I hope you all have been enjoying Serial Vlogger! I’m sure it’s weird to read only a tiny slice every week. However, for new readers, you can go back and read it all at any time; all the posts are available.
I appreciate the new paid subscriber very much, and it gives me great incentive to continue with this experiment of writing a section of a book live every week with no revisions. Thank you!
It was a chilly day, but the sun was shining, and for that, Carol was grateful. She walked along the boardwalk by the lake, staring at the clouds and the shapes they took. She was glad she wore her thicker poncho even though it wasn’t too bad out. But what wasn’t too bad out for some was pretty darned cold for others.
Keep moving; that will keep you warm.
She had always loved clouds, from the time she was a little kid. How she had loved to lie on her back, watching their puffy swirling shapes roll into fantastical creatures, weaving seeds of ideas into stories for her. As she grew older, she loved watching the clouds from above as well. Whenever she traveled by plane, she chose a window seat.
Going up to the clouds, through the clouds, above the clouds. It was an amazing feat even still.
The sun reflecting through the clouds made them look like entire kingdoms when she was flying by on the plane. She could spot thrones and monsters. She saw castles and giants. Angels flying, perhaps god’s eye itself staring down at the earth. Being in the clouds on a plane was like a sneak peek into the inner workings of the universe.
Being actually in the clouds gave one a perspective that was missing from just observing life from the ground.
You realized how insignificant you were. Yet you realized as well how very significant you could be if you could interpret the data being presented.
No preconceived notion. Just being. Just observing. Just experiencing.
Make the notes later. In the sky, in the clouds, you could just Be.
The modern generations took so much for granted. The struggle it was to get into the air to begin with.
And then there was that whole lineage of people who didn’t even believe that planes flew anywhere, that the world was flat, that all flights were a simulation, that Australia doesn’t even actually exist. After all, that’s where the dome is, where you can reach the sky, the tip of the dome, with your very own hand if you stood on the correct hill.
Imagine throwing away the beauty of creation, of the amazing geometry and balance of the world, of the universe, to be so short-sighted to think that there are only humans and only certain kinds of humans are allowed to exist. And that humans have spent generations creating a flat earth, a giant conspiracy theory that the earth isn’t round at all, that man never landed on the moon, that “they” (whoever THEY are) created smoke and mirrors for the majority of the population for…what reason?
If there was an Illuminati, if there was a big Quanon or other conspiracy, why would there be so many holes in the experiments? Why would any experiment be allowed to see behind the curtain, to question the situation? In a true experiment, those subjects would have been terminated long ago.
Human nature to squash the questioners.
The idea brought to mind Monty Python and the Spanish Inquisition skits. Surely none of that would have happened either in reality or comedy if there really were powerful people, beings, creatures, gods, pulling the strings for us all.
Imagine a time when you were only on the ground, never having a chance to ever get close to a cloud.
Carol took a drag on her joint and blew it out, creating her own cloud.
“Puff the magic dragon…go live with your friends,” Carol smiled as she watched the smoke billow up into the air.
However, as fun as clouds could be, they could also be ominous and evil. The black clouds, the grey clouds, the storm clouds, the swirls of clouds that created tornados and hurricanes.
A cloud was not always a fun, innocuous thing.
“You have your head in the clouds,” Carol laughed as she put out her joint. “What a day!”
She continued her walk, looking at the docked boats. People lived on those boats year-round. Well, not all the boats, but a lot of them.
Once she was past the boats, she walked across a small bridge and was on a stretch of land that could be considered an island or just more of Etobicoke. The path led her past the marina and towards the more open waters of the lake. And more clouds.
The weather was warm, too warm for this time of year, but there was no point worrying about it. There had always been strange winters. Carol had lived long enough to experience the worst of winter and the best of winter. And which was which depended on your point of view.
Carol had seen winters where it was only dark and rainy. And she had experienced winters that started in October and ended in May with relentless blasts of ice and snow.
There was global warming, yes, sure.
But there was also just the natural rhythm of the planet.
The combination of both created fear in many.
“I’ll be gone long before anyone discovers the true consequences of humans and their industrial revolution.”
Carol watched a sailboat tossing on the waves way out.
“Invisible clouds creating chaos. Imagine a pretty white cloud swirling into a deadly tornado. Imagine, a simple box holding a cloud.”
Carol thought about Antonio and the box. And whatever it was that had escaped from the box.
If it had been so dangerous, so powerful, how was he so careless that he let whatever it was slip away?
It had been days now. She watched the news and the papers. But crime was everywhere. Weirdness was everywhere. Conspiracy was everywhere.
She wasn’t so sure she’d even recognize the evil if she saw it face to face.
What does evil look like?
And what is evil to some may not be evil to others.
Carol had reached the tip of the island and was making her way back towards the mainland again. A nice walk, maybe she’d get two miles on her steps.
As she headed back, she noted some commotion along the boardwalk. What could possibly be happening this time? Surely not another ice-cream truck flinging itself into the lake? And why were the clouds swirling over it?