[Continue, Truce]
“Oh, Hi Nim, it’s nice to see you. But that book on reserve for Ilina hasn’t been returned yet.”
“Hi Eldara it’s nice to see you too. I’m not here for Ilina and it seems busy today. I was hoping you’d help me find a book. But maybe I should come back another time.”
“No, don't be silly, I’d be more than happy to help you. Fiction or Non Fiction?”
“What?”
“Sorry, are you looking for a fiction or a non fiction book?”
“Oh I’m sorry, a non fiction, I need a book on scaling recipes or chemistry. I want to increase the amount of beer I can make at one time. I tried just doubling everything but the final result was not acceptable. My husband mentioned that when he took chemistry in school they studied scaling. But that was years ago and about all he remembers on the subject.”
“Great, let’s take a look in the kitchen section first. Don’t worry, I did a deep cleaning of the entire section.”
“Why did it need to be cleaned, were people trying to cook back there?”
“No, I’m sorry, I assumed you heard the story from Rose, apparently when Daisy was still here an amorous couple who’d daily sneak into the cooking section to get amorous. That’s part of the reason Daisy started throwing books and pinching bottoms. Daisy told Rose, Rose told me. I finally figured out who the couple was and banned them from the library as a couple. They’re still allowed in singly. Then I did a very deep cleaning of the entire section. I added some more lighting as well.”
“Gods, I’m sorry they put you through all that.”
“It’s just part of the job, no harm done. There’s a couple of books that I think might have exactly what you want. The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji López-Alt or Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food" by Jeff Potter or "The Professional Chef" by The Culinary Institute of America.
Let’s see if they're on the shelf. Here’s the Food Lab, and Cooking for Geeks but Professional Chef must be out. I can put a hold on it for you and let you know when it comes in. If it hasn’t come back by the next time you’re in the tower you could just ask Doug for a copy. I’ll write down the exact title and author for you just in case. But hopefully the two books you have there will have the information you need. Can I help you find anything else?”
“No, and thank you for helping me. Please put a hold on that other book for me as well. And I just wanted to say, how sorry I am for the way I behaved at Rose’s that night.”
“I’m deeply ashamed of the things I said to you. I’m truly sorry. Let’s both forget a bad start, and deepen our friendship over time.”
“Agreed, Thanks for the help today. I’ll see you at the dress rehearsal in a couple of days. Bye Eldara.”
“Bye Nim.”
***
Rose, Cece and Giulia were on their way back to Enigmatic Parchments
“Come on, say you’ll stay for a few days. I’m telling you I’m starting to get some great ideas for a follow up story for each of you. Cece you’ll be an unconventional princess in your story. Giulia, your story is going to be a real twist on a gambling tale. Please stay.”
“I don’t want to be an imposition, Rose.”
“You won’t be I promise, look we’ll drop off the baked goods for Sparky and Opal and then just walk over to the tower and take a look. McCracken stays there and we hardly ever see him. What do you say Giulia?”
“I really do want to change my name, I don’t want to be Giulia anymore, I don’t want to work for that pulp fiction author anymore either. I’m not even sure I want to go back to a world where I have to inform people when I meet them that I’m fictional. I’d love to stay if it’s not putting you out.”
“It’s not putting me out I promise.”
***
Inside Enigmatic Parchments Sparky is sitting at the desk looking hangry, while Opal continues to work away on her drawing.
“Well that certainly took a while.”
“Sorry Sparky, as an apology I got you an extra dozen donuts. Forgiven now?”
“I suppose I’ll have to or you’ll be mean and keep the donuts.”
“Opal, here’s your sweet bun honey, sorry for the wait.”
“That’s OK, Rose, thank you.”
“Your welcome honey.”
“Sparky, I’m going to take Cece and Gigi over to the tower, they’re going to be staying for a while.”
“That’s fine, think about story ideas on your way back.”
“Yes, Sparky”
***
Approaching the town gate, the two guards look busy with a line of carts entering the city.
“Rose, do we have to declare we’re fictional to the guards?”
“Absolutely not, you do not have to tell anyone. However feel free to tell who ever you want. Look, being fictional isn’t any less than being non-fictional; both are real. Good people are going to like you either way, if they’re not good people who cares what they think. I have black hair, my girlfriend has auburn hair. Is my girlfriend superior because she has auburn hair? No, she's superior because she is awesome.”
“Hello Dogberry, what are you doing at the gate during the day? I heard you switched to night duty.”
“I’m working a double ma’am, Bob’s wife is sick and he’s tending to her.”
“Dogberry, tell Bob to stop by the bakery, Lily is making healing bakes now. Maybe it’ll help. These are my two friends Cece and Gigi, they’re going to be staying at the tower with Lu and I for a while.”
“Welcome to Wyldwood, ma’ams, I’ll spread the word to the other guards, no need to wait in line at the gate, just walk right in. Tower folk don’t have to wait. Thanks ma’am I’ll tell Bob as soon as my shift ends.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Thanks Guardsman, that’s very thoughtful of you.”
***
Tower third level Lu and Rose’s quarters
“I’ll put your two rooms together just down here, this is Lu’s and mine bedroom. Cece how about you take this one. I’ll furnish it, it’ll only take a second.”
“Room:please make a queen size bed, dresser, easy chair and sideboard, also a bathroom and privy. Do the same thing next door. Cece this sideboard will give you any food you want, just name it and it appears. Room: Two nightgowns and slippers please. Just throw your dirty clothes on top of the dresser, they’re cleaned and repaired in a couple of minutes. Let me show you how to use the bath.”
“Before I go back to work, let me show you the library, and introduce you to Doug the librarian and his girlfriend Daisy. Daisy is a ghost so you won’t see or hear her but I always introduce her, it’s the polite thing to do.”
“Hello Doug, Daisy. I’d like to introduce you to Cece and Gigi.”
“Hello ladies it’s nice to meet you both, if you’d like a book or a magazine just let me know what you’d like and I’ll give it to you or if you’d prefer a movie, I can play one for you I have them all.”
“What’s a movie?” Cece asked.
“It’s easier to see it than to explain it. Why don’t you get comfortable on the couch”
“Doug, please show them Casablana, this is one of my favorites, but if you don’t like it just ask Doug to stop it and tell him your favorite genre or novel and he’ll pick out something close. I have to run back to work, make yourselves comfortable. Bye.”
“Bye, Rose, and thanks for having us.” they both yelled.
***
Back at the bookstore.
“You really hate men don’t you”
“Of course I don’t hate men, I have one staying with us. If you’re talking about that story. There were three men in that story. One was slime, one was average, one saved the day. How is that hating men?”
“I’m surprised you let a man save the day.”
“Well he owned the company, so he also deserves some of the blame for letting a slime like the director get that position in the first place. If a woman owned the company and saved the day, that same blame would fall on her. The owner knew he had a qualified woman, the games have traditionally been aimed at a female audience. Why wasn’t she directing to start with.”
“So now you’re saying that the good guy was bad too?”
“No, I am just pointing out that he caused the problem, it was his responsibility to fix it. The art director clearly should have been in charge from the start.”
“How are your friends settling in?”
“Good I hope, did you know that there are worlds out there that by law require their fictional citizens to declare that they are fictional if they meet non fictionals.”
“Why yes I did, and if you picked up one of the books in this store and actually read it. You would have known it too. Some authors are truly nasty pieces of work, they create a world it follows the rules they set up. Why do you think I go on and on about agency and goodness in Bibliomancy. Did you know that there are worlds out there that treat people of different skin color, different nationalities, different religions, different genders, horribly. People always seem to find a way to carve out a small percentage of people and say this is the group to which I belong. All these other groups are wrong. Those people can’t be reasoned with, because their beliefs aren’t based on reason, they're based on emotion. You can’t just tell them that they’re wrong. If you want to change their minds, just show them a large diverse group of good people doing good things. If you constantly have every man be or become the villain aren’t you just the opposite of the incels, as set in your own way as they are in theirs.”
“Your right,.and…”
“Did you just say your right to me? Gods, I don’t believe it.”
“Will you be serious? The reason lunch ran so long apart from me just finding out that there are fictional worlds where fictionals must declare that they are fictional. Eldara and McCracken both asked me to put them in a story and I really don’t want to. McCracken said he was going to ask Talbert, if he could be in one of my stories.”
“Then don’t you’re the author you pick the characters, decide the plot, the ending. If you don’t want to do it, don’t.”
“But Eldara gave me a very good reason to do it. Eldara thinks by appearing in a fictional story of mine, she becomes fictional, the same as Paula. She thinks it might help Paula. But I’m afraid, I’ve never written a nonfictional character into fiction.”
“Perfect, you’ve fallen right into my trap.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Emotionally you say that fictional and non fictionals are the same right?”
“Of course they are the same.”
“If they are to be treated equally in our world, why would you hesitate to treat them equally in a fictional world.”
“Gods Sparky, sometimes you really do know what you are talking about.”
“I got two ‘your rights’ from Rose today, I am making a note for my diary, I’m not sure if I’ve ever even gotten one before.”
“McCracken would actually be good for my writing, but I don’t want to offend Talbert.”
“So you’d prefer not to offend the ‘real’ person versus the fictional one but again I’m afraid you've fallen into my trap and I deserve a third ‘your right’.”
“No, you're wrong this time.”
“There she is my old Rose, I was afraid you’d been switched by a body snatcher.”
“No, I say you're wrong because my concern with writing McCracken stems from the fact that Talbert is his ‘creator’ or ‘discoverer’, like I am to Juliet. I asked Juliet if she wanted to do a sequel and she said no. I respect that, but if she came to me and said she wanted to do a story with Talbert, I’d definitely be hurt. I know Paula told her she didn’t want to do a sequel, I’m not sure if she asked him and he turned her down or if Talbert didn’t even consider a sequel without Paula. I don’t know.”
“Well, why don’t you wait and see what Talbert says to McCracken, let them both have their agency and then decide after they both have their say.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. Where’s Opal? Did she go into the back room to work on her drawing? Opal honey, it’s time to go. We have to get our costumes for the play. Opal?”
I ran into the back room, she wasn’t there.
“Sparky she’s not back here and neither is her drawing.”
“No Rose, her drawing is out here where she was drawing before lunch.”
Locate:Opal
Opal is in Enigmatic Parchments.
“Sparky I just did a locate spell and it says she’s here.”
“Opal Honey are you asleep somewhere, OPAL, OPAL”
Locate:Opal
Opal is in Enigmatic Parchments.
“Rose I just did a locate spell and it says she’s here, maybe she’s up in your old apartment for some reason, you run up there and I’ll keep looking down here.”
I ran upstairs, the door was closed but unlocked just as Lu and I left it. I ran in calling. “Opal, Opal, Opal.” I was starting to panic now. I ran back downstairs, told Sparky the apartment was empty. I did another locate spell with the same result. Sparky did too with the same answer. Locate said she was here but she was not here.
“Sparky, I don’t get how can the locate spell say she’s here when clearly she’s not here. Ruby is going to kill me, I lost her precious sister.”
