Miss Silky Interviews Me

Silky: You've been really upset lately, Buddy. It's hard for me to see you beating yourself up like this. Are you sure you want me to do this?

Buddy Tippet: I do. My mind is getting more and more scattered lately. I'm having trouble keeping everything together. Feels like time is stopping or something.

S: Time isn't stopping. Time does what it does like it always does.

BT: It doesn't feel that way.

S: Doctor Brady said you had a special condition... a disease that prevents you from properly perceiving the passage of time. It must be so difficult for you.

BT: How is he doing, by the way?

S: I've heard he is fine.

BT: Have the police caught Ferros yet?

S: No.

BT: That's a shame. I really like Brady. And you're right: It's probably just my condition--dyschonometria.

S: I'm impressed you are able to pronounce it so well.

BT: Miss Silky, I have a weird question, and I just want you to be honest with me.

S: [Giggling] I thought I was interviewing you.

BT: Sure, but just humor me.

S: All right.

BT: Am I really here?

S: I'm not sure what you mean.

BT: Sure you do. I mean... I remember finding you within a dream. I was standing at a door and you invited me into Scritch City. But I keep feeling like there is a sort of... duality to myself. Like... I imagine myself with other people... talking... making decisions... changing my mind. Even for the time I have been sitting alone in this room, I don't always feel alone. I feel like there are other people around me, interacting with me. But... I'm still alone. And sometimes I get to wondering... Am I even really here? Is the me that is in Scritch City... really me?

S: I can give you a short answer, if you wish.

BT: Please. That seems a whole lot simpler.

S: Yes, you are really here, Buddy. You're here in the guest room behind the bar in the Railroad Club. I'm sitting with you right now on the bed with a cell phone between us recording this entire conversation. Yes, you are here.

BT: Was I ever in Railroad Towers?

S: I don't think so. You were always a citizen of Scritch City. You just... got lost for a bit. Haven't you read your blog posts from that period?

BT: Yeah. They don't make much sense. They are disjointed. I seem to keep meeting with final fates, but I get renewed by the next blog as if the former fate never happened. But then there is Quentin who seems to have a much more stable outlook when it comes to RT. He really seems to have been there... where I was, perhaps, only there in a dream.

S: I've had similar dreams. I often think of myself in other places.

BT: What other places?

S: I sometime imagine myself in an old log cabin. There are others there with me. Some are familiar and others are not. I rather like having this dream. It seems real and I get comfortable while I am there.

BT: Wait, are you talking about "The Safe Place?"

S: Yes. [She grins.]

BT: You're only thinking that because you read my book. That place isn't real.

S: How do you know? Maybe you wrote something that is real.

BT: I made it up.

S: It seemed to make sense to me. And then... it still may just be a dream. Or the dream itself could simply be a look into other frequencies. The Safe Place could be real.

BT: If The Safe Place is real... the connotations of that would be too staggering for me to handle. I'd rather not think about it.

S: Why would it be so bad, Buddy?

BT: It would mean that everyone in Scritch City are really just carnal beasts trying to eat one another. We're all just playing out our lusts with no real goal.

S: Do you really think the goals of every specific person matters?

BT: Why shouldn't they?

S: Buddy, if The Safe Place exists, then you're in it. And you're in it with me. You are one of the great ones. You exist as a testament that some are important and others are simply not. If the multitude of lessers want to eat each other while those with power thrive, what is that to you?

BT: I dunno... I... I...

S: Are you not a hedonist, Buddy?

BT: Yes. I always seek my own pleasure even at the expense of others. I like my position of power. I like the platform that you gave me. I just feel like... sometimes I am losing my mind. Like there is another me or someone else that is trying to wrench me away from this place... and I don't want to leave!

S: I believe with all of my heart that The Safe Place really does exist. And our great city mirrors it in many ways. And I am a part of it. And you are a part of it. And even Jason is a part of it.

BT: And what about Quentin. Is he in The Safe Place?

S: Quentin is there. But he is being put to trial presently. I still favor him, but there is only so much I can do. Jason is starting to have his doubts... and it is Jason who chooses the ones who enters into the room. Right now... Quentin is in the room, and you remember the only way out of the room, don't you, Buddy?

BT: Eat or be eaten. He either lives or dies.

S: And if Quentin dies, he is gone forever. And all his deeds shall be credited to another. But you, Buddy... Jason wants you to stay right where you are. I do too. Keep writing your blogs. Tell the world what you see. Make it perfectly clear what is happening in this city, and may every decision made by these people be that of a sincere and wise heart.

BT: I'm really here, aren't I?

S: Yes. You really are. And I want you to post this entire conversation to the blog. Can you do that for me, Buddy?

BT: I will. Thank you so much. May I stay a bit longer?

S: Stay as long as you need. I'll never close my doors to you... Little Muffin.

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A little mouse named Scritch goes on a strange  journey at the end of the world. Through the course of 8 stories, Scritch comes to realize the truth about existence, happiness, and a few other things I can't remember. The Nom Nom Chronicles is available online and through bookstore ordering. Here is some info:

15.99 - Paperback Edition
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