November 19, 2005
Week 29 - Hero Worship 1
Episode 5
Harry storms back to the dark storefront, where Celeste waits. He faces the woman in the gray robes. "Give me back my sixty bucks!" he demands.
The woman looks at him. "I'm sorry sir, our donations are nonrefundable."
Celeste stands up. "Harry, what's wrong?"
"This whole thing is a crock, that's what wrong!"
"I knew you'd be too narrow minded to give it a fair chance!" Celeste says. "I've heard wonderful things about Thermal Variance Therapy, but you try it for all of five minutes and condemn it out of hand!"
"Yeah, well, did you hear that the great, Grand Muckety Muck, Brother Kagen is a broken down, alcoholic fraud?"
The robed woman stares at Harry. "What!"
"That's just nonsense," Celeste says.
Harry shakes his head. "You could smell the whiskey on him from across the room!"
The woman clenches her fist and stands up. "Willie!" she yells. "Willie, get in here!"
After a moment, Brother Kagen stumbles through the doorway and looks at the robed woman. "Shouldn't you be addreshing me as Brother Kagen, my dear?" he asks.
The woman grips his chin between her thumb and forefinger, presses her face against his, and sniffs. Then she turns away in disgust. "That's it!" she says. She pulls off her robes, revealing an ordinary blouse and a pair of jeans.
"Sister Doreen, what are you doing?" the man asks.
"I warned you, Willie! If you showed up drunk with a client one more time, I was out!"
"But, Shister Doreen, I'm not drunk! I simply... I simply sampled the tiniest..."
"Forget it, mister." She walks toward the door to the street. "Get yourself another acolyte. From now on, you can pull your scams without me!" She leaves.
"Brother Kagen!" Celeste says, after a few moments. "I am appalled!"
Brother Kagen stares at the door. "Um... This is nothing, my dear. Sister Doreen is simply... She's simply... Her inner humors are somewhat imbalanced and..."
"Wait a minute!" Harry yells, staring at Brother Kagen. "Willie, William... I thought you looked familiar... You're William Kagen, the old science fiction writer!"