What are “Tumbled Dreams”? These are the posts I made to my tumblr during the week because I felt they did not warrant a separate post on this blog. However, these “interstitials” often explain some of the backstory to the larger dream posts. For those readers that only read Three Different Ways, they may help explain some of the characters and sudden changes in plot and direction.
~~~
January 24th, 2013:
So Perry Mason, (District Attorney) Hamilton Burger, (police investigator) Lt. Tragg, a judge, and a suspect were playing poker. (No money on the table.) This wasn’t for fun, as the suspect was accused of some serious shit, and he was demonstrating to the judge how easy it is to manipulate a playing card deck in spite of very careful watching.
He has already given the judge a hand of all kings with the Ace of Hearts as the fifth card. Everyone watched him shuffle, everyone watched him deal. The other four men all agreed there was no way he could have done this in plain sight. And yet, he did.
He collected the cards and asked Lt. Tragg to specify two hands, and who to deal them to. But before he could answer, the suspect paled, gripped his chest, and fell over (dramatically, of course) onto the table, spilling water and cards everywhere. Dead.
So now there is Perry Mason, D.A. Burger, Lt. Tragg, and the Judge locked in a room with a dead man. Whose death has been ruled a homicide. The four men are now suspects in his death.
“Well, Lt. Tragg, looks like you have been accused of murder. If only you knew a detailed lawyer that would work hard to prove your innocence.”
“Stuff it, Mason. You’re in the same predicament with me.”
“Indeed I am, Lieutenant. But as always, I still have my hand to play.”
“What’s that Mason?”
“I know who killed him, I know why he was killed, I know how he was killed. I thought for sure I had talked some sense into him. I didn’t realize he was going to use the demonstration as his act of revenge.”
“What do you mean, you know all that! Why haven’t you told anyone? Why haven’t you told me?”
“Because Lieutenant, this wasn’t a homicide. This was a suicide. All meant to discredit the one person in this room that had a personal connection to the deceased. And until that personal connection is revealed to the world, the deceased will continue to do more damage to the four of us than he ever could while alive.”
Mason turns and stares at the judge, who is blanching himself and breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Why didn’t you recuse yourself, Your Honor, when you realized the suspect is your long lost brother!”
Camera zooms in on the judge’s face. “My reputation! The scandal! I come from a good family, I couldn’t drag that name through the mud!”
“A good family, Your Honor? You were adopted! You spent the past fifteen years trying to purge the records of where you originally came from. The deceased was your brother! The two of you had made a promise to each other, that if one was successful, he would try to help the other. Instead, you had him arrested on trumped up charges and convicted under a technicality. You did everything you could to keep him away from you until you extracted a sworn oath from him that he would never seek you out again. You destroyed him, Your Honor! To save your reputation! A reputation that is now worthless.”
The judge stands, suddenly belligerent. “And what are you going to do now, Mason? Have me placed under arrest?”
“Mason, I can’t arrest him. There’s nothing to charge him with if what you say is true.”
“No, Lt. Tragg, there is nothing to charge him with. The only thing that can be done now is to reveal the truth. The deceased killed himself by triggering an anaphylactic shock from eating marzipan sweets. If the truth is not revealed at once, all four of us will be called to trial to explain the man’s death. Trial or not, the truth will emerge.”
“Well, Your Honor,”, Burger’s voice drawled on in contrast to Mason’s sharp voice, “I’m not about to allow the future of my career be held hostage to a family squabble that doesn’t concern me. Besides. I’m sworn to uncover the truth of matters. I know what my statement will be.”
“And mine as well!” Lt. Tragg nodded as he spoke.
“Well, Your Honor? My aide is turning over all documents relating to the deceased to the state investigators as we speak. Will you face your secrets square or will you try to hide under those robes more?”
“I expected you to uphold justice, Mason! How dare you blackmail me!”
“To blackmail you, Your Honor, would require the assistance of the police’s top investigator and the district attorney. Somehow I don’t see that happening. I am upholding justice! The deceased killed himself to keep his oath. I swore no such oath. Sometimes justice demands we reveal all wrongs, moral and legal. Sometimes justice grips the high and the low. Sometimes we forget that our office does not insure us from answering for our deeds.”
The door opens, revealing a group of officers outside the door. Della Street steps in first with a recorder. “We have it all on tape, Mason. As well as the doctor’s assessment. You were right, of course.”
The judge flees in shame while Lt. Tragg briefs the officers. Burger comes over, greets Street, and asks Mason, “If you knew the relationship, why didn’t you ask the judge to recuse himself in the first place?”
“Because Mr. Burger, in the eyes of the law, there was no relationship between the deceased and the judge. Justice was blinded.”
“She may have been blinded, but her backswing is still something to watch out for.”, quipped Street. “Oh, that reminds me, Mason. You have an invitation to Las Vegas, a vacation paid for by a grateful client. I’m supposed to deliver your response by the end of the day.”
“No more gambling for me, Della. Every time he dealt hands, he gave me the Dead Man’s Hand. I think that’s enough cardplay to last a lifetime.”
~scene ends~
~cue closing music~
~~~
“Are you a witch?”
Some will say that I’m a witch.
Some will say that I’m a bruja.
Some will say that I’m a con-man that is easy on the eye.
Some will say that I’m too dark.
Some will say that I’m too prim.
Some will say that I’m too clean to know how to craft and scry.
Some will say that I’m a bastard.
Some will say that I’m unhoused.
Some will say that I’m unknown to the covens that they know.
Some will say that I’m immoral.
Some will say that I’m a danger.
Some will say that I’m the doorway to the paths they’re ‘fraid to go.
Some will say that I’m a liar.
Some will say that I’m a seer.
Some will say that I’m the last one they expect to shank with truth.
Some will say that I’m nothing.
Some will say that I’m something.
Some will say that I’m a different face to each that dares to view.
What am I to you?
~~~
Mist. Mist everywhere. Dark slate blue mist surrounds me in a hue that could be dawn or dusk. Liminal time.
One foot is in the still water. I could hear it moving slowly past me. Could be a slow river or a fast pond. The act of keeping my balance creates ripples larger than the barely noticeable waves.
One foot is on the gritty shore. I am barefeet and have no adornments below my knees except for two beaded anklets. Under my landed foot, the weathered grit is unforgiving. This is not the sand of a shoreline. This is debris from the ancient mountains that I can sense nearby, but not see.
One foot in the water, one foot on the land. Liminal space.
My feather cloak wraps tightly around me. This is not my realm. I speak without vocalization.
“Who calls me here, and by what name am I called?”
I receive an answer to the first, but no answer to the second.
“Bullshit. This is not [kir] way. Who calls me here, and by what name am I called?”
I receive the same answer to the first, and the same lack of answer to the second.
I feel a tug, a pull as if a thread was tied to my core and strung away from me. Strung across the water. I hear a second voice on the wind ordering me to cross the water.
“No. I will not play these games. If [Persona] wants me, there are other ways to contact me. [Persona] has enough to deal with without my kind of randomness tangling [kir] shit up.”
Even though I have not lifted my feet at all, I plant them firmly in the grit and the water. “Who calls me here? And by what name am I called? Answer both or forfeit all!”
A chill wind came across the water as answer. I felt the way across the water close, and the tugging cease. I nodded and left, dissolving my form, and the dream around me.
~~~
Make of that, what you may.