All characters and ideas belong to their respective
owners. Wish that I had 'em; then I'd
be able to, at least, tape them.
Written under the influence of Italian dressing, Final
Fantasy music, and a Discovery Channel program about cults. Do review; even one! It'll make me all happy and stoned-like. Without further ado…
Differences of Vehicles
"They drank… cyanide?" Cosmo gaped at his mentor.
Ace nodded,
downing the rest of his coffee. He
swallowed, and continued with their conversation. "It was a cult called Heavens Gate. Evidently, the leader kept offering complete peace of mind and
financial stability, to name a few.
Eventually, he bought a ranch in some remote part of the country and
invited the entire cult. He fed them
all cyanide, and those who didn't drink it, were force-fed. They injected the kids and babies with pure
cyanide."
"They put
cyanide in Kool-Aid?" Cosmo couldn't
seem to get his mind around the atrocity, staring at the glass of frosty,
neon-red liquid in front of him.
Ace nodded
again, grinning. "Now when I say
something's bad for you, maybe you'll believe me."
Cosmo gave
him a wry look, punctuated in the background by the doorbell. Ace rocked back on two legs of his chair and
slapped a hand to his forehead. "Not
the press, again…" He peeked over his
fingers at Cosmo. "I hate to ask
favors, but could you…" He let it hang.
Cosmo
smirked. "Yeah, I'll tell 'em that Ace
is experimenting with Kool-Aid and cyanide."
He avoided a friendly slap, making his way to the door. It slid open, and Cosmo, who was prepared
for the wolfdogs who called themselves reporters, was completely disarmed.
A pair of
friendly looking (and bald) men looked up at him. The one on the left had a pockmark on his cheek, most likely from
a bad case of the chicken pox. He
turned to the one on the right, whose large eyes made him seem like a
deer. "Ah, an answer!" He turned back to Cosmo.
Cosmo was
quite taken aback, but did his best to force a polite grin that was nothing
more then a tightening of the muscles in the corners of his mouth. "Uh, can I help you guys?"
Pock-Mark
turned to his partner again, a delighted smile lighting up his face. "It's absolutely marvelous to find a youth
so uncorrupted by society today!"
Deer-Eyes
nodded vehemently. "Oh yes, so
refreshing."
"Marvelous
and refreshing."
"Of
course."
"Uhm,
excuse me." Cosmo almost hated to
interrupt the two; it was like watching a comedy routine. He was now wearing an almost true, but
befuddled, smile. "I'm not sure what…"
He shrugged helplessly.
"Of
course." Pock-Mark turned to Deer-Eyes
for a moment. "So dear, this boy!"
"So dear,
yes."
"Well." Pock-Mark reached into a bag he was holding,
withdrawing what looked like a brochure.
"I am here, my boy, to advertise enlightenment and freedom of body and
mind." He beamed.
Cosmo's
smile dimmed. "Uh, I'm not an addict or
anything," he remarked quickly.
The two
bald men laughed out loud, with various exclamations of "So innocent!" and
"Remarkable!"
Oddly, even
though Cosmo would normally have been annoyed at his 'innocence', he felt
amused and somewhat peaceful with the two peculiarities at his door.
Pock-Mark
got over his hilarity, still beaming.
"Ohhh, no, no, no, my dear boy, oh no." He wiped his eyes. "No,
we do offer healing to those in dire need, but we also offer the simple joy of
knowing yourself, truly, through and through."
Cosmo was
intrigued. "Does it cost anything?"
The two
grimaced slightly. "We would love to
offer the world peace of mind, freely, but unfortunately, there are monthly
dues that are to be paid. Very small,
of course," he added hastily, "and of course, to those whose souls are in dire
peril, we charge nothing." He stopped
speaking, and his eyes flicked over Cosmo's shoulder.
Ace had
appeared behind the teenager. He
surveyed the two men for a moment, then laid his hand on Cosmo's shoulder in a
quiet gesture of protection.
"Yes?" He inquired softly.
Pock-Mark
and Deer-Eye were suddenly all business.
"Yes, hello Mr. Cooper. We're
here to advertise for our self-enlightenment group, the Ocean's Crest, to this
charming young man." He flashed a smile
to Cosmo, and handed him a pamphlet.
Cosmo accepted it automatically, returning the smile, oblivious to the
fact that the man had turned to him, completely tuning Ace out, speaking only
to the teen. "We're having a greeting
party down at the rental fire hall tomorrow, around five. Perhaps we'll see you there?"
Ace
interjected, his 'mother hen' instincts surging. "Perhaps you will."
Pock-Mark
sent a rather sour look to Ace, but only for a moment. He backed away, waving to Cosmo, then the
two turned around and departed.
Ace looked
down at Cosmo, who was rifling through the packet. The older man looked vaguely amused. "So who're they?"
An
indistinct "dunno" was all he got from the engrossed Cosmo, and the magician
chuckled, clapping his hand back down on his charge's shoulder. Right before the door closed, though, he
cast a look at the two men. They were
strolling down the road, one with their arm draped around the other's
shoulders, chatting amiably.
The
Kool-Aid, still inside the Magic Express, dripped onto the table, the water
slowly sinking into the wood.