AH Fantasies Ch. 20

Magica sat at a table in Abstrusions with a newcomer, Sxcascinn, having a mug of tea to start the morning. They were a bit like bookends, brown hair and blue eyes both, though Sxcascinn could claim some cute freckles. Sxcascinn was asking Magica about this Bohemian hangout in cyberspace she'd found.

"Well, I don't know if I'm the right person to ask. I haven't been here that long myself. From what I've been able to gather it opened in 2004 as a sort of Bohemian hangout in cyberspace. It's gone through a couple incarnations since then. Not sure what it was before that. I heard something about bananas but I don't know if the was literal or figurative, if you know what I mean." Magica wiggled her eyebrows. "I've only been here myself since spring of 2007."

Rob walked in just as the door to the private office opened. A hand flashed out and a knife with a piece of paper embedded itself into the bar in front of him with a twang as he reached for the coffee pot. He calmly unstuck the knife and read the note.

"What the hell was that?" Sxcascinn asked breathlessly, her eyes wide.

"Our fearless leader, or the fearsome owner, whichever you prefer, Abstruse. Vana might be up there. Never any way to tell."

Magica watched Rob opening cupboards for a minute. "What does the note say, Rob?"

"Send soup, sick again." Rob reached down and started pulling cans out.

Magica got up. "You go ahead Rob, I'll take care of it." Magica knew he'd just stopped in for coffee.

"Thanks, hon." He blew her a kiss as he grabbed his mug and headed out. "Morning Sxc."

"Morning, Rob."

"Morning Feee! Thanks for the coffee!" Rob called. A muffled reply came from a nest of blankets up in a loft.

"There's somebody up there?" Sxcascinn asked incredulously. They'd been sitting there for a while and she'd never heard a peep.

Magica nodded. "Feeeriek. She usually starts the coffee in the morning before everyone gets here, does a couple things like leave a thorny rose for Abs, and a thorn free one for other people."

"What's she like?"

"Well, I've never actually seen her. Near as I can tell, she's like a cute version of Cousin It fromThe Munsters."

"Well, I always thought Cousin It wasvery cute."

"Oh, me too! Feee is just much cuter."

Magica opened cupboards and pulled out one can after another. They all seemed to be bulging. She set them on the counter until she found one that seemed okay.

Sxcascinn got up to help her. "What do you do with the bulging cans?"

"Feed them to the alligators out back." Magica finally found a can opener.

Sxcascinn froze. "There's... alligators... out back?"

"Yeah, occasionally I think Abs fries one up but otherwise they just live out there on whatever we throw out and any idiot that wanders by too close to the swamp."

Magica heated the soup and set it on a tray with some crackers. She grabbed a yardstick and climbed the stairs to the office door. Setting the tray on the ground, she opened the door just enough to use the yardstick to push it through then quickly shut the door again and went down the stairs.

"What was that all about?" Sxcascinn looked perplexed.

"Honestly, I don't know, but that seems to be how it's done, so that's how I do it. Good exercise in creativity wondering why we all do that."

Magica grabbed a clean mug and filled it with coffee then added some half-n-half and sugar before sitting back down. "So, who else comes in here?" Sxcascinn took a sip of her tea.

"Well, let's see. Like I said, I've only been here a year but if you walk around, you'll see names written on the walls. Some legends have appeared inside these four walls. I've seen some names that I recognize and some that I arrived too late to even have heard of, but their words were saved for posterity."

"Who have you seen here recently?"

"Well, there's a pair of Texans that we see pretty regularly, but I'll let them introduce themselves. Wouldn't want to scare you off. All I'll say is, if one of them tells you he's a reverend, don't go anyplace with him forconfession." Magica winked. "There's Feee who seems to exist here. Bel stops in from time to time. Red was a regular until quite frequently, hopefully we'll see more of her. Rob you know. Trom hasn't been around recently. Have you met him?"

"Briefly," Sxcascinn affirmed.

"Remec is in and out from time to time. He's a very busy guy. Vana is the owner's girlfriend, jet-setting type. You might not even know when she is around. Lots of other people stop by from time to time. Hang around and you'll see. Pretty much everybody who's anybody in the AH has been through the doors of Abstrusions at one time or another."

Sxcascinn nodded and the pair sipped their drinks companionably, as they waited for some writing inspiration to walk through the doors of Abstrusions.