{"id":8721,"date":"2025-07-26T11:22:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T11:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/?page_id=8721"},"modified":"2025-09-16T21:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T21:14:14","slug":"ink","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/ink\/","title":{"rendered":"ink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-82235000 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--superbspacing-xsmall);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--superbspacing-small);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--superbspacing-xlarge);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--superbspacing-small)\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized has-custom-border\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"235\" height=\"232\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/shakey1-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9667\" style=\"border-radius:50%;width:198px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/shakey1-1.png 235w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/shakey1-1-50x50.png 50w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/shakey1-1-100x100.png 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:14px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-kingthings-trypewriter-2-font-family\"><strong>Short Stories | Scripts |<\/strong><br><strong>| Poetry | Novel Extracts |<\/strong>`<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:14px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-kingthings-trypewriter-2-font-family has-superbfont-small-font-size\">&#8220;Writing is never easy, especially if you&#8217;re wearing <br>Boxing Gloves.&#8221;<br>McDada<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" id=\"med-top\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/inkbanner-noodles1-1024x326.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9734\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/inkbanner-noodles1-1024x326.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/inkbanner-noodles1-300x96.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/inkbanner-noodles1-768x245.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/inkbanner-noodles1-600x191.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/inkbanner-noodles1.jpg 1215w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-superb-addons-accordion-block\" data-accordion-id=\"superb-accordion-a1d3a8b4\"><div class=\"superb-accordion-header\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-a1d3a8b4\"><h4 class=\"superb-accordion-title\">THE STRANGE WORLD OF REGINALD CORBISON (EXTRACT)<\/h4><span class=\"superb-accordion-icon\"><\/span><\/div><div id=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-a1d3a8b4\" class=\"superb-accordion-content\" style=\"display:none\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group superb-accordion-content-wrapper is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><br><br><br><strong>Story<\/strong>: <em>The Medallion of Aramais<\/em> is a surreal, comedic adventure where an unwitting everyman is drawn into a chaotic multiverse of vain guardian angels, bumbling interdimensional police, and eccentric aliens, and all while tasked with recovering a powerful artifact, the Medallion of Aramais, to restore universal balance. Along the way, Reginald grapples with meddling family dynamics, duplicitous foes, and his own hapless destiny, discovering unexpected courage in absurdity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prologue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A Declaration:<br><\/strong><br>Declaration:<br>I hereby declare this account to be true and genuine and will follow the guidelines quoted from the<br>Third Protocol of Gamma Z to the best of my ability. I will adhere to my responsibilities and protect<br>Terra from variants and deviants who would encroach on said world, for I am the Guardian of the<br>Portals, Agent 077 of the Bureau of Alternate Realities, policing Sector 556 A 90.<br>Signed:<br>Reginald Corbison<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Signed:<br>Reginald Corbison.<br><br><strong>Chapter 1. The Cumbrian Cave Incident.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chapter 1. The Cumbrian Cave Incident.<br>Five years ago, on a school trip to a Cumbrian cave, my life took a sharp, supernatural detour.<br>Was it fortune kicking me in the rear, or some cosmic prank? Hard to say. But that trip marked the<br>beginning of my entanglement with things\u2026 otherworldly. Chains\u2014both figurative and,<br>occasionally, literal\u2014now define my existence. And while I can\u2019t decide if it\u2019s good or bad, one<br>thing\u2019s for sure: it\u2019s never dull.<br>The cave was a damp, echoing labyrinth. Rhythmic drips marked the passage of time, like some<br>primordial metronome. Our guide whispered stories about this being \u201cthe mouth of hell,\u201d eliciting<br>gasps from my classmates. Personally, I thought it felt like wandering inside the stomach of a<br>dinosaur\u2014dark, empty, and faintly hostile.<br>As the group shuffled along, my curiosity got the better of me. Slipping away, I followed a faint<br>incline marked by lights spaced like glowing breadcrumbs on the wall. The entrance of the cave, a<br>bright speck of daylight, grew more distant until it resembled a tiny full stop. All that remained was<br>a yawning black void ahead.<br>Idly, I kicked loose stones into the abyss and grinned as their clattering echoes answered back.<br>That\u2019s when I noticed it.<br>A jet-black stone, smooth as polished glass, lay at my feet. It had a curious indentation, palm-sized,<br>in its centre. Intrigued, I crouched and tapped it with my knuckles. It responded with a faint hum,<br>vibrating under my touch like it held a dormant power. I wasn\u2019t sure why, but instinct made me<br>place my hand inside the recess.<br>The stone lit up. Glowing blue.<br>A low tremor buzzed through the air before the light flickered and vanished. Startled, I stepped<br>back, glancing at the cave walls as though expecting something to leap out at me. Nothing<br>happened.<br>\u201cProbably just a gimmick,\u201d I muttered, nudging it with my foot again.<br>But the temptation was too much. This time, I left my palm in place longer. The stone glowed<br>brighter, humming more intensely. The ground beneath my feet quaked, and suddenly, a section of<br>the cave wall beside me split open with a grinding Z-shaped crack.<br>The jagged gap revealed a faint light on the other side\u2014a secret passage. My heart raced. I hesitated<br>for a moment but then squeezed through the crevice, curiosity overriding any concern about getting<br>stuck. Emerging on the other side, I found myself inside a vast circular temple.<br>It was ancient\u2014silent as a graveyard, but grander than anything I\u2019d ever seen. Daylight filtered<br>through pinpricks in the domed ceiling, casting radiant spotlights onto the cracked marble floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Statues of bearded gods\u2014or goddesses; hard to tell\u2014lined the circular walls, their towering forms<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>covered in dust and cobwebs. High above, bats flitted in dizzying spirals, their squeaks forming an<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>eerie symphony.<br>In the centre of the room stood two objects: a towering black slate inscribed with markings that<br>looked like ancient hieroglyphs, and a smaller altar covered in rubble.<br>I approached the altar, brushing off the debris to reveal an intricate design etched into its surface. It<br>depicted our solar system all the planets is an orderly queue, with a tiny object looping near Earth in<br>an endless M\u00f6bius strip. A single word was engraved along its path: ARAMAIS.<br>Something about it beckoned me. I reached out and traced the path of the orbit with my finger.<br>A shock surged through my hand.<br>I yelped and jerked back, cradling my arm. My fingertips tingled, but the sensation wasn\u2019t painful\u2014<br>just strange, like a warm buzz spreading up to my shoulder. Driven by an inexplicable urge, I tried<br>again.<br>This time, the energy hit like a lightning bolt. My vision exploded into a kaleidoscope of colour,<br>and I stumbled backward, dazed. My head spun as I leaned against the altar, struggling to regain my<br>balance. Through my blurred vision, I noticed movement\u2014a large object rolling across the floor<br>toward me.<br>It stopped at my feet.<br>A massive human eyeball, about the size of a beach ball, stared up at me.<br>It had tendrils like an octopus, which waved cheerfully in my direction. I gawked as it conjured, out<br>of nowhere, a battered cassette recorder.<br>\u201cA cassette player?\u201d it said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. \u201cBet you were expecting a hologram.<br>So sorry\u2014last upgrade was in 1971. Before your time.\u201d<br>One of its tendrils pressed \u201cplay\u201d. A crackling voice with a posh English accent filled the air.<br>\u201cGood evening, Comrade of the Stars. Minion of the Milky Way. Missionary of Mortals.<br>Doorkeeper of Aramais\u2014\u201d<br>\u201cBlah, blah, blah,\u201d the eyeball interrupted, fast-forwarding through the spiel with a squeaky whine.<br>\u201cLet\u2019s skip to the important bits.\u201d\u201cIt appears you have touched the sacred altar of Aramais,\u201d the<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>voice continued, \u201cand been blessed &#8211; well, zapped &#8211; with the gift of starsight. You now have the<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>extraordinary ability to perceive and interact with multi-dimensional beings. Congratulations on<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>expanding your social network.\u201d<br>\u201cSocial network?\u201d I muttered, noticing an anachronism.<br>The eyeball gave an exaggerated nod.<br>\u201cYou are hereby appointed as Gatekeeper of Sector 556 A-90. Your duty is to maintain order and<br>return interdimensional stragglers to their realms according to the Third Protocol of Gamma Z.<br>Failure to do so will result in catastrophic consequences for your world. So there&#8217;s no pressure<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>there. To aid you in this task, you will be accompanied by the All-Seeing Eye.\u201d<br>\u201cThat\u2019s me,\u201d the eyeball chimed in, its tendrils wiggling like jazz hands.<br>\u201cThe Eye will assist you with valuable insights and information about the deviants and variants who<br>encroach upon your dimension. I hope you carry out your duties with honour, gratitude, and self-<br>determination. Good luck. Orazma.\u201d<br>With that, the tape sputtered to an end, vanishing in a puff of smoke.<br>\u201cQuestions?\u201d the curious eyeball asked.<br>\u201cUh, yeah\u2014what\u2019s \u2018Orazma\u2019?\u201d<br>\u201cMeans \u2018farewell, good brother.\u2019 Cool, right? Anyway, you\u2019re a cosmic caretaker now. Top job!\u201d<br>\u201cDo I get paid?\u201d<br>\u201cUntold riches,\u201d it promised, bobbing eagerly.<br>\u201cSold.\u201d<br>\u201cGood. Sign here.\u201d<br>A towering quill appeared in midair, tickling the dome\u2019s ceiling. A sheet of parchment followed,<br>with a contract written in increasingly microscopic text. Not bothering to read it, I scrawled my<br>name at the bottom.<br>\u201cExcellent!\u201d the eyeball cheered. \u201cWelcome aboard.\u201d<br>Still reeling from the encounter, I clambered back through the crevice, returning to my classmates.<br>No one had noticed I\u2019d been gone. My heart raced as I joined the group, glancing back toward the<br>cave.<br>Had I imagined it all? The eyeball, the temple, the contract?<br>If it was real, one thing was clear: my life would never be the same.<br><br><a href=\"#med-top\">^top<\/a>    <strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/strange-world\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" id=\"cuckoo-top\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/scorpion-banner-1024x326.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9899\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/scorpion-banner-1024x326.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/scorpion-banner-300x96.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/scorpion-banner-768x245.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/scorpion-banner-600x191.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/scorpion-banner.jpg 1215w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-superb-addons-accordion-block\" data-accordion-id=\"superb-accordion-5f99fee2\"><div class=\"superb-accordion-header\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-5f99fee2\"><h4 class=\"superb-accordion-title\">THE CUCKOO, THE SCORPION AND THE VAMPIRE<\/h4><span class=\"superb-accordion-icon\"><\/span><\/div><div id=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-5f99fee2\" class=\"superb-accordion-content\" style=\"display:none\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group superb-accordion-content-wrapper has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><em>A man seeking hypnotherapy to quit smoking is enslaved by a manipulative brother-sister duo who control his mind and<br>body for their own dark purposes. When an old school friend intervenes, Simon must face the harsh reality of addiction<br>and the struggle for autonomy.<\/em><br><br>The room sits still. Dead air thick with the damp smell of old carpet and colder nights. Curtains half-shut against a sodium streetlamp that bleeds orange through the fabric.<br>On the sideboard, a framed photograph leans at an angle: two boys mid-laughter, swinging on rusted chains in the middle of a dead estate playground. Simon and Julian. Their smiles like something stolen from another life. The edges of the photo curled. Dust soft around it like ash.<br>Somewhere inside the walls an antique cuckoo clock ticks. The pendulum sways, slow and hypnotic. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. A mechanical heartbeat louder than the room can carry.<br>When it chimes the sound is savage. A sudden tearing open of silence. The cuckoo lurches forward, wood splintering around its beak, shrieking into the dark. Then gone again. Retreating. Pendulum swinging, relentless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Morning.<br>Same playground. New swings bolted on but rust creeping back already. Neglect holds the place like damp.<br>Boxer limps through drizzle, bald scalp shining wet, scorpion tattoo curling up his neck and disappearing beneath the shelf of his ears. Plastic carrier bag bulging at his side. Sixty going on seventy but the kind of muscle that doesn\u2019t forget its own weight. Granite faced and chip shop of regret on his hunched shoulders.<br>It\u2019s raining again. Always raining.<br>Boxer thinking:<br>Why\u2019s it always bloody raining on this estate. Cursed, that\u2019s what it is. Could\u2019ve bought an umbrella. Um-berella. Whatever. Don\u2019t own one anyway. Don\u2019t own much. Don\u2019t need to.<br>Kids squeal on the swings behind him. He twitches. Dogs bark somewhere. Police sirens drag along the edges of the morning like an undertow.<br>Boxer thinking:<br>Broken swings broken lives not my problem served my time not the army Her Majesty\u2019s pleasure thank you very much did my dues didn\u2019t I learnt my lesson a lesson learnt is a lesson earned Matthew eight nineteen or eight ninety who cares Book of Blah Blah Blah amen.<br>A figure in a hoodie shadows him from a distance, thin as twig, moving silent, parallel. A predator<br>in soiled Adidas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walkway to Flat 22.<br>Concrete stained awith oil slick. Boxer\u2019s limp louder here, boot on slab, slab on boot. He breathes hard, wet air in his throat.<br>Boxer thinking:<br>And why do we feed these dickheads anyway. All this money to keep them going. Could\u2019ve been sunning it in Marbella with what it costs. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to maintain them,\u201d she says. Maintain this.<br>He stops at a door. Number 22. Flips a keyring the size of a fist, each key marked with a spotted tag. Finds the right one: Orange \u2014 SIMON HARRIS.<br>Boxer thinking:<br>Simon bloody Harris. Billy-no-mates the anorexic. God loves a trier. Sister\u2019s favourite can\u2019t see why.<br>Further down the walkway the hoodie stops too. Still. Watching.<br>Inside the flat, stale air and silence. Boxer shoulders the door open and slams it behind him. An answering machine blinks red. Nineteen new messages. He presses play.<br>\u201cHey Si, it\u2019s Billy. Where the hell are you? Been by loads. What\u2019s going on, man? Who\u2019s that bloke staying at yours? Call us. We\u2019re heading Crown for Finch\u2019s 21st.\u201d<br>Boxer dumps shopping on the bench. Pot Noodles, tins of beans, six-pack of cheap lager.<br>\u201cHi Simon, it\u2019s Mary. We\u2019re really worried about you. Haven\u2019t seen you in ages. You haven\u2019t been to college. I know you wanted space, but just\u2026 give me a call or a text. Anything. Have you lost your phone? Come by anytime. I\u2026 I miss you. Love you.&#8217;<br>Boxer grabs Simon\u2019s phone off its charger. Scrolls to Mary\u2019s name. Types:<br>Just do one. Leave me alone.<br>Send.<br>\u201cWhy\u2019s he got a mobile and a landline,\u201d Boxer mutters, fridge door hanging open, nose wrinkling at something wrapped in foil.<br>He spots the sedatives in the bag. Reads the label, shrugs, drops them on the bench.<br>Simon lies in the bedroom, pale against the sheets, twenty-five going on gone. Opens his eyes at the sound of someone moving in the flat.<br>And there he is.<br>Julian. Eight years old forever, that was the last time he seen him. Now he&#8217;s sitting in a chair in the corner, small legs swinging, mumbling nursery rhymes no one\u2019s sung in decades. His face soft and blank, washed-out like a half-printed photograph.<br>Simon shuts his eyes. Opens them. Julian\u2019s still there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bathroom light humming. Simon brushes his teeth, spits\u2014Primula cheese in the foam, clings yellow to the sink. He stares at the tube, baffled.<br>\u201cWhat the hell.\u201d<br>Peels back the nicotine patch on his arm. Stares at the raw skin underneath. Presses it back on like nothing happened.<br>Living room, later. Simon hunched on the couch, Boxer sprawled opposite in the old armchair, lager sweating on the armrest. The cuckoo clock above them still ticking, pendulum dragging time like you would drag roadkill.<br>\u201cWho are you again?\u201d Simon asks. He&#8217;s passive, out of his head like a somnambulant.<br>Boxer grins without humour. \u201cI\u2019m the Devil. Make sure your phone\u2019s on at five. Don\u2019t answer to anyone else. Got it?\u201d<br>Simon blinks. No answer.<br>The cuckoo screams again, once, sudden and sharp. Simon jolts. Boxer laughs.<br>\u201cWhat\u2019s with the clock anyway?\u201d Boxer says. \u201cDoesn\u2019t exactly vibe with all this Gen Z crap you\u2019ve got.\u201d<br>Simon stares at the pendulum. Slow breath. Deadpan:<br>\u201cIt\u2019s a pendulum-driven clock. Strikes the hour with the call of a cuckoo. Some flap their wings. This one does. Closes its beak when it leans forward. There you go.\u201d<br>Boxer shakes his head. \u201cSmart-arse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cuckoo clock hung crooked on the peeling wall, a black wooden bird mid-flight, its beak forever frozen.<br>\u201cIt\u2019s a symbol of good luck,\u201d Simon said, watching Boxer\u2019s eyes rather than the clock.<br>Boxer snorted, low and dismissive. \u201cOld-fashioned, that\u2019s all I\u2019m saying. Doesn\u2019t fit the vibe.\u201d<br>\u201cIt also means crazy,\u201d Simon murmured.<br>Boxer\u2019s grin widened. \u201cNow that fits.\u201d<br>Simon shifted in his chair. \u201cIt was my mam\u2019s. She gave it to me before she died. Twelve months ago.\u201d<br>The smirk faded from Boxer\u2019s face, just a fraction, like a shadow passing over glass. He didn\u2019t soften, though.<br>\u201cCan\u2019t say I\u2019m sorry,\u201d he said.<br>\u201cWhy would you? You didn&#8217;t even know her.\u201d<br>Silence filled the flat. It had a weight to it, the kind that made Simon aware of every hum in the walls, every creak in the pipes. Boxer rose without a word, heading into the kitchen.<br>When he came back, he was balancing a boiled egg on a chipped plate, holding a plastic fork like an afterthought.<br>\u201cEat your egg.\u201d<br>Simon stabbed at the egg, the fork bending, snapping the yolk so it bled yellow down the plate.<br>\u201cWhere are my real forks?\u201d he asked.<br>\u201cGot rid of \u2019em,\u201d Boxer said, slumping back, finishing his beer in one swallow. He crushed the can with an easy squeeze. \u201cLess washing up. And\u2026\u201d he shrugged, \u201c\u2026potential weapons.\u201d<br>Simon blinked. \u201cWeapons? What do I need a weapon for?\u201d<br>\u201cI\u2019ve seen things,\u201d Boxer said, half-smirking, half-snarling.<br>Simon stared, searching his face for meaning and finding nothing.<br>\u201cWhat day is it?\u201d he asked suddenly. \u201cI\u2019ve got to get to college.\u201d<br>\u201cDon\u2019t worry about that,\u201d Boxer said. \u201cWe&#8217;ve sorted it.\u201d<br>\u201cWe\u2019ve sorted it?\u201d Simon repeats.<br>Boxer waved a hand, shooing away the thought. \u201cJust remember five o\u2019clock. Don\u2019t make me come looking for you. Clear?\u201d<br>Simon nodded, though his stomach sank.<br>The door slammed behind Boxer like a gunshot.<br>Silence again. He sat very still, fork in hand, breath caught in his chest. Then he shoved the plate away, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a crumpled five-pound note. He stared at it. He needn&#8217;t to get out.<br>The walls hummed softly. Somewhere, faintly, the cuckoo clock creaked, though it hadn\u2019t been wound in months.<br><br><a href=\"#cuckoo-top\">^top<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" id=\"bcb-top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bebop-banner-2-1024x326.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9737\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bebop-banner-2-1024x326.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bebop-banner-2-300x96.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bebop-banner-2-768x245.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bebop-banner-2-600x191.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bebop-banner-2.jpg 1215w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-15.33.40-1024x157.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9772\" style=\"width:528px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-15.33.40-1024x157.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-15.33.40-300x46.png 300w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-15.33.40-768x118.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-15.33.40-1320x203.png 1320w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-15.33.40-600x92.png 600w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-15.33.40.png 1470w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-superb-addons-accordion-block\" data-accordion-id=\"superb-accordion-520b5966\"><div class=\"superb-accordion-header\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-520b5966\"><h4 class=\"superb-accordion-title\">BURNING CAR BLUES<\/h4><span class=\"superb-accordion-icon\"><\/span><\/div><div id=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-520b5966\" class=\"superb-accordion-content\" style=\"display:none\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group superb-accordion-content-wrapper has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p>An Eddie Temple Story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I part the dirty net curtains and wipe the condensation off the window. Looking down through the drips of water I see the kids emptying a skip all over the street jumping up and down on a busted settee, dogs snapping at their heels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking to my right I see the sunset between the tower blocks then I catch sight of a burning car sailing down the grassy bank &#8211; red and orange flames lapping in the air like an infernal cavalcade followed by a bunch of 7-10 year olds screaming their heads off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcome to Concord, a Class A Utopia full of dead end kids and cars that go nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m in a flat above a Takeaway, it\u2019s a little bland but he has it nice. Benjamin Smith aka Benny Benzedrine, a top pill pusher&#8230; them kids playing trampoline down there are probably his next customers being groomed for Prison or the Afterlife. Benny is a first class scumbag, a bearded big broad guy, a tuft of ginger hair hinting at a residue of a quiff and one of those clumsy Indian ink swallow tattoo\u2019s on his lower thumb, hangover from his teddy boy days, but more like a second rate Alvin Stardust. \u201cYeah I can just see you in your rock n roll drag, flick knife fights, Benny and the Jets eh?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve got Old Benny gaffa taped to a red velvet armchair, and his dirty mouth taped up, he looks like a Tracy Emin installation. I should get a Arts Council grant for this. This is real art. His face looks like he\u2019s going to explode, a big red ball puffing and panting, he signals me to scratch something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I sit back on the settee sip from a \u201cHappy Birthday Benny\u201d mug more chips than Lottes. He mumbles and struggles to lift his arms. I lean over nonchalantly and scratch his forehead, his eyeballs move to the extreme right; I scratch it and look at my fingernails&#8230; \u201cI always thought you were flakey\u201d. I lean back and observe his Living Room. It&#8217;s been lived in but temporarily, their lass, Samantha, is probably one of his many customers doing a freebie for an ounce. She\u2019s a kappa slappa, two failed marriages, four kids in care, blonde snake hair and a white tracksuit that\u2019s seen better days. If the soap powder guy from the TV advert knocked on her door she would chin him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Samantha has been gone 20 minutes; I\u2019ve sent her to a hole-in-the-wall to get me some money. Well it\u2019s a perk of the job, after all he\u2019s not going to be using it, besides I\u2019ve a temporary cash flow problem. Mind you if she brings anyone back I&#8217;ll gut them from ear to ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019s struggling to talk so I whip off the tape from his mouth to give him some talk-space; \u201cAHHH\u201d he screams I\u2019ve just taken half his beard off. After a barrage of expletives he calms down and asks for his inhaler, \u201cNahhh!! It\u2019s all in the mind, you should try meditation not medication\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFrek off\u201d he replies with venom,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEver see Father Ted? You remind me&#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not religious\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cForget it\u201d I finish my tea stand up and stretch. I look out the window again, the fire brigade have turned up and there&#8217;s funnel of black smoke dissipating into a dark fog &#8211; then I turn to face him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cKnow what I\u2019ve just seen? A bloody burning car, waltzing down the hill, some kids must have torched it and pushed it on its way\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey should be at school\u201d he quips nervously and looks at his lo-fi bondage of gaffa tape and electrical flex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re your future customers\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t do kids\u201d says Mr Beelzebub. Liar liar car&#8217;s on fire. The reason why I\u2019m here is my client wants some vindication for his dead and gone heirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou pushed some amphetamines onto 2 Gen Z&#8217;s. You know who their father was? I can\u2019t figure out if you\u2019re dumb or you did it for revenge?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He grunts and looks to his left; a photo of Samantha\u2019s absent kids, pauses and turns to look me in those cocker spaniel eyes.<br>\u201cI didn\u2019t know, honest\u201d<br>\u201cAhh! Shit happens &#8211; academic to me bud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He sighs and drops his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou know it\u2019s sticking in my mind&#8230;the burning car, it\u2019s kind of majestic but at the same time destructive &#8211; bit like me\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBig head\u201d<br>I lean over and menacingly speak into his ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnother word from you and I\u2019ll spoon your eyes out\u201d.<br>Now he looks zissed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I saunter around the room, it\u2019s kind of a mix of taste and tat; 70\u2019s wallpaper, Ikea furniture half assembled, a quaint collection of charity shop knick knacks, a well worn floral Axminster with carefully positioned tab burn holes &#8211; looking like a golf course &#8211; a DVD system and an old gram from the 50\u2019s. Bit of a mix but it works. I give him a nod of approval but he thinks I\u2019m taking the water. I crouch down and flip through his record collection, vinyl oldies a few Robbie Williams CD\u2019s, I look at him in disgust. \u201cIt\u2019s Samantha\u2019s\u201d he explains<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cKinda ironic&#8230;Escapology\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I put on one of his on, the Mona Lisa of the vinyl&#8230;Gene Vincent\u2019s Be Bop A Lula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll give you this old Benny boy, you\u2019ve got some good taste, but you can tell the generation gap&#8230; Eddie Cochran vs. Beyonce\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBE BOP A LULA SHE\u2019S MY BABY\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chug a chug groove rings in my ears and it\u2019s got my toes a tapping. Now I feel good, I take out a few bullets, if you look closely it has the words \u201cDon\u2019t Take It Personally\u201d inscribed in Times italics. I do it for all my victims they make nice ornaments when not in use. I\u2019m a sucker for detail. A Swiss guy did it for me on the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I turn down the record slightly, don\u2019t want to get carried away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hear the metallic grind of the key turning. I move to the living room door, ready for unexpected visitors. There\u2019s a pause then she bangs the door like someone has come in with her, I know that delay in time, when someone follows you in before you close the door, she\u2019s brought someone else. Benny looks up, his eyes are like saucers, he\u2019s speechless, he\u2019s shaking his head as though he knows about my deduction. Clunk-clunk up the stairs like really heavy, she\u2019s a slim lass, unless she\u2019s gained weight at Barclays&#8230; The door parts open, she comes in and says a nervous \u201chiya\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>She moves over to Benny\u2019s side like she\u2019s choreographed her position, she points at me holding an envelope, \u201cHere&#8217;s your money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>I drop to the floor seconds before a gun peeks around the corner. He fires where I should have been standing, quickly he lowers his gun as he sees me lying on the floor, then I shoot, ripping his ankle off. He falls holding his busted leg. Then I give him one in the head. Samantha starts screaming and coming for me, I shoot her between the tits and she falls like a bundle of laundry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I turn the record up. Benny is shouting over the \u201cShe\u2019s my Baby\u201d line with all kinds of curses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I put my little special bullet in the chamber twirl it around and do a Russian Roulette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re dead lumber coz life\u2019s inherently unfair\u201d I say with gusto, from some B Movie gangster flick I heard at the corner of my ear, somewhere, someday. I think it was my fave Edward G. He always looks like he\u2019s been eating tomato ketchup, but says the right thing at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I shoot him right in the flaky bit on his forehead, where I scratched earlier, the blood sprays up like a geyser from the back of his head. \u201cWooh!! That was cool\u201d the record sticks sounding like a STCH, I take in this cool montage&#8230;Samantha lying like a crumpled handkerchief&#8230;STCH\u2026The uninvited guest and his tomato head\u2026 STCH&#8230; Benny looking up to a dead mans lampshade&#8230;STCH&#8230; A spray of blood on the back wall like a Jackson Pollock&#8230; STCH&#8230; LP cover showing Gene Vincent throwing his leg over a Microphone stand&#8230;STCH The Humour Bullet laughing all the way to his brains&#8230; STCH and that BEAUTIFUL BURNING CAR&#8230; STCH<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I bend down beside Samantha, pluck the 200 from the vanilla, well \u00a3180, bitch spent \u00a320 on fags and chocolate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I go for the door and turn to see my hosts scattered and inert, like the furniture outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWell it\u2019s been a nice party, some good music and a bit of excitement, but if I could speak truthfully, the company\u2019s been shite&#8230; Adios\u201d.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-primary-color has-text-color has-link-color has-custom-1-font-size wp-elements-76c4c212bb73bc17082abd55b873340e\"><a href=\"#bcb-top\">^top<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-contrast-light-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-65de3e8c1084fed5330079b12a4efe9e\" id=\"tulpa-top\">tulpa<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" id=\"tulpa-top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tulpa-banner-1024x326.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9736\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tulpa-banner-1024x326.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tulpa-banner-300x96.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tulpa-banner-768x245.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tulpa-banner-600x191.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tulpa-banner.jpg 1215w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-superb-addons-accordion-block\" data-accordion-id=\"superb-accordion-520b5966\"><div class=\"superb-accordion-header\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-520b5966\"><h4 class=\"superb-accordion-title\">TULPA<\/h4><span class=\"superb-accordion-icon\"><\/span><\/div><div id=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-520b5966\" class=\"superb-accordion-content\" style=\"display:none\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group superb-accordion-content-wrapper has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><br>In this post-apocalyptic society, children were regarded as divine beings that could show you<br>the way to a better future. So the adults in charge kept them under surveillance by squads<br>called mother crews.<br>After eleven years of age some of the most important children, those who knew they were of<br>value to the society, developed a type of dis-association, which resulted in their physical<br>body duplicating into a spiritual body, or ghosting as they called it. The society regarded this<br>ghosting as a chrysalis to, which would emerge a prophet of incredible power, who would<br>lead the society into a new era. But during or leading up to this ghosting, the chosen ones<br>develop insight into the other dimension, which is invisible to the society members.<br>At the apex of the ghosting, when they have transmigrated to the next dimension, the<br>chosen children have to find a chrysalis container, which looks like an old mottled iron<br>chamber standing upright. They enter and out of the rear of the chamber a mould falls onto<br>the ground, it is a large phallus made out of lead. The spirit of the chosen child is contained<br>inside the phallus and slides up the hill, where you catch sight of a large wooden Falcon-<br>sitting upright on a wooden bed.<br>The squad teams follow certain symptoms of a child who has been chosen, which involve<br>innumerable anomalies that have been researched by people of lesser intelligence. But by far<br>the easiest clue is a dead child, by that I mean a child who develops staring eyes and appears<br>dead only a pulse remains, albeit for two hours. Then and only then can the squad members<br>catch sight of the ghosting through an ordinary mirror held at arm\u2019s length, sometimes they<br>do contain chosen child by means of a cymatic tone. But this has to be issued from a<br>specially built radio phone, which the mother crews have always on their possession. The<br>sound waves link up with the brain and intervene with the chemical endorphins forming a<br>barrier between the right and left hemispheres at the point of conjunction. The effects of<br>this stoppage are sometimes devastating; this temporary loss can result in the child<br>developing later in life mental instability. The tone has to be transmitted at the point of<br>ghosting, when the child begins the trance state.<br>After the initial trance stage when the tone has been issued, the child recovers consciousness<br>and it\u2019s spirit passes into the next dimension only to exist in a limbo state.<br>Once the child has been contained they are immediately transported to a safe house where<br>they are observed for innumerable anomalies.<br>There have only been three prophets who have been successfully contained, to which they<br>were regarded with the highest honour in the society. Inventions and innovations were rife<br>within their dynasties. However all three later developed a tulpa, a physical clone whose sole<br>purpose was to end the life of the other self, to which, understandably, their deaths were<br>bizarre.<br>These safe houses as they are called, are for observational purposes, whereby through a<br>series of experiments they can ascertain if they have indeed successfully contained a chosen<br>child. Safe house experiments or she, are actually submarines. They keep the child in these<br>prisons for intelligent tests and psychological profiling. The submarine\u2019s interior is<br>specifically constructed in layers; each layer in pyramidal order has five rooms, then four etc.<br>This system determines the level of the chosen child that is if the containment was<br>successful. If however the child remains only in the bottom layer after a month or so, they<br>are immediately taken away to one of many asylums for the safety of the society as well as<br>themselves. Each room in the layers have puzzles which they have to solve so they may then<br>determine a clue on how to enter the next room of the layer.<br>If a child reaches the last room of the top layer, then the child is transported to a faraway<br>place and treated with special privileges. After this initial period of ease the child is then put<br>to work in furthering the society and consequently hailed thereafter as a prophet of<br>incredible power.<br>The power only lasts a few good years then the Tulpa experience evolves culminating in<br>intense experiences from the other dimension. The spiritual self that duplicated itself from<br>the physical is left abandoned after containment. In this wasteland the spiritual body, or<br>ghost, remains in a limbo state. This wasteland is situated between the physical world and<br>the other dimension.<br>After a period of other lost spirits feeding on them, they find extra strength and make their<br>way back into the physical realm by means of a portal. Their sole purpose is to destroy the<br>copy. A host of mind games commence ending with the murder of the self and consequently<br>of the ghost as well. Neither exists thereafter, although some say they return to the<br>wasteland.In the asylums where the other containments are kept, the ones who have failed the safe<br>house experiments, here they live normal lives although, it is a known fact that none of them<br>develop the Tulpa experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>The Castle<br>The Castle has three floors. There are working quarters on the ground floor, in the middle<br>floor everything that is of some importance is done within small rooms. On the third floor is<br>recreation, where I inhabit.<br>There is a central rotunda that links all the corridors like a giant spider\u2019s web. I live South<br>South West of the spider\u2019s compass. My room is quite large with all my facilities contained<br>inside the room, even my meals are brought to me, so I need not leave the room for days.<br>Sometimes on important days, which I am reminded of by my guardian, they take me to the<br>middle floor into one of the small rooms they ask me politely about my thoughts on either<br>irrigation or engineering problems. I may then make a few suggestions which is either<br>accepted or rejected.<br>I am persuaded to enter a trance to see what the future may hold concerning a number of<br>important decisions yet to be made. These trance sessions are sometimes painful and<br>exhausting, there is this tremendous melancholy that hangs around me for days afterwards.<br>There are about three more like me. I see them sometimes being taken away to the middle<br>floor and returning limp and exhausted. We never talk to each other but recognise eachother from a long time ago. My guardian points out from time to time that we served in the<br>she\u2019s together which were submarines filled with puzzles and games.<br>My guardian, who is a senior member of the father crew, knows the reason why I am held in<br>this monotonous existence. I see it as a prison, but he disagrees, but then again he would. I<br>have a feeling, which is very depressing, that the father crew of this particular place are<br>growing intensely dissatisfied with my answers and my trance sessions, particularly my recent<br>performances where inertia has left me silent. Measuring this deterioration, from last year till<br>the present, the months have seen myself deprived of privileges from a young prince to an<br>old prisoner.<br>Today I am told that I no longer will receive my meals in my room. I have to climb down<br>the many stairs to a large room on the ground floor, there in a vast assembly I am to eat with<br>the servants and other people of less importance. Also I am told, by my guardian no less,<br>that my many day duties shall include the sweeping up of the area outside my room. And my<br>interesting yet slightly perverse seances on the third floor, will cease from today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>The Wasteland<br>It is very dark in here my pain is immense. There is a strong gale that rises up from the<br>earth\u2026 it feels like I am falling.The wolves return, baying and laughing, rummaging their noses into my wounds as though<br>they are forcing their way into my body. Some are already inside of me, they\u2019re swallowing<br>me, their teeth chanting through my flesh. I am emptying and being possessed by animals.<br>Feeling their hunger as I become one of them as I move forward my hands illuminate with<br>electricity I now know that killing is erotic, the sense of aggression and cosmic energy like<br>sheets of lightning tingling as fireballs through my veins. Gritting my teeth for sex and<br>blood, the hunger, for the smell of death is white hot.<br>The wind carries me forward to a vortex that I cannot see, only by some cold spiral I sense a<br>release from this darkness.<br>The voices inform me of my other self who abandoned me to this wasteland and how I<br>should vindicate this wretch.<br>I agree with their ideas, I want more and more the desire to feel my tongue inside a wound<br>and to hear our collective baying after a long and cruel slaughter. I feel gigantic and awesome<br>afraid of no other living creature.<br>The vortex picks up speed I can feel myself being sucked into a pipe of light. I am twisted<br>round and round plunging towards the light with immeasurable speed\u2026 then slowing down<br>I catch my breath, releasing my hand through a porthole of daylight I slowly climb through<br>from darkness to light.<br>One of the voices tells me it is a Castle, this is where my victim resides. Suddenly I am<br>caught off balance by swift movements that leave me non too wise of my orientation.Crushing to the floor in a boneless heap and feeling dazed I dissolve into a long sleep<br>drifting in and out of consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>The Castle<br>A strange incident occurred today. I was in the process of one of my many mundane tasks<br>that I chanced upon what seemed to be a smaller version of myself, sliding down one of the<br>front bristles of my brush I think due to my ignorance of it\u2019s presence. I continued brushing<br>the corridor around the area where I am situated. This figure flung from my modest<br>brushing onto the hard stone floor and predictably knocked unconscious.<br>Hearing the whirring of the surveillance camera focusing on this strange event, I sharply<br>produced my handkerchief, turning blindside, I bundled the little man into my pocket.<br>Thinking on how to contain this creature I will have a word with one of the maids, perhaps a<br>jar of some sort. I need a transparent chamber so I may observe its nature. I continue<br>brushing the corridor, killing time before the meal time bell rings it\u2019s rusty hues.<br>He seems more like a Jackal, he howls incessantly, lifts his head up and bays at the light bulb.<br>He poaches me in silence as I wander around my room doing my duties he then murmurs<br>some dark curses and sits cross-legged. By all accounts I should perhaps relieve him of hisimprisonment, this heathen from my brush. Sometimes my mind wanders and I am catching<br>hold of an extraordinary thought, perhaps I am also in a bottle to which I am a captive<br>instead of the bottle, it is this castle.<br>I crumble a biscuit into the jar. He eats up the rainfall. I asked him a lot of questions but he<br>had no answers, he grunted and spoke roughly \u201cSee you in Hell\u201d.<br>I retire to my bed and foresee a long sleepless night, which is my habit and illness. I can<br>never dream as people do, some of the maids talk about their dreams when in line for the<br>food, they chatter and laugh, it all seems enigmatic.<br>I shall watch the moth orbit the light and it\u2019s desperate animation running along the walls.<br>It is my turn to brush the corridor tomorrow. We have a rota-system, although there\u2019s only<br>three of us, so the system isn\u2019t all that complicated.<br>Every two days it\u2019s me or the other two, Sundays is rest days.<br>I wonder how far I have to go now with my life span. My guardian only visits on very rare<br>occasions, which is a sure sign that I may perhaps be lapsing in conduct and receptivity.<br>There are fewer words spoken even when he does come around, he mainly just watches me<br>solemnly talking to the contents of the jar, which irritatingly he pretends a diluted<br>acknowledgment, a nod and a smile maybe leaning forward with intense interest. But he<br>can\u2019t fool me, as he scribbles in his notebook walking down the corridor from my room.<br>I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s my mind playing tricks or not but this creature in the jar seems to be<br>growing. This is the third time I have had to borrow a larger article for this thing. I think the<br>father crews, especially my guardian are growing concerned about my anomalies. Perhaps themaid has mentioned something, whatever the case I must make a decision on this creature\u2019s<br>fate. Either I murder him suffocation would probably be the merciful end or let him go,<br>although he does mutter the odd death threat to me in the semblance of how he has vowed<br>to kill me and therein kill himself. Such a dilemma needs a fragile foregoing of the<br>consequences. I shall wait maybe a day or so. I wonder if the other two inmates who share<br>the corridor have or are experiencing similar problems.<br>This creature definitely a double of myself apart from the bizarre size he looks like an<br>upright wolf with wild hair all over his slouched frame, but his features through this vulpine<br>presence, is me.<br>I do indeed feel an evasive bond to this sad creature the same feeling that accompanies me<br>during sleep. But the emotions stirring up in me are awakened by flickering images of my<br>childhood.<br>The guardian looked at the empty jar in disbelief and with a conclusive know how, smiled<br>and nodded and taking the jar from the room.<br>\u201cYou see it\u2019s a double, they come after you sometimes, take it into the hills\u201d<br>\u2018Yes, yes I will, most certainly will\u201d.<br>The door closed and the guardian walked along the corridor cradling what seemed to be<br>proof of a subtle madness that will worsen over the next few months.<br>But the guardian is a man of his word, he will bury the jar in the hills as perhaps a ritual of<br>exorcism. This may cure him he thought but lacked the latent hope for the oncoming<br>months\u2026 And the consequences. He then may have to attend a series of meetings withfellow seniors, discussing in small rooms on the middle floor the prisoner\u2019s behaviour and<br>ultimately his fate.<br>The empty jar reflected the poignant administrators.<br>Three members of the father crew and the guardian, sat in silence. Someone scribbled on<br>paper. A small label was attached to the jar. This maybe an end to a respected dynasty. \u201cThe<br>Tulpa experience has begun\u201d exclaimed the guardian.<br>This Tulpa phenomenon, when one emerges, there are at least a thousand more invisible<br>wolves to follow, this will, due to the bizarre overpopulated castle, result in extreme paranoia<br>and eventual suicide of the prisoner.<br>Such a grotesque debilitation of the individual that the father crew have created a euthenasia<br>policy, whereby the chosen one can be quickly executed. This is done with immediacy for<br>less pain and obvious sorrow.<br>There is a secret room below the 1st floor where this passive atrocity is carried out under<br>stimulants and a surge of electricity. Some of the guards call this type of execution as the<br>Falcon, a bed, where the unfortunate lies in a drugged haze. The bed resembles by its<br>shadow cast, an upright Falcon due to the appendages fixed to the bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#tulp-top\">^top<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" id=\"opus-top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/opus-banner-1024x326.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9808\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/opus-banner-1024x326.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/opus-banner-300x96.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/opus-banner-768x245.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/opus-banner-600x191.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/opus-banner.jpg 1215w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-superb-addons-accordion-block\" data-accordion-id=\"superb-accordion-520b5966\"><div class=\"superb-accordion-header\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-520b5966\"><h4 class=\"superb-accordion-title\">THE BLUE OPUS<\/h4><span class=\"superb-accordion-icon\"><\/span><\/div><div id=\"superb-accordion-content-superb-accordion-520b5966\" class=\"superb-accordion-content\" style=\"display:none\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group superb-accordion-content-wrapper has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><br>It is almost time, as the hour speaks. I was like a shelf hanging in<br>space. The fingernail of each dream scratched the four years of my<br>doorbell insanity.<br>The cruel spine of the balustrade took over the desire to sleep; the<br>flames of our tallow candles misplaced the shadow of the railings.<br>They made me lurk in dark doorways, with the razorblade of your<br>lies. I found a book, on a page, there were ten scattered lines and<br>four staircases. Cautiously I picked out the scrambled letters. It<br>was a poem entitled \u201cHerberts Grave\u201d.<br>It was hard to believe that the Sun didn\u2019t rise, as I walked through<br>the music of a dream. Beyond the hall a drum could be heard from<br>the musicians sleep. My fingers burst into tears, crying for the<br>chapters of an automobile race, tearing holes in the memory of a<br>friend.<br>The long tailed morning joined the wheel to its early morning rise.<br>It was cloudless July, the words of a black coat faded.<br>The dangerous street numbers cheering themselves deaf, became<br>the fearsome brides of the cutter. I broke from the ten cards and<br>cheap jugglers to a room of a castle. The other people became<br>farewell poisons. How glad I was to escape the airplanes. The<br>heavy face of a sloping meadow covered half in Natures watering<br>can &#8211; between two deaths -costumed my poems of the prayer stool.<br>Moving to the draping carpets I swallowed the photographs of the<br>period\u2026 one leg and an inch of flying beauty. The mirror sang its<br>water song in the wisdom of a shaking bough\u2026 The air became<br>sweeter almost a strange farm of conversation.<br>It was a race against time, avoiding my silhouette I brushed by the<br>window ignoring the burning barn. On the drawbridge a car had<br>fallen from its desires. Paring knives, the fifty convicts of my schiz-<br>ophrenia, momentarily lost their hours. The paralysis of a train cor-<br>nered itself into a cremation; fires were the red soup of a pledge.<br>I stood motionless, forgetting the pronouncement of the wicked<br>springboard of Luck. The daytime smoke became an insane carni-<br>val. The proud hunt for the passengers became the absurd illusion<br>of statues.Standing in the rosewood frame of noon the cruel blade of a<br>goddess transformed the scene into a five-minute eye movement<br>of fascination. Snowflakes descended their silken ladders mak-<br>ing inscriptions on the grey jaws of the platform. The labourers<br>hanged themselves, combing orphan sleep with a lament of a<br>gifted sculptress; I leaned on the nearby sound of a sobbing limb,<br>counting the old rooms of the station. Finding some with storms<br>in them.<br>The right leg of my Sunday afternoon flesh listened and tapped<br>the dagger roses of a waking clock. The girl in the nearby village<br>folded her black shoes, hiding them from the tiptoeing phantom.<br>A guitar was the suitcase of your smile; a gentle clarion of glass<br>made the chill of my daytime dance a blind window calling gold<br>as a Sabbath.<br>The nearest pond bounced a few times\u2026 A homocentrical fig-<br>ure with wrists, gave me the orchestra of the paperweight glassy<br>world. I had grown too young for the skies hollow hand, mur-<br>dering the raspberries of a nerve I abandoned the Castle for the<br>forest. Rushing with the flirtations of silence, the esoteric flower<br>elves gave me the sermon of a sawmill, where the logs injure the<br>steep expression of ruined screams. I shatter the wall,<br>darkening the water with my skeletal eyes, knuckling into an arm<br>of boredom. The cold-cropped hair of Venus swooped her whis-<br>tling dress into the two colours of my surrendered bird. I, the king<br>of candles and shadows, burdened the tin drums of the ruffling<br>Moons. Crowded pavements were the lips of the harmonica,<br>clanging their girlfriends bottles on the heart of a hand.<br>I followed Herbert to the streetcar with the human soundtrack of<br>crying. We glanced through the pictures of a cupboard. Your win-<br>ter overcoat inherited the rigid wrinkles of a kiss; her lips implied<br>the blades of a lament. With grace and carelessness you told me<br>the frost of horses in your six month Celtic bard voice, how the<br>sleepy windows of laughter and of love were always the same<br>door to the cellar. Tearing his Crow costume I hid the anchor of<br>the car and ran to the harbours mouth. The Captain and the Brick<br>Maker grinned the fragments of a helpless butterfly. The cemetery<br>trumpet queued to the tray of my ears.<br>The self-burnt string of happiness was far behind in the brow of<br>the last accordions song.<br>I daydreamed on the clear open sea\u2026 Scorning the palmed hues<br>of the moonlight. The island was the spine of powder in the<br>cherry pits of paradise. The broken arm of the sky shone its<br>white bone.I wilted into my cabin for a good long rest. The dead flashlight of<br>dreams hung like the pale breasts of laundry.<br>The portholes provided the Moon with a museum. I nightmared<br>the figurehead; white gloves of the blue veined flock of demons,<br>contorted mouths, revolving heads dripped their ice and sunburnt<br>children in sleets of collected tombstones.<br>I jacked up my eyelids and the phantasms left a perished poem.<br>Covered in trees of sweat, the piano stool flitted its lids; the old<br>man dinted the whites\u2026 I left without saying<br>goodbye.<br>My Judas decision conversed and twisted as the milk glass would<br>split its human company. I stood barefoot, my hand holding the im-<br>pression of a strong morning laughter; the damp air was the abor-<br>tion of dead breaths. The philosopher dropped his marinal hammer,<br>scraping the skin of the amen of a hymn. The fists and fins of my<br>small eyes burrowed into the parachute silk of the woman\u2019s flamed<br>ballet, her church door faced the railway tracks of my waiting. The<br>drawn-in-look of her cheekbones creased in tempo, the<br>school desk voice chalk marked the evening, coal black eyes with<br>nude backgrounds of a lanterns teeth\u2026 she smiled with cheap<br>pornography. We spent the whole of the voyage in closed eyed<br>dreams.<br>My zeppelin head skulked into the melancholy of a corner. Life was<br>a portrait of flute mourners; their stone fingers oozed their little<br>nightmares.<br>Avoiding the strokes of the asylum class I struggled from the<br>eternal posture of Death. The soldier patterns of the blue clock<br>dragged its three-minute hate machine into my room. I fled as<br>a fleece of clockwork grass\u2026 engulfing the plague theatres and<br>streets of granulated columns smelling of graveyard wine.<br>The helter-skelter of a cloud were vertical bamboos with the black<br>touch of furnaced men. My top hat barricaded the Sun, bewitched<br>by the museums attendants blood a beautiful fish invented itself by<br>darkening its saccharine canoe, being a thousand miles away from a<br>pistol, it secured its oblong squad into its upper floor paint.<br>The freight cars gurgled; my flag stone legs ran by the field grey<br>uniforms. They gave me the look of a schoolboys catapult\u2026 My<br>mouth dripped a green pen with a needlework gesture to the skull-<br>faced man, \u201cshoot me, shoot me\u201d he said, his throat confessed a<br>horror novel.<br>Neither of his hands reminded themselves of a key. He tried instru-<br>ments, but only to axe dance screams.I penetrated the corridors as a whip deprived of a victim. Inside<br>the carriage the armour plated passengers, squealed like a house<br>at six o clock.<br>I was ordered out by a summer night\u2019s vision. I left the palace<br>of valid torment with her cobwebs the necklace of the night, to<br>pursue the lady of Egypt, singing cathedral sorrows with bashful<br>eyes. But there was no one there; I had been given the lie fusion.<br>So I left my murder behind like a dancing shape of emotions to<br>intrigue the thin paladins.<br>I examined my leg batteries in the alcohol light and froze the<br>whirlwind\u2026 The spiders gossamer kiss surpassed the devouring<br>herds of the vampires\u2026 My dream wolves had returned to<br>rattle-snake solitude in anthem swells.<br>Decomposing my trenched forehead to resume seated in the<br>Scream Theatre. My eyes had their rudders stolen, so like the<br>black horse of tomorrow\u2019s dust I swooped in the sudden blood of<br>sweat, across the clumsy fields, thirsting the sixty hours of<br>camouflage.<br>A copper chariot of serpents pulled by the fairy tale stones,<br>halted beside the cottage.<br>They came with cardboard masks and drew their shark tails. The<br>two streamed crash of the arched thunder, giggled war. Every<br>picture had to be re-painted, the statues re-named and the<br>certain signs of a winged book, were to be scarred on the<br>cramped couch of sleep.<br>I thought of going back and opened my fist to find the education<br>of a ticket that had been wiped clean by the hungry aquarium.<br>Then with a sigh and a sidelong glance a monsoon of coloured<br>stones rained into the grotto of a statues eye, hairs of scattered<br>water danced upon the blazing postcard, reducing the buckled<br>blue flames, into the paradox of smoke.<br>I left with my injured halo into the cloudbanks, wanting nothing of<br>private miracles\u2026 Dragging my charred wings behind\u2026<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"top-opus\"><a href=\"#opus-top\">^top<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:49px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-20.27.26-1-1024x450.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9754\" style=\"width:656px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-20.27.26-1-1024x450.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-20.27.26-1-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-20.27.26-1-768x337.png 768w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-20.27.26-1-1320x580.png 1320w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-20.27.26-1-600x264.png 600w, https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-18-at-20.27.26-1.png 1375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-contrast-light-background-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary><strong>Astral Postcards<\/strong><\/summary>\n<p>I was told how they would find the elusive Higgs-Bosum<br>Particle. Electrons were shown as twinned particles that appeared as<br>two dashes, spiralled like a DNA chart, the Higgs was placed<br>behind. They told me where to find the Bosum, it\u2019s the half-of-<br>a-boomerang-flight, the Bosum is the \u2018sparkle in the arc.\u2019<br>The Higgs was the weight behind the twinned particle like a<br>rock in a pool of oil, it raised the level because of its weight.<br>Space was like fluid patterned wallpaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary><strong>Wriggleton<\/strong><\/summary>\n<p class=\"has-contrast-light-background-color has-background\">Crazy cats live in ole Wriggleton, George Washington\u2019s<br>Grandada came from here\u2026 just down the road.<br>It rains every- day and the plasma screens glow with Soaps and the Serial Killer programmes.. Churches double as covens so you can have your eucharist and eat it, a \u201cCrowley lived here\u201d blue plaque on number 33 above theTakeaway\u2026 Mr C favoured 134. The House Special\u2026 and apparently, on the playing fields, you can see ghost<br>cows playing chess with children\u2019s arms frozen from being unloved.<br>A strange light green blancmange covers the landscape after 6 o clock, we can never push the doors closed and oftentimes it seeps in and swallows the settees.<br>The Stepford Wives smile while they swerve their cars and nearly hit you on the School run\u2026<br>A Mogadishu Monkey the size of your hand paints the boundaries with a black paint brush, some 50 miles around the perimeter\u2026. and the Cricket ground is full of middle class Alligators brewing their maudlin ale for the poor to drink from\u2026 It\u2019s a lovely place to die\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary><strong>I was drawing..<\/strong>.<\/summary>\n<p class=\"has-contrast-light-background-color has-background\">I was drawing cartoons, more like blocks of colours<br>from the Banana Splits palette, onto wooden objects<br>I had made, people in my studio were commenting on<br>them that they weren\u2019t good as my other work. But I<br>had faith because I knew where I was going with it, in<br>any case the space was there just to experiment with<br>and I could see the potential.<br>I woke up and seen in my minds eye a completed TV<br>set with a character, a pink maybe sky blue foam char-<br>acter called Happy Hippo, but he was leaning on a<br>ramshackled table\u2026 He was dead, his wrist had been<br>cut and green goo had been leaking from his wrist into<br>a goo bucket.<br>The scene looked both quaint and macabre, a Fred<br>Quimby track was playing, like a stuck record,<br>looping every 40 seconds, it became overbearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<details class=\"wp-block-details has-contrast-light-background-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary><strong>My House<\/strong><br><br><\/summary>\n<p class=\"has-contrast-light-background-color has-background\">A window is an outside eye<br>It rejects the visitor\u2019s shadow<br>Keeps the irregular lies of neighbours<br>A door is an outside mouth<br>Resists fugitives<br>Bondage to keys has it\u2019s own dry irony<br>The Doors are diminutive in their opera<br>creaks. A settee is sponge dream-cake<br>For watered down visions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>s<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/ink2\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"126\" height=\"111\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/forward.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10163\" style=\"width:103px;height:auto\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Short Stories | Scripts || Poetry | Novel Extracts |` &#8220;Writing is never easy, especially if you&#8217;re wearing Boxing Gloves.&#8221;McDada tulpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8721","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8721"}],"version-history":[{"count":115,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10218,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8721\/revisions\/10218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcdada.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}