Distracted Politicos

By M. Sebastian Thelwell

This is the second in a series of books that deals with intertwined worlds of gods, corporeal beings and post-corporeal beings who inhabit worlds known as Infinity, Top Tier and Concourse Level. The plot this time involves averting Doomsday which could happen because superpower presidents are too busy with private concerns to properly focus on their duties. Oddly the gods did not notice either that something was amiss. Retired gods are called in to assist with finding a solution. Many of the situations involved are serious but humorous.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329769144

Book preview

Distracted Politicos

Distracted Politicos

M. Sebastian Thelwell

Prologue

Events reported here are entirely true.

Cyril and Robby reside on Top Tier and regularly meet up in the Snug Bar of the Spotlight Pub owned by their friend Gloria. From there they can watch happenings on neighbouring Concourse Level using a viewing portal installed by Gloria’s twin Neville.  Cyril used to be an actor best known for hamming it up on production sets during the heyday of the now defunct Trafalgar Film Corporation. His regular co-stars Babs now also lives on Top Tier and they often drift into wistful reminiscences of globetrotting fame. Their film ‘Carrying on With Footballers of Doon-on-Theme’ put a bleak city few from outside the county of Northupland knew anything about ‘on the map’. In recognition the local football stadium was renamed Cyril Park. Robby on the other hand once really was involved in professional football. Although he never played for Doon he did manage them for part of the trophy-less period that has already lasted more than 60 years.

Gloria and Neville are actually joint proprietors of Top Tier and Concourse Level that they run in conjunction with other family established enterprises created by their father Zack, mother Helena, uncles and aunts. Mom, dad and the rest of the older generation have retired to Infinity, where she plays lots of tennis and bridge and he plays golf. The general public of Top Tier have no idea who the twins actually are and simply link her to the Spotlight Pub and him to the rowdier and racier Hell Raisers Club in the Entertainment District.  Nobody except family would ever recognize Gloria on Concourse Level, and those there who recognise Neville know him as the owner of the Hell Fire Club in the English capital city of Smoke. Cyril and Robby know much more than most but still far from everything about the twins and their relatives. 

Colourful characters like Kurls, Magic Mo, El Tycoon, Alpha Gear, Packet Fab, Dr. Cool Compute, superpower presidents feature in stories that revolve around happenings on Concourse. The first book in the series Hovering Giants (ISBN: 978-1-329-76646-4) sets the scene of life in both Top Tier and Concourse Level, and tells of momentous happenings in Doon-on-Theme. This book tells of incidents threatening the very existence of all of Concourse Level, with mom, dad, Uncle Jahn and Aunt Angela coming out of retirement to help avert catastrophe. Other morsels are saved for future stories the next of which will be titled Out Of Nothingness. 

I am a simple scribe on Concourse Level who lives in Doon.  My reports on events are pieced together from personal observations, and confidences shared by Kurls after she has pulled the last pint of Doon Brew for patrons of her bar on Brewery Road. Gleanings she relays are gathered from extensive entwinements with people of all social levels in and beyond the city. Interesting tidbits include content of her weekly telepathic chats with Robby from Top Tier.

Some might doubt absolute veracity of my reporting. However, the twins have not yet summoned me for an explanation, or asked me to make corrections. Until they do please read and enjoy with an open mind.

Finally, I must point out, for the sake of her reputation and establishing my credibility as an objective reporter of fact, that Kurls and I are only pals. Her romantic attachment lies elsewhere. 

Thumbnail Sketches: Important Characters

GODS:

Neville is a Second Generation God who like other masters of multi-dimensional space takes on corporeal, post-corporeal or other forms as appropriate to any circumstance. He is the son of Zack and Helena, and the twin of Gloria. Together with his sister and their cousin Perter, and occasionally other relatives he runs the family enterprise known as Reality Dimension. His core beliefs include need to modernise how gods interact with other beings. Part of sanity retention strategy is indulges in occasional pranks that his mother thinks make him a loveable rascal. He has a romantic attachment to Debra who is a resident on the Eternity World called Top Tier.

Gloria is a more sensitive, but not necessarily laxer Second Generation God child of Helena and Zack. She takes her duties as co-overseer of Reality very seriously. She enjoys private time relaxing in the company of friends on Top Tier, or trysting with Harry formerly known of Concourse as Hercules. Like Neville she is fundamentally a reformist god.

Zack is the husband of Helena, father of Neville and Gloria and the main creator of Reality Dimension that he subsequently developed with Helena and friends. Nowadays he has retired to Infinity along with most of his contemporaries. He tries very hard to not intrude while keeping a watchful eye on the kids.

Helena is the wife of Zack, mother of Gloria and Neville and queen of Reality and New Acropolis. Apart from keeping an eye on what the kids and her husband are doing, she adores playing bridge and tennis and is pretty much unbeatable at either. She and her soul sister Angela gave up playing games against one another because they shook universes in their competiveness.

Jahn is husband of Angela and father of Josh and Demi.  He is also the family diplomat and serial romantic who loves many things. However, everything is secondary to how he feels about Angela physically and emotionally. Every time she enters a room his heart pounds like when first seeing her lead charges during Siege of Carthage War Games.

Angela is wife of Jahn, mother of Josh and Demi, and soul sister of Helena. She enjoys sports and many other pleasurable pastimes as much as any other god, but is also aware that she is the goddess on who on a long ago visit to Concourse Level inspired myths of Seirēnes. Nobody would ever expect her to take on an appearance other than that of a beautiful young woman, even though she is older than any solar system.

POST-Corporeal RESIDENTS OF TOP TIER:

Cyril is a stalwart of the group for whom the Snug Lounge of the Spotlight Pub the regular hangout. In his corporeal phase he was an actor best known for hamming it up on production sets during the heyday of the now defunct Trafalgar Film Corporation.  His regular co-stars Babs now also lives on Top Tier and they often drift into wistful reminiscences of globetrotting fame. He has much more than an average resident’s inkling of who Gloria and Neville really are. Mostly without knowing it Cyril often helps the twins attend effectively to problems threatening tranquility of both ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’ worlds. 

Robby is also a stalwart of the Spotlight Snug. When corporeal he was a famous footballer and then manager of various teams across Europe. Otherwise successful his luck deserted him while managing Doon United and it will always hurt that they sacked him in a shabby unjustified manner. When intoxicated, which is quite often, Robby becomes a free flowing conduit of information about upstairs to downstairs via telepathic conversations with Kurls the medium bar owner in Doon-on-Theme. Unbeknownst to him the twins find it useful to let this happen.       

Package Fab was the star centre forward of Doon United during their now long past glory days when they won the English FA Cup three times in four years. Even though his pomp was more than 60 human years ago Packet is still revered in Doon-on-Theme with watching grainy clips of his feats being a compulsory part of family life on Friday nights. 

CORPORIAL RESIDENTS OF CONCOURSE LEVEL:

Magic Mo, also known as MM, came to prominence as the brightest bulb in Doon-on-Theme, the city he dominates intellectually and financially. His mind is razor sharp strategically, tactically and operationally when it comes to businesses that include Sporting Pleasures and Doon United. In Hovering Giants he forms a profitable relationship with El Tycoon the person he hopes will gain him entry to the business super league. His off-duty playmate is Kurls, the medium to whom Robby divulges insights into another world.

El Tycoon is an American modern day mogul whose empire spans continents and includes the America Now-tv network, investment banks, and mega realty developments like Retired Dictator and Vine and Ranch zone developments in Argentina. He is the primary donor to US President Ursula Goldenblatt’s election and re-election campaigns, giving him unparalleled pull in national and international affairs. El never delves too deeply into the question of exactly who or what business partners are, because that could expose his business arse. Darleen his wife is less inhibited about prying. 

Kurls is proprietor of a bar on Brewery Road in Doon-on-Theme. This automatically makes her a celebrity in a city that prides itself on ability of its citizens to consume large quantities of alcohol.  As a sideline she is a medium capable of talking to spirits in the afterlife like Robby on Top Tier. She continually deepens both her business acumen and her relationship with Magic Mo.    

Alpha Gear is a former footballer who returned at his peak to his native city to play for Doon United. Although he was worshiped there he never delivered expected trophies or replaced Package Fab as the iconic hero. After hanging up his boots Alpha became a pundit for the B-tv show Matchup Replay, enabling him to stay in the spotlight. Unbeknown to him, Alpha has talents that Neville and other gods sometimes find useful for solving problems on Concourse Level.

Dr. Cool Compute is a boffin who invents gadgets that solve complex technical problems on Concourse Level. He inspired the urban myth saying Cool is always cool. When the going gets tough he simply tightens his jaw and solved problems determinedly, just as his foreman grandfather did during the heydays of the Backwall Shipyard.

Ursula Goldenblatt is President of the Unite States of America who started climbing the greasy political pole as an intern by teaming up with Congressman Frank Goldenblatt who she met at an Ass Party Convention in Fort Worth. He taught her many things politics and extracurricular.      

Gung Ho is the son of a peasant farmer who became President of the People’s Republic of China. His formative years taught him that everywhere operates on the same principles as his village.

Yuri Popthemov is President of the Russian Federation and head of the Brats Council. Few things other than thoughts escape his control. His thin smile chills gelatinous spines of senior members of his government and military alike.  In public he presents himself as a comrade selflessly devoted to the motherland, but privately he gloats in being the boy from Torzhok who become the self-made Tsar before his thirty-eighth birthday.

CONTENTS

Distracted Politicos

Prologue

Thumbnail Sketches: Important Characters

DISTRACTED POLITICOS

1.How It All Started: Superpower Financial Soups

2.Putting Retirement On Hold

3.Action Top Tier Style

4.The Laird and Lady Return

5.Discovery and Preparation

6.On Olympus Sea

7.How It All Ended

Epilogue

About the author

© December 2015

ISBN: 978-1-329-76914-4

DISTRACTED POLITICOS

1.               How It All Started: Superpower Financial Soups

"Based on what the Secretary of Finance tells me spending has to be cut because the deficit and national debt are hitting the