The Shasta Caper, Chapter Forty-Two is now posted on ImagineNation

Chapter Forty-Two

It was later that night. If you can call perpetual noon night time that is, thought Samuel, as he groaned and rolled over on a cushion of intensely soft feathers that was about the size of a queen size bed. He had a nice balcony overlooking a beautiful flower garden below and it adjoined a suite that Jimbo slept in on the one side and Nanny's on the other.

Before retiring in the extremely elegant home that Darrel and Meagol had brought them home to, they had agreed to stay as close as possible, but the two rather wholesome, but somewhat angelic personalities had insisted on separate rooms. In their world people didn't sleep so close unless they were united in a bond of perpetual love and union. 

Jimbo and Samuel had both shook their heads at that one, and Nanny had emphatically insisted she was having none of that to do with either one of them.

Darrel and Meagol had both looked at each other and laughed. No one got the joke, but evidently to these tall giants with their somewhat vast intellects, the human seemed a bit on the quaint, if not  a bit neanderthalish side of things.

"Breakfast anyone?" Asked Nanny, as she stepped into the room with a large tray, loaded up with fresh exotic fruit and strange breads and butters. Jimbo came in from the other side at the same time, scratching in places he probably would have ignored had he known she would be seeing him at his worst.

He frowned a moment, then shrugged. They'd already been through so much, what was one more thing?

Jimbo sat on one end of Samuel cushion bed and Nanny the other and they spread their breakfast out between them on a cloth woven of some kind of silkish material laced with gold and silver in patterns that resembled fractals.

"Whatever these people are." Jimbo said, between mouthfuls of some strange kind of sweet bread. 

 "Terrible cooks they are not. I could make a fortune off the recipe for this back in Texas."

"You men!" Nanny complained. "All you think about is food, sex and money."

Jimbo almost choked on his food.

Samuel patted him on the back. "Jimbo, she's got you nailed between an anvil and a hard place. Give up."

Jimbo scowled at him, but said nothing. Instead, he reached for a crispy yellow fruit and took a huge bite off it, making it sound like he was crunching into the neck of something living. His eyes were directed to Nanny as he did.

She shook her head. "It'll take more than a fancy fruit to shake this gal up, Jimmie boy."

Jimbo sighed, then reached for some more bread.

"So what's the plan?" Nanny asked, as she reached for a silver goblet of water that was also on the tray. One for each of them.

The goblets had the faces of famous men upon them. Artistotle, Socrates, Hercules, Osiris and so forth.

Samuel sipped at his water. He hadn't eaten a thing. For some reason he wasn't a bit hungry. Al sat on the other side of Samuel frowning at him. "You got to eat to keep your courage up."

"My courage's up!" Samuel complained a bit too loudly.

Jimbo looked over at him. "They back?"

Samuel rolled his eyes.

Jimbo looked over at Nanny. She could see them again too. She gave him a thumbs up.Jimbo sighed. "Why does everyone see angels, but me?"

Al said. "Maybe it's because you want to so badly." Then he grinned. "Or maybe it's because they don't want you to see them."

Samuel relayed the message and Jimbo grinned. "Good to know they have some kind of sense of humor."

Samuel smiled. "If they didn't, we'd have ended up like Sodom and Gomorrah a long time ago."

That gave Jimbo something to think about.

Samuel picked up a fruit and began nibbling on it.

Marilyn materialized next to him and let her golden hair touch his briefly. He felt a tingling go up and down his spine. "Sammie, we love you. Don't be disappointed if everything doesn't turn out the way you expect."

Samuel took a deep breath. "Has it ever?"

Al laughed and Marilyn giggled.

"Has it ever what?" Jimbo asked.

"Worked out the way we thought it would."

"Oh. Nope." Jimbo agreed. "Not one damned time!"

There was a knock on Samuel's door and it opened. Darrel entered. He was all smiles.

"The  Council of the Ancients has agreed to meet with you."

Samuel gave him a surprised look. "We never asked to meet with them. As a matter of fact, we didn't even know they existed."

Darrell gave them a mysterious smile. "Oh, you know them all right, you just don't remember 

because they can cloud your mind to forget if they want to. If they didn't do that, you mortals would never get any real growth in on your planet."

Jimbo groaned. "Oh, God, not you two! Doesn't anyone ever talk about anything but spiritual growth, angels and redemption?"

"Nope!" Darrell and Samuel said at the same time.

"Now that's just plain creepy!" Jimbo muttered, holding his fork and spoon up like a cross to ward off vampires.

Darrell laughed, then turned around to exit. "Meagol will come for the three of you in about an hour. The meeting is close by, so it'll give us all a chance to show off our land while we walk there."

He closed the door.

Samuel and Jimbo exchanged glances.

Jimbo tiptoed to the door and tried it, then shook his head.

He came back.

"Why would they lock us in, if they're friendly and they know so much?" Jimbo asked.

Samuel looked over at Al, who was suddenly examining his thumbs. He looked at Marilyn and she got busy brushing her hair and avoiding his eyes.