A Short Note & 54th Episode in the Amanda Sage Outreach Agent Simmons Has His First Taste of Pizza

Good Morning Ted and Jody:

I’m off to Vancouver for pre-operation visits to the guy who will do my back on the 13^th.  It will be a long day as we also have an appointment in Beaverton to see Jeff about finances late in the afternoon.  A week from today I go to Portland for a colonoscopy.  Needless to say, I would wish away the next 14 days if I could.

I am close to the end the novel I am writing.  I have a tentative title: Amanda⁷. (Amanda to the 7^th power as the exponent tends not to show on the email word processor).  I expect to finish this week.  Then I start the proof read and figure out who to ship it off to.

I trust this finds you happy, warm, healthy and not about to be deported or denied entry for your genders (I heard the pestilence is about to sign an executive order banning males and females unless they clear public bath room checks in NC).

#Dumb_Idea_Donald  You don’t pay taxes, why should you care that US taxpayers pay for the wall you said Mexico would pay for?

OH, yes, the next installment of Mandy⁷ or what I formerly called the Amanda Saga is attached

Warmest regards, Ed

054 Outreach Agent Simmons Has His First Taste of Pizza

Fiction in 1563 words by T. Edward Westen, 2017

Special Agent Fleishman and Outreach Agent Simmons appeared in the Child Protective Services reception room.  Millie was putting her coat on in preparation for leaving for the day.  She jumped.  “Oh, you startled me.  I didn’t hear you come in,” Millie said.

Outreach Agent Simmons said, “We should have knocked.”

“Nonsense,” Said Millie.  “This is a public office.  Anyone can come in during office hours.”

Special Agent Fleischmann said, “Nevertheless, we shouldn’t have come up behind do you so quietly. “

Millie laughed. ” well in another few minutes, make that 5 seconds, you would’ve missed me. I’m on my way home.”

Special Agent Fleishman asked her, “Are you going to miss the show?

Millie raised her eyebrows, pursed her limps and enquired “Is there going to be a show?”

 Special Agent Fleishman nodded his head.  “Yes, I brought this gentleman along,” pointing to Outreach Agent Simmons, “so he could play a video. Then we’re all going to try to figure out how to get to that other place that’s in the video.”

“Well I guess I could stay,” Said Millie.  “Besides she ordered pizza,” using her thumb to point to Edith Gunderson’s closed door.

Outreach agent Simmons asked, “What’s Pizza?”

“Special Agent Simmons,” Special Agent Fleischmann said, “You’re in for one treat; you’re in for one heck of a taste treat.”

 Millie looked incredulous, “You’ve never had pizza.”

Millie took off her coat and hung it back up.  She then said, “we need to take two chairs in there if we all want to sit for there is only space for one more sitting down.  I’ll grab this one and you,” pointing to Special Agent Fleishman, “just roll my office chair in. It has wheels.” 

Special Agent Fleishman said, “OK, got it you get the door Jonathon.”

Millie looked up, “Oh so you have a name.  My name is Millie and she stuck her hand out to shake his.

Outreach Agent Simmons, grabbed her hand and pumped it “Glad to meet you Millie.  I have always wanted to try this.  How am I doing.”

Millie, laughed, “Yes, you are with him,” nodding her head toward Specaial Agent Fleishman. “You are doing fine, just stop now so I can keep this arm.”  She continued laughing as she pushed the chair past Outreach Agent Simmons who was holding the door open for her and Special Agent Fleishman.

Ms. Gunderson looked up and said, “My goodness you are back so quickly”

Special Agent Fleishman blushed and said, “Yes well we should since we have an angle on time.  I filled Millie in on what is happening and asked her to sit in because we can use every pair of eyes and ears to figure out how to get to level 4 number 7.”

Edith Gunderson said, “I didn’t realize we need to get there.”

Special Agent Fleishman responded, “Well it’s it seems my bosses are concerned about the connection between level 4 number 7 and us; and whether that will be disrupted when we arrest Judge Belemany and erase all the wrongs he did.”

Detective Batan observed, “Well then it’s a done deal that you are going to arrest him. Back in your time, er, in the future.”

 Special Agent Fleischmann nodded his head.  “It’s looking pretty good; but, if we arrest him that’s going to erase what he’s done and the consequence of his doing those things.  One of consequences of his action might have been creating the connection between us and level 4 number 7.  It is not clear that level 4 number 7, where the Mandys come from, is  in this universe and would like to see if we can find out exactly where level 4 number 7 fits into the overall scheme of things.  That is to say we have a suspicion that it’s a parallel universe.  This connection Judge Belemany created when he destroyed the two mechanical transporters provides us with a unique opportunity to make contact with that alternative universe.”

 Jeremy Eastman looked up and said, “Parallel universe wow! And I thought time travel was super neat; this really takes the cake.”

 Outreach agent Simmons look up and asked, “What’s a cake.”

 Special agent Fleischman laughed “You’re the Agent from Outreach.  I’m just a Special Agent; and you don’t know about things like pizza and cake.  My God man what do they teach you in R&O?”

 Outreach Agent Simmons straightened up. Looked authoritative, with a square jaw and teeth clenched, turned toward Special Agent Fleishman and said, “I don’t think you quite realize how long humanity has been running around eating plants and animals raw and cooked, combining and cooking the same things with different names in different ways; and, you expect me to keep 70,000 thousand years of that information in my head?  Not very realistic of you.”  His eyes suddenly widened and he looked around.  “What is that heavenly smell?”

Millie stood in the door with three, extra-large, flat boxes marked “Salvador’s Authentic NY Pizza” and announced, “The pizzas are here.”

This time eating pizza in Edith Gunderson’s office was largely a spectator event. The event was Outreach Agent Simmons consuming pizza with a combination of enthusiasm, fulfilling a hunger from centuries of depravation, and admiration for the food.  The spectators were all the others in the office watching him.  Questions such as “How do they keep the stuff on top from flying off when they spin it in the air?”  Interspersed with comments such as “Don’t get in between him and a pizza or you may lose a hand or arm.” Punctuated the meal.

When the last piece of pizza disappeared into Outreach Agent Simmons’ mouth and he was still chewing, Millie turned to Special Agent Fleishman and said, “You were right he does put on a good show.  I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” 

Special Agent Fleishman replied, “He was just warming up, the real show is about to begin.”  He then turned to Outreach Agent Simmons and said, “Time to play the videos for these good people so we can benefit from their powers or observation and their out of the box thinking.”

Outreach Agent Simmons put a small disc, about the size of a 50₵ piece on the conference table when the pizza boxes had been removed and said, “We have two videos that address our problem of getting into level 4 number 7. The first one I understand that all of you, except, Millie, have acvtully witnessed, twenty years ago, when Mrs. White was knocked unconscious. This will be the same event except now, Special Agent Fleishman will be in the swing very briefly for a nanosecond before Mandy jumps off.  You may not see him as he is there only, shall we say, part of a second before Mandy jumps off.  So, let me play it.”

Jeremy Eastman started to say something, Where should we . . .”  But the instantaneous appearance of the three-dimensional, holographic like, image over the table silenced him.  The image was clear and well defined from any location in the room.  The image presented itself from the relative perspective of where everyone was standing in relationship to it playing over the table.

Comments made all at once, tripping over one another, included: from Millie, “I didn’t see him, did you?”, from Detective Phillipson, “Wow, that is clear;” From Mr. Murphy, “Can it be done with a sound track?”; and, from Ms. Gunderson,   “I thought I saw you Special Agent Fleishman.  Play it again so I can be sure.” And sharp intakes of breath from all the other three.

Outreach Agent Simmons said, “OK, now we slow it down to about 1/10^th of real time.  Here sound would be a distraction.  We’ll do it again in real time later with sound.”

Six sets of fresh eyes watched in slow motion as Special Agent Fleishman appeared briefly on the swing and disappeared a Nanosecond before Mandy jumped off.

Jeremy Eastman said with eyes wide open, “That is so bad.”

Mr. Murphy asked, “What exactly are we looking for?”

Special Agent Fleishman said, “that is both simple and complicated.  We have six access points other than that one.  We need to get a dozen or so instruments in and bring them back after taking some readings.  We would like to insert the instruments at different access points to see if there is variation.  That is if it is the same point in their time and space over there or if the space and the time differs as time does over here.   The thing is, we need multiple shots for each kind of instrument so we can, shall we say, fine tune the instrument to be sensitive to the dimension it is designed to read.  Sort of like a wide dispersal initially and then narrow it down as we take more and more readings.  However, we only have seven access points total, assuming we can use the one we just played for you again.  The important point is the only way in for now seems to be on that swing.  And, it is a limited number of times we can use it. We could end up with lots of people sitting in Special Agent Fleishman’s lap.  So, how can we maximize inserting instruments into level 4 number 7?”