thaddeus lowe and the secret meeting with blue bird mask by shane jones

8/14/2019 Thaddeus Lowe and the Secret Meeting with Blue Bird Mask by Shane Jones

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T h a d d e u s L o w e a n d t h e S e c r e t

M e e t i n g w i t h B l u e B i r d M a s k

2010 Shane Jones

a missing piece of Light Boxespublished in 2009 by Publishing Genius Pressreprinted in 2010 by Penguin Group

typefaces: Magellan, Accolade, & Friz Quadrata

p e r m a n e n t l y a r c h i v e d :

h t t p : / / f r s h . i n / 2 6
http://frsh.in/28http://frsh.in/27mailto:[email protected]&subject=subscribehttp://frsh.in/26mailto:[email protected]://litareview.com/


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THADDEUS LOWE AND THESECRET

MEETING WITH BLUE BIRD MASK

Blue Bird Mask sat down on the floor, reached inside hiscoat pocket, and pulled out a stack of cards. He laid themout in a single line on the floor. Each card had the nameof a month written on it, and Blue Bird Mask told

Thaddeus to pick them in whatever order he wished andread what was written on the back.

Thaddeus sat down opposite Blue Bird Mask andpicked up the July card. July = the sunniest of days, warmsprings, girls dancing in orange skirt s. Thaddeus smiled. Thenext card was November. November = rustling leaves,desperate squirrels, the unpacki ng of sweaters. Thaddeus flipped

the cards until the last remaining card was February.February = lazy bastard, depression, the kidnapper of smallchildren. Thaddeus looked at Blue Bird Mask, who wassmiling, and Thaddeus couldnt tell if he was truly mad orif he had some kind of answer as to the disappearance ofhis daughter. Nevertheless he was interested and toldBlue Bird Mask he would make some mint tea while hedivulged everything.

Blue Bird Mask and Thaddeus Lowe met atThaddeuss home on a weekly basis to discuss theories onFebruary. As each month passed, Blue Bird Mask had

Thaddeus read that months card again until they were a

few days away from another February.

From their weekly meetings, Thaddeus began tobelieve Blue Bird Mask, or at least wanted to believe that


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somehow the month of February was an evil being worthfighting. The thirtieth of January, Blue Bird Mask told

Thaddeus to spend the entire next day walking aroundtown and taking notes of things he saw that he eitherliked, made him smile, or just found interesting. Thaddeusagreed, and that night slept on a stack of parchmentpaper to remind him of his task the next day.

Thaddeus woke early the next morning andimmediately gathered his papers and pencil and headed

to town to begin his cataloging. His first entry wasdifficult. He kept looking to the sky for signs of flight and

joy, and every time he did he saw the No Fly Zone poleswhich reminded him of the End of Flight and eventuallythe disappearance of Bianca. When the sadness reached acertain height his body gave off the smell of mint water. Awoman carrying a sack of lemons stopped to tell him itwas a lovely smell that reminded her of having tea withher grandfather when she was a little girl. Thaddeus madethis his first entry. As he continued through town he madevarious entries and by the end of the day he had filledover thirty sheets with observations he found worthnoting. That evening Thaddeus boiled the water for the

mint tea as Blue Bird Mask read through his entries.

I like this one, he said, and read aloud a group of redsparrows picking at the blades of a womans freshly cut hair. Andthis one too, he said, and read aloud the fog being burned offtheCocio River by thebright sun.

Thaddeus walked in with the tea and sat oppositeBlue Bird Mask, the last remaining February card betweenthem. He told Thaddeus that tomorrow, the first ofFebruary, he should do the same as he had today. He 6


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should wake at the same time, bring the same amount ofpaper, and write throughout the day. Thaddeus agreedonce again, and before they finished their tea Blue BirdMask flipped the February card over and had Thaddeusread the inscription aloud.

Youll see, said Blue Bird Mask. Ill be heretomorrow evening. It is then that we can truly discuss theinevitable war.

The next morning, Thaddeus woke at the sameexact time as the day before. He grabbed thirty sheets ofpaper, which had been his pillow for the night, and foundhis pencil and headed to town to begin another day ofcataloging joy. Once again he found himself lost in theempty sky. He tried to imagine birds darting over hishead, balloons crowding the sky, and the bizarre patterns

of butterflies. And once again an overwhelming sadnessfilled him and he gave off the smell of mint. The samewoman, this time carrying a sack of limes, happened to bepassing Thaddeus at that precise moment and this timeshe told him that he smelled awful, and that the smellreminded her of the way her grandfather use to strike her

with unusable firewood.

Thaddeus apologized to the woman and offered tohelp her carry the sack of limes. She refused and told himthat if he wanted to do her a favor then he should cleanhimself.

By morning's end, Thaddeus hadnt made one entry.He thought for sure he could see the Cocio River againand find something interesting, but instead, all he sawwas how polluted the water had become, the beavers

d i s p a t c h

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struggling through the thick mud, and how it smelled likeburning trash. He walked around town for hours, noticingnothing but angry faces, depressed bodies. At one point, afat man vomited his lunch into the middle of the streetwhereupon a shop owner beat him over the head with arake.

When Blue Bird Mask came over that evening, hepolitely asked to see what had been written. Thaddeusresponded by dropping the cups of tea and saying,

Nothing at all.

So youll agree something was different today.

Yes. It didnt feel like the same town.

And this, said Blue Bird Mask, is why we must

declare war on February.

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NOTES:

Putting the book together had a collage like feel to it. I

had probably 120 or so of these small sections and juststarted to piece them together. Some things had to beexpanded, there was some re-writing, but for the mostpart, I was able to move the pieces around to form thestory. Of course, I had a bunch of sections I couldnt use,one of these being this chapter here (the longest cutscene) where Thaddeus meets with Blue Bird Mask.

The style of this section is a little off compared towhat is in the book. Maybe I was rushing that day. I hadthis idea that there would be some kind of card game thatwould be a running theme throughout the book. I likedthe idea of a card game, the playfulness of it, but it came

out differently. It feels stiff and drawn out with little pay-off. So much of the book is this really dense visualexperience and this section doesnt offer that.

s h a n e

j o n e s


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S h a n e J o n e s w r o t e Light Boxes( P u b l i s h i n g G e n i u s , 2 0 0 9 /

P e n g u i n , 2 0 1 0 ) , The Nightmare Filled

You With Scary( C a n n i b a l , 2 0 0 9 ) ,

a n d The Failure Six ( F u g u e S t a t e P r e s s , 2 0 0 9 ) .

H e l i v e s i n N e w Y o r k .
http://frsh.in/2jhttp://frsh.in/2ihttp://frsh.in/2ihttp://frsh.in/2h


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Nothing survives an autopsy.Darran Anderson

seealso: slingshot li tareview
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thaddeus lowe and the secret meeting with blue bird mask by shane jones

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