From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: Re: Callahan's coots?
Organization: Data I/O Corporation
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 01:02:59 GMT

Liralen blinks into appearance while David is still busy with Susan.  She
frowns, a little bit worried for him, for her, she isn't quite sure which.
She quirks an odd grin at Jilara and shrugs.  So it is...

She listens to Mishael and P'relan and grins.  "What do I remember?"  For a
long moment she looks at P'relan and sees a black fuzzy with a silver star
and remembers when the rider of the blue once wore black, the fireplace
where butterflies and birds had bloomed, the rafters where an emerald
tiger used to sleep, the place where there used to be a fencing strip.
She looks at the bar where she first came in and greeted her very real,
true blood sister, Kathy Li, aka the Rev Mom.  And suddenly realized that
Fezzik, when he'd first come into this Place had been a gangling teenager
of a year a old pup.   The exit of the Troll into the Winterlands, an owl
and a unicorn and a stranger behind them... she shivers in the memory of
that pain and the first suicide of one of the patrons of this Place.  That
one had had no one to remember him.

She remembers snow and countless rainbows, a mud fight and the first water
fight in the Place.  She grins a little at the memory of Jilara on the roof
with the water cannon, the thought of Birith on the roof covered with mud,
of Toothpick completely surrounded by rainbows drifting down from the
ceiling of the Place.  

She remembers picnics and BBQs out by the lakeshore near the Place, the
woods, an amethyst Rose plucked before its time, a man she met who
mirrored her in so many ways, a vampire who had to choose between wildfire
and hearthfire, and a Lamp that almost always shone with a light given by
the Lamplighter.  She remembers the Deadrunner when she used to just be
a.c..  She remembers the sweet voice of Windsinger and the laughing chorus
on the tape, and hearing that voice close up when she and her John had
'dropped in' at Cambridge.  A whirlwind tour of a place with much history
and Nicki exclaiming, afterwards, in email,  "I know you're American, but
your accent surprised me!"

She remembers a warm, small house, with a wall completely covered with
books, and a gathering of people on Valentine's Day that she'll never
forget.  Hugging a teddy bear and his comfortable cat of a wife, and the
small child they had then.  She remembers meeting Jilara for the first
time and being well pleased with the realty of the person behind the
strength she'd always felt was there, and getting a hand on Grendel and
being frightened by a sword for the first time in her life.  And laughing
a little at how everyone had exclaimed over how YOUNG the real Liralen Li
seemed to be.  The outside never showed the scars within.  

She remembers a rose stripped of its thorns that, in her hands, was healed
and whole again, even as it ripped a hole in her own flesh; and that
same, whole rose cupped between two hands, heady with it's fragrence as
she loped behind an 8 foot tall Erik the Red on a 'long' tour of the
Berkeley campus.  The thorns picking in a constant contrast to the
fragrance of what she held.  Just as the ache of her back constantly
reminded her of her deep love for another ex-Callahans patron.

She remembers Prong, a man full of scars and mystery and the beginning of
something chrome and quick.  Followed by Koyannisquatsi and Yukipuma that
led to a.c2, and some scarring as well as a lot of joy.  She remembers a
time when almost every post ended with a *crash* and VAX's creation for a
job that, at that time, had been very necessary.  She remembers a man who
came in, deaf and mute, who had watched as the flames licked at the broken
glass, the broken wishes and dreams within...

She remembered the Lurker and Nick Chopper working frantically to get the
necessary parts together for an intelligent VAX.  She remembers the sharp
faced, whitened Enigma, who was so closed as to who he was, yet cried at
everyone giving him a birthday celebration.   She remembers Dani Zweig and
Phee's story and awful pun on the cot in the backroom.  She remembers
Gilly, the one who had first brought the story of warm fuzzies to this
Place, and how comfortable it used to be to just talk about human concerns
and desires.

She looks around, and realizes that, perhaps, it is coming around again.
With the memory of the Artful Dodger, dealing with the very real concerns
of Jay, and the happy laughter of the Sprite, perhaps it was always as she
remembered it, just with a new bunch of people...

"Carl?" She says to the insulin toting man, "I hope to see the second
half of that post.  And, actually, I had this feeling of complete and
utter detachment, like when I'm under *high* stress and pain and things
are happening that I simply can't change by wanting to.  Like the time
when I went ballistic off an allergy shot and had to have an adrenaline
shot in order to even manage to breath.  I was lying there shaking like a
leaf but completely and perfectly calm.  I was even asking the nurse for
details as to what was happening to me and what might happen if the
adrenaline didn't grab.  She was a ton or two better than your nurses,
though, and answered concisely and clearly.  It was weird and it was
interesting.  And your account reminded me of it."

She picks up a Thomas Kemper's Helles lager, in honor of the first drink
she ever had in this Place.  She downs the golden brew, and holds up the
glass, "To three years...  or more... I'm not sure..." she laughs. "It
*might* have been around August of 1989, as someone just gave me a post of
mine that dated back that far.  If anyone knows of anything earlier, I'd
love to see it..." she says and laughs... and throws.

*Crash!*
----
Liralen Li
li@inigo.Data-IO.com