A Girl and her red notebook by D.A. Sanford - HTML preview

Prelude

As a child of twelve, I had a red notebook that I needed for school. I was a typical child.

My attention span was governed by the wind. A slight distraction and I was off. The notebook fell victim to being left where I was using last. A lot of those times were when I was sitting on our grassy stoop. I would wait for my friends to come out.

One day there was an elderly man walking by and he picked up the book. I came over to him and looked at my book. He asked me if it was mine. I timidly nodded. With that, he gave it back to me and walked away.

A few days later, I again forgot the notebook at the end of my sidewalk. The same man came by and picked it up. This time he sat and started to write in it. After a little time, I came over to him. My mother noticed and came out to confront him.

He folded up the book and handed it back to my mother.

“I wrote you a tale from my past that I think you would like.”

He then looked at my mother and said

“You need to let your mother read it first. She is looking out for you. She is concerned about my intension. Mom it is a tale of morals, you’ll like it.”

He then walked away.

Mom read it, then she sat down on the stoop. She patted the area next to her and then read me his story.

He wrote

“I was a young widower. The love of my life died in a traffic accident. I thought my life was over. After a few years, I was walking up a large hill when I observed a woman pushing a stroller up the hill just ahead of me. She was a short woman, barely five feet tall. With long white hair.

To anyone, it was obvious that she was struggling so I caught up to her and took over the stroller.

I had a tendency to flatter but I really did not need to. With the tell tale signs, pointed ears, slightly green tinted skin she was a goblin. I really did not need to falsely flatter because I found her attractive.

“You look tired” I tell her “I’ll push this for you.”

In the stroller were a couple of very young goblin children. They were surrounded with what looked like her entire worldly possessions. I pretended that I did not notice.

“Thank you, but why?” she asks, “Why are you helping a goblin? Most humans don’t want anything to do with our kind.”

“Those ones are stupid. I see a person that needs help pushing this stroller up a hill.

Just let me lighten your burden.”

She is still wondering but I could see that she truly was grateful.

As we were going up the hill, there were a few men sitting on a park bench. Just looking at them, I could tell that they were going to comment. They were nudging each other and pointing.

When we got beside them, the largest one started the taunts, at me.

“What the heck is wrong with you? Walking with that puke bag let alone pushing its spawn?”

I could see that she had heard this before and was hanging her head. She made a move to take the stroller from me to save me from the ridicule. I stopped her and the stroller. I was mad.

“It sounds like you have a problem with my wife and my children.” I was yelling.

“My wife has more humanity and kindness than all of you combined. Come on dear, let’s go home. Don’t listen to these morons.”

I led her away. As we got out of earshot she looks at me. Bewildered she asks me again.

“Why would you do that? Tell them that I was your wife and these are your children?”

“I will not tolerate those idiots who do not open their eyes and see a beautiful person.”

“You are a rare one then. My last residence, they threw me out because there was a human that wanted the place. That is my life.”

“Would you be open to living with me in my home. No strings other than you will be under my protection. You are not to tolerate people like that. You are to value yourself and your children.”

She moved in with me. For a while she looked like she was walking on eggshells. After a bit of time, she realized that I was real. I meant what I said. I found that I had fallen in love with her and she with me. We were married and I adopted her children as mine.

We had three other children but after thirty years of marriage she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Our five children have been very successful in their careers but make sure that I am never far from their thoughts. I have them visiting almost every week. We all gather together each year on the day she died, visiting our grave site, to talk to her about what has happened and that we think about her. She is buried in my family plot. There is my first wife’s grave, my plot, and her grave.

Never judge someone just because they are different. You may just miss the best. I had a wonderful life with that goblin woman.

My mom finished reading that to me, closed up my book and handed it back to me.

“That was a good story. Honey, I need you to also realize that this is a story. His moral is a good one but it’s a story.”

When she handed it to me, something dropped from the book. I picked it up and found it was a photo. I looked at it then smiled as I handed it to mom.

Mom looked at it and sat back down. The picture was a family photo. There he was sitting next to a short green skinned woman with five sons standing behind them. All of the sons had a hand on their parent’s shoulders. The parents looked old but more than that they looked like they were happy.

Then mom said “Forget what I just said. Let’s make a clear box that we can put here so you can leave your notebook for him to write more tales.

We did just that. His stories were what led me to become a world traveler. I have enjoyed my life and now I want to relay my life and his stories. Never judge someone just because they are different. You may just miss the best.

The journey to my adventures

When I first met the elderly man I was twelve years old. He came by and wrote a tale for me almost every week. With each tale, he would leave some sort of evidence as tantalizing clue that he was writing about may have actually happened.

By the time I reached age eighteen, it was almost an expected thing. I now had a library of red notebooks that filled a large shelf in my room. Each one a cherished treasure.

They were the fuel of my adventurer’s dreams.

There came the inevitable day. It had been almost a month since the last time he left a tale. I was extremely worried. You see, after six years of knowing him, I could see that his years were wearing on him. The loss of both his first wife and then his second wife was hard. With his first wife, he had most of his adventures. With his second wife, he only occasionally traveled. He never said what he did for a living.

Most of his tales would have been called flight of fancy. This one is the first one about how he met his first wife..

He wrote

I met my first wife while hiking through a wilderness area in northern Canada. This was an, off the normal, trail that the Alaskan Gold Rush prospectors used during that time. I wanted to trace their route. It was midsummer. I wasn’t about to try this trek during the winter like they did.

While climbing through a particularly rocky area I came upon a small flat area. It looked like it was out of place. The sun shining through the tree canopy fell on what looked like a manicured lawn. It was a pale green grass that was only about an inch in length. I walked to the end of it when I felt the wind coming from behind me.

“How about giving me a hand?”

I turned to see the most beautiful young woman I’ve ever seen. She was standing there but looked like she was carrying a heavy load.

“Can you keep a secret?”

“Yes. Why?”

“This is too heavy for me to carry back to my camp in one trip. If you help me I’ll give you ten percent of its worth.”

She opens her back pack and I see gold. A large back pack filled with heavy gold. Ten percent, I’ll help. We divide it between our packs and I follow her for a mile off the trail.

When we get there she unloads the gold. There must be one hundred pounds.

“You’re a life saver. I had to lug this for miles to get to my jump point.”

I have no idea of what she was talking about but I have to ask

“Did you steal this? Are we going to get in trouble for this?”

She answers “Yes and No. Yes I stole it but no we won’t be in trouble, here. I liberated this from a gang of thieves. They probably stole it from others. We will not get in trouble.

We sell this through a broker I know that does not ask questions and is forgetful about his book keeping.”

“What about the original owners?” I ask.

“Not a worry. The original owners will never find us. They are not here.”

She again asks “Can you keep a secret?”

This time she does not wait. She shows me a watch she has on her wrist. It looks more like a watch the size of a man’s watch but that is not uncommon.

“The owners are in a parallel universe.”

She points to the watch. She tells me that normally she would be at her home jump point but that the watch told her that this is where she needed to be.

“It told me that I would meet someone special.”

“This is what allows me to go from our universe to other universes. As long as I want and with who I want but up to now I have only gone by myself. There is a little more that I have stashed. I can tell that you don’t really believe me. Want to see for yourself?”

I figure I would call her bluff

“Okay, Lets go.”

We walk back to that grassy spot and she fiddles with the watch. A second later, we were on a plateau overlooking a valley under a pink sky. There was no question that this was indeed another world. She goes over to a hidden space and retrieves some more gold and some uncut gems that would be world class.

“For this run, how about I give you a few of these gems?”

I nod.

We jump back to the meadow.

“I believe that we would make a good team. Want to travel the universe?”

On further writings the elderly man wrote about his travel with the woman, how they came to love each other, how they got married and how she died.

After the month of not seeing him, they arrived at my home. My mother was there and answered the door. There stood five men. We recognized them from the photograph we had on our mantle. They were his grown up children. Different heights but their skin was various shades of light greens. No mistake, they are his sons.

“Our father passed away recently in his sleep. You were a delight to him because he told us about how you always liked his ‘tales’. It was in his will that you should have the watch that his first wife had. He wrote that you would appreciate it.”

I cried at the fact that his tales were done but deep down I knew that he lived a good life and now was at peace with his wives. I showed them the picture he gave me and asked if they would show me his grave site. They took both mom and me to the cemetery in a very large limo.

There was three stones with each of their names on them. I laid flowers on each and thanked each of them for doing this. They said something I did not expect.

“Our father talked about you so much. We worried about him after our mother died but when you came into his life and let him write his tales, you gave him life. We thank you sister, yes we consider you our sister. We will be, if it is alright with you, visiting you and your mother. Could we write our tales of our parent’s life in that red notebook?”

I tell them that I would like that. Then I said.

“I’m eighteen now. My mother knows this. Since I started reading what your father wrote, I wanted to have my own adventures. In a little less than a year, after a survival school I’m going to take, I plan on going adventuring.”

“Then let us take the responsibility of watching out for your mother.”

The youngest, who looked like he was in his mid-twenties said that he wants to adventure like his father and asked if he could come on a few of mine.

I asked “Can you keep a secret?”

Mom was slightly shocked but also comforted. She said to him

“I would feel better if she had someone with her. You look like your father so I know you will be able to keep up with her and protect her.”

They all left us their contact information.

It seems that the limo is not rented. They all own their own businesses but their father was a wealthy man. They, now my brothers, said to me that my mother and I would not need to worry about money. Their father set aside more than enough assets for them to take care of us and they would take care of her as if she was their mother.

Growing can be cruel and just at the same time It was around my fourteenth birthday. I was at the gangly age where growth was in spirts at the wrong time. There were times that I thought I was not even in control of my own body. Voice changing in midsentence, misjudging distances and force. The only comfort at this time was my determination.

You see, because of all his tales, I have been trying to become fit, not muscular, but agile. I have even been taking martial arts classes to improve my coordination. I want to be an adventurer and go on trips, see exotic sights, and live life to the fullest.

Most of my friends tell me that his tales are flights of fancy but they never have been shown the items he has left behind with each tale. Never have they been there when my mother and I talked with him.

The elderly man has had many a meal that my mother made. They did not see his face the first time she invited him to eat with us. I have never seen that look of both elation and sadness that I saw when he was welcomed into our home.

After that meal, he asked if he could write his tale at our table. Of course, we said yes.

We left him to write while mom and I washed the dishes from the meal. Just before we finished, we heard the front door close.

Returning to the dining room, we found the red book on the table with a brown paper wrapped package. On the package was written,

“Open after you read today’s story. I know that you want to be an adventurer. Be safe.”

I open the book, Finding the new tale

He wrote

We were young and she was already a seasoned adventurer. I used that word loosely because she had a tendency to find objects and liberate them from their nefarious possessors who were obviously not the original owners.

Long story short, she robbed the thieves.

It was on one of our adventures on a planet that she said she had visited a few times to get a lay of the land. She never raided a truly peaceful world. Those were for fun adventures. Maybe normal people would call them vacation but these were intense, adventures.

This was not a planet that she liked. Slavery was normal across the world. Any slave caught trying to escape was publicly executed.

In her travels, she had run into planets like this. She searched out an uninhabited planet, no humanoid life. It was lush and fertile ground. She would liberate what slaves she could get and relocate them to that planet.

Funny thing is, most of the planets like this slave one, the owners had lost the will and knowledge to do work. The slaves knew all manner of skills. When she relocated them, they immediately went to work and were able, in no time, build a sustaining community.

They looked to her as a guardian angel..

We were on this planet for the reason of liberating as many slaves as we could. This owner had very few free overseers. Had to pay them. Slaves would be kept in check by fear.

This one plantation, we would need to just take out the few overseers. It was the first time I saw her wearing a coil of metal on her hip. I have learned not to question her on her armament.

We came close to where the slaves were gathered. It seems that they were about to execute a slave. This overseer was using a machete. The slave had his head secured to a block. As he raised the blade, the coil came off her hip.

The best way to describe it was it was a whip around twenty feet long. Other than the handle, it was a tapered triangular wire. She started to move it and it acted like the most flexible leather whip. She shouted

“Grab the machete.”

This metal whip wrapped around the arm that had the blade and cut the arm off. She then went after the other overseer.

“Get his leg.” And the leg was gone.

As the owner was yelling for someone to move his chair to safety, she told me to get the slaves moving towards the jump point.

“If you want to be free, come with me!” I yelled as I freed the slave from the block.

Every man, woman and child did not hesitate to follow me.

She yells to the owner

“If you want to live, don’t ever buy another slave. I will be back to check.”

Then she follows me to the jump point, opens a jump to her planet and ushers the slaves through.

The people on her planet know that when the jump point opens, there will be people in need of help and orientation to a free life.

The owner was found on that porch sometime later. It seems that he starved to death.

No one left to get him inside. No one to care for him.

As for her planet, the settings are still there in her watch. I visit it from time to time with my new family. After all, it is a good lesson for my children to see what freed people can do for themselves. It’s good for them to see that people of their own race live in peace.

The setting on the watch is named goblin planet.

I finish reading it, and only after my mother reads it, do I open the package. Inside was a coil; of triangular metal. Thick at the handle and thin at the tip. I grabbed the handle and it adjusted to my hand.

There was a note attached with the instructions that read This is a living being. It is living metal. By touching the handle, it will become yours. Just tell it what to do and it will be done. Use this wisely and for justice. Make my first wife proud. I have arraigned classes for you with a whip master. Use what you learn when you practice with this whip.”

I softly say touch my arm and the tip does that, softly.

In the four years between getting the whip and my first adventure, the whip and I became friends.

From the time I read that until I found out that I could, I dreamed about going to the goblin planet.

Author’s note

from my dream April 3. 2024 a young lady had a living metal whip, flat tapering triangle, that could lash like a whip but could also coil around something like snake. It looked like it was 20 foot long. When she started to use it, it was moving like a leather whip.

Flexible but never could be cut or broken. In the dream she used it to stop someone, by coiling around the arm.

The watch’s origin on this world I sometimes look at the watch and marvel at its intricacy. I know exactly how to fix it because, upon the first time I put it on, I knew its complete workings in depth. I can fix any problem that can occur. Also, the complete history of its lineage.

The origin, on this world, was a traveler in the past that made a jump to this planet. She was severely injured in an encounter with a wild creature. I get the impression that it was a grizzly. The traveler was found by a woman who lived in a cabin by herself.

As best as she could, she tended the wounds. The traveler told the woman of her journeys hat she called jumps. The woman thought that it was the fever that developed from the wounds becoming infected. She told the woman about the watch.

She knew that it was inevitable that she was going to succumb to her wounds. She instructed the woman to, when she died, put on the watch. She requested that the woman set her cabin as home. The watch would tell her how.

The traveler had set the watch to a planet that she had left instructions on how she wanted to be laid to rest. It would be the first on the memory. The traveler closed her eyes and slowly her breath gave out. The woman cleaned her up. then put on the watch. Instantly all the information filled her.

She now knew what the traveler wanted in detail. She placed the traveler’s body on a skid and opened the jump point after setting her cabin as home.

Going through that jump point, she pulled the skid over the grass to the rail that had a call button on it. She pressed it and waited. Within minutes a machine came. She held out her arm that had the watch. The machine’s probe touched the watch and took charge of the body.

She watched as the body was taken away. She stood there in awe of the serene state of the area. Suddenly, she was brought back to her senses when she heard something she had never heard before. Looking up she saw a clear cube, being carried by a drone, coming her way. When it got close, the glass roof slid back, the cube was lowered in and the glass roof returned to its original position.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, she descended the steps. Stepping in the corridor, there were dead people in various settings. She walked to the area, fascinated as she went. When she found the new cube, she just smiled. There in the center of a large pile of gold, gems and other treasures sat the traveler with some gold in her hand and a smile on her face. She must have been putting the treasure here for quite a while.

After that she opened the jump point to go home.

She made a lot of jumps in her life. Laid up a modest wealth affording her a good life.

She did keep the cabin on a space in the watch. That was a comfort zone. She found that she could ground herself when the acquired wealth started going to her head.

When she had reached her old age, the watch showed her the next person that it was to be passed on to and where that person was. She had a son who she knew that he was going to be the one to deliver the watch to the next person. She knew that they would hit it off. They did.

The watch would remind her of certain adventures to relate to the next owner and give that person objects that would back up those stories. Near her death, the watch had her write the instructions about the watch, then hand it to her son.

She had entered the instructions to the next owner into the watch. She wanted to be buried at her cabin. When the next put it on they carried out her wishes.

The succession has gone on and on. It hasn’t told me when it started picking look a likes until it came to me. The elderly man had made his wishes known as I have. I’m not going sometime soon. I have more tales to write to my successor before I pass on the watch.

Parallel universe travel and learning how to handle it I had just completed the extensive survival training. I had the watch and all my preparations are done. My mother wanted me to take the youngest son but I told her that it I would pick a genial place that was programed into the watch. As I was looking through the list of programed destinations I came upon one that triggered a memory of a tale the elderly man wrote for me.

He wrote

My wife and I went to this planet as a vacation. It had a lush green plant growth.

Beautiful vistas, pristine air and the purest environment you could have. Plenty of hot springs for a relaxing soak.

The one caution she has is that she has stashed large amounts of bottled water at each of her regular jump points. If it is a new one she makes sure that she brings an ample amount. Her explanation is a simple sentence.

“There are all sorts of nasty little bugs in the water that may or may not kill you. Don’t drink the water, not even after boiling.”

The planet does not have a humanoid life but there are some of what we would call animal life that show there is an underlying intelligence.

Even the word vacation had different meanings between the two of us. To me it is relax in the sun and have fun enjoying each other. To my wife it meant that there was no humanoid life to interfere with her search for riches.

We had enough riches now to last more than a lifetime but to her it was a thrill. The best way to explain it is those who are addicted to shopping. They buy and buy more. They, most of the time, don’t even use the item. She is addicted to the hunt.

It was on the relaxing hectic adventure that I was confronted by a pack of enormous animals that looked like they were a cross between a bull mastiff, a horse and a wolf.

I had let my wife out of my sight for a moment when the pack leader started to snarl at me. I was going to die, I knew it.

Just them, my wife came to my rescue. The pack leader seemed to change his disposition. He sat and it looked to me as if he took on a regal attitude.

She bowed slightly and said that she was sorry for intruding in their territory. She did not know that it had expanded. I was introduced as her mate than she took out a pound package of beef jerky. The leader’s minions accepted the package and dropped it in front of the leader. He picked it up and the pack left.

My wife explained that they sensed the vibration coming from the watch. When the pack came to see me, they ran into you. You were not the source so they were going to eliminate the danger.

When I appeared, the tension was asswaged. I always bring a tribute of a pound of beef jerky.

We visited that planet often. Always with water and beef jerky. That planet was the last one we went to before she was killed. Even though we left a stash of goodies at the jump point, I have never returned.

I decided that it was the first world I would visit. When I told my mother that I had decided to go to that planet, she relaxed, somewhat. Knowing that my home, for the moment, would be my home jump point. Setting my home jump point was on the instructions that the watch told me about.

All of a sudden, my mother told me not to jump just yet. She said I needed something desperately. She would go out and be back in a few minutes. With that she left for the store.

When she came back, she was carrying a sack. I immediately knew what I was missing.

She handed me the bag and told me just in case.

I then initiated my first jump. Suddenly I was standing on the planet he had described. I saw that his words or no one’s words could accurately describe how beautiful that world is. It even is just the right temperature.

Since I did not reset this planet’s jump point, I started to look for the location of the stash. After sometime I saw an overgrown unnatural shape. It was the access to the stash.

Opening it, besides the water, all I saw were precious gems, raw but still heart stopping.

There was also raw ores. Pounds of them.

The elderly man had said that his sons would know of his contacts to be able to fairly dispose of the loot without any questions. I started to gather them.

I wanted to explore so I left the extra bag I brought inside the hide and went exploring.

It wasn’t too long before I heard rustling of the bushes. I stopped in my tracks.

An animal the size of a normal dog comes into the clearing. It is just like the elderly man had described but it was not that large. The only thing that I can figure is that it might be a young one. If it is, it could be a runt.

With many species, the runt is expelled to preserve the species strength.

For a runt, the dog was so beautiful to look at. Its mid length hair is so black as to appear to absorb all light yet when in the sun it almost looks silver. Its eyes are almost completely black.

It does know that she is not an enemy but it still is cautious.

I think it was attracted by the watch. Grabbing a piece of jerky, I crouched down and offered it to him. Cautiously it sniffs and then takes it. It then sits next to me.

“You want to be friends?” I ask it. Much to my surprise, it nods.

Amazed, I get up and start walking. He follows me side by side.

Towards the end of the day, I’m getting ready to go back to the jump point and decide that I’m taking my new partner with me.

Before I get to the jump point, he stops. Looking towards the brush, the hair on his back bristles and he starts to growl. A pack of his breed came out. They are larger and more fearsome than was described. You could tell that he really was a runt.

Runt or not, he did not back down. He was doing his best to show that he was protecting me.

Remembering what the elderly man wrote in my red notebook, I bowed, then told the leader that I was the heir to the woman before. I say that she had died long ago. I asked for forgiveness for the incursion and offered the jerky.

The leader did not break his look at the runt. I informed the leader that he was my protector and he would be coming with me. They looked at each other like there was an instruction being given to my small protector.

My small one then bowed as the pack leader left with the tribute.

“Are you now my pack protector? You did a great job just now.” and I pet him.

“How would you like to come home with me and be my protector?”

It didn’t even hesitate. He sat patiently, resting against my leg. I just can’t let him go without a name. I called him Hero.

“Your name is Hero because you saved me.” Hero liked the name.

Grabbing the bag from the stash, I initiated the jump and we were in my home.

Hero could tell friend from foe almost instantly. He immediately glommed onto my mom.

She was surprised but recognized the breed from the description.

For almost thirty years, Hero was my constant companion. He liked the elderly man’s son. I really still miss my Hero as much as I miss my husband, the elderly man’s son.

Hero was cremated and my will states that his ashes must be placed with me, in my

casket, when I am buried next to my husband in the elderly man’s family plot. I don’t want to go on that adventure without them both.

The elderly man’s youngest son wants adventure The elderly man’s youngest son has been the one that came over to our house to check on my mother and me. My mother had told me that she thinks that it is mostly to see and visit with me.

He and his brothers, when they came over, also write in the red notebook. They want to keep their father’s memory alive.

It turns out that they did go on jumps with their parents until his second wife died of old age. After that, he never jumped again. He would always be looking at the photo albums.

They once asked him about those photos. Almost all of the photos were of his second wife, their mother, but there were some of them that were of his first wife from around age eight until she died.

After he died and they went to see me to tell me of the elderly man’s passing, they all looked at me and that is when four of them said that i was their sister. The youngest was staringly silent.

On one of his visits the youngest started to ask me if he could come with me on the jump. As I wrote earlier, my mother was all for it.

All the brothers know that I have been on many jumps already. Initially they were just as worried as my mother but when they met Hero, they worried less. By this time, Hero had grown to adulthood and was a formidable guardian.

At home or going on a jump, my mother always tells Hero to protect me. I swear that he self inflates every time she says that. From that point, until we return, his head is on a swivel.

I was trying to decide whether to take the son or keep on saying later to him. That is when I stumbled upon a tale from the elderly man.

He wrote

We had a few safe jumps under my belt when she told me that she would be going solo on the next jump. She felt that it was just too dangerous. She did not want to be worried about me when she had to concentrate on what she needed to do. The jump, she says, would be fraught with danger because she has hit this criminal organization a few times and they are starting to catch on that she is the one.

I tell her that fact is why I need to go with her as back up or she does not go to that planet. She argues that there is a large undisturbed horde of gold that they have. It is ripe for the picking.

I give her three choices. I go with her as back up. She doesn’t go or she goes and I

leave her. This caused her to stop in her tracks and ask me if I would seriously leave her.

To which I answered “You are leaving me. What if you don’t come back? What if they use the watch and invade our world? I will not stay here without you. I will run for the wilderness and go so far in that even a professional tracker would give up.”

I pressed the subject by packing my bag and look at her. She realizes that I am very serious. I had hoped that she would back down on the jump. We have more than enough for our great grandchildren to not have to work. She however has the I need this addiction.

Now the final push. I started for the door and said that her hesitation said it all. She is trying to figure out how she can have it all. I open the door. She is mad and yells that I could go.

I told her thank you for choosing the jump over me. I close the door behind me and start walking. Opening the door she asks me Please don’t go. I’ll stay. Finally.

A few years later, we did go to that planet. It was now a desolate burned up world. If we had jumped when she had wanted to, we would have jumped into their version of a planet wide nuclear war.

Don’t give in to obsession. Don’t put yourself into danger and think that you must leave someone behind to protect them. You leave them to worry whether you will return.

Reading that again caused me to think about the young son and his urge. Looking at him I find myself worrying about losing him by me refusing his wish.

“It’s been a while since I went to visit Hero’s planet. Want to come? If you do, you must stay with me. Your father wandered and almost got eaten by a pack. This way I can see what you can do.”

Stunned, he tells her that he wants to go. I tell him to pick up a couple of one pound bags of beef jerky.

Hero had fun, the son proved he could handle his self. I realized that I had feelings for him.

The next time he visited he asked if I would like to see those photos that the elderly man held dear. I was shocked to see photographs of me. They seemed to cover a period from when he met me until, wait, there are pictures of me at my current age. I’m twenty one and he died when I was eighteen.

I asked his young son how?

He said that those were not me, those were his first wife. He added that when all his boys came to give me the word of his passing, they were able to tell you that you were their sister. I didn’t agree because I had extreme feelings. I now know that I love you.

Ultimate pleasure is a week old plain cake doughnut Ì recall a time that the three of us got caught on a planet. Our jumps were usually one to two days but this time we jumped at the very beginning of a magnetic storm. This trapped us for two weeks. Unfortunately, we only had food for three days. We had a stash cave so we sheltered there. Hero likes to hunt when we jump. Once we started to run out of rations, Hero would sense it so he started bringing his catches to us.

He would bring us wood for the fire. The storm did not seem to affect Hero. It seemed that we were not affected other than a slight tingling. Discretion being the better part of valor we stay put in the cave. Towards the middle of the second week, the game all but vanished. We were out of food. We only had the water but there was little of that left.

This is the first time that I have run into this situation. My husband agrees with my suggestion. I had told him that we really need to have double the rations and include some of the MREs with the cashes of water.

That is for the future.

After a while the storm abated. I was finally able to use the jump watch. Because of our hunger, we jumped as soon as I got a home lock. All of us enjoy a delivered meal. We ordered four meals. Two all meat. Hero shared his meals with us so we figured he should get a double.

As I ate, a tale from the elderly man came to the forefront.

He wrote.

There was one time that the watch seemed to malfunction. My wife knew how to fix it but it would take a few days. We were fixed with water and food but she determined that a special crystal needs to be replaced. She thought that there could be a replacement somewhere near. It is the time that it would take to shape it, that’s the problem.

We search. After a few days she found what she was looking for. It was small in size, bluish in color and if I had to further describe it, I would say it resembled a variation of quartz. With out the proper tools she labored for a few days until she finally was happy with it. It was just in time.

Funny thing. She has it fixed and all we had left to eat, from our provisions, were two plain cake donuts. They were now more than a week old. We each had one. I cannot tell you how delicious a week old plain donut tasted.

First of all, they are mostly dried out and crunchy. There is a strong taste of nutmeg that burst in our mouths with each crumbly bite. It seemed like the ultimate pleasure. We both savored it.

When we got back until the day she died, we bought some plain cake donuts and would only eat them after at least a week.

I read that story to him and he had to laugh. He told me that sometimes we would buy a dozen assorted donuts. They would put in at least one, what they called an old fashion.

We boys really did not like them so they would be the last one in the box. All this time we thought he got tired of seeing it and threw that one away. I told my husband that we need to get a dozen and let them sit. We need to try it out.

Sure enough they were different but delicious. We were down to the last three. They now were at least ten days old. I picked them up and told him that we were going to the family plot. Once there I placed one on the elderly man’s grave and the other two were placed on each of his wife’s grave.

Out of curiosity, I drove by there the next day. Only his was gone. I asked him if he enjoyed it.

Every so often, we would have them and bring some to their graves.

A cemetery world

My husband and I were at the family plot, with the plain old fashion donuts for the three.

Both of us always discuss the latest jumps. Unlike his first wife, jumps are no longer to find riches. We have more that we could ever use. Jump are now for vacations. We have children to raise.

There are the jumps to rescue and free slaves. We often go to the goblin planet where we are treated, much to our discomfort, as royalty. A visit from the gods.

While we talk to our parents, my mother was buried there on the insistence of all the brothers, I remembered one of the elderly man’s last tales I my book.

He wrote

Sometimes my wife would just set the watch to random. The only parameters that are set into the watch is that the planet has human breathable air. Other than that, when you chose random, you are not going to know where you end up.

This time, wanting adventure, she set it at random and we made the jump.

The air was fresh, the sky was crystal blue without a cloud in it. All you can see is that there seems to be no mountains. The only things moving are automated solar powered lawn mowers that continually mow the lawn to perfection.

Singularly, the one thing sticks out are ornate railings that cover what appears to be surface windows. There are stairs that lead down.

We walk over to the nearest railing and look. There, looking down through what appears to be thick clear glass, were multiple rooms of the same size. There were quite a few vacant rooms.

Our attention was brought to the first occupied room that we saw. Curiosity drew us down those stairs. The front wall of all the rooms are made of the same thick glass.

There in that room was saw was a tableau of what one would see in a Victorian parlor.

Lace doilies covered the end tables that had stain glass table lamps on them. Seating was wood framed, deep red velvet upholstered parlor chairs and matching sofa. Ceiling to floor matching drapes that are closed over what would be a window.

With the appropriate time rugs and wall paper, it is scene that rivals any museum with the exception of the two occupants. The man was in his chair reading a book and the woman was working on a needle point.

Thinking that they are mannequins, we are ready to move on to another room in this complex, when my wife notices that the woman’s hands appear to be slightly desiccated. Looking at the man, you can see other telltale signs. They are real people but they are dead. That’s when we saw carved in the stone floor their names and dates.

The two have been dead for over a hundred years.

In the next room were a family at the dinner table.

Another room, a woman surrounded by her amassed wealth. Her arms were extended with gold coins piles on both palms. My wife is drooling and tried to get in but that’s why the glass is thick. After prying, poking and downright hammering, the glass isn’t even smudged. She gives up and we go back above ground.

When we emerge, we see that there is a very large drone carrying one of those rooms.

They are completely sealed glass cubes. It can only be assumed that those cubed are vacuum sealed to slow down the process of decay.

The top glass cover tilts up and what we thought was a vacant room was just a space.

The cube was lowered into that space and the top cover goes back in place.

When we go to that area and descend the stairs into what we now know as a mausoleum, we see the room that was just installed. It looks like it was always there but we see that the stone now is deforming the show lettering. The person’s name and dates are forming.

We laugh, there is a man sitting on the edge of a bed, in his boxers, in what seems like a brothel room. It looks like he is waiting for the door to open because he is looking at the door. I remarked that he would have a long wait.

This was one of his last stories that he wrote to me. At age eighteen, I thought that it was funny, but I told my husband about the story then asked if he thought that it was his father’s intension to have us put him, his first and second wife there. He just laughed at the thought. The three of them, what would the room look like?

We had, after that, visited the cemetery planet. It is interesting on how stuck we are with our mortal remains that some people would go to this length. It was then I told my husband that the family plot was exactly the right spot for us.

The section of the cemetery that our family had bought was a seventy six plot section.

The dirt was the right way. No matter how you look at it. Those on that cemetery planet will only be seen as they are portrayed in their cube.

By the way, we did find that room and the man is still waiting looking at the door.

Author’s note: growing up, my father had a side job at a funeral home. Almost all of us children worked there at one time or another. I still have dreams of dead people. The burials described here were from those dreams. Each time a different scene. Some are completely desiccated. The man waiting was not part of the dreams. Sorry

Fly paper

I remember when my mother and I went to visit a recreated old time village. They had houses, church on the center green and various trade workshops. We watched the blacksmith making something and I think there was someone making shoes for people.

He clearest memory was the general store.

Of all the things that aren’t clear in my memories, I can still see that there was a long strip of sticky looking paper hanging from the ceiling. On it were insects of various sizes.

Most appeared to already be dead but there was one rather large fly struggling to free itself. The more it struggled, the more it was being caught in the glue.

That memory can be triggered by something as simple as the sound of a fly buzzing around the room. Every time I beat back the childhood horror by remembering a tale the man wrote when I was in my early teens.

He wrote.

One time, when my wife and I went on an adventure on a very lucrative planet. It had an abundance of jewels in the raw state. I wondered why no one had been there to pick it clean. They were, at times, just lying in the river bed.

There is an indigenous humanoid life form but the plants are the most dangerous thing on the planet.

The humanoids have confined themselves to a large area on one side of the planet where they have a shield that prevents most of the plant life from coming into their area.

But they are too nice, too understanding. If anything shows intelligence, it is allowed to pass through the barrier.

Most humanoids did not travel into the half that was dominated by the plants. They did have a few adventurers that would trek into it. We ran into an area that was carved out of the jungle. There was a lodge there and was being visited by a family.

They were friendly an we talked. They had a little girl who looked like she was nine or ten at the most. She asked about our adventures. My wife held that young girl’s attention for what seemed like hours. She told that girl about some of our most thrilling adventures. Saving lives, finding riches and just plain experiences of wonderful sights.

The young girl was eating it up but the time came that we had to part. As we left, we heard the mother tell her daughter that those were fantastic fairy tales. The young girl hardily agreed. Sometimes I still wonder what happened to that little girl.

It is that planet’s idealistic policies that are allowing the most dangerous plants into their living zone. To them, the basic requirement to show intelligence was walking and manipulating.

The best example of that planet was a dryad. They walk, act, talk and think. They are sentient.

The worst if a grabber. A grabber is a plant that has vines that can grab, hence their name. Once they grab a flesh type they drag that victim into a pool of bio liquid that is sticky. That liquid then slowly dissolves that victim for nutrients. Even if someone helps that victim out of the pool, the victim continues to dissolve.

You need to chop off the vines to free the victim before it is in the pool.

When there is a shortage of food for the plant, it will move to a better location. With that, it conforms to the basic and thus can cross the barrier.

When we visited and collected the gem stones, we were able to cross through the barrier and sell them for a really good price in gold. No sentient in its right mind crosses to the other side so raw stones only come from us crazies.

My wife liked the thrill of evading the grabbers until they caught her. I was able to chop the vine but told her that it was the last time for this planet. The gems and the thrill she got was not worth losing her.

In remembering that fly strip with its struggling fly and the result of my trying to free it. I got sticky on my fingers but the fly got ripped apart. Every time that I think about all those gems ripe for the picking, I remember that fly. Like the elderly man wrote, not worth the risk.

A planet in reverse

Part of the fun in my life is to reread some of the stories that the elderly man related.

There was a unique one. Once I start rereading one of his tales, It brings back memories of the first time reading it. The stories most times grab my interest on the first read but may be pushed into the back of my memories upon reading the next tale.

I happened upon this tale and it stirred those memories. When I read it for the first time, I was so interested in the story that when I showed my mother, she laughed hardily. She said that it was a wonderfully funny concept. She knew by now, that these really weren’t tales. They were recounts of his experiences.

At the time, I said that I wished I could go there and see that sight.

He wrote

One of the strangest jumps we went on was to what could only be called a planet in reverse. The jump point opened, as usual in a safe spot that is out of the normal way.

We were on the top of a hill overlooking what looked like a town in the valley.

It was a short walk to that town.

Much to our surprise the houses are all but collapsed. Most are just blackened with age due to moisture and mold. As we explore, I spotted a few buildings that are in better condition. Spots of dull paint. A better looking board here and there.

Upon closer inspection, we watched a blackened board start to dry and get lighter. It appeared that these buildings were in the reverse of decay. My wife made the remark that she wanted to watch this. She set the location into the memory of the watch.

Months later we came back to see what would be classified as buildings that showed need for some maintenance. The biggest difference is that there are now people living here. They look like the buildings. Rather dull. They look like their life is full of drudgery.

There are now rust buckets on four wheels. They smoke and are very noisy..

The next jump, it looked like a town was in the late 1940’s. We were looking forward to seeing that planet but before we could go, my young wife made her solo jump into the great unknown identified only as death.

I was curious. I showed my husband the entry and asked if he wanted to see it. I wanted to see at what stage it was at now. After reading the tale, he was all for it.

We jumped. Much to our dismay, the town looked extremely futuristic. We walked into it and the first thing you see is that there are very few people left around. The buildings were starting to show signs of neglect.

We stopped a man. Asking what was happening, he looked at us as if we were out of our minds. He explained, in simple terms, that the world was in the dying cycle. He told us that we needed to go to the town hall. There is a pamphlet that will explain everything.

He excused himself. He told us that he had to go to the cube service. It was his turn to be placed in his cube that was designed to his wishes. We asked, if he did not mind, what was the cube design he has. He told us that he wanted to be sitting on a bed in a very fancy room and looking at the door, waiting.

Immediately, we recognized what he was describing. At the town hall, we got that pamphlet. No surprise, our thoughts were correct. This planet cycled, every three hundred years from decay to height and tree hundred years back to decay. The only thing that remained constant was the planet core machinery.

An automated system that would take the wish of the dying and create that scene in a hermetically sealed transparent cube. They would be placed in there, then transported to the eternal rest planet where the future could see them at rest.

When the dying cycle begins, citizens can choose when to be placed into their cube. A painless euthanasia is guaranteed.

My husband and I walk to the jump point and left. We never returned.

Authors notes: Story based on dreams over a period of time In the dreams, all the wooden buildings are black with decay. They line over grown streets. When I look at them some do have better paint. Going into them some rooms are almost in decent condition. They seem to have started out as ruins and slowly are improving.