Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 18:29:57 -0800 (PST)
From: rtbrno65@yahoo.com
Subject: After The Move part 3

			     "After The Move"

				    III


Telly sat terrified in his still unfurnished bedroom as darkness enveloped
everything. Some streetlights in front of and behind the house flickered
on. He could hear his parents snoring away in the adjoining bedroom. He
stripped down to his boxers and lay down on the floor and tried to get some
sleep, but needles and pins began pricking him in the back as he lay there.
He also felt like he was being bitten by insects. He decided to try to
masturbate, but his penis shrunk in his hand and tried to retreat into his
pubic cavity as he did so. Eventually he became frustrated and got up. He
climbed the stairs up to the third floor of the house, which was a large,
single room with a high ceiling and a creaky ceiling fan that was whirling
about above. He went to the sliding glass door and stepped out onto the
large balcony.

Outside, all was dark. The plains behind the house all stretched on into
blackness. The path behind the house was illuminated by sodium street lamps
that were placed every couple hundred yards or so. It was because of a
street light nearby that Telly was able to see the man crawling towards the
house on the path.

Telly was looking down over the railing and he saw a long haired, bearded
man crawling along the path. He was moving in a slow and slithering manner
along the ground. Telly thought that he reminded him of Gollum the way he
was moving. He then saw the man look up at where he was standing on the
deck. He then slinked over to where the house was, and to Telly's horror,
he began to shimmy up the drainpipe. Telly quickly ran inside and locked
the sliding glass door. He then remembered that his bedroom window was
unlocked. He began running back down the stairs as he heard the man trying
to open the door. He got into his room and locked the window just as he
heard the man land with a thud on the roof to the dining room that was just
below his window. The man was trying to get the window open as Telly ran
out the room and down the stairs to the first floor to make sure all the
doors were locked. As he went to the sliding door in the dining room and
locked it, a face suddenly appeared in the window.  It was the face of an
infant, except that it was horribly distorted. It looked puffed up and had
huge, bugging eyes. Telly screamed in horror and recoiled away from the
window. Just then his dad appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Telly? What's wrong?"

Telly turned to him in a rage as the hideous looking face continued to
stare into the window.

"What's wrong is that you don't understand me! You never have!" Telly then
went to the front door and he ran full speed out into the
street. Eventually he found his way back to Big Bill's house. By then the
sun was up and the surrounding neighborhood was bathed in sunshine. As he
stood in front of the house, the front door opened. To his pleasant
surprise he saw Catherine emerge from the house carrying a laundry
basket. She stopped in her tracks and stood still while she stared at
Telly.

"Hello Catherine." Telly said after a few seconds. "It is
Catherine. Right?"

"Yeah. It's Catherine. I guess Big Bill told you?"

"Yeah, he told me."

"Well he never could keep his big, fat, stupid mouth shut. You're in my
way."

"Sorry..." Telly said as he moved out of the way.  "So where are you
going?'

"To do the laundry, duh." Catherine said as she walked away. Telly turned
and started following her.

"So where do you do the laundry, Catherine?"

"There's a house over here that no one lives in, and it has a washing
machine and a dryer." Catherine replied.

"So how long have you lived here?"

"Since The Move. Just like you. Just like everybody."

"So where's your family?"

"I don't know. Who cares?"

"I don't really understand what The Move is."

"That's because you're one of The Lost. I can't stand talking to you people
because you're too stupid to realize what's totally obvious."

Catherine then crossed the street and entered a vacant house by it's rear
door, which was unlocked. Telly followed her inside. There was a washer and
dryer sitting in the vacant living room. Catherine opened the lid and began
putting laundry into the washing machine.

"So what is it that's so totally obvious that I'm missing?"

"You woke up today, right?"

"I...I don't know."

"Well you're awake now. Right?"

"Yes...I guess..."

"So why don't you know that you woke up today when you're awake right now?"

"I...I don't know..."

Catherine took a box of Tide that was sitting next to the washing machine
and poured some of the powder into the washing machine. "See? This is why I
can't stand talking to you people. You don't know anything. Even if someone
explained everything to you from the beginning, it would be as though they
were speaking Chinese or something." She then turned on the washing machine
and water could be heard rushing into it.

"I'm sorry...I can't help it..."  Telly said. He was starting to feel one
of his narcoleptic episodes coming.

"Look, do you see that over there?" Catherine said as she pointed behind
him. Telly turned around, and in the floor of the vacant dining room, was a
round opening about the size of a manhole that was filled to the top with
water.

"Yes." Telly said as his eyes blinked open and closed.

"You have to jump into it."

"Why?"

"Ughhh...'why' `why' `why' ! That's all you know how to say!" Just jump
into it. Jump into it now!"

"I'm not jumping in unless I know why!" Telly yelled. He could feel the
attack fully coming in, and the surrounding room was fading into black.

"Goddammit because you have to! Don't worry! It'll take you wherever you
want to go!" Catherine's voice echoed through his head. He then felt her
push him from behind and he plunged into the dark water with a splash.

Less than a second later he was sitting on a front porch facing a deserted
street. The sun was setting in the west and he was sitting on the porch
with several other people. To his left, on the ground by the porch, was a
similar round opening filled with water. He then heard a woman coughing
next to him. He quickly turned and saw Connie Garko sitting by him. She was
sitting on the porch in a pair of jean shorts and t-shirt, smoking a
cigarette.

"Hey Connie." Telly said.

"Oh. Hi Telly. Good to see you again." She said in a heavy New Jersey
accent as she drew on her cigarette again. She was in her early fifties,
blonde, and had freckles all over her face. She, her husband, daughter,
grandson, and son in law had been his next door neighbors once.

"So where's Max?" Telly asked. Max was Connie's husband.

"Who knows? Who cares?" Connie replied. Just then one of the other people
on the porch got up. It was Joey, Connie's four year old grandson. He was
wearing a t-shirt and a dirty pair of underwear.

"Grammy I have to go inside." The boy said.

"Do you have to go potty?" She asked. The boy nodded in affirmation.

"Hi Jo Jo." Telly smiled at the boy with a wave.

"Hi Telly" The boy smiled and waved as he pronounced Telly's name
"Terry". He then turned and rushed into the house. The other two people on
the porch were a woman with black hair who was talking loudly to a bearded
man who bore a striking resemblance to the man whom Telly saw climbing up
the side of his house earlier.

"Who are they?" Telly asked Connie.

"How the hell should I know?" She replied apathetically.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing here."

"If you don't know why you're here then you need to go somewhere else." She
said as she flicked her cigarette out into the road.

"So I need to go back in there?" Telly asked while pointing to the hole ion
the ground with the water.

"You can if you want but I wouldn't. Those water portals are bullshit. They
only take you where you think you want to go. They don`t take you where you
need to be." Connie replied.

"There's a creek out back!" The black haired woman replied loudly as she
got up. "It'll work much better! Come on! I'll show you!" She then grabbed
Telly by his hand and they ran to the back of the house. Behind the house
was a small creek. It was rocky and had an unpleasant smell.

"So what am I supposed to do?"

"Go into the creek and run! Run! Run as fast as you can! When you can't go
any faster, then dive in!"

"But it looks shallow."

"It doesn't matter! As soon as you can run no faster, then dive in! Dive in
head first! Go ! GO! Run!" The woman laughed.

Telly stepped into the creek and started running as fast as he could as the
woman laughed and cheered behind him. All around him were tires, rocks, old
books, bottles, and the odd diaper or two. As soon as he could run no
faster, he dived head first towards a group of rocks.

He then found himself in the hallway of a house. He could smell dinner
cooking in the kitchen. A large Doberman Pinscher came into the hallway,
saw Telly, and turned around and fled in fear. Telly could sense that he
did not belong in this house, and didn't know the people, so he snuck out
of the house as quickly and as quietly as he could.

Outside he found himself on a street. Houses and shops lined both sides
while passerby scurried past him. Cars and a couple of busses lumbered
slowly down the street. He crossed the street and began walking down the
sidewalk towards a group of about ten people who stood watching something
on the sidewalk in a circle. When Telly approached the group, he saw that
they were all surrounding a colorfully dressed man who was selling items
out of a large trunk that he had.  He was a blond man in his twenties,
stocky and slightly overweight with acne and stringy blond hair that went
down just to his shoulders. He was wearing a pork pie hat, a collared
shirt, and a pair of shorts and sneakers, all of which were colorfully
tie-dyed.  He was pulling various items out of his trunk as he spoke to the
crowd in a high pitched carnival huckster- like prattle. The items ranged
from tire irons to cheap perfume to an actual brick of pure gold.

"Ladies and gentleman! I present to you! A bottle of the finest perfume
ever to be produced in Tangiers! A fine gift for your ladies and a pleasant
surprise for your gentleman!" The peddler barked as he held up a small
bottle of perfume with an atomizer attached to it.

"It's piss!" A man in the crowd laughed.

"Au Contraire my good Sir! This is of the rarest and the finest quality! It
was the private stock of an actual Sultan with a harem of twenty! Only this
and this alone, was good enough for his lusty flock! Perhaps it can have
the same effect for you!" The crowd laughed as the peddler held the bottle
out to the man.

"Okay I'll take it. What do you want for it?"

"You may have this as a personal gift from me! Just be aware that I may
require a favor from you in the future!"

"Don't do it!" A black man in the crowd warned.

The peddler scowled as he handed the perfume to the man. "Pay no attention
to my sable friend here! He is still mad about his losses to me in a game
of chance!"

"All of you, walk away now while you still can! You can't trust Tans
Hansell as far as you can throw him! I trusted him once too! Save
yourselves from his web of deceit!" The Black Man shouted to the
crowd. Telly then realized that this was the Tans Hansell that Big Bill had
spoken of. The crowd all smiled at each other and half of them walked off.

"Well thanks a lot! You ruined my sale!" Hansell shouted at The Black Man.

"Don't worry, Tans. You still have all these other pigeons. They're
probably Lost. You can sell them anything, they`re so goddam spaced out and
clueless." The Black Man replied.

Telly looked around him. There were several other men and women besides
himself who had stayed around. They all had blank expressions, a couple
were smiling, and one woman appeared to be having a narcoleptic attack like
the one's he had.

"You, Sir!" Hansell said to Telly with his arms out. "You look as though
you are in need! What is that I can provide for you/ Would you like a
house? Or a car? Perhaps an item or two from my trunk?"

"Oh sure, go for the stupidest looking one." The Black Man said.

"No...I...I... don't really need anything now."

"Oh come come! Everyone needs something! I can provide whatever it is that
you want. Just ask! If it's not in my trunk, I still may be able to
provide!"

"I...I want Catherine to like me..."

"Catherine is a sweet girl! I would like to have her myself! However, she
belongs to Big Bill. They might not be lovers, but they are as tied
together as is possible to be! Catherine does all the chores in that
house. She cares for the children, she does the laundry, she cooks, she
makes sure that Bill always has a cold beer on hand! She will never part
from that! " Tans Hansell replied.

"Hey Man! Did you really just try to get Tans Hansell to pimp for you? "
The Black Man laughed. The rest of the crowd laughed to except for the
woman, who collapsed unconscious onto the pavement.

"You ask me for something that I cannot provide." Tans said.

Telly looked down sadly at the pavement, turned and walked away. As he
walked off he heard Tans coming up behind him.

"Wait! Wait good Sir! "

Telly turned around and saw Tans standing next to him. "Here, take this!"
Hansell then put a small object in his hand about the size of a golf
ball. It was wrapped in wax paper. Telly opened it and saw a burnt,
carbonized object. It looked like a piece of metal that had subjected to
extreme heat.

"What is this?"

"It's what you need. You don't realize it now, but you will." Telly then
watched as Hansell turned around and returned to the crowd, shouting and
pitching like a carnival barker. Telly looked at the peddler , then back
down to the object, which he placed into his pocket. He then turned around
and began walking away in the direction he had been going in before.

He soon got past the buildings and saw that he was in a big traffic
circle. Beyond he could see that all the roadways were choked with cars
that weren't moving. Some of the cars had been abandoned, some on the road
and others off.  People were wondering around in a daze. It was then that
he realized that he had to walk home. He turned in the direction of where
he was pretty sure his neighborhood was, and started threading his way
through the abandoned cars and the dazed passerby.


				End Of III