Saturday, August 6, 2016

REALITY IS A MASS PSYCHOSIS ... 8/6/16

When last we met Jonathon and the other vampires and assorted mortals, they'd fled with Doctor Franklin to 'Baby Philadelphia' a small, 'bubble universe' ostensibly discovered by the old patriot.....

This was so they could avoid the powerful 'born witch,' Pig Blood Annie.. but unbeknownst to them, the uber-vampire, called 'Papa,' took care of her....

Now come with us to the nooks and crannies of Jonathon's mind and the nooks and crannies of other minds too.....

A faux eighteenth century, brick paved street in Baby Philadelphia. Our vampire hero, who seems free of the usual night-folk restraints, like sunlight, or mortal food, watches as a well dressed colonial matron buys a thick, paper cone filled with glistening, vibrantly colored, tiny frogs for her gleeful toddler from the Amazonian Frog Vendor, a naked member of a remote, up-river tribe. The man kisses the woman on the lips, slips her the tongue and shakes hands. He has the same haircut as Moe Howard from The Three Stooges. The gurgling toddler tilts back his head and opens his mouth, just like a baby bird, as his mother shovels in the still living amphibians.

And then, for an instant, the sky flickered. Gone were the clouds and the crisp, blue vault, oddly replaced by the sterile, white ceiling and plain metallic fixtures of Doctor Franklin's Grand Armonica Room.... but just for an instant.... Jonathon wondered --- Could a vampire have a stroke?... Then a dense, electronic pulse filled his body. In a strange way it tickled. After that... nothing... just nothing... not dark, not light, just blank.... not empty, not solid. Was this oblivion? Jonathon wasn't sure. Vampires don't know everything. Some of them can't even whistle. I guess it's the teeth.

It went on like this. Sarah had the same thing. Once, while taking a bath in her zinc, 'slipper' tub she had six breasts, just like a gravid fox terrier. And then there was no floor... no pine boards... no oiled sheen... no nothing. Down stairs, in the dining room, the two footman busied themselves with the silver. They'd see her if they looked up, but they never did and when water sloshed out of the tub it puddled on nothing.

When they questioned Doctor Franklin he upped their laudanum. Never mentioned it, but he did. They could tell... it was in the food... good food, quite novel to vampires used to their deeply satisfying, though limited fare.

Little Bastid Annie liked the reality shifts. The woman who curled her hair turned into Sherman Helmsley from The Jeffersons, though dressed in the same challis frock. Still a good hairdresser. And a dragonfly became a tiny drone. She felt the electric pulses too. Once, when he looked in the mirror after a bath, she saw Seth Rogen  staring back through the glass, as if through a port hole. Another time (this was night) three tall skeletons chased a dirty street urchin into a narrow lane, smashed him down on the rough cobbles and proceeded to rip the meat from his bones with their big, yellowed teeth. How he screamed.  But when quite denuded of flesh, he sprang up, shook hands with the boney trio and ran off with them. Annie didn't know if this was real, or not. She likes stuff like that. You know how she is.

What is 'reality' after all, but a mass psychosis suffered by people who never question anything?

<more next time>
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