Children of the Street, Choose Your Own Adventure #30


You're the star of your own story and you're invisible! "Most books are about other people. This book is about you--- and the adventures you have when you become invisible. Do not read this book from the first page through to the last page." This is about the ending and how you got there.

Bob Dylan is wailing, "It all seems so well timed, And here I sit so patiently, Waiting to find out what price, You have to pay to get out of, Going through all these things twice, Oh, Mama, is this really the end, To be stuck inside of Mobile, With the Memphis blues again." He's been in political asylum, singing every song he ever wrote, but right now he's surrounded by black paisley and bleeding and as much as you want to meet him or just keep listening to his one-man show, you must continue on your quest. If you ask Bob Dylan what to do, turn to page 10.

You turn to page 10 and Dylan is still there, "While one who sings with his tongue on fire, Gargles in the rat race choir, Bent out of shape from society's pliers, Cares not to come up any higher, But rather get you down in the hole, That he's in. But I mean no harm nor put fault, On anyone that lives in a vault, But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him." You realise you were already on page 10, which said at the bottom Turn to page 22. You turn to page 22 and are in the girls locker room, but you hear the voices of your cousins carrying from far away...."helloooo, helloooo"....there seems to be an echo in what looks suspiciously like the fractal room. There's a door to your right, if you go through the door you might be re-united with Fiona, Sam, and Beemie.

You go through the door. There's a large flashing sign that says The Lovely Land of Love. You are greeted by a gnarled old man who probably is nicer than he seems. If you give him the benefit of the doubt and help him carry his heavy load, he will give you a key to the other door where your cousins are now pounding and yelling "Help!" rather weakly. There is no longer even an echo. You help the old man and you're given the choice of a blessing, a lower rep, or 25 GP (you have no idea what any of these mean)....or the gift of golden stars (at this point you don't care about any of that, you just want the key so you can save your trapped cousins, especially Beemie, who is only four and cries a lot which triggers his asthma.)

"Please sir, I just want some more (implied gruel, you're getting hungry)....I mean, the key." He laughs in a somewhat sinister way and shows you three keys. "Choose wisely", he says, and you choose the one in the middle, hoping since you're a young lady the room doesn't have a tiger in it. The man points to a three foot tall red door. "Are you kidding me?" Sure enough, the key fits and it opens but not without creaking difficulty, as if it's not been oiled for years. Or opened. If the room has a tiger in it, turn to page 27. If you can't see anything but piles and piles of unused stars, enter the room.

You decide to enter the room. Not only are the stars dazzling, there are floating keys, in all colours of the rainbow. You're glad it had been a cool, rainy morning and you have your ripstop army surplus cargo pants on. The cries of your cousins are getting fainter....as you stuff your pockets with golden stars, in hopes of being able to find out what to do with them. You feel light and free, as if you have become unbound by the very laws of gravity and rainbows. It's a pleasant feeling indeed and you are tempted to take as many stars as your pockets can hold. If you choose to feel good, but greedy, turn to page 33.

If you stop and remember you're trying to help your cousins, grab a floating purple key. You decide to be altruistic, snatch the purple key and hear a voice say, "hyacinths to soothe the soul." To find your cousins in time, you must first find this ancient poem. You decide the idea of the poem sounds like the right path. Soothing has good connotations. Looking around the dazzling star room, you see a distant door with a star-shaped lock. Hidden in plain sight. You put the purple key into the lock and the door opens to a room filled with too many poets, a veritable Tower of Babel, since they are reciting their poems for eternity in the original language they were written in. Overwhelmed, you push past them. There are two tunnels, both dark. If you choose the one on the left, turn to page 30.

You choose that one and enter a room lit by candles. You can barely see two people on a bed and one is your married Aunt (no wonder your cousins need help) with a man who is not her husband doing things that are R-rated and you don't want to even think about it, much less see it. If you decide to confront them and possibly change the course of human history by interfering with the space-time-continuum, turn to page 42.

If you decide to just pray about it, turn to page 12. You go to page 12, and pray for both of their immortal souls, figuring Jesus or God or Allah will do the right thing since that's His job. But prayer can't hurt, so you also pray you find your littlest cousin in time, since you're carrying his inhaler in one of your pockets with the stars. You no longer hear little Beemie's asthmatic call, fear for the worse and have no idea what to do except crawl towards the light---remember the tunnel you chose? It runs right through a church. If you choose to continue in the tunnel, step into the first confessional and close the door. You hesitantly make that choice, only to see you are trapped in a small space with a large, dark, dark angel. If you want out of there quickly, turn to page 39.

You turn to page 39 because it's divisible by 13 and see the light again! And your cousins!!

Unfortunately, they are in a large prisonous cage guarded by a fire breathing dragon with bad breath. The worst possible scenario. Beemie is very pale and lying on the cold concrete floor of the cage, without even a thin blanket. This dragon, in your opinion, needs some mouthwash and a lesson in mercy. You don't have time or the inclination to help the dragon. You remember your pockets full of golden stars and use them to blind the dragon while opening the lock to the cage with the same purple key that you didn't leave behind in the door to the loud poetry room.

You don't have the luxury to ponder the irony of poetry and prison having the same key. You quickly give stars to your cousins to heal them (and continue blinding the dragon) and pick up limp little Beemie, who smiles weakly, but will make it. Congratulations! You've saved the day!


THE END

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