Sitnalta

A Chapter in Ellen's Life

By Charles T. Peters

Copyright 2002, 2003 and 2004

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Posted March 1, 2004

Sitnalta

A Chapter in Ellen's Life

Entry Thirteen

 

 

On this night I thought about Howie Hayes. And then there I was at his place in his library. I saw two cigars in the ashtray and two wine glasses on the library desk and then I saw Joe Jack DePalmer. His hair now shined a different color, red, and he somehow looked older but I recognized him.

I floated closer to him and stared into his face. Course, being dead he didn't know I was there. I looked at the picture in his hand of a young girl. On the back of the picture I read the name Betty Lou.

I saw Howie enter the library through a side door and I heard him say. "I think Ellen may have known you are here. Has she been having you followed?"

"I don't know. It doesn't matter. Does it?"

"You come here demanding answers from me and then Ellen comes knocking. Yeah, it matters."

"Why? You aren't going to tell me anything anyway."

"What is it that you want to know?"

"You know that Betty Lou thinks that I am one of the smugglers responsible for her mother's death."

"I never told her such a thing. I am sorry that she thinks that."

"I want to tell her that I am her father in a way so that she will believe me."

"I don't see how I can help you with that."

"I need someone that she knows is in Brazil and who isn't a Thinkster to enter Sitnalta as she and I enter Sitnalta from Plupiter."

"Why don't you simply take her to Brazil through Sitnalta. You know the passageway and the portal as well as I do."

"You know as well as I do that if you enter Sitnalta through Plupiter and exit to Brazil a molecular change happens to the physical body that prevents reentry to Sitnalta through the Portal in Brazil. We would be stuck there."

"So you would have to fly back to Plupiter. I don't see the problem. Once you reenter Sitnalta through Plupiter and exit through Plupiter, the portal in Brazil again becomes open to you. It is not a permanent change."

"Okay, look, I don't want the person that enters Sitnalta to be from this time. I want Stek Treysun to be in position to save Betty Lou's mother from smugglers. I want him to succeed where I failed. I want him to bring her mother through the Portal and prevent her death."


"Well, fuck, you don't want much. You just want us to play God."


"Wasn't that what you were doing when you had me flown to Brazil. You were trying to alter a time-scape then, weren't you? Well! Weren't you?"

"Altering time also alters memories. What once might have been a deja vu feeling may become an empty feeling of missed opportunity. More to the point it may become a damned awful feeling of failure."

"I guess that platitude has deep meaning but to me it doesn't mean squat."

"Maybe by doing nothing we are correcting a huge error of judgment on my part. Maybe you coming here is the reason I screwed up in the first place."

"But no, that doesn't make sense. And Stek wasn't there."

"Maybe someone else was there during the previous time- scape when you thought could make the difference."

"Who?"

"Sandy! Yeah, I know you don't remember it. But a few months ago you came to me with a similar plan and Sandy agreed to go back into the past to rescue Betty Lou's mother. He died in the past and I haven't been able to bring myself to tell Ellen or Victor that he is dead because of me."

"Okay, so we've got to get Stek to go back in time to save Sandy as well."

"Oh yeah, that is a plan. Just not a very good one."

"Okay, I'll go back in time."

"No, you did go back in time. That is why your memory is screwed. Why do you want Stek to go back in time?"

"Because like Sandy, Stek loves Betty Lou."


 

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Entry One

Where shall I begin. From what perspective would this best be told. This story of Ellen Duboise. It is important that my idenity not be revealed, so how can I tell this without revealing so much that you might figure out who I am. I should tell this as disinterested party, but I am not. Still, everything that I know was not learned with my own ears and eyes. Some of this I shall reveal to you are things that I learned from other people.

 

Entry Two

Victor wanted to know what his brother thought about the place. I can tell you that his brother was as shocked as Victor. Sandy would never even make love to his own wife with the lights on. The less he saw of the naked body and the less he displayed his own, was the way he preferred it. At least that was true back when I first got to know him and that was the way he was when he first came to the resort. But at the resort his attude began to change. Maybe if I had been more bothered by that change in attitude, I would not have decided to go along with what Sandy wanted to do. Sometimes I regret what we did but most of the time I think it was for the best.

Entry Three

I arrived at the Restaurant before Ellen. I ordered wine for myself and opened a pack of saltines. As I sat there I looked around and noticed only a few of the tables were occupied. My pupils began to adjust to the darkness and I glanced upon a young man leaning across the table to place a wet kiss on his girlfriend's cheek. They both giggled and I kind of hoped his shirt would get close enough to the candle to catch on fire. You probably think that makes me a bad person but be honest now, don't young couples openly flaunting their affections to the extreme sometimes just make you want to vomit. Well, his shirt didn't catch on fire but a rat ran across his leg under the table and he jumped up and started screaming like a little girl. That made me laugh. About that time Ellen walked in and sat down.

 

Entry Four

After leaving the Lonesome Looker Bar, I returned to my condo. I guess it is my condo. I’m still so confused. How could I be dead and not know it. When did I die? How did I die? As I stand on the balcony and look out over the ocean I try to remember. I know I did not die that night at the Boggy Bottom Bridge. I’m sure I didn’t.

 

Entry Five

Just as Stek stopped chasing the man, suddenly a door to a condo opened and another man stepped out in front of Stek. The man held a gun and raised it to Stek's head. I'm not sure what I did but I managed to materialize in front of Stek where he could see me. Stek whispered, "Betty Lou. You are a ghost!"

 

 

Entry Six

Ellen popped the beer can open. “I see.” She sat down on a stool at his kitchen bar. “I don’t guess you will believe me when I tell you that he wasn’t working for me when he visited Betty Lou. I had no idea Betty Lou was still alive. I don’t know who else he is working for.” Ellen took a drink of the beer. “But I will find out.”

 

Entry Seven

I stayed with Ellen as she drove back to the resort. She was so upset it scared me. Crying and talking to herself she came close to wrecking a couple of times. I honestly think my ghostly hand taking the wheel is all that saved her when the car almost swerved off an embankment.

 

 

Entry Eight

After listening to Ellen and Victor talking I started thinking. I wondered why there were so many things that I didn't remember or that I remembered wrong. I didn't remember ever being in Brazil as a child. I didn't remember making my way from Brazil, up through Central America and Mexico and then on up into the United States. So what could I remember?

 

Entry Nine

I guess it is wrong to eavesdrop on people’s conversations. But since I am dead and can’t think of anything better to do, can it really be so wrong. Now that I know that I am Ellen, at least when I am not doubting that I am Ellen, I look at George and Gurdy differently. And yeah, I confess, I spend more time watching and eavesdropping on them.

Entry 10

I decided to sleep over at George’s place. After what I heard when he and Gurdy were at the Bar, Cafe, or whatever I was kind of worried about him. I hadn’t slept long when we were both woken by the phone ringing. It was Gurdy.

By focusing I could hear both sides of the conversation. Gurdy was not happy. The Shadows of Sensitivity, a group of Thinksters that are allowed to monitor the Sitnalta databases at times had reported Gurdy as being insensitive to gays. Gurdy couldn’t believe it.

Entry 11

Sandy closed the door and laughed. "Stop teasing. You know I don't know where you bought it." Then when Sandy clicked the lock on the door I would like to say that I was appalled at the thought of what might happen next. That would make me sound so virtuous. In truth my heart raced and my blood pounded with anticipation of seeing Sandy naked in front of me. I might suggest the body belonged to Betty Lou and Betty Lou was just physically horny. I might pretend the feeling had nothing to do with what I was thinking. I might but I will not. I was all excited from our earlier kiss and the thought that I was about to see Sandy naked. Then Sandy turned the lights out.

 

"I wouldn’t be totally shocked if Sandy is the one building the weapon. He may think the only way to escape Sitnalta and perhaps even to escape earth is to destroy earth."

 
"Sandy! Yeah, I know you don't remember it. But a few months ago you came to me with a similar plan and Sandy agreed to go back into the past to rescue Betty Lou's mother. He died in the past and I haven't been able to bring myself to tell Ellen or Victor that he is dead because of me."
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