In the beginning were the God’s and a great space that stretch ages. Light years as the light travels. Wisdom collectively in that great dark space. Given light by stars for the minor God’s. With planets as stores of knowledge. Where their dictum, the Major God’s, carry through space violently crashing into the surface of worlds. Their prophets and Apostle chronicle this. Then show their true ambition. The behest of the King. Along with their holy men, there’re raiders. What riches could be found? That civilization you speak of was thousands of years before you appear. The navigation laid by lights streak the night and wisdom that worlds had long figured but could never repeat. The progress is slow and then backwards in evolution whatever the movement. Doomed to repeat itself. She’s a name in the text the true folio. Speak for most of all the loneliest of us. It is the message and the messenger. And they toil at it for there be proof. Spiritual, science in one. Time immemorial and time to come. Stewards of the true word. The living word. The lot of them speak of an origin at times mutinous let it be told of light years and then at once overhead. Like close enough to reach and touch. The loneliest of us.
Urban legend of long dead Royal.
From the days of first the family. That he come out when powerful lonely drive
him up. Consider this nightmare put to page. A bit of slow burning dramatic.
The intensity the central figure. The terror should you cross him. This
noir. Pensive. Plodding. Classic dark. Such vistas killing fields.
There’re beasts in the streets. They say I’m responsible. Spit your hatred.
Strength in number. With weapon the lot of them. Don’t cool till all done in. I
didn’t start it. The B.C.’s. The A.D.’s. Millennia take shape. By drift and
divide.
The story of Providence according
to the journal of Milo Ambrose and official records to present day. Through
constant warring. Pestilence. Slavery. Behavior of Kings. Presented as dreams.
Nightmare. Enough to fill scroll and folio over time.
I dream them into life. God’s and monsters. I’m in the Grand Tower. The streets
ablaze. The constable surround the Ravenswood neighborhood. And downward
spiral. Screaming demon and blood on bricks. The horrors before and subsequent.
Son of John rises before dawn to have a moment with the God’s. He finds such peace while his Isabel sleeps. And her woman companion. Before he walks leisurely to get food for the three of them. He greets the shop keepers by their name along the way. A brisk walk both ways as the sun come up.
They are grateful for the food
but there is a strangeness in their mood. Even in the day time. Their eyes are
red and distant. They act as if they are expecting something grand. They’re
expecting someone noble but fearsome. The Capitol city populous is in a frenzy.
Agitated and shuttering before sun down.
Son of John is confused on this “Bedlamite,” and his return. Every one of her
dimension. Tall, long legged dark skin or who think they can change his mind
from her. How is it this man exist? Like they’ve turned their backs on the
faithful. It is October usual it get weird. It is only a legend he thinks. This
is only the beginning he thinks. Try as she can to comfort him, Isabella will
join the caravan with her companion. The melancholy get me up. Be decade or
centennial. Every one her dimension. A generational iteration of a woman from a
time commemorated in verse. She was mine. I’ve been searching from town to town
For Marla. It is a thing. The seers speak of men misunderstood and murdered by
the ignorant. “Bedlamite” is cast around from the simplest thought or partisan
theory. The mistiming of things. Some place wrong time. Attached to some
crisis, threat to the eligible female set. They cannot remember where they’ve
been when they’re gone sudden. They put him on a horse with a noose. She return
too late to save his life. Kangaroo court at saloon at high noon. The lack of
remorse afterwards. The pauper’s grave. Best believe he’ll be seen again. I’ve
come for the woman. In this case I’ve come for both women. As easily as she
could have joined the uncouth here it is best to size you up.
Marla from Nashua town. Her people run the supply store/restaurant in town. From her elevated bedroom window she see to the point. The whole whose. The narrow road north/south. The echo of swords in a fight for life. The road agent at night. Hide in the brush the pounce on the unaware. In the day they are present. They make the scene. I sound her out. She says, “There is blood on those diamonds.” It is a mining town. A man might die for a lucky strike. One killing a day. And one over Marla. The general craving for the pretty dark skin girl. Until a couple of desperados heading west stop at the house on the point. Hardened men and they agreed they wouldn’t come into town. Haggard and their clothing torn. One of them insignia of the crown. She has been tasked to bring them food and supplies. Sometimes she’s kind enough to cook for them as a sign of them keeping their distance. She fall for who she know to be the Crown Prince. It is the 1640’s. When it’s night time bad men surround the estate with torch to burn them out or cause some kind of a chase and kill them. It is the talk on Front Street. Bigger and bolder in deed and charm to keep her from the big house. Suddenly she’s on a fast north on the road she watch from her bedroom. What last she remember, out of body. Above the conflagration. Her body is never found. Much as she speak Ill of the boy as if he deserve his demise, he is still a Royal and Marguerite send a select few men to get revenge. First Sekkou go to the restaurant to talk a peaceful solution. They know when a resolution cannot be reached no matter how many men you have on your side, if the Bedlamite comes after his man there is only one result and that is bloodshed. With that they let the girl go.
“Royal” “Bedlamite”
Name of the island(s),
archipelago. Providence and the Grand Islands. Caribbean Sea. South of Jamaica.
Mainland: Providence. Grand Islands: Albany, Ngome, Patagonia, South Village.
Capitol city: Providence City. Government buildings. Original palace. Southeast coast across from Ngome. During slavery Albany occupied by different powers and skirmishes on the sea to occupy the Ngome unofficial Governor of the archipelago. With Albany being a staging/market with the captured. Knowing Providence will rescue slaves. Their rivals are taking the opportunity to cause as much chaos and bloodshed in the same places they could not reach with a military force. But the north wooded areas (including gold mines) have creatures in the trees that chase interlopers to the edge of the woods into the arms of the King’s men. Ships commandeered and the crew slaughtered. WB Banton named for his Great Grandfather Wralston and his Grandfather Bolivar. Knowing of the vamps whether from visions or oracles while on holiday in the northeast he and his friend Sekou give their opinion to stop saving the slaves in the pubs and social clubs. It was not a popular way of thinking and the people of the towns around make it known they do not agree. From then they left every town fast riding. And word arrive ahead of them from town to town. He is getting no help from his mother the queen because she believes his father’s madness is in him (his father Severe killed himself never getting over the relationship he had with Bolivar and causing his death). But Xavier’s madness was for her. Over time the violent interactions created a maniacal air when they arrive at the large Nashua Point Estate on the northern cliffs. A narrow road to the town of Nashua below. An agreement with the town that they never come into the town. They sent a woman of the town with supplies they would need. This agreement worked for a time until the woman falls for the Crown Prince. The woman’s father would then bring their supplies which are left outside the door because they refuse to accept them from anyone else but the young woman named Marla. Sekou went into the town to let the people know it is in their best interest to send the girl out. When this was denied W.B. came into town himself. No matter how many hired killers were brought in the towns people were too afraid to say no. They turned over the girl but later surrounded the grounds of the estate with torches and High Priest(ess). Chant down the madman. The girl’s life was a price to pay to be done with this presence. No matter torch or lightning the house never burns down.
Name of the islands: Providence
and the Grand Islands. Caribbean sea. Mainland: Providence. Grand Islands: Albany, Ngome, Patagonia.
South Village.
Northern Warlord - Bwana Wa Vita
Ya Kaskazini
Southern War Hero – Shujaa Wa
Vita Kusini
First King – Mfalme Wa Kwanza
God of The Sky – Mungu Wa Anga
God of the Sea – Mungu Wa Bahari
Goddess of Love/Art – Mungu Wa
Upendo/ Mungu Wa
Sanaa
God of War - Mungu wa vita
Goddess of Weather /Storm- Mungu wa Hali ya Hewa/Mungu wa Dhoruba
Goddess of Underworld – Mungu Wa Chini ya Ardhi
God of Mischief - Mungu wa Mafisadi
God of Earth/Fire - Mungu wa ardhi/mungu wa moto
Creator/God - Muumba/Mungu
Castle - Ngome
Big Foot - Mguu Mkubwa
Older Son - Mwana
Mkubwa
Younger Son - Mwana
Mdogo (Xavier)
Wife – Mke
Mbinguni – Heaven
Mbwa - Dog
Mother -Mama
Father - Baba
Daughter - Binti
1. Mfalme wa Kwanza – Lethabo “Thabo” (Thabo (Τhα'βω) is a male and female African
given name. It is short for "Lethabo" meaning "Happiness" or
"Joy". It is a common name for South African men and women. It is
most used in seSotho, Setswana and Sepedi [or Northern Sotho] and by some of
the Nguni [Zulu, Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele] people). 1000’s
2. Mfalme wa Pili – Oba (Oba means ″ruler″ in the Yoruba language. Kings in Yorubaland,
a region which is in the modern republics of Benin, Nigeria and Togo, make use
of it as a pre-nominal honorific). 1100’s
3. Mfalme wa Tatu – Kalil (Khalil or Khaleel (Arabic: خليل) means friend and is a
common male first name in the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans, North
Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Central Asia and among Muslims in South Asia
and as such is also a common surname. It is also used amongst Turkic peoples of
Russia and African Americans. 1200’s
4. Mfalme wa Nne – Adom (Man
of the earth; God's blessing. Adom is a masculine name with both Ghanaian and Hebrew
origins. A variant of the Hebrew name Adam,
this name means “man of the earth,” and is a unique way to inspire baby to
connect with the beauty of the natural world. 1300’s
5. Mfalme wa Tano – Wralston 1400’s
6. Mfalme wa sita – Bolivar 1500’s
7. Mfalme wa saba – Xavier 1600-1620
1000’s, civil war to decide on central government or continue with
provincial rule. The north with the decided advantage with creatures that live
in the trees. Twice the size of the average man with incredible strength to
smash a human being and pursue him on two feet or become a wolf like creature
and give pursuit one four legs. They were not created by Mungu Wa Vita to kill
but to scare interlopers should they reach the northern territories. The Bwan
Wa Vita Ya Kaskazini use them to give second thought. The war went on ----
years until the year ----. Having struck
the deciding blow as sniper with a spear he is seen as Shujaa Wa Vita Kusini.
They chant Mfalme. Mfalme Wa Kwanza Lethabo. With the northern leader dead and
the opposition in disarray the southern force viciously set on the northerners
as they have no cause and are struck down in retreat to the tree line. The
winners chose the name of Banton as the first family and Lethabo to sit on a
throne not yet built. The southerners go back to their homes and wait. The
northerners went home and continued to live the same as if there were no war.
People would have to show up in force to enforce any dictate of the new
government. Including any treaties which set the territorial boundaries and
chosen Banton governors put in charge. Banton rule is absolute. The other
islands. They have the courtesy to send their top men, spying, watching this
new nation grow. They are established nations and the time to develop opposing
sides. A flag to get behind. There are those talking conquest.
The 1100’s relatively tense time. The Oba reign is a time of likewise
espionage and emissaries bringing gifts to see where the new nation stands in
the eyes of the region. Oba
decides to meet the leader of their nearest neighbor and is made to wait while
other leaders are let in right away. And invited to dine with them on their
next conquest. Everyone knew their focus is on Providence who is by no means a
tiny country, with plenty of natural defenses and one who should not be
underestimated.
In the 1200’s and Khalil is the king. Banton name is growing in regard in the region. Their neighbor to the north Xaymaca send emissary with a message partly saying they are being colonized and that those who are in the orbit are treated well with gifts, slaves and women. Knowing how his predecessor was treated. He remained silent until the declaration had been read and the gifts promised were ushered into the room one of his men who guard the king threw a knife which struck the emissary in the throat and his head was removed from his body and placed on a pike overlooking the sea; facing the forces ready to attack. There are constant bombardment from ships cannons for their fighters to ascend the cliffs. Those that are able to make it to the fight in close combat. It is night when it is Mguu Mkubwa and nguvu of undead, fight. It is a war of the supernatural as is all wars in the region. A war of spells, God’s and monsters. Munga Wa Dhoruba bring up a mighty storm that sweep away the undead bringing the war to an end. Khalil who died in battle is given a lavish funeral. Wralston Banton is on the throne when the tide turn and again Jamaica is at court in Providence City to cease hostilities and expensive gifts if he is allowed to leave with his life. During Wralston’s reign he notices strange ships on the horizon.
They say they are Missionaries who believe Providence way of life is heathen or pagan while surprised at the level of organization. More than they expect from an unconquered state. Then come other ships of varied coat of arms seeking for them that come before and find they’re assimilated to wives of the lords with other wives. The boats come more often. They send word home or collected writings of an advance civilization but warrior set. They refuse to call Providence a state. To bring even more to try to plant a flag there. Their mission become rescue among the greenery is lush. The invaders seek out among the tribes for those who have come before and seem to have lost in to the Nightmare Garden that is Providence. Everything goes in this Eden. Wralston is known for his harem and nothing stands in his way to add to it wherever they come from and what they think of his comportment. In time will be same among subsequent Banton kings or other men of the same mind. The roads are narrow and bandits will make off with women whether or not the king's men are in the area.
It is clear they had come a long way. Some to trade and some with nefarious intent to take control of the islands. Build a castle at Ngome east of Albany. For a time the intention is to let the current government rule until they are of use of some near plantation. Time after time they are driven back by guerilla attacks led by Wralston and Bolivar like him. With Mwana Mkubwa travel to Ngome off the mainland. They are told to stop the hostilities or the island will be destroyed. “The oracle (in what will become Camelot County) says otherwise. The conflict is with you and yours.” Try as they may with plantations begin to spring up and the native populations are destroyed or rise up to drive the enslavers away. Whereas slavery is as old as time and defeated populations are used to enlarge a fighting force. Build on what is a wonder of the world. Mistress of prior dynasty is captured. Her beauty and sensuality is prize. Over time it is a matter of commerce.
Ships arrive daily and humans are auctioned as chattel. Providence becomes sanctuary for those who could break their bonds and swim for the mainland with volley of gunfire at them as they swim for freedom. Some swim for Ngome to get into the castle and assassinate the governor at the time including vampires. The castle is too well guarded.
Many drown from a bullet or cannot swim the distance and are
attacked by sharks. It is the people’s desire to rescue as many as they can as
the king’s men and local constables are looking for road agents trying to
snatch up anyone to bring to auction. And bounty. The realization something was
wrong when the first man pulled from the water had bullet holes in him like it
didn’t affect him. When they found the good Samaritan his neck was broken. His
clothes had been taken. Sometime later another body is found on the beach. Naked
as the other. As he is dying he has a look of terror on his face and he says,
“don’t.” Grabbing at their garment in terror.
Bolivar and Mwana Mkubwa. The
king’s men begin scouting rumor of building disturbance. A pestilence
attempting to fit in with the watu wa asili (native people) but
something unnatural about them is the word. Also word off the northern cliffs
of boats/ships on the rocks. Broken up. Corpse of the crew found with sharks circling,
smelling blood in the water. They make their way up the cliffs in desperation
to avoid the sure fate. Massive count of the enslaved to the plantations by the
day.
Severe is called by Bolivar to the bedroom of the new servant
Girl. Severe is not at all soldier. Bolivar intend to make this new girl one of
his wives. Meanwhile there are more murders. Bolivar come back to the capitol
from his patrols for time with his new bride to be who has no affinity for him.
Marguerite. It anger him and cause him to beat Xavier in the yard where they
have executions of them who try for bounty. For a woman who rush to Xavier’s side.
He’d been in her room. Held her things. Bought her things. His wives are many,
but Marguerite is fresh. Bolivar feels the walls closing in on him with the
slavery. These are his people but he doesn’t know these people. They look like
the people on the boats. Once peaceful people are fighting in the streets. The
oracle speak of more of this to come. Build up in him passion for this
woman. Marguerite. Grab the wife of Mwana Mkubwa without his knowledge for ransom for Marguerite.
Xavier should leave her alone. He calls Xavier to the grand dining room where
it is obvious he is angry. Mke and
Marguerite prepare his dinner with an evil grin on his face because Mwana Mdogo
cannot do anything about it. His food is brought to him. He is unaware that a
sedative has been put into his food to give them time to get away. They watch
as he succumb to it The three of them spend the night hiding in Xavier’s
bedroom for Bolivar will look to kill in the morning. Banton men have many wives
but the ones who borne him a son is protected from Banton wrath. Xavier is no
warrior like his father and brother. However they take up swords and the fight
lead to a fall from heights as people gather around. Take note of his resplendent
dress worthy of his position. Suddenly there is a sadness and wailing. Who will
protect them from outsiders? Hope that Mwana Mkubwa will be as brave as his father. Xavier is there to
meet him when he returns to take the throne. There is a mixed response one of
joy that the older boy was taking over for his father. Because of his reverence
of his father Xavier does not want him to know what happened with his wife. He
tells him to go back to his war. Not as many are as joyous that Xavier is
taking the throne after patricide. But Banton will be Banton.
Ngome is monitoring things on the ground. Still unable to take
the mainland. Constant skirmish between nations as ambitious and same result.
They are recalled by the ruling family and likely jailed for his failure. In a
letter left for his replacement. “There is something unnatural about this
place. The watu wa asili (native people) are pagan and the occult has a role over the region.
Mind how you approach for they are not afraid to behead their opponent which
can only be described as murder but who is able to navigate/dominate their way
of life without losing his own. I suggest you come in force whatever good that
will do and be done with your business quickly otherwise your fate will be as
mine.” Xavier praised the God’s for their blessings. He is inspired to build
statues to them and to himself and his wife. Marguerite. For the twenty years
of his rule slavery was never a focus of his. He built the Military Academies and
things that were not of importance while those before him ruled. Banton men and
their women. Same time he was tortured by the death of his father Bolivar. In
his sleep. Guilt in his waking hours. Even with birth of his son WB Banton
named for his grandfather and great grandfather. The environs are worsening.
The way to tell the difference between the interlopers and the native people is
the greeting: Karibu
kwa Uhuru “(welcome to freedom).” If the greeting is not returned the next is
conflict. Word comes to Queen mother and son the king Xavier Banton has killed
himself by slitting his own throat. The Boy is twenty years old. Much as the
queen loved the boy they grew apart. She was heartbroken but glad to be done
with the Banton’s. Then come the macho at court. Whether they were trying to
woo her or band against her. The absolute power of the Bantons was gone. She is
going to need some of them on her side and that meant marriage.There is talk if
she doesn’t marry soon the love for the Bantons would fade. There are duels
fought for her hand. Dueling isn’t new during the Banton regime. Many people
would beg the king to stop the practice but none of them cared as a man has to
do what he has to do to get what he wants. Usually a woman. No matter who wins
Marguerite would not marry him. The occupant at Ngome knowing of his uproar and
the thought of a power grab of the entire island chain. Perhaps build a
plantation on the mainland and thinking about his own riches simply by marrying
the queen. Of course Marguerite refused. It is now twenty years after Xaviers
death and the boy figures he has a voice or he knows something no one else
knows. This set in motion tragic events. The vamps keep coming and it took the
deaths of the boy and Sekou to realize he was correct. Especially when they
don’t give the response to the greeting: “Karibu Kwa Uhuru.” While they garner
sympathy, they wonder how they got there without worse for wear. Without realizing a nest had been disturbed
when the were captured. The realization of what was destined for them they
scattered who could scatter. The violence against friend or foe to stay free
from any slave market or plantation in the region. 1650 Marguerite marries a
military official named Franco. Franco is the name of the next family. By 1700
Marguerite is dying with Franco at her side. She will never see the end of
slavery off her shores. She is having delusions of her son risen from the dead
and riding past the palace on a grand horse. Grand robes with a caravan behind
him likewise dressed. He for a moment looks like she’d seen him last. When
their eyes meet she sees the skeleton. She’s been weak and feverish. Speaking
gibberish in her sleep. When her eyes and her son’s eyes meet she dies. It is a
time of mourning for the beloved queen as a second civil war for Providence
rages. Outsiders marvel at the black on black bloodshed and is expecting to
pick off the ultimate losers or take the entire country. Thinking, they’re too
focused on killing each other to notice the hunters to realize they are being
watched as well by the God’s and monsters. They are set upon and dragged into
the brush and killed. The enslavers are agog as to what is deterring their
efforts to capture these purported savages. Advantage the bloody skirmishes
that pop off and unable to land a force of any size regardless of who reside in
Ngome. Still the trade of flesh goes on off the mainland dawn to dusk. Fires
can be seen off the mainland as this goes on as a new player has entered the
trade. While fighting for their own independence from colony to states of their
own. The first American slave ship is built in Boston and they are brrought to
Boston with slaves from the Caribbean with cotton and tobacco.
1662 Virginia passes a law that any child born from a slave is a slave for
life.
1710 there are more slaves in the states than in Europe. In 1731 with Florida being a Spanish
territory, runaway slaves find freedom if they convert to Catholicism forming
the first European city in America Called St. Augustine. The Antebellum years there were freed slaves. Prior to 1825, it
was common and legal for enslaved people to become free either by purchasing their freedom or by
slaveholders freeing them. Beginning in the mid-1820s, both forms of emancipation
became increasingly less common and even illegal. It was only after many failed
attempts that, in 1807, the slave trade in
the British Empire was abolished. However, slaves in the colonies were not
freed until 1838 – and only after slave-owners, rather than the slaves
themselves, received compensation. By the end of the American Civil War slavery
more or less ended in the west but it took an American President to free the
slaves in the south as a tactic of war and the 13th Amendment being
ratified except in Delaware where the 13th amendment was ratified in
1901. Sheer greed and hatred drove the institution and pure hatred after. At
the base it was a hatred that wasn’t faith or silly wonder whether they were
human or something unnatural. But the narrative, simply by being first or
bigger become the standard.
Here (Providence) they have a new king. He is Franco and from then the level of progress into what will come of the Grand Islands now whole. Romantic and rich. Control the darkness. The force that broke the great evil from here. Governed by an exotica where the night is bewitching. They now reside at Ngome.
Boarded up hotel and what spirits inside. Constant shriek. Strange marking to the Bedlamite was here. Six corners. Low buildings with trappings. A house away. They hear things that cause things. Once the sun set, the lamps are lit. Dinner is served and the nights interlude before bed. Is for curiosity ugly as I am. So she shriek. Fright you find here. She ascend to his lodging. Discreet when it start discreet. Suppose we’re exclusive for a drive along the shore without leaving the confines.
It is 1927 when the two countries
cross. The continued rise of the great Dreadnaught. Civil rights. Civil war. Manifest Destiny. World
power. World war.
"There was a murder," they said at court addressing the Royals and the Statesman. The Seer says, “In him is the great equalizer." Franco speaks deliberate and straight. “It is not for us to worry over him but for you to worry about how you will get off the island.”
There’re God’s and monsters. Vamp and siren. He doesn’t feel like the Major God that he is. He is Mafusadi. Mischief. He strike where is personal. The lonely and the strange. He spend time in the vineyards of the God’s. At a house with a minor God. There’re story time with the wine. It change her life for a song until the next time a new song. I’m just the sort the spirits start. Her expression involuntary. No end to love you profess. Act in accordance. You’ve been warned. The hour of reveal, considerable expense to us both. The Mafisadi advantage the eras. They are hooked with his personas. The Metropolitan evolved from Bedlamite. They love the terror that come with it.
Dream that linger when able to sleep. The word of Milo Ambrose. The growl of a dog. She roam the tower at night. Beware of dog. The bounty get bigger and they might shoot into my apartment. Given easy entrance. The land lady in the sights of the dog. When I do sleep, oversentimental ghostly reminder of pain. Long on love.
Dangerous times. Dangerous place. Go up in flame over the local Lord. It is not Camelot County. Tidy grounds. The big houses and the underworld families of which I am a member. The Bedlamite, I am second come. The night with the vamp as prevalent. From my blood they recoil. A dangerous in him they could not get past. A darkness that outlast them. Tables turn and they like it. Vamp or siren. And I was just the driver. They won’t extradite me. My family haven’t heard from me. They’d likely kill myself and my cousins. I wasn’t supposed to come back. The Ambrose crime family lose out on the hold of the illegal liquor trade in the Midwest United States. The FBI try to infiltrate but they are quick to be spotted and warned off the island.
I am a clerk at a gas station/convenience store. He makes donuts. She makes fried chicken and potato wedges. Which went with the lottery tickets and beer. My eye to the Boss. A married woman. She a few years older. I have a thing for a woman in authority. And the work environment she could hardly control. Her husband sit in the lobby behind a newspaper glimpsing into the kitchen from where he’s sitting. It wasn’t the first time she told him “no.” But the flirtation is mutual. I am an impulsive, stubborn man. Here they don’t know my background. I’m one of them that come and go. And what happens in my time and what I get away with. There he sit behind the newspaper in the lobby of the flagship store of the chain.
I speak sweet nothings at her. I maintain bad behavior with a crew of misfits. When she come around to discipline I’m the only one who doesn’t run away. Of the smokers and he with his heroin. He wander in the dark with his life to give it to who might take it. She’s fed up with the lot of us as there robbery going around. He carry a shotgun even if the thing isn’t loaded. Until it is loaded and he is walking back into the main location with all the anger and confidence in the world. His eyes focused on the kitchen where the boy is massaging her shoulders and she’s falling against him. Out the corner of her eye she see what she knew one day was coming. Surprised who is holding the gun.
Didn’t think he had a backbone. All my aggression she couldn’t help herself. All the aggression her husband doesn’t have. But enough to pull the trigger at least once.I slip away even though I had a gun on me as well. But I felt it was better to leave the scene. I get on my bicycle and pedal home to the tower as fast as I could. Up the lift. When I arrive the dog is agitated. She is barking at the door and close to breaking it down. I let her into the hallway much to the chagrin of two men waiting to rush my apartment. It’s time to get the fuck out. It is a humid night when he rush the store. Catch us in our compromising position. I can see through the window of the eleventh floor the crowd rushing towards the building. Other buildings will get the same. We’d spent two years in the tower. With the vamp, crooks killers and bed bugs. Thinking this is the best place to hide out. I certainly am not the only one with a bounty on their head. But I might be one of the few who haven’t been caught or still alive. I grab what I can carry and the dog. The apartment was furnished when I moved in. I lived pretty much minimalistic. My belongings are purely sentimental. The lift comes and there are two more men when we get on. The dog starts to growl as if the two men mean to do us harm. I have my hand on my weapon where they cannot see that I am ready to pull it out and use it. Once we hit the ground floor she jumps on one of them while I shoot them both. We make for my car and speed west to Camelot County.
Storms are meant to start over and reset on occasions when bad behavior spread over the mainland. There are any number of things the God’s will do when they’ve been angered. When their maxim has not been heeded. Where blessings rain down from the heavens for the humble and the meek. Them not so humble and meek get the opposite.
There stranger as old as time come for the girl inside as if she’d been promised to him. No storm could stop him. She always know he was in her home looking at her while she slept. Waiting for the right night she can be had. Hour to bed her. He know when she don’t come home. The storm rage and he point a shotgun at the door for looters. It’s one figure in the lightning flash. A massive man and it wouldn’t take much to bring down the door with powerful strike. A second strike the shotgun fire and stagger him. It is the woman within like nothing stop him. She go with him. This is the look of loneliness. The disparate are all left to wander. Imagine themselves of the respectable caste. Time of Franco anything here is sanctuary.
1896 April a second boy is born to the Ambrose family. He is Milo. (A girl will be born 1902). On a rainy morning at the biggest house in the county. The rule is never to bring your grudge to the family home. That is likely to bring war as the other families will choose sides. I witness my father shoot the man as he breached the door. My brother seen these rainy days before. They send Milo to Chicago. There is family there. 4 cousins three male and one female in their twenties. They expect them to raise the boy up tall and strong and keep him away from the family business. The name Ambrose is known in the states. Particularly the Midwest and parts of the south. They run rum and other contraband and collect for the family. The year is 1901. Some of the same routes slaves were moved about is now for non-human contraband. One of the cousins was always working on the old souped up getaway car to out run the police. We affiliate with some north side crews. By high school I taller and stronger than most. I am not someone you want to get into a fight with. I learn how to drive when the cousins are out collecting money. They send photos of me back home of me playing ball. They don’t show the ones of me fighting when we play the white boys. There are shots fired and confederate flags and slurs. Win or lose black folk know to get out of town.
Much as they fear us it don’t stop them from shooting at us black or white crews. The Ambrose rum run Lexington, KY., St. Louis Mo., Jackson, MS., and Chicago, IL. They’re territorial but they like the product. Rum, opium, Marijuana. In the end what matters is the color of money. $3 get you a cup and admission to the party off campus. The keg is out back. And all the women in the house. They like me because I’m tall and the accent. Ambrose supply the party favor. The pubs up north and the campuses down state. Front of the line for the rush to couple up. Fall to the macabre. When I’m in school they’re holed up from the state boys. Or setting up deals for when the semester end or the school year end my fast driving get the business done faster. I have no fear telling stories about why I sleep with a weapon under my pillow. How we’re wanted by the feds and the campus is the best place they never find me. She like pictures with the car holding my gun. When the authorities are closing in she’s afraid all of a sudden. Even more afraid of my cousins. She know about my background. Where I was born. After I left my sister was born. 1902. I was never to go home again. Perhaps for a visit if I have children. My parents come to my college graduation and I get engaged the same day. She finds my parents generous and intimidating. My siblings are happy to see me. My brother and sister I’ve never met. My brother says he misses me. He’s proud of me. He slips me an envelope full of cash and then gets serious. “Things is good back home. I see things are good here. I’m happy for you but let’s keep it to a visit every once in a while.” After college we step up our activities. Matters not that I have a wife now. The authorities kept showing up at our house looking for any idea where either I or my cousins are. She don’t know anything because “I’m hardly around,” she says. Even if I was hiding in a secret room in the house or some new safe house. When I’m around I am the best husband. Expensive gifts and a brand new car. We go away for a time with the feds on our heels. She learn how to shoot while I drive.
I spoke to my brother on the day of my graduation and him warning me to keep my association loose with my cousins. But they made me who I am. My parents wanted for me fancy suits and titles. They dressed them down my cousins for how I look like a thug. This isn’t why they sent me to Chicago. Do what they have to do to make money but keep me out of it. Let me get married and move away from them. Their disdain starts to rise like in the beginning when I was dropped in their laps. They wanted to raise money and go their separate ways. But they’ve never had a driver like me.
The mastermind of the crew is the
girl. She’s considered the toughest of the set. The middle child of the
original three. She doesn’t let herself
get caught out by rivals. Her only vulnerable point is when the crew is in the
car and she is in the middle front or back. They are always driving at high
speeds. Serpentine. Pursued by the authorities shooting at them. She doesn’t
handle guns or weapons. They leave fingerprints.
She say, “he won’t pay.” He’s taken our product and gone into hiding somewhere however informers have given us an idea where he’s hiding. The state boys know about the trouble with the two groups and they throw out a dragnet. Everyone knows he likes pool halls. Gary, Indiana is where they hideout. Across the border in Chicago is where they operate. We drive around the pool hall twice to be sure he is in there. We can also spot the state boys in and out of uniform waiting to pounce. Possibly shoot the whole lot of us. There is a shoot to kill order. The route that take us past the pool hall (with the big window which make it clear to see the tall and skinny dark skinned man we’re looking for. Even though the pool hall is packed he is the tallest in the place), give us a running start to light up the pool hall sure to hit who we are trying to hit and get out of the area. When we were preparing for this we were planning routes to safe houses. It didn’t matter how many cops had eyes on the area ready to block our way to escape. We had plenty of guns and I know the area better than anyone who was born in the area and we weren’t born in country. I turn onto the street with the pool hall and the two cousins on the passenger side open up on the place and miss our quarry. Instead hitting a number of uniformed cops killing one of them. We knew that would bring down the heat upon us. Staying in the area would not be healthy for us. It might be a case of having to leave the country altogether. It is a few days before we are able to secure passage out of the country but it was made clear that we were never to contact those people again as the heat would come down on them as well. They hang cop killers. And don’t think the trial would be fair. The verdict would be decided before we even set foot into the courtroom. I don’t know where my cousins went and never said goodbye to my wife.
It is 1927. I awake sucking wind
and sweating knowing I wouldn’t get back to sleep. I grab a notebook and write
down my harrowing dream. Some nights after one of these dreams I’d reached for
my weapon and pumped two bullets into the door. After that the dog would growl
keeping away the bounty hunters. Then there are the women. Hallucination. These
vamps. I am at my weakest from lack of sleep. She up against me as a
declaration of intent. The Vamps want the bounty too and they have access where
the bounty men do not.
Manning a cash register was not what my parents had in mind. Selling lottery tickets. Trading beer for marijuana. The constable chasing criminals through the neighborhood. Very little street lights in Ravenswood. More torches. The eleventh floor and everyone looks like ants down below and those ants throw stones through windows of buildings and cars. To see how much havoc they could wreak on the streets at night. The working caste drive the anarchy. The administration drive wages down and taxes up in the largely manufacturing town. Devil’s Night, the town is surrounded by the king’s men. With the madness that come out of the diner/gas station and what I know about her shoulders. And the motley crew including the suicidal. She don’t say “no.”
From I’m in Delmar. Camelot County. The biggest house is still Ambrose. I’d been told by the former job not to come back after it was shot up. I’m in a room on Fremont Street. The dog and myself. A bed. A Dresser. A bookshelf. The room was furnished when we moved in. I’m still without sleep. I feel vengeful and set the dog on the street. I blow a whistle from the shadows and she come to me like a man walking his dog. Barely a glance in the streetlight. Word will spread without idea of the origin of the threat. The Chief Constable in the pockets of the Camelot Underworld. They are expected to do something to stop what seems a small problem but if they cannot a vigilante group of ruthless youth have been given the order to shoot to kill. They cover the number of towns in the county where the dog has either struck or could strike next. The dog strike fast, (sharp claws, sharp teeth and a large body mass) and then back to my side.
I am the Bedlamite. I am thirty
three years old.
I have come to understand the night. I take a job as a night man in a hotel. A little boutique place and a maze like courtyard. Where the sun come up in the face of strange and its aftermath. I sleep in the day and the panic attacks. The hard heart and loneliness. I remember Chicago and the infamy was good there. I was a big man there. Although people knew our name I was a big man of my own.
There are Americans on the ground in Providence. Those who need to be in the know already know. They are unable to get far without realizing they are being watched, (by who or what they don’t know but there is something strange about these islands) as they make their way to the Capitol City. And the same strangeness as they make their way off the mainland. Treaty between the two countries is no more than trade.
The Ambrose eventually rebuild their lucrative contraband link to the states. Little did they know the American economy would crash. The heads of the Camelot families send one of their members to meet with the syndicate there. The Ambrose name doesn’t carry the weight it used to but it is understood they are not people to underestimate where prohibition bleed into financial depression. No matter the economy vice will always rule. They send a new crew to do their collecting. They aren’t greedy they want to maintain their territory as always. The Midwest and near south. If this wasn’t agreed to the Ambrose crew rushed the meeting room and took over. Took away the guns of their adversaries until their demands were agreed to.
When I loose the dog I hear a gun shot and the shadow is familiar. I knew blowing the whistle would do no good. Before the figure could get into the car that arrived suddenly to make his escape. I saw the face of my brother. And I fired. I gathered up my dog and took her home to bury her. So begins the Metropolitan. G© copyright Godfrey Logan 2023
