In the way the thunder can be heard long before the storm hits at times, the young me knew that something big was coming. Kantor made a series of phone calls and came up with a plan. She told me that the police would take me to the youth center. (Oh brother, that one again. I can’t believe I fell for it twice.) From there, she thought I could be committed to a general hospital.
I wanted to go, because I didn’t want to stay with my father anymore. I couldn’t tell him that, though, so Kantor said she’d call him.
At three o’clock after school, the police came and drove me downtown where the youth center was located. It was my first confrontation with locks and institutionalization. It wasn’t my last.
* * * * * * *
It was a sunny May day. The sun streamed into the youth center windows. I was ushered past the area where kids were kept (it didn’t look inviting) and taken to a social worker’s office.
The social worker wasn’t much help. She said she couldn’t take me to a hospital either. She was afraid I would have to either stay at the center or go home to my father. Around five o’clock, she let me think about it while she went to find me dinner.
Such choices. I was frightened of talking to my Dad. I was afraid he’d be mad at me. I was frightened of staying at the center—not knowing what kids were there or what they were like.
The social worker offered to call my Dad for me. When I talked to him, he was really nice to me and offered to come bring me home. After police and social workers, he sounded like a breath of fresh air. So, I asked him to come get me. That was Thursday of the last week I lived with him.
* * * * * * *
Running. Alfer Centurie found himself running. Fast and furiously, he wanted to put distance between himself and Sasifraz. Not that running could actually do that. Alfer Centurie was willing to try.
How a being could come upon him from another dimension or time or whatever was absolutely beyond him. I guess being an astronomer was a narrowing experience for him. He should have had an expanded consciousness about alternative perspectives. However, he had mistakenly assumed stars to be stationary objects that he could view from a distance and study objectively. He tried to arrange the rest of his life in a similar manner.
With the arrival of Sasifraz and his Killer Elite, Alfer Centurie felt rudderless. Despite his plotting and planning with Tanya, when confronted by the angry force of Sasifraz, he felt truly threatened.
Sasifraz came up and at him through his telescope perverting the night and rearranging the stars. “You’re a Dead Man, Mr. Centurie. I’m just taking my time before I grind you to dust.”
Then, he was gone in a flash as if nothing had been there, and Alfer Centurie felt only insane.
(DID THEY BELIEVE IN INSANITY IN THE PLEIADES SYSTEM? It seems unlikely. OK, HOW ABOUT THIS…?)
…As if nothing had been there or ever could be. (Much better. THANK YOU.)
(DID THEY BELIEVE IN INSANITY IN THE PLEIADES SYSTEM? It seems unlikely. OK, HOW ABOUT THIS…?)
…As if nothing had been there or ever could be. (Much better. THANK YOU.)