|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- IRREGULAR SHIRT--CUP 15--"STUPORCONDUCTOR" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Irregular Shirt  ||  -------> (Cup SRis015, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Janice Pawn stumbled on the weedy concrete staircase and grabbed a rusted railing to regain her balance. But she swung around and the notebooks and papers in her other hand flew away wildly. The stranger stood motionless. The fall ended. "Uh... do you need any help?" the stranger asked. "No." Janice answered. "Fine." the stranger said, and began to walk away. "Uh, wait..." Janice called after him, seeing that the wind had picked up and was beginning to hopelessly distribute her papers. "Hmm?" the stranger uttered as he turned around and looked at her. "Um, I suppose I could use some help in, y'know, picking up the papers." "Okay." the stranger said matter-of-factly. He had a weird look in his eyes, and he started to collect Janice's papers. "Thanks." Janice said as she got up. The stranger continued collecting Janice's papers in a swift and efficient manner, and was finished just as the wind gained force. He handed her the papers. "Thank a lot." she said to him. "No problem." he said, looking into her eyes briefly. Then he turned and muttered "Take it easy." "Um--wait." she said. "Hmm?" the stranger said, turning around. "I wonder if you could help me find an address. I don't come round Abdebacle Bay very much, and I'm... I guess I'm totally lost." Janice said. "Well, I guess you're in luck, 'cause I live right around here." the stranger said, "So, uh, I should be able to help you, uh, just, just fine." "Okay good," Janice said, taking a piece of folded notebook paper out of a notebook and looking at it. "Can you help me find, uh, 1775 Whazey Way?" The stranger looked concerned. "Whazey Way? You wanna go there?" "Uh, yeah." Janice said. "Do you know where it is?" "Uh, well I know where it is, but it's just that it's a sort of... uh, a sort of un..." "A sort of what?" "Um, a sort of, just a sort of weird road, that's all. I've seen some weird stuff over there." "Well, that's sort of why I want to go there." "I'll show you where it is." the stranger said. Janice and the stranger began walking along the street. "Is it far?" she asked. "Well, it's probably about a 15 minute walk. Why, you have a car?" "No." Janice said. "I took the bus in." "Hmm. Well, I'd like to show you the way, 'cause I'm real bad at giving directions. It's sort of tricky getting there." "Fine by me." Janice said. The two walked along in silence for a little while. A jet plane roared past low overhead. "So you go to school?" the stranger asked. "Yeah. I'm over at Thatterine in Gullia Fair. Studying sociology." "Really? I used to go there. I graduated a year-and-a-half ago." "No kidding? What'd you study?" "Uh, y'know, double major, English and Theater." "Oh yeah? You know Dr. Kater?" "Sure. He was my advisor." "Yeah I'm in his Intro class right now." "How ya like it?" "Oh, it's pretty cool. He's a pretty intense guy." "What other professors you got?" "Oh, y'know. Heazy, Stoongle, Bestroystraw." "Bestroystraw? Bavler Bestroystraw? He's back?" "Yeah. I have him for Intro to the Mysterious." "You're lucky. I wanted to take a class with him, but he was gone most of the time I was there. My name's Fratch, by the way. Short for Fratcher, so don't even ask." "You know, I think I heard about you. You used to write for the school paper, right?" "Yeah sure. I did my own paper for a while too." "Stuporconductor?" "Yeah that's it." "This is so weird, 'cause I was just reading some of your back issues the other day." "Really?" "Yeah. And one of the articles was about coincidences. Huh. And now I meet you out here in Abdebacle Bay. Huh. I love how you did the logo, like STPRCNDCTR with no vowels." "Yeah. So what's your name?" "Oh sorry. I'm Janice. Uh, Janice Pawn." "Well I'm happy at least someone's still reading Stuporconductor." "A lot of people read it. At least, a lot of my friends. Why didn't you continue it after you graduated?" "Oh, I thought about it, but I didn't want to get into it unless I could devote all my time to it, y'know. I might do something with it someday." "Didn't anyone want to keep it going at That?" "Yeah sure. Dozens of people, but when it came to actually getting their act in gear, they all folded up. Typical." -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----