Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D29

2009-10-12T16:40:00.002-07:00

(10:30 am Sat Nov 29, 2008)

Ha. Another day of problems looms. Time conflicts and constraints. Will our intrepid author manage to reach his National Novel Writing Month word goal before the month ends?

Tune in to see the spine tingling tension mount as he digs deep, using every trick at his disposal in his valient effort to overcome the odds and the forces arrayed against him.

Watch and listen as he has a character tune in to a radio station or stream music over the internet and the song lyrics boost the word count.

Listen to him complain and moan about slippery time and temporl black holes and other such nonsense in the hopes that you will fail to notice that nothing of any import is happening with his plot. Lack of plot to be brutally honest. And he has the audacity to hope this while being entirely up front about it. What gall. What effrontery, what daring and dashing do. (And yes, he knows that is incorrect but leaves it in anyway. Let the inner editor suffer on this last weekend. He may correct an obious typo / spelling error on thse last two days, but even some of those he may leave. We shall have to watch closely and see.)

***

(10:37 am Sat Nov 29, 2008)

The problem is, there is a hair cut at twelve noon (this time brought to you by the department of redundency department), sound check and set up at three o'clock in the afternoon, and the double duty ball tonight. All guaranteed to eat into the word production efforts.

On the positive side, the month's goal is less than one thousand words away at this very moment. That is a good thing. There is a certain sweet feeling in not throwing in the towel in the face of problems.

***

Sarah on the high seas. Midnight buffet and hot tub please. A good book on the leather couch in the library. Dancing at midnight. Singing at the piano bar. Running in the sun to find some needed energy. Around and around. The breeze strong in the face as she heads for the bow and weak on the back as she turns for the stern.

And all the while her ear buds playing music in her ears.

***

I was driving underwater
In my brand new Cadillac
With the undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back

We were heading down to Memphis
Where I had plans to blow my stack
On the undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back

There was something in the water
That made it hard to see
So I had to drive by feeling
And that was just alright by me

Cause that undertaker's daughter
Took me by surprise
And the steam was bubbling all around
With Memphis on the rise

So I gave a lobo whistle
And squirmed in my Levis
Then I kissed her cherry lips
And pierced her hot green eyes

Then we reached the shores of Memphis
And the King came out to see
The undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back with me

And as he faded in the mists of time
I heard a lobo sound
And a hunk of burnt out love
Came crashing to the ground

Then I went driving underwater
In my brand new Cadillac
With the undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back

***

See gentle reader, I knew I could get some music in here somehow. Sweet. (If you would like to record many of these lyrics in this book, check the license and go to town within it's confines.)

***

I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Baby how low can you go
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now

I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
I'm comin' in the clear
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Dance it baby uh huh
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I'm leaving all I'm feeling
I don't know why I'm leaving
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
Can you hear me now

***

Another
Island and another
Woman and my sailboat
Sailing and the breeze is
Blowing
And I need some time
To get you off of my mind
Cause the sun is shining
And the water's fine

Well I speared a grouper
And I dove some conch
Come night I mashed de roach
In a honkey-tonk
Yes that old red rooster
He was really jumping
And the gals was wine-ing
And my heart was thumping

Another
Island and another
Woman and my sailboat
Sailing and the breeze is
Blowing
And I need some time
To get you off of my mind
Cause the sun is shining
And the water's fine

***

And now we are a half way to the day's goal and almost to the month's goal and one again music helps you get to where you need to be in life. Music. Sweet music. Beautiful music. Island music. Spherical music.

***

After her run, Sarah went back to her cabin for a quick shower and change in to her swim suit before heading up to the pool for a little sun and swimming and perhaps a little jacuzzi lounging to boot.

She found herself a deck chair in the sun near the forward end on the twin pools and pread her pool towel out. She rested her bag on the ground and pulled her beach dress up over her head and folded it to use as a pillow.

Should she swim and then sun or sun first and then swim? She decided. Swim. Jacuzzi. Shower. Sun.

***

(10:59 am Sat Nov 29, 2008)

And now gentle reader, I need about twenty words to hit sixty thousand words for the month. Just three more.

Done!!!! See you later gentle reader. I will try and come back this afternoon and finish up the day's goal between the haircut and sound check!!!

Woot!!!

(11:02 am Sat Nov 29, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D28

2009-10-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

(3:44 pm Fri Nov 28, 2008)

(4:04 pm Fri Nov 28, 2008)

The chunks of time see to make a habit of slipping away. And the sad thing is, they manage to slip away while I AM looking just as well as while I am not looking. How do they manage to pull that off time after time. Some times. Before times, Never times, Betimes. Bed times. Dead times. Uncle Fred Times. New York Times. Life and times. Nursery Rhymes. Mountain Climbs. Old wind chimes. Long long lines. Minor crimes. Saline slimes. Windy mimes. Fridgid climes.

***

Sarah woke up in a nice room in a nice hotel near a mall down on Kendall Drive. She ordered herself up some breakfast via room service. Two pancakes, a well done omlette, bacon, toast, orange juice and some fresh fruit.

(4:14 pm Fri Nov 28, 2008)

(4:21 pm Fri Nov 28, 2008)

***

Another chunk gone...

After her meal, Sarah took a quick shower and took the elevator down to the lobby.

She walked outside into the cold air and headed over to the mall. It was a quarter to ten and the mall would be properly open for business soon. She wanted to buy a few things for her cruise tomorrow.

***

Where is Fuller gentle reader? I have been poking about in my head trying to figure out where he may have gone and so far there is not sign of him anywhere.

I am just too tired to think gentle reader. Someone has to start listening to some music for me soon so that I can mkae some headway and put this day and my tired head and body to rest.

Hmmm. I think I know wher Fuller went but I am not sure why yet.

***

Fuller woke op on the couch of a little recording studio in Texas. His cousin from Spanish Wells had a small apartment in town and had offered to let him use it if he ever wanted to visit Texas.

Fuller had been working on some songs with a guy online from the same town for over a year now. He had thought that it might be fun to take a trip to Texas and meet the guy and record some together in person.He hadmentioned it to Sarah a few times but she had always seemed too bust or not interested. He was never quite sure which.

Well, he had finally decided to just go for it. He couldn't remember now just what had caused him to make the decision and to leave without telling Sarah where he was going, but he was liking it so far. Fuller and the guy had been having a blast working on some new songs for the past few ays.

When they wroked deep into the night, Fuller sould just crash on a couch in the studio instead of trying to catch a late night cab back to the apartment.

When he woke up this morning, someone was blasting songs over the monitors.

(4:38 pm Fri Nov 28, 2008)

***

Another
Island and another
Woman and my sailboat
Sailing and the breeze is
Blowing
And I need some time
To get you off of my mind
Cause the sun is shining
And the water's fine

Well I speared a grouper
And I dove some conch
Come night I mashed de roach
In a honkey-tonk
Yes that old red rooster
He was really jumping
And the gals was wine-ing
And my heart was thumping

Another
Island and another
Woman and my sailboat
Sailing and the breeze is
Blowing
And I need some time
To get you off of my mind
Cause the sun is shining
And the water's fine

***

It's just a pop song boys
It aint nothing special
It's just a pop song boys
It aint gonna change the world

It's just a pop song boys
Make you feel a little better
A little better
A little better
A little better than before

It's just a pop song boys
So turn your radio louder
It's just a pop song boys
Jump up and dance a little while

It's just a pop song boys
Make you feel a little better
A little better
A little better
A little better than before

It's just a pop song boys
So turn your radio louder
It's just a pop song boys
So crank it up and make some noise

It's just a pop song boys
Make you feel a little better
A little better
A little better
A little better than before

***

I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Baby how low can you go
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now

I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
I'm comin' in the clear
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Dance it baby uh huh
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I'm leaving all I'm feeling
I don't know why I'm leaving
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
Can you hear me now

***

Gonna treat you right
Baby treat you right
Every day and night
Gonna treat you right

I'm gonna treat you fine
Baby all the time
Then you'll be mine baby all the time
And I'll treat you fine

Gonna treat you right
Every day and night
Don't wanna fight
Just treat you right

Gonna treat you right
Baby treat you right
Baby every day
And every night

Gonna treat you right
With the stars tonight
Baby if I may and baby if I might
Wanna kiss sweet your lips here tonight

***

There she goes
Re-arranging my heart again
There she goes
Re-arranging my heart

I believed what I was told
They said she had a heart of gold

There she goes
Re-arranging my heart again
There she goes
Burning down my soul

She said baby let's pretend
I've had my share of lesser men

There she goes
Re-arranging my heart again
There she goes
Burning down my soul

***

I was driving underwater
In my brand new Cadillac
With the undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back

We were heading down to Memphis
Where I had plans to blow my stack
On the undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back

There was something in the water
That made it hard to see
So I had to drive by feeling
And that was just alright by me

Cause that undertaker's daughter
Took me by surprise
And the steam was bubbling all around
With Memphis on the rise

So I gave a lobo whistle
And squirmed in my Levis
Then I kissed her cherry lips
And pierced her hot green eyes

Then we reached the shores of Memphis
And the King came out to see
The undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back with me

And as he faded in the mists of time
I heard a lobo sound
And a hunk of burnt out love
Came crashing to the ground

Then I went driving underwater
In my brand new Cadillac
With the undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back

***

Everybody
Has stopped dreaming
And now they're acting oh so surprised

Say their lives have
No more meaning
They can't see when they open their eyes

Under pressure
From each other
To perform for American pies

Someday better
In their childhood
They weren't telling so many lies

Everybody
Has stopped dreaming
Come and join they continually cry

But this dreamer
Won't stop dreaming
Sun's too bright and he's on the rise

Got a spark here
For you baby
Light your dreams if you grab a surprise

***

Love is strange yeah
Love is sweet
Love is often incpomplete
All the girls I chanced to meet
Left me crying in the street
Left me laughing in defeat
But I'm standing on my feet

Love is strange yeah
Love is sweet
Love is often indescrete
All the girls I chanced to meet
Spread the word out on the street
Laughed at me in my defeat
I'm still standing on my feet

Love is strange yeah
Love is sweet
Love is often incpomplete
All the girls I chanced to meet
Left me crying in the street
Salty puddles at my feet
But I'm standing tall and free

Girl you know
I need someone
To love me like
The morning sun

Girl you know
And yes it's true
I need someone
Someone like you

***

I spent some time yesterday
With a girl I left behind
In the darkness of my memory
In the salty mists of time

She's been living out in Frisco
But her husband has just died
And now she's moved back with her mother
To that cottage called "High Tide".

Yes she's moved back with her mother
To that cottage called "High Tide".

Well we had oursleves some good times
When our hearts were young and free
When we lived just for the moment
And our love was plain to see

But somehow true love escaped us
And when she left me how I cried
Cause she broke my heart forever
Near that cottage called "High Tide".

Cause she broke my heart forever
Near that cottage called "High Tide".

I've been drifting ever since then
Though I never made it far
And I been singing in a rock band
But I never was a star

***

It's a grey day
It's a grey day
And the whitecaps
Are in the harbour
There's a cold wind
Blowing salty
Across the road
It chills my bones

It's a grey day
It's a grey day
And the whitecaps
Are in the harbour
Watch the big waves
Making white foam
Crash the rocky
Honeycomb

It's a grey day
It's a grey day
And the whitecaps
Are in the harbour
See the sea weed
Gather angry
Meet the shoreline
Tumbling sand

It's a grey day
It's a grey day
And the whitecaps
Are in the harbour
There's a cold wind
Blowing salty
Across the road
It chills my bones

It's a grey day
There's a cold wind
Blowing salty
It chills my bones

***

Almost there now gentle reader. One more decent length song and I should be good to go. What a way to build up the count huh?

***

You and I we used to dance
In the days before romance
Young hearts never took the chance
To get closer than the dance

Then came love with all its fears
And my nights of endless tears
Nights I'd wonder when or where
You might once again be near

You and I have one more dance
Perhaps in England perhaps in France
Wiser hearts should take a chance
Perhaps get closer than the dance

***

Perhaps two songs genlte reader.

***

Everybody knows my name
But to me they're all the same
Darling you're the only one
That I want when the day's run
Its course

Everybody wants their fame
I only want what I can't tame
Darling you're the only one
That I want when the day's done
Of course

The force of your love
Is pushing me higher
The heat of your skin
Fuels every desire within
Our hearts and our souls and our brains
Like two runaway trains
Are rushing us on
We dare not remain
But fly on till dawn
Has come once again

Everybody wants someplace
I seek my own with calm and grace
Darling you're the only one
That I want the only one
I love

***

Well gentle reader, all cells are green for the day and I am going to shu things down and try to rest some. Feed the dogs first though.... Must feed the dogs...

(4:54 pm Fri Nov 28, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D27

2009-10-12T16:39:00.002-07:00

(2:11 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

Moan.

Woke up with a stiff neck and a headache again today gentle reader. Not planning on writing much in this sessoin, This is just more of a housekeeping session.

I have to go pick up my son from school at three o'clock and We are having people over for dinner tonight so I am not sure when I will get to do any amount of writing, but I will try.

Family also supposed to be flying in today. Not sure when they might show up.

(2:13 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

(3:36 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

***

I am stuck down in the pits of despair
And though I try I can't remember when
It was that I first fell down here
I think it might have been that day
Long ago when I first met you over
By the stables with the sunlight in your hair

***

(3:50 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

Once again, Sarah woke up, if you can call it that, from a sleepless night to no Fuller and a massive headache. That and red, gritty eyes.

She took a quick look around the house and yard to see if he was anywhere about and when she found no sign of him she began to get mad.

She decided that she was not going to go through the whole search for Fuller bit again, even if the last time was only half hearted because she hadn't felt like hse was actually searching for Fuller for some reason. This time, it felt like the real Fuller was missing all right but the Fuller that had no business showing up again. Showing up to wreack their lives and put her through such pain again. Living with drunk Fuller was more than she figured she could handle at this stage of her life.

(4:08 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

Sarah went online to book herself another trip somewhere. She wasn't sure where when she sat down. But she figured she would browse around and see what hit her.

(4:29 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

***

And the writer's blocks are in action already. What am I going to write about now gentle reader? Can I think of something to write about my characters? Or will I be reduced to writing about not being aboe to write, as has so often been the case this month? Or shall I end up so stumped that I will have to get slippery? Time is moving on and the dinner party deadline is getting neared. I can't afford too many slowdowns and delays.

Like the Eastern Road today. Being dug up and so backed up for major driver frustration.

Perhaps the government corporations on this island are really a front. Perhaps they are not really trying to provide the service for which they are ostensibly formed. And perhaps they do not depend on the fees they charge or the government funding that some of them pretend to need at times. Perhaps, in fact they are a giant experiment into the ability of humans to cope with stress and frustration. And I will not mention forty two in this context as it really does not apply.

***

Sarah logged in to www.webetrips.com in one tab and www.onlinemapsworld.com in another and began her search.

(4:41 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

(5:59 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

It took her a while, the looked at Spain, Portugal, Guatemala, Panama, Various US states, and Canada but none did it for her. Then she thought of trying one of the out islands but, after considering Exuma, San Salvador, Eleuthera, Briland, Abaco, Andros, and Bimini she decided that noe of them did it for her either. Finally, she thought of going on a cruise and that seemed right somehow.

She booked herself a fourteen day cruise leaving out of Miami and a flight from Nassau to Miami. When that was done, she felt a little bit better and went in to her room to pack. The cruise wasn't leaving until Saturday, but her flight was this afternoon and she needed to get a move on it to get everything in order and make it out ot the airport in time.

***

(6:07 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

Well gentle reader, I don't know just what Sarah is up to or why she reacts this way to Fuller's incidents but I hope I can get some insight into her behaviour at some point soon.

People are showing up to the party already, I thought it was to be seven but I guess I will have to put a real rush on in order to reach at least a thousand before I break for the party so that I will have at least a small chance of writing another thousand after the party and before midnight. Sweet sleep, sweet slumber, sweet dreams.

Looks like most everyone is showing up now... Bigger rush...

***

Sarah called Jaro to ask him to give her a ride to the airport and then put on some music while she packed.

***

It's a pirate that I be
And I sail upon the sea
And the fathers and the mothers
And the brothers of the damsels
They are all afeared of me
Cause when the damsels I do see
And when the damsels they see me
There is no hope left
Their hearts are for my chest
A treasure fair reserved for me

***

Baby, we're going nowhere,
And darling, we're moving fast.
Honey, we though forever,
So tell me, why can't love last?

They say, we're young and simple.
Some say, life's in the past.
They say, don't dream forever.
I say, let's make love last.

Baby, let's head out somewhere.
Darling, we don't need fast.
Together, we'll dream forever.
Sweetheart, let's make love last.

We're gonna put love first,
We're gonna make love last.

If we will put love first
Then we can make love last

***

I been checkin you baby
Vision's drivin me crazy
I used to be lazy
Now I'm workin real hard

Cause you to look my way
A long drive on the hiway
We could park in the byway
Oh I'm workin real hard

Two hearts they could fly way
Way up in the sky away
My love's for real 'll not f-f-f-f-fade away
Oh I'm workin real hard

Come Monday or Tuesday
Everyone with a clue say
He don't know what to do hey?
Mmmm, I'm workin real hard

I been peepin you baby
Beauty's drivin me crazy
Got no time to be lazy
Yeah I'm workin real hard

***

(6:14 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

(10:51 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

Well, this looks like not possible except with some slick stuff soI will let Sarah listen to a few more songs while packing.

***

I was driving underwater
In my brand new Cadillac
With the undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back

We were heading down to Memphis
Where I had plans to blow my stack
On the undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back

There was something in the water
That made it hard to see
So I had to drive by feeling
And that was just alright by me

Cause that undertaker's daughter
Took me by surprise
And the steam was bubbling all around
With Memphis on the rise

So I gave a lobo whistle
And squirmed in my Levis
Then I kissed her cherry lips
And pierced her hot green eyes

Then we reached the shores of Memphis
And the King came out to see
The undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back with me

And as he faded in the mists of time
I heard a lobo sound
And a hunk of burnt out love
Came crashing to the ground

Then I went driving underwater
In my brand new Cadillac
With the undertaker's daughter
And her cousin in the back

***

She's a sweet girl
She smells like a woman
With a heart ache
And a run in her hose

When I call her
She comes on over
And she laughs and
She wrinkles her nose

Says she's a free bird
Wants to go flying
In the noon sky
Way up above

Says I should join her
The view is much better
We could roam and
Fall into love

Though I need her
I can't admit it
No not even
Just to myself

So I tell her
I have a lover
Break her heart and
My very self

Now I'm lying
Lying in ashes
I'm a burned out
Shell of a man

And I find that
I need redemption
And a sweet girl
Who'll just hold my hand

***

Love is strange yeah
Love is sweet
Love is often incpomplete
All the girls I chanced to meet
Left me crying in the street
Left me laughing in defeat
But I'm standing on my feet

Love is strange yeah
Love is sweet
Love is often indescrete
All the girls I chanced to meet
Spread the word out on the street
Laughed at me in my defeat
I'm still standing on my feet

Love is strange yeah
Love is sweet
Love is often incpomplete
All the girls I chanced to meet
Left me crying in the street
Salty puddles at my feet
But I'm standing tall and free

Girl you know
I need someone
To love me like
The morning sun

Girl you know
And yes it's true
I need someone
Someone like you

***

Sarah finished packing and went out front to wait for Jaro to show up. She set her bags down on the front porch and locked the front door. She sat down on the stoop and put her ear buds in and started some music playing.

***

I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Baby how low can you go
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now

I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
I'm comin' in the clear
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Dance it baby uh huh
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I'm leaving all I'm feeling
I don't know why I'm leaving
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
Can you hear me now

***

Jaro showed up and she picked up her bags and went to the car, shutting the front gate to the yard. "Thanks for the ride Jaro."

"Hey Sarah, here put your bags in the back seat. Are you sure you want to do this? What if Fuller shows up?"

"What if he does? Is he thinking of me now? I'm gone. I can't take it if he is going to be going on drunks again Jaro. The last time almost killed me as well as him. I'm not going to go through that with him again."

"Sarah, you don't mean that. Go blow off some frustration and relax your mind if you need to, but you know you don't mean that."

"How can you know what I mean and don't mean? Who died and left you in charge?"

"Sarah, you forget how long we go back huh? I know you don't rally mean that. Anyway, if Fuller shows I will try and talk some sense to him. I think something serious must be going on though. I know he had no intentions of taking up drinking since the last time he beat it. He hasn't seemed his right self since that day on the beach has he?"

"No, that is when it started for sure, he didn't seem like himself for a while after that and then lately, he has seemed like himself again but not like his right self. I am not sure I am saying that right, do you understand what I am trying to get at?"

"Maybe, I think I get your drift."

***

Green and good night gentle reader. It was a good thing that Sarah felt like listening to so much music today. But where is Fuller and what of Fulcrum?

(11:12 pm Thu Nov 27, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D26

2009-10-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

(7:30 am Wed Nov 26, 2008)

You know I need you baby
More than ever
And I'll love you baby
Only forever
And my hugs and kisses
Can make it better
If your heart is broken
You need some tender
Understanding

***

(3:58 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Well now let me tell you a little something something gentle reader, the ideas are not coming to me in the day like in years past. Not in the night either. I used to get good spurts of words quite often but this year that has happened seldom if ever.

I need a break. Give me a break.

(3:58 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Doesn't feel like it is coming, I guess I am going to have to try and force it.

***

Fuller, Sarah amd the rest of the band had gotten together at Jaro's studio and jammed for most of the night, just enjoying the music and the companionship. They were all friends for a long time now and lived a lot of their lives together even outside of the music side of things.

Sarah was still worried some at how Fuller was behaving, he seemed pale and weak somehow and his voice was a bit thin even. His playing lacked its usual punch. He was missing a lot of his rock and roll attitude and she missed it.

At least he seemed himself though, she had to keep reminding herself how important that small fact was to her.

***

(4:16 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

It is not working gentle reader. Help me please. All the thoughts in my mind that could go down on page have fled leaving ones of such low quality that even these jokers that have made it onto the page so far this year shine as diamonds by comparison. That should tell you a lot. Probably more than I want you to know about the internal state of my head if I really bothered to think things through but that's how things shake out right now in any case.

I fear that this may be another day of dashing down nothing at all of interest and nothing at all that furthers the acutal story (haha) any. Instead, I may be reduced to simple ranting and raving in your presence while you gentle forbear to knock me over the head with a stick.

But soft! Gentle reader, anst thou hast a clue stick in thy posession, please go bestow a strike to my head with said bat and impart said clues in my general direction.

(4:25 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

This is terrible, even the low quality thoughts do not want to flow. I would probably even be better off if this were the paralysis of analysis but it doesn't seem to be that. There seems to be no thoughts inside here that can be analysed in the first place.

Pretty close to five hundred now with nothing much said right?

(4:31 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Right!

(4:51 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

***

He Matinka
What you tink bout dat
New brand plastic
And one old straw hat
Yous a stinka
An you much too slack
He Matinka
What you tink bout dat

***

Hey little girl with the party dress
I choose you over all the rest
Black pump shoes
And a leather vest
Fastest lips out in the west
You're the woman that I love best

***

Sarah woke up early after a late night of music and light partying. Her head hurt.

She slipped out of bed being careful not to wake Fuller and went to the rest room and splashed some cold water on her face before going to the kitchen and brewed a pot of tea and fried up a few pieces of bologna which she proceeded to eat with catsup mixed with ground garlic and black pepper. After that she poured out her tea into her favourite mug and added some cane sugar and soy milk. Then she sliced off two slices of bakery bread and popped them in the toaster before taking her first sip of sweet tea. Mmmm.

(5:02 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

***

(6:04 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Wow! An hour gone to no where.

***

Her toast popped up and she buttered it and spread some guava jam on it. She put the toast and tea on a teak tray and took the lot out into the back garden to a concrete table under the pidgeon plum tree.

As she sipped her tea, she noticed a small humming bird fly into the yard from the west. It went to a hibiscus bush and began feeding, its feathers shining in the morning sun.

She certainly seemed happy this morning. Or was it a he. Unless it was obvious, Sarah tended to reguard animals she encountered as females. She often wonderd if men thought of them as males and other women as females or was she unique in this trait?

Small birds in her yard always made her happy.

She began to eat one of her pieces of toast. She was famished this morning for some reason. Halfway through the first slice, a murder of crows appeared on the scene.

(6:13 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

***

(6:34 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Well, start making a tiny bit of headway and bram! Run right up on brakes!

***

The thing is thought Sarah as the crows came down on to the grass to hunt bugs, since these were not actual bona fide crows, but just what passed for crows locally, was this actually a murder of crows here in her back yard or was this a flock of crow wannabes as it were?

When she loked back, her hummingbird had moved on out of sight.

(6:42 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

(6:51 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

***

Wow! another chunk gone to nowhere. What am I going to do gentle reader? Where shall I write from here? Shall I head for the hills? No high anough hills around here to do much good.

Sweet, that's the first thousand at least.

***

(7:53 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Another hour gone! I can't handle this tonight. I have to get down to pumping out words again. Of whatever shoddy quality they may be and in whatever jumbled order they may come.

So I just wrote that all bold and brash like and what do I do? Immediately get up and go wandering off.

So, let's see, what would be an example of shoddy words in a jumbled order?

Fleet footed stumbled men green flops on the back dogs head tooth or flab. A then day cooled red before the never mast in effort effigy floating sea above bottom square round!

Him take flat stake before them hit head it with. She under turn big hit man on cloud and helper jaundice flap. Bad big little Pravatwong now before.

Like you sentence this reader gentle?

(8:00 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Slow this method is reader mine. Puzzle this under mind mine moon mauve model mild mood man!

An avid avian aardvark avoids aves and all arawak art.

Be better before being bored boys buying bagels, buns, bunk by band bugs.

That is quite hard actually what? So, here is what you do gentle reader. You take two ripe tamarinds and you take off the hard outer shell, is it called a shell, I am not sure, in any case, you take it off and get at the tart brown goodness within. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.

At this point, you can just bite off a portion of the pod's contents. It is recommended that you bite off an even number of seeds, trying to bite one of the hard seeds in half may prove difficult and might pose a danger to your peggers. Hold at the tree end of the fruit and pull as you bite. The strings should stay attached to the tree end, making your eating job easier and more pleasant.

(8:10 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

(8:23 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Ouch.

(8:32 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

You know gentle reader, when I can actually figure out something for any of my characters to get up to, the writing seems to go fairly well to well and the words count climbs in a satisfying manner.

But then you hit stretches where no ideas will come and you have to force yourself to write who knows what. Boring yourself and your poor gentle reader. (Now if that is not confusing enough gentle reader, you let me know and I can try to mystify it further for you.) And then, being bored, further writing becomes even more difficult. A downward spiral of agony.

(8:38 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

I sure hope I am near the bottom at this point for the night. I need to try and move up somehow...

***

Four and twenty black birds baked in a pie thought Sarah. Oops, that reminded her, she needed to bake a pie today for the Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

Fuller wandered out int othe yard and sat down next to her with a beer in his hand.

"Fuller! What are you doing? You know you can't affird to get into drinking again. And in the monrning? Are you crazy!"

Fuller's face hardened, "I don't need this foolishness now Sarah!I need something to drink Nothing else seems to be helping me feel right."

"Honey! Drinking again will not help things. This will only lead to trouble! Give me that now please!" she said, reaching out to grab the bottle by the neck.

She had a hold of it by the neck and was pulling it away from him when she saw his face get angry and he yanked it back, "Leave my beer alone why don't you? What is wrong with you? What majes you think you can just grab my stuff from me without asking?"

"Fuller! Stop this." she yelled, "Give me that thing. I will not let you wreck your life, our lives again. I need you too much. You can't do this."

"You don't run my life!" he spat and stormed off into the house. With his beer.

Sarah was stunned. What in the world had brought this on. She thought they were over this part of their life.

***

(9:04 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Well, I see green gentle reader. But in the monthly cell, I am still in the red for the daily cell.

Mini woot!

(9:06 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

(9:41 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

And another chunk flies away.

***

She screamed a scream of frustration and went in to the house behind Fuller.

"Fuller, I'm sorry I yelled but you can't do this."

There was no response. She went into the bedroom but he wasn't there. The bathroom? No. The living areas? No. The kitchen? No. Where was he? Then she noticed that the front door was ajar. What was he doing out front?

But he wasn't out front and then she noticed his bike was missing. What was wrong with him this morning? Drinking was bad enough, but taking his bike out on the road after drinking was another level a foolish on top of that.

What had come over him? How could he do this to them? When he had broken his habit the last time, and stayed sober for so long, she felt confident that he would not go back to his drunken ways again. But it looked like it might be starting again. And over what?

(9:50 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

She was not prepared to accept losing him again for a second time in a few short weeks.

***

Pixelated madness on a minor tube on a Tuesday, no a Wednesday.

***

She went in to the house and dialed his cell. No answer, just his voicemail, "Fuller, what are you doing. Come home! Fuller, come home please," she choked out, "I can't handle going through this again. You are going to kill yourself this time. If not on the bike this morning, with the drink soon enough. Why do you have to do this to us?" She slammed down the phone and the handset broke apart, the batter spilling out. "Stupid phone!"

***

Sweet! Green in the daily cell now gentle reader. Two thousand words pushed out for the day. Wow. Hard still. Very hard. I keep waiting for a string of easy days. Just one for astart would be nice. In any case, I am shutting things down for the night. I would like to get more done, but have no motivationn. I am drained.

Good night and sweet dreams gentle reader.

(10:01 pm Wed Nov 26, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D25

2009-10-12T16:38:00.001-07:00

(3:39 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

Well gentle reader, a little bit of searching for nano scramble fu and I found a bit of nano sed scremble fu that is good enough. I was looking for nano perl scramble fu but the sed fu will do.

A little bit of searching, testing, and naturally a little improving and look! It is now magically:

(3:53 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

It is so easy to burn time it is not funny. It doesn't take any kindling at all. Doesn't even need a spark really. You just sort of burn it and it is gone, normally doesn't even leave any temporal ashes.

***

(4:31 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

When Sarah woke up, Fuller was laready gone from the bed. She felt an instant of panic and then heard the TV on out in the front room.

She got up and went to the rest room and splashed some cold water on her face before going to speak to Fuller.

She found him sprawled out on the couch clicking away. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was greasy and matted. "You OK Fuller?" she asked.

"I feel turble," he smiled back wanly, "I couldn't really sleep last night so I got up and came out here so I wouldn't bother you."

"Have you spent the whole night clicking?"

"Parts of it, but I watched a documentary on pirates for a couple of hours. That was interesting."

"The standard Blackbeard stuff?"

"No, it was more than that, went back way further and came right up to the present. I learned some things I hadn't known before. You know that the family sip sip says we have pirates in our line way back."

"You must have, you stole my heart that day on the boat didn't you?"

Fuller reached out his hand towards her, "Come here you sweet thing."

Sarah reached out and took his hand and he pulled her to the couch and down onto his lap, "I love you too much. I don't know what I would od without you."

"You had me worried there for a while. I thought I would have to do without you. I just sort of went into some numb zone. Don't you ever leave me like that again."

"I don't know what happened honey. I still can't really remember anything. I must have been somewhere but I don't know where."

(4:45 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

***

Well gentle reader, I just validated and won! Fantastic! That feels good. It really felt like I was not going to pull through this year but with some sneaky tricks and some dogged determination, I pulled through. Not to try and reach at least sixty thousand words before the month is up.

***

She was an accident
Couldn't wait to happen
She splattered all my dreams
Right across the heavens
For everyone to see
The mess that she had made me

***

(5:10 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

"Do you think you are up to doing anything today?" asked Sarah.

"Well, I feel like death right now, but if I can catch a nap, I may feel up to something this afternoon. I probably should do something in the afternoon so I can break the cycle and maybe get some sleep tonight. I really don't want to sleep all day and be up again all night again."

"Well I was thinking maybe we could get together with the rest of the band at the club or over at Jaro's studio and work on some of our new material.

***

(5:26 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

Well gentle reader, I have just learned that there is band practice tonight so that will be cutting in to my writing time. Then I have also just learned that there has been a possible major computer issue someplace that may see me working long hours in the days ahead so it is a good thing I have just oficially won as the best laid plans and all that rot may be kicking in to high gear!

***

Fulcrum woke up on a porch he had slept on and went down to the shore to clean off and wake up. He had some trouble finding some fresh water to rinse the salt off but he ran in to a man washing his golf cart and asked for a quick hose down.

(5:31 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

(5:51 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

After drying off he went into town to see what he could see. He wanted to see if he could find someone to crew for and earn a little more money. He figured on hanging out here in Abaco for a few days to a few weeks before trying to make his way back to Harbour Island. If he could make it up north far enough he might be able to find something of another of his personal caches.

(5:57 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

Now we are in a big rush mode to try and get to a thousand words before I have to head out to band practice. How can I manage to manufacture enough words in a hurry? Perhaps I can place an order and have a bunch of loose words delivered. Then I will only have to concenttrate on arranging them. Will that prove to be an easier task than finding them in the first place?

I am not so sure abou that though. Because, at least when I manage to dredge them up from within, they come pre-ordered whereas, getting a jumble of words and having to try and sort them out onit proper sentences and paragraphs without any extra words left over might be a more difficult task. Perhaps I will do a little online experiment to test this in the days ahead.

In any case I am very close to a thousand right up in now and would like to thank your for your continued cooperation and encouragement.

(6:06 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

(10:07 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

Well, this is fun. I have been wasting time and I am not sure how I am going to get the rest of the words kicked out tonight. We shall try though.

***

When Fulcrum got into town, he walked past the gate to town and kept on past the restaurant and came o the point where the road took a sharp right at the little beach. He turned the corner and bumped in to a couple coming the other way.

"Fuller! I didn't know you and Sarah we over this way. When did you guys come in? Did you fly in?" said the woman.

"I just got here yesterday. Sarah didn't come. I came in on a boat from Harbour Island," replied Fulcrum.

"Oh!" the woman's face fell, "Too bad, it would have been nice for us to get together and do some boating. Is she coming up soon? How long are you here for?"

"Ah... I am not sure. I may be leaving today and heading further north. Sarah has no plans of coming over though."

"We may be going north later in the week, do you want to wait and go with us?"

"Ah... No... I am just bouncing around and seeing where the wind takes me. I don't really want to commit to much right now though, Listen I need to keep moving, nice to see you though."

"Well, good to see you too Fuller, tell Sarah we said hello when you get home. You guys need to come up and visit us in Orlando sometime."

"Will do, have a good day," said Fulcrum turning and walking away in the direction he had been heading.

***

(10:23 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

"Fulcrum!"

Oh oh, was that Derxed calling him? He looked around to see if that couple could see him but thankfully they were out of sight.

"Fulcrum! Over here in the dinghy!"

He looked back the way he had come and sure enough, Derxed and Judy were in the dinghy rowing towards the shore.

This could be trouble. Could he safely ignore them? If he went back, would he be in sight of that couple? Would they wonder about the Fuller, Fulcrum situation?

He decided not to risk it and turned the corner and kept going.

He had only gone a block or so when Judy came jogging up behind him, "Fulcrum, didn't you hear us?"

"Oh, hey Judy, I though I heard something but I was singing and I didn't see anyone so I kept on. I thought you and Derxed were going to be gone by now."

"Yes, well, we were supposed to be on our way home, but we got a call from the kids saying that they were not going to be able to make it for Thanks Giving this year and so we decided to hang around down here instead. We called the charter company and they were able to let us have the yacht for another two weeks."

"That's nice. You were lucky I guess."

"Yes well, we would be even more lucky if you would agree to crew with us for a bit longer. We were very excited to see you there talking to that couple. You will say yes, won't you?"

(10:38 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

"I might say yes, where would we be going?"

"Well, we thought we might sail the cays north to at least Nunjack. We would like to leave before noon if that can work out for you."

"You know, I was thinking of heading north for a bit myself, this might be my lucky day too. Look, I would like to get something to eat and then I will have to go and grab my stuff. Where can I meet you and when?"

"Well, we are shopping for some supplies and I want to go and take a look at some of the local art so, how about two hours right back there where you were talking tot hat couple?"

"I think I could make that, I may be a half more though if that is OK."

(10:45 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

"Sure thing, see you then," said Judy turning and heading back the way they had come.

Fulcrum turned and began walking the way he had been going.

"Oh Fulcrum."

He turned.

"Yes Judy?"

"Who is Sarah?"

"Who?"

"OK then, we are not the kind to pry. See you in a few hours."

***

(10:51 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, I may just manage to get there before too long. That would be really nice.

Too bad I don't think I have the gumption to try and get to three thousand tonight. It is interesting what I am learning about these people as I tell you about them gentle reader.

***

Look at me and tell me
What would I do without you
How could I begin to live
The rest of my life all alone

Look at me my darling
I need some reassuring
I need for you to promise me
Your heart will be my own

***

Hey hey hey hey hey....
What cha gonna do today....
Where ya gonna go
Who ya need to know
Wont cha tell me what to say

***

Summer's sorrow, came to me today,
Said to borrow, what I could not give away,
That tomorrow, would be another day,
And that sorrow, should not get in the way.

But I ain't livin my life like that
And she ain't welcome on my welcome mat
And now I've said it and that is that
Cause I ain't livin my life like that no more!

Summer's sorrow, whispered come and play,
I will show you, what almost got away,
Take a moment, and sit with me I pray
If I leave you, your world will turn to gray

But I ain't livin my life like that
Man I'm a removing my welcome mat
So like it or lump it but that is that
Cause I ain't livin my life like that no more!

***

She sits alone in the moonlight
With the sunshine in her hair
She sits alone in the moonlight
But you cannot find her there
She's got a new love lately
So she's crying in despair
She sits alone in the moonlight
With the sunshine in her hair

***

(11:05 pm Tue Nov 25, 2008)

Well, that is that for the night, I have to shut down. Later and good night.

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D24

2009-10-12T16:37:00.002-07:00

(4:53 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

So, a late start and a bad attitude goin in. Shall we go down or up from here. Time will tell I guess gentle reader.

***

(5:22 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

Well, that wa a lot of novel house keeping and time wasting. What now? Who shall we check in on?

Perhaps I just need to ramble on for a bit gentle reader, pile up a few tens of words extra before getting down to business in earnest. Forget Vern there on the verge of vapid vermillion.

Can I ramble on with the best of them? Somehow I doubt it but you never know. I may need to join ramblers anonymous soon.

***

This girl was looking at me
She said hey there I say
So I just looked back at her
There was no other way

She said she liked the way
She saw I cut my jib
I said please stop your foolin
You really shouldn't fib

She said if I was Adam
Could I please spare a rib
I just winked and sighed
And drooled into my bib

***

Fulcrum spent the day in a foul mood. Feeling disjointed and with a splitting head ache that had lasted for more than a day now. And the sea sickness did not help any either. He had never been sea sick before in his life and this made him even more upset.

***

I need to let you in on a little secret I just found out gentle reader, Fuller has always suffered from sea sickness.

***

Fulcrum had been at sea since yesterday, crewing for the couple, Derxed and Judy from Colorado. They had been coming down to the Bahamas for many years and chartering bare boat out of Marsh Harbour. They asked him to crew for them on the return passage to Abaco as Derxed had injured his back riding the waves on the north beach and they wanted the extra help aboard just in case.

(5:46 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

One the first day out, Derxed and Judy told Fulcrum how they had almost split up over Derxed's canceling their first planned bare boat charter trip to Abaco long ago but how they had worked it out and been coming down every year since.

Fulcrum could sense that there was something a bit strange about Derxed and that he exuded a shimmering sense of inner power that Fulcrum had never encountered before. He tried to pay close attention to see if he could figure it out but his headache kept getting in the way of his attention and his attempts to think.

(5:59 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

What was wrong with him? He didn't feel like he was all there.

***

(6:38 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

Well, the sloop finally reached Tope Town and they picked up a mooring in the harbour. Derxed paid off Fulcrum generously and asked him if he needed any help getting back to Harbour Island. Fulcrum thought he might hang around here for a while and see what he could see before heading back to Briland so he thanked Derxed but said no thanks and went below to pack his few things in an old canvas bag. When he came back up, Judy and derxed were in the middle of what looked to be a mildly heated discussion.

"Go on, give it to him," said Judy.

"Are you sure honey? It is our last copy and the one we have travelled with all these years," replied Derxed.

"Yes, I'm sure, he has been good to us, give it to him. Besides, I have a few copies on disk secreted here and there so I can print us up some new copies when we get home. Even before that if it turns out we really need a copy for some reason."

"OK then honey," said Derxed and then turned to face Fulcrum, "Hey Fulcrum, we have something we want to give you as a memento and a thank you. I think it may help you out with some of the problems you are having in life right now."

Fulcrum reached out his hand and took a battered plastic binder with a sticky rectangle on the front where a stick on label had worn off. The pages within protruded out beyond the plastic protection and where they did, they were worn, tattered and browned with dirt. He looked at the first page and in the upper right hand corner he read:

Zotzbrothers Stories - 1
And then centered:
Pizza & Pushups

"Thank you for everything guys," Fulcrum said, I am sorry I have been a pain this trip, I have just not felt like myself, my head is splitting and I don't feel like I am all here. I feel weak and confused."

"Well, you did your job well enough despite that and you were a big help, we could not have made it alone and we look forward to seeing you again sometime," said Judy.

Fulcrum thanked them again and pulled in the dinghy by the painter and went down the ladder followed by Judy. She rowed him in to the post office dock and then went back out to the sloop.

***

(6:52 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

(7:11 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

Ouch gentle reader, the time is slippery again. I mean, I have a mini decent total but it has been over two hours already and I am still under a thousand words for the day.

I was off trying to find a word scramble script for my official word count submission this year. There are things in here that I don't want anyone reading until I go in and rip things out after I hit my goal.

So far, no luck on the script count though. I may have to hack together a little something to do the job.

(7:14 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

(7:33 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

And now I am off doing some web searches and disk diving looking to help someone in #rivendell on freenode. I may waste some more time on that too when I really need to just jam out another thousand words in a hurry.

Nah, gotta end the search right? So I can write. Right?

***

Sarah spent the night on her couch with Fuller's head on her lap. He said that he did not feel like himself and that he had a splitting head ache but she was over joyed to have him back and to her, he certainly seemed like himself, unlike the days before he disappeared when he had not quite seemed himself.

She was worried though that he seemed unable to explain where he had been or what he had been doing.

(7:44 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

(8:23 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

***

Well gentle reader, more time gone down that drain.

***

Here is something that caught Fulcrum's eye for some unknown reason...

***

Lemonade Nights

I want to walk your lemonade nights and leave the smiling fire to his dreams. To glide unbidden above the moonlit waves of deepest grief. Lonely circles bent out of shape by the heavy weight of time unfolded.

But can we touch the empty leagues? A vast expanse of hot misty heartaches moaning in the dark. Far above, the albatross glides in search of a telly and a formal bird.

Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. If only for the moment. If only you would briefly point the way. On a lonely night. In the middle of a barren ocean.

I want to meander through your lemonade glades and smell the pines that ride the breeze. To fathom the forms of your heart, the depths of your soul. Giddy rhombi jump and shout to the fizz of joyous sunlight.

Please turn off the transistor radio. Next Tuesday would be fine. Come ride the green leaf in the morning rain and dodge the logical bullets running wild in the wind.

Look and see all the purple days arranged neatly in their box, swimming gently with touch of verve and ginger in a sea of foam peanuts. What lovely golden thread desperately trying to become a beguiling bow.

I want to walk your lemonade Knights and leave the smiling fire to his dreams.

***

(8:23 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

Fulcrum found himself strangely touched by the piece. The nautical motifs speaking to him in surprising ways. Synapses firing along pathways seldom travelled.

***

Come the morning, Sarah had gently lifted his head and slipped off the couch without waking Fuller, laying his head back donw on a cuhsion.

She went to the kitchen and put on some coffee and cut a few slices of bakery bread to make a grilled cheese. She cut the sharp cheddar thick. She put the skillet on the stove and lit the burner. Butter on both sides of both slices of bread. Fry one side of one slice. Turn it over and put the cheese on the fried side and put down the first side of the second slice at the same time. Take up the second slice and rest the fried side down on the cheese and then turn the whole thing over to fry the last unfried side of bread. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmm.

***

(8:47 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.

Gnu's Not Unix.

***

She poured out her coffee into her favourite mug and added some soy milk while the final side of the bread fried. Then she took up her sandwich and put it on a plate and carried her breakfast out onto the screened in porch with her notebook and turned it on before taking a bite of her grilled cheese. The melted cheese making several bridges from the receding bread to her mouth.

She took a first sip of her hot coffee and logged in to her account.

When her desktop came up, she opened the ice weasel and picked kompoz from her bookmark toolbar. She wanted to see if anyone had added any tracks to any of the projects she had in the works.

She was a bit bummed to see that nothing new was added to them in a week or so now but who was she to talk, she hadn't exactly been adding a lot of tracks lately herself now had she? But then she had a good excuse, didn't she?

***

(9:15 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

I got a song for you
Deep inside my heart
It's been growing there a long time
Do you think you'ld like to hear it
I could sing it from the start

I got a tune for you
A melody blue
It's been polished dear for your eyes
Do you think that you could bear it
You could maybe hum your part

***

(9:26 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

Now gentle reader, it really did take that long to write that little lyric snippet. No checking emails in the middle of it or anything like that. Eleven minutes of pure lyrical effort.

And I now see green. It is always nice when you finally see that red date turn to green. Now I need to push on and have the red number turn to green. That should happen fairly soon. I will try and remember to bring it to your attention when it happens tonight gentle reader.

Can I just put down a bit more foolishness and get it out of the way in a hurry so that I can ease up and try and push on to three thousand lovely words before midnight? Before eleven would be nice...

Well, I just checked and it has not happened yet but it is getting closer.

Closer.

Closer.

The suspense is killing you isn't it gentle reader?

So. Close. Now. Just. A. Few. More. Words!

Yes! that last word there ("words") put me right at two thousand for the day so far and the number turned green. And joy entered in.

(9:36 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

So now about three hundred more words to fifty thousand and about a thousand more to three thousand. So the next goal is fifty thousand for the month and then, if I can find the strenght, three thousand for the day.

(9:47 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

I got up for a little break, came back and did a little IM thing and suddenly a switch seemed to turn off in my brain and I have no more desire to write tonight. How ill I make myself continue? I want to do other things.

Well, truth be told, I want to do a lot of nothing. Well. And the thing is, I need more practice doing nothing these days. I may be getting rusty. My nothing doing skills may be fading. And no matter how much I try, I can't seem to do anything about it!

(9:51 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

(10:05 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

Step into my parlour said the spider to the fly
You will not regret it until the day you die
If you want to learn the secret of happiness
Step into my parlour and watch the truth undress

I can tell you tales of magic and delight
Weave my web of rhymes upon a summer's night
If you want to capture your lover's heart and soon
Step into my parlour beneath the bright full moon

Step into my parlour and meet a little miss
You can test her tuffet I know you can't resist
If you want to sample some special meringue pie
Step into my parlour said the spider to the fly
You will not regret it until the day you die
You will not regret it until the day you die

***

Just a few more to get to fifty thousand and then I am done for the night gentle reader. I don't think I can find another seven hundred words or so in me tonight in any kind of time fram I would be happy with.

But I am over fifty now and am a little happy at least. Woot!

(10:10 pm Mon Nov 24, 2008)

Done and good night!

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D23

2009-10-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

(1:50 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

two thousand and two

two thousand and six

two thousand and ten

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three thousand six hundred and forty

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three thousand six hundred and sixty-four

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three thousand six hundred and eighty-eight

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three thousand seven hundred

three thousand seven hundred and four

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three thousand seven hundred and sixteen

three thousand seven hundred and twenty-two

three thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight

three thousand seven hundred and thirty-four

three thousand seven hundred and forty

three thousand seven hundred and forty-six

three thousand seven hundred and fifty-two

three thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight

three thousand seven hundred and sixty-four

three thousand seven hundred and seventy

three thousand seven hundred and seventy-six

three thousand seven hundred and eighty-two

three thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight

three thousand seven hundred and ninety-four

three thousand eight hundred

three thousand eight hundred and four

three thousand eight hundred and ten

three thousand eight hundred and sixteen

three thousand eight hundred and twenty-two

three thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight

three thousand eight hundred and thirty-four

three thousand eight hundred and forty

three thousand eight hundred and forty-six

three thousand eight hundred and fifty-two

three thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight

three thousand eight hundred and sixty-four

three thousand eight hundred and seventy

three thousand eight hundred and seventy-six

three thousand eight hundred and eighty-two

three thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight

three thousand eight hundred and ninety-four

three thousand nine hundred

three thousand nine hundred and four

three thousand nine hundred and ten

three thousand nine hundred and sixteen

three thousand nine hundred and twenty-two

three thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight

three thousand nine hundred and thirty-four

three thousand nine hundred and forty

three thousand nine hundred and forty-six

three thousand nine hundred and fifty-two

three thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight

three thousand nine hundred and sixty-four

three thousand nine hundred and seventy

three thousand nine hundred and seventy-six

three thousand nine hundred and eighty-two

three thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight

three thousand nine hundred and ninety-four

four thousand

***

BANG!

***

I just wanted to start the day out with a bang! That came from a new and improved script:

***

#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
#
# progressions2.pl
# copyright 2008 by drew Roberts
#
# this program will write the word one to a file
# then it will enter this loop
# it will count the words in the file,
# convert the number to words and a append those
# words to the file
# it will contine the loop, adding to the file
# until a set number of words is in the file

use Lingua::EN::Numbers qw(num2en num2en_ordinal);

my $file = '';
$file = 'progressions2.txt';
open(INFO, ">$file");
print INFO "One.\n";
print INFO "\n";

my $wordno = 1;
my $totwords = 60000;
my $wordtext = '';

while ($wordno <= $totwords)
{

print "Words so far: $wordno\n";
# convert numerical word to words.
$wordtext = num2en($wordno);
print "Words = $wordtext\n";
print INFO "$wordtext\n\n";
$wordno = $wordno + $wordtext=~ s/((^|\s)\S)/$1/g;

}

close(INFO);

***

Much faster. Much, much faster.

(1:54 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

Now that's what I'm talking about. Faster in more ways than one.

That just feels so good.

I see the dogs running around in the front yard. The sun is shining. The tube is on with a game in progress. I am listening to the secong set from the band's gig last night. It was a lovely party at a lovely place in Lyford. It looked like it might rain for a while but the spitting spry never turned into anything more serious and ended before the party got into full swing.

The encores went long though and the drive back east from Lyford is a long one, even late at night when the traffic is not bad. So, I got home late and was wired up from the loud music and it took a long time to get to sleep. Thankfully I slept OK. Then I woke up too early.

I am tired and my hand still hurts. So you can see why it might feel really good to get those words pumped out. Plus, I know the suspense was killing you as your read those intricate plot twists hidden in there.

***

Still, I would like to pump out some non-slippery words and move what little plot I have along some before the day is done. Wish me luck gentle reader.

***

(2:21 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

Sarah had spent a day in the motel and on the beach in front of the motel thinking about the mystery of the coin in two parts and in two places and about the mystery of Fuller. And the mystery of her strange behavior since his disappearence and her strange lack of distress over his leaving after the first few days.

She had better hope he was OK somewhere. She would have a hard time explaining herself if something bad had happened to him.

(3:03 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

***

Well, what happened there gentle reader?

***

Her behaviour was something she had tried explaining to herself and had been unable to. How could she hope to explain it to any authorities who might choose to question her about it?

***

This is a National Novel Writing Month novel right gentle reader? Why be succinct when you can be verbose and extremely wordy? Catch my drift? See what I mean? Is this clear enough for you? Sweet. Cool. Copa.

***

Well, Sarah had enjoyed her day but had not reached any satisfying conclusions and so had gone to sleep and tossed restlessly through the night and woken up this morning with sand in her eyes and cotton in her mouth.

After a brisk mnorning walk on the beach she came back to her room and took hot shower and dressed before heading up A1A to a little local dive for a breakfast of hot dogs and fries. After she had finished eating she got a little worried. She couldn't possibly be pregnant could she?

***

(3:16 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

(3:39 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

Fulcrum had hidden his coin in the dirt under the porch he had been sleeping on and gone out and dcrewed again for the day on the sloop. It had been another good day and once again he had received his pay when they docked in the late afternoon.

He walked down the street past the house where he had been staying and paniced when he saw a dog digging in the dirt under the house near where he had buried his re-found coin. Well, it was not exactly panic but a good amount of worry. That coin was now the only direct connection he had with his old life. Well, other than the land and sea itself. His only posession from his old life as it were.

He wanted to go right into the yard and chase the dog off and look for his coin but he could not do that. There were too many people around and there was too much light out still.

So he walked on by and took up a watch of the yard from a position under a shade tree further down the street.

The rest of the day passed without incident and when dark had finally ceom he had snuck onto the property to retrieve his coin.

But it was not there. The dog had dug in the exact spot. Why? Why would he pick that exact spot?

***

You will learn later gentle reader that it was due to the smell of blood from Fulcrum's pirate days that somehow still clung to the cloth that Fulcrum had found with the coin under the beach porch and which he wrapped in before burying it under this inland porch. For now just ignore this premature information reveal and be suitably surprised later on when it comes out in a very dramatic fashion!

Sweet!

(4:00 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

(4:16 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

It is a good thing I got things started off today with that BANG! gentle reader as I am not sure I could deal with the pressure otherwise. I mean, time has been being its customary slippery self this afternoon but my attitude has been cool and relaxified as it were. Bushy, bushy.

***

Wanna tell ya something baby
I don't really care
How you fix your nails
Or how ya do your hair
How ya cook ya breakfast
Or what ya want to wear
I love ya for yourself
That's what ya need to hear

***

(4:28 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

(4:59 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

Pretty baby, pretty baby

Well we'll jump into the river
And we'll float down to the shore
Pretty baby, pretty baby

Then I'll give you something baby
And I'll show you something more
Pretty baby, pretty baby

With love upon the waters
We can count to three or four
Pretty baby, pretty baby

***

Fulcrum was not the kind to give up easy when it came to treasure of any kind though and especially treasure that he had some personal interest in. So he spent some time crawling around in the dark under the porch. A good amout of time actually. He spotted something gleaming in a shaft of moonlight thap peeped through a crack in the pine boards of the porch.

He crept over to the spot excitedly but it was an old pop top from the days when they came off the can. Those dangerous days of yore. Those days before Fulcrum had come forward so he did not recognise what it was but he knew it wasn't his coin and his heart fell.

He had kept on searching though but had turned up nothing but the earth under the porch.

He finally gave up for the night and crawled out from under the porch mired in dirt. He needed to find a place to clean off before turning in to sleep and remembered a tap he had seen in a nearby back yard the other day.

***

After breakfast, Sarah checked out of the motel and drove back to the airport in Orlando (MCO) and checked in for standby back home.

Once out at the gate she ran in to a woman she knew and managed to talk her into giving her reservation over and going on standby in Sarah's place.

So she made it home and showered and dressed and made a quick bowl of fried pasta with garlic and olive oil before heading out to the club.

***

(5:21 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

"Sarah! Where have you been? We have been searching all over for you," said Frank, "Fuller's up the road on my boat with Jaro getting it ready for a little fishing."

"Fuller! Where did he come from? When did he get back?" exclaimed Sarah.

"Yesterday, says he doesn't know were he went or how he got back, just woke up on the beach out past the caves."

Sarah barely heard what he was saying in her rush down the steps.

***

Well, as amazing as it may seem, Fulcrum tripped over the potcake that had dug up his coin as he went into the yard with the tap. Fell flat on his face he did. But when he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, there was his coin on the ground in front of his face.

It was a happy wash up indeed. And a happy sleep filled with happy dreams.

(5:39 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

Unfortunately, sweet dreams gave way to a splitting headache when Fulcrum awoke. He felt torn apart. Almost as if a part of him were missing.

***

I must needs go out for a while now gentle reader, hold that thought until I get back will you?

(5:48 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

(8:06 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

***

I need my eyes back
Who's got my eyes
Who's got my eyes

I need my eyes back
Who's got my eyes
Who's got my eyes
Who's got my eyes

I need my eyes back
I need my eyes back
Who's got my eyes
Who's got my eyes

I need my nose back
Who's got my nose
Who's got my nose

I need my nose back
Who's got my nose
Who's got my nose
Who's got my nose

I need my nose back
I need my nose back
Who's got my nose
Who's got my nose

I need my ears back
Who's got my ears
Who's got my ears

I need my ears back
Who's got my ears
Who's got my ears
Who's got my ears

I need my ears back
I need my ears back
Who's got my ears
Who's got my ears

I need my mouth back
Who's got my mouth
Who's got my mouth

I need my mouth back
Who's got my mouth
Who's got my mouth
Who's got my mouth

I need my mouth back
I need my mouth back
Who's got my mouth
Who's got my mouth

I need my skin back
Who's got my skin
Who's got my skin

I need my skin back
Who's got my skin
Who's got my skin
Who's got my skin

I need my skin back
I need my skin back
Who's got my skin
Who's got my skin

I need my mind back
Who's got my mind
Who's got my mind

I need my mind back
Who's got my mind
Who's got my mind
Who's got my mind

I need my mind back
I need my mind back
Who's got my mind
Who's got my mind

I need my feet back
Who's got my feet
Who's got my feet

I need my feet back
Who's got my feet
Who's got my feet
Who's got my feet

I need my feet back
I need my feet back
Who's got my feet
Who's got my feet

***

(8:16 pm Sun Nov 23, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D22

2009-10-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

(9:26 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Trouble ahead! Stormy waters!

My hand hurts still. I didn't sleep well. Worse really, I couldn't get to sleep forever and then when I finally did, it was then that I didn't sleep well.

Then I woke up with my head hurting from not sleeping well and my neck hurting, probably from sleeping wrong. And my hand still hurting. I may need to rest it for the day. That would be a big set back. But I can't afford to wreck my hand for this little bit of fun that is the National Novel Writing Month.

I may have to give up on my goal of sisty thousand wonderful words and settle for the more mundane fifty thousand run of the mill words. Push, push, push!

(9:34 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

(9:47 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Some breaks are necessary. Ah yes, but some necessary breaks get unnecessarily prolonged. This was one such but it is over now.

However, although it is over, it has given birth to an idea which even now tugs at me, asking me to side track myself and write a little program to write a book of progressions for me. I think I may have to give in and take a shot at it sometime today.

***

Sarah spent the night in her sleeping bag on the beach just north of the Sebastian Inlet.

She woke up to the sunrise over the ocean and got up and stretched. She went for a walk. North for a few miles and then turned around.

On the way back, she saw something glinting down at the water's edge.

(10:19 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

***

You are not going to believe this next bit gentle reader and neither did Sarah despite the evidence before her eyes and in her hands.

***

She went down and picked up a half of a gold doubloon. She was floored at the coincidence. And looking at it closely, she was even more floored at the possibility of an even greater coincindece.

***

One to put the powers of some people around here to suspend their disbelief to the ultimate test perhaps? W. W. N. N. S. N. M. S. N. M.

***

She jogged back to her stuff and packed it all up and headed back to her car.

When she got there, she took the half coin from yesterday from the spot up under the dash where she had hidden it and brought yesterday's piece and today's piece together. This was not possible! And yet the two halves fit together to form an perfect, imperfect whole.

Something was scratched into the back of the coin. An F on one half and an H on the other half and a lightening bolt underlining both letters, spanning both halfs and fitting perfectly together.

Not possible. Here in her hands. Not possible.

(10:28 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

***

Fulcrum woke up on the porch when the rooster crowed just before the sun came up. He was groggy and dirty but happy. he had dug around in the sand again for a couple of hours last night and, while he had not found his intect cache, he had found one of the silver coins from it.

So this morning he had two questions to ponder.

Would he find the rest of his cache?

What could he do to turn this silver coin into modern money? He had a feeling that it would not be a good idea to go into town and try and spend it as is.

And then a third question that could use and answer occured to him...

How had this coin been seperated from the rest of his cache?

(10:43 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

***

Over an hour of sputtering effort and just over a quarter of the day's absolute minimum or an eighth of the proper day's output. That would mean well over eight hours to get where I need to be at this pace gentle reader. No way! No how! I will either have to pick up the pace or cut back on the goal or both. I will hope for the former and, if I do that, be OK with having to accept the latter.

***

(10:53 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Fulcrum wonderd about asking the man who he had crewed for yesterday if he had any ideas but he really could not afford to talk to anyone about this and that might set off an unfortunate chain of events. And he really did not need such a chain in his life now.

He decided to bury the coin again somehwere out of the way and save it as an insurance policy. He could always melt it down and then try moving it if need be. That would make his being found out a bit less likely he thought.

In the mean time, he would try and earn a bit here and a bit there at odd jobs and keep any eye out for any safe but less honourable income opportunities. He was a pirate after all and he had not been doing too good a job of being disreputable since he had come to this time.

***

Laundry boy, laundry boy
What you gonna do
Laundry boy, laundry boy
Don't think too much of you

Laundry boy, laundry boy
Please don't hang around
Laundry boy, laundry boy
Leave without a sound

Laundry boy, laundry boy
Hot whites if you please
Laundry boy, laundry boy
Cold nights on your knees

Laundry boy, laundry boy
Why'd you go away
Laundry boy, laundry boy
Please come back and stay

Laundry boy, laundry boy
What you gonna do
Laundry boy, laundry boy
Don't care too much of you

***

(11:01 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Pick up the pace boy
Pick up the pieces
Pick up the pace boy
Pick up the pieces

Pieces of eight boy
Pick up the pieces
Pieces of eight boy
Pick up the pieces

Never too late boy
Pick up the pieces
Never too late boy
Pick up the pieces

***

(11:09 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Then again Fulcrum thought it might just be best to keep his nose clean in this new world until he knew more about how it operated. It was one thing to be a pirate in your own world and where you had your pirate mates to back you up, it might be quite another thing altogether to try and live the pirate life in a strange world where you were all alone and understood next to nothing. Then again, people were people, weren't they? Perhaps he should start looking for and hanging out in the places where people like he had been in his old life gathered for relaxation and reinforcement.

That might be an avenue he should pursue. Nah, stay out of trouble for a while.

***

(11:13 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Sarah checked back in to the surfer motel on the beach where she had stayed a few days before. She asked for and got the same room.

She put her bag in the room and hid the two pieces of the coin in seperate spots and stripped off and got in the shower intending to take a long and hot one.

(11:17 am Sat Nov 22, 2008)

(12:23 pm Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, I gave in. Here is the first stab at the program I mentioned that I think will work. It is running now and we will see how it does.

***

#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
#
# progressions.pl
# copyright 2008 by drew Roberts
# gpl v2 or later
#
# this program will write the word one to a file
# then it will enter this loop
# it will count the words in the file,
# convert the number to words and a append those
# words to the file
# it will contine the loop, adding to the file
# until a set number of words is in the file

use Lingua::EN::Numbers qw(num2en num2en_ordinal);

my $file = '';
$file = 'progressions.txt';
open(INFO, ">$file");
print INFO "One.\n";
print INFO "\n";
close(INFO);

my $wordno = 1;
my $totwords = 60000;
my $wordtext = '';

while ($wordno <= $totwords){ # $wordno = words in progrssions.txt $wordno = (split /\s+/, `wc -w progressions.txt`)[0]; print "Words so far: $wordno\n"; # convert numerical word to words. $wordtext = num2en($wordno); print "Words = $wordtext\n"; open(INFO, ">>$file"); # Open for appending
print INFO "$wordtext\n\n";
close(INFO);
}

***

It is probably wildly inefficient. I think for one thing I should not be opening and closing the file so much. I think I may just open it at the start and close it at the end next time and see how that looks.

After this run, I will make the changes and see how the new one seems to work.

***

I am inching up towards one thousand and five hundred words now gentle reader and that is a good thing. I has been a lot of time spent at it though.

Granted, I am not writing the whole time exactly, but by the same token, I am not able to go off and do other things I might like to do so that while it is true I am not writing, I am still sort of devoting the time to writing.

***

(12:35 pm Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Well, I got through the run. There may be a little issue with the loop ending but I will have to sort that bit another day. Now I will test the speed up possible with the open and close issues if any.

***

#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
#
# progressions1.pl
# copyright 2008 by drew Roberts
# gpl v2 or later
#
# this program will write the word one to a file
# then it will enter this loop
# it will count the words in the file,
# convert the number to words and a append those
# words to the file
# it will contine the loop, adding to the file
# until a set number of words is in the file

use Lingua::EN::Numbers qw(num2en num2en_ordinal);

my $file = '';
$file = 'progressions1.txt';
open(INFO, ">$file");
print INFO "One.\n";
print INFO "\n";

my $wordno = 1;
my $totwords = 60000;
my $wordtext = '';

while ($wordno <= $totwords)
{
# $wordno = words in progrssions1.txt
$wordno = (split /\s+/, `wc -w progressions1.txt`)[0];
print "Words so far: $wordno\n";
# convert numerical word to words.
$wordtext = num2en($wordno);
print "Words = $wordtext\n";
print INFO "$wordtext\n\n";

}

close(INFO);

***

Seems faster from what I can tell. I may put some timers on the front of each to see if what seems to be is.

***

(12:44 pm Sat Nov 22, 2008)

When this run is done, I will compare the two files produced to see if they are the same. I fully expect them to be, but I want to be sure in any case.

***

Hmmmm. Perhaps I spoke too soon on it appearing faster. The shell out to wc may be an issue. I wonder if I should try and count the words in perl itself. I will look into that.

***

(12:49 pm Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Looks like thay are the same:

diff progressions.txt progressions1.txt

produces no output. Horay!

***

Now let's see a bit of what the file looks like shall we?

***

One.

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

eleven

twelve

thirteen

fourteen

fifteen

sixteen

seventeen

eighteen

nineteen

twenty

twenty-one

twenty-two

twenty-three

twenty-four

twenty-five

twenty-six

twenty-seven

twenty-eight

twenty-nine

thirty

thirty-one

thirty-two

thirty-three

thirty-four

thirty-five

thirty-six

thirty-seven

thirty-eight

thirty-nine

forty

forty-one

forty-two

forty-three

forty-four

forty-five

forty-six

forty-seven

forty-eight

forty-nine

fifty

fifty-one

fifty-two

fifty-three

fifty-four

fifty-five

fifty-six

fifty-seven

fifty-eight

fifty-nine

sixty

sixty-one

sixty-two

sixty-three

sixty-four

sixty-five

sixty-six

sixty-seven

sixty-eight

sixty-nine

seventy

seventy-one

seventy-two

seventy-three

seventy-four

seventy-five

seventy-six

seventy-seven

seventy-eight

seventy-nine

eighty

eighty-one

eighty-two

eighty-three

eighty-four

eighty-five

eighty-six

eighty-seven

eighty-eight

eighty-nine

ninety

ninety-one

ninety-two

ninety-three

ninety-four

ninety-five

ninety-six

ninety-seven

ninety-eight

ninety-nine

one hundred

one hundred and two

one hundred and six

one hundred and ten

one hundred and fourteen

one hundred and eighteen

one hundred and twenty-two

one hundred and twenty-six

one hundred and thirty

one hundred and thirty-four

one hundred and thirty-eight

one hundred and forty-two

one hundred and forty-six

one hundred and fifty

one hundred and fifty-four

one hundred and fifty-eight

one hundred and sixty-two

one hundred and sixty-six

one hundred and seventy

one hundred and seventy-four

one hundred and seventy-eight

one hundred and eighty-two

one hundred and eighty-six

one hundred and ninety

one hundred and ninety-four

one hundred and ninety-eight

two hundred and two

two hundred and six

two hundred and ten

two hundred and fourteen

two hundred and eighteen

two hundred and twenty-two

two hundred and twenty-six

two hundred and thirty

two hundred and thirty-four

two hundred and thirty-eight

two hundred and forty-two

two hundred and forty-six

two hundred and fifty

two hundred and fifty-four

two hundred and fifty-eight

two hundred and sixty-two

two hundred and sixty-six

two hundred and seventy

two hundred and seventy-four

two hundred and seventy-eight

two hundred and eighty-two

two hundred and eighty-six

two hundred and ninety

two hundred and ninety-four

two hundred and ninety-eight

three hundred and two

three hundred and six

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one thousand seven hundred and four

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one thousand seven hundred and twenty-two

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one thousand seven hundred and thirty-four

one thousand seven hundred and forty

one thousand seven hundred and forty-six

one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two

one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight

one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four

one thousand seven hundred and seventy

one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six

one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two

one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight

one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four

one thousand eight hundred

one thousand eight hundred and four

one thousand eight hundred and ten

one thousand eight hundred and sixteen

one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two

one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight

one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four

one thousand eight hundred and forty

one thousand eight hundred and forty-six

one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two

one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight

one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four

one thousand eight hundred and seventy

one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six

one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two

one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight

one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four

one thousand nine hundred

one thousand nine hundred and four

one thousand nine hundred and ten

one thousand nine hundred and sixteen

one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two

one thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight

one thousand nine hundred and thirty-four

one thousand nine hundred and forty

one thousand nine hundred and forty-six

one thousand nine hundred and fifty-two

one thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight

one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four

one thousand nine hundred and seventy

one thousand nine hundred and seventy-six

one thousand nine hundred and eighty-two

one thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight

one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four

two thousand

***

(12:59 pm Sat Nov 22, 2008)

Now that made for some fascinating and suspenseful reading didn't it gentle reader.

And I see Green! Green! Green!

Did I just display one of the virtues of a programmer?

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D21

2009-10-12T16:35:00.000-07:00

(1:55 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

Got to try and make a start but it will require a level of multi tasking that may be beyond what I can manage at the moment.

So, welcome to another day gentle reader. Come right in to our little virtual world and make yourself at home. You know where things are.

I am trying to listen to Free Music to see what I might want to include in a new show I am working on trying to put together.

Listening takes a lot of time.

(2:08 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

Getting side tracked with the music listening stuff. Got. To. Con. Cen. Trate.

Must. Con. Cen. Trate.

Struggle. Must. Leave. Soon. Trouble. Write. Ers. Block. Help!

(2:14 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

***

Hey baby wow
Come and give me your love
Baby I need it all
Don't turn me around

Take me down to the shore
Baby show me the score
No don't you hold back
Just show me some more

***

(2:18 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

(2:30 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

Just a word or two to whisper in your ear
Take me down to the sea shore ever clear
Show me things I'd never want to hear
Blackend sunshine dripping with bright fear

***

You see it is like this gentle reader. I have a Nassau post wedding reception reception to go to tonight. This reception will likely result in my missing band practice tonight. But before that, I have to do a school pick up run for my son. And then a choir drop off run. And then a dash home before the really bad traffic run. (If I am lucky, otherwise it will be a crawl home through said traffic run.) So, it is going to be difficult to get to the quota today. But I need to some how. Why? Well, because tomorrow needs to be a catch up day. Say four thousand words at least! And while that should normally be possible, I need to go in to work in the morning and then the band is playing in Lyford Cay tomorrow night and I need to go along to record things and so it will not be a normal weekend day tomorrow. A double day will be tough. So a double plus to make up for less of a day today will be even more difficult.

Hopefully that is clear.

(2:37 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

Got. To. Leave. On. School. Run. Now... Later gentle reader.

(2:45 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

(4:40 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

***

Sitting in a yellow room
A black pen in my hand
Looking in my empty mind
For the words I cannot find

My son is sitting on my leg
I love him oh so much
I'd like to hear him sing a song
Then would my smile last oh so long

***

I used to think I had a plan
For how I'd live my life
A job, a car, a bank account
And then a lovely wife
A year or two and then some kids
I'd love with all my heart

But life it seems
Had other plans
And other paths for me
I thought I'd live it on the land
But I've spent it out at sea

***

Fulcrum let the sail down as the sloop pulled in to the dock. He had spent the day out on the water crewing for a couple down in the islands for the winter. He had heard them asking around in the morning for a local guid and he figured he needed some money as he was likely to run out soon unless he found his cache.

It had been an enjoyable day out on the water, sailing along with no where in particular to go and nothing particular to do. Fulcrum figured he could get used to this sort fo life if he wasn't careful.

When he had spoken up, he had counted on the waters not having changed too much in the hundreds of years since he had sailed them, or at least in the skills he had aquired in his other life still being useful in keeping out of trouble.

Things had changed enough that he was lucky that the skills were still workable.

***

(4:56 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

(5:15 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

She said she loved me
You know that she lied
She wanted my money
She took my hide

She said she'd give me
All of her heart
She said to trust her
That she'd do her part

I tried to give her
All that I had
She took that and more yeah
Man that one was bad

***

Sarah woke up in a sleeping bag on the beach down in Vero. Juts south of where 60 came across the state.

***

I think I am going to need to move this above the Fulcrum opening for the day gentle reader.

***

She stretched and smiled at the rising sun and the pelicans fishing for their breakfast. How she loved those birds. She often wished more would visit Nassau.

She watched as a lone beach comber with a metal detector making his way south along the beach. He stopped and dug his scoop into the sand and carried it down to the water to rinse the sand out through the holes.

He soon let out a holler and went whooping and running around in a circle celebrating some exciting find.

Sarah stood up and decided to go down and see what it was that he had found.

(5:29 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

As she got closer she called out, "Morning, looks like you found something exciting. What is it."

He stopped his celebration and looked her in the eye, suddenly reticent, "Just a little something."

"You were mighty excited there over a little something."

Now he got a bit biligerant, "So! I am easily excited. And what business is it of yours any way?"

"It is none of my business at all. It is just that I like beach combing myself and have found a thing or two in my time. From how excited you just were, I would guess you just found an old gold coin or a piece of valuable jewelry. So, what is it, a doubloon?"

He put something into a bag on his hip and picked up his gear and walked off back the way he had come, calling over his shoulder, "Nice try, but like I said, it's none of your business."

(5:46 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

Well, that was that. It mush have been something mighty interesting for him to react like that. Either that or she had missed his tin foil hat. She turned to head back to her sleeping bag when she had a bit of a wild idea. What if?

She went back to where he had dug out his find and got down on her knees and started digging in the sand with her hands.

It took her a while but her wild idea panned out. She found a half of a gold doubloon. She probably had been right. She looked over her shoulder and saw the beach comber walking back her way at a brisk pace shouting at her to stop. She smiled and decided to avoid a confrontation and stood up and headed back to her stuff and grabbed ti up in her arms and trotted over the dune to her car.

She threw her stuff on the trunk and jumped in and pulled off, heading to route 60 and heading west in a hurry.

***

(5:56 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

Well gentle reader, I never thought I would make this much progress when I sat down to write today. Mind you, I am still way short and I am feeling a little pain in the back of my left hand, but I am doing better than I expected.

I just got a call a while ago and I am missing band practice right now though. That is a pain.

I feel like I will be able to get to two thousand at least unless we get the No Voltage Blues before midnight. Hopefully that will not be a problem. We shall see.

***

"Here Fulcram," said his new employer, handing him his pay, "it was a pleasure sailing with you today, I hope you can make it tomorrow too."

"I should be able to and will plan on it. About ten o'clock then?"

"Ten sounds good, we don't want to push ourselves. we are down here to take it easy after all."

Fulcrum took the bills and counted them as he walked away down the dock leaving the couple on board.

***

(6:05 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

(6:44 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

Well gentle reader, I had thought to be done with this little effort until after the do tonight, but I find I have a few minutes and will try to get a leg up and perhaps find a way to do three thousand complete and countable words before the stroke of midnight. And never you mind about any oasis. Or a ship of Tom foolery. That is neither here nor there and should not concern you. And never you mind if it concerns me. That is information that I need to keep close to the chest as it were. Perhaps even in the chest?

In which chest? Never you mind about that either. Who said anything about a pirate chest anyway?

***

Sarah crossed the bridge over the river and drove west until she came to he junction where she could head north on Indian River Boulevard to pick up US 1 north of town. She did just htat and picked up US 1 heading north after the little jog on fifty third.

She kept north un US 1 until Wabasso where she headed back across the river to take A1A north to the Sebastian Inlet. May as well enjoy the scenic route right? She always loved driving the stretch where the barrier island narrowed right down to almost nothing.

(6:59 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

***

Well gentle reader, as you can see these Fulcrum evening scenes mixing with these Sarah morning scenes are going to be a bit of a problem until I do some editing magic but since you have so kindly tied up my inner editor for me, that will have to wait until the re-write, right?

(7:11 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

Well gentler reader, I am really pushing the time limit now. I need to finish getting ready and head on out to the do.

I am getting up to around eighteen hundred words now and my spreadsheet is still red. It would have been nice to see it turn green before leaving but that is not going to happen. We will just have to leave that until after the do.

(7:14 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

(11:19 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

Man oh man! Wow!

We were supposed to leave the do at about ten in thje pm and that would have put us home by ten fifteen or ten twenty at the latest. Instead, look at the time. This may be trouble.

Plus, I have been typing so much lately that I am having a bit of trouble with a bump forming on the back of my left hand. I have to give it a rest.

I can see getting to two thousand, but I am not sure I can see getting to green.

***

Fulcrum decidedto have a nice dinner using some of the money he had earned crewing and took himself back over to the place on the beach where he and Joshua had eaten lunch on that first day.

When he got there the place was full and the owner told him that it would be a while but that if he would wait on the verandah she would bring him a drink on the house and they could sit and talk until a table freed up. She wanted to know if anyone would be joining him for dinner and he told her that he would be eating alone tonight.

She went off to get him a drink and he wondered out to the verandah and found himself a comfortable adirondak chair with a view down the beach towards his dig.

There looked to be a party going on down there again tonight. Hopefully they would not go through the night but end at a decent time so he could try a little digging again tonight.

"Here you go," said the owner passing him his cuba libre and sitting down in the chair beside him, "do you know those people down the beach there?"

(11:42 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

***

Some where in Alabama
There's a girl who knows my name
Though she's never met me
She don't like me
And that's a doggone shame

Cause she looks so good in sunshine
And she looks so good in rain
And though we've never met
You know I bet
She'd love me if she came

To know how much I'd love her
I'd cross mountains
And the rolling endless plains
I'd cross the widest oceans
And break the strongest chains

***

(11:58 pm Fri Nov 21, 2008)

And that's it.

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D20

2009-10-12T16:34:00.001-07:00

(2:34 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

I used to think a lot of you
Before you sold your soul
Exchanging your most precious art
For that pauper's gold

***

Some where in Alabama
There's a girl who knows my name
Though she's never met me
She don't like me
And that's a doggone shame

Cause she looks so good in sunshine
And she looks so good in rain
And though we've never met
You know I bet
She'd love me if she came

To know how much I'd love her
I'd cross mountains
And the rolling endless plains
I'd cross the widest oceans
And break the strongest chains

***

Some how baby I adore you
Give the word and I'll explore you
I'll excite and never bore you
So give the word I implore you now

***

(2:43 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

(4:38 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Not again. That is no way to get a head start on the writing day.

***

I've got major blockage here and a major bad attitude to writing today. I just don't want to do it. I have a great desire to go for a walk or to veg. No desire to write. An even greater desire to go and spendsome time with my son or play a little game with him. I think I will take a shor break soon and do that at least and then complain some more when I get back to writing after the little break.

So bear with me gentle reader or skip ahead and try to miss the mush, I will not even think of holding it against you or being upset in any way, shape, or form. I will totally understand.

That being said, I would prefer you hang out with me as the company would be nice. One thing you could do that might amuse you some it to try and watch for my inner editor and if you see him getting restless, just sort of wrestle him down and tie him up for me. Or at least shout out a warning so I can take some evasive action before things get totally our of hand.

***

(4:45 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

(5:11 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

***

Well I tried playing a game of backgammon with my son but it got a bit out of hand and had to be abandoned. Such is life in the tropics even when we are only in the semis.

***

Fulcrum thought seriously about following the green eyes but decided not to get side tracked from his current mission. He wanted to have a go at finding some coins after dark. He just had a feeling that following green eyes could get him seriously side tracked and he could easily miss his chance to dig in peace.

***

Further up the beach, Sarah noticed a group of young women in bikinis and T-Shirts hanging around while one of their number flew a kite. She had always loved kits when she was growing up. Loved the way they rode up there in the open.

(6:06 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

***

And this is crazy. How did I get off track like that?

***

This kite was a good size box kite and they were flying it fairly high. As she walked up to introduce herself and strike up a conversation, she noticed that one of the girls was hooking up a device to the line to send a camera aloft. She had always wanted to do that!

(6:18 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

(6:40 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

The device had two wheels on it something like the rollers on the bottom of the screen doors that went in sliding glass doors. The grooves in the wheels fit on the kite line. There was also a sail of sorts designed to catch the wind and propel the cart up the line.

"Hey, that looks cool! How exactly does it work?"

The girl holding the kite answered as the girl hooking up the device kept working, "Well, the cart rides the line using the sail there."

"Cool, I think that part is fairly clear, it is the rest of it that I don't remember."

"Well, that wire like part in the front will hit a cork we have on the line up near the kite. When it does a couple of things will happen. The big one is that it will let the wings fold and the cart will ride the line back down to us."

"OK, that makes sense, what else?"

"Well, you see how we have the camera hung there? Well, we also hook up a plunger to snap a picture just before the sails fold up."

"Ah, I get it," said Sarah. Do you get any good pics like that?"

"Well, this is our first time trying it with a camera. Yesterday we were using the cart to drop paper sacks of flour. That was a blast."

"Have you thought of using a remote control instead of that one time trigger so that you could take more than one photo while the camera is aloft?"

"Yeah, we figure on trying that next week."

***

(6:57 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

(7:17 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Well, there you go, another temporal gap. Time passed but no words were written, the block is trying to win again today. But will I give in. I am sorely empted that is for sure.

I think I am going to be luck again today if this is a two thousand word day and I will try and push on to get as close to three thousand as possible. Once again I think we better just forget about four thousand from the break. Pretty much no way no how on that front again.

Gentle reader, I find myself hanging my head in despair, not wanting to write. Anything. Forget about anything along the lines of a story line. I don't even want to gut it out and write junk. And I am getting sick of this "novel" - Ha! What a sorry excuse for a novel!

Should I pull a "Henry The Eighth?" and do a second "verse" exactly like the first? I mean I did just pass by one thousand and doing that would put me over two thousand in a magical bit of Tom foolery. No, not Tom Doolery, Tom foolery. I will try to resist as long as possible and see if I can resist completely for the day.

(7:29 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

***

(8:37 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Now I come back to try and write some more and here I have the no net blues. My ISP is acting up again, I see lights blinking. The wrong lights blinking. And the pain is that I have something mis-configured oh this box such that when there is no net connection that everything becomes very sluggish for some reason. I really need to track this down and see if I can fix this problem. It may not be worth the effort though. I need to get a new main box anyway so I may just wait and see if the new install still has the same issue rather than taking up precious hours trying to run this down now.

***

(8:45 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

It is dark, Fulcrum is hidden in the bushes behind the dune down from the house with the deck. This is the second night he has been here trying to have a little unobserved dig.

Last night was frustrating. It would have been interesting if he hadn't had other things on his mind. There was a party going on. And on and on. And on.

Not that it wasn't an interesting party. Lots of good looking women and handsome men. They all seemed to be having a fine time. Chatter. Laughter. Dancing to a small band set up in a corner. Food being cooked on fires in barrels. And consumed. In quantity. Animated conversation. Some interesting side trips into shadowy places.

It was amazing what you could learn by sitting quietly in the shadows near a party.

Tonight was different. The people in the house had eaten dinner on the deck again and it had looked for a while that another party might be getting underway again as people began to arrive at the house just after dinner finished.

But luck was with Fulcrum tonight. Sure a few drinks were poured and passed around and taken in. Sure there was more laughter, some light dancing, some serious talk. Then, raised voices and it seemed for a while that a fight might break out but after some tense moments, when it looked like tempers were high enough that blood might soon be shed, someone snickered and laughter broke out all around. Tension eased and soon after that, the guests left.

***

(9:28 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Soon after, the people of the house went inside and closed the french doors. And soon after that the lights went out in the house.

That was two hours ago now and Fulcrum moved down out of the bushes on to the beach, doing his best to stay close to the base of the dune to lessen his chances of being seen by anyone in the house.

(9:46 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

He made it to the foot of the dune in front of the house without being seen by anyone as far as he could tell.

He searched for and found a way on to the dune under the deck through the vegetation fronting the deck.

He took the spade from his back and made his best guess as to where to start digging.

It was fairly easy going at first but as the hole got deeper it got more difficult. The hole kept collapsing in on itself and he soon broke out into a sweat in the stillness under the deck.

***

(10:07 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Sarah was driving south on A1A with her top down. It was chilly, but she was dressed for the cold and enjoyed her scarf flowing in the wind behind her like some old time movie star.

She was restless tonight. She had thought she could run away from the hole of Fuller's departure but she could not maintain her anger. Now, she just felt cold inside. What was wrong with her? Her husband had just disappeared out of her life and she should be frantic still. She should be looking for him. She should be doing everything she could to find him. But instead she had left her home, flown to another country and was now driving around alone at night with the top down going nowhere. Fast.

Too fast in fact. She took her foot off of the gas and let the car resume a more reasonable speed. It would not do to wreck or to get stopped.

She thought of going back to Nassau to resume her search for Fuller but shoved that thought aside. There was something about the last days before Fuller's departure that short circuited her natural response somehow. She could not put her finger on the particulars but she knew there was something there.

***

Fulcrum was on his third hole now with nothing found so far. The first two holes had been carefully filled back in so as not to leave any hint that digging had been going on. It would not do to be discovered if he had to come back another night to continue his search.

It was hard going digging in the darness under the deck but he could not risk using a light and being seen so he dug in darkness, feeling for anything of interest in each spadefull of sand he dug out. Hoping that it would be obvious to him if he hit his cache.

He was just about to dig out another spade full of sand when light began filtering through the cracks between the deck planking overhead and he head footsteps above him.

Someone walked to the railing at the edge of the deck and stopped. Fulcrum froze and tried to control his breathing so that he would not be heard.

What was that person doing up there?

He heard another set of foot steps come out of the door and walk to the edge of the deck.

"Honey, come back to bed, you are going to catch a cold. You shouldn't be out here in your thin night clothes in this chill damp air." A man's voice.

"I'm OK. I was having trouble sleeping and I thought I heard someone out here so I came out to look around," replied a woman.

Fulcrum heard gentle laughter from above.

"Honey, you are acting like some scary movie starlet. If someone was out here you should not have come out here in the dark all alone," said the man above.

Fulcrum almost burst out laughing.

The woman did, "You got me there sweet heart."

"Look honey, I haven't heard anything since we have been out here, let's go back to bed and get some sleep OK? We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

Fulcrum heard one set of footsteps cross the deck and enter the house. What now?

There was silence for a while, broken only by the sound of the wind in the trees and the waves breaking on the beach.

"Is there anyone body out here?" came the man's voice from above? Fulcrum was feeling a strong urge to sneeze. Some thing was tickling his nose. He had to hold it in.

After a while, the man's foot steps crossed the deck and Fulcrum heard the french doors close. He sneezed but muffled it with his coat sleeve. That was close.

Enough for one night. He carefully filled in the hole and snuck back out on to the beach in the open air. The wind off the ocean chilled him as it dried his sweat. He headed down the beach to a path he had found in the day and made his way back to the porch he had slept on the night before.

***

(10:48 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, I am no where near where I want to be word count wise today, but at least my spreadsheet has just turned from red to green for the day with the last word count update so I may end this day's writing soon ta reckly.

I would like to at least reach two thousand five hundred words though and that is not way too far out of sight so let me see what happens if we listen to one of the songs from the beginning of the day again. I think it is one that I may grow to like with some time and some polish. Which reminds me, I would like to thank you for keeping my inner editor away from me today. Even with all my struggles to write, at least I never felt the urge to edit.

***

Some where in Alabama
There's a girl who knows my name
Though she's never met me
She don't like me
And that's a doggone shame

Cause she looks so good in sunshine
And she looks so good in rain
And though we've never met
You know I bet
She'd love me if she came

To know how much I'd love her
I'd cross mountains
And the rolling endless plains
I'd cross the widest oceans
And break the strongest chains

***

Do you like that at all gentle reader?

(10:54 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Sweet! Passed two thousand five hundred and I will bid you good night now. Pleasant dreams.

***

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D19

2009-10-12T16:33:00.002-07:00

(3:02 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

After lunch, Joshua said he had to get back to Spanish Wells so Fulcrum thanked him again and he headed off to his boat. Fulcrum headed down on to the beach with the intention of checking out his old cache.

It had only been a few days really in Fulcrum's time frame since he had made his little stash but the beach seemed strange and changed. Dunes had changed, trees were not where he had left them, paths gone, buildings everywhere. His head started to swim and he felt a little panic coming on.

He walked the beach from one end to the other hoping to get his bearings and then did it again. A couple of more times.

(3:18 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

***

After that he had wondered back in to town to the street by where the green-eyed lady's house had been. He noticed from time to time that someone would go in to the yard and stop and read something before heading on down the street. Curiosity finally got the better of him and he ventured in to see what the plaque said.

June Roberts lived on this land
She gave so much and died too young
A broken heart at so much loss
She could not carry on
But faded right away
As her green eyes
Faded to grey

What did this mean? Was this about his green-eyed lady? If so, what had happened to her? How had she died? When? What had caused it? How could he find out?

He left the yard and set off aimlessly, wandering about the streets of the town where people he passed tried to say hello.

(3:28 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

***

Fulcrum woke up the next morning cold, stiff, and still confused. He had spent the night on the back porch of a house that had seemed unoccupied to him. He had considerd breaking in and spending the night indoors but had decided not to risk it so early on his return to the island.

He did not know what he was doing here or how long he might stay here but he didn't want to cause any trouble before he knew how things might work out.

***

Well gentle reader, welcome to another day of words. How will things play out today? What will these characters get up to? What word count will be reached for the day? Who cuts your hair?

(3:37 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

(4:42 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

Obviously no way to get to four thousand today but I was only going to shoot for three thousand today tops as I haven't got the gumption to go for more today. Lethargy and what not eh?

And to tell the truth, with a start like this, I may shut down at two thousand and try to take a better run at things tomorrow.

***

I'm, exactly like you
Girl I need a lover
Who hasn't a clue
Why don't we hook up
And do what we do
True love can strike us
Clean out of the blue

***

(5:05 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

And it doesn't look like it is getting any better right up in now does it gentle reader.

***

Fulcrum went in to town and got a bite to eat from store by the bay before heading back over to the ocean beach to see if he could get a better feel for things with a frest start to a new day.

***

Sarah woke up in a funk. She had to get some energy together and try to figure out some plan for finding Fuller. She called around to everyone she could think of. To his old friends he hadn't seen in years even. And then she thought she had nothing to lose and called his old enemies as well. Nothing.

Then she started to get mad at Fuller. Really mad! Who did he think he was doing this to her? Didn't he know what grief he was causing her? Did he care what his leaving with no word was doing to her inside? He was supposed to love her! What kind of twisted mind thought this was love!

Then she decided that if he could leave with no notice she could do the same and she went online and booked herself a trip to Abaco.

An hour later she went back online and cancelled her trip to Abaco.

Half an hour after that she went back online and booked herself a trip to Orlando. She went into her room and pulled down a small rolling suitcase and threw some clothes and toiletries into it and drove out to the airport and parked in the long term parking lot in front of the international departures building.

She was running late and ran into the building to meet a long line at the bahamascare check in. She was about to panic when she decided to go for it. She turned on her charm and her sob story and worked her way ahead in the line, calling on the sympathy of those who were ahead of her and saved herself about a half hour of line time.

"Passport please! Where are you going today?"

Sarah passed over her passport, "Hi, I am trying to make the flight to Orlando and am running a little late."

"You should be able to make it if you are lucky."

(5:30 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

(5:50 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

***

No Voltage Blues Just rained down! Later and who knows for how long!

(7:59 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

***

The No Voltage Blues

I got the no voltage blues
I got the no voltage blues
Yeah, B.E.C. is messin with me
I got the no voltage blues

My U.P.S. is beepin
It wakes me from my dream
And man she was a sweet ting
Ate least thats how it seemed

I got the no voltage blues
I got the no voltage blues
Yeah, B.E.C. is messin with me
I got the no voltage blues

My A.C.'s sittin quiet
My room is gettin warm
I lie right here and sigh it
Aint no sign of a storm

I got the no voltage blues
I got the no voltage blues
Yeah, B.E.C. is messin with me
I got the no voltage blues

I'm tryin to write my novel
In thirty short, short days
And now just like the last year
Gots to pray they change their ways

I got the no voltage blues
I got the no voltage blues
Yeah, B.E.C. is messin with me
I got the no voltage blues

***

Well gentle reader, The power came on around seven or just after but I have been wasting time since then fighting this writers block. These restraining chains as I sometimes call them.

***

(8:16 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

Yup, the no voltage blues. Painful slow downs.

***

Sarah got through US immigration and customs and took the escalator upstairs just as the flight was called.

She queued up and made it through the door and headed for her gate. And she got picked out for a frisking. She always just loved that.

***

When Fulcrum got to the beach, the wind had picked up and the breakers were rolling in from the ocean. He went back down on the sand and walked with the ocean on his right until he came to the honeycomb rocks and turned around. He walked back slowly trying to estimate where he may have hid his stash of booty.

He walked slowly until a feeling came on him that his was in the right area. He laughed to himself. He tried lining up a breaking wave with the ends of two clouds, a grey one and a white one. That should pinpoint his spot.

He looked around carefully. What was it that made this spot seem like the right spot. Was it that tree there back behind the dune? That might just be it. was his memory being affected? How? Even though to him it had been less than a month, could the fact that all these years seperated the hiding and the searching be playing tricks with his memory?

(8:46 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

Well, if this was the place, there could be problems, there was a house on the dune with a deck overlooking the beach, and already there were people up there sitting and enjoying the day. How was he to dig up under there without being seen?

***

(9:53 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

Wow! Where did that time go? Up in smoke like a baby grand? No bang bang huh?

Who knows but it is time to get a move on and get the word production level kicked up a notch. I mean, dunp whatever little story line there may have been today right out the window and just spew out words until we get to at least two thousand nitty gritty words.

Well, except for this little detour for a quick IM question.

(10:03 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

Well, IM ping done... awaiting IM pong. I may run out on pong arrival.

Now this doesn't seem quite right. Five hundred words of sprinting to a two thousand word finish line just seems wrong. You know it does and I know it does gentle reader, but times and measure and so fourth.

And let's just not mention the three word tonight shall we. Anf the four word? What a joke right?

***

Fulcrum tried getting in to position for a little exploratory digging several times during the day but soon realised that there was no way he was going to get away with it as long as anyone was on that deck. He decided to wait until after dark and try again so he walked back in to town for a late lunch from a vendor down by the public dock.

(10:17 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

***

After lunch he found himself drifting back to the green-eyed lady yard and sort of hanging about in the vicinity. Just as had happened yesterday, from time to time, people would enter the yard and read the plaque before moving on.

He noticed on particular middle aged woman took longer than usual standing before the plaque before bowing her head for a while and then laying a single red hibiscus on the ground at the base of the plaque. When she turned and looked his way before heading out of the yard, Fulcrum noticed her sea green eyes.

He sucked in his breath.

He almost fell into her eyes.

She smiled at him and passed out of the yard and on to the road.

He shook himself and began walking in her direction.

She did not look back towards him but set a brisk pace in the opposite direction.

***

The Bahamascare plane landed in Orlando and Sarah got off and took the monorail to the main terminal to the baggage claim and then went outside and caught a shuttle bus over to the rental car lot and arranged for a red convertible sports car for a week.

She drove out of the lot with no clear idea of what she wanted to do next but she somehow ended up on the Bee Line headed east. She didn't get off until she ran in to I 95 where she picked it up heading south.

(10:36 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

She got off I 95 at 192 and headed east towards the beaches. She passed a military academy and took the old route through the old down town, stopping for a bite to eat at a mom and pop place she that caught her eye.

***

(10:42 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

And now for the final push. One last blast. One last blast of wordly production. One last blast and the tape may be broken.

This is not good gentle reader. I have passed the two thousand word barrier, but my spreadsheet is telling me that I will not reach my goal at this rate. I need to find a way to squeeze out a little more production even though my inner writer screams abuse and my inner editor just laughs at me with some poorly hiden glee. Like some founding member if The Inner Editors Glee Club no doubt.

***

(10:48 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

After her late lunch, Sarah hopped back in her car and headed out to the beach over the causeway. She noticed dolphins in the river and smiled at the pelicans flying in formation skimming the wave tops.

She hit A1A and headed north, stopping when she saw an old style beach side surf motel. She pulled in and checked in, asking for and getting a room overlooking the ocean.

She drove her car around to her room and took her bacg in and threw it on the bed. She opened it and looked ofr her bathing suit. She must be crazy she thought, it was too cold for a swim but the sun had broken throught and she felt a need to be outside and near the sea.

But... no suit, she must have left it on the bed in her rush.

She thought about heading back to a surf shop she had seen on the way but pulled on a pair of old cut oof jeans and a Hope Town T-Shirt and headed out to the beach instead.

(11:05 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

She walked down to the shore line and let the water wet her long brown legs but the cold shocked her and she ran back up the beach started walking along with the ocean on her right.

There were a few die hards out on the water in wet suits surfing and she watched as she walked along.

***

(11:11 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, I wanted to see that number turn from red to green but unless that happens on this last count, it is not going to happen tonight. I will let you know tomorrow how that turns out.

If only those No Voltage Blues had not hit me tonight.

One more time then for good luck!

***

The No Voltage Blues

I got the no voltage blues
I got the no voltage blues
Yeah, B.E.C. is messin with me
I got the no voltage blues

My U.P.S. is beepin
It wakes me from my dream
And man she was a sweet ting
Ate least thats how it seemed

I got the no voltage blues
I got the no voltage blues
Yeah, B.E.C. is messin with me
I got the no voltage blues

My A.C.'s sittin quiet
My room is gettin warm
I lie right here and sigh it
Aint no sign of a storm

I got the no voltage blues
I got the no voltage blues
Yeah, B.E.C. is messin with me
I got the no voltage blues

I'm tryin to write my novel
In thirty short, short days
And now just like the last year
Gots to pray they change their ways

I got the no voltage blues
I got the no voltage blues
Yeah, B.E.C. is messin with me
I got the no voltage blues

***

(11:13 pm Wed Nov 19, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D18

2009-10-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

(2:42 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, another day, another dollar as they say. Now who exactly they are is another matter entirely.

Why use one word when three will do.

And when it comes to National Novel Writing Month, why use one word NaNoWriMo when four will do. Well, NaNoWriMo is not exactly a word now is it. National Novel Writing Month is four words though. Truth, not truthiness.

(2:49 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

A slow and inauspicious beginning to the writing day today but perhaps with dogged determination and a bit of good luck, things may just improve.

Once again we shall try for at least three thousand words and really more like four thousand words if we can. This should prove a bit more difficult today as a result of the later start and my general feelings of lethargy and lugginess.

Still, with that oft repeated strategy of putting down first one word and then another, we can slowly amass a quantity of words which can be counted. And no hanging chads in sight.

How thankful I was that we had no hanging chads this year, that may have proved too distracting by for for my NaNo efforts. Wait! For my National Novel Writing Month efforts. There! Much better!

***

Fulcrum woke up late and with a pounding headache. He woke up in the bright sun on the dock with no "Lady Love" beside it. He sat up and blinked in the sun and ran his fingers through his tangled hair.

Someone laughed from the stern of another smack boat tied up further out on the dock, "Your head looks like chicken boongy!"

Fulcrum squinted and looked to see Joshua sitting on a deck chair and smoking a pipe and reading the paper.

"What are you laughing at my friend?"

"You and your late ways. Didn't you want to get to 'Briland this morning? Well, you already missed the morning ferry! I don't know how you managed to not wake up when they tried to rouse you. Or when they put you off the "Lady Love" and pulled out. That was a racket. And sleeping for hours in this sun... I tell you what, you must be a sleeping champion somewhere for sure."

Fulcrum groaned, "Ow my head."

Joshua laughed and got up. He went into the boat for s short time and emerged with a glass of something in his hand. He hopped on to the dock and made his way over to Fulcrum. He squatted next to Fulcrum and held out his hand palm up showing two small red pills, "Here, thake these and drink them down with the whole glass of water. They should make your head feel better."

Fulcrum was hurting enough that he did not question what he was about to ingest as he normally would. He just took the proffered pills and water and did as instructed.

"That's good. Man you are in some sorry state."

"So, I missed the ferry? I need to find a way to get to Harbour Islands today. Can you help me?"

"Tell you what. I will run you around if you will buy us lunch once we get there."

Fulcrum felt in his pockets and was happy to find that he still had some wadded up bills in his left pocket that he had taken from Sarah's purse before leaving Nassau, "I should be able to manage that, you have a deal my friend."

(3:18 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

***

You don't know where you are going
You don't know what you are doing
You don't know but I am leaving you

I need things that you aint giving
I need things for better living
I need freedom so I'm leaving you

***

She's wearing a low cut dress and high top sneakers

***

That girl is alright
She's the best I've ever seen
That girl is alright
Low cut dress and green

She come from the bayou
Now she's living in the islands
She come from the bayou
Now everyday she spends just styling

***

She took me somewhere
Showed me something special
Whispered in the night time
Left me stuck all alone

She said she loved me
Showed me secret things
Whispered like a small wave
Breaking on the shore

I need a woman
Who will love me for myself
Never leave me lonely
Always give me more

***

(3:43 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

Well gentle reader, I am down, way down, tired beyond what I have the energy to describe right now. How am I to do this today? Can you think of any way to help me? If so, send me an email or IM me please. I need ideas to help me succeed!

***

Dear June,

it has been a while since I last wrote. I have been thinking of you at least a little each day despite that. I have been caught up mostly with other thoughts though.

Fuller is gone. How can I go on? There is an emptiness in my heart now and I am cold all the time. Cold inside.

When I woke up this morning, my pillow was stiff with salt residue. What shall I do?

I have always felt a kinship with you as I have said before but it seems that lately, events in my life are conspiring to give me a first hand understanding of your life so long ago. And I must be honest and tell you that, no matter how much I care for you, I do not wish to know your life so well in this way. I am sorry if that sounds selfish. But that is the truth.

He left no note. I woke up to a silent and empty house and my heart knew right away that my deepest fears were stalking me.

I hope that by writing you I may get some fresh ideas on how to find Fuller and bring him back safe to me arms.

Your friend,

Sarah

***

(3:56 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

Well gentle reader, that is the first thousand down but it has taken over an hour and I feel the next thousand will be much harder and I feel a bout of procrastination coming on.

***

(4:10 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

How can I fight that procrastination today? How can I find some energy? How can I get out of this funk? Escape these writing doldrums and get into the literary trade winds that can waft me quickly to me desired destination? Well, any destination sufficiently far from here word count wise would do just fine.

I can't deal with one of those can't get there from here situations at this time though. Now in the least. I need help gentle reader, help I tell you!

***

Sarah finished her letter to June and then put it on a ceramic plate and lit it on fire. When it had burned completely, she took it outside and blew it off the plate into the air, setting the ashes free on the wind. This was how she mailed all of her letter to June.

(4:32 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

***

Annnnnnd.... It's not working. My anti procrastination efforts are falling woefully short.

***

Sarah went back inside and sat down in the home studio that she and Fuller had put in two years ago.

She had to do something to try and get into a positive frame of mind. Perhaps working on a little music might help.

She turned everything on, and logged in. She brought up qjackctl and then ardour and loaded up a project she was working on and then went blank. Completely blank. totally and utterly blank. Pitch black, dead of night blank. Nada. Nothing. Wiped clean blank.

She got up and went to the kitchen and opened the freezer. She reached way in the back to where she kept some of her special chocolate frozen for emergency occasions.

She walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch, reaching over to pick up the remote before leaning back and turning one the television. She switched over to the guide channel and switched into veg mode as she popped a piece of frozen chocolate into her mouth.

***

(4:42 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

Hey, I know gentle reader, I need a bailout. Yeah, that's it. A temporal bailout! Nothing so mundane as a monetary bailout, what I need is to be given some extra time to make up for all the time I wasted! Wow! Now that is an exciting concept! Where can I go for such a bailout? Washington? They seem to be trying very hard to become the bailout masters right about now. I wonder if they migh be interested in expanding into temporal bailouts?

(4:50 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

OK, so I just fed the dogs and took a short walk out in the back yard to look at my jujube tree. It is loaded but none are ready to eat yet. Way too small and green. Bummer!

And now I am back inside, sitting at my desk, desperately trying to write. Anything. Anything at all.

***

Sarah spent an hour or more in front of the television. Watching nothing that she could later remember. She wished she and Fuller would just get rid of the thing. There was so seldom anything worth watching on and yet it seemed to suck them both into its time pit. Productive hours pouring, spinning down a virtual kitchen sink drain of time.

When she finally came up from her deep daze, all of her chocolate was gone and her stomach hurt.

"Sarah, get a hold of yourself!" she said out loud, "You have to get your act together and make some forward progress. Do something positive."

She went to the bedroom and changed in to her running clothes and grabbed up her running shoes. She went to the front door and sat down with her back against the door frame and pulled on her shoes and then tied the laces. She stood up, closed and locked the door and then walked out ot the street to try and run off some of the funk she was in.

***

(5:12 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

(5:22 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

Now, now, gentle reader, I can't have any of that from myself, can you help me with this little problem?

***

Sarah was three miles in to her run when sh finally started to feel a tiny bit better.

***

I got the waiting on the telephone blues
I got the waiting on the telephone blues

I keep checking out my display
But it's always line in use
But I got to make this phone call
is there nothing I can do

I got the waiting on the telephone blues
I got the waiting on the telephone blues

***

Joshua and Fulcrum got into the open cockpit fisherman and headed out from the dock. After getting out in to the open, Joshua opened her up and she jumped up onto a plane. Fulcrum was amazed by the speed! Imagine what could be done with speed like this on a pirate voyage!

His spirits soared in the wind and he started to sing... Joshua joined in...

It's a pirate that I be
And I sail upon the sea
And the fathers and the mothers
And the brothers of the damsels
They are all afeared of me
Cause when the damsels I do see
And when the damsels they see me
There is no hope left
Their hearts are for my chest
A treasure fair reserved for me

"Man, I knew I knew you from somewhere! You are that guy in that band down in Nassau! I saw you last year!"

"That's not me. I must look like that guy though, other people mistake me for him too."

"You sure that's not you?"

"Definately not me. I am sure."

***

(5:59 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

As she ran, Sarah sang a song that kept running through her head...

Well I got me some new, time to kill
Got it from a man just over the hill
I'll take it and grind it
Down at the mill
Yes I got me some new, time to kill

Well I got me some fresh, time to waste
I'll waste it on you baby out on a date
Yeah I'll pick you up at seven
Or maybe at eight
Yes I got me some fresh, time to waste

I got me some extra, hours to burn
Light em up bright baby, never learn
Sparkling stride baby
Smooth groove turns
Yes I got me some extra, hours to burn

Well I sold him some new, time to kill
Don't need it no more, just went over the hill
Let him take it and grind it
Down at the mill
Yes, he's got him some new, time to kill.

She started to cry, tears running down her cheeks as she ran.

What would she do without Fuller? She decided to head back home and see if she could make any headway into finding out where he had gone. Her friend on the police force had told her that he would ask around as best he could but that there had been no reports of anyone turning up dead or injured. That at least was something.

***

(6:08 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

(6:37 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

And so we see more time slip away. And so gentle reader, we must add word to word and march on.

***

When Fulcrum and Joshua pulled in to the government dock on Harbour Island, Fulcrum jumped on to the concrete pier and whooped, his face cracking in to a wide smile.

"You seem mighty happy to be here Fulcrum. This your long lost childhood home?"

"I guess you could say something like that," grinned Fulcrum. "Let's go eat."

"Since you're buying, I know this place over by the norht beach that has some nice food and is not shy with their prices."

"Not a problem my good man and thank you for the ride."

They walked in off the dock and Fulcrum took a left. "Hey, that is not the way to the restaurant," said Joshua. "Come with me, I will show you where it is."

"I would like to wander around some before we head there if you don't mind too much. No more than a few minutes I figure. Is that OK with you?"

"Well, that is OK I guess, I though you were the one who wanted to go eat right away. Are you sure the trip over didn't rattle your brain?"

"Shake up me mind
Rattle me brain"

"I remember that song. You sure you are not that singer dude? You look just like him. And you sound like him too, especially when you sing that pirate song."

"Not me."

They walked along and Fulcrum took in the town. Things were strange, sure, but some of the streets where where he remembered if not as he remembered. They passed his captain's lady's house and his heart skipped a beat. There was the oven in the yard. What would he find at the green-eyed lady's place?

Well, the street still passed by the lot where her house used to be but the house was not there any longer. Oh, there was a house there, but it was not the same house at all, and it was not even on the same part of the lot as her house had been.

Fulcrum slowed down to a crawl as he passed by the place. A choked sob tried to escape his throat but he forced it back down deep inside.

(7:20 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

"Are you OK Fulcrum?"

"Yes, just some old memories coming back to me. It was so long ago though. Almost like another life."

***

I'm going to a place
Where the past is free to roam
Where no one knows my face
And I can find a home
I want wide open spaces
Cause I'm weary to the bone
So I'm seeking out a place
Where the past is free to roam

***

i really think it's raining sunshine baby
somewhere deep inside my heart
i really think that i could love you baby
if you would just make the start

i really really think i want you baby
somewhere by the ocean tonight
and you would really really love it baby
and you could be my true delight

i'd take you to see ah places baby
places that we'd never been
and if you'd walk right here beside me baby
i'd show you through a young man's dream

***

Songs for life. Fulcrum followed Joshua to the restaurant and they made their way through to the verandah overlooking the wide expanse of beach and the blue ocean. When they sat down the owner brought them menus and asked for theri drink orders.

(7:34 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

Their drinks came and they placed their lunch orders, Joshua did not hold back. Fulcrum decided to follow his example and ordered up a storm.

When the food came, Joshue tucked in. By that time though, Fulcrum was lost in thought. He ate, but just pick pick. His mind was elsewhere. Truth be told, his mind was really eslewhen.

***

(7:42 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

And so gentle reader, we are getting fairly close to the three thousand word mark and I need to kick it up a notch in speed even if I let what little quality there may be slip lower. And I really doubt I will go much beyond the mark tonight. My eyes just hurt too much.

***

Fulcrum's mind flashed a memory that surprised him. As he looked down the beach, he remembered where he had hidden a small stash of private loot for safe keeping. Could it possibly still be there after all these years? The thought caused his blood to race. His breathing quickened.

***

And that's it gentle reader. I am going to quit now but leave my machine running in case I decide to try and write a bit more later tonight.

***

(7:48 pm Tue Nov 18, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D17

2009-10-12T16:32:00.001-07:00

(6:26 am Mon Nov 17, 2008)

Hey there gentle reader. I'm back. Not sure I am ready to go but I am back.

Just in case it is a little confusing, I only just write up those little blurbs for the Abaco days. I truly didn't write a thing on those days in relation to this novel effort.

I was hanging low in Abaco for sure. Luckily, throught the magic of literary time travel, I was able to go back to those dates on the page and fill in those little nuggets for your benefit.

Good to see you again by the way. Sorry you had nothing to read for a few days. ~;-)

(6:56 am Mon Nov 17, 2008)

Another fantastic start to a day huh? And to think, with the four days of zero words, I have to cram eight thousand more words into the days ahead to catch up. Wow!

***

(7:02 am Mon Nov 17, 2008)

Fulcrum woke up and realised that he could not go on this wa any longer. He could not stay here in this house with this green eyed lady trying to live someone else's life. It just was not working for him. With all his faults, he still wanted to be himself and not someone else. Sure, he would like to become a better person. Ahhhh!! He started to shake. What kind of a thing was that for a pirate to want? Was that from inhabiting this other person's life?

He thought about it for a good while.

No. That was his own thought.

Over the past few days, he had noticed that he was starting to become this other person whose life he seemed to be living. Finding he had skills he never learned in his own life. That was disconcerting.

(7:41 am Mon Nov 17, 2008)

***

And time is once again slipping away. What amazing stealth!

***

I was standing in the parking lot
Feeling like the boy that time forgot
Trying to be a man that I am not
Just standing in the parking lot

***

Fulcrum slipped out of the bed quietly without waking Sarah. He
grabbed his clothes off of the daybed and padded into the living room. He dressed in silence and then left by the front door saying a silent goodbye to Sarah.

He set off on the ankle express heading down to the docks at Potter's Cay.

(8:08 am Mon Nov 17, 2008)

When he got to the docks, he began asking around trying to find a boat leaving for Harbour Island that would be willing to take him along.

It took him a while. Someone told him that he had missed the fast ferry. Finally he found a smack boat that was heading to Spanish Wells that was willing to take him on board and was leaving in a few hours. He thanked the captain and said that he would ask around some more to see if anyone was going all the way to Harbour Island but that he would be bake in time if not. The captain warned him not to be late as they would not wait for him.

"Sure thing captain. If I am not back, just leave without me. And thanks."

Fulcrum continued searching for a Briland bound boat but found none. He stopped at a stall and got himself an early conch salad as he was getting very hungry by now.

He continued asking around as he spooned the firey mixture of mollusk, bird and goat into his mouth, sweating and glowing all the while.

***

Fulcrum cut through from the western side of the causway to the eastern side under the old bridge and saw that the mate on the "Lady Love" was casting off the stern lines and the smack boat was slowly easing away from the causway. he broke into a run, calling out to the boat.

The mate noticed him and waved to him, "Hurry up man! We aren't waiting! This captain doesn't play."

Fulcrum increased his speed, getting close as the gap between the stern ond the concrete widened.

"Jump man! you can make it!"

Fulcrum jumped... He landed on the stern deck and rolled, ending up on his back, a net saving his skull from the hard planks.

***

(8:26 am Mon Nov 17, 2008)

"Man, you cut it close. The captain warned you," laughed the mate, reaching down to help him up.

"Yeah, I know, I got caught short and had to make a stop. I think that conch salad may have been a bit too hot to put on an empty stomach."

"Man you like to live dangerous hey? You wouldn't catch me eating conch from this dock even if I was already dead. Things around this island are too polluted man."

"It really is dirty isn't it. Mind you, the town used to be way dirtier in the past but the harbour was not like this." said Fulcrum.

(8:33 am Mon Nov 17, 2008)

(3:34 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

It took a while but "Lady Love" finally made it to Spanish Wells after a rough time with Six Shilling Channel.

She tied up and the crew made her neat before the captain invited Fulcrum and the crew to lunch at one of the local snacking places.

They all got a table off to the right side and the captain ordered a round of conch salad for everyone. Fulcrum declined. Adamantly. Seems the morning excitement had scarred him.

"But Fulcrum, this salad we make up here is not like what they make down in Nassau. Our salad will not treat you like that."

"Captain, I just can't take that chance anymore today. Maybe another day."

"I thought you said you wanted to leave for Briland later today."

"I did. I do. Well, I may not find a ride, or I may come back sometime soon."

"Why don't you take a taxi and a taxi and a taxi?"

"Nah, I think I will just aks around down at the docks and see if I can find someone heading over that way."

"Well, if you don't find a ride, you can sleep on the "Lady Love" tonight if you like."

"Sounds like a plan, thanks Captain," said Fulcrum.

(3:57 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

The waitress finally brought everone their conch salads and aksed if they were ready to order yet.

Captain Jack ordered a conch burger. The first mate, Abel, asked for a fried egg sandwich without bread. Nora hit him on the shoulder with her pad and wrote down his order.

There was a lot of cutting up and fake orders made and taken before everything was finally sorted and Nora went back into the kitchen to put in their order.

"I'm fixing to marry Nora one day soon," said Abel.

"Yeah? You asked her yet?" winked the captain, digging his elbow into Abel's side.

"Not exactly, but I will soon," muttered Abel.

"Sure you will Abel," grinned Jack, "so tell me, have you even asked her out on a date yet?"

"Yes I have! Do you think I am a total loser?"

"You have? I see. So tell me, did she say yes and have you two actually been on a date yet?"

"Of course!"

"Really, when was this Abel?"

"A long time ago now."

The captain burst out laughing."

"What are you laughing at?"

"Fulcrum! How much you want to bet that he is talking about the time when he was five and he went to the beach with her one day when their familiess were still friendly with each other? That's it, isn't it Abel?"

"Shut up!"

(4:29 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

Abel's fried egg sandwich came without bread, just as ordered. That started a new round of laughing.

***

Sarah woke up to an empty bed and a still house. Things were too quiet. She got an odd feeling that something was wrong. Amiss as it were.

"Fuller. Fuller! Where are you?"

She waited. Listned. Carefully. But now answer came. No response broke the morning silence.

She got up and walked around the place, looking in the bathroom, the kitchen, the spare bedroom. No Fuller anywhere. She looked and saw that the clothes he had taken off last night were gone.

"Fuller!" Nothing. She grabbed the phone and dialed Jaro's number, "Jaro? Have you seen Fuller? Did he tell you anything about going somewhere?"

"No Sarah, I haven't seen him for a few days now. He may have just gone out for a walk to made a run to the shop for something."

(5:43 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

***

Ouch! Well gentle reader, look at that. I need to do three thousand words today and really wanted to do four thousand to try and make a good beginning at catching back up due to the missed days in Abaco. But just look at the non-spurt in the last hour or so. I got totally side tracked into nothing. The temporal black hole.

But I must write on! Right on! Keep that virtual ink flowing onto that virtual paper. It's only words after all. Words that I have to put right down today.

***

Sarah went outside and looked around. No Fuller. She began to get worried as her bad feeling deepened. He had not seemed like himself lately. He had seemed confused. She kicked hereself for not calling a doctor to check him over. So what if he was being a big baby, she should have insisted.

He may have hit his head that day riding the waves. What if he were still suffering the effects of hitting his head on a rock or who knows what?

She asked around the neighbourhood but no one had seen him. She went back inside and called Jaro again, "Jaro, can you come over, I think something has happened to Fuller."

(5:56 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

"Sure thing Sarah, I just need to get ready and I will be right over. Should be within the hour."

***

Fulcrum went down to the docks after the late lunch and asked around about a boat going through to Briland. No one knew of any going on and one or two suggested that he may wnato to just try and catch a ride on the fast ferry on the morrow. Now that he was so close he was beginning to get really impatient though and he kept aksing around.

He ended up back by the "Lady Love" and asked Captain jack if perhaps one of the crew could run him around in one of the smaller boats which she carried behind.

"No, Fulcrum, we have work to do to get ready for our next trip and we need to get all we can done before we run out of daylight and darkness makes things more difficult or impossible."

(6:08 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

(6:44 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

***

I need something
Yes I need something
Say I need something
To do in my life

I keep running
Yes I keep running
Say I keep running
From you in the night

I see something
Yes I see something
Say I see something
For you in the light

***

I had a girl
I thought my own
I held her close
We were alone

But then somehow
She slipped away
To me it seemed
Night ate the day

The sky went black
My heart did too
My tears poured out
And washed my shoes

The salty mud
Spread through the world
All on account
Of that one sweet girl

Oh yes somehow
She slipped away
To me it seemed
Night ate the day

***

I wish I had a plan
To win you for myself
But my mind empties out
Like a jar up on your shelf

I keep things to myself
Whenever you're around
But love just never grows
And I never make a sound

***

There was a young pirate
Who went out sailing
Who went out sailing
With a pirate crew
With a pirate crew

This bold young pirate
He went out raiding
He went out raiding
Upon the blue
Upon the blue

***

Well gentle reader, that was supposed to be the start of some many versed pirate song but it didn't get far. Perhaps later, or perhaps a new start.

So, I am struggling along here, adding one word to another when the ability to multiply words would come in really handy right about now.

I am going to try really hard to get to three thousand words before I shut down for the day. The problem is, for some reason, I am so tired that I want to shut down now, not an hour or three from now and I certainly don't want to get near midnight. We shall see. You are most welcome to come along for the ride.

***

(7:42 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

(7:56 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

Wow! I am trying so hard I am off in some no zone writing nothing. Fast. I tried writing nothing slow but it was not working out.

Fulcrum never found his boat to Briland and so when the sun went down he went on back to the "Lady Love" and aksed if he could bunk there for the night. The captain laughed and told him yes and had the first mate show him where he could bunk down. He helped out a bit with finishing up the loading of the dry provisions and then he was invited to the club in the bush.

***

Fulcrum followed the crew down the bush path and was reminded of his night time troubles on Briland so many years ago now and yet so recently past.

He started to shake a bit and had to breath deeply to try and calm himself down. Although it was a cool night, he began to sweat.

The men passed out of the narrow confines of the path into a wide clearing under the stars.

There was a fire burning in the middle of the clearing and some chichens and meat roasting on spits. Men were sitting around on chairs and couches and benches and tree limbs. There was laughter and singing and general good cheer all around.

Fulcrum sat down next to a sun burned, wiry young man with curly blond hair and blue eyes. The man looked at him briefly, turned away and then looked back, "Don't I know you from somwehere? You look familiar. Whose your people?"

"Ah, my name is Fulcrum, I sort of grew up on a private cay that my father took care of and never knew my family."

"You been here before?"

"Not for many years now. I doubt you remember me from around here."

"So, what's your full name?"

"Ah, Fulcrum Albury. What's yours? Were you born here?"

"I'm Joshua Higgs. I was born right here. Born and bred like they say."

(8:26 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

"It's good to meet you Joshua."

"Good to meet you too Fulcrum. I know I have seen you some where. When did you get here?"

"I just came in today. I caught a ride on the "Lady Love" with Captain Jack. We just left Nassau this morning.

"Ah, so you are a Nassau boy then? I may have seen you down there then. What do you do down there."

"A bit of this and a bit of that. I think I see someone over there that I want to speak to, excuse me for a while please," said Fulcrum getting up to avoid the questions.

(8:32 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

That was close. He really had to watch out for getting in to conversations with poeple who might want to know about him. He would really need to figure out some plausible story to tell if he could not figure out a way to get back to his own life. He looked down to the ground as he walked and sighed. Shook his head.

***

(8:52 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

(9:37 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

Sarah was beside herself by sundown and as the evening faded into night she couldn't shake the feelings of unease and fear that continued to creep into the dark corners of her mind. She and jaro had spent the day looking for some sign of Fuller without success.

Neither of them thought to ask down at Potter's Cay. It was not a place that Fuller frequented.

Jaro finally left after Sarah assured him that she would be OK for the night alone.

Sarah undressed and took a hot shower. She let the water pulse down on her trembling body and set up a calming rhythm in her troubled mind, the heat bringing the first small bit of relief to her for the day.

(10:21 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

***

Well, gentle reader, I have crossed over three thousand words but I don't see staying up to try for four thousand of them. So, that being said, I will plod on but am liable to end abruptly.

***

Sarah let the water soak her for about fifteen minutes, allowing the shower stall to steam up before shampooing her hair and then soaping up and rinsing off. She finished up with another five minutes of water massage before shutting off the water and reaching out of the stall to grab a giant, soft towel and dry herself off.

She went to the bedroom and put on her pyjamas and then went back to the bathroom and hung up the wet towel before getting a smaller dry towel and wrapping it around her wet hair.

She pulled back the covers, lay down on her side of the king size bed, looked over at the empty spot beside her and cried herself to sleep. To sleep yes and to dream. And her dreams were not the nice ones that you woke from and remembered fondly.

(10:31 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

***

Fulcrum sat down next to Abel on a large, worn out leather couch on the other side of the clearing, "Hey Abel, how are things going with you tonight? You hungry?"

"So, so I guess, and I am very hungry, I hope something is ready soon or I am going back down by the restaurant to grab a little something to tide me over until this is done."

"You sure you just don't want to catch another glimpse of Nora?" from an easy chair in the shadows nearby.

"Give it a rest will you captain?"

"Sure thing Able. You want me to talk to her for you though?"

"Captain, you are working on my last nerve here now."

"Any more lip out of you Mr. Pinder and I will have you keel hauled the next time we put out to sea."

"Right oh Captain! No more lip from me!"

Fulcrum leaned over and whispered in Abel's ear, "They still keel hauling people up this way?"

Abel burst out laughing, spewing his lime aid all down his shirt and over his jeans.

"What is so funny Mr. Pinder? Care to share it with everyone?"

"Captain! Fulcrum here wants to know if we still keel haul up this way," sputtered Abel.

Captain Jack laughed, "Sure we do my good man, only we are much more humane about it these days than they used to be long ago. We keep our hulls scraped much smoother than they used to just so as not to tear people up so much. Barnacles can really tear a person up.

***

(11:09 pm Mon Nov 17, 2008)

And so I bid you good night gentle reader.

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D16

2009-10-12T16:31:00.003-07:00

(12:01 pm Sun Nov 16, 2008)

Really, Nothing to read today too. Sorry. I did get back from Abaco this morning but I couldn't force myself to write all day. Go figure.

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D15

2009-10-12T16:31:00.001-07:00

(12:01 pm Sat Nov 15, 2008)

Look, I am in Abaco for a wedding and I can't bring myself to write OK? Move along. Nothing to read here.

OK, watch!

This Space Intentionally Left Blank!

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D14

2009-10-12T16:30:00.003-07:00

(12:01 pm Fri Nov 14, 2008)

Seriously, I am taking an Abaco Break. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D13

2009-10-12T16:30:00.001-07:00

(12:01 pm Thu Nov 13, 2008)

Abaco Break. Nothing to read here. Move along.

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D12

2009-10-12T16:29:00.002-07:00

(4:29 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

Seventy nine bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy nine bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy eight bottles of beer on the wall

Seventy eight bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy eight bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy seven bottles of beer on the wall

Seventy seven bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy seven bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy six bottles of beer on the wall

Seventy six bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy six bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy five bottles of beer on the wall

Seventy five bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy five bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy four bottles of beer on the wall

Seventy four bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy four bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy three bottles of beer on the wall

Seventy three bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy three bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy two bottles of beer on the wall

Seventy two bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy two bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy one bottles of beer on the wall

Seventy one bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy one bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy bottles of beer on the wall

Seventy bottles of beer on the wall
Seventy bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty nine bottles of beer on the wall

(4:33 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

(4:55 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

***

You see how it is going to be today gentle reader? Not too pretty is it? I almost makes me want to cry. Cry or give up and shut down all effort. And to think, the bad days are still ahead.

***

Sixty nine bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty nine bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty eight bottles of beer on the wall

Sixty eight bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty eight bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty seven bottles of beer on the wall

Sixty seven bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty seven bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty six bottles of beer on the wall

Sixty six bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty six bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty five bottles of beer on the wall

Sixty five bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty five bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty four bottles of beer on the wall

Sixty four bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty four bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty three bottles of beer on the wall

Sixty three bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty three bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty two bottles of beer on the wall

Sixty two bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty two bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty one bottles of beer on the wall

Sixty one bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty one bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Sixty bottles of beer on the wall

Sixty bottles of beer on the wall
Sixty bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty nine bottles of beer on the wall

***

(4:59 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

Wow!

Over six hundred words for the day gentle reader and we have only sung down two "decades" (I wonder what the correcto word would be here if there is one. I may try and look it up later...) so far.

That is some serious wordiness. Some serious verbosity.

A part of the problem is the Broken Net Blues. Things are not working right. Sometimes down completely, sometimes DNS is messed up, sometimes routing is messed up. What to do?

I mean look:

:~$ traceroute www.google.com
traceroute to www.google.com (64.233.169.103), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 192.168.86.1 (192.168.86.1) 0.212 ms 0.149 ms 0.143 ms
2 10.17.0.1 (10.17.0.1) 10.910 ms 11.108 ms 11.143 ms
3 10.254.1.131 (10.254.1.131) 11.172 ms 11.186 ms 11.205 ms
4 10.254.0.2 (10.254.0.2) 15.637 ms 15.776 ms 15.857 ms
5 * * *
6 * * *
7 63.245.46.22 (63.245.46.22) 17.262 ms 21.503 ms 21.899 ms
8 72.14.236.173 (72.14.236.173) 22.105 ms 22.363 ms 22.526 ms
9 * * *
10 209.85.242.214 (209.85.242.214) 55.651 ms 55.865 ms 55.991 ms
11 209.85.242.209 (209.85.242.209) 61.678 ms 61.733 ms 58.103 ms
12 64.233.175.219 (64.233.175.219) 56.325 ms * 56.675 ms
13 216.239.49.149 (216.239.49.149) 66.399 ms 64.653 ms 216.239.49.145 (216.239.49.145) 64.755 ms
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 * * *
25 * * *
26 * * *
27 * * *
28 * * *
29 * * *
30 * * *

How are you supposed to get where you need to go with problems like that?

Mind you, that is some serious count boosting fun right there. Not fun I would like, but fun none the less.

Almost to a thousand words so far today by wc figuring and no mention of any character yet. I will try and mention one by name once I break throught...

(5:13 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

Just. Four. More. Words. Fulcrum! I hope I don't have to cut any out or Fulcrum will get his mention too soon.

***

(5:27 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

Once again gentle reader, even with these literary tricks I still manage to find unknown ways to let time pass me by. I am unproductive in my non-productiveness. Can I sink any lower?

(5:43 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

There it goes again. Just off reading some email and bam...

Slowed right down now. Don't know what to think. Don't know what to write. Don't know what to say.

(6:24 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

***

Fifty nine bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty nine bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty eight bottles of beer on the wall

Fifty eight bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty eight bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty seven bottles of beer on the wall

Fifty seven bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty seven bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty six bottles of beer on the wall

Fifty six bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty six bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty five bottles of beer on the wall

Fifty five bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty five bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty four bottles of beer on the wall

Fifty four bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty four bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty three bottles of beer on the wall

Fifty three bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty three bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty two bottles of beer on the wall

Fifty two bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty two bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty one bottles of beer on the wall

Fifty one bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty one bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Fifty bottles of beer on the wall

Fifty bottles of beer on the wall
Fifty bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty nine bottles of beer on the wall

***

This is honestly crazy. How can my isp be down / borked for so long? What kind of deal is that? Rant. Rant. Rant.

!~@$$#%& $%$#@#!&

Got that?

Yeah right. I SAID... YEAH RIGHT!

There, that feels a bit better at least.

***

Fulcrum, Fulcrum, Fulcrum. How did you end up in the future? How can yoy be so calm in the face of such changes and bewilderment? What happened to you in your early years that resulted in such a character?

***

(6:46 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

(7:07 pm Wed Nov 12, 2008)

How? How? How?

How can I keep doing this? How can I be so bereft of ideas?

***

Forty nine bottles of beer on the wall
Forty nine bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty eight bottles of beer on the wall

Forty eight bottles of beer on the wall
Forty eight bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty seven bottles of beer on the wall

Forty seven bottles of beer on the wall
Forty seven bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty six bottles of beer on the wall

Forty six bottles of beer on the wall
Forty six bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty five bottles of beer on the wall

Forty five bottles of beer on the wall
Forty five bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty four bottles of beer on the wall

Forty four bottles of beer on the wall
Forty four bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty three bottles of beer on the wall

Forty three bottles of beer on the wall
Forty three bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty two bottles of beer on the wall

Forty two bottles of beer on the wall
Forty two bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty one bottles of beer on the wall

Forty one bottles of beer on the wall
Forty one bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Forty bottles of beer on the wall

Forty bottles of beer on the wall
Forty bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty nine bottles of beer on the wall

***

Thirty nine bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty nine bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty eight bottles of beer on the wall

Thirty eight bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty eight bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty seven bottles of beer on the wall

Thirty seven bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty seven bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty six bottles of beer on the wall

Thirty six bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty six bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty five bottles of beer on the wall

Thirty five bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty five bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty four bottles of beer on the wall

Thirty four bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty four bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty three bottles of beer on the wall

Thirty three bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty three bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty two bottles of beer on the wall

Thirty two bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty two bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty one bottles of beer on the wall

Thirty one bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty one bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Thirty bottles of beer on the wall

Thirty bottles of beer on the wall
Thirty bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Twenty nine bottles of beer on the wall

***

So there you have it. Sad I know. And the thing is, I am counting on the fact that that song is in the public domain. I will have to check, because if it is not... I will have to rip everything out and put in some London Bridge and Humpty Dumpty or something else like that. It is amazing that things that were handed down from your parents to you are still in copyright when you hand them down to your child, even if your child comes along later in your life.

And so I bid you goodnight.

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D11

2009-10-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

(5:40 pm Tue Nov 11, 2008)

Well gentle reader, strap in for a bumpy ride. I may not even get a word down today furthering the action. Have the characters gone on strike? Is this a work to rule action? So it remains for the rest of the number to just churn.

Churn, churn, churn!

Churn baby churn!

***

It was a day
(It was a day)
Like any other day
(Like any other day)
That girl was mean
(Oh she was mean)
And she had come to stay
(That girl had come to stay)
If I'd of know
(You should have known)
I might have run away
(You could have run away)
That girl was fine
(Oh she was fine)
You know I might have stayed
(You should have run away)

***

It remains to be seen if anything interesting will develop in the rush to rip these words out of myself and exposethem to the world.

An should something interesting develop in relation to the characters or any possible new characters that may decide that they wish to poke their noses into this novel, so much the better.

***

Hey woman!
Get out of my life!
Stop talking,
Bout being my wife!
Aint buying!
What you got for sale!
Stop trying!
Cause you're gonna fail!

So you better stop hanging round here.
Yes you better stop hanging round here.
Can I make it any more clear!
You better stop hanging round here.

***

Hey baby,
Can you lend me a moment?
Can you give me some time?
And maybe a word?

Hey baby,
I've waited so long.
For one of your kisses.
Please send one along.

These days,
When I go out walking.
I hear the wind whisper,
Your name in my ear.

***

So, a somewhat slow start but a start none the less. And now the thing is to keep going. Plodding, running, racing, flying, rocketing, crawling, rolling, sliding. By ankle express, by roller skate, by bike, by trike, by kite, by wagon (little red), by boat, by submarine, by aeroplane, by jet pack. One if by land, two if by sea.

***

(6:16 pm Tue Nov 11, 2008)

Yes, and even just writing random thoughts, I still manage to find ways to waste time. To get up and wealk away and not write. And I have an idea to waste even more time kicking around in the back of my head even as we speak gentle reader. And worse yet, an idea I know I am likely to entertain and not only entertain, but likely give in to. Very likely. And then what. Less time to finish and possily less sleep.

***

Well, the word total is slowly creeping up. One by one, I can't seem to manage two by two for some reason. Perhaps I can figure out something along those lines for next year. I kind of doubt it though. So, up and up and soon to be a quarter of the way on to the two thousand quota nad then... BAM! Shut er down. Sleep. And if things work out. Dreams. Not often that I remember my dreams anymore and when I do I consider them special.

***

(6:42 pm Tue Nov 11, 2008)

Well, that time waster is done. At least now I don't haveto waste that time later. Let's hope I do't waste some time on something else later though.

I wish I could talk some about my characters tonight gentle reader, I really do. The thing is, to try and talk seriously about them will require going back and reading and trying to get some flow going and then trying to have some plot ideas. Hrd going for me with my mind the way it is these days.

Note to self: You really must learn to plot. No really, I'm not kidding. What you need to do once this November to remember is over is to spend some time trying to develop some sort of decent plot for a novel. Perhaps even more than one. And then try writing a screen play or a novel staring from a decent plot. See how that goes. A decent, detailed plot even. All the scenes laid out perhaps.

***

Well, now I have managed to waste time in IM chatting about condenser microphones and laptops and music and what not. Not a waste of time in fact, just in the writing reality where word cound counts for so much.

***

(6:59 pm Tue Nov 11, 2008)

And shall I now begin to count? One, two, three and so on? Or perhaps have Jaro dream the ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall song?

Ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety nine bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Ninety eight bottles of beer on the wall

Ninety eight bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety eight bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Ninety seven bottles of beer on the wall

And so on. Get the picture? The say that desperate times call for desperate measures and perhaps we are in the desperate times zone of novelling right up in now.

(7:04 pm Tue Nov 11, 2008)

So, I have been meaning to write up a little essay or article about something that needs to be changed in my lovely country and perhaps I can tell you about it tonight gentle reader. Kill two birds with one stone as it were. perhaps this problem can even come into the novel later as a plot device, putting one of the character's lives in danger.

Make no mistake about it gentle reader, the issue I am concerned with is a matter of life and death at its worst.

And what is this grave issue you may ask? Meaning no double entendre of course...

Well it is this, and at first it may seem a small thing and of little consequesnce...

It is the matter of our passport renewal process here in the Bahamas. Combined with what is needed for us to travel outside of our country.

Now, there are a lot of improvements that could be made and I may touch on them later, but first I will try and shed a light on the key problem.

So, here we go...

You apply for a new passport because your old one is going to expire soon or like now because new regulations are coming in and we need a new kind of passport.

So what happens?

You fill out a form, pay a fee and they take your old passport and tell you that the new one will be ready in no less than thirty working days.

And where is the problem?

They do not hand you back your old passport to use IN CASE OF EMERGENCY in the mean time. You only passport and your precious visa are now in thier posession. And should something happen to you requiring immediate travel outside of the country for medical reasons where does that leave you?

Will another country let you in without documentation in a situation like that? If you are in an accident in an out island and need to be airlifted directly to Florida, what will be done with you?

And here is the question.

Why can't they photo copy whatever they need to from your current passport and hand it back to you for possible use until your new one is ready to be picked up? is there a need for them to have your original? Do all countries operate like this in respect to passports and renewals?

I would be interested in hearing from people in the various countries around the world on this matter.

I would be interested in hearind from my own government officials on this matter.

I want for our government to fix this procedure so as not to needlessly endanger the lives, health or even happiness our our citizens. Our government is there to protect us and to serve us and should not needlessly or neglectfully put us in any extra danger.

Am I being unreasonable in this thinking gentle reader? I also welcome improvements in this little explanation that may lead to a fix to the problem.

(7:20 pm Tue Nov 11, 2008)

(7:50 pm Tue Nov 11, 2008)

Well, that's another lost half hour. And the thing is, even though I have been sitting here most of the time, I don't know where it went. Will I lose any more before I cross the line?

Well, more time is trying to slip away right under my nose. But I will fight it. Yes. I. Will!

***

Ninety seven bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety seven bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Ninety six bottles of beer on the wall

Ninety six bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety six bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Ninety five bottles of beer on the wall

***

Yeah baby!

Hmmmm. I wonder.....

***

Ninety five bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety five bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Ninety four bottles of beer on the wall

Ninety four bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety four bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Ninety three bottles of beer on the wall

Ninety three bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety three bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Ninety two bottles of beer on the wall

Ninety two bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety two bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Ninety one bottles of beer on the wall

Ninety one bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety one bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Ninety bottles of beer on the wall

Ninety bottles of beer on the wall
Ninety bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty nine bottles of beer on the wall

***

Now that is some serious padding gentle reader. I wonder if another ten verses could take me over the top for tonight... Let's see shall we?

(8:02 pm Tue Nov 11, 2008)

***

Eighty nine bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty nine bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty eight bottles of beer on the wall

Eighty eight bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty eight bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty seven bottles of beer on the wall

Eighty seven bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty seven bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty six bottles of beer on the wall

Eighty six bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty six bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty five bottles of beer on the wall

Eighty five bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty five bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty four bottles of beer on the wall

Eighty four bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty four bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty three bottles of beer on the wall

Eighty three bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty three bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty two bottles of beer on the wall

Eighty two bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty two bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty one bottles of beer on the wall

Eighty one bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty one bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Eighty bottles of beer on the wall

Eighty bottles of beer on the wall
Eighty bottles of beer
If one of those bottles should happen to fall
Seventy nine bottles of beer on the wall

***

Woot! And with that little bit of scull duggery, the nasty deed is done. Good night gentle reader. And so we have a day in which the characters hardly put in even a hint of an appearance. Or did they?

(8:08 pm Tue Nov 11, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D10

2009-10-12T16:28:00.002-07:00

(3:18 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

Welcome to another day of nano novelling gentle reader. Another post mid day start. Another day possibly slogging and hacking through the dense underbrush of the desert of ideas. (Dig that if you can!)

***

"A different us? A different us!" spit Sarah, "Jaro, that girl is going to break up our band!"

"No, Sarah, she's not going to do any such thing. Our band is safe and will not break up unless we break it up. I for one don't plan on breaking it up. Do you? Do you Fuller?"

"No, of course I do not intend to break it up! How could you say that Jaro," said Sarah. Fulcrum sort of shook his head no in a way that might be missed.

"Well?"

"Well?"

"Well good then, we won't be breaking up anytime soon then," said Jaro, "So let's just drop it OK?"

"OK then, let's drop it, but don't listen to that girl!"

"Sarah, you are fixing to yuk up my vexation now."

***

Taniqua had gone as far west as she intended and decided to swim in and jog back rather than swim back so she brest stroked in to shore and shook herself off to get as much water off as quickly as possible and then started jogging at an easy pace back towards the picnic site.

She came around a bend in the beach and saw Jaro sitting with some of his band. What were they doing here? Those two were an anchour around Jaro's neck and he couldn't see it. What could she do to make that clear to him? She couldn't afford to get up in his business too much. But he wanted this too much to let him go on wasting his time like this.

***

Jaro spotted Taniqua jogging towards them on the sand. Ohh, she looked fine like that. It was a shame sh didn't want to do rock, she would make a nice addition to the band. She could be quite an attraction.

***

When Taniqua got close, she slowed to a walk and waved, "Hey guys, what's everyone doing today? What brings you two out this way?"

"I thought Fuller needed some fresh air and I needed to talk to Jaro some more about something we started on the other day."

"Well, I hope you got everything sorted."

"No, we never really got started, we sort of got sidetracked on to something else and never got back on track."

(4:01 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

"Oh, what did you get sidetracked with?"

"Just some band stuff, no big deal really, I think we got it all sorted," said Jaro.

"I see. OK then," said Taniqua glancing at Fuller out of the corner of her eye. He seemed different some how. More attractive, more vulnerable. And more exotic some how. She thought she saw him looking her way a few times. That was odd as he was always so devoted to Sarah. She felt a little charge of electricity run through her. She smiled at him and dipped her chin the next time he looked her way. A little flutter of the lashes to round out the effect.

(4:46 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

***

Well gentle reader, you just get going a bit when for no reason that you can determine, you run up on brakes. That's the breaks I guess. And that, gentle reader is quite a groaner.

You find yourself on a day when you need to crank open the valve and unleash the volume but instead the flow dries to a trickle, like some stream through some barren land that evaporates and seeps into the parched ground to leave no usful flow by the time it comes your way. And so you have to pull up roots and go wandering over the surface of the eartt in search of the flow you need. Become a nomad of the artistic world. Will you ever again find a home? A place to put down roots and join in to a community of other's. Like minded beings seeking to bring forth creations to touch the inner life of others. Some still wanders and some having put down roots into the rich, organic loam of creation.

(5:12 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

And then you find some call to some herky jerky martial arts practice when you don't even practice such arts. Just one more thing as it were. But then it is just one more things after that and just one more thing after that one more thing and so on and so on ad infinitum. And I'm not talking fleas. Nor ticks either. But you find a way to break loose and run back to your writing cave and dive in. To a dry desert lake. Salt covered and bitter. Biutter but better. An improvement to your previous unsatisfactory and sad state. Are we depressed yet? Good. Are we suffering enough for our art yet? Good. Are we finding strength in adversity yet? Good. Now get on your bikes and ride out over the land. Planting Johnny Apple Seeds of literary profusion wherever your go. And then one day, perhaps far in the future, you will pass this way again to encounter literary and artistic orchards unlike any you had ever imagined.

And so now you are beginning to feel better. Why? Because of the prospect of the flow of words being loosed at some giagantic and far off literary dam. Upstream. Up in the mountains. In the rareified air. Words come tumbling down as from some verbal rain storm. Some verballly wet hurricane perhaps, stalled over some far off peak.

And, to prevent the dam from failing under the onslaught, the gates have to be opened and the words have to be turned loose. To be sure in some disjointed, unorganised fashion. But running down to the literary sea in some gravity fueled race foir life. Running psat you one the way down. And so you get to reach out and take a few for your purposes. Take a few from the vast, tumbling, chaotic richness where only moments before there were none.

But always, some where deep in the back is a small fear that the great torrent will once again abate and leave you thirsting. Wandering over vast dried up sandy dunes. Dunes made up not of grains of sand but of letters ground down from words. Wandering from one oasis to another. But not yet!

For now the torrent continues.

(5:29 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

(6:01 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

The thing is, even though the torrent continues, you cannot just get up and walk away and waste time and exoect the words flowing by to some how mysteriously select themselves for your benefit. To some how just put themselves down on your page even if it is a virtual page in some computer's random access memeory, Not today. No, not today, but it does give me an idea for a script I may try and develop before next year's nanowrimo. A script based on my story writing program but one that scours the internet looking for suitable words to include in a horrid computer generated excuse for a novel. Or will someone beat me to it?

We shall see and time will tell. Because, as we all know by now, time is a snitch.

(6:06 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

(6:41 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

Nor can you get up and leave your house and go next door looking at paintings on the walls and expect that when you get back, there will be more words that have self selected and auto assembled for your esteemed benefit. No. That is not likely to happen. At least, it didn't happen for me just now when I tried it. It was a nice break though.

***

It was a day
Just like any other day
She was a girl
She said she came to stay
But some how I
Felt she would slip away
Into the mists
Of my fractured bliss

It was a day
Just like any other day
It was a day
It was this very day
Three years ago
When she slipped away
And set me free
And I just want to say

Why'd she have to go and leave me!
Why'd she have to go and break my heart!
Why'd she have to go and walk away!
Why'd she have to tear me all apart!

It was a day
Just like any other day
She said hello
My heart was swept away
She captured me
A player in her play
But now she's gone
And all I have to say is

Why'd she have to go and leave me!
Why'd she have to go and break my heart!
Why'd she have to go and walk away!
Why'd she have to tear me all apart!

***

I've got a word for you baby
Come let me whisper in your ear
I've got a word for you baby
A word I know you want to hear

It's just a four letter word
And I could tell it to a bird
Who could fly right to your shoulder
And tell you cause he's bolder
But that ain't what I need to do

I've got a word for you baby
Come let me whisper in your ear
I've got a word for you baby
A word I know you want to hear

***

(7:01 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

(7:17 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

And you blink and the minutes dash out the door.

***

I'm an out island cowboy
I ride the waves and not the range
Yes I'm an out island cowboy
I ride the waves and not the range
I go out hunting grouper
Hunting conch and other things

I'm an out island cowboy
I love to be out on the blue
Yes I'm an out island cowboy
I love to be out on the blue
I ride out on the ocean
Then I ride on home to you

***

(7:34 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

No, no, no, no, no! I cannot let this get away from me now. I was moving along just fine count wise if not quality wise and especially not plot wise or story wise but things are slowing down and I cannot afford anything likethat for the rest of this week and all the way through to the end of next Sunday. I have to keep the words going.

***

Fulcrum looked at Taniqua out of the corner of his eye. She seemed to be looking at him with a bit of womanly interest. Wenchly interest possibly. She was a little darker than he normally went for but she sure looked good. He better watch himself though, this new world of his was still a mystery. He got the feeling that it might take him a while to get the hang of things and make a go of things on his own. And what was he doing even looking at another woman anyway when here he was living with his dream. With his green eyed lady. With Sarah.

But was Sarah really his green eyed lady? Or was she some parallel green eyed lady just as he was not this Fuller person they thought he was?

What would Sarah do if he showed interest in another woman? And especially this other woman. This woman that she seemd not to like very much.

If only he were back in his own time. Things made more sense for him there. Sure, things weren't perfect. Far from it. But he knew his place. He had plans. Things he wanted to accomplish. And somehow, despite his initial thrill at being with Sarah, he was beginning to wonder about that. The connection he had felt that first night on the porch just did not seem to be there. There was no tingle ot be honest with himself. And there used to be a tingle. At first he had told himself that it was just caused by the dislocation he had experienced but after a few days when it did not return he began to feel uneasy.

(7:57 pm Mon Nov 10, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D09

2009-10-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

(9:47 am Sun Nov 09, 2008)

Ah gentle reader, good morning and welcome to the tar pit.

Is that too negative for so early in the morning?

Welcome gentle reader, it's going to be a great day! Sit back and hold on for the ride!

How's that? Better?

(10:22 am Sun Nov 09, 2008)

Yeah, right! Look how good it is going so far... Oh well, at least I got a little joy on the music front yesterday and this morning. Someone on ccMixter did a mix of "There's A Girl" which sounds OK to me.

***

Jaro woke up on the floor in Teniqua's front room. He heard the shower running down the hall and Teniqua singing in the shower. He stretched like a cat and grimaced. How had he gotten here? He must have pushed too many things too far last night. That was not like him. Life seemed to want to come apart lately. He would have to watch himself. The rock and roll lifestyle was one thing, but he had plans and dreams for his future and he did not want to miss out on them while enjoying himself in the here and now.

(11:07 am Sun Nov 09, 2008)

***

Slippery time, greased up like some pole on a holiday, making the climb to tow thousand words seem like some lofty mountain in a far off land. Of course, not if you are living in a far off land of lofty mountains. But I don't live in such a place. I live in a land where the highest mountain is well under five hundred feet in elevation. Cat Island has Mt. Alvernia at 206 feet or thereabouts, I have seen various numbers in that range. And on my island it is more like just over one hundred and twenty feet. My nose bleeds just thinking about such lofty heights.

Surely we must easily trounce a few countries. Care to send me an email after doing some research?

You might start here:

http://www.amateur-hikers.com/highest.asp

(11:23 am Sun Nov 09, 2008)

See how easy it is to waste precious writing time?

***

Teniqua came out of the bathroom dressed in a number of towels of differing sizes. She started to come down the hall towards Jaro but then noticed that he was awake, "Hey, I thought you would still be sleeping," she sputtered, turning and heading the other way down the hall to her room.

"She lookin good from da front an from behind!" called out Jaro laughing.

She went into her room and lightly slammed the door behind her before calling out, "You best behave yourself or I will be throwing you out in the yard soon ta reckley."

Jaro laughed again and got up and went to the kitchen and opened up her fridge. He poked around in there for a while not finding anything too tempting and decided to check out the cupboards.

That proved more rewarding. He pulled out two cans of tuna and a bag of grits.

He put some grits on the stove to cook and then grabbed a cutting board that was leaning against the wall and lay it flat on the counter by the sink. He grabbed an onion from a bowl on the counter and peeled it and diced it up with a large knife he got from a drawer.

(12:53 pm Sun Nov 09, 2008)

He remembered seeing some sweet peppers in the veggie drawer in the fridge so he got one out and chopped it up too.

He opened and drained the cans of tuna and emptied the meat out into a large bowl and mashed it up thouroughly with a fork. Then he got some mayo out of the fridge and spooned some over the fish in the bowl. He mashed the mayo up well into the meat and then dumped in the onions and sweet peppers and mixed than in well too.

Then he went back to the fridge for some mustard and mixed in a little bit of that. After that, he grabbed a sour orange and a few natinve limes and cut them in hald and squeezed them over the whole mix and mashed the whole thing thouroughly again.

"Hey Taniqua, your pepper tree hae anything on it still?" he called out.

"I think so, why?"

"I am making some tuna and grits." he called out, heading to the kitchen door to go outside and pick some bird peppers off her tree.

When he came back in, he chopped up a few peppers very fine and added them in to the mix and did one final fork mashing and stirring before covering the bowl and putting it in to the fridge to cool down.

He saw his backpack over by the door and went and got out Packet In's first album out and put it in Taniqua's CD player. He went and plopped down on the couch to enjoy the music. He realised that it was high time he got an album with hiw work out in the world to see what it did. He would have to press Fuller and Sarah a bit harder or find some other way to get something done and released.

(2:04 pm Sun Nov 09, 2008)

Taniqua came out looking beautiful and sat down next to him on the couch. "What do you see int his type of music Jaro?"

"I just like it is all. It just feel right to me. It fits with who I am."

She sighed, "Well, I try. So, what do you want to do today? Want to go to the beach?"

"That sounds like a plan."

(2:25 pm Sun Nov 09, 2008)

***

(3:19 pm Sun Nov 09, 2008)

Well gentle reader, I needed to go out for a little exercise to try and get some blood and oxygen pumping to my brain and perhaps get some ideas pumping out of my brain and down to my fingers.

What in the world is it going to take for me to really get unleashed this year? Is it going to happen? Are you tired of hearning me beef yet gentle reader? If so, I am not sure I can help you. I will try but sometimes beefing like this is what it takes to get me unstuck. I will try and take all the excess beefing out if I get to edit end rewrite time.

Since this effort once again is going out under a copyleft style Free license, you are free to do your own cleaned up version gentle reader.

(3:24 pm Sun Nov 09, 2008)

(5:15 pm Sun Nov 09, 2008)

They ended up at at the beach out by Orange Hill. There weren't a lot of people when they got there. They unpacked the car and carried their blankets and picnic basket and other beach gear to a location with some shade and set up for the day.

Jaro took out the grits and spooned some out into bowls for each of them and passed Taniqua hers she took up some tuna and sliced up a pear and squeezed some lime over it before pouring some old sour on it and shaking on some salt and pepper. She passed some over to Jaro and then tucked in to her breakfast.

Jaro laughed, "Breakfast on the beach huh? It is a nice idea but now my grits aren't runny enough."

Taniqua jammed her elbow into his side almost spilling his food out onto the sand, "Shut up and eat your food before it gets cold. And stop complaining unless you want to be left here alone to find your own way back."

They finished their food in silence, looking out to sea and dreaming salty day dreams. Finally Jaro put down his empty plate, "That was good. The pear was perfect, I am glad you thought to bring it. You want to go out fishing with me some day this week?"

"Go out fishing? What, we are going to go sit on some rocks somewhere or stand on a beach somewhere, or worse even, go stand in the water somewhere and throw out a line and catch some fish? I don't think like any of that appeals to me."

"Nah, a friend of mine just picked up a used boat for a good price over in Abaco and had some friends bring it down last week. So, we have a boat to go out in and we won't have to fish from the rocks. So what do you say?"

"I'll think about it. You think this storm will still be causing trouble next week?"

"It's supposed to be pretty much gone I think but we can see what things look like when the time comes."

(7:03 pm Sun Nov 09, 2008)

"OK then, you want to go for a swim?"

"Are you crazy girl? You know that water is cold! I didn't bring a wet suit."

"Well, I am going in for a quick dip, you can come if you like." She got up and took off her shorts and shirt and kicked off her flops and ran down to the water and jumped in.

She came up hard, "Yaaaaa! Cooooollllld!" She dove back in head first and began a vigourous crawl down the shore to warm up some.

"You are crazy girl!" yelled out Jaro knowing she would likely not hear him but enjoying himself in any case.

"Who's that making so much noise?"

Jaro looked around, Fuller and Sarah were walking towards him. "What are you two doing out this way?" he called in surprise.

"I figured some fresh air might help Fuller and I wanted to talk to you some more and maybe finish up what we started in the club the other day," said Sarah.

Fuller walked up and sat down, "Hey there."

"Hey Fuller, good to see you."

Fulcrum still hadn't adjusted fully to being called Fuller but he wasn't letting on how jarring it was to him as much as at first. How long was he to be stuck in this strange world? What had brought him here and how could he get back?

"Whose that swimming there Jaro?" asked Sarah.

"Taniqua."

"Jaro, how many times do I have to tell you, that girl is no good for you? And you say so yourself. Why do you keep hanging around with her? Every time you do she brings you down," said Sarah.

"I don't know Sarah. Maybe she is just more alive than most people I know. Maybe she is just more into her music than anyone I know and I want to be more like that. She is just so devoted to her craft. Our band needs to be more like that! What do you say Fuller? You know it is true!"

Fuller didn't know what to say and hesitated. Sarah jumped right in, "She been asking you to drop us and join her band again Jaro?"

"Yes, she always asks me to join up with them."

"See! That girl is trouble! She just wants to break up our band!"

"Sarah! That is just not fair. She likes me. She knows I am not totally happy with out progress as a band and she wants me to play for them. Sure. But not because she wants to break us up. It is because she wants me in her band. There is a difference."

"Difference, smifference! The outcome will be the same if she has her way. She will have broken up our band."

"Well, that's sort of true, but she is not going to get her way is she!" said Jaro.

"I won't let some... Wait! What did you say?"

"I said, she won't get her way now will she. They are never going to do rock and they are especially never going to do country and so I am never going to join them. I think I may like to play a gig or two with them once in a while, but I can't be in a band like that fll time and exclusively."

"Well, you better not!"

"The thing is Sarah, Fuller... I am a bit bummed. I find myself wishing I could find another band interested in our type of stuff, one that is more into music and not their day jobs. Well, really, I wish that other band was a different us, but if it is not going to be a different us..."

(8:23 pm Sun Nov 09, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D08

2009-10-12T16:27:00.002-07:00

(10:22 am Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Well gentle reader, another day and another slow start. I have been wasting time trying to avoid starting since probably seven this morning or so.

I really have to learn to write better if I am going to keep doing this. I especially need to learn to plot and really, truth be told, to plot in advance. I want to try and do this some year where I know where I intend to go from the break. This looking about for direction each day can be draining.

Each day I get stronger and stronger urges to just walk away from this effort this year. But I have already walked away from my script this year and I really don't want to give in to those urges and walk away from my book.

So, gentle reader, if you will stick with me, I will push on as best I can manage. Perhaps you would be so kind as to send me an email with encouragement. Positive only until the end of the month please. And if you do send any, I may choose to include them in the book, either the book proper or in the books leo file with other notes and resources et cetera.

This writing one word at a time really does work if you keep at it. Have you ever tried it for yourself gentle reader? If not, you might want to give it a go with us some year. Remember remember to write in November...

(10:38 am Sat Nov 08, 2008)

(11:14 am Sat Nov 08, 2008)

I guess you have to actually keep putting the words down though, not wandering off to do other things including vegging.

***

After she left the club, Sarah had caught a ride home, she hoped her car would survive overnight in the parking lot at the spa. She didn't feel up to driving yet for some reason.

***

She walked in the door, "Fuller? Are you here?"

"I'm just in the kitchen looking for something to eat."

I have a quiche in the freezer that I could throw in the oven if you feel like that. We could throw together a salad really quick too. How does that sound."

Fulcrum again didn't know what to say. What was quiche? "Whatever you want would be fine with me."

(11:46 am Sat Nov 08, 2008)

(3:26 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Whoooo we gentle reader. Now that is some serious time wasting right there. OK, so I went for a walk and did a little house work in that gap, but mostly it was top notch time wasting.

***

So they ate the quiche and the salad and went to bed. Sarah picked up a small box and pressed it and a window opened up in the wall looking out to sea where two ships were engaged in a heated battle. But these were ships unlike any he had ever heard of.

He broke down and asked a question. "What sort of ships are these?"

Sarah looked at him as if the question was a very strange one and his heart fell. He had done so well in not asking questions so far, even though this was all so very strange. Now he would have to take his punishment and abuse. He didn't know if he could. When he had grown into a man, he had made up his mind never to take such abuse again and had fought back quick and hard on the few occasions he had slipped and asked questions since then. But there was no way he could hit Sarah that way.

(3:42 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

No, he did not think he could beat her down should it come to that. He would just have to suffer the abuse at her hands. The abuse he had promised himself never to take without a fight again.

But the abuse never came. She just reached out and stroked his cheek and smiled a wan smile, "Oh Fuller, what has happened to you? What has happened to us? This is a world war two documentary. We have seen this before. Those are battleships. You always had a special place in your heart for battleships.

Fulcrum waited for the abuse to follow but she just sort of slumped down on the bed and rolled away so that she looked at the wall. His heart fell again but this time from sadness and not from fear. He slumped down too and continued to watch the amazing naval battle. These ships were amazing. Look at the size of those guns!

(3:51 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Fulcrum wondered if Sarah suspected that he was not Fuller. Is that what she had meant when she asked what had happened to him? How long could this last? He felt drained just thinking about it and soon fell asleep.

(4:21 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

***

After Jaro dropped Sarah off at her apartment, he went to a club out on Cow Pen Road near where he lived. It was not his kind of place early, but the later it got, the more his kind of people drifted in and the more he liked it. It wasn't fancy and the late night crew were not fancy either. Just honest working people who maybe had too much on their minds to get to sleep like they should. Some who needed a musical outlet in a social setting to feel some togetherness in a world that increasingly saw communities crumbling. Some people went to their churches and sang together and found some sense of community and belonging. For Jaro, it was this late night bar and the band.

(4:53 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

When he walked in, he saw Taniqua sitting at a table in the back. He smiled her way and nodded his head and tried to head towards her but got pulled this way and that on his way there by people who wanted to talk some more about the recent election in the U.S. or just to say hi and see how he was doing.

(4:57 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

***

(5:30 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

And so time keeps slipping away. Where does it go and why? What now?

***

Jaro finally made it back to where Taniqua was sitting and slid in beside her. "Hey girl, how are you doing tonight?"

"I'm doing so so, I could be better but they day went well I guess."

"That's good. I like what you did with your hair. It looks good on you."

Taniqua smiled and patted her hair, "You like it? I thought about doing it red but changed my mind at the last minute."

"Well, black is safe and it looks good on you how you have it done up but you should try red sometime. You might like it and you know what they say... 'You never know until you try.'"

Rob Me Blind came on.

"That's true. So Jaro, you wanna dance?"

Girl you know I need a woman
To come and steal my heart
So I leave it on the front porch
Each night when it gets dark

Jaro wasn't one to pass up a chance to dance with a beautiful girl, even if he was dead beat and felt like having a beer first. He stood up and reached out his hand, "Sure thing sweet thing, let's go."

Then I lay upon my pillow
And pray if God be kind
He'd let you drive down my street
You could stop and rob me blind

They danced close, she put her head on his shoulder. "So Taniqua,you want to come rob me sometime?" She scratched the back of his neck with her new nails. He would have to tell her he liked them later too.

Rob me blind I don't mind
Baby come and rob me blind
Rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind
Rob me blind, take your time
I'm waiting here for you
To rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind

Then I wake up every morning
And check outside to find
It cold and lonely on the ground
And I almost lose my mind

Got heartaches without number
And pains of every kind
But I don't want a doctor
Just want you to rob me blind

Rob me blind I don't mind
Baby come and rob me blind
Rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind
Rob me blind, take your time
I'm waiting here for you
To rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind

So come on pretty baby
Wont you be so kind
Take a drive down my street
Hit the brakes and rob me blind

Rob me blind I don't mind
Baby come and rob me blind
Rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind
Rob me blind, take your time
I'm waiting here for you
To rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind

The song ended too soon for Jaro's taste but Taniqua took his hand in hers and headed back to the table. He let her pull him along.

(5:55 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

***

(8:14 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Well gentle reader I'm back. Five or six hundred more words and I can safely call it a night although once again it will be only about half of my preferred weekend quota. The way things are going this year though, I seriously wonder if I will do a double day at all this year.

***

"Mmmmm, you can dance with me anytime Jaro. Are you going to leave that no good band of yours and join a real band lime mine sometime?"

"Come on Taniqua, you know I don't like to do so much island music. I need to play mostly rock and country with some island mixed in."

"You sure you is an island boy Jaro? Where did you get this country thing from?"

"You don't listen too good huh? I keep telling you, my dad played country around the house when I was a boy. I guess it just sort of stuck with me."

"OK, so what about rock?"

"Fuller, we have been friends since that time. When I used to go live with my Grammy in Abaco in the summers, his cousin's house was a block away and we used to hang there. He went to stay with his cousin there in the summers. His cousins daddy had a big rock and blues collection that we jammed all the time. Plus they had a yard band which is where we got to playing together."

"OK, OK, but you know that is the wrong kind of music to make it big here in the islands. Don't you want to go somewhere with your music?"

Jaro reached out and took her hand in his and looked her right in the eyes, "Taniqua, I want that in the worst way, I can't tell you how much I want it. But I wonder if I will ever get it."

"So, join my band, you know we have the talent. You know we are going places. You are always telling me so yourself."

"You are, you are. And I wish I could but I need to play different music to be happy and that would not be right for you. Besides, we have talent gone to bed in our band too. And this is the internet age Taniqua, we can reach a world wide audience right from this little rock we live on. So we probably have a better chance of hitting it big than you do from that perspective."

"So, what's the problem then?"

"Well, Fuller and Sarah both have talent gone to bed, but I often wonder if they need it as much as I do. They never seem to want to find the time to grow beyond where we are now. Perhaps they just don't have the ambition and drive that I do."

(8:35 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

(9:58 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

"What about the other folks in the band? are they driven like you or what?"

"I think they would all like to make it but maybe Full and Sarah are holding us all back."

"So, why don't you kick them out and replace them?"

"Kick them out? The three of us are the band. And I need them. We are a good team musically."

"I don't know," said Teniqua, it seem to me like they may be an anchour for you. You really should think about what I am saying."

"Taniqua, there aren't enough of us rockers and country folks on this rock to be able to replace people that good at the drop of a hat. Goombay, Calypso, Reggae, Soca, Junkanoo, Rake N Scrape, sure, country and rock, not so easy."

"Hey, let's dance one more before I have to go," said Taniqua standing up and taking his hand.

He stood up too and they walked out to the dance floor.

I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Baby how low can you go
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now

"Well, I can hear what your body is telling me tonight baby," said Jaro, "tell me some more."

I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
I'm comin' in the clear
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Dance it baby uh huh
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I'm leaving all I'm feeling
I don't know why I'm leaving
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
Can you hear me now

(10:12 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Well gentle reader, I hoped you liked the music. Some of it can be found at http://zotz.kompoz.com so feel free to take a listen.

Goodnight then.

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D07

2009-10-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

(6:59 am Fri Nov 07, 2008)

Well gentle reader, last night it was the No Voltage Blues. Today I wake up to the No Net Blues. Seems like it might be island wide. Actually, I got woken up by the No Net Blues. Out of my bed and the sleep I so needed. A call from work to look into things.

(7:14 am Fri Nov 07, 2008)

(5:11 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

And so now we come to the seventh day of the struggle. It is good to have you here with me gentle reader. Someone to say a few words to when the going gets rough...

***

(5:34 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

I am stuck, stuck I say! My mind dry, blank, resisting any attempts to get a flow going. I took my son to his first real day of choir today after school and while sitting in the lobby, I made notes for when I would get home. I made notes on Jaro, Notes on Fulcrum. Worked on some lyrics to try and weave in somehow but now that I am here at home, I am just stuck.

And so I write. SO what if I have to throw this awya gentle reader. Each word is still a nano word. Each words still counts. And each word may take me one word closer to breaking up this blockage. One word closer to inspiration. One word closer to an idea. And I have known for a long time that ideas have value. I even used to run ads for a short time a long time ago in the back of, I think it was, Popular Science or one like it with the nice classifieds sections in the back. Look in back issues for IDEASHAVEVALUE. I had ads I tell you. I wonder if anyone else ever ran ads like that so as to confuse you should you find one.

And I really need an idea with some value right about now gentle reader. Some spark that will propel Fulcrum forward. Helping him to move towards his dreams and aspirations.

***

Fulcrum woke up to an empty house and an empty stomach. Why was he so empty lately?

He got up and shuffled along into the kitchen and opened the door to the light box where Sarah kept some food.

Wow, that was cold in there. What kind of fire made things cold? Was this some sort of devil light? Surely not. Surely devil light would be hot and not cold he thought.

He sw some of that tomatoe and cheese pie on a plate with a clear glasslike cover and took it out of the cold box.

Sarah had mentioned heating it something she called a toaster over but he looked around and did not see anything that looked like an oven to him. He decided he would just have to eat it cold and so he ripped off a piece and took a bite. He looked around for something to drink. That looked like a tap there in the corner with a sort of bottle of water on top.

He went along opening and closing cupboards one by one until he found one with drinking glasses in it.

He went over and got himself some water. At least he could figure out how to use the tap he thought.

(5:51 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

After eating his fill he wondered back into the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed. Soon, he broke out in a cold sweat and started shaking and hugging himself to try and get a handle of himself. He was not able to get control of his shaking though and after a few minutes of intense effort, a wracking sob escaped him and he collapsed back on the bed and pulled a pillow over his head and wrapped his arms tightly around it, almost trying to smother himself but really just trying to put more pressure on his head himself than was there already.

(5:56 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

He fell back asleep.

***

When Jaro showed up at the club in the afternoon, Frank told him that Sarah had been by looking for him.

"She say where she was going Frank? I can call her," said Jaro. "Why don't that girl get a cell phone? This is the naughties already. It's a new century!"

"Don't look at me," said Frank, "I've had one since that time. I would be lost without mine. And you know me, I am mostly afraid of all this new technology. But you have to learn to use at least some of it if you want to function in this new world."

"So?"

"So what?" said Frank.

"So, did she say where she was going to be so I could call her."

"No man, but she did say that she would try and be back by five and that if she wasn't then you should please wait for her."

"I guess I can do that. You have anything around here you could use a hand with? If not, I am just going to jam some if that's alright with you."

"We pretty much have things covered and sewn up now so go ahead and jam if you like. You want someone to jam with?"

"What Frank, you got the itch? You got the urge? Your fingers want to strum some strings today?"

***

(6:13 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

Sarah was almost asleep. Well, not quite asleep. Just relaxed. Deeply relaxed. She was face down on a massage table.

(6:59 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

Had been for fifteen minutes now. Was well onthe way to a clear mind as well as her relaxed muscles. Soon would come the heated stones and then on to a sauna. Sarah didn't often treat herself to such indulgence, but from time to time she needed to recharge and get her focus back and she spent a few hours or, very rarely, a day just slowing down and finding her core again.

Today, she probably needed a full day but there wasn't time. She laughed gently to herself. Slowing down in a rush, that was rich.

Slow down girl, you need a break
Slow down girl, you need a break
You need some time, to clear your mind
So slow down girl, and you'll be fine

Slow down girl, you move too fast
Slow down girl, you move too fast
Just take your time,take off your mask
So slow down girl, relax at last

Slow down girl, and watch the glass
Slow down girl, and watch the glass
Just take some time, and drink some wine
So slow down girl, and you'll be fine

She felt a warm glow come over her whole body and she fell asleep on the table. The masseuse noticed her slow breathing and left her alone in the room.

(7:19 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

(9:11 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

***

June looked down at the blood stained sand. Bodies lay where they had fallen during the terrible fight. That handsome young pirate who had come to her porch in the night had staggered towards the water before falling from loss of blood. There was a small hint of movement in his chest, perhaps he was not dead yet.

The men who had attacked her lay here and there and she looked with as much calm as she could manage at their dead bodies on the sand, carefully avoiding looking down near her feet for as long as she could. She looked out to see where the moon shone on the water.

Finally though, she had to look down. And then came the sob and the sharp intake of breath. Her brother lay pale in the blood stained sand. She stood a moment in a stunned stillness and then started to shake. Then came the scream. The screem that carried down the beach all the way to the pirate camp. The scream that refused to end. Then her legs were moving of their own accord, carrying her back down the path to the settlement and the doctor who was the only hope for her brother to live. All the way, the scream refused to die. Hot, salty tears streaming from her green eyes down her cheeks.

***

Sarah screamed in her sleep and woke up cramped and sweating. The masseuse came in with a concerned look on her face. "Are you OK Mrs. Albury? What happened?"

Sarah looked around her in a bit of a daze. That dream had seemed so real. She still felt the panic inside her and her body refused to stop shaking.

(9:27 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

She sat up and pulled her towel tightly around her and then got shakily to her feet.

"Here let me help you Mrs. Albury." said the masseuse, coming over to lend an arm.

Sarah waved her off, "No thanks but would you go and get me a smoothie while I take a quick rinse in the shower?"

"I will call and have someone bring you a drink. I don't think you should go alone to the showers when you are shaky like that. Those tiles are hard and they can get slippery when they get wet."

***

Sarah got out of the car, "Thanks for the lift, you really didn't have to."

"Oh I don't mind," said the maseusse, "it is not far out of my way and I didn't think you should be driving the way you are still shaky like that. Just let someone drop you back for your car when you get feeling better."

There was music jamming from above ans she turned towards the steps and made her way slowly upstairs, holding onto the railing all the way to steady herself.

***

Jaro saw Sarah walk through the door by the bar and his fingers stopped and hung in the air over the keyboard, still shaped like the chords he was about to play, "Sarah! is everything OK? Did something happen to Fuller?"

Sarah sat on a stool at the bar, "Give me a rum and coke please. "Hey Jaro, thanks for being here. That sounded nice? Something you working on or were you two just messing around?"

Jaro's face fell.

Sarah saw it and quickly continued, "No, no. Fuller is fine. Or at least, he was when I left him. We can call him and see if you like."

"Well, what's wrong with you then? You seen a ghost?"

"I may have," she mused, a strange, far away look in her green eyes. "At lesat in my dreams. It seemed so real though."

(9:45 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

***

Fulcrum woke up with a song in his head.

I want to tell you
About love and heartaches
I want to tell you
About a new plan

But if you leave me
I'll never recover
Said if you leave me
I just wont understand

So baby
Lend me your ears
Yes baby
Give me your hand

I want to take you
Out over the waters
I want to lay you
Down on that pink sand

He was not sure where it had come from or what exactly it meant but he quite liked it and kept humming it or singing it under his breath over and over.

***

(9:55 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

Sarah looked at Jaro's black face so filled with concern and smiled a wan smile to try and ease his obvoius concern. "I think 'll be alright. It is Fuller that I am worried about. He just doesn't seem to be himself since the gig. He doesn't seem to know himself or his world and he is always getting woozy and looking like he is about to fall over in the slight breeze."

"And he is always hungry and tired, he hasn't stopped eating and sleeping since I got him home," she continued, her voice a little horse.

"Should you take him to see a doctor? Are you coming down with something too? Your voice seems a bit off."

"And that is the other thing, he wouldn't let me take him to the hospital and he won't even let me call a doctor to the house. It almost seems like he is afraid of doctors. I never noticed that in him before."

***

Goodnight gentle reader, I doubt I will be chatting with you again tonight. I want to take it easy for the rest of the night until I go to sleep. Until tomorrow then.

(10:03 pm Fri Nov 07, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D06

2008-11-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

(5:13 pm Nov 06, 2005)

After Fulcrum fell asleep, Sarah went to her office in a spare room of the house and sat at her desk and sighed.

She closed her eyes and looked up at the ceiling for a while with her mind's eye. She sighed again and opened her eyes before reaching into a drawer and taking out a leather bound book with a lock.

She pulled a small key on a chain up from her shirt and bent down to insert it into the lock on the book and open it.

She took a pen from a block of wood on her desk and clicked the top with her index finger.

She flipped through the book to the last page with writing on it and then placed it open on her desk. She began to write...

Dear June,

I missed you today but I felt you were close by me even so. I am not sure what happened but Fuller has seemed strange since the gig last night. Not himself somehow.

(7:25 pm Nov 06, 2005)

(Well gentle reader, you see the results of the No Voltage Blues striking today.)

I am worried about him, He doesn't even seem to understand where he is or recognise the normal everyday things of life.

(7:30 pm Nov 06, 2005)

(7:43 pm Nov 06, 2005)

Ever since I first learned of you on that day I was reading old papers in the attic, I have felt a special connection to you somehow, like I had some special understanding of your inner self.

But today, I felt I gained a better understanding, not only of your life, but also of your untimely, sad end. I see how the will to go on living in the face of the loss of a loved one could slip away and leave without one's knowing it was gone until too late.

And to think you lost two on one devastating night so long ago. No wonder you decided to leave this world instead of continuing to live in the bleakness and desolation of such profound loss. I can almost feel within me today how one could simple let go and slide away into eternity.

(7:52 pm Nov 06, 2005)

(9:25 pm Nov 06, 2005)

She heard Fuller stir in the other room and closed her diary and locked it before putting it back in the drawer and sliding it shut. Then she got up and went in to check on Fuller.

"Hey there, are you feeling better?"

Fulcrum looked at her beautiful face so full of concern for him and smiled. "I think I feel better. I am hungry though, is there any more food to eat?"

"Sure thing, would you like some cold pizza?"

Fulcrum didn't know what pizza was but was hungry enough to eat pretty much anything right now, "That sounds fine thank you, can I help you with something?" What was going on? Why was he offering to help her in the kitchen? It just sort of slipped out.

"No, you just take it easy, it is no trouble, I'll just get it out of the fridge. I could pop it in the toaster oven if you would prefer it heated. Yes?"

He didn't know what to say. "Whatever you think is best. Or wait, what would be quicker?"

"Well, obviously cold is quicker, but if you prefer hot, it will just be a minute or two more, can't you wait that long? You act like you haven't eaten in days."

"It feels longer than that. I know I just had a little something last night, but I don't remember ever feeling this hungry before and I can tell you, I have been very hungry before when we got wrecked and washed up on a cay without food for days."

"Fuller! You never told me you were wrecked before! What else have you been hiding from me?"

(9:48 pm Nov 06, 2005)

(10:18 pm Nov 06, 2005)

Well, I got side tracked to do a quick and dirty clean up a vocal file for someone on kompoz using audacity. I am only just learning to use audacity for this purpose. There is a nice (to me so far at least) tool for noise removal in audacity in gnu/linux. I haven't checked to see if it is built in or a separately install package but it is there and that is what I need to know at the moment.

Fulcrum started to get confused and dizzy again. Sarah ran to him and held him in her surprisingly strong arms to steady him and prevent him from falling. "Careful, you could hit your head if you fall."

(10:42 pm Nov 06, 2005)

This is getting totally out of hand again gentle reader. So far to go in so little time and still I am messing about killing time that I don't even have.

I have to find some way to break through this bog, this tar pit, this quick sand, this scummy pond mud that sucks down with each attempted step forward.

"Let's get you back to bed and I will bring your pizza and a drink on a tray for you."

She walked him, stumbling, back to the bedroom and gently helped him to lay down again. "Take it easy, I'll be right back with the food."

When she returned, she was carrying a tray which she set down on the bed. She passed him a plate with some sort of flat pie on it, steam rising in the cool air of the room, "Careful, it's hot, the cheese might stuck to the roof of your mouth and blister you." Now why had she told him that, she wondered. They had eaten pizza together too many times to count and she had never told him anything like that before.

(11:01 pm Nov 06, 2005)

They ate together and drank some ice cold limeade with perfect cubes of ice floating in the glasses. Where had she found ice here in these islands? Was he still in the islands? The air still felt warm.

Gentle reader, I started around five o' clock this afternoon. It is now after eleven and I have just passed one thousand words. How am I to get to two thousand words by midnight? This is going to call for some creative word mongering if I am to get there. That is, unless true inspiration really strikes.

Distractions have to go...

Fuller looked like he was falling asleep again after he finished his food so Sarah packed up the tray and kissed him on the forehead, "I have to go out to shop for a few things and to stop by the club and talk to Jaro about a possible gig this weekend. Try to stay in bed and rest and we can try and talk when I get back later. please don't go out if you are not feeling one hundred percent. I am worried about you and I feel like something bad might happen if you are not careful."

It jarred Fulcrum each time she called him Fuller but he let it pass, he was too drained inside to fight it for the time being. "I will stay in until you get back unless something drastic happens. But, short of the place burning down, I can't imagine what that might be."

Sarah rapped her knuckles against the door frame, "Knock wood. Don't say things like that Fuller! You know I don't like it when you put mouth on us like that!"

He didn't know what had upset her or what exactly she was saying, but he wanted to fix things up, "Sorry, I will just go to sleep now. Wake me up when you get back if you want to."

She turned and left the room.

(11:22 pm Nov 06, 2005)

Fulcrum lay back on the soft pillows and was soon asleep and dreaming.

***

When Sarah went upstairs to the club, they were just cleaning up and beginning to prep the place for the afternoon opening, "Anyone seen Jaro yet today?" she asked.

"He was here earlier but he left," said Frank, the club owner and manager, "He said he would be back around four thirty five."

Sarah looked at her watch, two p.m., that would give her time to do some shopping and perhaps some banking and a few other errands and get back in time to speak to Jaro. She decided she had enough time to listen to a song or two before leaving.

Hey Mister Space Man
Can I hitch a ride today
Your bound for somewhere special
At least that's what they say
It seems your countdown
Ends right at noon
So will you be calling
On mars or Venus soon
Or could it be old Saturn
With those lovely rings and moons

Hey Mister Space Man
Can I hitch a ride today
My life is crumbling fast
And I have to get away
They say you're blasting off
Exactly right at noon
Good thing I heard the word
You know it was none too soon
Could you take me out to Pluto
Or maybe further still

She sort of liked that one. Then The Radio Song came on.

Well I woke up this morning
Turned my radio on
And the DJ was laughing
He was playing that song

So I called to de-request it
But no one picked up the phone
Didn't block my caller ID
Man my head is like a bone

I'm going crazy
Why did you leave me
I need a new plan
To start a flame

When I reached to the office
I tried to call your phone
But your mother she done told me
That you were not at home

So I asked her to tell you
To call me back today
But she said that wasn't happening
That you had gone away

I'm going crazy
Why did you leave me
I need a new plan
To start a flame

Well tonight I met a new girl
And she looks just like a song
So I wrote down all the words
And I had to sing along

So I sent it to that DJ
And I know he'll put it on
Then when you hear it on the airwaves
You'll know why I'm never home

I made a new plan
To start a flame
I found a new girl
She chased my pain

Far away.

That one wasn't bad either. Then their own New Pirate Song came on...

It's a pirate that I be
And I sail upon the sea
And the fathers and the mothers
And the brothers of the damsels
They are all afeared of me
Cause when the damsels I do see
And when the damsels they see me
There is no hope left
Their hearts are for my chest
A treasure fair reserved for me

"Hey Sarah!" called Frank from the kitchen, "What was up with Fuller the other night? It was almost like he didn't know the songs except for this one. And even with this one, all he did was sing some and he was even off on that. I mean, he had more raw energy and power in his voice than I have ever heard him put into a song before, but it was like he had never sung it with you all before."

"I know, he just is not himself since last night."

"Well then, tell him I hope he feels better soon. Will he be OK for the gig this weekend?"

"I will tell him you send your best wishes when I get back later. Listen, I really have to run, tell Jaro I will be back later. I'll try and get here before five but ask him to wait for me if I am not back by then."

"Sure thing," said Frank.

(11:28 pm Nov 06, 2005)

(11:54 pm Nov 06, 2005)

Well, gentle reader, midnight is getting close and so am I. I think I will make it and get to go to sleep.

And, done. Goodnight gentle reader.

(11:56 pm Nov 06, 2005)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D05

2008-11-05T20:34:00.001-08:00

(2:28 pm Nov 05, 2008)

Needless to say, Fulcrum was having none of that, he yelled out and went on the attack. No way anyone was harming his love. The man turned to face him and Fulcrum thought he might just be able to work thins so that the dead man came to an end while he was dispatching this dog.

And that is how things almost turned out. Fulcrum deeply wounded the man and then set things up so that he could pretend to swing at him while "missing" and doing the dirt to the dead man. Things were going well on that front too, his cutlass was swinging in a wonderful arc when something hit him on he back of his head and the moon went dark.

(2:37 pm Nov 05, 2008)

When Fulcrum came two his green eyed lady was looking down at him and touching his cheek.

"Are you OK? What happened to you? Did you faint?"

There was a pounding in his head and chest and lights flashed and pulsed about him. There was the sound of many voices and an overall din to match the din when the sloop was in piratical action. Fulcrum looked up to a roof above his head? Had they brought him inside? There was something stringed and heavy strapped to him with metal string stretched taught to its front and a black cable leading from it to a box on the floor nearby.

"Where am I?"

She leaned down and kissed him on the lips, "You're on the stage silly, are you alright?"

Alright? She had just kissed him and asked him if he was alright! "Yes, no, I don't know, did you bring me back from the beach?"

"Well, you were sort of passed out over at cabbage today and I got Jaro to help me get you to the car if that's what you mean?"

What strange language was this?

"Can you stand up? Do you feel good enough to finish the set?"

"Uh... I don't understand. I think I can manage to stand though."

"Good! Let me help you up and then just do your best. We may be able to get through it with Jaro singing lead instead, but your voice is better so take it if you can."

She helped him to his feet and his vision came more into focus and he registered the sea of faces for the first time. When he looked out at them as he stood, they all cheered and lit small torches in their hands and raised them overhead.

(2:51 pm Nov 05, 2008)

Some loud music that seemed almost familiar started and people looked at him expectantly? He looked back bewildered.

"Jaro, you take it and see if he gets his bearings!"

"No problem Sarah, hit it!"

The music started again.

It's a pirate that I be
And I sail upon the sea
And the fathers and the mothers
And the brothers of the damsels

What? What had they done to his song? How did they know his song? He had never let anyone hear it yet! And why was the singing so unnaturally loud? Was everyone shouting at the top of their lungs? And did they have the loud voice of a first mate?

They are all afeared of me
Cause when the damsels I do see

He liked the way they were singing it! He began to sing along...

And when the damsels they see me
There is no hope left
Their hearts are for my chest
A treasure fair reserved for me

People were shouting and singing along and moving about in some wild gyrations of a sort he had never seen and he had seen some things in some places since he had become a pirate.

(3:25 pm Nov 05, 2008)

(5:11 pm Nov 05, 2008)

(5:50 pm Nov 05, 2008)

OK, gentle reader, I tried again. Tried to avoid the time pit today but to no avail. I felt good for a while but then the whole ball of string theory unraveled. Almost like someone had put all the strings into a can of compressed gas and shot them out randomly to stick to whatever time happened to be around and cause temporal knots which would lead to knotted thoughts and writer's blocks and... don't say it... don't even think it.

"Thank you... thank you," said Sarah and then leaned in close to Fulcrum and whispered, "Are you sure you are OK? Do you want me to take you to the hospital?"

Fulcrum looked closely into her green eyes, "I don't know, I feel strange and everything seems strange and out of place, but no, no hospitals. If I don't feel better soon, I need to go outside and breath some fresh air."

"OK, we'll do one more song and take a short break and I can take you out on the veranda.," she said and then turned to face the room, "OK, this one's called Grey Day and after this we are going to take a short break and then come back and do on more set."

A drummer sitting behind some fancy concoction of drums hits his sticks together and counted off and the music started again.

It's a grey day
It's a grey day
And the whitecaps
Are in the harbour
There's a cold wind
Blowing salty
Across the road
It chills my bones

This was one that Fulcrum did not know but it was about the sea and he listened and joined in where he could.

It's a grey day
It's a grey day
And the whitecaps
Are in the harbour
Watch the big waves
Making white foam
Crash the rocky
Honeycomb

It's a grey day
It's a grey day
And the whitecaps
Are in the harbour
See the sea weed
Gather angry
Meet the shoreline
Tumbling sand

It's a grey day
It's a grey day
And the whitecaps
Are in the harbour
There's a cold wind
Blowing salty
Across the road
It chills my bones

It's a grey day
There's a cold wind
Blowing salty
It chills my bones

As the song ended, the people cheered and raised their torches above their heads again and clapped their hands. The musicians began to step down off of the raised platform where they had been standing to perform and Sarah came and took Fulcrum's arm, "OK, big boy, let's go outside and grab some fresh air and see if we can get you feeling better."

(6:17 pm Nov 05, 2008)

What kind of strange talk was this? And how did she become so familiar with him? They walked across the floor and out of the door onto a upstairs porch and Fulcrum felt faint. ...

(8:22 pm Nov 05, 2008)

You see that gentle reader? You walk off for a minute or two in the middle of a sentence and come back to find two hours plus gone. This is not way to get the word count up and overcome the block.

When Fulcrum and Sarah walked outside Fulcrum received what was probably the biggest shock of his relatively young life. He stepped into a world completely strange to him. Inside had been strange enough, but outside was a world that strained belief.

Transportation of some sort moving at great speed along some sort of smooth roadway. Lights everywhere in the night that, just like the ones on the walls and ceiling inside seemed to shed light without flame, Buildings across the harbour of immense height. Too much. Much too much to deal with. His brain shut itself down and the began to crumple to the ground.

Sarah called out for help from people standing nearby and grabbed his arm trying to stop him from hitting the ground hard.

(8:34 pm Nov 05, 2008)

(9:04 pm Nov 05, 2008)

No. No. No!

There is something seriously more than simple writers block going on here. There is some internal something happening that is almost actively working to get me to not write this year. I will keep fighting through and hopefully some how this, this, whatever it is will leave me for a time at least and let me get on with the writing of this story such as it is.

Fulcrum came to in a dark room with a candle burning on a small table beside the bed on which he was laying.

The candle smelled of pine. He was covered by a white sheet and the bed was softer than any he had ever rested on in his life to this point.

He heard breathing behind him and turned his head to see Sarah laying on the bed behind him. Propped up on one elbow, her cheek resting on her palm and looking at him with obvious concern on her face.

The shock almost sent him under again.

(9:16 pm Nov 05, 2008)

(10:10 pm Nov 05, 2008)

Oops, there goes almost another whole hour.

"Fuller, are you alright? What has come over you tonight?"

Who was Fuller? Why did she call him Fuller?

"I don't know? I haven't felt like myself all night? I feel totally out of place."

"It's obvious but do you know why you are behaving like this?"

"Not really. I could not begin to try and figure out what has happened to me today."

Well, that was one way to tell the truth without saying anything much. What was she doing in the bed with him?

She got up and walked into another room and he heard water begin to run. It kept on running. Was there a stream in that room?

"If you are feeling up to it, why don't I call Doctor Ted and see if he will come over and have a look at you?"

Fulcrum thought hard and fast, he did not like the idea of doctors. Limbs getting cut off during battle, screams, pain, blood. No, it was better to avoid doctors while one could.

"No, I think I just need rest and hopefully sleep. Perhaps when I wake up in the morning I will be myself."

The water stopped running and she came back into the room and walked over to the bed. She reached down and stroked his cheek, I am going to the kitchen for a little snack, do you want me to bring you a bite or something to drink? A cup of wine perhaps?"

(10:33 pm Nov 05, 2008)

(10:50 pm Nov 05, 2008)

Fulcrum thought about it for a short while, "I think I will have a cup of wine if you would be so kind."

She laughed, "Right away me dashing buccaneer. And something to eat? I am not going to be going back out there for another trip for you tonight as usual, I am too beat for that tonight. I feel really drained for some reason. I think it is from worrying about you. How about some fruit? And orange or banana?"

"A banana and wine?"

She laughed, "You're right, what about some cheese and crackers? I think I'll get me some."

She went out through a door and it closed automatically behind her.

He heard her singing something familiar through the closed door. Muffled but sweet and familiar.

Soon, she returned with a tray with two glasses of red wine and a plate with some cheese and crackers on it. She set the tray down an a small table beside the bed and handed him one of the glasses of wine. "Here you go, I got you one of the dry ones that you like."

He sat up slowly and took a hesitant sip. Mmmm. That was good. He looked at her confused again. What was going on here? Where was he? He could not begin to explain this to himself. Well, enjoy what you can while you can he thought.

(11:22 pm Nov 05, 2008)

He reached out an picked up the dull knife on the tray and cut off a hunk of cheese and put it on a thin cracker and popped the whole thing into his mouth. His stomach grumbled in some form of complaint. When had he last eaten anything? Well, the wine was good but this was even better.

"Pass me one will you?" she said from the foot of the bed where she was sitting and looking at him.

He cut a slice of the cheese for her and put it on a cracker and handed it to her.

"Thanks," she laughed.

"Why do you laugh at me?" he asked.

"Well, I wondered why you always cut yourself chunks but cut me slices," she said.

(11:29 pm Nov 05, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D04

2008-11-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

(3:16 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Ah, gentle reader, a late start today. And election day in the US which is a tempting distraction for people in this country which is such a close neighbour.

As he sat and listened to the waves gurgling against the rocks and hissing on the sand, he thought of the scene at the house in the settlement and he let his blood continue to boil. He decided to enjoy his anger and nurture it and to see if he could get it to grow.

He let scenes of a dual between himself and the dashing young man play out in his mind. Some in which he quickly dispatched his foe, running him through with a quick forward thrust of his shining cutlass. Over almost before they started. Others, duals of epic proportions, now one holding the advantage, now the other, some where he is nearly defeated and his death near before he skillfully reverses the situation and wins right at the end, wounded and suffering, but victorious.

In all of the scenes, his green eyed lady ended up in his arms or, in the ones where he is wounded, he in her arms with her showering his face with tender kisses mixed with passion.

(3:54 pm Nov 04, 2008)

You hear that sucking sound again gentle reader. What is it with this writing thing and the extreme tie in with the practice of procrastination fu?

So, what shall I do? Take a detour? One designed to manufacture some words? One perhaps designed to break through this writer's block? I think I might just have to do that today. That, or come up with some other plan or angle to get the juices and the words flowing smoothly again. It has been tough so far this year, but today seems different. While the previous days have seemed like a drought, todays seems like a sand blasted furnace of a desert with no oasis in sight or in thought.

(4:07 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Fulcrum decided to head back to the settlement to see if the party had ended and if he could get to see his green eyed lady.

As Fulcrum came near the house in town, he could make out that some people were leaving and he crossed the street and went and stood next to a shuttered building in the shadows and began to scan the yard and house to see if he could see his lady or the dead man.

He saw neither one of them the first time around and so started scanning again. Perhaps he had not been careful enough or, and here his heart fell, perhaps they had left together or, and hear his heart soared, perhaps she had tired of him already and sent him on his way and gone to her room to wait for him later when she would sing to him again.

And then his heart broke and his blood almost boiled over. He saw them. Together. Arm in arm. Laughing! Coming out of the front door and walking down the path towards the street. Towards him. He put his hand on his cutlass and his knife. He ducked back deeper into the shadows. Hiding himself in the darkness and turning his face away as they passed by on the other side of the street.

When they had passed and walked on, he turned his head carefully to look after them and then scanned the area. There seemed to be no one else about just now and so, sticking to the shadows, he followed on behind them at some distance.

(4:20 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Fulcrum did everything he could to hold himself back, to not rush forward and run the dead man through right away. Look at them!Walking along arm in arm. Laughing. She leaning her head on his shoulder from time to time and saying something to him which caused him to laugh and his blood to burn within him.

But as difficult as it was for him, he managed it, contenting himself for now with visions of making him suffer at the point and edge of his blades. Visions of her in his arms, tenderly looking into his eyes.

(4:51 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Before too long, they headed off to where a path led out to the north beach. Not the path the led out to near the pirate camp, but another which ended somewhere near where he had been sitting earlier on the rocks.

Fulcrum smiled. He began to formulate actual plans of attack should a chance present itself. But should he. How would she react to seeing her lover killed before her eyes? He knew she had feelings for him. He had sensed it that night on the porch, but would she faint and forever hate him for his act? Or would she sing at being freed to give her love to him fully?

(5:27 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, there has been a young rooster hanging around the place for a few days now. This morning, he began his crowing outside of my bedroom window before six o'clock. The lady from the zoo showed up a bit ago with some feed and a cage to begin the process of capture and re-location.

So far, the rooster is un-captured but some more time has been captured and sucked in. Perhaps, likely to never be released again. Can time, once captured, ever be set free again?

(5:42 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Well, Fulcrum had a change of heart. He decided that the dead man might live a bit longer unless a great opportunity presented itself. The dead man would need to die when she was not around. Fulcrum would not risk her possible disgust towards him should he act in her sight.

(5:49 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, it is really slow going right now and the plot, such as it is, just took an unexpected twist on me and I don't know how to take this new development just yet. Plus, I need to go and make a conch salad run so I am going to shut down for now and hopefully pick up with a bang once I get back and get some mollusk and veggies in me.

(7:29 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Well, the mollusk and veggies are down the pipe and I have been in the indoor rain as well. The election results are coming in with most too close to call so far from what I hear in the background. Let's hope that the full belly leads to a flow of words for the remainder of the night.

Fulcrum had dropped back a good distance after he had decided not to kill the dead man just yet. No sense in being seen if he was not planning to attack right? The two climbed the dune arm in arm and disappeared over the top. He heard laughter. He ran ahead and eased up the dune, crouching down and poking his head above the dune line carefully. His green eyed lady was running down to the ocean with the dead man walking a good way behind.

Fulcrum lay down on his belly and watched. Something off to the right caught his eye. A group of three men came over the ridge line of the dune at a run, weapons brandished. Two made straight for the dead man and one for his lady.

Fulcrum was stunned and froze with the possibilities. Should he let these send the dead man on his way and then rescue his lady from them? That sounded good but was too dangerous to the health of his love. He did not like his odds against three men. Possibly two if the dead man managed to take someone along for the ride.

He couldn't just watch and see what happened. Who knew what these men intended.

Finally he decided that, as much as he hated to do so, he would need to go to the rescue of the dead man. Somehow, that did not sit right with him but he saw no other choice at this point.

(7:51 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Fulcrum jumped to his feet and ran over the dune and down on to the beach proper, letting out a yell as he hit his stride. His cutlass over his head and his knife in his right hand.

The dead man's and his lady's attackers faltered in their stride as they looked to where he was running full speed towards them. They hesitated only for a second before increasing their efforts to close on the dead man and his love.

The dead man produced a short sword and a dagger from some where and prepared to defend himself.

Fulcrum decided to rescue his lady first and decide what else to do later. He altered his angle to intercept the man heading for her.

(8:07 pm Nov 04, 2008)

(9:11 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Oops, there goes an hour with no words gentle reader. Talk about writer's block, just when I thought I might get something going. I have to push on through.

His mind was blown away when his lady turned and ran at her pursuer, raising her skirts with one hand and letting out a very un-lady like yell!

Her adversary was even more surprised than Fulcrum, he stopped in his tracks and stood frozen for a few seconds before continuing on at a wary pace.

Fulcrum let out another yell and tried to increase his speed even more.

His lady's opponent looked his way and Fulcrum recognised him as one of his attackers from the bushes before the cruise. What? Their eyes met and Fulcrum say surprise on his face.

Then he was running at Fulcrum and closing fast. Fulcrum tripped and went down with the first blow struck. His attacker let out a cry of triumph and raised his cutlass to finish Fulcrum off when he was struck down from behind by the green eyed lady.

(9:37 pm Nov 04, 2008)

(9:54 pm Nov 04, 2008)

No, I just can't get untracked. I have to push through no matter what. I have to keep on putting one word after another while the count rises and rises. This is nanowrimo after all... don't let quality get in the way of quantity this month... but I really must learn to plot better in advance if I am to keep taking part in this November madness.

Struck down when she bowled in to his back at full speed. He still almost managed to stick his knife into Fulcrum's stomach as he went down though. Fulcrum managed to roll out of the way at the last minute and scramble to his feet.

His lady was about to press her attack when the man rolled over and raised his cutlass towards her while still on his back in the fine sand. She stopped. She turned and ran off towards the other fight leaving him lying in the sand. leaving him to Fulcrum.

"Remember me friend? I am so happy to run into you again," said Fulcrum swinging his cutlass. The man parried but Fulcrum pressed his advantage and soon knocked the cutlass out of the man's hand. Then he quickly dispatched him and turned to join the remaining fray.

Then a thought crossed his mind. Should he "accidentally" dispatch the dead man while trying to rescue him? Now that had possibilities. The thing is, he would need to take care of the other two enough so that they would not pose a serious threat before causing trouble for the dead man or things might not work out at all.

Was it worth the risk?

(10:08 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Well, perhaps not. He would keep his eyes open in case an opportunity presented itself though.

The dead man was doing his best to hold his own against the two men but Fulcrum could see that he was faltering. Then his lady jumped into the fray unarmed. But not un-legged it seemed. She landed a devastating sort of stomp kick to the back of one of the men's knees and he went down hard.

Then the dead man missed a parry and dropped his sword as his arm was cut by a glancing swipe.

The green eyed lady cried out and jumped to protect him.

The man laughed and licked his lips. "Ah, you sweet thing, come and give us a kiss."

(10:28 pm Nov 04, 2008)

Nighty night gentle reader...

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D03

2008-11-03T19:44:00.001-08:00

(7:22 am Nov 03, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, once again I have been deep into my practice of procrastination. And I remember now that I can ill afford it. There is supposed to be band practice tonight which will cut into my writing time and there are a goodly number of gigs this month which will also wreak havoc with my writing and mood. Ah well... Such is life in the tropics as they say. And the funny thing is we say that here even though we are not there, only semi there as it were.

Fulcrum set off down the path to the settlement. He was on his way to meet his mates at a spot where he had told them to wait for him when he had sent them on ahead so that the captain would not protest.

He didn't intend to disobey the captain exactly. No, more like creatively obey his orders. He had no intention of dying here in the bush today. He would not let anyone accompany him as he searched the bush, but he would have them nearby and perhaps they would prevent any further attacks.

It took him a hot hour or more, but he finally saw his mark and retrieved the captain's package. He took it down from the branch and secured it in his shirt and headed back to his mates.

They were almost to the dune when the first shots rang out. One of his mates pitched forward, hit on the leg. A ball whizzed by his left ear and he broke off running towards the beach yelling for help. His other mates were right behind. No one stopped to help their fallen comrade.

(7:41 am Nov 03, 2008)

(7:54 am Nov 03, 2008)

Life obstructs art again gentle reader. How much art could we have if life did not get in the way? ~;-)

When the men in the camp on the beach heard the shots, they looked up startled. Someone called out that they should head for the path and a group took up their weapons and started down the beach.

Fulcrum and his remaining mates had almost reached the dune when the men from the night before stepped onto the path, swords in hand. Unfortunately for Fulcrum and friends, they had reinforcements.

Luckily, not too many, and time wasn't on their side hopefully.

(8:01 am Nov 03, 2008)

(8:19 am Nov 03, 2008)

Gone for now gentle reader...

(2:52 pm Nov 03, 2008)

Back, for a while now but again stuck in that temporal black hole. This time wasting deal is getting so old and so frustrating already and this is still very early days yet. What to do? Indeed, what to do?

"We need to break through and get to the beach before the cowards behind us catch up and attack from the rear. No stopping! Kill them all if we can!"

His mates seemed to like the sound of that and raised their cutlasses and their voices and ran towards those blocking the path with a red glint in their eyes.

The two small groups came together with and intensity and fury that spoke of something deep and primal. Metal clashed on metal, Screams filled the air, some intimidating. some a notice of intense pain.

It looked for a short while that Fulcrum and friends would not make it through to the beach before the chasing party arrived on the scene but, just at it seemed they were to falter, Fulcrum slashed the arm clean off of the enemy he was engaged with and turned his attention to the man he pegged as the leader of the opposition who was currently about to get the better of one of his mates.

Fulcrum came at him from the right side as his attention was focused on disemboweling his opponent and ran his cutlass into him through his arm pit. With that, the enemies seemed to lose heart and Fulcrum's group burst through into the clear and run up and over the dune just as the pursuers caught up. They were chased up and over the dune but when the attackers set eyes on the pirate band a scant ten yards away and closing fast, they quickly turned tail and disappeared over the brow of the dune and dashed off down the path at full speed.

(3:19 pm Nov 03, 2008)

(3:33 pm Nov 03, 2008)

When Fulcrum and the rest made it back to the camp, the captain was waiting with a scowl on his face and pistols in his hand. Without warning, he raised a pistol and pulled the trigger. Fulcrum had been watching carefully but without seeming to be aware that anything was amiss. As the captain's arm started up, he started his dive and roll, sweeping his leg out and taking the captain to the sand. Before anyone else knew what was happening he was on the captain with his knife at the captain's throat, and his mouth to the captain's ear.

"Easy my captain, I have your package safe and no one is the wiser. Let's go to your tent, shall we? Then the lights went out.

Fulcrum came up out of the dark with his head throbbing, thinking that he had to stop going to sleep so unexpectedly like that. Surely it was not good for the health.

Looking around, he noticed he was in the captain's tent. He groaned and tried to stand but found his feet and hands bound and fell over onto his face on the captain's new, soft carpet.

The captain appeared over him and pushed him down firmly with a boot to his chest. "Stay still lad, you have a lot of explaining to do it you want to see another day."

(3:44 pm Nov 03, 2008)

"Captain, I..."

"Quiet lad. I will ask the questions, you answer, directly and honestly and quickly. The only reason you are still breathing now is that I have my package and it seems unopened. But lad, I will have no truck with those who disobey my direct orders."

"Captain, I..."

"Stop! I haven't asked a question of you yet lad! Now, Why didn't you go alone as I instructed you to do?"

"Captain, I'm sorry, but I had a strange feeling that I would be attacked should I go back looking for your package and I knew that I would not survive it and that your package would be lost for surely they would wait until I had it before attacking."

(3:51 pm Nov 03, 2008)

(4:36 pm Nov 03, 2008)

Now, where did that time all get to?

"Go on lad, tell me more?" said the captain.

"Well, I asked some of me mates to go with me and hang near by in case I should be attacked. I told them that I had seen a woman with green eyes in town last night and that she interested me something fierce. I told them that I was bringing back a token of the heart and was embarrassed that I had lost it when I had been attacked."

"So, they don't know you had anything for me?"

"Well, no, unless someone were to guess from how you reacted there on the beach."

"Alright then, you may live a bit longer if that is true. But don't go making a habit of disobeying my orders lad, and especially in front of the crew. That way leads to no good for a pirate. It's discipline I need at sea. Lucky for you we are between voyages right now or I would not allow myself to go this lightly on you lad."

"Thank you captain, Thank you!"

The captain turned and went out of the tent. Fulcrum had expected to be cut loose. He heard the captain shout to his first mate, "Mister Jack, come and take this dog out of my tent and give him ten lashes for good measure! I'll brook no disobedience such as his, even on land, unless I give my leave."

(5:10 pm Nov 03, 2008)

"But captain!"

"Quiet lad, and take it like a man. Or it's your life I'll be taking and not a bit of skin off of your scurvy back."

Fulcrum almost said more but then shut himself down in a hot fury. Better not push his luck.

A week later, the pirates put out to sea, heading south to the Crooked Island Passage to hunt.

Fulcrum had not made it back to town on the night he took his lashes nor on the next, but on the third, he had slipped away and made it back to the settlement. And now, though his flesh left on a sea voyage, his soul remained behind.

(5:30 pm Nov 03, 2008)

(6:00 pm Nov 03, 2008)

Ah gentle reader, there it goes again, slipping away to some unknown place, perhaps to take up with single socks in some riotous living...

And band practice is about 6:45 or 7:00 and I may want to eat a little dinner before then. Time, time, time, where is that factory again?

(6:33 pm Nov 03, 2008)

Gone again...

(9:42 pm Nov 03, 2008)

Back from band practice... Doing a few things that needed to be done and once again wasting some time in fine style...

And now I find myself burning some more time with the munchies.

They sailed about the Passage in the sloop Phearz for several days without sighting any other vessels and the captain had almost decided to quit the vicinity and sail over Bimini way. Almost... but then he decided to wait one more day. And the most beautiful Spanish sail was spotted early in the morning and was taken before noon time.

The captain decided to put Spanish crew ashore on Long island and send a small crew on the Spanish ship to Nassau to try and sell it and make their way back to Harbour Island to await their return. Fulcrum was amoung those to volunteer to sail the prize back to Nassau. His heart sang within his breast when he was chosen.

(10:14 pm Nov 03, 2008)

After they sold the Spanish ship in Nassau, the small crew sailed a small sloop back to the pirate outpost at Harbour Island. The whole way back, as they sailed along the cays that ran from Nassau up to Eleuthera, Fulcrum though of only one thing.

They landed at about three in the afternoon and Fulcrum dearly wanted to head in to the settlement right away, but there were things to do in camp and he could not leave at once as his heart desired.

But as soon as darkness came, he slipped off and made his way into town and to the house of the green eyed lady.

When he got there, he wanted to go and knock on her window right away, but there were people about. The house was well lit and all the windows were open. There were people sitting about outside on wooden chairs in the small, neat yard. Inside, there were people seated around a large dinner table eating dinner.

That must be her. The most beautiful face he had ever seen. And those green eyes. And she smiled and leaned in and said something to a dashing young man seated next to her at the table and she laughed. And Fulcrum Hornigold grew hot inside.

(10:27 pm Nov 03, 2008)

Fulcrum watched a little longer as the dead man put his hand on his lady's forearm and whispered something into her ear and as she laughed, her beautiful white teeth shining in the light. He knew he needed to get out of the area and take a long hard walk to calm down or he would do something rash and ruin himself and end up in gaol. He decided that he would come back later and deal with things.

He though of taking a walk by the captain's lady's house to see what he might see but decided that that would not be a wise move and so he made his way back to the beach on the north shore and walked down to the rocks at the far end and sat himself down on a broken piece of a mast and looked at the stars.

(10:34 pm Nov 03, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D02

2008-11-02T18:36:00.001-08:00

(11:27 am Nov 02, 2008)

Fulcrum knew that he shouldn't. Knew it was dangerous. In more ways than one. But Fulcrum couldn't help himself. He went up to the window and knocked lightly on the shutter.

The singing faltered.

He knocked again, a tiny bit louder this time.

The singing stopped.

He waited.

But heard nothing from within. No further singing, no movement. And despite listening as hard as he could, not even any breathing.

He knocked again, "Hello, I just want to speak with you," he said quietly, his face pressed against the rough wood and peeling paint of the shutter. He heard the person inside catch their breath and imagined a hand going to a bosom.

He heard the faintest movement from within and then a faint sweet voice, "Who is there?"

'It's Fulcrum Hornigold, dashing pirate extraordinaire, soon to be the most famous man alive!' thought Fulcrum just before he froze. He stood on the porch for what seemed an eternity before a hidden view port opened in the shutter and pale green eyes stared out into the night and pierced his heart.

"Who are you sir? And what are you doing on my porch in the middle of the night. Speak quickly or I shall raise the alarm."

(11:47 am Nov 02, 2008)

"I am from the camp on the other side of the island. I came to town on an errand and I heard you singing."

"Are you a pirate then sir?"

"I mean you no harm."

"Yes, but are you or are you not a pirate sir."

"That I am. May I speak with you further?"

"I should say no," she said, "all the women have been warned to have not dealings with the men of your camp."

Fulcrum smiled and inside his heart rejoiced. Something about the way she said that filled him with hope.

"I have to go now to finish my errand, but if I can, I will come back on the morrow and knock at your shutter again if I may."

"I should say no," she said and closed the view port.

Fulcrum walked to the road his heart full within his breast.

(11:56 am Nov 02, 2008)

(12:23 pm Nov 02, 2008)

I hear that sucking sound gentle reader. Time being pulled somewhere out of this dimension.

Fulcrum made his way back to the other house and around to the door by the oven and knocked. The door opened almost before his hand hit for his second knock. She was waiting for his return then.

"Here, take this back quickly, don't open it and whatever you do, don't let anyone take it from you!"

"I know, I know, it is my very life."

She looked at him with an odd expression and he turned without further comment and headed back to the path to the north shore encampment.

(12:28 pm Nov 02, 2008)

Walking the dark sand path, Fulcrum sang his song again.

It's a pirate that I be
And I sail upon the sea
And the fathers and the mothers
And the brothers of the damsels
They are all afeared of me
Cause when the damsels I do see
And when the damsels they see me
There is no hope left
Their hearts are for my chest
A treasure fair reserved for me

Green eyes lingered in his memory.

He heard something on the trail behind him that made the hairs on his neck tickle but when he turned he saw nothing. He spoke the words soldier crabs and lizards to himself again but he knew he was fooling himself this time. Whatever it was that he had heard had been bigger than that.

(1:13 pm Nov 02, 2008)

He picked up his pace but now he heard noises on both sides of the path behind him and closing. Then he sensed that there must be something or someone ahead as well and so he made a split second decision and plunged off the path into the undergrowth to the left and did his best to increase his pace even more.

He heard some low laughter behind him and tried to break into a semblance of a run in the darkness and the bushes.

Think, think, how could he evade this group? Should he call out? Was he close enough to camp to be heard? Even if they heard, could they get to him in time to help? Were his pursuers from the camp or were they from some other group. Surely they would not be from the settlement?

He didn't like any of his options but he decided to go on the hunt himself instead of remaining the hunted. He drew his cutlass and a dagger and then did something that he knew might mean his life but also might save it.

He put the package he carried in the crook of a high branch and then stooped down to mark the base of the trunk with his dagger and then moved off at right angles to his former direction.

He struck the fronds of a palm tree with his cutlass to make some noise and then moved off quickly about ten yards and crouched down in the shadows near a bush.

Soon, three men he had never seen before showed up at the palm tree that he had struck.

"Anyone hear anything?" one whispered.

The other two shook their heads. "Spread out and lets finish this quickly. We can't let him get back to the camp with that package."

Fulcrum's heart sank. How did they know he had a package. It seemed they must know more than he did about the contents of the package as well.

(1:35 pm Nov 02, 2008)

(2:17 pm Nov 02, 2008)

Ah gentle reader, the joys and the agony of the practicing procrastinator. Shall I blame it on the temporal black hole once again?

Two of the three headed off away from Fulcrum in a vee while the other came almost towards him.

He waited patiently as the man passed within two yards of him and continued on. Fulcrum waited until he was just past him and then rose from his position and clamped his hand over the man's mouth to keep him from crying out as he pulled the blade of his knife across the man's throat. That was the plan at least but just as his knife began its arc, he was struck on the head from behind and lost consciousness.

"Pssssss," a shadowy figure made a noise and then faded into the shadows. It was enough to get the attention of the two who had headed off looking for Fulcrum. They soon appeared on the scene to see Fulcrum on the ground bleeding from his head and their companion on the ground next to him bleeding from a gash in the neck.

(2:28 pm Nov 02, 2008)

"Quick see if either of them are dead and then let's search him for the package."

The other bent down to examine the two men on the ground. "They both seem to be alive but I think Jake may not be long for this world, help me try and stop this bleeding."

"Leave off, we don't have time for that, someone may show up." They searched Fulcrum but found no package.

"Its not here! Wake him up and let's find out where it is!"

They tried but could not revive Fulcrum. They talked things over trying to decide what to do and decided to move their companion away and come back and watch Fulcrum when he awoke to see if they could jump him when he went back to wherever he had left the package.

When the sun began to rise in the morning and Fulcrum still had not come to, they began to regret their decision but decision but they decided to wait things out just a bit longer.

Just a while later, Fulcrum began to come around. He swam up from the darkness and the depths slowly and opened his eyes to a pounding in his head and a wad of cotton and sand in his mouth.

He groaned and rolled on to his stomach and puked on the ground and then was overcome by a wave of dizziness and had to lay his head down on the ground. Lay his face into the pool of hot, acidic puke that had not yet soaked into the sandy ground.

(2:45 pm Nov 02, 2008)

Soon, his head cleared a little and he got unsteadily to his feet. He was disoriented and he looked around trying to figure out where he was. He couldn't get his bearings for a while until he thought to look for the sun and realised that he heard waves on the beach off to his left. He turned and stumbled off in the direction of the beach.

He never thought to check if he was being followed. Luckily, he never thought to search for the package either.

Soon he began climbing the back side of the dune and then he was at the top of the dune looking down on what seemed to be a deserted beach. He was momentarily disoriented again but looking further down the beach, he saw the pirate encampment. He must have gone further off course than he remembered last night while being pursued.

He started down the face of the dune but stumbled and rolled the rest of the way down. At the bottom, he got slowly to his feet and set off in the direction of the camp.

(8:35 pm Nov 02, 2008)

Good evening gentle reader, well, we went out to dinner tonight and since I have been back, I have been deep into the procrastination zone. Time greased up and slipping away into the night.

When Fulcrum reached the camp, the captain was fuming. He glared at Fulcrum and his scowl was fearsome. Fulcrum felt his knees go weak. He was more scared now than he had been the night before in the bushes.

"Fulcrum! Come with me you dog!" The captain turned on his heels and headed down the beach to his tent. Fulcrum followed behind. Was this to be his last day on earth then? He vowed silently to himself that this would not be. He saw again those green, captivating eyes and set his mind to finding salvation for his hide.

The captain lifted the tent flap and stormed inside without looking back. Fulcrum entered behind with some trepidation, "Captain, I.."

"Not a word you dog! Give me my package now or prepare to meet your maker." The captain walked over to his desk and picked up a pistol.

Fulcrum held up his hands, "Captain, I was set upon on the trail back from town with you package. I think I killed one of them before they hit me over the head but I think your package is still safe."

"Well, then, good. Enough delay, give it to me and you may just live to see your next cruise."

"The thing is captain, I don't have it."

"Now lad, don't be playing any games with your captain, give me my package now," growled the captain pointing the pistol towards Fulcrum.

(9:05 pm Nov 02, 2008)

Fulcrum looked around, fear rising quickly in his breast. His eyes searched for some way of escape, "Captain I.."

The captain cocked the trigger on the pistol.

"No, no! Captain! We can get you package! I hid it before I was jumped! We can get it I tell you!"

The captain lowered the pistol and growled. "You hid it you say? Didn't I tell you to protect it with your life? Why would you leave it unprotected?"

"I was being followed by a group of men in the woods. I hid it to protect it from falling into their hands should they prevail against me and then I began hunting them. I saw three of them, I think it was all of them. I didn't recognise any of them from the town."

"OK, then lad, go and get it and bring it to me. Take some extra pistols to be safe."

"Captain, I am not sure I know exactly where I hid it. It was dark and I was confused, shouldn't we send a search party to find it? We could lead an armed party and find it easily."

"No lad, that would not do, to many people for a simple secret to survive. No, you must go and get it yourself."

"Captain, at least you should come with me, surely we would have a better chance of success with more searchers."

"No lad, I am needed here right now, you must go alone and take care. But you must return with my package as it is still your life you protect."

"Yes captain, right away!" said Fulcrum, relief flooding within.

"See the first mare for some extra pistols and shot sir. And Godspeed."

"Yes captain."

Fulcrum turned and went through the flap to the fresh air outside. He hadn't realised how stuff and hot the air in the tent had grown.

(9:25 pm Nov 02, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D01

2008-11-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

(9:26 am Nov 01, 2008)

This book used to sort of start with:

"First words but unfortunately not first light. It started somewhere around 8:50 am this morning but in trying to get leo set up for this years writing, I somehow managed to lose all of my writing so far...

Ouch.

In any case, welcome back, gentle reader, to this year's Nano Novel, "Bits N Pieces."

Welcome back to another voyage of adventure and discovery again this year. Join in as we see what develops and unfolds.

Oh, and the temporal black holes have already poked their ugly heads above the event horizon some how and started sucking time. Sticky strings from some untoward theory latching on to particles of time as they attempt to unfold and draggind them into some dark pit. Some dark pit of no return.

(10:05 am Nov 01, 2008)

Fulcrum Hornigold sat off to himself on the pink beach under the full moon, drinking rum and feeling lonely and reckless.

Down the beach away were large bonfires and other cooking fires around which sat and danced hard men, drunk on hard liquor. Hard men and loose women. Fulcrum was normally to be found in their midst when not out on the sea on a voyage of plunder, but not tonight.

For some reason, tonight was different. He could not put his finger on the reason, but it was there and it prevented him from joining in the reveleries as was his custom.

He sat brooding, staring out to sea as the waves rolled in gently from the Atlantic to break on the pink shore. Something caled to him from the other side of the island. Something, he knew not what. Something... Or was it someone?

(3:16 pm Nov 01, 2008)

Just as he was about to get up and begin a short trek over to the settlement, he heard someone down the beach call out his name.

"Fulcrum. Fulcrum! FULCRUM! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Sighning, he rose unsteadily to his feet and set of towards the voice in the night. A voice that he did not want to hear just now, a voice that it was not wise to ignore though. There went his expedition to the settlement. Fulcrum's heart sank.

Making his way along the water's edge, he stubmled and fell head first into the salty water. Spluttering and coughing, he got to his feet again and made his way onward. The night wind chilling his body as the water evaporated from his wet clothes.

"FULCRUM! GET YOUR SCURVY SELF HERE RIGHT NOW OR I'LL KEEL HAUL YA WHEN I FIND YA!"

"All right captain, I'm on my way," he called out as he neared the fires.

"Where have ya been knave? I've been looking for ya to carry out a little mission for me."

"And what would that be my captain?"

"I ave a little package ere that I want for ya to deliver to Mrs. Thompson over in the settlement for me. And then I want you to wait for a while and see if she has anything to return to me before coming back with a report. Can you do that for me lad?"

Fulcrum's heart soared, hey tried to conceal his joy, "Yes, captain, I think I could manage that," he said unsteadily, "I shall do my best in my presetn condition."

The captain's eyes narrowed and he stared at Fulcrum closely from the dark slits, "In your present condition, is it," he said. "And what might that condition be and is it likely to get in the way of your duties tonight lad?"

"N-n-no. captain. I am just a little tipsy is all, but the cold water has cleared my head some already and I should be just fine. Where is the package captain? And how shall I find Mrs. Thompson?"

"Come with me lad," said the captain and turned and headed off down the beach in the opposite direction from where Fulcrum had been sitting alone. Towards his tent which was pitched against an upturned boat. Fulcrum followed.

They walked in silence until they reached the captain's tent, "wait here lad and I will be right out."

Fulcrum sat on an upturned bucket and waited. He heard the captain rummaging about within the tent and humming a shanty to himself. Fulcrum picked up the tune and hummed along.

Shortly, the flap opened and the captain came back out of the tent and handed Fulcrum a small package wrapped in brown paper and tied with string, "Here you go lad, now, when you get into town, go to the big tree by the dock and then go one block along the shore to the right and you will find a shouse with white shutters. Go around the back and knock three times on the door nearest the oven."

"I think I know the house, then what?"

"When someone answers the door, tell them that you have a package for the mistress of the house and that you need to give it to her personally. Do not give the package into anyone else's hands. Do you understand me lad?"

"Yes captain. And then?"

"Tell her that you are instructed to await her response. She will give you further instructions. Make haste lad and go now."

"Yes captain."

(4:35 pm Nov 01, 2008)

(10:16 pm Nov 01, 2008)

"Oh, and lad..."

"Yes captain?"

"Guard that package and anything given ye to return to me with your life for it is ye very life indeed that ye be guarding?"

Fulcrum's throat went dry, "Y-y-yes captain." He turned and hurried off down the beach until he reached the dune where the trail to the settlement ended.

Back at the fires, a shadowy figure moved swiftly to the rushes at the foot of a dune.

It's a pirate that I be
And I sail upon the sea
And the fathers and the mothers
And the brothers of the damsels
They are all afeared of me
Cause when the damsels I do see
And when the damsels they see me
There is no hope left
Their hearts are for my chest
A treasure fair reserved for me

Fulcrum walked along the sandy path, his head clearing by the minute as he sang his new song under his breath. He kept his right hand on the hilt of his cutlass, wary of the import of the captains words. Did he know or suspect something?

Once in a while he though he heard something rustle behind him and turned quickly to see nothing. He told himself it was just soldier crabs or lizards in the bushes but he could not fully convince himself no matter how sure he tried to sound.

(10:34 pm Nov 01, 2008)

When he reached the settlement, Fulcrum made his way to the tree and then North on the shore road to the Thompson house. The townspeople seemed to have all turned in. Fulcrum laughed to himself thinking them all early to be and early to risers.

He stopped in the shadows across from the house for a while to make sure no one was about or watching him and then crossed the road and slipped through the gate and into the small, neat yard. He mad his way to the back of the house as his captain had instructed and knocked quietly at the door nearest the stone oven in the yard.

He waited for a minute but there was no response so he knocked harder and then put his ear to the door. Soon he heard slippers scrape over the floor within and approach the door. He heard someone moving a latch and stepped back into the shadows.

The door creaked open a crach and a voice called out quietly, "Who's there?"

Fulcrum stepped a bit closer to the door and spoke quietly, "I have something for Mrs. Thompson, can you get her for me?"

"I am Mrs. Thompson," said the voice in the shadows.

Fulcrum stepped close to the crack in the door, "I have something for you from the other shore," he said quietly. He saw her face light up in the lamp light.

"Come in qucikly," she said.

He stepped into the house and she quickly closed the door behind him, "What is it?" she asked excitedly.

He produced the wrapped package.

"Ah," she said, "let me have it."

He handed it over and she moved to the door and opened it a crack again, motioning him to leave."

"Go now and come back in an hour after I have had some time to examine it and decide what to do."

(10:53 pm Nov 01, 2008)

Although the situation confused him some, Fulcrum quickly stepped out of the door and made his way silently out of the yard and back to the tree. He waited for a while but grew restless. he decided to wander around the silent town to pas the time. He should be safe enough now. The townspeople were all most likely asleep and they generally did their best to avoid the pirates anyway. Plus, he no longer had his life with him and so was less likely to lose it by his reconing.

He headed up the hill along the shore road away from the house and then thought better of it and turned back until he reached the tree again and then headed inland this time. No need to push his luck.

Just as he had turned back, a figure had quickly ducked into the bushes at the side of the road and crouched down. He never noticed a thing as he passed withing a foot or two of the figure by the side of the road.

(11:02 pm Nov 01, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, are you still with me? Always nice to have you here. This has been a bit of a difficult starting day. I would have rather made at least four thousand words today and instead it is already after eleven in the evening and I am under half that amount. Not what I would want for a weekend day, but at least finally above the daily quota to reach the fifty thousand by the end of the thirty days. Not great, but not the total disaster yet. Hopefully, things will improve some soon.

I am quite happy with Mr. Fulcrum Hornigold so far though.

There is some party going on tonight in the neighbourhood. The music is loud. It is not music that I dislike mind you, but it is a bit loud for sleeping and that is what I find myself wanting to do right now. Head off to my bed and catch some shut eye and begin again anew in the morning. And you gentle reader? Are you entertaing thoughts of soft pillows now as well?

(11:08 pm Nov 01, 2008)

As Fulcrum walked along a random street, he heard soft singing coming from a house ahead. A beatiful high soprano singing a longing and morneful tune about a love lost at sea. He stopped and listened, enchanted. He sat in the middle of the road and sighed contentedly. His restlessness seeped away.

After the sone ended, she started in on another one, this one even more lovely and plaintive. He felt drawn and almost as if he were being physically pulled to the house. He got to his feet and inched closer to the sound. There was a sliver of light just barely discernable through a minute crack in the wooden shutters on the front porch.

(11:15 pm Nov 01, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel

2008-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

(9:25 am Nov 01, 2008)

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel

Ouch. Already lost a bunch (ok, ok, it was a small bunch) of work and I have to start all over again.

(9:49 am Nov 01, 2008)

Just a bit of house keeping info for you again gentle reader. When you see times in brackets like the one above, they refer to the times the book is being written, not to times in the book itself. Some times, the two times may be the same times, but some times, the two times, will be different times. Time, times, and half?

Nah, nothing so biblical here. At least not yet anyway.