Multiple Muse Disorder

Chapter One – Be careful what you wish for...

[This is how the print story begins. There will be further fill-in-the-past sequences, but this gets us up and running. — Lisa Lees]

 

A touch on my cheek woke me up, or at least began the process. I smelled dandelion. Something landed on my hair and rolled down my face. I opened my eyes and turned in the direction of soft giggling.

Fully awake now, I stared while I moved to sit up. As I did so a shower of dandelions fell around me. How long had they been tossing flowers at me? How long had I been asleep? Where was I? And who the heck were they?

"Hi, Lisa," said the short girl with the pink hair. "What do you think?" She grinned like an imp as she made a sweeping gesture that included us and our surroundings.

"What the hell do you think she thinks, you idiot!" scowled the taller girl with dark brown hair. She was wearing what looked like a rumpled French maid outfit, with combat boots.

"Risa? Resu?" My memory was coming back, along with a headache, and I was beginning to panic. "What have you done?"

"I," said Risa (the little imp with pink hair), "have granted your wish."

"Idiot!" growled Resu (the combat-ready maid), "This is the stupidest thing you've ever done, and that's saying a lot."

"You didn't . . ." I looked around, then realized why I was feeling so strange. "Oh my gods. You did. This is 1970, and I'm a teenage girl."

"This is bad, really bad." Resu scrubbed her face with her hands. Was she crying? "How much energy did this take? Did you even think before you did this, Risa?"

Risa's expression blanked as her hands closed into fists. "I had to do something. You could only fly five hundred feet with the two of us." She looked at me. "Catching a bus is no way to run away from an ogre. I'm not the one who's an idiot here."

"Don't do anything like this again unless we talk about it first, okay?" pleaded Resu, grabbing one of Risa's hands, trying to uncurl the fingers.

"I'm tired of talking and thinking. Maybe I should just flip a coin."

"No!" Resu had both of Risa's hands in hers now.

I leaned toward them, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. "Calm down. Let's walk for a bit, maybe have something to eat. I, at least, do need to talk and think."

"If I may interrupt this little love-in?" said a deep voice behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder to see a police officer. "Uh, hi," I said.

"You ladies are headed outta town, right?"

"Right! We just stopped here because it looked friendly and we needed some food." I whispered to Risa and Resu, "Where are we?"

"Just be out of town by sunset. There are no drugs here, and no people like you, and it's gonna stay that way. Understand?"

"Understood," we chorused. As the officer walked away I noticed a newspaper lying in the grass by a bench. The Muskogee Phoenix. I put my arms around myself and laughed until tears flowed.

To be continued...