the adventures of yeti - 23. the castle

by bofa xesjum

part twenty-three of ?

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to begin at the beginning, click here

a dreary evening in the castle, with a storm raging outside. it had been raining through the evening, and if the travelers who had taken shelter were to be believed, snow was approaching from the south. the five travelers had arrived earlier, and the countess had thought they might provide her with some amusement, but they had all pleaded weariness, and the ever gracious countess had allowed them to retire . there had been four men - one good looking young man, one surly brute, two taciturn nonentities - and a young woman who had seemed the least sociable of the lot. the fire crackled in the grate. the countess yawned. she was almost tempted to go to bed herself. forbes, the butler, appeared. dr edwardstein is here, madam. does he have anyone with him? you know how fond he is of picking up strays on the highway, especially on rainy and stormy nights. he does have a young man with him, madam. one i do not recall ever seeing before, though of course i can not be positive, with madam being such a welcoming hostess and allowing all manner of human and beast into her most gracious presence. yes, show him in. i just hope he is not expecting any scintillating conversation or entertainment. forbes laughed softly. perhaps he thinks dr franklinstein is here - or is expecting him to show up later. who knows? in any case, show eddie and his friend in. forbes departed, and a minute later dr edwardstein and yeti entered. yeti was impressed with the countess’s drawing room, as he had been impressed with the castle and everything he had seen in and around it since dr edwardstein had first approached it in his pickup truck. who’s your friend? the countess asked dr edwardstein. the doctor turned to yeti. what did you say your name was again? yeti. yes, of course. the doctor turned back to the countess, nodded, and headed toward a chair near the fireplace. i was singing the praises of your pastry cook to my young friend here, the doctor announced as he settled into the chair. i hope we are not too late to sample some of his creations. it is never early or late here in the castle, eddie, you know that. actually, i had some unexpected guests earlier tonight and they made short work of alexander’s apple strudel, but i am sure he would be honored to whip you up another batch. that would be very nice, the doctor replied. and some coffee, perhaps…. i am still feeling a bit chilled. of course. and how about you, young man, does apple strudel suit you? and some coffee? and, please, be seated. we are all friends here. yes, yes, thank you, yeti managed to say. he looked around for the smallest, most uncomfortable chair he could find, and sat down slowly in it. his clothes were still a little wet, but nobody seemed to mind. the countess rang a little bell on the table beside her thronelike chair. forbes reappeared and took the order for strudel and coffee. i don’t see any guests, dr edwardstein said to the countess, after forbes left. and i don’t see frank. i take it he is not here. no, he is not. we had a carful of stranded travelers earlier, but they all pleased exhaustion, and preferred the company of morpheus to mine. ah. but they enjoyed alexander’s apple strudel. so it seemed. the apple strudel gave me nightmares, a voice behind them said. or something did. a young woman, the only female from the group of five stranded travelers, appeared, and took a seat. i am sorry to hear that, the countess replied. perhaps some coffee will clear your head. maybe. thank you. the young woman yawned. what did you say your name was? the countess asked her. cleo. cleo brown. miss brown to you. yes, of course. tell me, miss brown, do you expect your friends to awake any time soon? i really couldn’t say. they are not exactly my friends. three of them are my associates, i wouldn’t call them friends. they are not likely to wake up. the other one, the mug who looked like a strikebreaker, we just picked him up on the road , i don’t know anything about him. i see. you know, miss brown, i am not making any demand, but it is the custom in these parts for travelers to attempt to repay the hospitality of their hosts by telling a story, if they can, especially on stormy nights such as this. you want me to tell you a story? miss brown answered. sure, i’ll tell you a story. i’ll tell you the story of my nightmare. the countess smiled. i am sure it will be most interesting. 24. cleo's tale

the adventures of yeti - 22. another scientist, another universe

by bofa xesjum

part twenty-two of ?

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to begin at the beginning, click here

the driver of the pickup truck was wearing a straw hat of a type that yeti had never seen except in cartoons and old movies, on farmers. “are you a farmer?” yeti asked hi. “no, i am not,” the man answered. “what are you, then,” yeti persisted, “if it is not too rude to ask.” “i am a scientist.” “a scientist! i seem to be meeting a lot of scientists lately.” the driver nodded, but did not answer. the rain seemed to have let up but but the fog increased. they passed no lights either on the road or on the sides of the road, and it was hard to see anything else n the fog, but the driver kept straight ahead without changing speed. “what kind of a scientist are you?” yeti asked. “the kind that goes his own way,” the driver responded immediately. “the kind that cares nothing for so-called received wisdom, that believes nothing simply because the graybeards in the scientific establishment have declared it to be so since time immemorial.” “oh.” yeti considered this. “do you have a laboratory, a secret laboratory perhaps, located deep in the woods?” “i have no laboratory at all, young man, unless you count the laboratory in my head.” “so then i guess you are not a mad scientist.” “ha, ha! not at all, young man! i glory in the name of mad scientist! if the name is a finger in the eye of the pompous baboons and and cowardly lizards on the royal scientific committees! ha ha!” “i only asked,” yeti said, “because i seen to have run unto quite a few mad scientists lately. i was purchased by a mad scientist as soon as i landed on this planet, then helped to escape by another fellow who claimed to have been trained by the mad scientist, and who rather implied that he had been one himself. if i understood him correctly. and now, only hours later, i meet you. that seems like quite a few mad scientists, considering that i never met a single one on my home planet. are there a lot of mad scientists on this planet?” this was quite a long speech for yeti, who was usually a creature of few words, and he fell back against the back of the cab, and closed his eyes. “i do not know about your planet,” he heard the driver’s voice, “ but there are infinite universes, and in this one there are infinite mad scientists, just as there are infinite sand beetles, and grains of sand.” “of course,” said yeti, “what was ii thinking?” “what is your name, by the way?” the driver asked . “yeti. what is yours?” “my name is doctor edwardstein, but my friends call me eddie.” “may i call you eddie?” “of course not. you are not my friend. i just met you, i do not even know you.” “i am sorry, doctor, i do not know what came over me.” “that is all right, people from different universes have different little ways. tell me, are you hungry?” “yes, very!” yeti liked the turn the conversation was taking. “i thought i might stop at my friend the countess’s. she lives in a haunted castle just up ahead. her pastry cooks have usually whipped up something tasty at this time of night. would you care to join me in calling on her?” “yes, i would be honored,” yeti replied eagerly. 23. the castle

Her Own

Her only two wishes were peace on earth and to die on her own tanning bed.

the adventures of yeti - 21. another highway, another ride

by bofa xesjum

part twenty-one of ?

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to begin at the beginning, click here

things never change, doctor manichee repeated. take me, for example. when you look at me, what do you see? why, daniel replied carefully, you seem to be a scientist of some sort. or a medical man engaged in research. very good. i am indeed a scientist, but what kind of a scientist, exactly, eh? what kind of a scientist do you think an an ordinary citizen, the so-called man in the street, would take me for? well, sir, daniel answered, since you are doing your business in the basement of an abandoned building in the woods, they would probably think you were a mad scientist. ha ha, very good, very good. i see you have a head on your broad shoulders, young fellow, and a brain inside that head. now tell me, what do mad scientists do , eh? what are they about? daniel felt pretty sure he knew what answer the doctor wanted, so he replied politely, they make monsters. exactly! they - we - seek to create life - what the man in the street calls monsters. now do you realize what i meant when i said things never change? not exactly, sir. because so called mad scientists like myself have been engaged in this great enterprise since the dawn of time! daniel replied diplomatically, i am sure you are making great progress, sir. employing one of his favorite phrases from the debating team, he added, rome wasn’t built in a day. just as the thin man reached this point in his narrative, he and yeti reached the end of the road they had been walking down and reached the broad highway. despite the lateness of the hour, big rigs, and a few smaller vehicles, were rolling along. a light rain began to fall. “maybe someone will give us a lift,” yeti said hopefully. “a bus would be our best bet.” the skinny man replied. “as for myself, i no longer solicit or accept rides from strangers. you, however, may do as you please. “ “i am afraid i do not have any money for bus fare,” yeti observed. “nor do i,” the skinny man, “but i would flag one down all the same, and throw myself on the mercy of the driver. or, one of the passengers might take pity on me, and pay my fare. you never know. hope springs eternal, and all that. look how hopeless our own case was, just an hour ago.” yeti thought this view a bit optimistic. aloud he said, “at least we are out of the truck, and free as birds.” “oh, yes, the birds. the beautiful, free birds.” they began walking along the side of the road. the skinny man seemed to have forgotten, or lost interest, in his story, and yeti did not press him to continue it. the rain continued to come down, not heavily, but after ten minutes of trudging they were both pretty wet. finally a pickup truck came up beside them and stopped. the driver leaned across and rolled down his window. “give you fellows a lift?” he asked. his features could not be made out in the darkness. he had thick glasses, and a farmerish drawl. “no thank you,’ the skinny man replied. “i am enjoying my evening stroll. i can not speak for my companion here.” “i would gratefully accept your offer,” yeti quickly said. “then hop in.” the skinny man watched as the pickup disappeared into the rain and fog. he shook his head. “when will they ever learn?” 22. another scientist, another universe

the adventures of yeti - 20. the old dawkins place

by bofa xesjum

part twenty of ?

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to begin at the beginning, click here

trixie guided the canoe to the far shore, and landed it on a little stretch of sand and weeds. daniel could see, through the trees, an old house which he assumed was the old dawkins place. there were no lights in it that he could see. he saw a broken window, and thought there must be more. is that the old dawkins place? he asked. yes, it is. trixie got out the canoe and daniel stood up to follow her. is it where we are going? he asked. he expected some kind of sarcastic answer, but she just said, yes, it is. there are no lights. there is a basement. that’s where we are going. oh. doctor manichee watched on his screen as trixie led daniel up the little patch of beach and through the footpath to the front door. deep as he was in the basement, he could hear the creak of the door overhead as trixie opened it and led daniel inside. the doctor had trained trixie to bring him acceptable specimens for his infernal experiments, but his brief glance at daniel made him think that here might be an opportunity for something a bit more. doctor manichee had sometimes, in odd moments, thought of training a successor, someone who could carry on his work in the unfortunate event that he should be prevented from finishing it himself. the doctor was no sentimentalist, and would never have thought of a successor as being “like a son” to him. and yet, something about daniel reminded him of his younger self… now he heard trixie and daniel descending the stairs to the basement and saw a glimmering of trixie’s flashlight on the wall. now he would get a proper look at this strapping fellow… he clicked the screen off as trixie and daniel entered , causing the basement to become completely dark. should i turn the light on? trixie asked. please do, the doctor told her. he stood up. trixie flipped the switch beside the entrance and the basement was lit up like times square celebrating the end of a war, blinding daniel. when daniel could focus his eyes, his first thought was that he was in a combination of an intergalactic war room and a morgue. the wall behind the doctor was covered with tv monitors. the walls to the left and right were filled with horizontal rectangular drawers that he had seen in a thousand tv cop shows - all large enough to hold bodies. visible directly behind the doctor’s desk was a spotlessly white operating table, with trays of sharply glittering instruments beside it. but what daniel most clearly registered was the doctor himself, who had stood up behind his desk to greet him. the doctor was small and stooped, with thick glasses almost covering his face, and wearing a cheap brown suit with a green tie knotted tightly over a blue pinstriped shirt. even so , there was no mistaking him…. he was satan’s twin brother! good evening, young man, the doctor addressed daniel in a soft but clear voice. i am honored that you have chosen to visit me. good evening to you, sir, daniel managed to answer. i do not believe we have met, the doctor continued. no, but i, i have been here before, daniel, recovering his composure, said. when it was the old dawkins place. oh, but it is still the old dawkins place, is it not? the doctor answered with a little smile. things do not change. do they, trixie? no, they never do, trixie answered from behind daniel’s back. that is what i am all about, as you young people say in today’s world, the doctor told daniel. things not changing. never changing at all. daniel nodded politely. 21. another highway, another ride