HNMNBM Book One

Traveler, this is Josh. I need to ask a favor.  K, Josh, what's up?  A friend warned me the Grim Reaper is afoot. Eh? Reaper, Angel of Death, you get the idea. This friend thinks he is coming for me, or someone close to me. Josh .... Can I send someone to help you? No, Traveler, I need you to visit my friend. Let me get it all out at one time. They call him Loco, he is a resident of the Everett Nerves Institute. He hears spirits, which is not that unusual for his domicile, but he sees them as well. Well Josh, Traveler said gently, I'm guessing that a number of people at the institute also see spirits. True enough, but he can display what he is seeing on a projector. He's the subject of quite a bit of study into the paranormal, so they take excellent care of him; I worry about his fate, but it is unlikely to be death by bedsores. I made a small donation to the institute a few years back with the stipulation they call me if he has a message for me.  He...

/* This is as close as we come to superheroes in book 1 */ They planned for weeks, drilled. Then the curtain comes up, and you are thinking first milestone, if you reach that, could well be plan B time, but know, it all worked. The Robusts surrounded the library data center and overpowered everyone. Military precision, rapid decision cycle, overwhelming force, shock and awe carried the day. Guy and his team realized there was no escape, the PSEs fought to the last man and woman, many lives were lost that day, but Guy was taken. MiniWonk tried to summon Wonk on his phone, but he had left it in the cottage. Traveler had advised leaving your phone, your ear phones, and choose a place free of distractions when you go off to pray; as a new Christian he was trying to avoid being distracted by the things of this world. TEXTBOX Goal seekers are not Christians, but we are also inundated by distractions. It's systemic. When a routine needs attention, usually for some resource, it issu...

Yolanda licked her lips and lithe like a cat stood up slowly, felt like over a minute to anyone watching, but easy on the eyes, she make sure to show some leg. Started singing a verse from a song almost 100 years old, The  Harper Valley PTA, + + + Well there's Bobby Taylor sittin' there and seven times he asked me for a date And Mrs Taylor sure seems to use a lotta ice whenever he's away And Mr Baker can you tell us why your secretary had to leave this town And shouldn't widow Jones be told to keep Her window shades all pulled completely down Well Mr Harper couldn't be here cause he stayed too long at Kelly's Bar again + + + Some women have that witchlike stick you in the spine look; Yolanda for sure. You can easily imagine colored sparks, or lightning bolts coming out of her eyes; top of the persuasive otter class, a bit of a shoulder shrug. Even though Yolanda didn't share any DNA with her Jewish mother, those cultural body movements were part o...

The Everett Parks and Recs coach was an ex football player, from the now defunct American kind. Wendell Brown, thrown in prison for a drunken brawl in Chongqing, China. A fight broke out and local men threw bottles at Wendell, feel free to believe what you want to believe about what happened next, but what matters is that Mr. Brown was sentenced to prison for 4 years. His cell was 5x5m, but held as many as "30 prisoners, all sleeping on the concrete floor. There were no blankets or pillows and the room was so crowded that most prisoners slept on their sides with arms draped over each other like embracing couples . Near the back was an older prisoner indicating he was making room for me to lie down. Dazed and confused, I crossed the cell like a cat, careful not to step on the heads, arms or bodies of other prisoners." As he got to know him he learned he was from the Philippines and among other things, an escrima master. Every day we trained, all day in a corner of the cel...

Big dark stalled right over the town. Centimeters fell in a few moments as the vault we call the sky opened.  Water rose, even the high ground had an alginate sheen. Father Lafitte's floating church and boat village was doing fine, satellite showed less than 1 cm mooring drift. Another hour, maybe less, water will start topping the levee, but the raft would simply rise to the occasion. Tempests have taken many boats, but when a storm hovers, not moving, dumping water, it doesn't stress the anchor system, it is all tied tight, boat bondage at its best. There was a quiet, unspoken sadness with the good people of Catahoula for not all those beyond the levee that would last the night. Hearty souls, bayou born and raised, but everything is changing; face the increasing threat, night hunters. Though, they too are part of the food chain, though the heavy metal complicates things. Dr.  Frkamus, the SME that tracked the great shift after they all but ravaged Southern Florida, found...