Magnolia Makes Plans

Magnolia stood with her arms folded, while Errol Manoff waited silently next to her. The sky was still drizzly, the desert still bedraggled.

“What about overhead shots?” she demanded. “Can’t we get a couple helicopters?” Her long fingernails tapped against her opposite bicep, newly resurrected from a long-dismissed memory. “Or a blimp– I love those blimps they light up over stadiums. You know– you can advertise across the whole sides– they’re big, glowing billboards in the sky.”

Errol looked down on her. “I don’t think blimps can fly in the desert,” he growled. “Bad air currents.”

They were standing in the middle of the Strip, right in the middle on the island with the palm trees waving up and down in both directions. a huge construction rose before them: plywood and plaster and lots and lots of paint arching up into the air, forming a speaking platform way up top.

Three nights from now, on New Year's Eve, when the street was closed off and full of revelers, Zem would announce the New new Las Vegas.

He'd be seen, he assured them, on every television screen in ever home around the globe. They'd set up the cameras, and he would take care of the signal.

"I understand this box," he'd told her, patting the TV fondly. And, given the hours he'd spent sitting in front of it, she'd thought sourly, he no doubt did.

Errol and the others had resisted the plan a little more. They had a hard time accepting Zem's more supernatural moves still. This was magic, pure and simple, but Magnolia was growing used to that. And the boys did what she told them, eventually.

But they didn't like it. “Are you sure this is all in order?” Errol demanded again.

She shrugged. “If it’s not, there’ll be a large burnt spot on the pavement all around this thing when he throws a few lightning bolts." She laughed, suddenly. “And that’ll introduce Zem to the world as effectively as anything, won't it?”

“Maybe not with quite the image we want,” he growled sourly.

She patted him on the shoulder. “Oh, it's not like he’s some tame pussycat. He’s an elemental force, for god’s sake. He’s dangerous. News will get out pretty quickly. But no one will care. They'll want what he has even if it does kill them. Lots of them will want it more."

“And that doesn’t worry you? You don’t think, in a few years, he might get bored with this whole thing, and start crushing us all, just because he can?”

His words were uninflected, as always.

“I think that’s exactly what will happen,” Magnolia answered in a lowered voice. “Or, well, I think it might,” she amended. “Who knows? He might need us enough that he’ll be careful. But in either case...” she stopped a few steps above the sidewalk and turned, looking him in the eye, “We don’t know. We’ll never know. Until it happens, which will be too late.” She held his gaze.

“And what do you intend to do about that?” he asked levelly.

Magnolia took his elbow and linked her arm through his. “I’m so glad you asked,” she said. “As it happens, I’ve learned there’s another deity in town. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder just how many of these folks there might be, all over the world. If our current Fearless Leader doesn’t end up meeting all our needs, well...” she smiled up at Errol, “I think perhaps there could be a change in regime. With a little planning.” She crinkled her cheeks, managed to make it sound like a come-on. And, as Errol raised his eyebrows, she smiled deeper.

She didn’t mention that Vegas actually held at least one and a half more deities, besides Zem. And who knew what the future might hold for the newest, honest-to-god male-to-female demi-goddess on the planet.

Magnolia had Plans.

NEXT POST: EVOLVING GOATS (Friday 2/12)