4. The Barn
I walked out of the forechamber and into the barn. Inside the barn, I found a bookcase with four books, and two stands, one on either side of the bookcase, each with a Carton on top. I started by examining the left Carton. It is a pink linking Carton with clearly written text below the linking panel, "Have you seen me lately?" Suddenly, a distorted image appeared. I found myself looking at a chicken, probably Francis. He looked at me, and said, "Bawk Bawbaawk." I couldn't understand her lingo. Clearly, this was a trap Carton.
The other Carton, which was yellow, had the same clearly written text below the linking panel. A man came into view. He appeared to be a farmer, so I assumed he was Farmer Ben. I tried to talk to him, but he said to me, "Bring me the yellow pages. I can't understand 'ya because I can't hear 'ya. Bring me the yella pages!"
I turned my attention to the bookcase, which had three shelves.
The top shelf had a green book on it. On the front cover was a slice
of Cheddar cheese. I opened the book and found it to be a journal.
I decided to copy the contents into my journal:
| There was a boy named
Bart who lived on the sharp islands. They were called the sharp islands be- cause they were made of sharp cheddar cheese, in a sea of mild salsa. One day another boy arrived. Bart named the boy "Banjohead". Later a third boy came to the island. Bart named this boy "Ant Fann". Since Bart was NOW alphabetically last he was quickly killed and fed to the bacteria. This created a new source of food which the other boys ate until I showed up. On a scale of 10, I give Sharp a 7. |
The pink book on the middle shelf had a slice of Edam cheese on the
front cover. Again, I copied the contents into my journal, including
several scribbles messily written in the journal:
| This age is made back-
-wards, or so the man living here tells me. "Merle" says that he lives backwards in time, and that the only good he can metabolize is the Edam cheese that is plentiful here. Merle and I plan to construct a machine to help him temporally. Scribble: 26:7 -» (clock
LINEAR TO # 10? Frances the chicken is
|
The bottom shelf contained two books. The left one was clearly
named Animal Farm, by George Orwell, but the 'a' from 'Farm' was missing.
It appeared to be a dead linking book. The right hand book was another
journal. On the front cover was a picture of a slice of Swiss cheese.
Again, I copied the contents of the journal into my journal:
| I have arrived in this age
with Farmer Ben. The inhabitants are advanced, and use elaborate tools. Most of the people carry a multi-tool instrument in a pocket. Farmer Ben, however seems more interested in the liberal banking policy I fear he may be padding his subsidy checks. I think I should keep a close eye on him. Tomorrow I return to
|
Since I had examined all the books on the bookshelf, I turned to my left to see what else there was to see...