everything seemed to go smoothly. victor, cleo, and joanie got into the other dimension through the portal in the back of mister green’s deli.
as they waited at a dock to get on board the cruise ship in their capacities as a butler and two maids, cleo and joanie ran through the routine with victor again. he told them he had it down.
they got on board and took up their positions in a little waiting room. through a small porthole in the room victor could see the blue sky and calm sea.
cleo gave victor his signal and he went through a small door into a larger room with a large window on what looked to victor like a bluer sky and a calmer sea. there were couches along the walls, but they were empty.
four persons were seated around a table in the center of the room. there were coffee cups on the table, and cards, but they seemed to be just talking, not playing cards.
victor recognized hillary clinton , who was seated with her back to the window. a woman who sat across from her must have been angela merkel. a man who victor thought was vladimir putin faced the door victor had walked through, and looked up when victor entered. a bigger man with his back to victor had to be george soros. not that victor really cared who was who - he just wanted to speak his lines.
which were? victor’s mind went blank.
“why are you staring at us like an orangutan, fellow?” vladimir putin asked victor.
“we have excellent vodka, if you would like some with your coffee,” victor heard joanie whisper from behind the door.
“we have excellent vodka!” victor shouted, as loud as he could, “if you would like some with your - your - “
“coffee!” joanie whispered so loudly that the four players must have heard her.
“coffee!” victor shouted. the players, except vladimir putin, laughed.
george soros turned around and asked victor, “how much is that coffee per ton, eh?” and the two women laughed.
victor tried to collect himself. “we have excellent vodka, if you would like some with your coffee,” he repeated in an almost normal voice.
hillary clinton laughed. “we heard you the first time,” she turned to angela merkel. “ nellie, where do they get these people?”
nellie? “i don’t know, “ angela merkel/nellie replied. “what say you, nicky?” she asked george sproos.
suddenly cleo appeared at victor’s side, in her maid’s uniform. “we apologize for any awkwardness,” she smiled sweetly at the players. “please understand we have had a long journey… “
“understand?” vladimir putin replied. “i think i understand only too well.” he had already stood up and now he produced a pistol which he leveled at victor and cleo. “something is very wrong here. why has the sky turned yellow? why is it raining frogs?”
the sky outside had turned yellow and it was raining frogs. cleo grabbed victor’s arm and dragged him behind the door he had entered from.
“let’s haul ass!”, cleo shouted, and victor and joanie followed her running down a corridor onto the deck. the sea was churning with frogs and rain and victor thought he saw a sea serpent but he jumped into the water with cleo and joanie and as soon as they started swimming they heard shots …
somehow they made it to shore. the yellow sky had turned black and the frogs had stopped and the sea serpent and the bullets had not got them but rain was pouring down.
“now what?” victor asked.
“there’s a country road.” joanie pointed into the darkness. “i guess we just follow it until we find a dimension embarkation point.”
they started down the road. the whole time they followed it, cleo and joanie argued about whether victor , “the rookie” , was to blame for the fiasco. cleo taking the view that he was, and joanie sort of defending him and insisting the whole thing must have been fucked up to begin with.
“the committee will have to decide,” they both finally agreed. with that they lapsed onto silence. victor did not think that sounded very promising, and concentrated on just keeping up with them.
at last they found themselves, cold and wet, back in the back room of mister green’s deli, at eleven o’clock on sunday night. the place was closed, and mister green had gone home.
“what a fuck up,” cleo said one last time, with one last glare at victor.
victor decided not to say anything about his hundred dollars. he would come back on monday after work and ask mister green about it. he went home and went to bed.
so ended sarah’s, terence’s, ursula's and victor’s accounts of their weekends.
“and how about you, robert?” sarah asked. “what did you do on the weekend?.”
robert had spent the weekend drinking pabst beer and eating pizza and watching flintstones and perry mason and big valley reruns. “not much, “ was all he answered.
“that’s what i want to do next weekend,” terence replied, and they all laughed.
ursula looked up at the clock on the cafeteria wall. it was five minutes past eight o’clock. “we better get going,” she said. “robert, are you going to help me out with the collins and sanchez proposal?”
“sure. i said i would.”
“bethany will have our asses if we don’t finish it today.”
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