BOB
A necromancer and the leader of the Tribunal of Evil Guardians. His goal-and the whole future of evil may be at stake here-is to derail Carlene's purification.
Bob is to receive the Most Deranged
Performance By a Wizard On Cannabis
Award. The ceremony is arranged
In Harlan, at the annual Merle Travis/
Billy Edd Wheeler Coal Mine Song Pro-Am
Competition...
CARLENE
Once a sexual libertine, Carlene is on a pilgrimage to the bayou, where she hopes to purify her soul through meditation and such like. Carlene's example has attracted a group of pilgrims to her, and has attracted the attention of the evil necromancer Bob, who plots to destroy her.
Like starfish in a tide pool, Carlene stirs,
She murmurs, in a voice as soft as breath,
"Rose, listen to me-don't believe that there's
A gulf-on one side life, the other death.
The truth is, it's one long continuum;
People are always passing back and forth.
Consciousness stretches like a sinew from
Death's hamstring to the swelling groin of birth.
ELIZABETH
Elizabeth of the blue-veined wrists is beautiful, sensitive and true. She loves the major, but will she be displaced?
Men knock all day. Elizabeth greets them, clad
Demurely in a nightgown of white flannel.
They stay an hour, leave by the back way.
They seem content: at least they don't complain
To Rose, there are new faces every day-
Lots of them. But none come back again.
MAD DOG
a philosopher parakeet, he is mentor, acolyte, and protector to Carlene. But is he corruptible?
Airborne, Mad Dog misses Carlene already
-Truth is, it's never easy on a bird
To migrate north in fall, especially
If you're a tropical species-but his word
Is sacrosanct.
MARY JO
A motorcycle-riding intellectual of scientific bent, she explores parallel universes and may have designs on this one.
...Mary Jo, who dresses all in gray,
Dances to calculus, gives satisfaction
Pure as intellect...
POLLY
Polly has left her farm, an interspecies resort for polymorphous perversity, to lead a band of guerrillas for Perot headquartered in Nashville.
Polly's still preparing for a fight.
Although she's heard Perot's become unhinged
She's ready to go on. She knows the right
To keep and bear arms shall not be infringed;
She's regulated well her own militia;
STEPHEN HAWKING
A college friend of Polly's, a bureaucrat whose jurisdiction includes alternate universes, and Mary Jo's lover (though not her intellectual equal).
Deep under water, as his whole life passes
Before his eyeballs, Hawking theorizes:
Are not neutrinos evanescent mass? Is
This what his constitution lacks? He rises,
Hooked like a Gulf Coast snapper on Mac's line
THE DEVIL
A friend of Bob's, always with his eye out for a good deal.
... a man steps forth.
He wears a crimson cloak; his hair is lacquered;
His nails are buffed. He might be from the North,
Or maybe not. There's something in his eyes
That's only found in New Orleans or Haiti.
THE MAJOR
A cold warrior of the old school, he has much to learn.
We'll need an old pro with your knowledge of
Guerrilla warfare." Bill Monroe plays "Molly
And Tenbrooks;" The Major thinks of making love,
Looks at the bomb, and then looks back at Polly.
Women and weaponry! His heartbeat quickens...
TRISHA
A shapeshifting witch with the ability to scar men with a homing device that allows her to find them whenever they have sex.
