|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- FOREMAN ITTENER PIER--CUP 8--"SOLVE GUM" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Foreman Ittener Pier  ||  -------> (Cup SRfi008, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = "A haunted house?" I said. "Who knows, in a place like this." Hilltop responded. "May as well check it out." I said, and we walked up to it. The front door was open, so we just walked right in. Down the main hall, we looked into a sitting room and saw three old women. "Oh, hello!" one of them, in a purple T-shirt, said. "Come right on in." "Um--okay." I said, and we entered the room. "You two look tired." another old woman said, this one in a hat. "Maybe you should stay with us for a few days." "That might be good." I said. "But be careful--" the third woman, in thick glasses, said. "--there are ghosts here." "What do you mean?" Hilltop asked. "Ghosts--" the woman in glasses said. "--lots of them..." "Okay--" I said, sitting on a sofa. "--but look--we have some questions for you. Maybe you could help us?" The woman in the purple shirt turned to the others and smiled. "We can help you, but first, why don't I show you up to your room, so you can rest. You look awfully tired, and we do our best to take care of our boarders." I started to say something as I looked over at Hilltop, but she looked so amenable to the proposal that I kept my mouth shut and followed the woman up a creaking, scary spiral staircase. She led us to a nice little room with a window looking out over the ocean. Sunlight streaming in, it was a quite appealing place. "You just relax and then come down later. We'll talk then." "Okay." I called after the woman as she descended down the stairs. Hilltop walked over to the window and looked out. What a vision of beauty she was in that light... "So," I said, walking up beside her, "got any ideas?" "Nope." she said, turning her head quickly, staring at me with those beautiful eyes. "Yeah, well--I'm not too enthusiastic about any of this so far. I mean, we could be in serious trouble here." I said, turning away from her and looking out over the sea. "I know." she said softly. I sighed and walked over to the side of the bed and sat down. Hilltop regarded me. "So this is freedom?" she said. "I think so. But maybe not. Being lost--does being lost take away from freedom? Guess it does." Hilltop smiled a resigned smile and swaggered over to the bed. She stood in front of me, looking down at me for a moment, then she sat down next to me--leaving a pretty big gap. Maybe she sensed that my libido was out of control and that my lust had a hair trigger; she wouldn't have had to do much to get me going. Kind of unfair, you know? Here's a great person, this Hilltop, but I can't even begin to get past her being a beautiful woman. In a perfect world, shouldn't two people be able to share a friendship without the specter of sex hanging over their heads? Ah, maybe not. Maybe that wouldn't be so perfect. Maybe the sexual tension between people, most of it never ignited, is what makes human interface stimulating. Whatever. I looked over and saw Hilltop taking a little pack of gum out of one of her pockets. "Whattaya got there?" I asked. "Oh, it's just another wonna those crazy things Sarah gave me. 'Solve gum'--that's what she called it. Said that when ya chew it, it'll solve yer biggest problem at the moment. She said it works best at dead ends--where I guess we are right now." "Huh. That Spanking New Sarah sure has a lot of cool stuff." "Uh-huh. And how she got to Daptin's Land--inside a tiny little implant kinda thingy behind Daptin's ear? Y'know? Her and Glara were miniaturized inside a there!" "Yeah I know. I heard. So what is this again? Solve gum?" "Yup." she said, popping a mottled red-and-blue stick into her mouth. "Hope it works." She smiled and started chewing. I smiled back and turned my attention to the matter handler on my lap. Well, between her solve gum and my matter handler, well--maybe I was fooling myself, but I figured there had to be a way out of this mess. A way home. All that. Hilltop continued chewing loudly and I examined the matter handler. It had a circular opening in it, just like the Warhome matter handlers. And there were a lot of status windows all over it, all dark and inactive. I considered feeding some matter into it, but decided to wait. "Hmm..." Hilltop said suddenly. "What?" "I get the feeling this gum is startin' to work its magic." "Yeah?" "Yeah." Hilltop said, getting up and walking over to a full-length mirror on the wall. "Yeah--I'm purty sure. Take a look." I got up and stood beside her in front of the mirror. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----