Chapter Thirty-Three

Persephone was working out the finer details to the final chapters of her blogspot Routine Apparitions, but just before leaving her apartment to run an errand on Saturday, she checked her email box and saw the message. Persephone immediately recognized the sender's name. It was a name dropped in closed meetings in the basement at the literary agency where she was working in the finance department. Loonie Noggle, an elusive person living in Bucyrus in the Buckeye State with solid connections to every publisher and broadcaster in North America. Loonie was a legend. 

Hi Persephone,

Just touching base with you about your projects which have come to my attention. To resume:

A debut comic novel that follows a young singer navigating opera student culture between Paris and Amsterdam, written by a poet and author based in the Netherlands who is simultaneously working to recover and preserve her father's literary estate, is a genuinely layered and unusual authorial identity. 

You must realize that the readers for Idle Opportunities are not a mass market audience. They are literary fiction readers with a taste for dry comedy, European setting, and the specific insider texture of art world life. But we can work on this. Have you thought of Netflix?

The work you are doing with Keith Kumasen Abbott's estate also positions you in literary circles and Beat Generation readership communities that carry real cultural weight and specific community infrastructure. Have you considered an animation series for Routine Apparitions? 

Call me to discuss.

Best,

Loonie

"Well," Persephone thought, "this is great timing. I've been looking for an agent." 

Persephone lost no time in calling the number. "Lulu's Kitchen," the voice on the phone said. 

"I'd like to speak to Loonie," Persephone said. "It's about the Netflix deal."

Once Catherine was released from the hospital and police custody, she went looking for Candace. It was Candace who got her into the fix she was in, talking trash about the nefarious intentions of Catherine's ex and his band The Spiritual Predators.  

"That floozy ex-Mormon," Catherine muttered under her breath. She was still angry about being tied up and harpooned to a wall by a bunch of famous dead authors. "They should not be allowed on the street," she said as she drove to Candace's trailer park home.  Catherine wanted the authors' souls converted to Mormonism asap and then locked away in the home for deceased converted Mormons and out of the way.

Catherine knocked on the door. Then the windows. And then she tried the back door. The back door was unlocked. She called out. No answer.  "Hell," Catherine thought, "I'm already heading for jail time." And she stepped inside. From the state of the kitchen, it was evident that Candace had been gone several days. Candace hadn't been answering her phone or returning Catherine's calls. 

"Uncle Lolly," Nolan was explaining to Blessing, "is one of those preppers." He told her about the drone pranks. "But, now, he's really gone underground. And it's maybe a little bit worrying."

"Maybe he's at his cabin," Blessing said, after Nolan mentioned the cabin.

"I already checked the security cameras," Nolan said. "They are not working. But his beeper keeps going off. Someone is sending the same message. Help I am stuck in Monsieur Cuisine."

"What's that?" Blessing asked. 

"Google says that it's a multi-cooker." Nolan downloaded the app. 

"What are you going to do?" 

"I am going to hack into the app of Uncle Lolly's Monsieur Cuisine."

Nolan opened the app and clicked on the settings menu. Then he clicked on the last meal item that was in the schedule. Immediately Uncle Lolly appeared. 

"Nolan!" Uncle Lolly shouted.

"I can hear you, you don't have to shout," Nolan replied. 

"Can you get me out of here?" Uncle Lolly asked. "I've been here for weeks, maybe months."

"What does Beef Stroganoff & Noodles mean?" Nolan asked, looking at the menu titles.

"It's code for the Chevy truck."

"Was that where you were last?"

"I took the truck to Rimbaud Ranch. I had the setting on in case the space ship tried to take me. The app must have tripped."

"So if I reset it, do you think it will bring you back?" 

"Let's try!" 

"Is he for real?" Blessing asked. 

Chapter Thirty-Two

                                                                    Coming Soon Chapter Thirty-Four             

#longmont #colorado   #keithkumasenabbott #keithabbott #preppers  #speakingwiththedead #ghoststory #rhinoritz #localband #spiritualpredators #monsieurcuisine #rimbaud #loonienoggle 

Copyright Persephone Abbott All rights reserved. No part of this blog/publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means. No automated text and data mining is permitted.