Good afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here again to introduce chapter sixteen of my story Power Grid Failure. I had a busy President’s Day weekend. My novelist and I traveled to a relative’s home to help do some clean up and prepare for a garage sale. This was no easy task. They had a lot of old letters and papers they wanted to get rid of, so we found ourselves doing quite a bit of shredding. We ended up with a couple garbage bags full of chopped paper. We carried items up and down stairs so much my delicate paws began to ache. I must say my novelist’s relatives are quite organized and all the items had tables and sections to separate out the different types of treasures. We had to decide what was good to sell and what wasn’t worth the effort. My novelist took some things we first thought to be rubbish and moved them to the sale tables. There is still quite a bit of work to do but I believe we made a rather significant dent. The Maltese, however, did nothing. He was useless.

The whole trip zapped the energy from me and between the arduous voyage and bad weather I have not had a walk for a week. But as soon as the weather gets better, I plan to trot about outside and enjoy the last bit of winter before spring makes its entrance. In the meantime, I am going to bush up on my chess playing skills and catch up on my Oscar nominated films. And on that note, here sis chapter sixteen of my story Power Grid Failure. tIv!

Power Grid Failure

by

Gigi the Parti Poodle

Chapter Sixteen

“First,” Reynolds says, “we need to get Crystal out of this room so I can show her what to do.”

“This is a half-baked idea,” Sloan gripes. “You’re going to get those two women hurt.”

“Do you have a better idea?” Mr. Peak asks.

“I just don’t want to see Tiffany get hurt.”

“Or Crystal.”

“Yeah, her too. Whatever.”

“We need an excuse to get Crystal and I out of this glass cage,” Reynolds says. “Does anyone have any suggestions?”

Just then Crystal, who was sitting in the opposite corner rises and heads towards the door.

“Hey!” Remmel snaps at her. “Sit down.”

“I need a drink of water,” Crystal says. “I’m parched.”

Reynolds hops to his feet. “I’ll go with her.”

“I think she’s old enough to get her own drink of water, pal.”

“I wasn’t talking about her. I was talking about me. I’m thirsty too, you know.”

“Too bad.”

“Let them get some water,” Martin says. “The heat in this building makes the air as dry as a desert.”

Craggy looks from Crystal to Reynolds and back again. He turns to Remmel and shrugs.

Remmel sighs. “Five minutes, bud.”

Crystal shoots Reynolds a confused look then continues out the door. Once both are outside the glass and out of earshot Reynolds hurries up beside her and says, “We need your help.”

“We?” Crystal says.

“All of us. Dragontail is planning to hand Tiffany over to Unicorn.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve known the guy for years and I know how he thinks. If Adams is right about Unicorn, Tiffany is a bargaining chip.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“If I can show you a couple of things you can do to incapacitate Unicorn, Adams can get into Unicorn’s control room, reverse this lock down and we can all get out of here.”

“How are you going to get Adams into the control room if I incapacitate Unicorn?”

“Let’s say I learned a couple of things in prison that can help you and Tiffany. The thing is I can’t get to Tiffany. But I can teach you and you can show her. If I can talk Dragontail into taking both of you over to Unicorn we’re halfway there.”

“I thought Unicorn was going to unlock the building once Adams sent him the email.”

“He’s not. He’s in cahoots with Dragontail just like Remmel and Craggy. They’ve probably been planning this thing for weeks. But if you let me show you a few things we can catch them off-guard and Adams can get in there.”

“Alright. What do you want me to do?”

“Are you right-handed or left-handed?”

“Right.”

“Face me.”

Crystal turns and faces him.

“Step your right foot back and keep your left foot forwards.”

Crystal steps her right foot back.

“Hold your right palm open, keep it flat and bring it back so it’s right in front of your shoulder. Think of it like it’s coiled back ready to strike.”

Crystal holds her right hand open and coils it back.

“Aim for my nose and…strike!”

Crystal shoves the heel of her right-hand forwards. Reynolds steps out of the way to avoid getting struck.

“Good. That stance you’re positioned in right there is the bus rider stance like when you’re riding a bus and you have one foot forwards and one foot back to maintain balance. Strike with the same hand as the foot you’ve got back. Now, do it again.”

Crystal coils back her arm and palm-heels the air again. “It would be better if I could make contact with something.”

Reynolds looks around. He sees a large round-faced teddy bear sitting on a desk. He snatches it up and holds it in front of his face. “Now try.”

Crystal coils back her arm and thrusts her hand forwards smacking Teddy in the face.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Reynolds says.

“Yes, it does.”

“So, you’re going to do a three-strike combination: right, left, right.”

“I thought I was supposed to strike with the same hand I have back.”

“The first strike should come from the same side as the foot you have back.”

“Okay.”

“Right, left, right. Let’s go.”

Crystal strikes with her right hand, then her left, then her right.

“Got to go faster. Wham, wham, wham! Stun him.”

Crystal tries again, this time faster and harder. Strike, strike, strike.

“There you go. Now, try this.” He sets the teddy bear back on the desk. “We’re going to do this slowly. First, you’re going to grab my ear. I don’t care if it’s the right or the left but grab it and hang on. Go.

Crystal reaches over and grabs his right ear.

“Now, you’re going to pretend to smash the outside of my knee with the bottom of your foot.”

Crystal lifts her foot about to strike.

“Now, hang on. The operative word here is pretend. Don’t strike the side of my knee, just pretend to because I don’t want to have to be carted off to the hospital. You just want to raise your foot to my knee level and punch the air like you were going to strike me. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“However, when you’re confronted by Unicorn you really want to strike the outside of his knee. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Good. Go.”

Crystal keeps her grip on Reynold’s ear and lifts her foot. She strikes and comes dangerously close to Reynold’s knee.

“Whoa! Alright good. Now, release my ear and let’s take it from the top. Only this time let’s do another three-part combination. So, you’re going to grab my ear with one hand, palm-heel me with the other and then strike my outer knee with the sole of your foot.”

“That’s a lot to remember.”

“You’re going to have to remember it because we don’t have much time.”

Crystal took a deep breath and as she exhaled, she grabbed Reynold’s right ear with her left hand, fake palm-heeled him with her right, lifted her foot, struck and barely missed his knee.

“Excellent. Now, I’m going to show you two more moves. Stand with your feet parallel.”   

Crystal stands with her feet parallel. Reynolds puts his hands around Crystal’s neck as if he is about to strangle her.

“I don’t like this.”

“That’s why I’m going to show you how to get out of it. You’re going to raise your arms and make your hands into fists. Do it slowly because we’re practicing here. As you bring your fists down on my arms at the same time you bring your right foot back, so you are in that bus rider position again. That will break his chokehold. Try it.”

Crystal brings her fists down while simultaneously assuming her bus rider position and breaks Reynolds’s chokehold.

“Good. Now, that leg you have back you’re right leg? You’re going to grab both my arms for support and bring your right knee into his groin. Wham! Except on me you’re just going to fake it. Don’t knee me in the groin. Got it?”

Crystal grabs both of his arms, brings her knee in, and…

“I see you two are getting close.”

Crystal and Reynolds whip around, startled to see Remmel standing there.

“Yeah,” Reynolds says. “I was showing her some dance moves.”

“I’ll bet. Times up.”

“Okay,” Crystal says.

“Move.”

Crystal and Reynolds head towards the office with Remmel following behind.

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and all five installments of the 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!

STREAM OF THE WEEK: WAYNE (2019)-AMAZON PRIME

The best television show in the past five years you probably haven’t seen is this one. And that’s saying a lot when you consider the best shows you probably have seen like Better Call Saul, Cobra Kai, and Severance. Depressingly, they only made one season of it. But what a season. There is not a character in this thing that isn’t interesting nor a twist that isn’t well set up. But Amazon really REALLY should pick up the reins and make a second season. Even if they must set it a couple years later.   

The show, much like Cobra Kai started out on YouTube. I think Hollywood needs to pay more attention to YouTube because they are becoming the new frontier for hidden gems. It was created by whip-smart and fearless Shawn Simmons who knows how to make a very balanced comedy. The show has an incredible compass that knows how to navigate through the darkest of moments to the most poignant of moments while at the same time keeping the audience in stitches. And by the way, the acting is sensational and well-cast.

Sixteen-year-old Wayne (Mark McKenna) is an angry, violent yet deeply moral and valiant young man whose reputation proceeds him. His father Wayne Sr. (Ray McKinnon) is dying of cancer. Wayne Sr. once owned a 1979 Trans-Am that his wife, Wayne’s mother Maureen McNulty (Michaela Watkins) stole and put in the possession of her new boyfriend Calvin Clay (Kirk Ward) and his pinhead son Reggie (Francesco Antonio). Wayne has decided the car is his birthright and sets out to get it back by taking a road trip on his motorbike from Boston to Florida. On the precipice of his odyssey, a young fifteen-year-old named Delilah ‘Del’ Luccetti (Ciara Bravo) knocks on his door trying to sell boxes of stolen cookies. Wayne finds himself enamored with the girl and request she accompany him on his journey. This is much to the dismay of Del’s father Bobby Luccetti (Dean Winters) who has no plans of allowing his daughter to make the trip and after an altercation with Wayne, he enlists Del’s older ne’er-do-well brothers, twins Carl Luccetti (Jon Champagne) and Teddy Luccetti (Jamie Champagne) as well as Police Sergeant Stephen Geller (Stephen Kearin) and his partner Officer Jay Ganetti (James Earl) to assist him on the hunt. Also following Wayne in hopes of protecting the boy are Wayne’s high school principal Principal Tom Cole (Mike O’Malley) and Wayne’s best friend Orlando Hikes (Joshua J. Williams).