by Don Fern
the restaurant. The Mayor, with the rule book, crosses the street. George, Tom, and 23 townspeople follow behind. They stop in front of the restaurant and watch through the window.
Sam doesn't like outsiders. Erratic noises started coming from the Wasnits big mouths while they were waving their arms and wings at the menu in back of the counter. Sam got angry and told them to get out. Sam went immediately in a trance state with a countdown timer flashing off the seconds the same as the 39 at the dock. The Wasnits go into the kitchen and make themselves pizzas and hamburgers. Then they sit at the counter and eat; adding salt, pickles, onion, catsup, and assorted things from bottles as desired.
Outside the Mayor is flipping thought the rule book and stops on page 27. He speaks to the crowd, "Here it says that the weapons on pause will automatically protect the player from anyone that shows hostility towards the player. So everyone should relax and show a friendly attitude toward are visitors."
The two finish eating and step out the front door. The crowd backs up to let them have room.
The Mayor addresses then. "Welcome to Greenly. If there's any way we may help you we'll be happy to." The Wasnits look at the crowd and walk toward the park.
As they walk in front of the church, Mrs. Quinter crosses the street with a fresh baked cake. The Wasnits eye the cake and Mrs. Quinter pulls it towards her. The crowd following, motions her to give it to them. As the two walk forward to take it she holds it out and their green hands take it out of hers. One takes a bit and gives the other half to his companion. Who gulps it down. The Wasnits walk into the park and sit on the bench beside the pond.
Their eyes close and it appears they are taking a nap. A duck walks up to one and quacks. Both jump suddenly and the startled duck flies over the pond. They fly over pond after him. Jacks dog, Rover, runs past the crowd and jumps at one of the Wasnits. The Wasnit turns and Rover lands in the water. The other Wasnit swoops from above and gulps down the duck in midflight. After emitting grumbling noises he burps out the duck. Then they fly back to the side of the pond. This duck chasing flight attracts people, so now there are 57 persons in the park.
To try to keep the crowd down, the Mayor goes back to the town hall and tells the residents, through the viewer, that the Wasnits are in town and people should not go to the park as this might annoy the two. The Mayor returns to the park, bringing the viewer with him. Now there are 195 people in the park.
Mayor Tinley sits the viewer on the picnic table, tries the remote but it doesn’t work. He looks at the picnic table but can’t see the viewer he just sat there. The Mayor thinks the viewer fell through the crack in the picnic table so he looks under the table for it. The townspeople start crawling on the ground to find the viewer. The Wasnits see this and crawl around searching for it. Then Delores, who is fiddling with the remote, notices it's turned off. She turns it on and the viewer works perfectly.
A message comes on the viewer. "Greenly Outpost: A contingent of interplanetary culture advisors are on their way. Do nothing to disturb the Wasnits. Wait advisors arrival. Comptrol Game Sector."
The two Wasnits are standing there looking at the message. The mayor motions the people away from the Wasnits so the two can be alone.
Ben Kinder and Dick Carves, both 8 years old, take the remote and start to play a life size video game. The Wasnits watch the game intensely.
The Mayor, George and Tom move to the back of the crowd. Under the oak tree, Mayor Tinley hunts through the rule book and finds, on pages 73 through 121, descriptions of the 78 different types of weapons available to the players. Neither the Mayor nor George nor Tom have any idea of how most of them work. The weapons diagrams look very scary. All the weapons can be produced by the computer on any ship used in the games.
The Wasnits watch as Ben and Dick yell instructions at the sheriff and deputies about where to hide. The video characters hide and set an ambush for the notorious Kling brother’s arrival to rob the bank. Outside the western town a cloud of dust appears in the distance. The two outlaws on horseback ride into town. The two riders have big mouths, long green fingers, and wings. The Wasnits meticulously observe the two riders and look towards Ben and Dick as the boys shiver into the crowd. Then the guns blast and the two dead riders fall off their horses in the center of main street.
The Wasnits make snarling like noises as they walk to the ship on Main Street. The crowd follows. They stop in front of the ship. Mrs. Herger, Mrs. Farley, and Mrs. Calmer, from picnic baskets, offer the Wasnits several dinners. At first it appears they will not accept them and silence falls over the crowd. Then with their long green fingers the two reach out and accepted the dinners. And a sigh of relief ripples through the crowd. The Wasnits enter the ship. The sigh changes to applause. The ship rises up with the happy goodbye waves and applause of the crowd. Mrs. Herger, Mrs. Farley, and Mrs. Calmer walk past the dock where the Mayor, George, and Tom are explaining to the just arrived advisors what has happen.
Mrs. Herger waves to the Mayor. "Have a nice afternoon Mayor." He waves back.
One advisor is telling the Mayor. "Right here on page 62 it explicitly explains the boundaries of the game sector and as we..."
The two Wasnits, in the ship, are eating dinners. One is turning though a copy of the rule book, gets to page 61, stops, notices page 62 is missing, looks at his counterpart, who is sticking an ear of corn down his mouth, and says "Have you seen page 62."
The other answers "Nope. This is the best game I've every played. Where to now?"
The first replies "How bout the Central System."
The second says "Ok"
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Waiting
My name is Sukumar. I lived on the island called Xaymaca in the Caribbean. When I was a child, people came to our island. They brought with them torments that caused us death. Many of the Arawak’s died and so did I. After you die you find out what life is. After you die you ask; What is the reason for this? An injustice occurred and the people that came to our island should be punished. But how is that done when you are dead? I don’t know. What I do know is I am to remain dead until I find a way to punish those that did this to my people. So I found a way to wait till the day of justice arrives. I don’t know what the justice will be and how I will carry it out. By existing, while dead and waiting, I will find a way. You might wonder how I exist and am dead. Also how I can cast my revenge on those wrong doers. I don’t know my revenge yet, but I do know how to exist. I don’t need to tell you how. He’s here. He can tell you.
___________
My name is Bernard. I returned from a Caribbean cruise three weeks ago. I have never been out of the United States before the cruise and everything was new to me. I could never have imagined what happen on the cruise. Now my life is complete.
One morning I woke and took the elevator to the top deck. From high above, I watched as the clouds met the water on the horizon. I couldn’t imagine how there could be so much sky and so much water. But there I was on the top deck engrossed in the view. Never, in my life, could I have comprehended this view. This was just the beginning of all the unimaginable things that have occurred since that morning.
I had no plans for that day. The ship was at sea until it reached a port the next morning. So, I went to the casino. Not that I thought I would win anything. Just to spend some time. Of course I won nothing as expected, so I stopped playing. I figured the money loss was worth realizing that gambling is not for me. The rest of the day, I spent doing the things I never knew were on a cruise. I saw a show, listened to a couple bands, and ate a variety of foods. Doing relaxing things during the day was all new and invigorating to me. This was a prelude to the next day. The next day was the day my life changed.
That morning I woke to find the ship was at its dock in Jamaica. Again, I took the elevator to the top deck. Walked to the front of the ship. I stood on the top deck, looking out onto the island. This view reminded me of the sight of the water meeting the sky while at sea the day before. Today the small
town began where the dock ended. Beyond the town, trees stretched several miles to the large hills. The clouds in the sky meet the hills. The view was as mesmerizing as yesterdays, but there was something else. I did not know what it was. I know now what it was.
From high above the dock I observed the stores built by the cruise line, with the food and souvenirs. The dock area looked the same as the port the ship docked at two days before. About seven blocks inland appeared to be the downtown area. I decided to go to a different place, so I went downtown.
After getting out of the gate of the fenced off dock area, taxi drivers stopped me and talked some. They said things like; Want to get a drink?, Want a smoke?, Want a girl?. They said they could take me, in their taxi, to find whatever I wanted. I knew what I wanted. I wanted to go to the downtown. And I knew how to get there. So after listening to each taxi driver a while, I continued walking. After about a block, I had walked far enough to be out of the dock area. The drivers stayed in the dock area to find their customers.
Reaching the downtown street, I saw groups of people standing in front of the stores talking to each other. Nobody said anything to me. I also found the sidewalks were missing in some areas. Other places, within the sidewalk, were holes four to