THE FADING ALLURE OF THE GARBAGE MAN

The Garbage Man turned out to be more trouble than I anticipated.

He was easy enough to calm down and talk to when he awoke from his soggy garbage slumber in the tub, and I pictured the beginning of a life-long friendship, with two different beings reaching across the divide to find a new understanding, with comical hijinks and misunderstanding ensuing, but in the end we'd learn to see across our differences build a new glorious future for all.

"Me no do dishes. Only YOU do dishes."

He makes a terrible housemate. And what's worse, he digs around in the Psyhigh dumpsters at night, looking for new material to add to his body, and makes a mess throwing out all the trash he can't use. Meanwhile, he grows bigger every day.

"You just no like Garbage Man. You want Garbage Man to go away. Maybe to Eastern Pacific Great Garbage Patch? You like that? Bring me more twinkies!"

He really acts like the world revolves around him. But how can I ask him to leave? At the rate he's growing, he might not fit in my little flat for much longer anyway.

THE TUB OF THE GARBAGE MAN

It had finally gotten dark. But I've got real good night vision. I don't consider it a special skill -- I just think you can see a lot more in the dark than most people realize, if you just give it a try. And don't even get me started about flashlights.

Round the bend in the river, about a half mile down, I could see garbage. More like white things showing up on the river bank that were obviously trash. I dropped down on the twig and took a look around.

It was an illegal dump site. In a little ravine off one of the little dirt roads in the woods, people had dumped old refrigerators, mattresses, TVs, coffee makers, broken toys. There was an old bathtub too, filled with junk and rainwater.

I took a step closer and accidentally kicked a rusty can. Something stirred in the tub.

"Mmmawwwwwwww?"

With horror movie timing, the Garbage Man sat up straight in the tub and glared at me.

"MMMMMAWWWWWWW!"

UNDER THE BRIDGE OF THE BATS

“I’m sorry but you can’t come in,” said the bat.

I'd flown in under the bridge and hung myself upside down from a beam.

"Social distancing, you know. Unless you've got a clean suit. We're White-nose Syndrome free, and aim to keep it that way."

Hanging upside down makes it easier to process their ultrasonics.

"Oh, that's fine," I said. "I didn't come for an audience with the Bat Quorum or anything. Just exploring the woods."

It was just about dark, but I could see the bat colony tucked into the space above the massive concrete abutment. This was some kind of guard bat.

"Oh, then you'd be interested in the Garbage Man."

"The Garbage Man?"

"The Garbage Man. He rustles round the bend in the river, about a half mile down. Sometimes he tries to climb up here but we drive him away. He's not too bright."

"Thanks," I said.

"Don't mention it," said the bat.

I flipped myself around and dropped off the beam, landing handily on my twig and speeding off. Honestly I was trying to impress the bat with my moves, but I'm sure I looked way clumsier than I imagined.

THE BRIDGE OF THE BATS

Flying on my twig over the woods this side of school you can see there are ruins everywhere. Industrial ruins. Old foundations, abandoned railroad tracks… remnants of activity from some unknown era… overtaken by the slow and relentless creep of the woods.

I followed the flock of bats through the twilight. The swarm got thicker and thicker as I neared the river, twisting like a cloud of black smoke with a mind of its own.

It was winding its way to an old forgotten bridge, built of iron and concrete, now cracked and crumbling with weeds and vines.

The bats were living underneath.

THE HAPPY HOME OF A TIMBERJACK

What the heck is a Timberjack? That's what the sign says at the base of the great tree that holds the big treefort I found.

I landed on my twig on the upper level. The place had been abandoned for years. Spiderwebs and treeshrews all over the place.

At the bottom of the tree was that sign, and the remnants of some kind of pulley system for getting people up and down. And a clearing. The bats were flitting all over the place in the final glow of sundown. I found an old tennis ball next to a woodpile, and spent a bit of time throwing it up in the air and watching the bats chase it down.

Sure were a lot of bats. You know the only place they're ever not flying is back in their den? I wondered where all these bats were calling home.

I guess it’s a shame I wasn’t there with the New Student Committee down in the Masonic Bee Temple. Maybe I could have done something? If only @Novs Hunsmu’s trans-reality anthropologist oath had allowed him to interfere. I guess people have all kinds of notions.

But I’ve grown real accustomed to the freedom of the skies, flying on my twig, and there’s plenty to explore around the school grounds. Acres and acres! It’s hard to tell where the school ends and the wilderness begins. I’ve spied some kind of big tree fort out in the woods and mean to check it out.

One thing I know how to do is ride a twig.

Not just any old twig! You gotta find the right one. Like dowsing.

You stick that twig between your legs and you’re off!

So I was up in the air, flying on my twig, taking a little looksie down over the newly renovated New Student Lounge building and its environs.

The campus landscaping seems a bit overgrown when you’re on the ground, but from above you get a sense for the original design.

The whole place is designed on a giant hexagram, which has smaller hexagrams inside it, and so on.

But if you connect the dots on all the hexagrams then you see it’s all hexagons! A fractal honeycomb!

No wonder it’s so confusing to walk around camps. From now on I’m stickin’ to my twig.

I’d like to join the New Student Committee too.

I just flew in from Animist High, and boy are my arms tired!