|| -------- -- -----  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 16--"ABANDON" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Foreman Ittener Pier  ||  -------> (Cup SRfi016, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = "Forget them." Lunatether said. "Forget all of them. We'll ride into a clean future, where none of this ever happened. We'll be free and clear, away from this madness. And I'll be away from my daughters, all of them with their Hilltop bodies, all of them dying to meet you." "Whoah!" I said. "So what are we gonna do? Just abandon everybody?" "Why not? If we do what I propose, we'll leave all this behind. No more. We can just forget it." "But what about Hilltop? The folks at Overwhelm are gonna ask me about her." Lunatether smiled and stepped back a little. "Oh no!" I said. "You don't mean you're gonna take her place!" "Why not? It's simpler that way, isn't it? I can imitate her quite well, you know. When I want to." "Jeez, I don't know." I said. "I'd feel so bad, leaving everyone behind like this..." She began sobbing again. "What?" "If you go back there--to the Stormbolthouse, with that time clone of me, and to Hilltop, and all that, I..." "What?" She began to cry uncontrollably. "I was just hoping..." she said through her tears, "...that you could... learn to love me..." "Oh, come on!" I said, moving toward her and taking her in my arms. "Of course I love you. I mean, already I was falling in love with... well, with the other you out there..." "It's me." she said. "It was me. In the past. I'm still the same person." She held me tight and pressed her face into my shoulder. "Come on, Lunatether, come on. Take it easy. Let's go somewhere to talk--maybe get something to eat." She looked up at me and said softly, "Okay." We started down the boardwalk again, but then I stopped and told her to wait a minute. I returned to the newsstand and handed Dick the paper with the winning numbers on it. "Do yourself a favor Dick, and play these numbers. I guarantee you they'll win you 30 million dollars. And Dick--that girl I was with--she may be by later on or in a few days. Give her some of the winnings, eh? And tell her I'm sorry I had to leave." Dick stared at me with a suspicious look. "Are you okay, guy?" he asked. "No. But just PLEASE play these numbers. Don't ask me how I got them, but they ARE the winners. If you don't play 'em, think how shitty you'll feel." "Okay buddy, I'll play 'em." he said. "And whatever's going on with you, I.. I wish you the best." "Thanks." I said, and I caught back up with Lunatether. We walked down the boardwalk till we got to Foreman Ittener Pier. We got a booth in a little seafood restaurant and discussed the situation. Finally, I agreed to her proposal, as I knew I would. Getting back... right away... and her in that Hilltop body... open to me... Soon, she led me inland to a residential neighborhood, and then into some woods, where her Tock Hound, Bandelion, was waiting. The full-grown tock hound was an awesome sight. As big as a horse, the beast was kind of like a huge pit bull, only with light tan fur. It regarded me with wise-looking eyes, and I sensed great intelligence from it. It looked like it could kick some serious ass, too. "Well, this is it." Lunatether said. "The point of no return." "Why?" "Because, like I said, once we get to the clean future, getting back here will be nearly impossible." "Like how impossible?" "I don't know, but pretty impossible." "Well, whatever. At this point, I just want to get back to the world I was living in before this whole mess." "That's exactly what we're doing." "But tell me again--if Hilltop goes to the future on her own, won't we meet her there?" "Maybe. It depends what sort of future she heads for. But yes, we might run into her. Though the chances are slim." I sighed and took off my sunglasses. The sun was starting to set. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----