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Prayerland's back, so enjoy and then look for it with Lipstick and Lust next week

Prayerland's back, so enjoy and then look for it with Lipstick and Lust next week
by Rajkhet Dirzhud-Rashid - SGN A&E Writer Well girls and boys, I'm sure you all missed the next episode of 'Prayerland: The D'I'a'leggj Chronicles', which has been running in Lipstick and Lust since Christmas, and believe me, I feel ya. But space does trump art sometimes, and being the politically egalitarian folk that I be, I was glad my friend and co-writer, Joyce Glasgow's work did finally make these esteemed pages. This episode I dedicate to Tom Fox, Jill Carroll-who were unfortunate losses in Bush's 'ego war' with the Middle East, and who I, who didn't know them, but cared, will miss. And to my mentor and now gone sister sci-fi writer, Octavia Butler. So, all of that said, here's the chapter, so you can be up to speed with the next installment comes out in L&L next week. Enjoy this next episode of 'Prayerland: The D'I'leggj Chronicles' (and remember you're reading what will soon be a book from Windstorm Publishing, so celebrate with me, dahlings and enjoy!). Now, 'Prayerland: The D'I'a'leggj Chronicles'! The drug was still in her system, and Y'aagee felt smooth, sensuous, easy. All feelings she liked. She reached her hand over her head, turning the spinner around, watching the sparkly colors bounce back and forth across the dark room, looked at her hand, turning it around and then back as if she'd never seen it before. Jaama licked the finger, sending little tingles of pleasure through Y'aagee, again. 'IIIIII liiiiiike yyyyyyyoooou,' the darker, taller woman whispered, as she let her tongue play over Yaagee's face, lips and eyelids. 'Yes, I like you too, and I'm ready to play again,' A nice sensation she thought and almost wished Moolu could be here, then she clamped that thought out of her mind with a bitter and angry determination. That was behind her now, as was the last time she'd been in the Great Room, with the fire. She shivered at that thought, and Jaama wrapped her long, gold bangled arms around her furry companion, hissing in concern. 'Nothing, nothing, come on, let's play again,' and with that she arched her breast forward to touch the nipples of the other woman's, and felt their sexes press tightly together, as she kissed Jama, digging her nails into the dark flesh, knowing there would be marks, knowing there would be blood, knowing this was all forbidden, but not caring, only letting herself start that sweet climb toward joy with this enemy from an enemy tribe who was now a friend. The two looked at him with alarm, but capitulated to his wishes, bowing their fine-boned heads in acceptance. Shrle breathed a great sigh of happiness and then looked at both of them, his eyes soft for a moment before he made the high whistling sound that signaled the formal beginning of this meeting. As he did, a figure stepped from the shadows, and the gathered body all made various sounds of anger, fear and warning, as they saw that it was Grjjzhl, one of the older females, and in her arms was L'eilth, her youngest daughter. And as the older woman limped into the light of the Ruuat, they saw that the younger female had been savagely killed, in a way that would indicate one of the larger members of the Tribal Vold as the perpetrator. There had been a Hunt, something that hadn't happened in P'jeGa'liiith in any memory any of them had. Majooka ran to the other woman, looked at the deep, sunken eyes, put her arms around the sagging shoulders, the two of them lowering the torn body of their tribe's own to the floor. All of them remembered the First Flight by this one, her cries of joy and fear mixing with that of her father's as they leapt into the sky of the First Moon of Growing, their ancestral feathers emerging from their skin to carry them far to the Place of Feasting, where all of them would celebrate this day together. Oonklii, one of the males, who had been standing behind Shrle sounded a sound none of them had heard in a thousand years, the sound of Kindijj, the sound of blood madness, that which had kept all of the tribes at war, and caused the loss of so much life. The others slowly joined him, including Majooka, and the grieving woman, who raised her hands, stained with her daughter's blood to the ceiling to AllWild, their Goddess, asking Finishing for this crime against them all. 'Honey baby, come on, you're safe. Mama's here, mama's here dearest,' Her words could have sounded mocking at any other time, but this wasn't that time, this was now, after another 'adventure' with Jai Lin in the land of hellish surprises she called life. I pushed away, sat up and wiped my eyes on another corner of our sheet, realizing it had been a while since we did anything as ordinary as laundry, or even had a day out of the 'ject together. 'Hey, let's go out together today. Fuck, let's even bring this kids, whadya say,' I tried to sound cheery, almost convinced myself, but Jelly was much wiser than that and when I turned back to her, she was just sitting there, arms folded across her bare breasts, looking at me with a clear-eyed look that said 'bitch please, who do you think you're foolin' here'. So I smiled (and this time part of me actually, for real, cheered up a bit) and tumbled back into her arms, let her warm body, and rose petal mouth give me the clean pleasure that would heal and steady me for the day ahead. And by the fourth orgasm, I did feel stronger and more determined than ever to put the previous day's horrors out of my mind. Then I remembered we had a guest in the other room, who probably needed some healing too. As if she read my mind, Jelly rolled out of bed, pulled on her 'greeting guests tee shirt' and strolled into the living room. I watched her ass jiggle in her panties and felt all warm and cherished inside, like nothing mattered in the world but this moment, and more moments like this. 'Hey, you want breakfast, Bo dropped off some stuff from one of the Peace Now food banks and there's actually some pretty good stuff here,' Jelly was making tea, clattering dishes for all three of us, sharing fire with our guest, who looked at me with a weak, but genuine smile on her face. I saw down, joining them in our little ritual of sharing fire, the smoke circling above our heads like in those old '40's films I'd seen on the battery powered tv Bo had, that worked almost as often as the water did. We even laughed when one of our neighbors, a transgendered woman named Margo banged on our door, and told us, after we let her in, that Gomez, her 'live'in' had stayed out all night with some new 'trick' named Logan. 'Sure honey, I can paint your nails and your toes too, if you like. What's your favorite color?' She was just what this morning needed, sparkle, drama and wit, something we could always count on Margo to bring with her on those rare occasion she left her apartment and came a'vistin' (as she called it). I looked at her nappy fuschia hair, long, purple nails, the multiple necklaces she wore, the Western shirt, jeans and red high heels and suddenly all was right with the world again. So we laughed, shared some more fire and when Margo left, assuring all of us that 'as quick as that', she'd have someone new in her sheets, me, Jelly and the femme cop rolled in our own sheets, calling it healing, knowing it was more like reveling in new meat and the imagined taboo feeling that we were somehow breaking some ageold rule. Bo was sleeping, just nodding a little (the 'done made it like that these days, when he could get one of his 'sources' to provide the stuff that was in very short supply now), when he realized he was actually having a very different dream. She was too beautiful to be anything else but a dream, this grey-brown woman in flowing earth-colored clothing, with the wise, old eyes that regarded him with patience and love. 'Welcome traveler, I am Njelka, one of the Older Ones, from the EjEiiae. We brought you here, because you are also an elder, we know&' She raised a multi-ringed hand to silence his attempt at protest, and regarded him with a kind smile that he had not seen in too long. Bo Jarvis, veteran of the last Sino-Middle Eastern Wars, and occasional suicide-he never gave up the thought, he just never had found a way that wouldn't be messy or cause him more pain than he felt at the times he thought about it-felt tears slide out of his eyes and down his cheeks. He allowed the cool, perfumed arms of this impossible being, in this ridiculous dream to drape around him, and felt, for the first time in twenty years, peace. We didn't go out with the kids-there was some kind of commotion going on with a couple of the 'ludies (the folks on what meds they could find, that just barely kept them from becoming 'crags', but didn't keep them from sometimes letting loose in ways that were alternately fascinating and alternately terrifying to witness) on one of the upper floors and there were Inspectors and a few of the official Enforcement Staffers (the well-paid 'law' that were part of the last breaths of a now defunct government) were all over the place. So, me, Jelly and Lisa, the femme cop snuck out of one of the back doors, into a rare beautiful day and just decided to take it on the chin. Whatever came our way-fight, food, more sex in strange places-we were up for it. And when Littleton, one of the vets from another 'ject across town yelled at us from the beat up bus that was one of the ten left running (more from the determination and ingenuity of folks like Littleton, and their knowledge of chemistry), we yelled back and took the ride he offered. 'So, out for a bit of 'nipping and cattin' eh?' We knew he meant 'scrounging for food' and possibly joining in some protest or other 'action' going on in the streets, and we acted coy and played along, half because we were doing just that, and half because we didn't know what the hell we were doing, just that I needed to get somewhere where I couldn't think, where my thoughts couldn't string nasty little moments together like a necklace of rotting skulls. 'Yea, I guess. Say, you here anything about somethin' happenin' to Black Rachel, a little while back&' He looked up into the rear view mirror, his face suddenly hard, suspicious and I felt my back go up, like a cat disturbed by another cat. 'I&I.." He softened, and I remembered he knew about me and her, and had even given us rides, watched us make out in the back of his bus on more than one occasion. 'Yea, heard somethin' bout that shit. That some pinche folks was pissed about her stirrin' up some shit with the 'housing folks, like that she was some 'big chief', they said&I heard&and maybe some higher ups got wind, sent somebody&but you didn't hear that from me, okay?' We all looked at each other and suddenly those rotten skulls were hanging on my neck and even though the sun was still shining through a polluted haze, it felt cold, and it felt like a storm was coming any moment now. That's when everything exploded, first with gunshots pinging the window in front of Littleton, and him ducking, just barely in time, and a mob appearing out of nowhere with bricks, bits of wood and just about everything else. It was another protest about the conditions of the 'jects and how the crags had been forced to live like less than animals on the corners of the worst, most polluted parts of the city. I watched, unable to move fast enough, as a young woman and a kid about Miracle's age tried to get on the bus, only to be jerked back and beaten bloody by members of The Law, who followed the group, herding them like cattle. Littleton cursed, and I saw him reach under the seat for the gun I knew he kept there, just for this sort of emergency. He didn't even get off one shot before a male cop fired one of those light things, where the flash comes first then the sound, like a loud woomp, then the person just goes out, like a match. Which is what Littleton did, right in front of my eyes. I was screaming, thinking didn't I live through some shit like this just yesterday, when a group on the other side of the bus, some ragged looking kids broke our windows and dragged us out, me, Jelly and the femme cop, Lisa. All of us screaming, scratching, trying to land a fist, or foot wherever it might hurt the most, and realizing that we were causing more harm to our own, than to The Law, who just kept mowing people down, using gas, fire pistols, boots, whatever. 'Come this way&Lise?' A voice out of the thick of Law bodies, a man in riot gear, trying in vain to stop the carnage, using his body and his weapons to carve a path for us and a few other kids, who'd been beaten so badly, I could barely see their faces for the blood and dirt. She looked at him at first with that trapped look, like kids get when their parents catch them dead to rights breaking the one good lamp. Then she took a moment to hug him and then, once again in charge, she helped him steer us all to an abandoned building and down a creaky trap door, into a basement and safety. And as we waited for the shooting, shouts and what we tried not to even imagine, to end, we all looked at each other, silent where words would have only gotten in the way of something we couldn't ever cover with mere language. I closed my eyes and tried to forget, Littleton's eyes as he died, Lisa's strangled scream when they pulled us from the bus, and mostly how when it mattered, I hadn't been able to protect my own. Then I cried, again, for the whole mess life had turned into lately. 'Miracle, that's what they call you, hmmm? Well, that is indeed what you are my little one. A miracle. Now, I want you to focus on that ball, and tell me what comes into your mind. Take your time, we have as long as you like,' Majouha watched the face of the little girl, knowing how much more this child was, to their world, to her own world (though she didn't know any of this, she only thought she was having a pretty dream, with wonderful things happening). 'She should push her somehow&we don't have time for this&' Shrle shushed his friend, now once again his lover, and felt the hand of his other lover, on his shoulder. They were joined, and in this terrible, outrageous time, it was all that kept him from letting his mind unspiral and give the order for a vizssja after what had happened to the girl. 'Yes, that's it, that's it, concentrate,' Images danced in the orb, whirled around like children's toys in a windstorm, and suddenly they all knew, this was She, this was her Jloxasz and now that she was here, they knew wonderful and awful things would come to pass, but they knew they would be a whole people, and that both worlds would go on. So there you are you little tea crumpets, and I hope you kept up and are just salivating for the next episode, as I am. Buhbye for now and do e-mail me your worshipful and adoring thoughts, but no spam, thank you very much! E-mail yours truly at ijanaral@yahoo.com.