Pez Wars

By TS Caladan

Imagine a world where PEZ candy and the colorful dispensers never existed. Another reality has taken over. PEZ is a Personal Info System, and no one has ever heard of collectable dispensers. Welcome to the wonderful world of PEZ collecting. What would happen if it all disappeared and PEZ was no longer a candy, but something else entirely? Read TS Caladan’s nightmare fantasy (to collectors) of an alien plot to change the world thru PEZ. The earth we know slowly morphs into one without the popular candy. What can our hero, Jeff Blain, and his friends do to make people remember what was? Will PEZ and the excitement of collecting and conventions ever return?

• Language: English
• Publisher: TWB Press
• Release date: Feb 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781959768074

TS Caladan

Tray Caladan was born Doug Yurchey in Pittsburgh in 1951. An only child, he retreated into his imagination and drew fantastic pictures. Later, he drew backgrounds for “The Simpsons” and earned a tennis scholarship to Edinboro State as an art major. Afterwards he started the ‘Art Trek’ gallery in Pittsburgh. There he met a psychic (Katrina) who forever changed his life. Her insights sent him on a course to solve great mysteries. Nikola Tesla’s observations helped him solve riddles of Atlantis and ancient pyramids. His articles, videos, radio shows, theories, patent, games, and writings have earned him international acclaim throughout 40 years of researching natural and alien phenomena. His positive message of a ‘New Human Genesis’ pervades his science-fiction and his art, as well. Tray lives in Northridge, California, on sometimes shaky ground, with his cat (Monkie) and a large library of UFO and science books.

Book preview

~ Story for a different kind of PEZ Movie ~

Pez Wars

By

TS Caladan

Copyright by TS Caladan 2023

Published by TWB Press at Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this story (e-book) may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or book reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidences are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Edited by TS Caladan

Cover art by TS Caladan

ISBN: 978-1-959768-07-4

[‘PEZ WARS’ is the story of two worlds that battle to be the only reality. Main character, Jefferson Blain, had the largest collection of PEZ dispensers in the United States. PEZ was a worldwide phenomenon for generations, a delicious candy and the dispensers were hot collector’s items to an underground community of PEZ-heads. They regularly met at conventions and trade shows where very rare and valuable dispensers were displayed and sold.

Then came the Great Change that only Jeff and a few others were aware of. PEZ as a candy and the popular dispensers were suddenly GONE! International and American PEZ companies did not exist and never existed! A new reality took over where PEZ was only known as a Personal Education Zystem. Many people owned the state-of-the-art dispensers of information in their homes and where they worked. Far superior to Siri or Alexa, the small voice-recognition machine answered any question. That was P.E.Z. and not a sweet candy with a clever delivery system known in the U.S. since the 1950s.

Has Jeff Blain lost his mind? Are we viewing his nightmare? How could the man ever convince a soul that there was once this candy...now within a frightening universe where PEZ never happened? There was (almost) no evidence at all that the candy existed in the world and in the minds of everyone. Well, almost everyone~].

Scene 1. Exterior, undisclosed location and time, farmlands. Twilight.

The dim-lit horizon stretched out ahead for many miles. A hardly traveled road divided the panoramic scene. The rural area in late evening was reminiscent of the beginning of the film ‘Close Encounters’ with its black and deep blue sky over a lonely country environment. The view slowly shifted down to the ground and the paved road. Closer and closer, and now we viewed something unclear on the road. A small, rectangular object remained in obscurity...until a dark hand entered the picture. The hand picked up the thing and the object suddenly glowed. It illuminated to a high degree because of the touch and was revealed to be...

...A PEZ dispenser. The first dispenser that had a plastic head on it: the Witch, which dated the time to be an evening in 1957. The face was red and the dispenser was black. As it glowed, the light showed that the hand was the hand of an ALIEN. Long fingers, four of them, held the strange object in the palm of the creature’s hand. The fingers examined the bright thing that must have been thrown out of a vehicle that passed. The alien played with it, moved the Witch head, pulled on the Witch head. The creature continued its fascination with the thing like it was a new toy. The fingers jerked in surprise gestures when the plastic head popped up and the inner guts of the simple mechanism was seen. A few of the lemon candies spilled out and dropped to the road. But a few remained in the alien’s hand, and...

(Background music swelled). The lifeform quickly brought it to its face and gulped the colored sweetness down its mouth! The audience POV saw the rush of its hand and then total BLACKNESS.

For moments, there was only blackness. And silence.

[OPENING CREDITS ROLL].

Scene 2. Interior, large/round auditorium in Ohio. Day.

Inside was the colorful chaos of a PEZ Convention! Loud noise and chatter came from the large crowd of excited dispenser enthusiasts. They shouted with joy and happiness. They were home; they were with their kind of people, many like-minds that absolutely were obsessed with the seemingly endless varieties of dispensers the Company produced, America and overseas. They were very anxious to see dispensers completely foreign to their eyes and loved every minute of the huge Ohio event. Everything was a loud and bright fantasyland to the general public, some who were new to the craze and had never seen anything like a wild PEZ Convention before.

Such characters attended and displayed their proud dispensers: They wore bright clothes as colorful as the multitude of dispensers around them. They acted a little outlandish and it was almost like a Star Trek Convention. PEZ-heads weren’t too different from the Trekkers. Excitement was in the air and felt by old folks as well as a younger generation. Many wore PEZ T-shirts, hats and had various paraphernalia they had either brought with them or had purchased at the convention.

Scene 3. Exterior view of the Convention.

The scope of the convention was unbelievable in its size. The main structure or Convention Center was a huge, yellow dome that covered approximately a quarter the size of your average Walmart. Above the front entrance, painted on the dome, was a friendly ‘Smiley-Face’ that welcomed everyone to this very happy place. A wide spectrum of buildings surrounded the massive dome and each and every one were devoted to PEZ.

Behind the bright/yellow dome that shone like the Sun, was a 90-foot tall tower that appeared exactly like a red Pez dispenser. It was visible for miles in all directions and led conventioneers to the prime hub of activity. The question was: What HEAD would adorn the great PEZ Tower at the largest U.S. convention? Of course, there were many write-in votes. The International Company deferred to the American Company on this matter. Elvis was rejected. Mickey Mouse was rejected. Even Buzz Lightyear, Wonder Woman, Superman and Spiderman were given the thumbs-down. The convention did not