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Stories from the Verse
Con Verse Lea
Chapter 74: Beam 153
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Takano 79
Despite his kidding, Beam was getting a bit tired of rice; he liked variety in his meals, and changing what you put in the rice and how you cooked it wasn’t quite varied enough for his tastes.
It struck him that it had been a couple days since they had killed anyone, and Bob might be getting hungry. He doubted whether he could remedy that today, but he’d keep an eye open for an opportunity.
Now standing outside the cave, he wondered which way to go. Relaxing, he realized he could not feel the gem he had given to Warren; apparently having disowned it meant it was no longer his, and he would be unable to track it. That was fine; he really did mean to give it to Warren, and the only real advantage he saw in knowing which way Warren went was to avoid going the same direction.
Still, he didn’t know which way to go.
“So, Viper, any thoughts on where we should head?”
Ashleigh appeared to think for a moment (and Beam uncharitably mused that it was remarkable how women were able to create that illusion), and just before he decided the answer was no, she spoke. “I have an aunt and uncle in the next territory,” she said. “We almost never see them. We could go there.”
It was a good idea. Unfortunately, it was such a good idea that might be the problem.
“Any chance that your parents are going there?”
Again she appeared to consider this. “I don’t think so,” she finally said. “It’s my father’s brother, and they had some kind of fight years ago and never talk to each other. They would probably go visit my mother’s sister, which is the opposite direction.”
Maybe.
“Bob,” he said, with some uncertainty about why he was asking other than that Bob would probably know, “where are they going?”
It was immediately obvious that Beam was not going to be able to decipher the noises coming from the alien’s mouth. He’d have to try something else.
“O.K., nod,” and he nodded, “or shake your head,” which again he demonstrated: “Did Warren and Amanda head toward Warren’s brother’s--what’s his name?”
“Richard.”
“Richard’s house?”
The shake of the head was clear enough.
“Well, then, let’s go find Uncle Richard and--well, you can tell me your aunt’s name when we get closer, because I’m not going to remember it anyway.”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #472: Versers Vanish. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #472: Versers Vanish. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
