pseudomnomnom
The line held and I rappelled down the side of the cliff to safety. Relative safety, anyway. Jenny, my ex, was holding my line.
"There is none in this place," the Master said.
"No belief?"
"None. There is only empiricism. Now fetch me a beaker — we're going to distill the world."
The small child's eyes grew in wonder as she watched me work. I'd been entrusted with the small girl only a few days ago, and this was the first night she'd been able to stay up long enough to see me do my job.
"What is that one called, Grandmother?"
I smiled. She called me Grandmother despite the fact that I was probably ten times the age of her real grandmother.
"That is Ursa Major," I said, as one by one I put the stars in the sky.
"Wanted for Littering"
"Wanted for Dumping - $5000 reward"
"Wanted for illegal possession of a fuel-powered vehicle"
I am staring at the figured bass line in front of me. The dreaded 'click' sounds in my headphones, meaning the professor is now listening to MY keyboard. And I have no idea what I'm doing.
"Sharp... Diminished seventh chord?"
"We're in a major key."
...
Fuck.
"You'll find you don't need a wand, once you get more training."
"Training?" I said, dragging my eyes away from the peeled-white branch of willow.
"Yes, training. All witches need training."
"Oh?" I breathed, and I turned by attention back to the branch, which shone unnaturally in the moonlight. I grinned. "Well, I'll consider it, I suppose."
"Wagner was AHB-SESSED with Beethoven's 9th Symphony. AHB-SESSED."
"Anybody else notice the weird way this lecturer pronounces things?" I muttered to my friend.
"What?" she said in a frenzy of note-taking.
"Nevermind."
"The Gesamtkunstwerk was Wagner's GRRRHHH-EATest quest."
"It's only the new style, Mum," my daughter wheezed with a counter-intuitive grin on her face. "As tight as you can for as long as you can."
The scarf she wore was orange. The purple bruises stood out clearly on her olive-skinned neck.
"I don't like it," I said.
"D'uh, Mum, chill. That's the point. That's always the point."
"Ah."
She coughed wretchedly and grinned again.
"'Kay there's a bonfire tonight," she said. "I'll be home late."
"Where's the bonfire?"
"Near the oil refinery."
"...Ah."
Mother nature is a giant. And a mother.
When the world sleeps, she cleans the house. Rips up a tree and shakes off the snow, then dances around her world until all the dust is swept away to the desert. Before the sun rises she puts the tree back and shrinks back to the size of an acorn.
The cats circled the toy-poodle ominously. Mr. Twinkle-Paws came up directly behind the puffy dog's ear and hissed, making the dog jump.
Twinkle, leader of indoor-cats, tossed a bright red bow and an embroidered doggy sweater at his right-hand man, Napoleon Bonameow.
"Make an example of him," Twinkle said.
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