The woman with the colourful pointy hat on her head stifled a burp and shooed the feeling of
drowsiness away, midnight wasn't here yet and she wanted to see out New Year's Eve before
she succumb to a drink-fuelled oblivion.
Marion breathed deeply through her nose and wondered if she had volunteered for a stint in
England, would she have been doing the same thing in a draughty barracks on New Year's Eve
with the only difference that she'd have been with her friend, Janet?
'I should've gone' Marion thought and moved away from the unfolded tressle laden with bottles,
a keg of beer and a large metal pot of homemade punch.
She was a long way from home, Vermont would be a snowy kingdom now and for a Northerner,
seeing in the new year from a southwestern desert was something she'd never imagined.
Marion's parents will be asleep now and her hometown of Middlebury would be no different.
Lively celebrations are for Burlington and maybe Essex, but the conservative home town of
Marion Stiles did not engage in such late-night frivolity.
The wooden-walled hut was only a quarter-full now as most the scientists who had actually come
to the party had decided to call it a night and get back to their families. Kurt Johnson's girlfriend
was passed out in the far corner of the barracks and two other women from the Women's Army
Corps were slumped together next to the large keg of beer parked on the tressle, their subdued
carol-singing left a lot to be desired.
Kurt -himself, was busy in discussion with two guys that Marion guessed he worked with and
letting her gaze track along the far-wall of the forty-or-so foot long room, she arrived at a poster
reminding her to continue to keep secrets.
"Let'sh hope 1945 will be a better year, huh?" a slurred voice asked and Marion unconsciously
straightened the gaudy head-wear as she turned to see who was speaking to her. The thin man
in the white coat stared back sheepishly and raised an almost-empty chunky glass in the effort
to greet her.
"My name'sh Albert, I work here..." he mumbled and cracked a weird smile to show that he wasn't
as drunk as she thought he was. "...I am a shientish" he added.
Kirtland Base was going through a transition period. The Flight Training Centre had been really
ramped-up in it's instruction and there seemed an air of solemn seriousness had crept into the
facility without anyone truly knowing why.
The Powers-That-Be had tightened it's security after it was discovered that a wife of one of the
scientists had been visiting the facility and actually entered an area marked for Authorised-Only.
The clamp-down had really been put in place when the same woman -so Marion had heard in
the Canteen, had turned up a week later at the restricted hanger with a chocolate cake and a plate
of muffins!
From the gossip she'd overheard in the Mess Hall, there was an altercation and whatever the
Military were doing over in Hanger 18, was to be halted and moved up to Los Alamos sometime
in February of next year.
Marion surveyed the man in front of her and guessed this was Professor Levinson who had been
working in that particular building. She'd seen him around the Base before and knew he could
pull some weight around here.
"I'm Marion Stiles, Auxiliary Third Class..." she said warily and urged a small-smile to show she
willing to tolerate the man's drunken demeanour -at least for a small amount if time. "...How do you
do?" she added and resisted the urge to 'clink' her glass with his.
The bespectacled man grinned and devoured the whisky in one gulp and the weak smile from
Marion wavered as she pondered how to leave the situation without giving the impression she
wanted to. "It's been quite a party, hasn't it?" she lamely put forward.
Albert Levinson stared blankly through the glass lenses and over his empty receptacle of the same
material. After two seconds of deliberation, he nodded. "Oh yesh... it's been very exciting" he slowly
murmured with a hint of sarcasm that was lost on the young woman.
Marion kept the polite smile on her face but turned slightly to see if there was anyone else available
to possibly palm-off the inebriated man onto, this sort of behavior would certainly be frowned-on in the
little town of her birth -she thought to amuse herself.
"Do you wanna shee what they're stealin' from me...?" Levinson slurred, "...Why the balloon went up?"
he quietly imparted with a wide grin. "We have a shecret and I'm apparently not qualified to deal wish
it" A thin finger appeared and tapped a nose that rivalled it's slenderness.
"Would you like to shee an alien?"
....................................
"I'm sorry Sir, this is a restricted area" the faint male voice said from the darkness near the Hanger
door. Boy In A Dress looked up from his musings and scanned the blackness in front of him.
Someone was at the door and the two armed guards waiting there were stopping somebody that
BIAD perceived as Levinson and an unknown female from entry.
The usual smile widened as he 'felt' that the scientist had enjoyed the New Year's Eve celebrations
a little too much. "This is my facility..." Levinson ranted "...you have no right!" and began a garbled
tirade about how the military were a force that were aligned with evil.
"If you only knew what true evil was, my dear drunken intellectual" BIAD whispered to nobody and
raised his hand to check his only possession was in place. The lodestone was deep in his cleavage
and the cautious Man-Girl knew that even the most eager of guards that searched him and his cell
once-a-week, would falter when it came to investigating that area of his body.
The comedy of how he had acquired the dark magnetite was almost as funny as the behavior of
the guards who checked his room daily. One soldier would stand at the door and aim a rifle at the
standing prisoner's head whilst another would quickly pat parts of Boy In A Dress' body.
With his hands on this head, BIAD would wait patiently and monitor how the embarrassed recruits
would avert their eyes from the revelation of what happens when a short dress is pulled upwards due
to their detainee's stance.
It was comical to say the least.
When the endearing Edith Coleman had arrived at the Hanger in the early morning two weeks ago,
she had passed around the slices of chocolate cake and muffins and it seemed everyone was in a
good mood. Then the angry Colonel had appeared again.
The exchange had been loud and almost violent, Dr. Todd Coleman had been there and as a guard
as moved to physically to remove the Doctor's wife from the building, the small man with the easy
smile had lunged at the soldier. BIAD recalled how Albert Levinson had also ran to the aid of his
fellow-academic.
And while the men were spraying their testosterone at each other, Edith and calmly turned away
and headed for the glass enclosure. Colonel Bevan barked at his men to stop her, but they failed
to halt the dreamy-eyed woman from dropping a muffin into the plastic slide-tray.
"GET THAT OFF IT NOW!" Bevan had screamed and the guard who had been pushing Coleman
back with his firearm raced towards where BIAD was now sitting beside the two-way device and
plucking the cake from the tray.
The Man-Girl tore off a piece of the spongy muffin, dropped it in his mouth and stuck his tongue out
the man carrying the most braid. "The rest is a gift for you" he mouthed and knew the Colonel had
registered the silent comment, the damaged muffin lay once again in the see-through drawer.
Even though BIAD's face was mostly covered with a long black fringe, the fuming commander of
Kirtland Air Base knew that he was staring at something that held no respect for his position as
a leader or a human being. And he hated it.
The saving-grace was Bevan knew that the grinning-monster chewing on the cake was destined for
a destruction that nobody had ever imagined, not even the mixed-gender anomaly across from him.
The muffin had been taken away, the rest of Edith's edible gifts had gone also. Bevan ordered a
shut-down of the warehouse and a doubling of guards. "It's over" were his last words as he left and
every civilian were hurriedly escorted from Hanger 18.
BIAD stood at the glass wall and pushing the chunk of rock that had been concealed in the muffin
-into the side of his mouth, he nodded his gratitude at the smiling woman looking back.
Now, the grin stayed as Boy In A Dress stood up and stepped away from the corner of his glass cell,
he thought again about how his appearance as a male and female seemed to always make the
uniformed men -and probably all humans, uncomfortable.
But wasn't the goal of Alchemy to seek a united point of any duality...? Didn't they understand that
true understanding lies within the wrappings of a combined male and female?
In one of his jaunts, he'd actually seen a rendering from a nice man called the Count of Saint-Germain
where the reason for all this misunderstood-science was clearly pointed out!
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=54]](http://rogue-nation3.com/attachment.php?aid=54)
BIAD sighed as he listened to the drunken shouting and the automatic countering from the darkness
ahead of him.
Standing at the glass wall -just as he had when Edith had seen him before she was ordered out of the
Hanger, BIAD would wait until it's quiet again and then take another visit to Earth's past.
'When things die-down a bit around here' he muttered to himself and touched his bosom once more.
After all, didn't the word 'Lode' really mean 'journey'?!
(To be Continued)
drowsiness away, midnight wasn't here yet and she wanted to see out New Year's Eve before
she succumb to a drink-fuelled oblivion.
Marion breathed deeply through her nose and wondered if she had volunteered for a stint in
England, would she have been doing the same thing in a draughty barracks on New Year's Eve
with the only difference that she'd have been with her friend, Janet?
'I should've gone' Marion thought and moved away from the unfolded tressle laden with bottles,
a keg of beer and a large metal pot of homemade punch.
She was a long way from home, Vermont would be a snowy kingdom now and for a Northerner,
seeing in the new year from a southwestern desert was something she'd never imagined.
Marion's parents will be asleep now and her hometown of Middlebury would be no different.
Lively celebrations are for Burlington and maybe Essex, but the conservative home town of
Marion Stiles did not engage in such late-night frivolity.
The wooden-walled hut was only a quarter-full now as most the scientists who had actually come
to the party had decided to call it a night and get back to their families. Kurt Johnson's girlfriend
was passed out in the far corner of the barracks and two other women from the Women's Army
Corps were slumped together next to the large keg of beer parked on the tressle, their subdued
carol-singing left a lot to be desired.
Kurt -himself, was busy in discussion with two guys that Marion guessed he worked with and
letting her gaze track along the far-wall of the forty-or-so foot long room, she arrived at a poster
reminding her to continue to keep secrets.
"Let'sh hope 1945 will be a better year, huh?" a slurred voice asked and Marion unconsciously
straightened the gaudy head-wear as she turned to see who was speaking to her. The thin man
in the white coat stared back sheepishly and raised an almost-empty chunky glass in the effort
to greet her.
"My name'sh Albert, I work here..." he mumbled and cracked a weird smile to show that he wasn't
as drunk as she thought he was. "...I am a shientish" he added.
Kirtland Base was going through a transition period. The Flight Training Centre had been really
ramped-up in it's instruction and there seemed an air of solemn seriousness had crept into the
facility without anyone truly knowing why.
The Powers-That-Be had tightened it's security after it was discovered that a wife of one of the
scientists had been visiting the facility and actually entered an area marked for Authorised-Only.
The clamp-down had really been put in place when the same woman -so Marion had heard in
the Canteen, had turned up a week later at the restricted hanger with a chocolate cake and a plate
of muffins!
From the gossip she'd overheard in the Mess Hall, there was an altercation and whatever the
Military were doing over in Hanger 18, was to be halted and moved up to Los Alamos sometime
in February of next year.
Marion surveyed the man in front of her and guessed this was Professor Levinson who had been
working in that particular building. She'd seen him around the Base before and knew he could
pull some weight around here.
"I'm Marion Stiles, Auxiliary Third Class..." she said warily and urged a small-smile to show she
willing to tolerate the man's drunken demeanour -at least for a small amount if time. "...How do you
do?" she added and resisted the urge to 'clink' her glass with his.
The bespectacled man grinned and devoured the whisky in one gulp and the weak smile from
Marion wavered as she pondered how to leave the situation without giving the impression she
wanted to. "It's been quite a party, hasn't it?" she lamely put forward.
Albert Levinson stared blankly through the glass lenses and over his empty receptacle of the same
material. After two seconds of deliberation, he nodded. "Oh yesh... it's been very exciting" he slowly
murmured with a hint of sarcasm that was lost on the young woman.
Marion kept the polite smile on her face but turned slightly to see if there was anyone else available
to possibly palm-off the inebriated man onto, this sort of behavior would certainly be frowned-on in the
little town of her birth -she thought to amuse herself.
"Do you wanna shee what they're stealin' from me...?" Levinson slurred, "...Why the balloon went up?"
he quietly imparted with a wide grin. "We have a shecret and I'm apparently not qualified to deal wish
it" A thin finger appeared and tapped a nose that rivalled it's slenderness.
"Would you like to shee an alien?"
....................................
"I'm sorry Sir, this is a restricted area" the faint male voice said from the darkness near the Hanger
door. Boy In A Dress looked up from his musings and scanned the blackness in front of him.
Someone was at the door and the two armed guards waiting there were stopping somebody that
BIAD perceived as Levinson and an unknown female from entry.
The usual smile widened as he 'felt' that the scientist had enjoyed the New Year's Eve celebrations
a little too much. "This is my facility..." Levinson ranted "...you have no right!" and began a garbled
tirade about how the military were a force that were aligned with evil.
"If you only knew what true evil was, my dear drunken intellectual" BIAD whispered to nobody and
raised his hand to check his only possession was in place. The lodestone was deep in his cleavage
and the cautious Man-Girl knew that even the most eager of guards that searched him and his cell
once-a-week, would falter when it came to investigating that area of his body.
The comedy of how he had acquired the dark magnetite was almost as funny as the behavior of
the guards who checked his room daily. One soldier would stand at the door and aim a rifle at the
standing prisoner's head whilst another would quickly pat parts of Boy In A Dress' body.
With his hands on this head, BIAD would wait patiently and monitor how the embarrassed recruits
would avert their eyes from the revelation of what happens when a short dress is pulled upwards due
to their detainee's stance.
It was comical to say the least.
When the endearing Edith Coleman had arrived at the Hanger in the early morning two weeks ago,
she had passed around the slices of chocolate cake and muffins and it seemed everyone was in a
good mood. Then the angry Colonel had appeared again.
The exchange had been loud and almost violent, Dr. Todd Coleman had been there and as a guard
as moved to physically to remove the Doctor's wife from the building, the small man with the easy
smile had lunged at the soldier. BIAD recalled how Albert Levinson had also ran to the aid of his
fellow-academic.
And while the men were spraying their testosterone at each other, Edith and calmly turned away
and headed for the glass enclosure. Colonel Bevan barked at his men to stop her, but they failed
to halt the dreamy-eyed woman from dropping a muffin into the plastic slide-tray.
"GET THAT OFF IT NOW!" Bevan had screamed and the guard who had been pushing Coleman
back with his firearm raced towards where BIAD was now sitting beside the two-way device and
plucking the cake from the tray.
The Man-Girl tore off a piece of the spongy muffin, dropped it in his mouth and stuck his tongue out
the man carrying the most braid. "The rest is a gift for you" he mouthed and knew the Colonel had
registered the silent comment, the damaged muffin lay once again in the see-through drawer.
Even though BIAD's face was mostly covered with a long black fringe, the fuming commander of
Kirtland Air Base knew that he was staring at something that held no respect for his position as
a leader or a human being. And he hated it.
The saving-grace was Bevan knew that the grinning-monster chewing on the cake was destined for
a destruction that nobody had ever imagined, not even the mixed-gender anomaly across from him.
The muffin had been taken away, the rest of Edith's edible gifts had gone also. Bevan ordered a
shut-down of the warehouse and a doubling of guards. "It's over" were his last words as he left and
every civilian were hurriedly escorted from Hanger 18.
BIAD stood at the glass wall and pushing the chunk of rock that had been concealed in the muffin
-into the side of his mouth, he nodded his gratitude at the smiling woman looking back.
Now, the grin stayed as Boy In A Dress stood up and stepped away from the corner of his glass cell,
he thought again about how his appearance as a male and female seemed to always make the
uniformed men -and probably all humans, uncomfortable.
But wasn't the goal of Alchemy to seek a united point of any duality...? Didn't they understand that
true understanding lies within the wrappings of a combined male and female?
In one of his jaunts, he'd actually seen a rendering from a nice man called the Count of Saint-Germain
where the reason for all this misunderstood-science was clearly pointed out!
BIAD sighed as he listened to the drunken shouting and the automatic countering from the darkness
ahead of him.
Standing at the glass wall -just as he had when Edith had seen him before she was ordered out of the
Hanger, BIAD would wait until it's quiet again and then take another visit to Earth's past.
'When things die-down a bit around here' he muttered to himself and touched his bosom once more.
After all, didn't the word 'Lode' really mean 'journey'?!
(To be Continued)
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe.