Amor Fabula Ep. 04

Her cries of passion were for him cries of accusation. No more, Rudy thought, as he pushed away from her. There was still a chance for him to flee, if he could only reach the door. His body rebelled on him, shifting around clumsily on his small bed instead of escaping when it had the chance to.

His back went on the mattress, where Connie's back had rested only seconds before. They held each other's arms as they switched places, as if they both knew how fleeting this instant was going to be, as if they were keeping themselves apart in a false way that was betrayed by their sensual grips. As if they both did and did not want this to happen. The universe conspired to make them bond together in the flesh, Rudy thought, or maybe it was just a mischievous monkey with a strange remote control in his hands.

Connie straddled him, crying out to set the perfect tone again, loosening Rudy's control on his will so that nothing mattered except for the music to continue. Her thighs were warm against him, quickly becoming damp with sweat as if someone turned the temperature up by fifty degrees. Those two large breasts swung back and forth in their irregular cadence, as if each one had a different race to run and was eager to win. The hot, hot heat around them became a furnace, stifling them and quickening their breaths. But the heat was not around them, it was within them, amplified between them until it went supernova and threatened to melt them or to fuse them together.

For a moment, for a blink of the eye of the universe, their inner heat united them. They found that which everyone seeks but only a very few can find: balance, harmony, peace. The moment was brief, but the universe took note of it and jotted it into its archive of eternity.

Still the couple writhed, with Connie pressed tight against Rudy's firm frame, and Rudy using the strength of his arms to bring them even closer together. Connie cried out, while Rudy gasped and felt his body give its final give. Sensual tremors took over them both.

Rudy stood there, a few feet away from Connie, who was still standing in the center of his room. They were both looking at each other in a strange way. Their clothes were still on. In their minds, they had been lusting after one another, but that feeling was gone now. It was as if they had gone into another place and had explored one another's bodies and souls for all of time. They were as intimate as longtime lovers in another world, but in this world, the real one, they merely happened to be neighbors. Strangely, they were both drenched in sweat from head to toe, as if they'd just come out of a steam bath.

"I'll try not to play my music so loud." Connie said, before she nervously shuffled away and out the door.

That was close, Rudy thought. The last thing he wanted was to put his hands on his landlord's wife and get kicked out of the apartment as a result. He liked living in his little studio because things were set up exactly like he wanted them to be.

Something had just happened between them that Rudy did not understand, because it had been fogged up in his memory as soon as it was over. It was like a lucid dream in the daytime, with two people in it instead of one. For some reason, he wondered if messing around in the dream state could be seen as infidelity. His bed was wet with sweat, just as his body was.

That was weird, he thought. And what's this thing about a monkey? Why was there a monkey in his mind all of a sudden?

"Crazy dream." Rudy said, as he pulled off his shirt and saw how wet and sticky it was. "Yuck!"

His shorts and boxers were in the same sweaty state.

"I need a shower, like right now." Rudy decided.

As he stepped into his bathroom, all thoughts of other dimensions and strange monkeys faded away from his memory.

Mindy, the Heartbreaker

"Oh, my bright and shiny star, I do wonder where you are." The very pretty blonde sang, as she danced her way across her apartment. "Let kingdoms come and kingdoms fall, yet my love with weather through it all. I see the stars and see the sky, but their long lasting is less than mine!"

The blonde danced this way and that, trying as hard as she could to maintain her state of glorious happiness. She stood at 5' 4", petite of frame and proportioned in a most sensual way, but there was more to her, much, much more, than met the eye. This young woman's aura exuded power, grace and the courage to subdue worlds. Because she was indoors, she wore only her bra and panties, both of which were soft and pink.

"Give me a B, give me an E, give me a T..." She said, reverting to the time when she'd been captain of the cheerleading squad, which wasn't very long ago at all.

Her dancing brought her before the full-length mirrors that covered her closet doors. Upon seeing her gorgeous frame, the teenage beauty shifted her hips to the side, because she loved the way her butt curved. Then she simply turned around and started shaking her tushie while watching her reflection. This made her feel hot and naughty, but her favorite crimson-haired lover was nowhere close. The girl pouted, feeling some of her love and desire begin to fade away, and once again she thought to hold on to it.

"I'm too sexy for my mirror, so sexy it huuuurrrts." She sang, turning around to shake her apple-sized breasts. "Oh, I so want Bethany to give me what I want. I'd better stop before I fiddle myself silly... What's this?"

In the mirror's reflection, the blonde saw her tall wardrobe that looked like it came from a Disney princess movie, and her canopy bed of white with sheer pink veils around it. In fact, the entire room was white with great splashes of pink. Something the girl did not expect to see in her apartment bedroom was a little monkey sitting on her bed. The creature was wearing clothes, curiously enough, but what caught her eye most of all was that the monkey looked so dignified and regal that she couldn't help but start giggling.

"Hi, monkey!" The girl called out. "You look like you're tame, but if you're not, I'm going to wish you into a cage. Would you like a banana, monkey?"

The monkey at first thought the young woman would walk out of the room to get him the food, but no, a bunch of bananas simply appeared next to him. The monkey was so startled he shrieked a monkey shriek and jumped. After he handled the bananas and saw that they were indeed real, the monkey gleefully took one from the bunch and began to peel it. It could be assumed that the monkey was very hungry by then.

"Don't worry about the mess, I'll wish it away later." The girl said, as she strode across the room. "How did you get in, anyway? I thought I had everything closed up."

"Where did these bananas come from?" The monkey asked.

The blonde paused in her tracks, before she started giggling again. "I didn't know monkeys could talk! That's so cool! Say something else!"

"First, tell me how these bananas came to be."

"It's because Iiiimmm quantum!" The girl set her hands on her hips and posed like a superhero. "You didn't sneak into just anybody's bedroom, monkey. I am Mindy, the Yellow Queen of the Heartbreakers. My Heartbreakers rule the world, and I rule my Heartbreakers. Who taught you how to talk, anyway?"

"Are you truly a queen?" The monkey asked, as it chewed on its banana.

In a very pretty way, Mindy shrugged her shoulders. "What can I say? I rule, suckers drool. Do you have a name?"

At this, the little monkey set its banana down and stood up. Perhaps he was trying to match Mindy's previous pose, for he puffed out his little chest and held his monkey chin up. "I am the Monkey King of China, from the great Mountain of Fruits and Flowers." A moment later, the monkey's regal posture shifted and he showed a face of shock. "You must forget I said that! It is part of the game that I keep my identity unknown to those I visit, according to the rules of the manual I read. Let me reveal myself again. I am the ghost of Christmas past. Do you believe me?"

"Of course not, silly!" Mindy laughed. "You're a monkey! Are you really a king? What's that like, do you have a harem of lady monkeys or something? Do you sit around and have other monkeys bring grapes to you? I don't think you're a king. I think you got away from a circus somewhere."

The monkey looked perturbed. "I am the equal of any god in Heaven. Do you see this?" The monkey reached behind his ear to bring out something that looked like a needle. "This was given to me by Dragon King."

"It looks like a paperclip." Mindy got close enough to look.

"If I had enough space in this dwelling, I could turn this into a tower high enough to reach Heaven, or into a bridge that can span the widest river. I can also turn this into a mighty fighting staff."

"It doesn't look like that much to me." Mindy shrugged.

"Do you see my shoes?" The monkey pointed at its feet. "They are made from the fibers of lotus flowers. These shoes allow me to walk over the clouds."

"What's so great about that?" Mindy asked. "You've seen one cloud, you've seen them all. Besides, I have a faster way to travel!"

Incredibly, the pretty girl vanished from standing before him to another spot only a few feet away. She was no longer in her undies, but wearing a second layer of clothing over that with a white blouse and pink shorts.

"You have magic powers?" The monkey asked.

"Sure I do. Didn't I tell you? I'm quantum!"

"And you can do whatever you wish?"

"Pretty much, as long as I don't get carried away." Mindy shrugged.

"I don't understand why I am here." The monkey scratched its armpit. "I asked my device to bring me to a person in great need. If you already have magic powers and you can do whatever you wish, how is it possible that you cannot resolve your own great needs?"

"Oh." Mindy said, softly, thoughtfully. Her sadness began to return to her, chasing away all the happiness she'd been showing off earlier. Glumly, she went to sit on her bed and pulled her own banana from the bunch. "That's about my girlfriend Bethany. She's super hot, so hot that her modeling agency, and I mean her agency because she owns it. Well, she got a contract to do a show on Christmas Eve. She's in New York right now. I can go see her anytime I want, except the last time I did that I popped up in front of other people. Everybody thought they'd seen a ghost, so I left right away."

The monkey compared that to how his device allowed him to move from one place to another. Basically, the device and Mindy's magic seemed to work on the same principles.

"I can't just pop up anywhere." Mindy explained. "I have to visualize where I'm going first. So Bethany can send me a picture on her phone, of a spot big enough for me to show up in. The problem is that other modeling girls or publicity people, or just people in general are always around her. It doesn't leave that much time for us to be together. I mean, it isn't all that horrible because I'll be spending Christmas with my mom and dad, and I really, really love them... You don't even know how much I love my parents! I just wish Bethany was there, too. You know?"

Both Yellow Queen and Monkey King sat on the bed, chewing on their bananas.

"How can I help you to achieve happiness?" The monkey asked.

"Can you change Time so that Bethany can be with me on Christmas?"

"I don't believe I can." The monkey replied. "According to the manual, the device I use will only allow me to show potential realities in the dimension of dreams. If you turn left today, I can show you the outcome of turning left far into the future. I can show you the same outcome if you turn right."

"I know a few things about that." Mindy admitted. "My friend Haley can explain it a lot better than I can, because she actually likes math. My strengths are in managing people and raising capital. When you move assets and services around, you have known quantities shifting from one side of a scale to another. Things don't work the same way when it comes to quantum cause and effect. I tried to change the world a few times, but the ripple effects caused things to go out of control. I mean I really fucked things up! People started glitching around me and everything. I even scared the shit out of Bethany, because I used too much power and not enough responsibility. Do you understand all of this?"

"I live in a cave." The monkey replied.

"You probably can't help me, then." Mindy sighed. "You said you were the ghost of Christmas past, right? What does that mean?"

"I can take you into a dream state and show you important events from your past. You would be unable to change them, but you can observe them as long as you'd like, for personal introspection and pondering."

"I don't know about that. I can probably change the past if I wanted to, except who knows how the present and the future will turn out if I did that? Haley and her dad are the real eggheads. They've been trying to figure out if Time splinters off into new time-lines when I cause quantum changes, or if we have an infinite number of realities where everything that can possibly happen takes place somewhere."

"I live in a cave." The monkey repeated. "In my cave, I have tables and chairs, and plates and cutlery, and other monkeys, of course."

Mindy started laughing. "So you can take me into the past, right? You know, there was a time when Bethany and I were bitter rivals. I mean, we were tooth and nail against each other in high school. I didn't realize it at the time, but the reason I hated Bethany so much was because deep inside, I really loved her and I couldn't have her. Somebody had to bring that to my attention, because I didn't get it. I threw myself at Bethany's feet and I begged her to love me, and we've been together ever since. That day in the motel room, when I first told Bethany how I felt about her, that was the best scene of my life. That's where I want you to take me. That's the part I want to relive over and over."

The monkey hadn't shown Mindy his device yet, but now he pulled it out of his golden vest and began to manipulate the buttons. The blonde teen leaned over to watch him. She shouldn't have witnessed the device at all because it was against the rules of the manual. Since she knew so much about the mechanics of the universe already, the monkey figured it made no difference now whether she saw it or not.

"I have one of those, just like you do." Mindy said.

Incredibly, as if the story so far wasn't incredible enough, an exact duplicate of the device appeared in the blonde's hand. Now that was magic!

"I suggest you obtain the manual for the device as well." The monkey commented. "The manual isn't very helpful, but it does give one a basic idea of how the device works."

Mindy stared at the contraption for a long moment. "I'd better not have one. I'll just fuck up all of reality like I did the last time. You have the only one."

Her device vanished a second later.

"Do you know that my friend Amy can get into the Hall of Mirrors?" Mindy asked. "I can't even get in there! It's this place where you can see every moment of your life, from the past, present and future."

The monkey looked confused. "I am supposed to be the knowledgeable one!"

"Don't worry about it, then." Mindy shrugged. "How far back can your little remote control go? Can it go really, really far back?"

"I don't understand."

"Hand it over." Mindy held her hand out. "I'm not going to take it away from you, but I want to try something with it. Okay, monkey?"

Huang School of Kung Fu, Shenyang, China, in the 1990s:

May was an angry girl of eighteen years of age. She had already been a student in the fighting school for ten years, and had weathered through much torment and hard training under the supervision of her instructors. May had also become a very good student, with the hopes of making the exhibition team that would get to travel abroad and show off their skills in many countries. She was a room captain over nine other girls, a position that was highly coveted and guaranteed her many rivals. No matter. May would either outperform her competitors before the eyes of their teachers, or else she would catch the other girls in dark hallways or washrooms and beat them down until they submitted to her.

May's record as a captain was nearly perfect. Nearly might not be good enough to make the team, and this brought the young woman many fits of anger. The most glaring reason her record was not perfect was because a girl named Cheah was in her squad. This girl had the bad habit of running away from the tough fighting school and trying to make her way out of the city. Cheah would not get very far, however. She was always caught roaming the streets by police patrols, and brought back kicking and screaming to the school.

Always, Cheah would be returned to May's squad, and into May's sleeping room with the other girls, despite May's efforts to convince the staff to move Cheah anywhere else. Because this black mark on May's record was so persistent, May sought out ways to force Cheah to focus on the hard training. May ordered the other girls to take Cheah's food away at the cafeteria. She had the other girls beat Cheah whenever the instructors were not around. This had been going on for four days now, and still Cheah would not comply. All the girl did was cry and wish she were back at her home in the country.

One of the other girls peered into the sleeping room, whispering, "She comes." This spy was gone a second later.

Two girls were sitting on a lower bunk bed, showing each other pictures that had come in letters their parents had sent to them. The pictures angered May, as did the letters, because May's parents never wrote to her.

"Leave now." May commanded, causing the two to quickly put the letters away and scurry out. They bumped into Cheah at the door.

Cheah, so frail and fleshy, stepped into the room because she had nowhere else to go. May's underlings would harass her and beat her everywhere. When the girl saw that only May was in the room, her eyes widened. May went past her, shutting the door and putting her body in the way, in case Cheah tried to run away again. In reaction, Cheah drew back into a tight corner of the room and tried to make her body as small as she could.

"They took my food again." Cheah accused her. "Because you told them to!"

"They will keep doing it until you start performing well in your training." May replied, moving in on the other girl.

"I can't!" Cheah began crying. "I don't want to be here!"

May lashed out, striking Cheah on the shoulder. The sobbing girl crumpled to the floor, giving May the impulse to kick her. Cheah was too soft! May had to beat that softness out of her, otherwise May would continue to have that black mark and she would end up staying at the school instead of touring with the best girls.

"Stop crying and stand up!" May demanded.

"So you can hit me again?"

It wasn't the first time May had beaten her, but the blows didn't seem to be getting anything accomplished.

"Stand and pretend you are in formation, or I will hit you!" May said.

Timidly, Cheah drew herself up, while keeping her head facing the wall. May grabbed at her shoulder and shoved her into facing forward. She held Cheah's arms at her sides and pushed her chin up so their eyes would meet. Tears moistened up her fingers.

"Stop crying!" May persisted, drying her hand on her school-issued pants. "Hold your head up and look forward!"

Cheah's eyes were evasive, as if she could not bear to look at May.

"I said look forward!"

May grabbed at the other girl's chin, wanting to squeeze it hard enough to cause pain. There were more tears there, wetting her fingers, and tears welling up in Cheah's eyes as well. May remembered how she had cried when she her parents first left her in the school, back when she was only eight years old. They never came to visit and they never wrote to her. Cheah's parents never visited or wrote either. Cheah should be strong and tough like May, instead of being as soft as she was.