May 2018
The junk’s steam engine replaced with moving vent ***** the long ship glided from the mooring toward open water. Bob was on deck preparing to inform everyone of his scheme when from the dock came the cries of the little nun running at breakneck pace in her cumbersome black garb. Behind her and closing in a hostile mob carried raised torches and pitchforks in a sun being overshadowed by an ill-timed eclipse.
Several of the men swinging ropes as if a witch could be hanged more than once; but the vicious townsfolk were mistaken. Sister Ramera a faithful woman of god raised by nuns from birth and knowing no other way of life, was about to be lynched before their eyes as the ship slipped away from the dock. Using his distorter Bob was on the pier with the girl but now they were both cornered, open water at their backs.
Perry jumping across deck leapt into the Leaping Lizzie and brought her straight into the air. The townsfolk instantly distracted by the high oblong shadow with jointed tentacles for legs. The sounds of the screams outpaced the stampeding boots as every person fled in blind terror. Bringing the flying vessel gently to the dock Perry appeared from the hatch.
“It doesn’t look good for your friend, Bob. She’d better come with us. Her life is in certain danger if she stays here on Tierre Firme.”
“You heard the man, shall we go?” said Bob gamely.
Taking a last look at what would be her birthplace in another fifty years, Ramera saw the destroyed and satanically reconstructed brick church for what it really was; a dark pit leading to a darker emptiness. She had grown from an infant to a child into a woman. Now she was only a woman. The very last Hemera el Iglesia de Santa Papá Noel; the last Sister of the Order of Santa Santa. Bob and Perry assisting her into the crabshell, she settled in a heap of heavy black material as Perry took the controls and they lifted off. Perry and Bob eyeing one another knowing full well she wasn’t going to go around in habit and wimple. Ramera knew it too. What were Orders when there was no longer any order; when the devil had possessed the ground itself and turned the building into a synagogue of Satan.
Several of the men swinging ropes as if a witch could be hanged more than once; but the vicious townsfolk were mistaken. Sister Ramera a faithful woman of god raised by nuns from birth and knowing no other way of life, was about to be lynched before their eyes as the ship slipped away from the dock. Using his distorter Bob was on the pier with the girl but now they were both cornered, open water at their backs.
Perry jumping across deck leapt into the Leaping Lizzie and brought her straight into the air. The townsfolk instantly distracted by the high oblong shadow with jointed tentacles for legs. The sounds of the screams outpaced the stampeding boots as every person fled in blind terror. Bringing the flying vessel gently to the dock Perry appeared from the hatch.
“It doesn’t look good for your friend, Bob. She’d better come with us. Her life is in certain danger if she stays here on Tierre Firme.”
“You heard the man, shall we go?” said Bob gamely.
Taking a last look at what would be her birthplace in another fifty years, Ramera saw the destroyed and satanically reconstructed brick church for what it really was; a dark pit leading to a darker emptiness. She had grown from an infant to a child into a woman. Now she was only a woman. The very last Hemera el Iglesia de Santa Papá Noel; the last Sister of the Order of Santa Santa. Bob and Perry assisting her into the crabshell, she settled in a heap of heavy black material as Perry took the controls and they lifted off. Perry and Bob eyeing one another knowing full well she wasn’t going to go around in habit and wimple. Ramera knew it too. What were Orders when there was no longer any order; when the devil had possessed the ground itself and turned the building into a synagogue of Satan.
