Anna finally gets a moment to ponder all that has happened. She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, counts to 10, exhales, and when she opens her eyes she can see nothing but pure darkness. No alarm clocks, no bathroom lights, no little green flickers from her cable modem (yes they have them in Opelika), and no symphonic humming from the sounds of florescent lights mixing with the changing pitches of the laptop hard drive. Just silence and total darkness. She quickly realizes the construction sign she has been seeing for the last 2 days all over town:
POWER TO BE CUT TEMPORARILY ON JUNE 28TH FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION AT TIGER TOWN DEVELOPMENT
Isn't it funny how we block out the things we get used to seeing?
It is amazing what a little reflection time can cause. In this darkness Annabella is forced to deal with her inner thoughts, her deepest self, her very core. The distractions of the world are temporarily out of order, and in this moment of clarity it dawned on her. Something else was at work in this little town. (insert scary music)
Dan, the owner of Dealer Dan's Pawn, used to have the phone number 334-887-6777. It worked the first time Anna called it, but when she called Dan back the following day someone from "TRIMART" answered. Out of confusion Anna asked to whom she was speaking and where they were located and it turns out TRIMART was at 2040 Lee Road 137, Auburn, AL 36832. Anna discarded the info, until now, when it randomly came all flooding back to her in the midst of the silence.
Nothing is random. Everything happens for a reason. She didn't see it until now, but oh is it so very clear....
(334) 887-6777 now connects to 2040 Lee Road 137, Auburn, AL 36832
TRImart. Google it for yourselves, it's the truth.
Adding up the digits of the phone number (334) 887-6777 we get:
3+3+4+8+8+7+6+7+7+7 = 60 = 6+0 = 6
2040 Lee Road = 20+40 = 60 = 6+0 = 6
137, Auburn, Alabama 36832 = 1+3+7+3+6+8+3+2 = 33 = 3+3 = 6
3 numbers all adding up to 6. 6-6-6! TRImart. 666. Opelika shows its horns. (I can't help but thinking: What is next? Fall festivals 5 days early, and 5 haunted hay rides?!?) And finally... It all makes sense.
When "Momento Mori" and "Onia Vincit amor" are combined they provide the letters :
M o m e n t o m o r i o n i a v i n c i t a m o r
The statements were only elaborate red herrings crafted to throw the adults off the trail. The letters are an anagram for:
I'm an over common intimate minor.
It seems our 8 year old Lilly is up to something..
What Anna doesn't know yet is that she doesn't even exist. She is merely a collage of melded thought fashioned from another place and time. Lily is both her mother, and her creator. Sounds odd, but watch: Lily is actually the daughter of Rance, a love child from a crazy and wild trip to Cuba. She was born on Thursday, October 14th at 11:54 AM, to a woman Rance only knew as "numerals". Cubans were known for their workmanship with leaves (particularly their cigar rolling) but Nums' specialty was working with the Mediterranean evergreen tree. To this day if Rance smells the berries or leaves of the Laurus nobilis he is overcome with memories of Nums and his adventures in Cuba.
In order to quell his young daughter's boredom, Rance has commissioned her services as a script writer for his next project. Lily is no ordinary 8 year old as you will soon see. She is unchallenged with the nonsensical and futile efforts of the world as we think we know it. The specialists all told Rance she was "autistic", but growing up with so much social contact she quickly adapted to her environment and overcame the odds. Rance needed something new, something fresh, something not tainted by time's teeth, something coming from "elsewhere", something not apt to cave into all the societal conformities..... thus enter his 8 year old genius and her script ideas!
Annabell was picked by Lily as our lead out of spite. Wait till you see what happens to her at the end! Rance met her at a 5k run/walk event and was impressed by her time of 30:01. Lily didn't like the competition with her daddy, nor did she like the fact that Annabell's anagram was "Loony Mean Anal Bat". You see, there could be many anagrams for any given name, some positive, some good, but Lily seemed to stick with the first that came to mind, and she judged others according to her anagram "first impression". Lily didn't like loony mean anal bats. Come to think of it, I am not sure I do either.
Enough about Lily.... Something evil is about to awake in sleepy Opelika.....
Ps. Don't respond to the email titled "Re: llufy rag". He's the one behind the deception.
Pss. Oh ya, I almost forgot. Anthony, the gardener was only pretending to be Anthony. He was indeed having a love affair with Rose that dated back before Rose was even married! Anthony is John!!!..... (it took him years to perfect his broken English and yard work skills, but Clyde was easy to sell.)
Psss. Rance tends to spill anything and everything he eats, thus Lily depicted him with tobacco spit stains. It was a subtle punch that she knew only he would see.
Pssss. The journal entry: "February 16, 1927... Leaving today to be with my beloved John down in Chalmette.." ended so abruptly because at the moment Rose penned it she was swept off her feet with another one of John's surprises. The film "Marquise" was premiering in London and only the very wealthy could afford to see it. John had 2 train passes and tickets to the London premier! It was one of John and Rose's many spontaneous romantic getaways.
(to be continued)
Posted by captainhoof
at 11:41 AM CDT