happened? The last thing I remember was saying this is the easy part”
“Fish, take it easy you might have a concussion; you’ve done a bit of a header trying that last pitch.”
Fish stared obliquely at me with his good eye and said, “I had a thought just as I reached for the rope...what if Mt. Analogue is every obstacle .....you know ...metaphor....allegory...”
He trailed off and I knew I was stuck. Here I am, ice ax buried but trembling from ropes holding a 1200 pound Flounder who thinks he’s some kind of cross reincarnation of DH Lawrence, Sartre and Hunter Thompson.
“I thought, what the hell did I do in my last life to deserve this? “I need some help here”, I yelled to my friends further up. I waited for the rest of the team to haul us out of the damn crevasse while I pondered the possibility that we were living in an allegory.

Susan - We all stared up at the sky while Fish was reciting his distorted dissertation of SRV the “Sky Is Crying” since it was the anniversary of his helicopter crash. As we all shed tears and blues our noses, William pointed up to the sky screaming “DA Plane, Da Plane”. Help had finally come to the mountain. My wish had come true; the caffeine canteen had finally arrived.

 
Susan Shulman - The Caffeine Canteen ©2015

August 28

William - Momentarily I was distracted by the sight of a giant coffee cup floating in the breeze and involuntarily loosened my grip and reached to the sky.....Fish slipped another 10 meters into the crevasse.
“You humans...there’s nothing human about you”, he shouted.
Oops, my thoughts snapped back to the present...no time to be thinking about good coffee with a mate in the hole. 
Truth be told I did have a picture in my head of hauling his sorry ass back up and posing for a selfie....like in the old days when it wasn’t PC incorrect to pose with your fish upside down on a line.

Mara - It was not a well timed nor a pleasant awakening. Someone was knocking or scratching to get in. Not yet overly concerned I hauled out of a complex dream state to attend to the plea for attention. A quick peek outside confirmed it was nearing time to belay the loose ends! 

Still, why rush? Returning to the sheets I turned over and punched to fluff the pillow for a cool side. Too soon the scratching sounds resurfaced with an additional layer of wtf!

William - My ice ax lost purchase and I rolled, flipped and caught the very edge of the crevasse. Fish yelled, "Cut me off, save yourself".

I yelled, Mara!!!!! Wake Up!!

September 14

Susan - Hey down there, anyone hear me? Turn on the damn runway lights. I can’t see anything in this mess! Looks kinda mountainous down there, like some peaks! I need to land! There’s a special delivery for a Mister Fish.
Susan Shulman - Twin Peaks ©2015

October 14

Mark - I was standing on the edge of a precipice, about to fling the typewriter over the edge when all of a sudden, much to my surprise, Susan appeared and snatched it out of my hand and replaced it with a more electronic model. Then she disappeared.

Needless to say, I was startled then relieved because I knew this was the moment I was waiting for. An ethereal figure replaced Susan or should I say replaced the time and space where she had just been hovering. I took it as a sign that everything was going to be OK no matter how bleak things appeared. I could feel myself moving forward and backwards in time simultaneously, able to see all the mistakes I had made and also able to have a good laugh about them.

The malaise I felt that I thought was unique to me was suddenly opened up to include all people. I could see how each of them had a time slit within their own selves and how it expanded out into a plane and then finally into a three dimensional gaping maw. Through the din I could hear Ria was muttering something about my favorite words as footage of Gurdjieff began to play.

 "Distortions and corruptions always creep in, because objective truths can only be truly understood through states of objective consciousness," the voice over said. Fish affirmed its claims, speaking from experience, "When the subjective mind attempts to comprehend objective truths and/or their representations and forms of expression, it ends up leading to delusions."

Bill, poking his head out from behind a nearby tree trunk said, "Since human language has developed in order to express the impressions of subjective consciousness, it is a poor vehicle for the expression of objective truths. Therefore, people with access to objective knowledge have used myths, symbols and verbal formulas of various kinds in order to express, preserve and transmit their knowledge from person to person and generation to generation."

Susan, now invisble shouted, "Those forms are designed to transmit knowledge directly to a person’s higher centers of consciousness, and cannot be truly understood through the ordinary, subjective mind!!!!"

"But symbols were designed for the higher intellectual center, and myths for the higher emotional center," Fish calmly explained.

October 26

Susan - “You down there. Look up! I got some candy for you climbers! Join me on the edge of reality and I will share my treats with you!” We couldn’t really hear it; the creature was too high up, yet the words flashed through our brains as we all looked up the sheer face of the mountain. Fish’s fins started flapping erratically as William stared up speechless! “See, Mark, voice is not important anymore, those forms are designed to transmit knowledge directly to a person’s higher centers of consciousness, and cannot be truly understood through the ordinary, subjective mind!” This place was really starting to make us all on edge! The lines between dimensions were blurring and the monkeys were nowhere in sight! Susan started to draw in the sand!

Susan Shulman - Candyman ©2015

Mara -  "Sorry, I've been sleeping in the caves since the end of August". Mara had some serious pillow marks on her face. "The weather got so stupid hot, it's all I could manage", she muttered softly. "Any coffee around?"

November 16

Susan - “Lets split this crazy world Fish! I think the island has “DENGUE WOMAN BLUES” fever! Can’t get that song out of my jumbled head!” “Just hang on Susan…the tides going to change…and you will be able to think again!” as Fish dove into the froth of the sea. He always knew exactly what the right medicine would be. Ya, to ride the heavy waves. I saw in the corner of my eye the climbers jumping up and down on the beach trying to get my attention. The wind started to howl and it started to get dark, I think a storm was brewing and I was afraid I might wipeout!

Susan Shulman - Dengue Woman Blues ©2015

Lee -  It may be time to real Susan in & head back to the caves to ride out the storm..I'm sure the monkey's will be waiting with a party as usual.

Mara - (Did you mean real or reel... They do both apply!)

Lee - Ah yes.get real and reel her in.

December 9

Mara - No sooner than I'd had my first cup of coffee a storm moved in. Those on shore watching Susan's fish tricks scampered back to the cave opening. Sheltering there was Monkey with a Fez, the barber. He looked at me sharply and said, you do know you are scheduled for surgery tomorrow, hunmmm? "I am?" "Yes, be at the shop 7:00 am sharp! Oops, sorry I mean promptly." "So," I thought, "internal exploration it is then."

January 28

Susan -  Look Fish, we’re alone again. Mara Thompson has split with Lee Goldberg to the Fez Convention on the other side of the island with those crazy monkeys who are preparing for the year of the Monkey celebration. The rest of the crew has just gone to the train except William Evertson who is carving wood on the north side. I think he’s obsessed with knives. You know these temperamental artists; sometimes they need their space to create!
Listen, I know your think you're human, but baby you are just a fish out of water. Listen to the waves, They are playing your song: CatFish Blues “WELL, I WISH I WAS A CATFISH, SWIMMIN IN A OH, DEEP, BLUE SEA I WOULD HAVE ALL YOU GOOD LOOKIN WOMEN, FISHIN, FISHIN AFTER ME SURE 'NOUGH, A-AFTER ME SURE 'NOUGH, A-AFTER ME OH 'NOUGH, OH 'NOUGH, SURE 'NOUGH “ So many versions of this song have been song over time Fish… from Robert Petway to Muddy Waters to Hendrix to Gary Clark Jr. Look fishy I say, lets take the plunge and become one with the mer. Embrace your inner “poisson”, I feel a change a coming and I want to test out my submersible I have been working on. You game!!

Susan Shulman - Catfish Blues ©2016

February 1

Cathy - She found herself lying on the rocks of a fallen scree
(shale of slate blue sharp and smooth, glinting in the sun)
staring into the eyes of a flock of mismatched birds 
observing her,
considering...
would she be tasty? 
where they? 
She gazed back
into those pitiless eyes,
or so it seemed at the time,
all the various levels of aches, and pains, 
swirling through her being.
bird eyes are like that
Because they have seen too much,
of course.
Sighing,
closing her eyes, 
she waited for the gurney to take her away
the waiting surgeon 
would remove her knee. 
contemplate
the fate of all beings who expose
themselves to foolish tasks.

March 12

Susan - The sea bubbled violently. The water churned giving way to spirals of angry waves. Thousands of green buttons came hurdling out of the ocean into the sky. All of a sudden snake-like arms protruded out of the depths. I shook William Evertson arm and asked. “Is that Poseidon?” Before he could answer, Fish said, “No its Orla O’Octapus, St. Patrick’s princess of the sea!
“Where is Karen?” the octopus bellowed, my tentacles are full of healing buttons!”

Susan Shulman - Orla ©2016

March 24

Susan - Something’s fishy on Mount Analogue. “Who are you and what are you doing with that in your beak?” I yelled as I stormed through the sand trying to save the minnow. The creature mumbled while clamping down on its tasty mouthful, “Its me.. Fish, I wanted to see what it felt like to be a bird so I borrowed William Evertson’s mask!” We’re just playing tag Susan Shulman. You know it gets really monotonous when there’s no one to distract me here on the beach. Where are all the climbers? Mark Bloch may have his wish, and the end may be in sight!"

Susan Shulman - Something Fishy ©2016

March 25

Mark - Climbing and climbing and climbing just wishing I could get to the top of something. Susan was on the beach, all the other climbers except Bill had their Bill masks on and it was getting confusing. I felt so comfortable with these people but with all of them looking alike it was starting to remind me of the monkeys and the other creatures along the path who I knew could help me but I didnt know what to ask for. So I climbed and climbed hoping to arrive at a clearing. I asked em, all of em, as I passed, if I could contact them later just in case I needed to but I couldn't imagine what I might ask for. I was in a complete conundrum. I had overthunk it. It was too late now or so I thought. The monkey looked unhappy but seemed to have all the answers. Maybe he knew nothing but wanted everyone to think he seemed to have all the answers. But he did know one thing, how to get to a clearing, to the top, even but I was too embarrassed to ask him. The bastard monkey.

Why was I so mad? He was just a monkey and a sad one at that. Earlier on the path I has seen a moa and apologized for rudely saying earlier in my travels that I thought his kind had gone extinct. My kind?? squawked the moa and stormed off. But now that I had humbled myself all was well. Yes the moas were extinct yet here was one. Back from oblivion I suppose. So now that things with him were patched up was I going to risk getting angry at a stupid little monkey with a bad attitude?

Thursday, January 15, 2015

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 o
ther 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