Tales from the Apocalypse - in the air

The Cheyenne speak of Wolf Star, sent to steal the whirlwind bag that contains 'The Storm that comes from the West' and now as their thin dreams cover the dank, turpentine forest they prop the body of the late General George Armstrong Custer beside the sparking kindle of yet one more arid camp-site fire.

The magic telephone is placed beside the cadaver and they wait..

and wait…

and wait…..

until at last it rings.

'George, is that you …. ?'

In a white Zen arcade somewhere back of Dealey Plaza a clown dons the ceremonial leather head of a tooth-studded wolverine. He picks up a telephone and dials whilst a skeletal crew, bowed and oiled, clanks past in chains, cutting out an easy path through the forest.

The Cheyenne have gathered to dream. They breathe out. A thousand years fly in peyote nightmares of a dancing clown-head storm. They breathe in and a calling telephone rings.

'George .. is that you???!!!!!!'

Then Wolf Star comes, frozen above them. Lupine and sharp-toothed, her flanks still glistening, she is caught in the air. Hanging, on the line.

We watch as their reverie dissolves, spitting smouldering ashes and a wasted bakelite handset in its wake.

'George, is that you …………………………'

There is no sense he is hearing any of this.