My Book: "Walking Through Time" …a new kind of online novel.

"Poof" was the only sound heard in Wigwam #7 of the Cozy Cone Motel. Instantly, the 4-D chromatic-hypersphere display went dark. Staring into the blank air, Moabbey the Coyote and Silver Girl appeared frozen in time.

After a while, Moabbey reacted, saying, "Just as you predicted, Silver Girl, Plush Kokopelli has blown his flux capacitor. That overloaded his synchronous condenser and he disappeared into hyperspace." Then, after thinking for a few moments, he said, "What was it that you said about Kokopelli at Burning Man?"

Silver Girl rushed to explain, "Yesterday, when I was surfing the web, I saw a story about Kokopelli Rising at Burning Man 2012. When I showed the website to the Other, he immediately donated $25 to the 'Kokopelli Rising - New Mexico CORE Project for Burning Man'. Using Kickstarter funding, they built a twelve-foot-tall Kokopelli at new-energy Black Rock City, in the Nevada desert. On the big night, the large wooden Kokopelli will burn, possibly ascending to New Earth".

Looking askance, Moabbey muttered, "That's a lot to swallow".

No, really it's true", exclaimed Silver Girl. "If you can get that silly display working again, we can see for what is happening."

While smacking the case of the Mac G4 Cube with his right forepaw, Moabbey somehow coaxed out an image of a latticework temple, spinning before them in three dimensions. Before them, in holographic splendor, they saw a temple at Black Rock City. After opening his eyes larger than most coyotes ever do, Moabbey asked, "What do they call this temple now displaying itself here in our wigwam?"

While observing the rotating plasma flow, Silver Girl sat motionless. As she spoke, her voice affected the temple's rotational speed. After pausing her speech, she waited for the holographic temple to pause, as well. "They call the Temple, 'The Temple,'" she laughed. "The name of the 2012 temple is 'Temple of Juno', in honor of this year's burning man theme, which is 'Fertility 2.0' (2.0, as in the redub of 'fertility' as a theme).

David Best made this year's temple, and was the first person to make the temple. After losing a friend, and in honor of his lost friend, David built the first temple. Traditionally, the man burns on a Saturday night. David chose Sunday for his temple burn. So many people loved having a dedicated temple that he built one the following year and in many years thereafter. His previous most recent construction was in 2008 (my first year). In the intervening years, others built the temple, but David's were always the best... very intricate and beautiful. This is his first year back since 2008.

When the man burns, people cheer and scream, but when the temple burns people are silent and many cry. Throughout the week before its razing, people write messages on the temple. By week's end, the temple becomes a place of love and hope. Nearby, others build shrines to honor their own lost friends. In the year 2007, someone (Plush Kokopelli?) burned the man down early. As with Kokopelli in Arizona, authorities (mis?) identified and arrested a culprit. If someone were to burn the temple down early...let me say, 'I would fear for his future karmic connections'."


Like a dwindling ember, the temple soon disappeared from sight, leaving Wigwam #7 at the Wigwam Motel in complete darkness. Feeling his way in the dark, Moabbey located a broom, which was leaning against the far wall. Flailing around the dark wigwam, wielding the broom, Moabbey scored a direct hit on the top of the holographic display. Almost instantly, Moabbey and Silver Girl saw a scene that they had hoped never to see. There, in 3-D time-space-reality, was Plush Kokopelli riding in the front seat of a speeding SUV.

Wait a minute", said Moabbey. "I recognize that desert dust. Cotton Candy is driving Plush Kokopelli to Burning Man at Black Rock City, Nevada."

His synchronous condenser must have spontaneously revived", said Silver Girl. "Now he is balancing his power across the grid, all the way to San Onofre."

Oh, that's too much", said Moabbey. "Now everyone will know what a crazy Munchkin Plush Kokopelli is."

Well, think of it this way", said Silver Girl. "How much trouble can one multicolored plush toy get into at Burning Man?"

You don't know Kokopelli's warped sense of time and humor," said Moabbey. Looking at the 3-D image that appeared before them, Moabbey let out his best coyote wail, and then said, "Oh no, Plush Kokopelli has set fire to giant wooden Kokopelli. Now he is heading toward the man himself. Whoops, there goes the man, up in flame, three days early this time."

Watching as the unexpected fires lit the desert sky; the practical side of Silver Girl came out. "With their whole spectacle prematurely burned to the ground, 60,000 Burners will have to find something else to do for the rest of the week. With a theme like 'fertility", what do you think that they will do?"

With skepticism showing in his Coyote eyes, Moabbey said, "Whatever fertility rites the Burners may enjoy, I don't think the man is going to invite Plush Kokopelli to Black Rock City in 2013."

As the flaming hologram burned down and vanished, Silver Girl remarked, "So far as I know, Plush Kokopelli has never been invited to Burning Man."

Days earlier, Coney the Traffic Cone had sprung Kokopelli from Sheriff Joe's Phoenix lockup. Hoping that neither Moabbey nor Silver Girl would notice him, Coney stood motionless in the corner of Wigwam #7. Silently, he said to himself, "Well, if that doesn't prove that we superheroes are real, nothing will."

To be continued...