voyage to star 25, part 1

by horace p sternwall

pictures by rhoda penmarq

there once was a landlord named jake who had for a tenant a thirty foot snake he grew so fond of that boa constrictor he knew in his heart he could never evict her she was the best friend he ever had, oh but over his life there fell a shadow he worked all day at the missile base and came home at night with a sad face many tenants in rooms along the street sat in the gloom staring at their feet and conceived passions for barely sentient creatures mental death was one of their features and the missiles - when would they go off? the silence was broken by an occasional cough and a slurp from a bottle of schlitz or bud the collapse of the universe was in their blood the windows in the bars were dim and blue the used car lots were silent too with burgers and marlboros on their breath they waited in the shadow of meaningless death you can't love a snake unless you give it a name that's part of the game but words came slow to jake's brain on the dusty window it began to rain the snake used a hundred square feet of rental space but jake took it with a good grace not so mrs harvis down the hall who did not care for reptiles at all and neither did jack d hubbatak a retired spaceman with a bad back who lived upstairs in a one room flat with a seashell collection and an orange cat he and mrs harvis put their heads together whether in fair or stormy weather and drank tea and stayed up late complaining about the government, life and fate mrs hervis was forty-four years old her hair was orange and her eyes were cold men had betrayed her, religion too her children were worthless through and through she did not care much for other females of their troubles, she did not want the details her only desire, and it made her eyes grow wide was revenge against the world before she died joe archibald was another tenant he could say "i'll kill you" like he meant it he had a machime gun tattooed on his arm and was completely devoid of charm joe was prowling the hall one night something just did not feel right he heard the throbbing music of fear for which he had a most sensitive ear he started down the creaking stair past jake's well-barricaded lair of the snake he was not scared a whit in fact he'd like to have a go at it he put his ear to jake's scarred door a thing he'd never done before on the scuffed and worn linoleum a vision suddenly came to him jake was nothing but a commie rat joe was absolutely sure of that talking to his snake? that was a load - he was really talking in code! he was an un-american deceiver talking to a hidden receiver probably planted in the snake it was almost too much for joe to take "peeping through keyholes, eh, fellow?" hubbatak, more than a little mellow swaying in his slippered feet sneered at joe without missing a beat "what's it to you anyway, hubbatak? wasn't peeking through no keyhole, i was peeking through the crack. "it's not the same thing at all and besides, it ain't your call." inside, jake seemed impervious to all the fuss but another door opened down the hall and miss maisie muldoon, willowy and tall barely glanced at the two combatant gents as past them she serenely went hubbatak and joe didn't scream or shout but forgot what they were arguing about maisie worked two blocks away in mrs wilson's all night cafe the moon looked down and seemed to say is it her fate to carry a tray? to be continued