Chapter 15
What Is An Oroborous But Biting One's Own Tail?
The storm had picked up strength now in the grey of afternoon and the company in the parlor could hear the wind whipping the trees outside and sending gusts howling down the chimney. The massive fireplace logs which made up the fire weathered this assault and burned steadily on, albeit with occasional flare-ups of wind-induced fireworks.
Jack stared hard into the leaping flames and at last began his tale.
'My Uncle Daryl knew the man who was after you and Alice at the theatre. They met many years back at college. The man's name was John Flubber.'
'Actually...'Aleister roused himself at last, feeling more
comfortable around Emmeline without her rebar in hand no doubt, '...believe it or not, his family name was Flaubert.
His ancestor who immigrated from France had changed it, Americanized it as many of our emmigre' relations did back then, to Flubber. Rather an odd move.'
Jack actually smiled then. 'Yes. I had a college pal whose family was from Italy. His ancestor changed a perfectly nice Fellini into Fellin once he gained this shore. 'Felon', is rather a step down from Fellini, over here...but I digress.'
He stood then and wandered somewhat about the parlor, eventually homing in on the cognac again. He held the decanter out toward the party, eyebrows raised. 'Why not, Jack...'Aleister gave in, not a trial for him. 'Alice?'
'Perhaps just a wee tot,'Alice stared at the floor, pensively.
Where was all this going, she wondered? So much of the past now coming to light. She wasn't sure she wanted this. No, not sure at all.
'...Emmeline?' Jack enquired, not looking at her.
'A very small drop, perhaps, Jack, thanks.' Em felt sure that at last, some definate answers were forthcoming as to the mysterious circumstances in which they now found themselves, so far and away from all that was familiar. Or sane.Although she rarely partook of strong spirits, and certainly not in early afternoon;she felt that, much like when St. Bernards rescue a snowbound traveler with a bracing shot of brandy, so she too seemed to be waking up in an odd sort of way due to smoothly smoldering firewater.
Handing glasses all round, Jack remained standing at the mantle, gazing into the fire. 'Anyway. And yes, Aleister knew them both, at school then.'
'I was but a Freshie, while they were the BMOCs and Seniors, of course,'Aleister admitted. 'But, as Flubber was in science and engineering, I followed his work with enthusiasm, back then.' He took a hefty sip.
'And what did your Uncle Daryl major in, then?' Emmeline enquired, hoping to keep this disclosure going.
'Drama!' Jack looked out the windows at the storm. 'Oh, yes. Alot of it. He was an actor and playwright. All this...'he gestured around them, '...the spoils of his efforts on and about the stage. Oh, he was a success. In some areas.' Jack began to pace about the room, holding his glass tightly. 'So, it would seem at first, that those two would be unlikely to meet and become close, with such divergent interests. But they both had one thing in common, and later, something else, which brought them together and finally split them apart...' He stopped at the French doors and gazed out at the treetops swaying in the gloom.
'Those two were latter-day...alchemists, I guess you would say. Daryl was an amateur magician and loved to put some of his tricks into his plays, which was behind his success later.
John bethought himself a rennaisance man and that alchemy was simply a necessary part of being someone posessing the Wisdom of the Ages...' Jack took a drink and continued.
'Anyway, once Daryl witnessed some of John's engineering feats, he convinced him to help him rig some rather amazing magic tricks that were pretty spectacular, I gather...'
Aleister made some noises somewhere in between a snort and a laugh and a coughing fit. 'Oh, spectacular doesn't begin to cover it. They kept the fire department rather busy, let us say...They gave the saying 'brought the house down' a near
literal meaning.'
'Yes. Well, you would know, Al.' Jack started pacing again. Was there some hidden animosity betwixt Jack and Aleister, Em wondered?
Jack sighed, and continued,raking a hand through his hair, 'So. While John studied some of the more obscure areas of scientific study, encluding researching Dr. Stein's and your father's notes and findings, Uncle Daryl decided he was going to study Real Magic. And not just stage maneuvers.'
Jack stopped pacing. 'And here is where the trouble began. Of course.' He sat down next to Emmeline then. 'Somehow...between the two of them, they managed to create a new timeline. What we now call the Null Zone. It's...a field outside of Time, proper. It's not a parallel reality, it's some Where different. And one can act upon it, while within it, and so effect changes in the present, the past and, even in the future.'
Aleister cleared his throat then,'This was an outgrowth of your own father's research, Emmeline. I...I'm not sure how much you know of your father's, work...but, my dear...he was desperate to somehow--'un-do' the past, and to change the tragic events that led to your mother's death.'
Emmeline looked at him. 'I suspected as much. I suppose you know that I was in the carriage with her, during the accident that took her life. I was just 11 at the time...I know, he was simply not the same man without her, to put it mildly...He had a breakdown of sorts, then.'
Jack reached out and touched her shoulder in sympathy. 'He must have loved her dearly.' Em nodded, looking into her brandy glass.Jack continued, softly, 'Well, whatever drove him on, it paved the way for our own work which came later. He never did succeed in finding a way to act upon the past. But we did. And, we are hoping, that in so doing, we will affect the future as well.'
Alice spoke up then. 'I often thought Frank was playing with fire, in all that...' Just then, a spark popped out of the logs and dashed against the firescreen sending small showers of sparks into the air, with hint of traces. The company looked at one another then.
Emmeline pressed on,'You mentioned something that eventually drove Flubber and your uncle apart, Jack?'
'Yes.' He took a sip of cognac. 'A woman.'
'Ah.'Emmeline was intrigued. Wasn't it always?
Aleister spoke up then,'Morgana Carlysle.' His eyes took on a dreamy gaze into the past then,'A gorgeous redhead, much like our Em here,'he ventured back into his old rascally persona then, and continued,'An actress, of course, and she was paired with Daryl in several of his productions,naturally. He made sure of that! He wanted to be her leading man both on and off stage, though. He was not so victorious in his off-stage pursuit of her many charms. There were not a few rivals for the fair Morgana...'
'...and I assume, one of whom was Mr. Flubber?'Em could see where this was heading. She thought.
'Oh yes. But, what Daryl didn't realize, at least, not at first, was that in his own quiet way--well, 'quiet' compared to Daryl's flashy persona--John was also intent upon Morgana.
Rather more so. Obsessed, you might say.'
'Oh, dear,'Emmeline felt a hint of dismay upon this revelation.
Jack continued tentatively on,'John had been pursuing Morgana even while she was treading the boards with Daryl. Of course they knew about each other's interest in her, but well, John was becoming rather...unstable. He had been experimenting with the new timeline, and using himself as test subject. Not, as it turned out, a very sound idea.' Jack sighed heavily. 'Anyway, one night, he'd brought Morgana into the lab he kept in the basement of the old house that he rented with several other grad students. He had shared some of what he'd been working on with her. In fact, only she and Daryl knew about John's timewalks. But he'd convinced her that the timeline was perfectly safe. He'd done it, and he'd made it back fine, hadn't he? and all that...well, anyway, he told her he would take her to Paris. In the 1800's.'
Alice smiled ruefully. 'I've heard something of the same line myself.'
Aleister looked over at her. 'Not something many girls can admit, either then or now, my dear Alice.' His tone was concerned, though.
Jack had put his glass down and had leaned over, elbows on knees, staring at nothing, seemingly. Emmeline prodded with,
'And then what happened, Jack?'
'Morgana went with John, timewalking.' He finished the liquor in his glass and set it down at last. 'She never returned.'
Emmeline looked at him, reaching out she touched his arm gently. 'Oh, my...do you know, what became of her?'
Jack actually laughed, a little. 'Yes! Actually! According to Flubber, they made it to the Paris Opera House, in 1869. For a production of Mozart's Magic Flute. It was a full house. Morgana was thrilled, delighted, exultant! She felt she was in her element, at last!' Jack looked at Emmeline. 'She slipped away from Flubber, and ran off. He never was able to locate her. Now or then.'
'Oh, Jack! So, is she, still there, do you think?'Emmeline could only imagine the whole scene...the beauteous redhead intent on her own thrilling escapade;how well she understood what must have posessed this woman of the future...people never really change, fundamentally, throughout the many ages. Em decided then and there that she had found a sister under the skin, indeed, in Morgana. She had escaped her time-traveling-obsessed, meddlers-cum-suitors to pursue her own line of adventure. She was free of them all. Still!
Jack sighed. 'Who knows? No one does. One may assume, that she is.' He leaned his head in his hands and raked back his hair in characteristic gesture, then sat back on the sofa cushions.
'Naturally, when John had to finally give up and return to his present time, without Morgana, all hell eventually broke loose! He couldn't, of course, make his time-walking publically known. Morgana had 'gone missing'. John and Daryl were suspect, of course. But Daryl was at a play of his that night, which had given John free rein to do as he would with Morgana, knowing his rival was erstwhile occupied. Although there was no evidence, and no proof that could be brought against John as having anything to do with her disappearance,
popular opinion was against him and it created a permanent stain on his character. He no longer was given grants, and later he left the college in disgrace, and went underground. Daryl of course was furious, enraged, and I believe, even tried to well...put an end to him. Suffice it to say, they went their separate ways, my Uncle Daryl went on to success as actor and playwright, and Flubber, into obscurity, and madness.'
All was quiet then, until Aleister bestirred himself to enquire of Jack, 'Don't you have that old scrapbook of Daryl's still?'he turned to the ladies. 'There's some photos of Morgana, with Daryl. Possibly John as well...'
Jack went to the secretary desk in the corner and rummaged about the lower drawers, at last drawing forth a large book with papers protruding from the edges. This he took to the sofa and sitting between Alice and Emmeline, opened the book to a playbill
pasted within. A photo of a tall, angular man who did in fact resemble Jack, next to a lovely woman with long titian tresses, were billed as 'Daryl Van Horn and Morgana Carlysle as Nick and Margueritte in Van Horn's "Fallen Angels", at the Orpheum Theatre'
'Oh, Jack,'Emmeline's curiousity was peaked, '...you do favor your uncle, somewhat! And, yes, Morgana is indeed a beauty. It's easy to see how she inspired such passions in men, at least...may we--?'
'Of course,'Jack turned the pages and they perused the past in poster-form. 'There are few actual photographs,'Jack said,'Daryl seemed to favor collecting only the playbills from his productions...
although...yes, here's one of Daryl and John, this was when they were still working together on Daryl's magic act.' Jack pointed out a DIY flyer. 'Gods...I never really noticed this one before. Rather prophetic, as it turned out...' The bill announed 'Magic and Mystery of the Enigmatic East! Maestro Van Horn will amaze and amuse with feats of fantasia--witness the Incredible Disappearing Woman!'
'Oh, my.'Emmeline looked at Jack and Alice. 'This was just an act, then, wasn't it?'
'Yes, yes, had to be,'Jack frowned at the poster,with a photo which although rather small, showed a man on either side of the trim figure of a woman with two Tesla coils flanking the stage. 'The Tesla coils were just for show of course. I'm sure the 'disappearance' was due to some boxlike contraption with a false floor. Bloody Daryl...' Jack shut the book and stood up, stuffing it back in the drawer.
The afternoon had worn on into encroaching twilight and the storm had died down somewhat. The winds no longer raged, but dark clouds were amassed still in a portiere against the remaining light. Hence, what had begun as an afternoon's intrepid congress had now become the evening's enterprise.
The company was feeling rather somber and sober, despite the copious cognac conferred upon all by then. Such a tale indeed!...a cautionary one, perhaps...
'So...this John Flubber, is the same person who is now, interested in Alice and myself then, Jack?'Emmeline grasped that much of the situation rightly.
'He is John Flubber no more, however.' Jack made a sour face.
'He calls himself 'El Juan Flubber'--he has delusions of grandeur, and, well, simply delusions in general! There is nothing left of the earnest young engineering student.
'I'm afraid Jack has the right of it there,'Aleister added.
'But we needn't fear his reach here. This is the one place that he cannot approach. Daryl Van Horn made sure of that.'
'Oh?'Emmeline asked,'How so Jack? Is the property encircled by some futuristic weapons of defense?'
Jack regarded her silently for a moment. 'Oh, no Emmeline.' he said, 'Futuristic, not at all. Our borders are defended by something well understood in the past, much more so than nowadays. We are protected here, by Magick.'
. . . . .
don't want a dollar
don't you give me no dime
all i want is
you bring back
that lil girl of mine...
i can't let her go
lord no i can't let her go
won't somebody please help me find her
i can't let her go...
greg allman
high water risin risin nite & day
all the gold and silver been stolen away
dance with who they tell you to
or you don't dance at all
it's tough out there
high water everywhere
i'm no pig without a wig
i hope you treat me kindi
it's breakin up out there
high water 'everywhere'
i'm preachin the word of god
while puttin out your eyes
thunder over Clarksdale
everything electric blue
i just can't be happy lord unless
you're happy too
it's tough out there...
high water everywhere.
bob dylan high water
you gotta fan it and cool it
honey til the cows come home...
--wille & the wheel
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