Weekend Valkyries Ch. 02

I had a rough time last week and I didn't really get much out of it... but... I can't deny it was a thrill. When Thursday came around again I felt myself hurry to finish up my work and just seemed to get ready on autopilot.

I parked my car at Sydenham station a few blocks from the side ally to the bus depot and hid my keys behind the front bumper before I set off along the road in nothing other than my cotton boxer bodysuit clutching my $40 as instructed. I was looking toward the buildings that had the games in last week but I didn't see any red arrow to guide me in this time.

I got to back of the empty bus depot. With no shoes and no watch, I was standing in the middle of the industrial area with no activity around, I wondered what time it was. It seemed like about I had waited about a quarter of an hour when I got their note, so around 7.20 - 7.30pm I guess... The note from the Valkyries was tied to the end of a water balloon that hit me in the back of the head. I thought I saw a small pink car drive off but wasn't sure that was where it came from.

It had a shopping list that would just about cover the money I had been told to bring I thought:

Beer, cooking oil, flour, paper glue, toilet paper, poster paint, 3 trigger sprayers ...etc just a bunch of ordinary stuff. I could get it all at a supermarket. Happy to be on another adventure and without a thought to how I was dressed I set off to the mini supermarket in the petrol station a four blocks up the highway.

I got progressively more cheers, whistles and car horns as I quickly walked along the dark footpath beside the highway, quite a sight I guess in the dying light of dusk for the shoppers driving home. I got the groceries first then crossed the road to the pub for beer at the bottle shop. I noticed the little red light of a DV camera. The woman standing on the corner was filming me as I walked into the bottle-o. On the way out she gestured me to walk to the well-lit car park behind the pub. The Lady with the camera walked me over to her little pink car and took my shopping bags. She gave me a Train ticket for the Gosford train to Hawkesberry River. I walked up to Sydenham station and got the train. It felt like more than hour on the train, but an excited feeling kept me going against growing nervousness.

When I got off the train at Hawkesberry river station the video camera Lady met me and walked me down to a small aluminum boat. Camera running while it dangled from a lanyard around her neck. We traveled across the water to a small park with a jetty a few hundred meters away. There were a dozen or so statues and stone sculptures in a grassy field between the train tracks and the river shore. There was no light except for the jetty, the half platform of the train station and the odd passing intercity train. None seemed to stop at the little station in front of the sculpture park. The station had no road access or even any buildings on it.

I was looking at the lights of the station when I felt a thin cloth hood cover the top of my head and face and two straws go up my nose. Without a word I was posed like a star jump and then mummy wrapped in toilet paper and sprayed all over with watery glue and sprinkled with flour. I could hear another boat arrive. There seemed to be a number of women's voices. I could feel string being tied at limbs and joints and I was repositioned a few times while more glue, paper and I think clay was added. I was slowly loosing outside sound as the -people- set about mummifying my whole body. I was sat on a big rock, right elbow on left knee, right fingers tied up under my chin. After a few minuets the glue started to set and I could feel it pulling on my skin. I tried to say something but my mouth and jaw were shut tight, a toot sound came out my nose straws but was ignored. I could feel hands all over me and hear muffles voices, excited giggling and the ever-softening 'sssh' of spray bottles and bip-beep of digital camera snaps.

Another half an hour or so and I was completely immobilized. I could still feel the odd pressure here and there as more paper and clay were added and a brushing sound as layers were added to my head near my ears, but I couldn't hear voices or much of any outside sounds at all. Suddenly all the activity stopped and I could hear the low chug of a large boat go past, or maybe a diesel train? Then nothing for a while and another train for sure this time. I started to get worried because I had to go to work the next morning and it was almost certainly past 11pm at this point. I heard a woman say.

"See you in a few hours boys."

And shortly after than I heard very faint laughter and the boats leave.

I struggled to get free but I was stuck fast. I thought for an hour or so "They will be back any second to free me and see the look an my face."

I don't know how but I fell asleep for while and woke up to the feeling of cutting through my body cast. I got cheers as the hood came off my head and I stepped out of the body cast.

On the ground in the early morning light it looked like "The thinker". My bodysuit had fused and ripped off with the cast the outline of my body was very clear. I was dazed and stark naked in the sculpture park as a train went past. It was just before sun rise and the video lady handed me a robe and a train ticket back to Sydenham. She packed up a few time laps cameras and other equipment into a big hard case before dropping me off at Brooklyn jetty.

I got home in just enough time to shower and get to work. I checked my email and their was an invitation to be a "Subject of the Valkyries''". The instructions began that afternoon.

To be continued...