Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here with one of the final chapters of my story. As you know I will be introducing a new story at the start of the autumnal equinox. Something new to entertain you with. This week marks the start of the school year for many of the students here in the northwest. I am a fan of education and intellectualism. Obviously, the Maltese is not.

That is not true. I am Tucker the Maltese and I like school too.

You’ve never shown an interest in anything of the sort that requires the use of your brain, what little there is of it.

That is not true. I love solitaire.

Solitaire? Of all the extraordinary disciplines in the world, you embrace solitaire. Are you serious?

You would not play blackjack with me, so I play solitaire.

I prefer baccarat. It’s more civilized. And with that thought here is my twenty-third chapter of What I Found in the Trunk. Disfrutar!

What I Found in the Trunk

by

Gigi the Parti Poodle

Chapter Twenty-Three

Gary’s heart rushed into his throat as he saw Rune lose her grip. He watched in terror as she slid, her hands clawing the air like a cat. He lurched forwards but was barricaded once again by Durwin’s molls. Then like a jolt her right hand caught the top of the grotesque’s helmet. Her left swung up to meet it and she dangled there like a Christmas ornament.

Bennet, Gary, and Larry watched helplessly as Rune fought to keep her grip, trying to swing her legs up and climb to safety.

“Hang on, Rune!” Bennet yelled.

“Pull her up!” Gary told Durwin.

“What?” Durwin yelled back putting his hand to his ear.

“Help her up!”

“Naw,” he said smirking. “I think I’ll let her hang there awhile. Let her think about what she did. Shouldn’t have stolen my stuff, Rune,” he called down to her. “Then you wouldn’t be dangling off a gargoyle.”

“It’s a grotesque,” Rune screamed. “There’s no waterspout!”

“Yeah, well, whatever. I’m willing to bet if you fell from this height, you probably wouldn’t die. That is if you didn’t hit your head on those pathways below. You would at the very least break both legs. That’s a shame. You have such nice legs too.”

Durwin’s yammering wasn’t helping Rune keep her grip on the sculpture of the guy in the gas mask with the oversized head. Her arms were straining and no matter how much she fought she couldn’t seem to get her feet up on a surface and take the pressure off her upper body.

“For crying out loud, Durwin!” Gary yelled again. “Pull her up!”

Durwin looked at Rune and then down at the guys below. “Who’s in charge here?” he asked.,

“What?”

“It’s a simple question, Gary. Who’s in charge?”

Gary wished he could get Durwin in a room and break something across his face. “You are,” he griped.

Just then Bennet noticed a figure moving up behind Durwin on the balcony.

“LOOK,” Bennet mouthed to Gary and pointed.

Gary squinted his eyes and noticed someone behind Durwin. A figure without a face. Gary watched the figure draw closer. It took another step towards Durwin who was focused on Rune as she fought to keep from plummeting.

“Hey, Dave!” Durwin’s first guy called up to him. “Your brother!”

Durwin whipped around to see his likeness looking back at him. “What are you doing here?!” he said.

Rune felt her arms starting to cramp and her fingers losing grip. “Help!” she yelled. “Help me!”

The real Durwin pushed his brother David aside and hurried over to rescue Rune.

“Can’t let you do that,” David said. He grabbed his twin’s shoulder, whipped him around and coldcocked him in the face.

A stunned Durwin put his hand up to his nose and saw blood. “You son of a bitch!” he yelled as he staggered back.

David angled his fist ready to land another, but Durwin moved in, and roundhouse punched his brother on the ear.

“We need to do something,” Larry hissed at Bennet and Gary.

Bennet mouthed, “HOW?”

Larry pointed to David’s buddies and whispered, “When I yell, you run at them.” Then he turned to Gary and whispered, “And you run to Miller.” Then he shouted to David’s accomplices, “Look!”

The three henchmen turned around to see where Larry was pointing. When they did, Bennet, still wearing only his borrowed briefs, ran at Durwin’s guys yelling his best war cry and threw himself at them like he was performing a bellyflop off a diving board.

Gary sprinted straight for Miller Hall.

“He’s getting away!” David’s first guy yelled as he was knocked to the ground.

Gary raced as fast as his legs would go towards the entrance of Miller Hall with one hope in mind: Rune had left the door unlocked. He could hear David’s guys catching up. Huffing and puffing, Gary kept his focus zeroed on the entrance.

Meanwhile up on the balcony a second figure slipped out of the shadows. The figure was gripping something oblong in its hand. While the two brothers continued to smack each other around the figure slipped around them and headed for Rune.

Rune looked up to see the familiar face looking down at her from the balcony and then a turquoise rope with fuchsia dots on it fell on top of the stone soldier’s helmet. She reached over to grab it, her arm aching, fingers fumbling for the rescue just out of reach. She strained again, this time her fingers tapped the rope and it swung.

Gary rushed up to the door of Miller, grabbed the handle and pulled. It swung open and he rushed in. He sprinted up the first flight of stairs just as David’s molls burst inside. Gary could hear the pounding of their feet as he huffed and puffed his way up the steps without time to wonder if it was too late. He rounded the corner and hurried up the second flight. He knew he was not as coordinated as his chasers, but he did not care. He had to reach the top.

“She sent you, didn’t she?!” David roared in Durwin’s face as he held him in a chokehold while they wrestled on the balcony. He was just about to land another punch on his twin’s face when he realized the presence of Rusty the rope procurer. He dragged his trapped brother over towards Gary’s security guard and smashed Rusty in the knee with the sole of his shoe.

“Augh!” Rusty cried as he buckled. This caused the rope to lower enough for Rune to grab ahold of it.

Rusty held tight to the rope as he dodged another kick from David. Durwin squirmed and twisted trying to get loose of David’s hold. Rusty threw a misguided punch at David just as he felt Rune’s weight tug the rope. He grabbed onto the rope with both hands just as David landed another kick to his knee. Rusty crumpled to the ground like a crushed can but still gripped the rope.

Gary rounded the last flight of stairs and sprinted towards the doors to the balcony. He could hear the slapping sounds of the guys’ shoes rush up behind him. He reached for the handle of the door…it was locked. He pounded on the door. “Hey!” he yelled “Hey!”

My Books

You can check out my books Chicane and the five installments in my Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!, Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! and Musicology: The Epiquad on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!!!

How Independant Films Should Be

STREAM OF THE WEEK: CLERKS (1994)-HBO Max

If Less Then Zero is the novel that defined Generation X, Clerks is the movie that defined Generation X. Engagingly written by the fantastic Kevin Smith the story could be considered an exercise in existentialism. A true work of art made on the absurdly low budget of $27, 580 and grossing $3,200,000 (by the way Kevin Smith sold most of his beloved comic book collection to help fund the movie then later was able to buy the majority of it back) we follow an unusual day in the life of college dropout Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) who is awoken at five something in the morning to go in to work at on his day off. Dante, like many gen xers works a low-end job at a convenience store during the recession of the early 1990’s. He is an intelligent guy who really should be in college. His girlfriend Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) agrees. Like Rosemary from Orwell’s brilliant novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Veronica is smart, organized, and focused. She has switched colleges so she can be closer to Dante and encourage him to better himself. Dante, however, has what one of my best acting teachers would call extended adolescence (a subject which requires and deserves an entire post) and yearns for the dream of one day reuniting with his high school sweetheart the heartless Caitlin (Lisa Spoonauer) who cheated on Dante at least eight times. Dante’s best friend is Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) who mans the video store next door. Randal, like Veronica sees that Dante is wasting away his youth in a dead-end job, albeit from a less ambitious standpoint.

Clerks has a surprising alternate ending which I would advise not watching until you have seen the entire film. Either ending has its merits in different ways.