The Clocks

Stavros, Conseula, Miranda, Mimi, Sara, Paolo, Genie, and Mario found themselves back at the entrance of the bookstore.

O'Malley was saying, "Go on in. Let me know if you find anything you want, or if you have questions."

Having so said, they leaned back in their chair, propped their feet up on the desk, and resumed reading.

The group silently filed into what was now just an ordinary looking bookstore. There really wasn't anything to say, and each of them wanted to archive what they'd just seen and heard in their memories.

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The Fukui Residence - at the same time.

"YOKO! That was the most tasteless, unladylike, ostentatious, outrageous behavior! Bouncing around in the rafters while your elders were kept waiting.... Whatever were you thinking?

"No, do not answer, there is no need. You were not thinking at all, except about how much fun you were having."

As she was ranting, Biki was waving her arms around like a windmill. It took all he had for Jason to neither laugh, nor allow his inner laughter to seep across their emotional link. He'd learned enough about how Hibiki's thinking went to realize that the real reason for her rant was that she needed to dissipate her fear. While they were watching Yoko, he'd felt Biki's near painc each time Yoko made another, seemingly impossible leap.

For the nonce he decided that saying nothing at all would both be best and safest, if he valued his hide. Fortunately for all of them, it looked like Biki was about finished.

She continued berating her sister, but at the same time a smile that she'd been holding back the entire time gradually became wider and wider until she was unable to restrain herself any longer. She flew across the room and enveloped Yoko in a gigantic hug.

"Damn it! You scared me to death while you were up there. I shall not say anything further about this. You can consider the matter closed."

She stepped back, put her fists on her hips and scowled at her sib. "Now that I have the scolding out of the way, I have only one thing left to say and that is this: You were MAGNIFICENT!"

Yoko had endured many such lectures over the years, but never before had one ended with a compliment. Even with her quick wit, she was struck dumb.

Seeing her astonished expression, both Hibiki and Jason began laughing. For just a moment Yoko contrived to look offended, but moments later she joined them.

Yoko had been prepared to endure however much verbal abuse would be required. The freedom she'd felt when she was flitting about in the dome was TOTALLY worth it!

Hibiki couldn't help but add, "Well, at least you DID come down right away when she called you."

Yoko turned to Biki with a puzzled expression. "She? She who?"

"What do you mean 'she who'? I mean the owner of the store, Ms. O'Malley."

Jason interjected, "Ah Biki dear. O'Malley is definitely a man. I don't see how you could make such an obvious mistake."

Hibiki rounded on him, with a furious expression. "Mistake! Me, make a mistake about someone's gender? Who else but a woman has gorgeous, wavy, long hair like that? Not to mention such shapely breasts, and wide hips. So do not give me that crap."

Enlightenment hit suddenly. "What are you and Yoko up to?"

She turned to her sib. "This is typical of your crude sense of humor. Explain it to me, NOW!"

Yoko and Jason had a brief, private conversation and decided that showing Hibiki would be best. Having now mastered the skill of image projection, she and Jason let Hibiki see what they'd seen.

Immediately afterwards, they rushed forward and grabbed Biki's arms. Then they lowered her into a chair whereupon she put her head between her knees so as not to faint.

Once she had regained her composure she likewise projected what she'd seen to the others. The only thing their images had in common was the color of O'Malley's hair, and a somewhat otherworldly expression on their face. Yoko and Jason had definitely seen a male with a closely cropped beard. Even O'Malley's height was not the same in their memories.

Neither Yoko nor Jason came close to fainting but their shock was evident.

Jason spoke for all of them, "Based on what we saw, and what we heard, the circumstantial evidence supports only one possible conclusion. We're dealing with someone with abilities that are likely well beyond those of even Lady Blue. I feel like I have, maybe, about a 0.0001% understanding of Blue and her abilities. That being the case, I hope you'll forgive me if I'd rather not even try to think about who or what this O'Malley person truly is."

The girls nodded. As there was nothing left to say that could possible have any usefulness, they went back to getting ready for a styling session they had scheduled that evening. They'd think about what happened later, probably much later, or perhaps even after that.

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Brewster's Books Two hours later.

Those still at the store trickled out of the stacks over a period of several minutes. The twins were first, with Stavros carrying two books and Consuela one. Seeing O'Malley's questioning look they responded, "We're almost out of money and we haven't finished reading the last books we bought, so this is it.

Then 'Suela added with a smile, "For today that is. We'll be back, probably as often as we can afford to come, once we've finished the books we already bought."

Next to come were Sara and Paolo. She had six volumes in her arms and Paolo had four.

O'Malley looked at them affectionately. "Well Sara, I see that some researchers at the Little Cathedral are going to be very happy tomorrow morning.

Turning to Paolo he continued, "And the book you're writing on the common source of the primary concepts of all the major religions should get a boost as well. However...."

Here they turned and rummaged behind the counter.

After a minute of assorted "hmmm"s and "um"s, they surfaced. "Oh darn, that's not going to work. Guess I'll have to...."

So saying, O'Malley knelt behind the counter and appeared to dive into the space between the top and the first shelf. Only their legs below the knee were sticking out. Several minutes later O'Malley surfaced, covered with dust. They were holding a rather large tome which they set on the counter and pushed in Paolo's direction.

"This is the only accurate biography of Zarathustra, the founder of what you here in the west call Zoroasterianism. It also contains several essays he wrote explaining why and how he was called as a prophet, as well as the goals thereof."

He chuckled at Paolo's stunned expression. "Yes, yes. I know. You thought that such a volume didn't exist."

Gesturing at the book between them, "You can see that it does."

O'Malley's expression became dubious. "Of course, if you don't want it or don't need it, I can put it back."

Paolo lurched forward and threw his body on top of the book. "Yes, I DO want it and I DO need it, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart! This is the one thing I was truly lacking."

He straightened, with the book wrapped securely in his arms, and bowed deeply. "Thank you so much!"

Hearing a deep chuckle, he straightened in time to see O'Malley grin and say, "You haven't asked the price yet. You need to look disinterested, at least a little, when you start a negotiation. Otherwise a rapacious bookseller, might jack up the price two or three hundred percent. Not that there's one in the room or anything like that."

Having said that they tilted their head back and softly whistled in the direction of the ceiling.

Moments later O'Malley looked back at Paolo, seriously this time. "There's one thing you need to know youngling. Not all people are as open-minded as you are. When you publish this work, and I expect you'll be ready in about three years, some folks will 'go up in flames'."

O'Malley sighed sadly. "There are far too many rigid beings in the worlds."

Shrugging their shoulders they added, "That being the case, you'd best use a pen-name and have it printed somewhere far away from here so you can't be tied to it. Besides, knowing you, you're more interested in the information being available than having your name publicized. Right?"

Paolo nodded. "True. On both counts. I'd not thought about how it would be received. Thus far I've been primarily concerned with getting enough solid references, though it looks like that, with these five volumes, the problem has just been solved. You've provided me with the one thing I was lacking. For that, I'll be eternally grateful."

"Eternally you say? That's a very long time. Even I can't see the end of that particular idea...."

O'Malley stretched and grinned widely. "But that's at least half the fun, isn't it? At any rate, I get your meaning. I'm just glad to have been able to help.

"Oh, I do have one other suggestion for you. You're good with ideas, but your writing is more than a bit on the stodgy side. I strongly suggest that you get yourself a good editor to help you polish the work when you've finished. That way it will be interesting as well as accurate. It won't do much good if people fall asleep when they're reading it, right?"

Sara stifled a laugh, turning it into an un-ladylike snort, after which Paolo glared at her. Then he shrugged his shoulders. He knew he wasn't all that good at writing.

Turning to O'Malley he asked, "Ah, what's an editor?"

O'Malley facepalmed. "Oh, right, wrong era. Let me see. I'll put it this way. An 'editor' is someone who goes over your work after you're finished and shows you where you might be unclear in what you're saying, ways that you might organize things better, and generally helps you polish what you've written to make sure that it's interesting as well as correct.

"In your particular case, since you've been bright enough to pick up on the Table of Contents idea, your editor can also help you make sure that what's in each chapter is consistent. No mixing what you're writing on Judaism evolving away from the idea of Sheol with Daoist concepts of the afterlife in the same section."

They cocked their head slightly to the side, looked at the ceiling, then mumbled to themself so softly that nobody could hear them, "No word processors on this planet so....yes, that would work."

Then in a normal voice, "Try this. Every time a new idea hits you when you're writing about something else, take a new sheet of paper. Put a heading on it saying what it's about then go ahead and write whatever it is you just thought of. Then when you're ready to put it all together, sort everything into piles about the same thing. That way you won't have to cut up pages where you've suddenly started writing about something new. You can keep the sets of pages in the slots on that desk of yours that Johann made. How's that sound?"

Paolo nodded. Yes. That should work well. There were almost 20 slots on the desk that could each handle a chapter or so. If he wrote more than would fit in a slot, maybe it would be a sign that he was being too verbose. "That's a great idea, and... Huh? Someone named Johann made my desk?"

O'Malley was surprised. "What? You never went back to Flora's to find out who made it? That was a bit sloppy of you boy. But I'll save you some time since you asked. It was made by your ancestor, Johann Kastner. I'll leave it to you to research the history of the desk and his design work."

They grinned evilly. "Unless of course you want to drop a hint to Yoko about who made it. She just might insist on researching it herself."

O'Malley shrugged again. "She's going to be needing a topic for her next paper anyway."

Leaning forward they whispered, "Just between you and me, she's going to find out that there are still at least 40 pieces he made scattered around The City. I don't suggest you tell her that or that there are a number of others elsewhere in Italy. In the first case, it'll spoil all her fun while she's hunting them. In the latter, it'll just drive her crazy since she can't leave The City to look for them, and Akane is needed here too much for her to go galavanting who knows where trying to find them."

Sara and Paolo looked at each other and nodded. That's exactly what they'd try to do if they found out.

O'Malley turned to the twins. "You heard nothing at all about the furniture. Capice? I'm sure that two such inventive mischief-makers as you are can see the potential problems if we tell them about it."

The twins looked at each other, turned to Paolo and Sara and nodded. Suddenly looks of astonishment and anticipation appeared on their faces. You don't suppose....

They turned back to each other and touched palms briefly. Then they turned toward Paolo.

"Go ahead Stav." "No you 'Suela." "No Stav, you're eldest, so this one's yours." "Oh, all right, but you owe me one."

Both Sara and Paolo were surprised by the sudden appearance of embarassement and hope on the twins' faces.

"Ah, well, Paolo, it's kinda like this. We, ah, we aren't interested in being priests or anything like that, but, uh, well, we're, ah, really, really interested in how things got to be the way they are, and uh, well, we'll be 14 when you finish writing your book, so would you, uh...well...consider letting us be your editors when you're ready?"

Paolo and Sara turned to each other and spoke privately, using what they'd originally thought of as just communicating with their faces, but had finally realized was something very like "twin," though they had to be looking at each other and within a meter of each other for it to work.

What Conseula and Stavros saw was Paolo and Sara face each other and stand without moving for almost a minute, after which they nodded and Paolo turned to the twins.

"I'd be pleased to let you be my 'editors'. Such a strange word, but it sounds right. Both of you are definitely the creative types, and those stories you made up when you were trying to get out of trouble were interesting. Amateurish but still interesting. I expect that if you work on polishing your writing skills while I'm putting the book together, we can produce something that, at the very least, won't be 'snooze-worthy'."

The twins squealed and jumped up and down. Just then Miranda appeared, with her arms full of books. She peered around the side of the stack and asked, "Just what kind of mischief are you two up to this time?"

O'Malley interrupted, "No mischief at all. At least not this time. They've been quite well behaved."

Miranda nodded. "Good. They already get into enough trouble." She set the pile of books she was carrying down on the counter then turned around.

O'Malley asked, "Where are you going?"

Miranda stopped and turned her head to look over her shoulder. "Back for the rest. There were too many for me to carry all at once."

They frowned at Miranda. "Though your twins were well behaved, both times they were here I might add, I see that we need to have words about your behavior. To say that I'm disappointed in you is quite the understatement."

Before anyone had time to react, everyone other than Miranda was standing outside, with Mimi in front of the door.

She pointed her chin toward the door of the shop and said, "Those two will be busy for at least the next half hour. Since it's getting late, we'd best be on our way home."