IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
A LITTLE PERSONAL TIME
By Gerald A. Polley
The Ancient One and his companion were getting ready for bed to
go about their nightly business. The Ancient One opened his
wallet and looked at a faded piece of paper with some letters and
numbers on it.
"What is that?" his companion asked. "I know you told me
before, but I've forgotten."
"Remember years ago," The Ancient One answered, "that guy that beat me
up at work in front of his wife who kept screaming for him to kill me
because I didn't appreciate his practical joke?"
"Oh, yes!" his companion answered, "When you had to have the
stitches in your ear without novacane."
"That's the one!" The Ancient One answered. "Both him and
his wife are in The Afterlife now, suffering in the Darkness. But
I keep this to remind me to visit his family every once and a
while. They taught their children to be just as ignorant as they
were, so they're good prey, except one who's got smart and is living a
decent life. Time to visit them again. If things have gone
well it's about time for me to strike again."
"Oh boy!" The Ancient One's companion moaned.
In a little while their physical forms were at rest and their spiritual
forms took flight. The Ancient One returned to his homeland to
the city where he had spent most of his youth. He walked through
the door of an office in an expensive mini mall and took on a solid
form. He pressed a lock on a file draw and it opened. He
withdrew some ledgers.
"Here!" he told his companion. "While I address some envelopes
you copy these five pages. Set the copier to print back to
back. Five copies."
His companion shrugged and went to work. The Ancient One quickly
got some large envelopes and addressed them. By the time his
companion brought him the copies he was ready to put them in the
envelopes.
"That's the official books," The Ancient One muttered. "Now let's
get the real ones!"
He went to the copier and opened it, and took out the legal size paper
bin, brought it over to the desk, and took about half the paper off the
top. Then, going through the paper below exposed ledgers printed
on the paper.
"What a sneak!" The Ancient One's companion giggled. "What
a place to hide something!"
"They very rarely use this paper," The Ancient One remarked. "He
can put fresh on top and keep his little secret hidden down here. Copy
these pages!"
His companion quickly obliged. In a few minutes The Ancient One
had the copies stapled and in the envelopes.
"Two more things," The Ancient One muttered, going down to the bottom
of the paper. He withdrew several letters. "Copy
these!" he ordered. His companion did so, and The Ancient
One added these copies to the envelopes. "There!" The Ancient One
snapped, "While I'm weighing these up and putting the postage on them
put everything back."
In a few minutes everything was ready. The Ancient One took the
five envelopes, stacked them together, and picked up a stack of mail on
the outgoing box, took the elastic off it, put it on top of his work,
put the elastic back on, and put the stack back on the out box.
"There!" he grinned. "What's really great about it is that
his secretary will come in in the morning before he gets here and take
the mail to the post office! I'm exposing his little scheme and
using his own postal meter to mail the evidence to the IRS and, his
brother!"
"Sometimes it's too much!" his companion giggled. "Sometimes it's
just too easy!"
"If you think this is good," The Ancient One answered, "their
daughter's next. Come on!"
They made their way across the city to a rather new neighborhood with
very expensive homes. They entered a bedroom where two people
were sleeping. Very quietly The Ancient One went to a pocketbook
in the closet, took out a make up kit, opened it up, and withdrew a
note. He closed the kit and put it back, then brought the note
over to his companion. "If you want a real laugh," he said,
"check this out!"
His companion took the note over to the window. "My beloved joy,"
it read, "meet me at The Elms for lunch Wednesday. Then we will
go to our special place, and for a couple of hours be in bliss.
Perhaps I will fill you with my joy again and you can bring forth our
happiness. For a time you will be away from that barbarian that
calls himself your husband and I will be away from the hag I must call
my wife. The times that I have to be with you, my precious, are
all that I live for."
The Ancient One's companion broke out in a huge grin and he could tell
she was having difficulty keeping from roaring with
laughter. The Ancient One took the note, folded it, went
over to the wallet laying on the beaureau, opened the wallet, and slid
the note in on top of one of the credit cards, then motioned to his
companion to depart. Outside his companion could not hold her
composure any more. She sat down on the ground and roared with
laughter! Finally she remarked,
"What if he kills them?"
"Nah!" The Ancient One answered, 'He'll bruise the guy up a
little, demand DNA testing on the kids and file for divorce. So
will lover boy's wife. I'll make sure the parents hear the news
broadcasts when all this goes public. I want them to know I got
their little darlings."
"You're sadistic!" The Ancient One's companion muttered, 'You're just
sadistic!"
"The sins of the fathers," The Ancient One muttered "are visited on the
second and third generation. If they give me an opportunity, if
they don't follow the rules, I'll get 'em! Daddy's gonna learn
the hard way that his sense of humor wasn't appreciated and that when
he hurts somebody they can hurt back."
The Ancient One's companion smiled. "Yeah!" she agreed,
"And you can hurt! You can really hurt without ever laying a hand
on someone!"
"That's my job!" The Ancient One answered. "But when I can
get a little personal satisfaction, all the better! Let's
go! There's plenty of more prey tonight. There's a dam I've
got to burst."
His companion spun her shield and soared skyward. The Ancient One
spread his wings, looked to the house one more time and grinned, then
he, too, soared skyward. There was more evil to deal with and he
would deal with it.