Almost
noon. You and Kim have been working on Carol’s Excel workbook sheet and Kim has
come to the conclusion that it will have to be re-written in Word, which she
has volunteered to do. You volunteered also but Kim says she can get it done
today or tomorrow. Carol will just be happy to be done with the BART lists.
You
also have a new document titled “SSPbyD” for the Slipper Project. You will need
to place this in a separate folder because you will be in charge of one
document, the one you have, and Diplomat will be in charge of the other. Title
yours, “SSP” and hers “SSPD”. Title the folder “Slipper”. – Amorella
1149 hours. That will be easy to do.
I’ll color code it red. It has been snowing, we have an inch or so. I would
just as soon work on Grandma 11 this afternoon.
Fine. That’s your digression, boy. I would like
you to let Diplomat begin also. – Amorella
How is this going to be placed in the
blog?
Why not use the other blog if it still
exists. – Amorella
I guess. I’ll check it out.
Fine. Later, dude. – Amorella
1158 hours. Diplomat changed her
document to “SSP/DB” and has titled her page:
The Silver Slipper Project
By Diplomat Burroughs
Mid-afternoon.
You watched The Making of Sherlock Holmes on PBS and had ham and beans for
lunch. You also shoveled most of the driveway of two inches of fresh snow and
are now taking a break.
1505
hours. I deleted the blog “Amorella, Diplomat and Me” and have created a new
blog titled: “The Slipper Project”. It can be found at www.diplomatburroughs@blogspot.com.
You need to establish your setting and
layout. Here is a suggested opening.
Welcome
to my blog. My name
is Diplomat Burroughs and I am a character in Richard Greystone’s Great
Merlyn’s Ghost, Volume Three which is not yet written. I helped Richard
write the chapter segment titled “Pouch Text” in the third book in his first
trilogy, Merlyn’s Mind. Today I am beginning my research on Richard
Graystone through his mind and memory since that is where I am also located.
The chapter segment for Great Merlyn’s Ghost is “Diplomatic Pouch”. I
will basically follow Richard’s layout in his blog:
where I am mentioned from time to time.
I
am the most unique character in these Merlyn books because my mother is an
Earthling and my biological father was Yermey, a citizen of ThreePlanets on the
other side of the Milky Way Galaxy. He was a good man and lived a full life of
almost five hundred years. He was a Marsupial-humanoid; my mother is Pyl
Burroughs, a Homo sapiens. I am a hybrid female. My blog is under construction,
please bear with me.
The above will do for now. – Amorella
1754 hours. I have been constructing
Diplomat’s new blog, and I had to delete part of what you wrote above to make
it fit. I’ll see what more I can do before sleep. It has been awhile since a blog construction.
Diplomat
has an idea of introduction. She would like you to drop in the segments from
her ‘birth’ through Merlyn’s Mind to give the reader background on her before
she digs up some background on you. What do you think? – Amorella
2118 hours. This went through my mind
within the last couple of hours but I don’t know about the copyright.
Use your near final drafting. Each day a new
segment, beginning in Running Through. Here is an introductory suggestion. –
Amorella
***
I
am going to do some research on Richard the Writer for GMG Vol. III but first,
I will show you some of my own background so the reader has a sense on where I
came from and who I am. This material is from Richard’s first trilogy, The
Merlyn Series. It is taken from near final drafts rather than the actual
published books. Some restructuring and editing will be made for easier reading
for character, personality and presentation. Here are words about my conception
from “Pouch Text -13, Book Two: Running Through. – DB
***
I
am going to do some research on Richard the Writer for GMG Vol. III but first,
I will show you some of my own background so the reader has a sense on where I
came from and who I am. This material is from Richard’s first trilogy, The
Merlyn Series. It is taken from near final drafts rather than the actual
published books. Some restructuring and editing will be made for easier reading
for character, personality and presentation. Here are words about my conception
from Richard’s book, Running Through. - DB
*** ***
Richard’s Running Through, Chapter 13, “Pouch Text”
> This is the Soki [Narrator]
Now I want to retrace the happenings in the lab that led up to Pyl’s decision,
with Justin’s reluctant agreement, to carry this clone child.
Yermey walked into the lab with
the specimen of DNA from the hair follicle from the two thousand year old man
thought to be named Jesus from the Middle East. “Blake, here you go. You wanted
to see what we do with it, let me show you.”
He proceeded to place the specimen
in the machine for analysis. Shortly thereafter he said, “See, it is human. So.
it doesn’t appear that this man is the Jesus who was the Son of God. It was
another man with the same name.”
Blake smiled, “Just as I thought,
but it could have been the same man. Some of us think he was a man first.”
“I thought the stories were that
he was born of a virgin merry.”
“That’s right.”
“So that’s where Merry Christmas
comes from.”
“Pardon,” said Blake.
“You know, the virgin merry.”
“No,” laughed Blake aloud. He is
not so smart, thought Blake, then he realized anyone could have made the
mistake no matter how intelligent he or she was. “No, the Virgin Mary is
spelled differently. It is just a coincidence that the two names are connected
to the same story. Well,” he continued, “it is not the same story, but the two
stories got connected over the years. I think the merry in Merry Christmas has to do with being happy or being in
good spirits, something of that sort.”
“It could have been a virgin birth
you know,” said Yermey.
Blake responded, “That’s true.
Parthenogenesis. It has been shown
is some lower animals but never in humans before or since.”
“How would you know?”
“You wouldn’t unless you’ve been
tested,” noted Blake.
“So it could have happened at
least in theory.”
“It is possible, but not likely,”
replied Blake almost unthinkingly. Yermey chose not to say anything, and it had
an immediate profound effect on Blake, who then broke out laughing. “That’s why
they call it a miracle.”
“Oh,” replied Yermey in a deadpan
voice. “We need to beef this sample up a bit.”
“That’s good. I like beef it up. You are very good with your
English.”
“It is a lot of work thinking in
two languages pretty much at once. I try to simultaneously translate from one
to the other as I go along. It forces more blood into the head I think,” smiled
Yermey.
“You would have liked one of my
old friends from Brazil. You remind me of him in a way. You even look a little
like him. He was a Brazilian chess champion in his day. I think he even played
the world’s best player in a few sanctioned games. It was rumored that my
friend played Boris Spassky, but that was before Spassky played Bobby Fischer
in Iceland in 1972. The teacher was from Russia I think, and had spent time in
prison during Stalin’s day. When I knew him he taught math, but I think his
major in college was Eastern philosophy. He had tried to get into the United
States, but they wouldn’t take him on a permanent visa. So, he went to the next
best place, Brazil. He was a witty, fun loving man. Math was a toy to him, and
so was chess. I’ll never forget him.” But I forget his name at this moment,
thought Blake. I never can remember a person’s name until about two weeks
later, then it will pop into my head when I’m not even thinking about it.
“I hear you like a Brazilian lady
today, the one who checks in on your house from time to time.”
“Yes. Jenna. We get along well. I
love Brazilian women.”
“Why is that?” inquired Yermey
with interest.
“I think it is because the
Brazilian women I know who they are and what they are about. At least the ones
I know are that way. They are educated of course.”
“Of course. That makes all the
difference anywhere. Most people here have a college education. ParentsinCharge
pays half, the other half comes out of their allowance.”
“That sounds fair.”
“It’s fair enough. We all gain
when everyone has an education. It pays for itself.”
“I understand and agree.”
“Do you want to work on the next
process?” suggested Yermey, “since this is one of your own species, why don’t
you do the set up?”
“Great!” said Blake with genuine
excitement. “I love lab work.”
“Machines do most of it,” added
Yermey.
“That’s fine. They do at home too.
When I was young you had to shake a test tube with your hand.”
Yermey smiled, “We still do
sometimes. Some things do not change that much. It is interesting how that is.”
“I agree, again. You are all
right, Yermey.”
“Not always. Not by a long shot,”
said Yermey in a half laugh, though seriously toned grumble.
Blake chose not to correct him.
The man’s humility shown through in his muttering a half statement. Blake liked
him even more for that. He was thinking about Yermey’s humility which appeared
so abrupt and genuine that he set the human DNA specimen down near a container
that had marsupial DNA on and in it. When Blake saw what he had done, and
quickly noted that Yermey didn’t see him do it, he picked up the instrument
containing the ancient human DNA, and in a quick motion of re-correction, he
touched the top edge of the container. Damn, he thought. I hope I didn’t
contaminate anything.
Just then Yermey turned around, “I
thought I heard something. You didn’t drop it did you? We would have to go back
and recreate another sample if you did.”
“No. No. Sorry. You startled me,
that’s all. I was concentrating on delivering this to the next stage.”
“Yes. It is the machine to the
right of the one in front of you.”
“Okay. What do I do with it?”
“Place the whole instrument in the
drawer, close it, and pushanpull the lever.”
Blake followed the instructions
explicitly, and after he finished he pushanpulled the lever. “I like the
pushanpull business,” he said, “it really does help prevent mistakes.”
“Yes, we have found it so.
Mistakes are still made though, from time to time. Sometimes I think I make
them on purpose just to see what will happen.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I do. But don’t tell
anyone.” he whispered with a strange, though funny laugh.
Blake had heard that laugh before.
‘It is Vladimir’s laugh,’ he thought. ‘Amazing, here I am on the other side of
the galaxy, and I hear Vladimir’s humor first hand.’ Blake felt good being let
in on a secret. So good that he forgot the error of contamination he may have
committed a moment before. ‘All’s right with the world,’ he thought. ‘It has
been a good day.’
***
> [Soki, the Narrator says] A
mistake in DNA contamination was made that will not be realized until later,
noted the Soki. What Blake did not know was that the DNA on the container’s
edge was Yermey’s own. It was accidentally placed there by Yermey himself only
moments earlier. The outside of the container was a perfect place for it to
settle, right on the cap’s edge of the growth agent within the container
itself. Accidents have their way of making themselves known.<
Now to move on to what happened
shortly after, the next day. Yermey was about to introduce the specimen into a
marsupial woman when he corrected himself.
“This will not work,” he said to
his staff. “The matter is human and cannot crawl out and up into the pouch at
its appointed time. How could I have been so careless. We need the earth woman
to carry it.”
He put the specimen into a
container and placed it in a nearby machine for safekeeping. “We will do this
later.”
Yermey contacted Friendly and told
her the situation.
“We could wait,” she said, “until
we take them home. We could find a suitable donor there.”
“No,” he said, “we have our
procedures already set up. I want to get this done now.”
“I will ask Pyl, but I don’t think
she will do it,” said Friendly. Yermey is impossible, she thought. He wants
things done his way, when he wants them done. I love him anyway.
“You do it. Convince her,
Friendly. You are good at that. You convinced me the other day,” he said with a
chuckle.
“I don’t know what you are
referring to old man,” she said abruptly and ended the conversation with a
smile on her face that he could not see.
***
. . . Friendly spent a lot of time
wrangling with Pyl over this while Justin paced the floor wishing they were
home and that he had never found the ancient vase in the first place. ‘My life
would have been so much better,’ he thought, ‘if I had just stayed in my room
that day. Why did I have to go out to the caves at that particular time?’ He
could not recollect why he went, which made the whole thing even more absurd.
That is what he was thinking when Friendly said to Pyl,
“This is not for you, Pyl. It is
for Yermey. I love him with all my heart, and he would be devastated if you
said no. You don’t owe the man anything, but I do. He saved my life once, when
I was young. He saved it by something he said to me. He didn’t even know.
People think he is so intelligent, Pyl, but he is not.
He doesn’t even understand half of
what he says. He has persistence and he muddles through things. That is his
best character trait. Few understand him because they expect him to be more
than he is. You have a chance here, to bring someone back, at least his
physical characteristics. You do not have to raise him as your own. We will see
that he gets to a good home, probably in western Canada. We already have a few
couples in mind. They would never know, and he wouldn’t either. But you could
keep tabs with the couple and perhaps act as an aunt or uncle would. You could
observe him quietly and passively. We just need someone to carry him until we
arrive. We will see he is born under our care, that nothing will happen to
either of you.”
“I don’t care,” said Justin
suddenly. It just slipped out. “Go ahead, Pyl, if you want to do it. If you
don’t that is fine too. I feel you need to know where I am on this, that’s
all.”
“How would it appear that he was
born on Earth?” asked Pyl.
“We will do it in a hospital.”
“How can you do that?”
Friendly smiled. “Blackenot
suits.” We can be right there. No one will know. Invisible backup. That way . .
. .”
Pyl interrupted, “What if something
goes wrong?”
“We’ll cover you with blackenot
and whisk you out of there.”
“What would they think? I mean,
here is a woman about to give birth, and she disappears.”
Friendly laughed, “We will have
another woman take your place.”
“How can you do that?”
“We have our ways. Confusion would
abound for a short while, but as soon as the baby was born, people would forget
about it.”
“Files can be changed. It happens
in hospitals. The wrong woman was brought up. When they go to look for you, you
will have left the hospital on your own. The papers signed and all. A mix up.
They will fudge the files. It happens you know.”
Pyl laughed. “Oh, I have seen it
plenty of times in my life. Something isn’t right and people change it on paper
to make it right appearing anyway. Most of the time it doesn’t make a hoot of
difference. It is bureaucracy in action.”
“So, you will do it then?” asked
Friendly with that grin of hers.
“I’ll do it. You have all the
bases covered. It would be fun being a part of a secret anyway. Isn’t that
right, Justin?”
He noted both of their smiles.
“That’s right,” he said and broke out into a grin himself. ‘I will be a father
of sorts,’ he thought, ‘and I could make a good uncle to an ancient young
fellow. I think I could do that.’
***
> [Soki, the Narrator says]
Another two months have passed, and it is now August 2001, and preparations are
being made to take Pyl, who is very pregnant, Justin, who could not be happier
with what he has learned about the marsupials and archeology, and Blake, who is
just glad the trip from Earth is nearly over.
This is a good place for a
transition. President George W. Bush has been in office since January 2001.
Nothing much has happened that can’t be documented by one person or another.
All countries see red from time to time, and so will the United States, but
that is next month, in September.
This month, in August, other events are about to take place
that will change the marsupials in this story forever. Those on Earth may not
ever know of HomePlanets existence, except for the returning Pyl, Justin and
Blake. They have lived an adventure, but after returning home, they too will be
in for a new century shock without much awe.
From: Running Through by orndorff
*** ***
2237
hours. I have constructed Diplomat’s blog and she has her first post.
Simple is as simple does. From now on her
material will appear on her blog. This is all for tonight, boy. Post. -
Amorella
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