12. part 2: The 3rd party existention?…so, what happend to BettyJane
The trio of the two unlikely companions, (Betty Jane & Data) and my wonderful cat, Elmo, were quite aware of the postman, the ever popular Mr. Miller, who knows all and sees all, the perfect governmental employee stood leaning on the door way, rolling his eyes while I scribbled my name on his form. By the way, it was he who caught me writing my usual monthly report to Ed Grimley when we first moved in here 17 years ago. He must have recognized my handwriting because I always left the forwarding address off of the envelope! That letter was being held at the main Austin Post office, like writing to Ed Grimley was a terrible crime or something of the sort. Although this is Austin, and “knowledge is power” as it says on top of the Entrance to the University of Texas’s main building… but I had been writing Ed for so long, it seemed sort of sad and it was the correct address of the the TV animated show. So they probably tossed it , so what?
I am always a bit embarassed when I think of that time years ago when good old Mr. Miller knocked on my door with this snide look on his face, one eye brow up, sort of waving and displaying my letter saying “isn’t this yours?” Why he would remember me and my hand writing was a great mystery to us all? Even though he has seen me in my “head ache invention” (the icepack that wraps around an injurded area, like a knee or an elbow I bought at the corner drugstore for 5 dollars) sat resting above my stupidest pair of glasses. That head gear wrapped round my head did have a certain “je ne sais quoi”, with that condensation, dripping, wad of a huge bright- blue frozen inexplicable weirdness and it’s long black fastener of velcro, wrapped twice around my head. Hey, maybe he thought it was some kind of wierd turban. here I am some silly old lady starting some sort of horrific events…well, I did look pretty strange as I opened the door with that on my head, like a hat . Oh, well, that”hat”might have been the tip off, it realy was less than glamourous. ( They sell them on dweeb catalogues now for 50$ US,). but I digress as usual.
As I was handling the rather large package, and at the same time conversing with the all knowing pensive postman, little did I know my world was horrendously changing as all the while as I was chatting with Mr. Miller, “of dubious and questionable nature”[1], those very bad three had managed to slither out side, with out being seen or heard by yours truly. But never the less, they had managed to sneak out of the Front door! And continued to make they’re way through the yards to the north. But why? and for what purpose”?
I am not sure who was the worse influence there, as they had all disappeared before; just not in tandem… But I did suspect Betty Jane was again”up to no good’, and Data, why the heck didn’t he just use the ‘transporter ‘? must have been the 19th century costume, inspiring him to rough it on his way to out to the unknown, “boldly going where no one has gone before.”[2]
Unbeknownst to Betty Jane and Elmo, Data had taken not only his fiddle but also his Phaser. When I realized they had once again disappeared, I only hoped that Data remembered “the Prime Directive”. [3] But then I realized that my” Mothers boy”,Elmo was gone too; It was more than I could stand. And that was a serious problem for me, I can’t go runing outside calling his name like a regular person, the truth is I’m more that a little bit crippled.
Part III (tomorrow evening)
Kay Buena(tm) all rights reserved
[1] Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia”
[2,3] “Star Trek, the Next Generation”