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It's October...
Oct. 8th, 2008 02:23 pmIt's October. Fire season in San Diego. It's dry, it's hot, and the world feels like you're stepping into an oven, the kind of dry heat that you just don't get in some parts of the world, where even sweat vanishes into nothing before you can get under shade. In other words, it's a perfect time for fire.
Except that it isn't. Nothing's burning, no clouds of smoke fill the sky, and the wind holds only the faint scent of desert instead of the burning smell of houses and dreams. So we sit in the heat, wondering if the wind will turn and return the sea to us, and wait for the end of the world. It is like waiting for the tornado down in the cellar, knowing that the monster may or may not hit today, but wondering and waiting.
Which is what the rest of October is like too. October is generally the worst month of the year. But this year, amidst a rocketing economic crisis that threatens to turn this nation inside out, amidst wars at home and abroad, against a background of struggle and uncertainty and new players trying to wrestle the stage away, there is nothing. In the leadup to Halloween, even the normal culprits, the Vampires, the Werewolves, the Undead-American Advancement Association, the Leprechauns, the Fairies, the Kelpies, the Angelum, hell, even the Scientologists are deader then doorknobs. There's been the usual trouble. We busted the Two-fanged Grin clan last week for smuggling immigrants across the border from Mexico, and then sucking all the blood out of their bodies. The Japanese are looking for an escapee who they think is in the area, and the Russians seem to be expanding into Southland territory. Not to mention the usual mess with the Domina, and Isochron, and the Legion. But that's it. No mass uprisings. No disasters, no mass killings. In contrast to every other Halloween I can remember, things seem...normal.
It's Halloween, and nothing's happening. I started this month sleeping with a knife under my pillow. I've upgraded to shotguns. Two of them. Charity wouldn't let me take the nuke out of the office.
Except that it isn't. Nothing's burning, no clouds of smoke fill the sky, and the wind holds only the faint scent of desert instead of the burning smell of houses and dreams. So we sit in the heat, wondering if the wind will turn and return the sea to us, and wait for the end of the world. It is like waiting for the tornado down in the cellar, knowing that the monster may or may not hit today, but wondering and waiting.
Which is what the rest of October is like too. October is generally the worst month of the year. But this year, amidst a rocketing economic crisis that threatens to turn this nation inside out, amidst wars at home and abroad, against a background of struggle and uncertainty and new players trying to wrestle the stage away, there is nothing. In the leadup to Halloween, even the normal culprits, the Vampires, the Werewolves, the Undead-American Advancement Association, the Leprechauns, the Fairies, the Kelpies, the Angelum, hell, even the Scientologists are deader then doorknobs. There's been the usual trouble. We busted the Two-fanged Grin clan last week for smuggling immigrants across the border from Mexico, and then sucking all the blood out of their bodies. The Japanese are looking for an escapee who they think is in the area, and the Russians seem to be expanding into Southland territory. Not to mention the usual mess with the Domina, and Isochron, and the Legion. But that's it. No mass uprisings. No disasters, no mass killings. In contrast to every other Halloween I can remember, things seem...normal.
It's Halloween, and nothing's happening. I started this month sleeping with a knife under my pillow. I've upgraded to shotguns. Two of them. Charity wouldn't let me take the nuke out of the office.