| Chapter 06
That deadly nutmeg tree
As I thought quietly to myself
about the day, I wondered what would become of it. Looking over to the
shelf, I picked up a binder of jottings. Not interested in reading the whole
thing, I opened it and began to read several paragraphs from the first page.
For authenticity's sake, any part of a story read must be documented
in full. If you do not wish to read it as you feel it may deter you from the
actual story, then you may skip over it. Don't worry, I won't give you a
failing grade! I would like to say however, that if someone attempts to document
an entire day without the presence of thoughts fluctuating past the given
moment in time, then the account would be highly inconclusive. It would
point to a good storyline, but it would not be an accurate account of that
day. Simply because writers do not want to get that in depth in their subjects.
It is a powerful deterrent. In this case it is necessary. As necessary as
are veins to the human body.
It was the fall of 1981, and I was
living in Annadale with mom and Ray. My parents had left for the weekend
with the brown & white Shasta trailer that they hooked up to the old Karmann
Ghia and dragged down to Shohola Falls. It was about 5:30 when I picked my
friend Dave up at his house. He wanted to celebrate his most recent job as a
New York City Transit Authority token clerk, but couldn't quite figure out
where to go or what to do. I, having ended a torrid love affair with my
former girlfriend Sharon had no intention of consummating another disastrous
relationship for awhile. Sharon who was as promiscuous as she was revealing
is now somebody else's headache, while Dave's girlfriend Luisa broke up with
him due to a more personal matter. He wanted her to have the baby, and she
didn't want to be tied down so instead of nurturing it, she murdered it
before telling David he should find someone else. Someone more mature, I
think she meant older. Finally, he found it within himself to move on.

It was only natural.
I drove from his house to my house
and throughout the whole car ride he just would not let up about the failed
relationship. When finally we arrived at my house, it appeared that all was
calm. Then he started up again until I became depressed. After a mild
lamentation about Luisa and the baby he would never see. His baby boy or
girl, what color would it eyes have been, and that four letter word which
begins with a "C" and ends with a "T" repeated time and again behind moist
eyes. I knew now that we would not be going out to any club tonight, and so
I decided it would be best at this point if we just stayed inside.
What would be the purpose of going out to have a good time, when the person you are with has erected an invisible wall between himself and the world? It just wouldn't make sense.

Some time
elapsed before we hopped in my Grandfather's old car, which is now my
stepfather's new car and drove to the nearest Sav-on. I picked out a warm
but friendly case of America's favorite rice beer and carried the
rectangular box under my arm to the counter where I laid it down. It then
occurred to me as I was studying the design, why this beer is so popular.
Because it is red, white and blue, resembles the American flag and is the
most refreshing beer on the entire planet! As I was examining some of the
smaller text, a couple of rapscallions playing tug of war pulled apart a rather
large bag of M&M's scattering them everywhere! Ah, the joys of
parenting!!!
Pg 22 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I then displayed my identification
to the cashier where I paid for the beer, and we left. From there we stopped
at Vittorino's and ordered a pizza pie. I parked the 1972, black Galaxy 500
alongside the house, turned off the engine and went inside. The time was now
nearing seven. I put the entire box in the large yellow stand up freezer and
waited a good hour before going down to retrieve it. Dave was saying how
much Luisa loved Budweiser and this would be the first one he's having
without her. I then pulled two cans out and put them on the table. Dave
hastily goes to open his and the ring tab snaps off! Dave starts laughing
insidiously and says "that cunt, she put the curse on me." She didn't put a
curse on you Dave, I'll get the can opener. After it happened again I said,
"on second thought, I take that back, she did put the curse on
you!"

Halfway through the case I made a
ridiculous suggestion. Look man it's only a quarter after ten, I have an
idea. My mom has an unopened tin of nutmeg in the cabinet. I heard that
nutmeg can pack a pretty sweet punch! Dave began to laugh and told me I was
unequivocally out of my fucking mind. Okay I said, and slapped twenty
dollars on the table. If we don't get buzzed you keep the money. Fine he
said, let's do it. We boiled some water and proceeded to pour it in the
blender. Tapping the can of nutmeg slowly, we watched the gritty powder fall
into the water while the motor ran. The water soon turned oily and had an
overwhelming industrial solvent smell. Oh God I thought, what are we doing?
This is going to be like drinking Mr. Clean! I stopped the motor and all the
ingredients sank to the bottom of the blender and became one mass. Seeing
that it could not be poured, being that it had a consistency of sand
Dave uttered in a very despondent and baritone voice, "get the spoon."

We waited
for the liquid to cool before eating it with great effort. Needless to say,
each spoonful went down like noxious poison and burned the back of our
throats. We gagged and nearly puked throughout the entire endeavor but
managed to keep it down without vomiting. After the ordeal, I reached into
the fridge and pulled us out two beers each. Drink fast I said, you're about
to lose this race! Dave was ahead for the first stretch, but as he began
belching uncontrollably I soared ahead to the finish line! "Your just-a
son-of-a-bitch," he said, with an animated face while looking blindly toward
the floor and shaking his head adamantly! We continued to drink the rest of
our beers though our tongues and throats were numb and our stomachs
queasy.
Pg 23 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From out of nowhere Dave begins
laughing! "I can't get over those two kids! Did you see the size of that
bag?" I know, they were all over the damn place and one even went down the
back of my shirt! What a raucous those little bastard's made! "And how!" It
was around twelve thirty when Dave phoned for a cab. He said he had a lot of
things to do tomorrow and left. I apologized for the grand fiasco and
assumed the nutmeg had been counteracted by the beer and that's why the
night had fallen into ruin. He told me to replace the can with a new one and
said he was not going to take the money. The cab finally arrived at a
quarter after one and Dave was gone. I had another beer alone in the quiet
kitchen where I tried to figure out what went so terribly
wrong.
Saturday morning upon waking is how this story begins
My eyes sprung open like an
automated device on spring levers while I lay there motionless, neck moving
like an insect. This new head of mine felt more like a balloon filled with air
than my old head, and my face appeared to be distorted like a surreal mask
had been put on while I was sleeping. One that was not my own.

It seemed as
though when I looked forward I was, in fact, utilizing more peripheral
vision than I should have been. Almost like my regular eyesight was now
somewhat obscured and when I observed myself in the mirror, I couldn't see
the details of my face but instead something more disturbing.

My eyes flicked open and closed at
a sharper rate due to the increase in shutter speed and each of them was now
filled with an indiscernible amount of sticky liquid. Microscopic to a
viewer behind the mirror in my room, but logical in theory, I attest! They were
not irritated and they did not hurt. They were simply uncomfortable and I
would have kept them closed for the remainder of the day had that been
possible. Not to mention they were 4x their normal size!
(((It waits for you to wake up!!!)))
The hairs on my head did not feel
right to me at all. They were too stiff and bristly like that of a boar or
warthog and my bug face was now very similar to that of a fly, while my heart
was going so fast I could no longer hear it. I was immensely concerned about
what was going on but felt absolutely powerless to do anything to stop it.
Like throwing yourself from a tall building and then realizing you made a
mistake. Why the hell did I do this for I thought as I panicked? There was a
flash of light that appeared for a brief moment near my sternum and seemed
to open me up at the middle of my chest, separating my being. There was
nothing gross about it. Nothing red or disturbing from that aspect in the
least.
Pg 24 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was just so shocking to witness
that it brought an intense level of distress to my system, and I did not
know what was going to happen next. In a matter of minutes the full effect
of this drug would be realized. Without leading you astray I can honestly
say that in these moments of pure terror it felt as though a bomb had been
surgically planted within my heart, set to detonate at an undisclosed time.
I could now hardly breathe and my face, hands and arms were completely numb.
As I anticipated my own death, I could only imagine the Lord God turning the
flame up a little higher. "You did this to yourself, now you will never see
my
kingdom!"
The tragedy of my situation was coming into focus!!!
I was dying and not a
human soul could save me. I tried to walk but my legs collapsed under their own weight. The more I tried to move
about the worse everything became until it felt like the entire town was resting
upon my chest, and it seemed like I was carrying the fortitude of the entire world with
me as I ran full steam toward the stairs! At this point, my heart was going faster than
Keith Moon could play.

The fact that I
knew what
nutmeg was meant that I deserved what I was getting. David, on the other
hand, was
completely innocent in the matter. It was I who pulled him into this, and I would answer for that
dearly. David who has an occasional drink every once in a
while to stimulate his mood. David
who won't even smoke pot because it's illegal. Oh David, I do not think
you will be ready for this.

Aside from
being labeled a spice, nutmeg is in fact a very effective, fairly toxic,
amphetamine-like psychedelic. What I didn't know at the time was that when
taken in large quantities it can cause extreme psychosis, terrible nausea
followed by palpitations leading to convulsions, severe liver damage and
finally cardiac arrest. Had I known all the facts, I never would have taken
it. Even so, how was I to know the high was going to last more than forty
eight hours?
I was standing in the eye of the storm; a teaspoon more and I would have died for sure.
Dear Lord, if you are out there I beg of thee don't let go of me now!

Suddenly, I
was surrounded by screaming sirens as I bounded for the staircase in a vain
attempt to reach the telephone below. Four steps were all I could muster as
I desperately clutched the railing for dear life. These dark grey cartoon
teapots were tooting quite loudly as they taunted me inside my mind where the sound of sirens abounded. I was
flabbergasted to the point of diving out the nearest window but did not wish
to succumb to injuries withstanding.
The ungodly seraphims ranted in tones above reason to paralyze my damaged mind, until I was but a portrait of the insane.
Pg 25 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He's trying to summon an ambulance. . . An ambulance? Yes an ambulance!!! We must stop him from calling this ambulance! I will have his head!!!
These aerial creatures were acerbated to the point of boiling as they bellowed aloud from the top of their infinite lungs before abducting me into their sick and twisted musical.
He's running, he's running, he's getting away! He's going too slow... He'll never escape! Can't you all see that this boy is in fear? Freeze in your tracks and get back over here!!!

I was in a
state of complete and utter terror as I struggled back up the steps and into my
bedroom where I crouched down on the rug. On both knees, I began to pray and
could almost sense God wanting to smite me! Who can say for sure that the
next life isn't going to be filled with these monsters, so I had to give
myself at least a fighting chance to save my soul. It soon felt like there
was a rope slung over the banister and three men were pulling it with all
their might. I felt like I was slowly being hung and there was absolutely
nothing I could do about it. I wasn't quite sure if I was even breathing
anymore. If I was human anymore. In fact, I knew only one thing; my heart
was no longer beating. I know it must be hard to fathom but after two solid
hours of mind wrenching torture, I was going to be absolved of my
sins.
Before I
could say anything, I was reassured by the four dark grey teapots who introduced
themselves to me by name. It wasn't like a person to person introduction. It
was more along the lines of how you would envision a ghost if you ever had
the misfortune of running into one. In reality, I think I was listening to
the wailing of my own
conscience.
Hello, I'm teapot of the North - (sincere) I'm teapot of the South! - (angry) Hello Lad, I'm teapot of the East - (revered, mighty) And I am teapot of the West, pleased to meet your acquaintance! *tilting its lid* - (empyreal, inspiring)
Pg 26 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We do not mean to
glorify our own standings by this haughty behavior and
aggrandizing at will, but you had to be stopped! He was running for
the telephone! Yes he was, he was running to the. .
.
And the
confusion began again as the meeting of the teapots ran amok! Each one
trying to speak over the other until it was nothing more than pure
unadulterated chaos.

My cardboard shell of a head now felt like it was only
half there. The bottom half seemed to have disintegrated hours ago and those
little black bugs that were still falling out of it were everywhere. I knew
they were an illusion, unless however, the chemistry of my body mixed in
with the nutmeg created them. After a week of living like this I'm sure I'd
be completely mad, to a point of raving. I felt the back of my head, and it
felt like a light bulb. Okay I'm still intact. Had I felt a rather large
incision, then I would not have been able to stop my mind from destroying
me. Very soon, there would no longer be anything falling out of it.

The pure
unmitigated despair I felt in my heart must have been my soul burning and so
once again I prayed for God's mercy. I now realized in all my foolishness
that there is no one on the face of the earth who is beyond reproach.
Everyone will answer for themselves.
I entered
through a door which had opened in my head to see the effigy of Jesus
emerging from the clouds in a burgundy robe He was handing someone a solid
gold chalice 3/4 filled with deep red wine. The chalice appeared to have 4
large diamonds in the center on all four of its compass points. Then the
image faded and I was escorted back to my cell. My penance it seemed had not
yet been fulfilled and so in this place of torment, I was bade to suffer
some more. After about a half an hour the teapots stopped bickering and one
said, "I think he is beginning to understand. The atrocity you
have committed today has been requiemed by prayer. Now do you see why we
stopped you? Consider yourself saved from the torment of fire for you see
the good lord has once again bequeathed your soul." With that they vanished
as quickly as they came.
No longer would there be any ambiguity. No longer would there be anymore strife, I was free!
The room
was so quiet I could hear only the mild sound of my inner ears manufacturing
their own noise. Kind of like the sound you hear the day after a loud
concert. I looked at the clock and found that three hours had passed. My
heart had begun beating again and was off the chart. Knowing that I would be
allowed to live was far more than I could ever ask for and as strange as it
may seem, I was now genuinely happy. If I were to die at this moment, I
honestly believe my soul would be in peace.
Reunited in Heaven at last!
Pg 27 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It wasn't
long before the telephone rang! Although I now had the heart and body of a
ninety five year old man, I managed to find my way down the stairs and used
all my energy just to answer it. "Hello?" I said to the muffled voice on the
other end of the line and sure enough it was David! He told me he spent the
better part of the morning cowering in bed and praying for salvation for he
was stricken with interminable fear. You don't even believe in God, I said
shocked!

"I do now,"
he shouted!!! I told him the tale of the four dark grey teapots, and he began to
laugh hysterically! Don't laugh, I said to him through the communicator;
this is serious business! "I'm sorry, don't take it personally or anything."
He then continued to laugh wholeheartedly before telling me his story.
"Listen you're not gonna believe this! My mother comes up with a cup of tea,
right? All of a sudden, the phone rings. It's her friend Dottie. Do you know the
only thing she said, on the phone, for the past hour and a fucking half has
been Yeah-ahhHaa-hmmm? Yeah-AhhHaa-hmmm! I swear to God, she never changed
it! I'm gonna die if I don't stop laughing!
Yeah-AhhHaa-Hmmm!!!"
Suddenly
there was the sound of an impact crash on the other end of the line followed
by a loud boom! David picked up the phone and said, "are you still there?" I
asked him what had just happened, and he said that he tripped on an
extension cord and went headlong into the closet door breaking both doors
off their tracks. "You gotta see it," he said, guffawing in merriment! I now
had to hold myself back from laughing deliriously! "My head! My head, I
can't talk! My head went halfway through the bedroom closet door!!!" Just
then his mother could be heard entering the room. "What's going on in here
David?" She sounded quite concerned as she scurried about the room. My lungs
retching for release, but I refused to give in.
"You're
destroying this house," she screamed out in fury like a possessed nun! "This
whole house you're destroying!!!" David then tried to explain the situation
to his mother the best he could, but his mother being a solemn woman refused
to hear any of it! I then pictured that austere face of hers in front of
David and with that, I started to slip. . .
I tripped. . . Because I tripped! Will you let me talk? Okay, I broke the door on purpose with my head! (There was a long pause) "Why would you do such a thing," asked his mother in shock? Because I tripped!!!
Pg 28 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unable to
stop the tickling itch that begged for laughter, I exploded! Swinging off my
chair, I dropped the phone to the floor and collapsed. I don't know how long
I was laughing for or how much oxygen I lost to my brain but when I regained
my composure some twenty minutes later, every part of my being ached in the
worst possible way. I heard a song that sounded like a tea commercial
playing loudly in my head. Did I just make that song up or did the fool
thing just start playing on its own? Damned if
I know.
Dave's mom sure knows how to make tea, boy I'll say! Go with the best. . . Go with Earl Grey!

Little
jingles like this one would attach themselves to my brain, and I would find
myself totally unable to get rid of them for hours at a time. Kind of like
when you get a song stuck in your head, and it won't go away! After that I
went up to my room.
I couldn't
help notice the curtains as the wind blew gently through them. I saw a man
kissing a woman on a hill near a castle. The wind changed course and the
dark knight came and changed the fate of the two young lovers. There was
tragedy, doom, glory and finally peace as the story concluded. I watched the
curtains manufacture dreams for me and wondered how it was that I never saw
them before. If everything was exactly the same, then what has changed to
make me see what before I could not? I just could not comprehend it. I was
spellbound!
Two hours
later I spoke to Dave on the phone again. What happened before with your
mother, I asked politely? "She wants to take me to a psychiatrist." Because
of the door incident? "No. Something else happened." Well, can you tell me,
I asked curiously? "My mother was really disgusted with the whole door thing
and left the house to go shopping. As soon as she left, I went downstairs
for a glass of milk and a cookie. I don't even know why I did that! It
wasn't like I was hungry or thirsty! I just had to move around! So anyway,
to make a long story short, I fell up the stairs and the glass of milk
broke. I got confused! I wasn't sure what I should do, so I left it there."
You left a broken glass of milk on the stairs? "Yeah, (laughs) and the
cookie too!" With that I let go a roar of laughter that would not be topped
to this very day and collapsed to the floor! I could not catch my breath for
minutes at a time and thought I might actually die from laughing!!! The pain
I felt later was similar to a man shot from a cannon into a steel
wall.
Pg 29 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At around 7
pm, I was to meet my friend John at his aunt's house. They were having an
outdoor party in the backyard, and he told his aunt I would come. I left the
house before five, just to be safe but found myself standing at the bottom
of my block. Disoriented and completely unaware
of what was happening, I stood there as if waiting for
a bus. Scratching my head with a perplexed face like I had just been dropped
off in México! Only yesterday I knew this area
like the back of my hand, and now my memory was like that of a dying
tortoise. I struggled with the reasoning of the how's and why's, and for the
life of me couldn't get it right. I knew I had to go a certain way, but
nothing made sense.

My perception of reality was not altered so much as
my instinct of direction was. I went straight then left and down, but it did
not take me to the house at all, only further from it. I was lost, but I
knew all the streets. I felt senile, confused and old as I stared at what
should have been a familiar block.

My brain seemed to be in a place all by itself where everything was fuzzy in its confusion, and if someone asked me what 6 + 9 is, it probably would have taken me three hours to solve. That was because the memory sector of my
mind had been bordered up like an old abandoned house, and I couldn't help
wondering what would happen if I had to live like this forever. A burned out drone, staring at vitreous shadows in a deluded haze commonly known as dementia. If this is what I have
to look forward to in later life, then maybe it's better to die young.
*After
several hours, I was happy I left early!*
Bantam
laughter could be heard over the ridge of houses as far as a block away, and I
had pinpointed the location to be that of his aunt's party. I arrived
promptly at seven and entered in through the back gate, where the mighty
roar of people filled with alcohol charged the air. On a small runner of
grass the length of the house I traveled until I reached the backyard.
Standing on an array of firmly set paving stones, it did appear to me at
first like we were all on one big crazy chessboard! The sun shone so
resplendent upon the handle of the barbecue grill that it touched off a wild
nerve in my eye, and I had to look away. I was overwhelmed with excitement
and couldn't wait to have a drink of something. Anything! Aunt Dana was
dervishly whirling, being spun by a partner whom I had not yet met. John was
talking to his cousin Vinnie and his cousin was going on and on about this
new car of his. A Delta Eighty-Eight Royale. "This new fuckin' Oldsmobile I
got Johnny is fantastic! It'll run circles around these other pieces-a-shit
you see on the road. Come around, I'll take ya for a spin in it one day,
you'll see." He smoked his fancy cigarettes and spoke like an Italian
gangster while John just listened and nodded his head.
I made my
way over the squares carefully to where the alcohol had been stationed and then
suddenly began to feel out of place. Walking over to where my friend was
standing, I waved. "Hey-man!" He said in a glowing tone. "Glad you could
make it!" He then shook my hand before introducing me to his cousin Vinnie.
Then, he casually escorted me over to a part of the backyard where the
alcohol was stationed. I swiftly declared Boodles & tonic to be the rouser
and after that very first drink, it was all Bishop to King 9. . . Whatever
the hell that
meant.

Pg 30 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Later that evening, after a delightful barbecue and some enchanting conversations with my friend's niece and cousin, John drove me home in his Nova. As I got to the top of the steps, I turned the key. Upon entering, I realized my heart was now at a much slower speed than it had been earlier. It was now like Herb Albert playing Whipped cream. So relaxing I could almost fall asleep. It was like being on two amphetamines instead of twelve!
Eighteen hours after ingestion and not having slept at all, I watched my bedroom curtain's dance for me again, only this time it was different than it was during the day. This time it was slow and erotic, mainly because there was no sunlight shining through it, but rather electric light cast upon it. Besides, the drug was winding down, and it was getting late. I followed the backdrop until it subsided like black paint thrown onto a magic canvas. The spectacular image then faded away to naught. Every scene shown to me on that wonderful screen was continually changing in its own way before being repeated.
Xiphosuran shapes in the buttery
sand marked the erosion of a colossal shoreline. Castles made from seeds of
men decay in the morning sun like old grain elevators on long abandoned country
roads wither. I watched a maiden draw a symbol with her finger in the
sparkling silica as she knelt down in reverence to the memory of her kinfolk
taken from her in a violent windstorm. They now lay buried beneath her in
the center of what used to be their home, but is now only a skeleton. This
is what time can do as the fair maiden knows all too well. Mountainous
ridges carved deep into the steep wall from the side of an impressive canyon
lay furrow. Below, the equestrian's mare rides alone through a dry deluge in
his preeminence. Where vultures pervade the sky, ever looming and cow skulls
blanched by the sun become as common as mirages. . . They are grave markers. Saddened and without
hope she turns away. Granted, she has brought me a bucket of tears but are
they really for me or are they mine? As the pail expands to become an ocean
it soon evaporates to become an inlet of salt. Birds swoop down and take a
crystal of this salt home to their nest for one is all they can carry. It is
the seed of fertility. They will give it to their young, so they
might have life.

As the scene washes away a sandy
universe takes its place. In the end, it was irrevocably the same. Much like
a sea wave when it rolls in, as it retracts and is pulled back into the ocean,
the muddy sand left behind seems to dry up almost instantly. Water has
become nonexistent. Delicate shadow's cascade through rivers of dried
seaweed and hollowed out bones to erect a new day. Such hope lies in
waiting, but I find the fair maiden has perished.

Pg 31 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eventually,
I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. There I dreamt, I was living in the
Soviet Union delivering packages of the utmost importance to the Kremlin,
but the Kremlin was simply a dilapidated storefront. Suddenly, it seemed as
though somebody was following me, and so I started to run. I never thought I
would escape. Finally, I made it to the way station where I delivered the
package to Мальвина, (Malvina), who was my mother. "I'll take the package from
here Роберт" - (Robert).

I then went back to my hotel overlooking the
Basilica and waited.
The telephone rang and I immediately snatched it from
its cradle. It is done, I said in a cool tone
and hung up. I then waited for further instructions. There was a fast knock
on the door, and so I opened it. Three men dressed exactly alike in grey casual
sweaters and matching pants stood, anxiously awaiting my command to enter.
Come in I said, hesitantly. Do you realize what you've done, said the first
man and ordered me to turn on the television? I did as I was told, and there
was the small package I delivered this morning. "Malvena was the spy and now
all of Russia is looking for you!

They are going to take you to the factory. They will torture you day
and night until you give them names." The factory? "The factory where they lop off the fingers and put fire to your lower region. The factory where everyone smiles on the outside, but once you are inside, a smile is nowhere to be found." Ohh, THE FACTORY! My God, I thought they tore it down!

Make it easy on yourself comrade; bedroom, third draw to the right." "You hear that," said the first man
looking out the large window? "They are in the street now. They are coming
up." With that they left and closed the door. I heard the sound of heavy boots
like thunder coming down the hallway and knew I had to move fast.

I walked
into the bedroom and pulled open the third draw to the right. They entered
the room and began smashing everything in sight. There is nowhere to hide, I
said calmly as I put the gun to my temple. Looking down, I saw the hotel
room key on a metal tag by the Matreoshka near the end table. As I picked up
the rusted and filthy tag that looked like it had been lying too long in the
back of a toilet tank, the truth had revealed itself and was plain for all
to see. Room #1302. I grinned for I was
amused at the sheer irony of it. I then thought to myself loudly, only in USSR!
As the sound of glass
objects breaking and men cursing in demon tongues came closer, the bedroom
door burst open and the hammer instinctively fired.

My eyes opened and my
heart was still beating, though very fast. I thanked the Good Lord for his
kindness and for saving my soul from the fires of perdition. I was relieved
to be home, rather than lying face down in a blanket of red along the banks
of the Volga river. I closed the book after reading less than a paragraph. I
was glad I documented the nutmeg ordeal and returned the book of jottings
back to its rightful place on the
shelf.
From my
bedroom window, I could now see Mother walking down the block like she was
campaigning for a cause. A woman full of vim and vigor in the morning! She
rounded the corner like a cosmonaut, and I thought. . .
This is ground
control to Major Tom; you've really made the grade!
Pg 32 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reviews for chapter 6
Harriet Mormer - One page of Charles Pendelton is longer than an entire chapter of James Patterson! Two masters in their own right. One is a master of mystery, the other a master of madness and I really like it!
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PG 22) Genova Bay vision by Jacek Yerka
PG 22) Back side of the moon by Vladimir Kush
PG 23) Oddment 83 by Leah Palmer Preiss
PG 23) Where there's life. . . Orchestra and chorus conducted by Russ David
PG 24) Visions of Nobrow by Matt Dangler
PG 24) Vanity by Robert Connett
PG 25) Damocles by Heidi Taillefer
PG 25) Chained by Nathan Rosario
PG 25) Hierophant by Chris Mars
PG 26) Response Art take 2 by Sante
PG 27) Letting Go by David Ho
PG 28) Samsara by David Ho
PG 28) Goodly Creature by Leah Palmer Preiss
PG 29) Oddment 60 by Leah Palmer Preiss
PG 30) Between sand and stars by Jeff Christensen
PG 30) Untitled Moments - The aftermath
PG 30) Split time by Catherine Lall
PG 30) Chess by Vladimir Kush
PG 31) Birdland by Leigh Palmer Preiss
PG 31) The tenuous light of the dream by Gil Bruvel
PG 32) Lengiz, Books in all Branches of Knowledge by Aleksandr Rodchenko
PG 32) Big Brave Communist Worker Fixes a Poster on a Wall
PG 32) Chimneys and smokestacks built and repaired
PG 32) Long live powerful aviation of the socialist country!
PG 32) Trade unions do not represent the interests of workers
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