|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- DEER EXPRESS--CUP 13--"DREALITY" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Deer Express  ||  -------> (Cup SRde013, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = "Hell of a story." Lemon said. "What was it?" Arbhay said urgently. "Well. Seems that these two winners here had a problem. The guy, you, innocently tried to get some soap from the ladies room, here, being that there was none left in the little boy's room. Enter the gal, me, using the stall with the terminal door. Seems you have to close it JUST RIGHT, or the thing'll swing open at the slightest vibration. Anyway, we saw what happened--the door swings open, the guy reaches for the soap, there the gal is, exposed, tidying herself up, and the guy looks. Perfectly innocent. He rushes out, but the incident gets under her skin. Soon she's reporting the guy to her superiors, and, sensitive to such stuff, they immediately suspend the guy pending further review." "Wow." "Yes. But the guy loses it. He follows the woman home, and kills her and her family, then cuts his own throat." "Ouch." "Yeah. But I found something else out. This spell of mine prods reality into giving me the big picture of what's going on. This woman's live-in boyfriend, a research assistant at a nearby university, was going to foul up big time tonight. He was gonna use a bat from the lab to play a practical joke on his fraternity pals." "Yeah?" "Well the bat, see, carries this killer virus. It goes nuts and infects a few of the kids. Later on tomorrow, the whole city's goin' nuts. Everyone's tryin' to get out--that kills more people than the virus!" "You're seeing the future?" "I think so. And this event--this tragedy--was what prevented a huge disaster which, if things kept going like I saw, could've wiped out this entire world." "So what do we do?" "I don't know. I don't want you to kill me, I know that." "I won't." "Good." "So where did you get this information, anyway? From reality, you said?" "Yeah. It was all just--there. Very clear." "Are you sure it's accurate?" "Pretty." "Huh. Guess we have to stop this kid from doing the bat joke and stuff." "Guess." "So why don't we look around, get started?" Arbhay said. "Fine. Lead on." So they went out into a hallway and then into a bay of offices separated by divider walls. "Remind me to make something like this the centerpiece if I ever rule Hell." Lemon said. "Yeah." Arbhay said with a laugh. Then Lemon froze. "What's the matter?" "The calendar. It says 46." "So?" "So I clearly saw 45 in the vision. The 45th was the day the incident happened." "Maybe the calendar is wrong?" "No--it makes sense now. Find a clock--it's all gonna happen real soon..." "Okay, okay! There's one over here I think!" Arbhay yelled, as a bunch of workers began to take notice. "16 o'clock!" Lemon yelled. "The city will be in total mayhem a few hours from now! We gotta get out! Something like--getting money--all the money these two people have--get the next train out! Get out before the panic." "Crap." Arbhay said. "Huh?" "Crap. You know what I think's going on? I think this is dreality." "Huh?" "Dreality--a place which is exactly one-half reality and one-half dream. I mean, look at this convoluted story you saw in a 'vision'. Half-baked... dreamlike." "So?" "So--even though stupid things happen here, it's real--so you can still die and everything." "Aw!" Lemon exclaimed. "That's a stupid idea. 'Dreality'--hah!" "I know it's stupid, but look what's going on around us." "I don't know... I mean--you're saying that..." "I mean," Arbhay said with conviction, "that we left from Deer Express headquarters. A place where... where the space between dream and reality is traversed--I do it myself every day!" Lemon squinted her eyes at Arbhay in skepticism. "What's Deer Express all about, anyway?" -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----