...and hey! There's the old house! To think I used to be so afraid of the dark at the top of the stairs! Silly. Why, I should just drop in and walk right up those old stairs...

Dimly lit at the top of the stairs stood a stepladder below a trapdoor in the ceiling. Ascending it I cautiously inserted my head in the opening and then as if by magic I was on the Main Street of the town. A boy stood reflected in a summer window there, gazing at the sneakers within. Behind him in the reflection was a man, who, walking by had stopped to contemplate the boy and the display. �Live forever,� said the man, and then continued on his way.

The fire was gone, then back again, like a winking eye. He stopped, afraid he might blow the fire out with a single breath. But the fire was there and he approached warily, from a long way off. It took the better part of fifteen minutes before he drew very close indeed to it, and then he stood looking at it from cover. That small motion, the white and red color, a strange fire because it meant a different thing to him. It was not burning, it was warming.

It was a pleasure to burn.

What's that all over your shoes?
Have you been playing "musician" again?

And that was the day, yes, of the first wild bursts of laughter which Phipps ignored by simply saying, "We must, oh we must, stand all of us, downwind from Gettysburg. It's the only hearing place."

(sound of creaking door slowly opening)

"Hey wait a minute...who opened that door over there while I was reciting? There's a tumbleweed blowing through here,jeez-louise, and did you notice that echo, echo, echo??? Who is that man in the poncho over in the shadows with the glaring red eyes? Who's
flimflamming me anyway? Where's my spot, could somebody please turn my spot back on. I'm ridin' outta here now, I mean it, we don't cotton to yer kind around here mister nor you either missy."

(sound of footsteps, swinging saloon doors, and a lone horse fading into the distant night desert as a whippoorwill cries and the wind murmurs)

(indistinct metallic ping as robot falls from mount cussing horse disappearing into the dark)

p.s. Nard, I just checked your site out, awesome art and pictures, nice music as well.

[This message has been edited by Robot Lincoln (edited 02-28-2006).]

I live in a well. I live like smoke in the well. Like vapor in a stone throat. I don't move. I don't do anything but wait. ...

�We lost Sam.�
�The guy with the hotdog stand?�
�Yah, him.�
�Boy, that guy. Why he could change a tire in a snowstorm better than anyone, and stoke a furnace�?�
�Yah, that�s him. It�s your move.�
�Yours."
�Move your checker, would you, we�ll be here all night.�
�King me.�
�Ah, a competitor. Did you know they�ve found another one for us to burn? Up in the hills it must be. I wonder if we�ll find more of those empty orange pop bottles?�
�Must be kids playing around. I wish they�d leave the poor wretches alone.�
�Someone�s got a lot of black flakelets on their shoes. They say you can prevent that by keeping a good shine on them. A dangerous thing if you�re a filmgoer though. I hear those theater rats love shiny things.�
�Oh, shouldn�t have done that. That�s three. King me.�
�I concede. Lend me your Bradbury tonight?�
�For your Poe?�
�They�re burning them on Earth I hear.�
�What?�
�The books.�
�Fools! There�s no pleasure in that.�
---
(In memory of Darren McGavin)

[This message has been edited by Chapter 31 (edited 03-01-2006).]

Hey, Barney! Aunt Bee says Opie's growing giant mushrooms in the cellar!

(In memory of Don Knotts)

Attaboy, Luther!

What to do with those giant mushrooms?

"Nip 'em."
"In the bud?"
"In the bud!"

(In memory of Don Knotts.)

[This message has been edited by dandelion (edited 03-01-2006).]

But what do you do with the stumps then?

Ask the witches.

[This message has been edited by Robot Lincoln (edited 03-01-2006).]

Speak on witches.

[This message has been edited by Robot Lincoln (edited 03-01-2006).]

[This message has been edited by Robot Lincoln (edited 03-01-2006).]

Sorry bout that, I somehow wrote "what do you do with the stumps then" three times in three postings, I didn't know what to change it to, I was temporarily stumped, my apologies. I dance like this as well.