Notes - understood / completed Pouch 19

         Mid-afternoon. You have had a busy day with chores, working in the yard and errands. You had a late lunch at Potbellies in Kenwood then a little more outside work. Your ACE lopper snapped earlier and when you went to buy a new one this afternoon you were told to bring in the old one and get the new one free. You did. They get the credit from ACE and you get a new lopper with handles about a yard long. The blade just snapped when you were cutting a tree limb. - Amorella

         I wasn't misusing the lopper and I've had and used it off and on for a year and a half. I didn't expect a new one free; in fact, since I didn't have the original sale slip I didn't expect any compensation at all. Our ACE store is less than two miles away and it beats driving down to Walmart or Target for yard tools and machinery. Such were the whole of the business worlds like this, but that is not to be expected. Survival of the fittest -- Darwin economics works but sometimes it is not so nearly humane as the friendly generations old local Mason ACE Hardware Store was in this case.

         1624 hours. I've been thinking about how important Doug is to this project. He is a great old friend like Bob but obviously more science oriented than Bob who was literary. Still we were all into abstract thinking and both have been a blessing to me. So has Fritz who has been a friend since the eighth grade and my lawyer since he graduated second in his class at law school at OSU. Thursday is our next 'gathering' of the Westerville High School Class of 1960. Fritz and I plan to meet for lunch at Bob Evans as usual. When we were in high school we used to laugh and talk on how it would be when we were both retired, sitting on a bench in Uptown Westerville watching cars move up and down the street and people (including pretty young ladies) walk by. It is not quite as we thought, but close enough. Again, Fritz is another old friend who has been very important in my life. I love my friends. I think it is extremely human, deeply human to love your lifelong friends -- it is almost more important than just about anything. '

         Your words have stopped, they deserted you because in context you also include me in your friendships but do not know how to put this because I'm not legally real. You don't need words with me orndorff. I understand your point, and I would not be here if 'this circumstance' were not as it is. Just like with your friends, you don't have to say anything. Our relationship, as it were, is understood between the lines and in the margins. Post. - Amorella

         2010 hours. Left over chili and peanut buttered crackers for supper as we watched last night's "Major Crimes". Earlier I watched "Under the Dome". We are keeping all the recent "Inspector Lewis" and "Endeavor" shows to watch again because they are so entertaining to us these days.

         Let's go finish Pouch 19, Amorella.

         2110 hours. We really didn't finish the conversation, and we got waylaid by "God".

         So what else is new, boy? - Amorella

         I wanted this to focus on the soul.

         It began that way but the characters have their own agendas. You gave them free will you remember. - Amorella

         I did. It is only right in a realistic fiction that characters are allowed a limited free will in any case.

         Romance must have its due, orndorff. Isn't that the way it is in real life? Isn't that the way it is with you? You requested your muse's opinion, write romantic or neo-classic? She responded, "Romantic" without the slightest hesitation, and that was before you began Braided Dreams. Any last words, boy?- Amorella

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Diplomatic Pouch 19 ©2013, rho, draft for GMG.1

            After a leisurely return from the dark side of the Moon to Earth Ship planted itself seventy thousand feet directly above the Rock and Roll Museum and Great Lakes Science Center for the night.

            Comfort positioned each around the walnut table as before. Most noticeable to Blake were finding Justin sitting next to Hartolite and Yermey sitting next to Pyl. I find it odd, he thought, that Pyl and Justin chose not to sit next to one another.

            Yermey smiled comfortably and said, "I am sure you have many questions. We can take a few before bedtime."

            Blake began, "Earlier, Yermey, you said machinery allows us to see who we really are. I think you were referring to Ship's abilities to keep each of us on board equally comfortable and safe. As we are each sitting in the same chairs as before, each of us is sitting next to an alien."

            Friendly interrupted, "That was my idea not Ship's -- I want us to become closer as a group, not as two groups of aliens."

            Pyl countered, "We are all humanoids not aliens, Blake."

            Yermey added politely, "Go on, Blake, and let’s settle on your question."

            "How can machinery see us as we really are when we don't know who we are? At least we humans don't. I don't think we have a clue as to who we are."

            "I don't think Yermey means that, Blake," countered Pyl once again." She turned and looked directly at Yermey, Blake is talking about who we are in terms of our hearts and souls and minds. We see ourselves as a mystery sometimes. I'm sure you must feel the same."

            Yermey appeared momentarily puzzled while Friendly and Hartolite stared at him in disbelief; waiting for the typical response they would have expected him to give if Pyl was one of his own kind. But then no humanoid marsupial would have ever thought to ask such a question so directly.

            A couple of seconds past before Yermey stumbled out with a, "Pardon?" He adjusted a mischievous smile, "Or is it Please in your fair city of Cleveland?"

            Pyl was momentarily distracted by the twinkle in his eye than the smile. She politely and quietly declared,   "Cincinnatians say please. Some. It is due to the city's early German heritage."

            Yermey replied, "Bitte; as in a request rather than as an annoyance or a question."

            Friendly noted that Blake and Justin glanced at one another in surprise. She quickly added as matter of fact, "We know several languages and Ship has translation/transcribers of all of them on your planet if we need. We prefer English in this circumstance."

            Pyl gave a little nervous laugh (usually quite annoying to Blake) and commented, "It is relaxing to me to see you are not perfect, Mr. Yermey." She paused, "You mixed up the cities."

            Yermey's smile shifted slightly for relaxation. "I did not expect the conversation to move to, as you say, 'hearts and souls and minds. But I, we can respond to how our ThreePlanets culture views these terms."

            Blake interrupted, "Yermey, can your machinery detect a person's soul? If so, how is this possible?"

            "Define soul first, Mr. Yermey if you would. We have few words for something that has never been proven to exist."

            "Like God," added Justine. "These words are mostly indefinable by their nature."

            "What is their nature? How do you see God and soul as alike? If they are, why do you have two words when one will do?"

            "If I may," said Hartolite. "In our language your word, God is written as it sounds, "Godofamily, CreatorofAllThingsanBeyond." It is one word, but like your German sometimes the word and meaning are strung together whereas in English you might hyphenate them."

            "God of Family," noted Pyl. "Does that mean you have a Family God?"

            Yermey unintentionally gave Pyl eye contact while thinking; this Earth-woman has a pleasing voice. He said, "No, it means we think of God as a part of our family in that She provided a pouch, the universe, as a place to live."

            "That's interesting," replied Pyl. "Most earthlings think of God as a male."

            Yermey inadvertently became his usual self and rather haughtily commented, "The male does not have a pouch you see."

            Pyl gave him an eye normally reserved for her brother and clipped, "I don't see, Mr. Yermey. Would you like to show me you don't have a pouch?"

            Awkwardness descended so quickly that one might have thought sheorhe heard an embarrassed Ship quietly shuffle out of the room.

            Justin came to Pyl's aid with, "Perhaps we should leave God and/or God of Family out of the conversation for now."

            "Time for bed," proposed Blake, and the others quickly agreed.

792 words

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         Post. - Amorella