Chapter
81 Back to the Bar
Where everybody knows your name… Gary
Portnoy
In just a moment, or was it an eternity,
she was back in Elsewhere, the loud boisterous warmth of the place instantly surrounding
her. She found herself sitting at her
table, as Phil had described it. Phil
patiently sitting across from her with what she now recognized as a friendly
smile of his robotic, centipede face, with a happy wiggle of antennae.
“Well, how’d it go? Save the Multiverse yet, did you?”
It only took her a second to focus on her
new reality, and in that time, a shout of “Marie” went throughout the room.”
She smiled and waved with a friendly good
nature to the crowd. Had she taught them
that Cheers greeting? she wondered, before turning her attention to Phil.
“I’m afraid I didn’t no.”
“Well, that sucks,” replied Phil. “We all doomed then?” Well, not us, of course, we’re all perfectly
safe here…you said so yourself.”
“I did, huh? Did I ever say why?”
“Sure, lots of times, it’s that whole
border of interstitial transdimensional boundary thing…we have going here. At one time, this world was part of the
multiverse, but now it isn’t.”
“Okay, tell me what you know about it, as
much as you can remember.”
As she said those words Oustar was there
with a glass of Rassberry Iced Tea, “Always wonderful to see you, Mistress
Marie.”
“Merci, Oustar” Marie answered, “You as
well,” with a kind smile. She meant
it. How much of her automatic responses
were generated from morphic resonance she wondered idly for a moment?
Oustar bowed warmedly, “Can I get you two
anything else?”
“Yeah,” Marie answered, ‘you know I do love
multidimensional cultural music, but I was wondering if we could get a little
Bob Marley going, just a song or two, helps me think.”
“It’s your place, Mistress, Bob Marley
coming up.”
Marie turned back to Phil, “So, tell me
about Elsewhere…”
“Well,” he began as Buffalo Soldiers came over the
speakers, “a very long time ago, this planet, which you may or may not know is
my homeworld, and of course the rest of my species at that. We were involved in a terrible war against
these creature…I hardly know what to call them…they had mechanical bodies, but
inside they were driven by colonies of mircorganisms, a type of protozoa, I
believe. They had worked out some kind
of interface from biological to mechanical, but it would not work on us. This appeared to enrage them…if protozoa can
be enraged. They all but wiped us
out. That’s why everything is scorched
here outside…we would have been doomed…but then somehow…and my parents would never
tell me how exactly…as I was a wee mecho-larva at that point…you saved us
all. I know it had something to do with
you moving this planet to the interstitial transdimensional boundary
border. That’s about all I know.”
“How the fuck could I move a planet? I don’t know how to move planets.”
“Yet.” Phil said.
“Okay,” Marie mused out loud, “Well, I’ve
got a pretty good idea what your protozoa are, and where they came from.”
“Well, then you know more than I do. I told you you’d figure it all out.”
The song changed to One Love, and Marie
could not help but move her body with the reggae beat. Phil, she noticed had joined her, as had most
of the occupants of the bar, which appeared to be pretty much the same crowd as
was there the last time she visited.
“Hey, when did I leave here anyway?”
“What?
This last time. I don’t know,
just after the game finished up? About a
half an hour ago, something like that anyways.”
“Wow,” she observed. “Time flies why you’re doing weird shit, I
guess, or it doesn’t…whatever.”
At this Phil laughed. “You’re so awesome, Marie. Thank you for being my friend.”
“Thanks for being mine. You have no idea how helpful it is to have a
friend like you and a place like this to come to.”
Was he blushing? Well, perhaps the robotic centipede
equivalent of blushing.
Bob Marley was singing in the background:
One
Love. One Love. Let’s get together and we’ll feel alright.
“Oh my God!
That’s it!” she exclaimed. “Or
that’s part of it.”
“What is?” asked Phil.
“I know where I need to start,” she
answered.
“Where?”
“I need to visit the Right Jenkins.”
“The who?”
“I know exactly who the right Jenkins is. And I know exactly where to find him. It’s been right in front of me the whole
damned time.”
“But you can’t leave now,” replied Phil,
“Coff-Coff just put your favorite TV program on all the screens.”
“MY favorite TV program?”
“Well, it’s open for debate you said,
either Sherlock or the early BBC Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett. Coff-Coff went Brent, this time, but look,
it’s your favorite episode, The Final Solution.”
“Reichenbach Falls!” Marie shouted. “Yes!”
“Well, I didn’t think you’d get that
excited about it, you have seen it before you know.”
“Don’t you see? The songs, the Marley and the Holmes. They were messages, future me has sent
current me. One Love and Reichenbach Falls. Those are the answers I need. Now, I just have a couple of questions for
the Right Jenkins and I’ll know exactly what to do.”
“Really?” asked Phil incredulously. “From a song and a TV show, you know how to
save the Multiverse?”
“Yep.
I think so.”
“You’re not planning on doing anything
crazy are you?” Phil asked his little face suddenly wrapped in concern.
“My friend, Philip,” she answered, “Every
bit of this business is crazy…that’s the only way to be. I’ll come back in two seconds, and if I’m
right, the Multiverse will be saved, and we’ll watch this episode together, and
I’ll buy you another one of those…things you drink.”
“Sounds like a deal. Just be careful, Marie, you have a lot of
friends here.”
“I’ll be as careful as possible, but if it
doesn’t work, then we’ll never have met, and you won’t know to miss me.” She
replied. “See ya…”
And she wrapped the cloak of Ain around
herself and she was gone.
copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt
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