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Reunion |
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TEHUTI'S PER ON THE WEB NOTE: UPDATE--seeing as I have just located the existing text of Scorpio, I amend my statements below, and believe that this text is in fact Reunion--just with a date different from the one given on the timeline. I leave my erroneous statements as they have some background explanation in them.
Original intro follows: I believe this may be the original existing text of the D Is For Damien novel Scorpio, which was twelfth in the series. However, it could instead be from Reunion, ninth in the series; I lean toward the former only because this story is taking place in October and Scorpio takes place in that month, whereas the newest version of my series timeline has Reunion taking place in September. This timeline is relatively new though, and might not have applied back then. I remember writing this but can't be sure which story it belongs with, as I got through only one page. It's on a loose page that was found in the company of the five-subject notebook that contains the original drafts of Sidekicks and Lucifer and various other items, but it is not from the same notebook. Throwing doubt on this being from Scorpio is the fact that I seem to remember my skinhead character, Nobby Botnick, playing a big role in the plot of Reunion, and there's a jotted note included with this chapter which mentions him; also, I remember starting Scorpio elsewhere and it was much different--but perhaps there were just two versions...? The visit to the US Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw is a reference to the annual occurrence of the icebreaker being turned into a floating haunted ship for Halloween. (I heard that October 2005 was the last time that would happen on the old ship, but can't confirm this. Wikipedia mentions the original Mackinaw being decommissioned and turned into a museum in 2006, which fits, but I can't find any reference to it being turned into a haunted ship each Halloween, or if they do the same with the new one. This is weird to me, as I remember visiting it once! There was a beam of light pointing up from it into the sky, thus inspiring this chapter; the cans referred to were canned food donations.) These two novels take place between 1992-93, but I can't positively place the date of the writing at that time, seeing as I often begin novels way after their date of occurrence. The Haunted Ship ON THE COLD, Thursday October night, living rooms were empty. Cars were abandoned on sidestreet shoulders while droves of people walked across town, cans in hand, following the droning of horrid music and the faint, eerie trail of light in the sky. Among the people went a group of four--two women, two men--the tallest of them, oddly-clad in a wide-brimmed hat, high lace-up boots and a trench coat, carrying their cans. The shorter black man held a flashlight which he continuously stuck in his mouth to make his cheeks glow while the others laughed. "For goodness' sakes [sic], Skeet, cut it out already," the black woman said, exasperated. [Per Note: Some confusion here as my characters are anthro. Skeet is a canine and is indeed African-American, i. e., Black. Katrina, however, is not--she's simply a black cat. I'm unfortunately mixing up two very different descriptors, Black as a race, and black as a fur color. In my newest writing--excluding the Trench Rats material--I've adapted my anthro characters to be human, so make no reference to fur color.] The coed walking at her side giggled. "Yeah, Skeet, 'fore I bust a lung." "What are we going to see?" the can-carrier asked, turning. Skeet Newkins dodged about in front of him, shining the light upon his face so he looked like some weird voodoo witch-doctor. "We's goin' to see the icebreaker Mackinaw and get our pants scared off!" [Per Note: No racism was intended here, though I see in retrospect how it could be construed that way. The dialect, especially, is horrible and stereotyped.] "I hear it's really good," the black woman commented. "So'd I," the other added. "Y'know Kat, I wonder if--" "Is that it?" the can-carrier, Yoopy Irvins, asked, nodding in the general direction of the wailing music. "Should be," [Per Note: In addition there is a scribbled note below this text:] "God," Skeet said with awe, watching him walk away. "He's a Skinhead." [Per Note: This is in reference to Nobby Botnick. He's a skinhead, but I don't think he's a Skinhead. I can't really remember, though.] |