Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede by Bradley Denton (love books to read txt) đ
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I felt the puff of Sharonâs sigh through the cordless phone. âOliver, no one would go to this much effort just to⊠I mean, no one would do this to you. You have no enemies other than yourself. Besides, whether you did it or not, whether you believe you did it or not, youâre still in tremendous trouble. Bruce is listening to the radioâyour tape is still jamming the TV stations, you knowâand he says that the reports claim youâve broken in on regular programming worldwide, on every channel thatâs been checked so far. Theyâre describing you asâwhat is it, Bruce?ââAn obviously brilliant but seriously disturbed computer and video genius.â And I suppose you must really be a genius if you did what they say.â
I had no problem with the âseriously disturbedâ business, but I laughed at the rest. âWhen it comes to video, I can connect, disconnect, or adjust it before you can blinkâwith the exception of my stupid off-brand satellite dish. But thatâs because Iâm a salesman at Cowboy Carlâs Computer and Component Corral in the White Lakes Mall. I sell IBM and Apple clones along with the occasional minicam, CD player, food processor, VCR, and biorhythm-charter. Does that make me a genius?â
âThe news media will infer that it does, and so will the FCC,â Sharon replied. âAt least, thatâs what Bruce says.â
I snorted, a noise Iâd practiced since childhood and had down to near-porcine perfection. âWhat does Bruce know? This is the guy who thinks Eddie Cochran was a World War I flying ace.â
âOliver,â Sharon said irritably, and for that one wonderful moment I imagined that we were married. âListen to me. You are in trouble with the law.â
âDeep sewage,â Braceâs voice said in the background. He sounded pleased.
âGobble it and choke, Bruce!â I yelled. If nothing else, I had learned some snappy phrases during my Relationship with Julie âEat shit and die, Oliverâ Calloway.
âI want you to come over here,â Sharon said.
âWhat?â Bruce bellowed.
âWe have to figure out what to do,â Sharon continued, ignoring her boyfriendâs shout. âIf you stay home, youâll be under arrest by sunrise. But if you cut off your broadcast immediately and come over to my place, maybe Bruce and I can help with a defense to keep you out of jail. Bruce is a terrific attorney, you know.â
âOh, great,â Bruce said. I heard a thump that must have been Sharon kicking him.
I liked the idea of going to Sharon Sharpstonâs apartment and bugging Bruce, but I was reluctant to accept the offer. In the first place, although I couldnât stop the broadcast, running to Sharon might be seen as an admission of guilt. In the second place, I hated to leave my house empty at night with no one to guard my treasures.
âIâm not your responsibility,â I said.
âYou became my responsibility when I allowed you into my therapy group,â Sharon said. âBesides, Iâm your friend.â
âChrist,â Bruce said. I heard another thump.
I tried to think of what Mother would suggest in a situation like this. When I had started getting beaten up in grade school, her advice had been to ârun and hide.â The difficulty with that had been that there werenât many hiding places on the treeless playgroundâand I doubted that there would be many hiding places where the Federal government couldnât find me either.
So, as attractive as running and hiding was to me (I had done it often during my Relationship), I decided to fall back on Motherâs other axiom, âWhatever works.â In this case, since I was probably going to be considered guilty until proven innocent regardless of what I did, that would mean taking Sharon up on her offer. âIâll be right over,â I said. âTell Bruce he can crash on the couch.â I hung up before she could contradict my vision of the sleeping arrangements.
The Sony came back to life without my having touched the remote control. Buddy squinted out at me and said, âHereâs that address again. I guess this Oliver Vale must be the right man for the job.â
I stood up and struck my best John Wayne pose.
âThatâll be the day,â I drawled.
I swaggered into my bedroom wishing that someone would shoot out my eyes so that I wouldnât have to make the trip to the Spirit Land.
SHARONNotes on client Oliver Vale, continuedâŠ
2/3/89; 2:45 A.M.: Oliverâs transference is becoming pronounced, so offering him refuge in my home may not be good for him. However, incarceration could drive him over the brink into psychosis, and the past five years of therapy would be wasted. I have tried to explain this to my Significant Other, but I fear that he doubts my motives. Bruce, in his natural jealous anger, has even hinted that I am not truly concerned with Oliverâs well-being; instead, he suggests, I subconsciously covet Oliverâs collection of vintage rock and roll recordings. This is untrue. My personal feeling, in fact, is that Oliverâs archives suffer from a serious paucity of Motown.
The turn that Oliverâs delusions have now taken is fascinating, if frightening in its scope. Superficially, the content of his ingenious television broadcast seems to indicate a healthful realization that only he can save himselfâbecause, as frequently noted, he often displays a strong personal identification with Buddy Holly. However, this feeling of identification is in fact a mask for Oliverâs underlying delusion that Holly is his father. Thus, since the broadcast supposedly originates from another planet, I am led to the following preliminary analysis: Oliver sees himself as the savior of his father (_id est,_ as the embodiment of his fatherâs seed), which by extension implies that he also (rather uncharacteristically, at first glance) sees himself as the savior of all mankind. Id est, for Oliver, Buddy Holly (or perhaps what Holly symbolizesâinnocence, freedom, skill, talent, love) = God the Father (who lives in Heaven, here translated as a distant planet); Oliver himself = God the Son (the Savior); and television = God the Holy Spirit (through which the Fatherâs wishes are communicated and the Son is brought into being).
The barrenness of Buddy/Oliverâs planet may be symbolic of Oliverâs mother. More on this after I interview Oliver and analyze his responses.
I do not know what to make of the âMr. Sullivanâ references. I have never heard of this person, and Oliver has never mentioned him in my presence. (Oliverâs real father?)
The coming legal difficulties may make further analysis haphazard, but to minimize this problem I have decided to refer my other clients to colleagues for the next week.
The Buddy Holly tape has been on television for almost two hours now. Sometimes Buddy/Oliver talks; sometimes he sings (hiccupping strangely); and sometimes he merely stands silently or sits cross-legged on the ground, which appears to be bare rock. Nothing has repeated yet. I have been taping the broadcast for the past forty-five minutes, and I expect that a detailed study will aid me in determining the future course of Oliverâs therapy.
I have only now realized that I should not have told him to come here on his own; I should have gone to him and brought him back. In my surprise and shock at his unexpected appearance on my TV screen, I failed to think clearly. If he hasnât arrived in another twenty minutes, Iâll drive to his home.
At this moment, Buddy/Oliver (I suppose I should really write âOliver/Buddyâ) is singing a song called âItâs Too Late.â I fear that he is trying to tell me something.
My Significant Other is not providing as much emotional support as I would like. It will be interesting, after this crisis is past, to examine how these and forthcoming events will have affected our relationship.
Bruce persists in referring to Oliver as a âdweeb,â which I find intensely irritating.
RICHTERThe buzz of the telephone woke him a few minutes after 4:00 A.M., Eastern Standard Time. He was not pleased.
âRichter?â a familiar voice asked.
âYes.â He sat up in bed, uncomfortably aware of his paunch.
âHave you been watching television?â
âNo.â
âYou should be. Any station.â
Richter touched a button on the headboard, and a fifty-inch flat screen on the far wall began to glow, gradually resolving itself into a gawky boy with a pimple on his chin.
âAre you watching yet?â
âYes.â The gawky boy began singing âIâm Looking for Someone to Loveâ in a happy, staccato hiccup of a voice.
The boy was Buddy Holly. Richter remembered him. He wanted to listen to the song, but it would be a bad idea to wake his bedmate while he was on the phone. He turned off the televisionâs sound.
âItâs on every channel in the world, Richter, including UHF and cable. The regular broadcasts are being wiped and replaced, apparently at the points of transmission. Even the commercial communications satellites are jammed with this thing. None of the video relays, and I mean none, will respond to commands. The Soviets have already protestedâonly two hours into it! They think weâre doing it to jam Eastern bloc telecasts. But weâre not, because we canât. And if we canât, then they canât either.â
âNo,â Richter agreed, acknowledging the obvious.
âWe donât know how to stop it. We donât even know how itâs being done. Do you know what this means?â
âYes,â Richter said, and forced himself to add, âI believe so.â He hated to waste time on any words other than monosyllables, but he also hated to be inaccurate.
âGood. You are now a sworn enforcement agent of the Federal Communications Commission. You have the same powers in this capacity as in any other. Understood?â
âYes.â Richter was perturbed. At his age, with his years of experience, he resented being told anything that he could assume.
âAll right. Weâll try to keep other enforcement units out of your way, but we canât guarantee that weâll be able to stop any local or state agencies that want to poke their noses into things. The suspected perpetrator, one Oliver Vale, was cocky enough to broadcast his identity, so you can begin your investigation at this address.â
Richter listened to the address and scowled. Regardless of its international impact, an investigation with its focus in Topeka, Kansas, was not his idea of a cherry assignment.
âHave you finished your current business?â the voice on the phone asked.
Richter looked down at the young woman in bed beside him. She was awakening, a sleepy smile on her perfect oval face. âNo,â he said.
âWell, either finish it immediately or postpone it. This new matter takes precedence. If that smartass hick hacker had stuck to monkeying around with domestic transmission, Iâd leave it to the regular FCC goons, but with the Russians all set to piss in our soup, itâs got to be wrapped up fast. Just be sure you find out how he did it, and how to make it stop, before you do anything else. Before you do anything else. Got it?â
âYes.â Richterâs scowl deepened. With these restrictions, he might have to be in Kansas for an entire day.
âIf you need technical assistance, Iâll see that itâs provided. Go.â
Richter replaced the receiver in its slot in the headboard, then threw off the sheet and slid out of bed.
âGoing to the bathroom?â the woman asked drowsily.
âNo,â Richter said. He bent down to reach under the bed, and his hand closed on his 9mm plastic pistol.
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