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[blueswan]

After my sister and I got rained out at the Blues Brothers outdoor screening in Joliet, I wrote a short Musefic (i.e. a story in which the characters are sentient, intelligent entities that follow the writer around in the real world) about it.

Here's the result:




August 13, 2010, 7:24 pm...

(The skies are gray over Joliet, IL. The silver Highlander -- also known as 'The Tank' -- moves slowly up Richards Street. The driver, a redheaded woman in a leather jacket, scans the road ahead while her passenger -- a stocky gentleman wearing Ray Ban sunglasses and black fodora hat reads a copy of Hustler. His head drifts up, eyes moving toward the window.)

JAKE: "Where the hell are we? I thought you said we were going to Coldstone."

BINX: "I lied to you."

JAKE: "Oh that's nice. Does your wife know you've got such a charming side to you?"

BINX: "Neither of us is going to lose anything for going a night without. Get over it."

(The redhead drives on. Jake sets the magazine aside, eyes glued to the window now as he watches the houses and buildings that glide past. There's something strangely familiar about the neighborhood.)

JAKE: "This place..."

(The tank comes to a stop at a red light. The street sign says 'Washington St.' There's an overpass ahead of them and just beyond the overpass, a gothic sandstone structure looming starkly on the horizon. Like a medieval castle or a... The bluesman scrambles up in his seat.)

JAKE: "NOPE! NO F***ING WAY! Turn this thing right around, now! I am not kidding!"

BINX: "Jake, it's been closed for more than eight years. They shoot TV shows there now."

JAKE: "I don't care *what* they do there. We're not going!"

BINX: "It's just for a few hours--"

JAKE: "No."

BINX: "It's my birthday."

JAKE: "No."

BINX: "It's Elwood's birthday!"

(A skinny man with ruffled brown hair and an identical set of Ray Bans looks up from the backseat, skirt unbuttoned, tie askew.)

ELWOOD: "What?"

BINX: *sweetly* "Nothing!"

(A pale, masculine arm reaches up and the other man disappears back behind the seat.)

JAKE: "I think I know when my own brother's birthday is. Who do you think bought him Curt back there? You have until the count of ten to turn this tank around. Ten, nine, eight--"

BINX: "Come on, Erica's never seen it.."

JAKE: "Seven, six, five."

BINX: "They've got two dollar beers there. I'll buy you the first seven."

JAKE: "Four, three, two."

BINX: "Would you believe we're on a mission from God?"

JAKE: "One." *snaps his fingers*

(A clap of thunder sounds loudly overhead just as the cars lined up behind the Tank begin blaring their horns. The redhead watches, shocked, as a torrential downpour begins hammering the windshield.)

JAKE: "I believe the light's green. You'll want to turn right here."

BINX: *sighs, slaps her palm against the wheel and makes a right turn toward Washington*

JAKE: "And we're stopping at Coldstone on the way. I don't want to hear any bitching about your waistline or about what the rain's doing to your hair."


--

The man Elwood's in the backseat with is Curt Wild from "Velvet Goldmine." I'm not sure why, but it made one of my friends *fall over* with laughter.