 The Shaffer Journal
Volume 10 † Issue 8 † August 2004
[Internet Stuff] [Hockey Puck] [Twins of the Dark Star]
[Poetry Corner] [The Dull Stuff] [Guest Articles] [In The Keys]
Kitty Talk
These journals are dedicated to Kitty GreyCat's spirit. She is at RainBow Bridge now along with her human friends, Leo and Doris. We all loved you, Kitty! Click the cat graphic to visit her Memorial page. Kitty born June 6, 1982. Died July 9, 1997. Please use our email form linked below to make suggestions or offer praise. >^..^<  Ebony: I like the hot heat and humid humidity. The lizards are much juicier, but I don't get outside as often as I used to do. I think it cause I don't like that red harness thing. >^..^<
Abby: I have a collar not a harness, because I am the only good cat in the trailer. I didn't let the little girl human bean catch me for a walk in the park up the street. I didn't wanna. >^..^<
Ebony: Ab, you a stick in the mud, I meow. I went with that girl bean. She walk me at the park. It was a cat adventure. I chewed on grass and got petted. I lead that human girl everywhere. I have her leashed trained good, I did. Cats are never leashed trained, I meow never! >^..^<
Abby: Well, Eb, I am much more vocal than you. I talk to the beans. I need no leashes to impurress peoples. All you seem to do is sleep, catnap, slumber, sleep some more, have power naps, and even more catnaps. >^..^<
Ebony: At least I don't run into grocery sacks pretending stuff or have catnip in that grocery sack. I have my catnip in a bowl, all nice and proper, although our human bean mad I spread lots of catnip all over the floor. I like to roll in my catnip, while I eat some. Then I roll and paw in the catnip some more, spreading it all over. >^..^<
Abby: Almost as good as catnip, is turkey ham, but Ebony not like it at all, silly black, fat cat. I am the best cat in the world. I spent all night hunting a fat black bug. Then I brought the bug to bed to show our human bean. He went ewwww, but I am not exactly why he went ewwww and such like. I was totally indignant what human bean did next with my gift bug that I finded myself. The bean flushed my bug down the toilet. That be rude, I meow. >^..^<
Ebony: Back to lizards, I meow. I chased some really nice lizards I wanted to taste really badly into the little lean-to shed next door, but the nasty lizards escape under some flat pieces of metal stuff. I am much better at escaping from beans than lizards are from escaping from me. I almost escaped once, but human bean caught me. He let me lie next to him while his brother bean and him discussed stuff I was not much interested in. I like it though. >^..^<
Abby: Ebony likes empty tubs like her mind is empty with the last stuff she just meowed. Well, I like the empty tub too, but Ebony is dumb. I prefer the living room window so I can watch other cats I want to leave my domain, if I could get out and chase them, but the only way I get out is on a lead. Not fair, I meow. Like having to go to the vet bean. I stress, lose fur, get shots, and even got felt up. Bad vet beans I meow. Only the girl bean what lives with us was the good thing about the whole situation. She helped us not be too stressed. Good girl bean. >^..^<
Ebony: I got a steeroid shot for a little bald spot on my tummy. I not like the shot, but I did feel better. It is not nice when human beans do stuff and think they right in doing it. Then end up really being right. After the vet visit, we went to the community park. I got dived bombed by some bad birds upset that I was there it seems. >^..^<
Abby: You not see upset until you try to help a human bean make the bed. How was I to know that being under the sheets was not the way to make the bed. Even under the blankets is not allowed. Then when I got on top of the bed spread, the beans not like that either. I really thinking making the bed is a lot of fun even if the human beans don't think so. Making beds is much better matter factly than riding in human bean cars or trucks. >^..^<
Ebony: I liked riding in brother human bean truck. We go ride fast over many bumps in the road. >^..^<
Abby: O, Eb, that little Peetie dog that lived next door, what was a puppy? It died. It be so sad to be just a puppy and die. At least it in Rainbow Bridge. I just hope it stays in the dog section. Cats not like puppies even in pet heaven what known as Rainbow Bridge. Yep, us cats finicky even up in heaven I meow for surely! >^..^<
Internet Stuff
Here are the latest DVD films from http://www.NetFlix.com: Badder Santa is the badder version of the original movie called Bad Santa. A pathetic Santa criminal is changed by a boy. Edge of Madness explores the misplaced love between the older brother's wife and the younger brother. Cold Mountain was a good looking movie set during the Civil War and about a heart-breaking romance and love. Barbershop 2 is a sequel about neighborhood and community, a very good feel-good film. Along Came Polly is the story of a new wife who runs off on the honeymoon with someone else but comes back after Polly grabs the groom's heart. Never Die Alone is one man's journey through a young life full of drugs, women, and death. Whale Rider was a great film about life between the young and the old. Starsky and Hutch harkens back tot the cop television series of the same name. The Butterfly Effect is a very well done film about trying to change the past and the unintended consequences of doing so. Interesting websites we visited recently: It seems like we keep visiting the same sites over and over, like http://www.DirecTV.com to order a new remote or add service. Or like http://www.MKCLT.org which is the Land Trust site for the Middle Keys. Or even http://www.LarryShaffer.com which is the personal website of someone we know. We even visited http://www.Amazon.com to order a replacement library book chewed up by a dog.
In The Keys
Everyone has finally moved out of Gulfstream Trailer Park & Marina. They were forced out by the unethical and immoral conduct of Virginia Beach, Virginia, company called Sandler and various other monikers. The city, county, and state stood idly by and let this travesty happen. And this sort of thing is happening up and down the Florida Keys. Paradise is only for those well moneyed and with influence. Bubba is not dead in Monroe County. Miscellany: I went to my VA appointment at the Key West Clinic. My niece went with me. She was bored out of her skull, of course. For lunch, we did TGIFs. On the way back home, we waded the shallow, warm waters at Veteran's Park and Beach at the western end of 7 Mile Bridge. Boating is always still very good, snorkeling, sunbathing, and all that. We all did Coffin's Patch reef on the east end of Key Vaca. I liked that reef best of the three I have seen so far: Sombrero Reef and Looe Key. Parking lots have never been kind to me, but recently people are determined to hit my old truck. The Marathon Post Office parking lot has been particularly lethal too. I attended a nice party ocean side. There were lots of friends and plenty of good food. I made my famous pinto bean soup later in the week. Then my brother took us for lunch at the American Legion, Post 154, and the food was outstanding. I finally got a better futon mattress at Fred's Beds on the east side of Marathon. That's it! Finally: Did you know that Illinois's state bird is the Cardinal? The flower is the Cardinal. The tree is the White Oak. The capital is Springfield. Statehood was granted December 3, 1818. Lastly, the Audubon House features lithographs and engravings. This Key West gallery is located at 205 Whitehead Street. They are open daily 9:30-5:00. Their telephone number is 305-294-2116. Call for more details. Or go to http://www.audubonhouse.com. Poetry Corner
"Always Blue"
January 29, 1998
Something to hold us in sway
Something new and old
Always blue, ripe with fear
And so alone, so lonely
We came by this way
Only once to look behind
At what was and is
Something we surely missed
Tearing our gaze away
For fear of the years
All running away
And we look ahead
This journey just begun
Now so near the end
Only a tear and a smile
O, we can’t stop . . .
Something to behold
That time cannot erase
So blissfully ignorant
Of what lies ahead
We only smile for a while
The moment gone now
And finally we do give up
All was so utterly preordained
So now we may
Break out in song
As another journey begins
This journey to the very edge . . . © 2004 L. E. Shaffer Hockey Puck
The NASCAR NEXTEL Points series is great with Jeff winning, but not so great with Dale Jr. burning. Thank goodness for safety equipment. Lance Armstrong won an unprecedented sixth Tour De France. Ricky Williams retired from the NFL Miami Dolphins, and no one saw that coming. The NBA Miami Heat somehow got the best player in the world in the Big Shaq. The Williams sisters are struggling in the WTA and still manage to win money. You can say the same for PGA's Tiger Woods. The MLB Florida Marlins are under 500 and what for? Guest Articles
Stuff not written by us. As always everything is copyright of the author. Group Novel
As an experiment and for fun, we are writing a group novel at our Area 52 forum. The first section is contained in the June 2004 magazine edition. The second section is contained in the July 2004 magazine edition. The third section is as follows: Zybai walked on with his parents. As they entered a clearing Zybai turned to his parents anticipating their next words, “We really understand Zybai,” his mother spoke softly, “Your father’s grand father himself went on a few dream-walks himself when he was younger, but he was a bit older than you are now.”
“My great grand parents did not want to believe,” his father sighed, “And it became an issue that was soon forbidden to speak of and quickly these incident’s were forgotten as if they had never happened.” His father continued, “Sometime during the following 100 arn it also became one of our unspoken laws that any individual who exhibited these “dreaming” behaviors and that did not conform to our traditions would be shunned until the Council saw fit to remove this sanction.
"It is no wonder that the Council reacted as mildly as they did Zybai,” his father continued, “I think that perhaps they did not remember this law until Krilat probably reminded all of them, “You must remember that Krilat, being the eldest of the Council, has over 147 arn under his belt, and he was a child when the first Law of Shun was enacted, in fact this is the only major law in our Codes, lol, but it is taken quite seriously by the older Anaraians who still live according to traditional ways.
And if you “are” truly the Kla’abai you must be made aware of these small yet important things. As Kla’abai you surely have a shared memory of all past memories of our people. You must search these memories for what is important and prioritize them in order to be able to reach out to your people and not only offer them spiritual aid but you should radiate with empathy and understanding.
“Father,” said Zybai, ‘How is it that you know of such things and I don’t?”
“Zybai my son,” his father sighed once more, “I am not leader of our people by pure chance, but by heredity. “Our heritage is another subject that you should closely study and pay serious attention to our worldviews, for they have changed a bit since our Anaraian Codes were first written,” he asserted, “and in two or three arns you should have a full grasp of our lifeways and customs.”
“Whoa,” thought Zybai . . . "I know father does not expect me to know all of this at once! I know I “am” Kla’abai! So I must have knowledge of these things deep inside of me. Now I must find the path to all of that knowledge. I will seek council with Krilat and see if he can help me, for even though he is an elder, he does know of my “special tendencies” and I trust him, although I do not know why.”
“Wait up,” Zybai cried to his parents, for they were quite a ways up the path already. “I hope that I did not disappear or anything”, Zybai said to himself, not knowing that his mother and especially his father could “feel” if he had faded. “This is one more thing I must discuss with my father,” Zybai lamented, “For surely there must be a way that I can stay solid while traveling elsewhere.” “I can feel it,” Zybai reflected, “I feel that at times I am still here and at the same time away searching for the fourteen paths of the dark stars at the same time.”
“Here we are”, Zina his mother called. His parents were patiently waiting for him to catch up. No words were passed between them as they solemnly strode up the path towards the highlands and their home.
“Home and rest,” thought Zybai.
"Home and rest...what a laugh!" I think. Home to be sure, although not to my parents' home, nor to my spot in the young males' grove. Krilat, elderly and without young children, has taken me to his grove, as it is with Krilat I have decided to study. Krilat was, is, both more understanding and more of a taskmaster than ever I believed could be possible. And long-winded! I groan inwardly at the lengthy lectures I have endured. "The man can't say anything in one word when ten will do!" It sounds funny, thinking of it that way, but Krilat and his lectures are far from funny. They are deadly serious, and full of information I desperately need, and want.
I never knew just listening and learning could be so exhausting. I don't remember lessons being so before. Perhaps it is because I was, for the first time, totally committed to gleaning every bit of knowledge and wisdom Krilat had to impart.
I found myself sleeping more, and sometimes traveling in my dreams, but not far. Krilat taught me how to control my traveling. I haven't traveled bodily for nearly an arn now, and no longer get caught in the music of the dark stars. Krilat said there would be time for that later, when I am ready, and I know this is true. "You must find the path among the fourteen on which it is your destiny to travel," he said, "but you must study each path before you can choose the correct one."
The fourteen paths are steeped in legend, but there is much known about them from those who have traveled them recently, and from those who travel them still. They are not for the Kla'abai alone. This revelation did not surprise me as much as perhaps it should have. Many of our people travel frequently on the paths. Some, although not all by any means, travel both in dreams and with their bodies. This is how we have come to learn of other worlds and other peoples.
Krilat knew that my traveling with my body, while unusual for one as young as myself, was not an uncommon occurrence. But it is a thing only a few of the elders can do, and they do it with care, making certain that their leaving cannot be seen. It is not talked about except in the highest circles of our society. That is why the other members of Father's council were so astounded at my disappearance--they can travel only in dreams, and are not privy to the knowledge that Krilat has been imparting to me.
Only the Kla'abai, however, can see the music of the dark stars, and only the Kla'abai can affect those dark stars. There have been many before me, over the eons, some male, some female--this surprised me, as the females I have come to know have always seemed more interested in dressing up in their silly jewelry and robes, the better to catch the eye of a male they favor to be their mate. And once they mate, they seem interested only in their spawnlings. It was hard to wrap my brain around the concept that many females are travelers, and to think that some of the dark stars have chosen females to hear them and help them was almost too much to comprehend.
My vision was very narrow, I know now. I was ashamed at my prejudice, but Krilat said I should not be. Most of our people, male and female, spend all of their lives with no thoughts for anything but ceremonies and spawning. How could I see beyond the superficial actions of our people when I was never exposed to anything else?
I saw some of the travelers. I cannot say met, for most stand stolid and mute, stately in their age, needing nothing but the heat of the suns to nourish their bodies and the ways of the paths to nourish their minds. I did not know it, but I have seen them all of my waking life, standing at the edges of the ceremonies or alone in the fields, seemingly untouched by the life swirling around them.
But I am not like them, and may never be, for my path goes further than theirs, and is far more dangerous. So I listen, and study what I am taught, turning the information over in my mind until it becomes a part of me. I know much of the ways of the first five paths, not as much about the others yet…but of late I have heard another call. I didn’t tell Krilat of the call the first time, nor the fifth, but the call grew too strong. Now I make a journey of another sort. There is something I must learn in the flatlands, in the city of my birth. Only there will I learn what cannot be taught by any Anaraian.
The flatlands are full of silver lakes, large and small. Blue clouds are scattered across a cobalt sky. Something like the sounds of winged creatures in flight reach my mind. I physically glide over the surface, enjoying this latest adventure.
A mirrored light flashes my eyes. I stop and hover, numbed of thought and action. I lower myself to the surface. There is a peculiar hexagonal, raised surface. For the first time in eons, one of my kind touches this ancient hexagonal surface of the flatlands.
There is a vibration, almost music. There is warmth, almost alive. I walk but only hesitantly. My mind is abuzz. There is the mirror of all our lives, a glowing stone from when the planet was first made.
I stoop to pick up the sacred object from before time, before creation. Instantly at that touch, I enter all fourteen black suns. The music fills my mind. It is too much.
I wake the next morning in a grove with others of my kind, but I remember! I open my eyes; there is the mirrored stone sitting in the flat spot of a branch next to me. The stone is vibrating with song.
Chapter 4
My journey to the flatlands began with a disaster. When I awakened the morning of my departure I found that I was covered with some oozing, green sap from one of the larger Biolas trees whose limbs were hanging low, laden with fruit, above me.
“Ugh!” cried out Zybai as he awakened. That sticky, sweet-smelling sap was all over his chest area and his crest, making him look like a human who was infected with the batteri virus (humans call this the “Battery Acid Shits”). Zybai chuckled to himself, wondering what “Shits” meant.
Still laughing aloud, Zybai rose from his resting place and made his way towards one of the smaller streams that fed the large silver pond, and washed himself thoroughly in its effervescent and sparkling water. “I wonder why the lake looks silver while the streams look transparent,” Zybai thought. Wading in the small stream Zybai’s thoughts drifted back to when he was a young spawnling and the males of his age grade would all wade into one of the feeder streams for group baths.
How much fun he had had in those days, when he lived amongst his peers and especially when they all rushed to their secret meetings, hiding amongst the tall, tangled rushes on the streams banks as they excitedly chatted away the few precious minutes they could spare away from that Tsaron-eyed** old man, who was known as “The Grenzai Guard”, because he loved Grenzai steaks boiled with Sota roots (similar to our Taro roots, but dark brown in color and sweeter).
Rising out of the soothing liquid, Zybai grabbed a fistful of fronds from one of the thousands of ferns that dotted the floor of the sleeping areas. Quickly drying himself off with the soft plants, he grabbed his tunic-like gown and carelessly tossed it over his upper body so it covered his mid limbs. He slid his eight toes into his sandals (four toes on the foot-like end of each of his two lower limbs, these “toes” also have the pads like his fingers, but have suction-like pads which help him to climb the tress, which all seem to have very click bark).
Zybai walked up one of the paths that would intersect with the main throughway that led to the Council Chambers and to his mid-day meeting with Ladian and Krilat. Zybai intended to ask Ladian if he would take the young Kla’abai under his wing and privately instruct him in higher mathematics and beginning physics so that he may try to understand the “how’s and why’s” of his particular abilities.
“I need to understand the 14 Paths and how they exist and in what planes they exist,” Zybai carefully thought as he mentally constructed his presentation to Ladian. He did not want to be scoffed at nor did he want his request denied. He was the Kla’abai.
© 2004 L. E. Shaffer, Kim Young, Linda Hall Twins of the Dark Star
Book One Tears from Ao and three poetry collections, Pages of Life, Visions of Life, and Moments of Life are available electronically at http://RunesofAo.com/aobp/. The Runes of Ao project, Book Two The Mountains of Ao novel currently in final edit, Book Three Twins of the Dark Star novel in early stages, and The Book of Kalian Mysticism poetry collection are works in progress. Also a collaboration with K. Young on a novella called Dragon Embers is now published on the fan site known as Runes of Ao.com. The Dull Stuff
All opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine, company, or its advertisers. Inputs, email, suggestions, and letters to this journal are subject to approval by Ebony and Abby. Submittals may be edited for content and length and become the creative property for the one-time nonexclusive publication of: Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company
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www.RunesofAo.com/abby/ Publication date: July 28, 2004
Author: L. E. Shaffer
Company: Shaffer Novels/Poetry Company &
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