BAM! The shelf came down with a thunderous

BAM! The shelf came down with a thunderous boom and everyone in the house felt it deep within their bones. For the second time this week,

Matthew had smashed part of the house with his hammer. Everyone rushed in to see what had happened. Matthew was unconscious on the floor. Clearly he was getting worse.

Matthew lay in a catatonic state from which the medics could not rouse him. Neither rotting nor excreting, he clutched his hammer to his chest and smelled of carnations. Aunt W

en was beside him as usual, a constant in her faded floral jeans and oversized blazer. The stranger had come again, voice as ambiguous as their gender and speaking the same

three syllables over and over, "Sun Ken Bo...Sun Ken Bo...Sun Ken Bo..." He stared at him...or her... and strained to make out what he...or she...might be trying to say. It took

all of the finest linguists to determine what language she was using. It was hard to determine if this was Aramaic or Japanese. "Sun Ken Bo" sounded like Sunken Boat when said fa

st. "Saanken boto!" she said, nodding vigorously. She then led us to a spot in Tokyo Bay where divers found a sunken boat. A search recovered waterproof star maps. "Aandoromeda,"

Sure 'nuff the star υ in constellation Andromeda was marked with 家, but I found it suspicious Saki's aliens ate Soba, wrote japanese & lived under Tokyo Bay. "Honto desu Billsan!"

We eschewed the Emperor - he was a tad too gamey for our tastes - and stuck with the 'shrooms. It was the longest and most memorable meal I've ever experienced.