What if...?

The Little Dragon King

It's obvious that someone is tampering with my barstool journal. I'm not always present at Think-A-Holic Lounge, the now infamous intergalactic watering hole for the publishing underworld, so I can't always control the entries here. That's what I get for leaving my journal on that little shelf under the bubbly chaser taps. It's my own doing. But that was yesterday and today is today. I quickly pulled out a paper solar dollar and ordered a wee dram of think-a-hol, without the usual bubbly chaser. Then I began to think.

Well, we aren't sure if Fred Fortune, that now infamous intergalactic thief and homeless felon, is the person behind these cyber attacks but Angus McCloud, our big-ass head bartender and the 400-year-old ghost of a dead poet from Scotland, told us it's "hands off" where Fred Fortune is concerned. He told us that this was the Lounge's new position on Fred Fortune and on the Grays and on hidden truths or at least the management's official position on the opening of minds that have been previously closed for centuries, if not millennia. When we politely offered our objections, Angus laid down the rules with a grave finality. And he did so without lying to us.

"That's the poop," he said, "straight from the second floor." He pointed up toward the ceiling and we all knew that he meant the upstairs office of Ethera, one of the two silent partners and owners of this outer space gin joint in the middle of nowhere. We got the message. Nobody here wants to get on the wrong side of Ethera. Not if we want to keep hiding out here at Think-A-Holic Lounge.

As for this disturbing and controversial painting (see pic) by Fred Fortune, just see for yourself. That's right, this particular digital artist is an oddball old codger who remains on the lam from the invisible powers-that-be — just like me and you-know-who. This visionary work of art now hangs above the top shelf, where the best think-a-holic beverages are kept and, well, we think we'll get used to it, whether or not we like it. Most of us already know that liking it is not the point.