Chapter Thirty Two. Fire Fire Everywhere but Ne'er a Flame to Drink

Fire Fire Everywhere but Ne'er a Flame to Drink

When you exist as egg salad, amidst hundreds of thousands of millions of galaxies, all snuggled inside a white marble, you would think you would be less sensitive to the movement of the globe. But as the black mouse that had "exited stage left" from the scene of the crime at dungeon central was scampering along the streets of Hong Kong toward the upstairs laundry, Derby thought he perceived movement.

"Hello?" Derby asked, without a voice and without a mouth.

No reply. Just the slightest feeling of difference to the situation.

"Hello? Jeninqua? Umpa? What is happening?," with this Derby realized he was thinking, just how you always do when anticipating a conversation, but this time it was very different. I'll loan you my bodilessness sometime and you'll get the idea.

"Is someone out there?," Derby continued to voice mouthlessly. "Because if you're out there, I need a little help here. Dragon? Dragon buddy...is that you? Could use a little pick-me-up boy."

Derby tried to look between his legs but he didn't have legs to look at and didn't have eyes to see with. He didn't even have a neck so he could bend down to look. Just swirling thoughts and a teeny tiny indication of mobility.

The mouse was already low to the ground, sniffing along, but when a white marble containing a hundred million universes has been digested, it tends to rub along the ground like a bowling ball being pulled in a burlap bag by an angry twelve year old. Sort of like the action of a steel wheeled jalopy with rusted out coil springs bumping along a dry dirty road with a thousand pot holes.

"I'm sure I can tell something is happening out there!" said Derby who had formerly referred to himself as the guy who could feel the pea under a hundred mattresses.

Clump, clank, clop, bounce, boing. The mouse trudged along and even managed to navigate the stairs to the apartment over the laundry.

"Trevor!," greeted Umpa delightedly to the belly dragging mouse. "We're so happy you're here! Bai Ling, give Trevor some refreshment!"

Dear Reader. I have to tell you. Yes, we know Jeninqua is a stone cold fox and all. But little Bai Ling. She's a cutie too. I think we may just have to get our own Mary Ann and Ginger debate going on here. Could be an excellent contest on Facebook, whatayathink?

Bai Ling lovingly picked up Trevor, gave him a sweet small nose kiss and set him on the table which had been prepared for his arrival. The porcelain may have originally been designed for a doll house, but the setting looked as if it was tea service for royalty. There was a dime sized ornate platter laden with tiny pieces of cheese (seven varieties!), and an even smaller saucer with what must have been just a few drops of honey. There was also a  miniature tea cup of bone china with brewed tea, though only an eye dropper full.

Trevor looked up at Bai Ling and wiggled his whiskers as if to say, "Right on!," and proceeded to chow down.

"Bai Ling," asked Umpa to his charming assistant. "Do you think Mr. Ripley has his belly full of adventure yet?"

"I think at the moment he may be missing his belly!," replied Bai Ling. "But Trevor here seems to have a little room left in his, in spite of the bulge in his abdomen!"

"OK Trevor," said Umpa as if he was talking to a son or an employee. "You know the drill. Spin the wheel!"

With that, Trevor sprung to the adjoining roulette wheel. Working from the inside, the small mouse started running in circles around the hub of the giant wheel. Gradually he was able to move the colorful  disk.  As the mouse increased the circumference of its course, the slotted plate acquired momentum. Soon, the wheel was spinning so fast and the black mouse had swung so far to the outer edge, that all one could see was a solid black streak outlining a dizzying reel.

Slowly, the inertia lost energy and as the blended colors of the spinning device transformed into separate blocks of red and blue, and the occasional black and white on both ends, the streak of black was no longer a line on the outside, but had metamorphosed into a shiny bright white marble.

At first the momentum of the ball seemed to have wheels of its own as it circled the alternating red and blue slots, but eventually, it was bouncing from hole to hole. First a white one. Then a black. Then another black. Then white, white, black, white, black. Ting, tang, clink, clank. Never once stopping in the majority--either red or blue. Always bouncing from the white and black, as if it was trained to only settle in one or the other. Then finally the white globe came to a rest.

Umpa and Bai Ling were held like puppies looking at some unknown phenomena, tranfixed. The white marble was cushioned in a blue crevice!