Author: Desiree

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Fiction

For the Horde: End Times

02: End Times

I wish I could remember what I did that caused my Nana to smerk and pronounce, “You’ll be the cause of the End Times, child.” What ever it was, she enjoyed it. Perhaps this is why I have never feared the End Times. Maybe it is why I am determined to laugh through them. Anything to make Nana smile. Nana was not the only person to predict my dark destiny. I was told so often that my actions would bring about the apocalypse it became inevitable. You know when you say a word over and over until it loses all meaning? You wear out the concept of it in your mind. I took the stretched out, shapeless concept and wrapped it around me like a comfortable hug from my Nana.

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Fiction

For the Horde: An End in the Beginning

O1 An End in the Beginning

Mar 12, 1945- France

Hello John:

 I just received two letters from you dated Feb 8 & Jan 10 and am always glad to hear from you. I’m glad that you enjoyed the magazines & Mien Kampf. I thought that you’d get a kick out of them. It isn’t very hard to get hold of a Nazi Bible, most every family was almost forced to purchase a copy. The one I sent was taken from a school house. We set up a C.P. in a small town and took over. There were many books and about ninety percent were recent publications in the true Nazi fashion- each pertaining to the manufacture of some product vital to the war machine.

 The people are like the weather- just as soon as they know the Germans are out they start to defame them to us. What a business!!

 I received several news paper clippings about the Fitzpatrick case but haven’t heard anything since. I was surprised to hear that you had to close the bath. I think that’s the first- at least in my time. Well the winter is over and lets hope the war will finish in the same manner.

 Well John that’s about all there is for today but don’t worry I’ll write again soon.

 Always,

 Tommy

We found the letter inside the 1938 Volksausgabe (People’s Edition) of Mein Kampf. There are three reasons books end up in a locked case or the Rare Book Room: price point, rarity, and size. The unofficial reason is booksellers cannot find a shelf on which it is appropriate to display a book. Not for personal reasons, but logistical ones. Shelving is not just about the alphabet, it’s about what a reader is searching for. This is why even the Great-and-Mighty Amazon opened brick and mortar stores. It’s about the search and those who are searching. It’s why Amazon is unsatisfying for booklovers. Don’t hate the truth, Bezos. (Bezos doesn’t care. He was never in it for the books, he was in it for the business. He is a successful business man. He’s a shit dragon.) Dragons are in it for the books, for the hoard, for their horde (if they have one). Hoards are organized for seekers. That’s how you know it’s a proper hoard.

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Fiction

The Grumpy Mermaid

Fae-Kin Legends: The Grumpy Mermaid

Origin: Sunflower Court during the third reign of Titania VI. The great bard Robin and his troupe included a legend titled ‘Unsatisfied Underfish’ in their Summer Solstice program as early as Titania VI’s first reign, however the records were destroyed in the Great Fire at Alexandria and the back-up files during the burning flood at the Arden Forest Archives later that year. The oral tradition was passed through the Fae-Kin tribes of Atlantis, and nearly all the Maui-sects of the Pacific region. A version of this legend can be found in human fairy tale collections generally titled ‘The Little Mermaid.’

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Fiction

CU42

The first thing they did was sound proof the Observation Module. Even babies with astronomical IQs are still babies. Babies cry, a lot. Dr. Johnson, the childless child psychologist who identified the ‘Johnson Quotient’, designed the enclosure. It was all clean lines and glass, not quite monochromatic but close enough for discomfort. If it were not for the location, it would be unfit for human habitation. However it was located the northeast corner of the last nature preserve. The last 300 square miles of unspoiled terrain left on the planet. The need for isolation made the location ideal. The location made the dome idyllic. A small number of staff would live on site for the duration of the experiment. Their living quarters were in the Observation Module. While Dr.Johnson’s design was ascetically pleasing, it was acoustically a terrible choice for housing 50 babies.

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Fiction

Princess in a tower

They always arrive in groups at solstice. Five or more at a time. One year, the solstice brought 16. It was good for the economy. Her uncle was right on that account. She had counted 8 banners over two days. It took them two more days to get their camps established. Thousands of people. So many of them. It was a bad sign. There would be a lot of death.

Hippolyta was tired of death, but death was the choice they left her with. Is it really a choice if there is only one option? The old men would knock soon. They would make their opening statements. Present their opinions on how valuable her life was. Her worth. How many lives she could save. The cost was always the same. The cost was death. Her death or their death. Her people or their people. Her coffee was cold. She threw it back anyway. The tapestry rustled. Jane arriving with a tray.

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Fiction

Other Times

I miss light on the Pacific at sun set. It is both the place and time I miss.

The slowing hour when sand becomes painful, skin smolders, the check arrives for your day in the sun and sand and surf.

The time of gathering up, of family packing and leave taking. Adults with their small versions of themselves, angry at the loss of time yet grateful for the complaints. A hard days’ work loaded into secure boxes for safe travels home. Their exhausted young imitating crabs. They reward them (and themselves) with DQ.

There is a pact between parents and their young in this light. The pact that says, “you did good work at being today. I did good work at letting you.”

A shared secret between creators, the true lesson for offspring.

This day was hard, all days are hard, but in this light, we are grateful for the living.

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Fiction

For the Horde: Prologue

Prologue

We prepared for an apocalypse. Some prayed for one, they hoped for it because the aesthetics would be pleasantly homogeneous afterward. They worked at bringing one forth. It was easier than cohabitating with eclectic personalities, the inconvenient poor, the dissenters. They put their faith in God and forgot the words. They forgot how to trust, how to care, how to love. They pointed to the sins of others as justification for their self loathing. They didn’t understand the words even as they screamed them, even as we screamed. With all that screaming, who had the opportunity to listen?

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Fiction

Fae-Kin News Archives

August 21, 1998 (CE) San Diego, Ca. Honeymooners Find Sunken Treasure Off Baja Coast, Local Tour Captain Missing.

A Spanish galleon, complete with treasure chests, was discovered by a group of tourists awaiting rescue off the coast of Baja last weekend. The four youths booked what was supposed to be a two hour fishing trip aboard the Pez Tesoro early last Saturday morning. They returned with chests that possibly contain Aztec gold.

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Fiction

Bad Math and Spelling

Spelling has always challenged me. I can tell you why. It’s because rats don’t eat ice cream. B-e-c-a-u-s-e. Be and cause. S-h-a-m-e. Shhh me. Stand and recite. Copy, use, repeat. Order the letters, not that way, this one. B-e-c-a-u-s-e there is a write way and a wrong way. You are doing it wrong. Makes you look stupid, even if you’re smart.

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