Short Story 01 Reformulated From A Poem

Elite Harvard Girls Have Been Taking Over Buildings

They are doing well supporting terrorism. But demonstrations can get exhausting and there’s no Quiche Lorraine or brioche.

The Xyiwa Embassy Hosts A Party For Harvard Girls
    by Douglas Gilbert

    In the neo-post adolescent milieu, the girls of Harvard, Yale, NYU, Columbia et.al. were mesmerized together in a love affair with their Marxist svengalis: they were to sing, to cry, to laugh, to protest, to demonstrate for the pleasure of criminal minds ensconced by tenure, who colonized their minds to justify October 7. Pusillanimous in the face of evil, there could only be academic pussyfooting with Marxist theory that the silly girls would absorb and spout on command. Only students. Yet mean girls can provide purgatory for everyone who knows not the folly of the ancient world: living again in a world of rape, murder, conquest, but unseen for a while in the delusional elegance of writing. Philosophers have slaves seen and unseen.
    The Harvard girls had been good at demonstrations. The famous trio had become experts in the art of hysterical shouting of slogans in the style of a protest song: “Terrorism is blessed by the oppressed.” But as good as they were at rationalizing the torture of an enemy for a just cause, they began to have difficulty suppressing weird anxieties, and the dorm seemed haunted. Simple shadows startled them. They needed a party to consume spirits. Breaking into the library and vandalizing it was no longer fun. A book about poltergeists fell off a shelf during their last occupation.
    There was another building take-over scheduled, but the trio of Amy, Céline, and Erika became fatigued by their notorious Professor Dadahit Lure. They wandered. They resented even an easy assignment: an at least a thirty page term paper with at least twenty references. Even a debutante could fake that easily. Party, party, partying is better though their parents would be shocked at their vulgarities. Erika wanted to be an opera singer, but now she’s an ostensible political science and faux history major who does drunken karaoke and boisterous protest marches like a drum majorette doing kabuki dance and yoga in support of terror: “War is peace: kill the oppressor.” Amy had the pretension and jargon of a scholar, Céline the je ne sais quoi of a third wheel.
    The girls had been told by their magic mushroom guru to avoid the haunted houses and the Xyiwa Embassy, but they threw caution away to ignore the boos that opposed, deciding to going partying, believing the layered seductive lies of a Fauci Lasagna presentation. Excitement was needed.
    New excitement. For them demonstrations were now staid; they were tired of what cant the to-do chants bade, wanted vulgar elegance: festivities in honor of oppressed barbarians gone chic.
    The Embassy invitation said that it was a two-tier deal: it was a dance party with the greatest bands ever and after; there’d be a psychology lecture with experiential therapy exercise and out-of-body experiments. Erika claimed that when she touched one of the engravings on the invitation that she got a shock. Amy said it was static electricity.
    They couldn’t resist the bonuses. “This party month: an entrance fee of seven hundred dollars, but attendees will take away a gold necklace signifying payments for a kiss month.” So they went.
    The Harvard girls, Amy, Céline, and Erika sashayed into the elegant foyer of crystal chandeliers in hypnotic light as if giddy rogue diplomats were twittering to titillate an errant spy or spook.

“Invitations please — cash or credit cards”

    After Amy gave her credit card a security jeweler behind her examined her neck and fastened a gold choker necklace around it.

Céline said, “Gee, Amy, that’s like wide and solid; is that chic cool?”

    Just then, someone jumped behind Céline saying, “Don’t worry dear,” as he snapped her choker on. “You’re exquisite in your collar.”

Erika was last and she found herself aghast wearing a collar before she endorsed her card.

They pranced to the dance floor singing in Bessie Griffin manner “… that’s what my man is for”

Céline giggled to the choir: “Amy, are you Egyptian?”

“Huh Céline… why do you inquire?”

“Curiosity is my middle name and your choker extols Amy right next to some Egyptian symbols.”

“Oh odd. Yours is Egyptian Céline”

“I’m feeling like an angst ankh…”

“Ha, oh… I’m dreaming up an ankh symbol but… where the Devil has Erika gone?”

“Probably being a drama queen somewhere cool with a debonair man whose fleecing skill is as white as snow ha…”

    But like an enchanted evening, the thunderstorm outside erupted looming louder than the music, and inside was a big commotion across the crowded room.

    Amy felt an evil presence, like a guru’s extreme warnings. “Is that Erika screaming?” The lights dimmed.

Céline spotted Erika being surrounded by security guards. “Hey, it’s Erika but I don’t know what
she’s saying.”

“Céline! They seized her by her arms and she’s sobbing.”

    Céline started to feel a thump of panic, and a thunderclap made her jump. The room was getting crammed, and someone or something bumped her hand. “What are they saying to her?”

“A colloquy in effect that the key to safety is to exclude and reject party crashers.”

The guards moved away and left her alone.

“Amy, maybe we better somehow get to her and leave now.” The music got louder.

“I don’t know..it seems resolved, and she’ll be disappointed…”

“Yeah, I guess. Hey let’s dance and hit on a guy… Oh look, she snared a diplomat-type like a dashing attaché. She’s good.”

“Yeah, good, C. and she’s leaving with him. Maybe they’re going to the lecture room. Drama over…
So I’m going to the free bar. Then, let’s meet later to the right of the stage…where rest the unengaged”

“OK. If you get lucky, I’ll meet you at the lecture.”

    There was a generous buffet and casual tables to mingle anywhere sitting down but also an area with paintings for the stand-up comedy of mingling or serious debate with raconteurs — the oppressors and the oppressed, the flirty and the flighty the seductions and the romance.

Céline and Amy roamed through it all with neither conquest nor defeat but fatigued.

After a few hours Céline and Amy bumped into each other.

“So Amy, did you meet a stellar intellect?”

“I’m bored with pompous puffery and the staid jargoneers who fear a joke on them like an egg white meringue, and confronted with counterpoint data deflate like a soufflé when you bang their door closed.”

“Huh what? Geez Amy, banging out a thesis tease of the oppressed?”

“Um yeah. I’m ruminating out loud chewing on it with my mouth open I suppose…”

    The crowd had thinned out. Many had gone to the first round of lectures. After another round of thunderclaps, the music was turned up with lights and theatrical smoke.

Erika reappeared like an enchantment across the room. Amy and Céline screamed
“Erika!”

    Erika didn’t acknowledge them. They pushed their way across the sprung flooring making people stumble into a new tarantella of the elite.

“Erika!”

Erika looked confused, and wasn’t wearing her necklace. “Are you talking to me? Um sorry,
my name is Tikva. Is this IDF headquarters?”

Amy was frightened. “Erika, where were you? What are you babbling?”

“I’m Tikva. I was in hell in the tunnels, under Shifa Hospital.”

“I’m Céline, yeah good joke Erika…”

“Who is Erika? I’m not Erika.”

“I’m Amy, and so um, you should find your necklace. It’s worth at least $300…”

“Oh hell, I have no need for a slave shock collar. But hell, listen you, Amy, you Céline: I was… ”

In chorus they watched her shake. “What? What?”

“I was raped, and torn, and tortured and…”

Céline gasped. Erika-Tikva pushed, and knocked people over running out the exit door.

“Céline, shouldn’t she go to the hospital and the police?”

“She’s acting weird. I’ll find her. I’m gonna bounce.”

“Yes, find her and get her to the emergency room expeditiously. Céline?”

“I’m jittery and uneasy queasy.” She reached behind her neck to unfasten the necklace. “Amy, help me with this.”

“Turn around. OK, um. I don’t see a latch.” She tugged on it hard. “Um, uh, well. Ut oh.”

“What?”

“It’s locked on. It needs a key and…”

Céline frantically yanked on it, and tried to turn it around. It seemed tighter. She screamed, and three security guards ran over.

Two seized her arms, and one stood in front of her. “Calm down. The key to safety is to exclude and reject party crashers.”

“Get this off. I have to leave now.”

“Let’s see. You’re Céline. You’re registered for the seminar, and you signed the legal papers. Don’t worry; we’ll take care of Erika.”

“Unlock it now! Let go of me.” The two held her arms tight.

“Let’s have a look.” He went behind her and put a key in the lock.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m tightening it a little so you won’t turn it around. Now why don’t you just go to the seminar quietly.”

“Amy, get your FBI friend… go, go, go…”

Amy ran toward the exit, but someone tackled her.

Céline was sobbing. “Ow, ow, ow, ow…”

“That’s just a small shock. we can make it stronger. So now you can be calm, and we’ll send a dignified escort for you. Or we can parade you around in handcuffs behind your back in front of your friends. We’ll leave now so you can decide.”

Céline was searching for Amy when the house lights dimmed down and stage lights of renown came up. “Attention. We have a special announcement: We are pleased to present the first annual J. Bliss Vanderbilt Award to our beloved Professor Alice for her work as the first female Musicologist of the Gay 1890s Society. You might say it’s the Gilded Age and as you may know, in the 1890s “Gay” meant showy and bright, cheerful, carefree which is why they called it the gay 90s. So let’s give a big hand of applause to our carefree Alice Harrison!”

A man rose in the audience near the stage with a Champagne glass in his left hand seeming to make a grand toast. With his right hand he rose up an ax. He drew it up and back, shouting “Blasphemy! There will be no gays from the river to the sea.”

He threw it into Alice’s chest and blood gushed into the audience before she fell in a thud splat back.
He rushed up on stage, and kneeling beside her chopped off her head.

From the wings someone shouted, “Close the curtain”

The audience was freaking out.

The manager came to center stage. “Is there a Doctor in the house?”

Someone shouted, “You idiot, she has no head.”

The manager was nonplussed. “Is there a clown in the house? … you? Yes, come up” He jumped onto the stage.

“I am Pagliaccio star of the buffoons. Yeah, so, tell ya ’bout my play. I stabbed Nedda because
she was unfaithful. The audience loved it but they thought it was part of the play. I killed. … Yeah, I think it’s a great added feature: an ax instead of a stiletto. Dead Alice: a triumph! And did y’ hear the joke about…”

Alice came out from the wings walked behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. He said, “Don’t bother me now, I’m killing it… So Alice is actually completely dead?” Alice tapped him on the shoulder again.

She said, “Is there a doctor in the house?” The ax man came out. They all bowed. “I hope you enjoyed our play.”

The lights came up. Céline found herself standing next to a handsome uniformed escort.

Céline jumped. “Who are you?”

“I’m your escort. Shall we go to the Astral Projection lecture now?”

“Well, um, is that relaxing?”

“Indeed.”

Céline was totally absorbed in thinking about what just happened. She didn’t notice where she was going.

“Here you are. You can sit on the mattress. The lecture is starting now. Bye.”

The lecture started. “Astral Projection. You’ve probably heard of it. OK, don’t worry… Alright, make yourself comfortable. Put on the mask but make sure the hose doesn’t get tangled.”

Céline was exhausted. She lay down and almost started to fall asleep.

“We will do ‘mind awake, body asleep meditation’”

Céline was about to do mind asleep, body asleep because she was so tired.

“Stay with me. Focus on my voice. Cover yourself with your heart blanket. Put your arms at your side, palms up, hands through the loops.”

Céline wanted to sleep and dream, but listened carefully, trying to follow along.

“You will meet your energy body — the subtle part of yourself. Softly spread your legs out, allowing them to slacken into the stirrups and loops. Now totally relax and make yourself perfectly comfortable falling into the mattress. It is important to remain perfectly still. Take 5 big cleansing breaths: huge inhale, sigh out… Imagine a pure white light flowing through each part of your body, relaxing and calming — body asleep, mind awake. Energy is swirling around.”

The voice was still in her head. “Bring your energy body away from your physical body float out and tell yourself ‘open the portal’. Repeat, ‘Portal now, portal now…’ ”

Céline heard another voice say, “We’ve stopped her heart successfully.”

The lecture continued. “Know that you are karma and can return by thinking of the physical body that justice brings you in Gaza… Now think of the physical body you are drawn to. Wait for an entity to leave it and take possession of the body now. This is your body now.”

When Céline woke up, her hands were tied behind her back, and she found herself in a cave near a tunnel with another woman who was also bound. “Help! Help! Untie me.”

“I can’t. My hands and legs are tied.”

“What happened? How did we get here? Who are you?”

“I’m Amy.”

“That’s funny. I had a friend named Amy. You don’t look like an Amy. You look like a Rivka or something.”

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Céline.”

“That’s an odd coincidence. I had a friend by that name. But you look nothing like her.”

“Oh damn Amy, my voice is totally ruined. I sound like a different person.”

“Me too. Oh wait. I have a peculiar feeling. Céline, how do I not look like your friend Amy?”

“Well, um, you have black hair, and my friend had blonde hair…”

“You’re telling me I have black hair now?”

“Yes. And well, you have tiny boobs. My friend was big-breasted. Oh geez. It’s you Amy in a different body. That out-of-body thing, remember — you came back in the wrong body.”

A man with a machine gun came in the room. He looked at Céline. “You’re next. I’m going to spread you out — sa’akun bidakhilik mae alhubi alshiriyr.”

Céline screamed and tried to kick him. He deflected and she fell down, got up and was running up and back. “Untie me. My friends will kill you.”

Four other men came in the room. They spread her legs and tied her ankles to a log.

“After we rape you, we will tape a rocket to your body, and bring you to the surface. The IDF will get the blame. Welcome to Gaza.”

The women were gagged. Thus, the Harvard girls no longer had praise for these oppressed people, the praise that they might offer at a rally.

Ancient Artifacts of the Ut’ishsih People Gone Awry

Trapped by Ancient Artifacts

So had I reached a fabled resort of the Gods? Or was it something else. OK, so Zawmb’yee said to take a shower…

Zawmb’yee came running in, dropped all her stuff on the floor and laughed. She said, “Wow, I didn’t know that this is what it would take to be a participant-observer in our ancient culture.”

“Um yeah. I think you’re starting to get into the up-top jargon stuff. Ha. I’d say you need to give yourself a Jargon Promotion…”

“A what?”

“Here, you’re only picking up gossip, but there you’ve learned a dignified smirk.”

“Huh what? Jargon what?”

“Anyway. Yeah. Here’s the idiomatic thing: you said you’re an Anthropology student explorer…”

“Um, sort of…” She laughed.

“But you’re doing cultural stuff. Right?”

“Uh huh”

“So, you’re a Cultural Anthropologist and…”

“Ha! Professor Higgins, Shakespeare fool, what’s in a name, a rose?”

“Oh yeah My Fair Lady Juliet, but the “the jargon’s the thing. They’re really into Jargon as a sacrament.”

“So?”

“You’re jumping around like a kangaroo comparing cultures…”

“I guess… I’ve got my notes in my pouch and I can box.”

“Congratulations. I promote you to ‘Ethnologist’. ”

“Do I get a prize?”

“Um, no, but I think you have a problem…”

“Ut oh.”

“In up-top terms you’re doing research and you need to get it validated… like in a thesis.”

“Oh yeah, and what pray tell is YOUR damn thesis?”

“Um, well, the Ut’ishsih people’s culture was based on what they call up-top a “cargo cult.” When the Gods came in about 20,000 B.C. they brought magical things or ‘cargo’. ”

“And when they told us to hide in the caves, we got totally confused and mixed up…Right?

“Um, I think the Gods were actually extraterrestrial beings who in the analogy are the “Colonialists” who brought magical devices from Heaven or from Super-Gods between the stars in space.”

“Ut oh, that’s Sypmauiyig! Should you be saying that?”

“Well, it explains why we have a few mixed-up hybrid devices that are non-sensically part science and part “magic” and don’t always work right. It’s like someone finding a car engine and using it for heating and the spark plugs for lighting torches.”

“Do you always have to talk so much. Shall we be clean now?” she said. “You know, Utcoozhoo says, ‘when lust is exhausted by overindulgence, the subtleties of love can be appreciated,’ ”

“That doesn’t sound like something Utcoozhoo would say…”

“OK. Yeah. He didn’t say that, but I say that. How about that expression, ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness.’ What was that … Benjamin Franklin or something — I don’t know. So let’s be clean.”

We went in the first open door. The Gods, I think, have good taste in the design of a bathroom. There was a dry marble basin thirty feet long, ten feet across. At the far end was a waterfall pouring into a drain. Along the near tile wall was a towel rack, and shelves with bars of soap.

“Take a bar of soap,” she said.

Zawmb’yee ran under the waterfall, and came out saying, “Swoosh me with the soap.”

I am always inclined to be indulgent under such circumstances, and enjoyed the cleansing of the savage breast, while she endeavored to exhaust my lust as in her own prophesy, and I was not one to deny her. As they say, ‘one good poem deserves another’. She is like the rainbow under a waterfall.

Zawmb’yee Finds Ancient Gadgets

When Zawmb’yee came out of the waterfall, I had noticed what looked like a metal dress and a suit of armor. Now I asked, “What are those?”

“Those are used to let us be washed by the Gods. It’s sort of like a washing spacesuit.”

“How do you mean?”

“Here let me show you.” Zawmb’yee picked up the dress. It had hoses coming out the back of the waistband, and from there up to the wrists. She said, “Help me put this on. Now these cups with the clear hoses go over the breasts — see. Fasten it in the back for me … and these are washing panties … . Now you. Here … get into these metal briefs and …”

“What are all the hoses for?”

“That’s for the washing fluids … Here let me do this for you. Now this hose goes on like a condom, see … and we lock on the metal shorts — There, that snaps shut. ”

“Wait a minute … I don’t think I like wearing solid steel underwear. This is like a chastity belt or something and I can’t touch anything. How do I get this off …”

“Well, you don’t. It unlocks automatically when the wash is over. Don’t worry. Now we put on the rest of the suit. These armlets go on here.”

She looked very strange standing there in her dress with hoses extending from her wrists to her back. Another hose came out of her back and was anchored in the floor. She said it seals like a spacesuit. She told me to fasten her neck collar and wrist cuffs firmly so there’d be no leaks. She tightened her waist belt.

She said, “OK. As soon as I tighten up your suit, the wash of the Gods will start.”

As soon as the suit was sealed, our back hoses were pulled into the floor and we fell to the ground. Water sprayed in from the wrist hoses and they were drawn short into the back of the belt. I felt a lotion ooze into my briefs and then a massage and a vibration began. I felt an armlet tighten and then a needle prick. I looked at Zawmb’yee who was struggling, trying to get up. Her hands were pulled tightly behind her back.

I said to her, “I don’t think this is a ‘wash of the Gods’. This thing is collecting semen and blood.”

“What?” said Zawmb’yee. “Get up, get up — get this off me.”

The harder I tried to get up the shorter the hoses were pulled until my wrists were clamped together in the back of the belt. Then, we heard footsteps behind us, but we were pinned to the floor and couldn’t turn around to look.

Zawmb’yee shouted, “Help! We need some help here …”

I began to yell, “Yeah, we could use suh …” Suddenly, Zusoiti, the High Priestess jammed a ball into my mouth.

Zawmb’yee screamed, “What are you doing?”

Zusoiti said, “I’m gagging him because he’s going to be here for a day or two, depending on how long it takes for the Gods to get enough samples, and we don’t need all the yelling.”

Zawmb’yee screamed, “Unlock me, unlock me …”

The High Priestess shouted back, “Shut-up, or I’ll gag you too. This is sacrilege. Where’s your supervisor? You don’t belong here …”

“Get me out of this,” Zawmb’yee whispered.

“Well, it’s too late now in any case. Only the Gods can release you.”

“When will they do that?”

“It depends on your hormone levels. They have to analyze that and your DNA. Probably in a few hours.”

“What about him. What did you mean a day or two?”

“Well, that’s more complicated.”

Zawmb’yee started screaming again, “The armlets are stabbing me … unlock me, unlock me …”

“I told you I can’t.” Zusoiti gagged her. “Now, calm down, you’ll get through this. You weren’t supposed to just wander in here on your own. Don’t tell me — Ngheufel got you to do this.”

[continued]

Kvizee Doug Runs the Blog

Introduction

    For those who missed it, I grew up in the secret caves that the Ut’ishsih people occupied for thousands of years. The Ut’ishsih had gone into the caves during the Great Ice Age as the Gods had decreed. During the Warming, many went up-top and became Ojdispekib who forgot their culture and assimilated the worst arrogant traits of the Mekibota, the Homo sapiens, who after many tribulations and primitive wars, invented anchovy pizzas and built nuclear weapons to feel safe. I’ve always wanted to reveal everything right away, and I thought if I could improve my abilities in the Utd’mbts language, then I could reveal all the secrets and teach them in Utd’mbts which is required to understand the finer points of the ancient wisdom. But the wiseman-guru Utcoozhoo said you can’t effectively bring the wisdom to the up-top world unless you first embed yourself in their culture like an anthropologist does with primitive cultures in the up-top world, and Utcoozhoo always used to say, “You can’t teach and not mingle.”

Utcoozhoo Says:

” “First, one must practice English, a subset of thought, until that is as familiar as walking in the dark to pet the lion. To turn on the light too soon can arouse the appetites in the wrong order. Utd’mbts, a thunderous whisper, is the poetry of the Gods no one shall utter lightly.” ”

So What’s With This Language Thing?

Huh? Yeah, yeah, whatever. My father was ashamed to teach me Utd’mbts, so I don’t know it that well. He was one of those aimless ones, the Ovfibogs, who wandered up and down, being neither Mekibota nor Ut’ishsih, uncomfortable everywhere and angry. I don’t think that any translations I could ever learn to do would ever bring any lightning bolts, even if I could ever understand the ancient knowledge, but Utcoozhoo seems to think that if I ever truly learned it that I could bring on the destruction of the up-top world. I’m caught between a rock and a hard poem.

So, Am I Doing the Blog Or Not?

Yeah, I’ll do poems or essays as I feel like it. But since I’m a fictitious person, I’ll give all credit to authentic Doug whenever he feels like coming back.

The Whole Crew May Stop By Also With Their Poems or Speeches Or Whatever

Well, we’ll see how often that happens. Um, what is that name again? I think it’s Konstantin Stanislavski who I think wants actors to stay in character. Maybe for some of the technical essays for developing a conlang for the fictional story which is in progress someone will break out of character. We’ll see if or when that becomes necessary because authentic Doug hasn’t done much on this lately.

If You Don’t Know What Happened With This Blog

see the rant here.

I Am Killing Authentic Doug & This Version of the Blog

[Picture by Pexels]

This Blog Has Failed & Authentic Doug Is Dead

Authentic Doug is now dead. He was unlovable and unlikable. He tried to learn to be sociable and diplomatic. But when he discovered that when things went well that people loved the false self, he was upset that they didn’t actually like him. It was too difficult and arduous to maintain the façade. He is considering going to acting school to learn to be a full-fledged psychopath who doesn’t need to be actually empathetic to the ones who love and admire the false self. Of course, he’s a fan of Freud’s “Reaction Formation,” because he can be kind to the ones he hates.

Authentic Doug Is Turning Over the Blog to Fictional Doug

As you know from the fictional novel-diary the fictional Doug was given the title “Kvizee Doug.” An adjustment is being made to bring him back alive: i.e., because all the main characters in the novel were killed, it’s been necessary to change the endings to cheat cliff-hangers where the characters were not actually directly witnessed to be dead, but were assumed to be. All the main characters have been brought back from the dead.

The True Meaning of “Likes” Without Comments

Well yeah, some “likes” are genuine, but lately the false ones have become blatant. I mean, when you see a “like” by someone whose display name is “Become a Millionaire by Selling My Mutant Avocados” then something is wrong. Although, maybe I should write a book called “How to Be a Brilliant Con Artist In Ten Easy Steps.”

So, What’s Next?

I don’t know. I suppose mystery “I” can try again to start the conlang project. Start the fictional diary again? Don’t know.