The Curious Tale Of Al Katraz and Billy Bead, Part 1

Calling Card - Part 1

Billy has a bad habit of snapping his fingers when anxious.

Waking up in a dimly-lit dormitory room full of life-sized statues of Jesus standing beside Buddha and Ganesh, each holding either a scissor or a knife in the right hand and empty potato chip bags on the left did not lessen the anxiety.

Sitting at the feet of the odd gathering of statues was an otherwise bald person with a single dreadlock on the person's forehead.

The person was trying to feed potato chip crumbs to a small good luck frog statue, the kind that sits in gold coins. The person squinted at Billy, who was forcing his feet toward the only other human in the room.

"Hey, you're finally up. This is for you."

The person gestured with a left arm and gave Billy what looked like a yellow calling card, but it doesn't have any number or name on it. It only said, 'Way you break me'. Billy noticed that the arm giving him the card is a wooden arm.

He took the card and flipped it, and on its back it said, 'DECEMBER TEN'.

Billy looked at the owner of the wooden hand and asked, 'Who are you and where am I?'

The single dreadlock shook and the person answered without turning their head.

"I'm Al. Al Kahtraz. I have reason to believe we are stuck in a pocket dimension."

Billy started snapping his fingers again, rapidly this time and off-rhythm.

Al is now making the frog statue drink from a straw in a soda can. Al continued, "Better stay calm, yo. That way we can figure out how to get out of here."

Billy replied, "Honestly, I'm having panic attacks, Al. Like, what does that card even mean? What's supposed to happen on December 10? Is it this coming December 10 or a past event? How do we know?"

The finger-snapping settled to a near-steady slow rhythm.

Al looked for a switch in the room and found a switch. A grayish fluorescent light flooded the room. "What I do know is that it isn't yet December 10 now. Why I know, I've no idea. Just as I don't know why we are in this room. I woke up yesterday, and saw you unconscious in the other bunk bed."

Bill asked, "This whole pocket dimension thing, why would---"

There were loud rumbles in the corridor outside the dormitory room, heavy footsteps, and voices that sounded like bad phone reception.

Al's wooden hand grabbed Bill's arm and whispered, "Hurry, go to your bunk and pretend to sleep. Just do it!

They will not bother us when we lie down and pretend to sleep." Both scampered to their bunk beds and covered themselves with moldy, dusty blankets.

There was the sound of turning keys, followed by the door opening. A tall figure in a robe, with a reptilian head that nearly looked humanoid, came in, followed behind by two more robed figures with similar heads. One was carrying a cleaver the size of a Manila envelope.

(To be continued)