i have bigger news than Blake Shelton!

No, it's not a new Cockroaches post.  Sorry.

But it just might be something better!  Has this ever happened to you?  You're perusing the King of Cockroaches hoping that worthless guy has finally put up another post to tell you what the heck has happened to Ch'Loi, Amis and Kurga and ... nothing. 

Damn.

So you scroll down to that picture of Chofa hugging Ch'Loi that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy...or makes you wish you were being hugged by someone all warm and fuzzy and you think to yourself, "self, how cool would it be to have a sweatshirt or a tank top or a v'neck with this picture on it?"

Well, now you can!  No really!  Chofa and Ch'Loi are on clothes and you can really, really buy them!  No really!  Go to my brand, spanking new society6 page and take a look around!  They're there with a couple of friends!  Including a clock with Ch'Voga and the harvest-that-chose-not-to-harvest on it!  Too cool!  Surprise your friends with an hour long dissertation on why you have a clock that sorta looks like a yin-yang but has a jewish looking lion and a cyborg on it!  Oh the laughs!  i'm laughing now just thinking about it.  So why wait?  Go today!  And if you don't see something you would like to see, drop me a comment and let me know what my next titanic struggle with photoshop and web based design should be!

Thanks from all the gang here at the King of Cockroaches!

Where'd he go?

Hey y'all, sorry to take an unscheduled hiatus from the life and times of the Girl named Son.  i'm over on my Rabbit Trails following a... um... yeah, tangent.  i'm writing and illustrating a comic just to see if i can.  Check it out if you're so inclined and haven't already seen it on my flikr, tumblr or fartbook page. 

Meanwhile, don't fret, i'm still plotting and scheming and the roaches will crawl back out of the walls soon enough.
Thanks for your support!

7: the odd bird

             Captain Rayjay took his eye from the deck mounted telescope, his jaw set in a hard line.  Kurga took a turn with the glass and commented, “what an odd bird.”

            “Indeed, Master trader, odd indeed, if it were a bird,” to Amisbhake he said, “we seem to have picked up a tick.”

            “What kind of tick can fly?” Kurga asked.

            “The kind,” Amisbhake said, “militaries use to track possible targets.  Just scouting us?”

            “Since we haven’t blown up already, I would assume so, yes,” the Captain answered.

            “It could still be coming.”

            “What?” Kurga asked, “what could still be coming?”

            “I don’t think so.  It was only luck we noticed it at all.  They would not trust to luck.  We most likely picked it up at the Caravanserai.  If they only meant to destroy us why let us cruise on so long?”

            “Who would want to destroy us?  What’s coming?”

            Amisbhake scratched his chin, “To make sure no one found us?”

            “We are well off the normal trade routes, who would find us?”

            “What do you mean, “find us?””

            Captain Rayjay put his finger to his mouth.  “Shh, adults are talking.”  To Amis, “Because we are a trading vessel well off the trade routes with a hold full of plague victims, to a military mind we are threat.  ”

            “They couldn’t possibly have any idea what we are up to.”

            “How could they?  When we don’t even know what we are up to.”  His eyes slid to Ch’loi, only for a moment but Amisbhake hadn’t missed it.  “I tell you, even if it were not illegal to be this far out into the Sea, they have every reason they need to eliminate us precisely because they do not know what we are up to.”

            “And yet, they are just following.”

            “Exactly.”

            “I see where you’re going.”

            “I wish I could say the same,” Rayjay said.

            “So do i!”  Kurga threw his hands up.

            “Captain, would you mind explaining the situation to Mr. Din Allorowro.  We benefit from his cooperation, not his confusion.”

            Captain Rayjay bowed, “Apparently his but not mine.”

            The whole conversation took place on the sterndeck by the wheel.  Ch’loi had remained where she was in the bow with her book.  Amisbhake went to her now.  “Pyanuka*, how long will you keep counsel only within yourself?”

            “Not much longer.  One is almost arrived.”

            “One is not one.  One is among kin.”

            She looked up at him sharply and her eyes, still somewhat unreal despite all the amazing work of the physicians and their uncanny vats where they grew flesh like the dairymen grew cheese, gave him a barely repressed shudder.

            “Kin will not like it.”

            “Fear not.  Trust us.  We will follow you even into death.”  He looked over his shoulder and amended, “I at least will.”

            “This is what one fears.”

(*"Pyanuka": a term of affection used mostly for children)

6 What to Want

            “Are you unhappy here, Ch’loi?” Chofa asked after the morning meeting had broke up and the counselors had all gone their separate ways.  She would normally go to her lessons, learning how to read and write and behave in a completely new society but she had lingered and he sensed she wished to speak with him alone.  She sat next to him on his divan, her smallness all the more pronounced by her posture, as if she were trying to fold herself even smaller.  He poured them each a fresh cup of coffee, adding a straw for hers; she was so nearly healed but still struggled with swallowing.  She examined the dark fluid in her fragile cup for a long time before answering.  He was comfortable with the silence.

            “One does not know ‘happy’.  One has heard the word but one cannot smell it.  It makes no fire.” 

            “It makes no fire,” he repeated.  He had learned by now what she meant.  “What is making fire for you?  Where do you burn, Ch’loi?” 

            “Purpose.”

            “Pardon?”

            “One is not useful.  One only takes.  One has no purpose.”

            “A child takes, does a child have no purpose?”

            “A child’s purpose is to grow, one is already in the adult phase.”

            “How did you know your purpose before?”

            “One has always been ruled by need.  The need to obey the Primary.  The need to harvest.  The need to feed the kin.  The need to defend the kin.  Then the Firemaker came and one needed to know where the fire came from, what the fire meant.  This new need was stronger than former needs; it chose a new purpose for one.  Then the kin rejected one and one needed kin.    The Firemaker fed one and made one kin to the Firemaker.  The Firemaker gave one a purpose and one obeyed the Firemaker.  One brought the Firemaker and one to this kin-home.  Now the Primary feeds one, the Primary has made one kin of the Primary.  The Primary defends one.  Now one has no needs but one, a purpose.”

            “You’re purpose is to heal.”

            “The procedures are complete.  One is nearly healed and utilizable again.”

            “You have your lessons…”

            “Learning is necessary, learning is vital, but learning without knowing one’s purpose is inefficient.  One does not know what is best to learn, what will be useful.”

            “Are you asking me for a reason for living or just a job?”

            “Are these not the same thing?”

            Chofa rubbed his eyes.  “I haven’t had enough coffee for this conversation.”

            “May one pour the Primary more?”

            “No, that’s not what I… yes, yes you can!  There, I’ve given you a purpose.” 

            She poured him a fresh cup, fixed it as he liked and handed it back to him.  “The Primary is joking.”

            “Yes he is.  He is stalling because he feels ill equipped to decide your fate, daughter.”

            “Is this not the purpose of the Primary?”

            “It is, but I am actually the Secondary.  Yahweh is the Primary.”

            “One studies the Firemaker’s book and is learning much but one still has this need.  How does the Primary..”

            “Secondary,” Chofa corrected.

            “How does the Secondary..”

            “I’d prefer Father.”

            “How does the Secondary determine the Yahweh’s will in such cases?”

            Chofa set down his coffee and motioned for her to do so.  He enveloped her hands in his great paws and said, “We ask Him.”

Vacation update

i'm on vacation but never fear, that means i have time to work on work that isn't work to me and no one acts like i should be doing something more constructive.  Well, no one but my son who thinks if i'm not throwing, bouncing, splashing, bumping or setting a ball with him then i'm doing nothing.

What Ch'loi wants

            “What is it you desire?” Kurga asked.

            “Pardon?” Ch’loi blinked.

            “Did I startle you?  I’m sorry, milady, I didn’t know how deep in your own thoughts you were.  But we are nearly to the Last Caravanserai and I only wish to know…what now?”

            “A topic I’m rather interested in myself,” Captain Rayjay said. 

            “As am I,” Amisbhake added.

            “You?” Kurga exclaimed, “I thought you were her counselor?”

            “I cannot counsel where my counsel is not asked for.”

            “Tell that to my mother.  Well then, it would seem we are all in the same boat.”

            “Did you really mean to say that?”

            “Say what?”

            “Never mind.”  Amisbhake turned to the small girl staring at the deck of the skiff.  “Child, the time has come.”

            She looked at him then turned to Kurga, “One would like to purchase slaves.”

            “Ah,” he smiled, “I see.  I could have guessed.  And what kind of slaves should I buy for you, children I suppose?”

            She slashed the air with one hand.  “Age is irrelevant.”

            “Oh.  Uh.   Well then, um, do you prefer males or females or..?”

            “Also unimportant.”

            “Well then…ah… could you give me something to go on?  What qualities are important?”

            She focused on the deck again and was silent a long time before she spoke.  When at last she looked at him, he shivered, “One only needs them to be dying.  Preferably of fever.”

Why i think we need more poets, artists and musicians

There are people in Kosovo kidnapping others and harvesting their organs for the black market.  There is a market for illegally harvested organs.  There are people kidnapping girls to use as sex slaves.  There is a market for sex slaves.  There are people selling their sons and daughters.  There is a market for sons and daughters.  There almost isn't a country left that doesn't have unrest and armed fighting in its streets.  There has never been a better time in history to be rich nor a worse time in history to be poor.  There has never been a wider gap between the two.  What used to be sins are now inalienable rights.  Murder is now contraception and assisted suicide.  The church now has a greater divorce rate than the secular world.  Faceless, soulless corporations now have the same rights as people but with far greater power and influence and no conscience.  Children are showing up on our doorsteps, homeless, hungry and afraid and we think the answer is more guns and laws on the doorstep.  Famine, drought and diseases we should have eradicated by now kill millions but we do nothing because those millions are in countries we don't care about.  We build elaborate homes for our cars while others sleep under tarps.  In a world where nothing is wrong, power is the only right.

It's not a lack of resources, laws, guns, money or power or will that's the problem, it's a lack of prophets.

It's a lack of the fear of Yahweh.  It is the prophet's job to call us back, to open our eyes and ears and turn them inward to see the sin in each of our hearts and outward to see the God-man wanting to heal those hearts.  The train of the world is running to the end of the track and it's only picking up steam.  Now more than ever we need to repent and return to God.  Who will call us back?