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An adolescent sent to live in a small town after his mother’s death finds his memories wiped out. He kills a gang leader invading his grandmother’s home, then becomes the subject of a botched police investigation. Yet he’s soon drafted into a mystical commune of twelve dreamers five levels beneath the ruined city of Zarreich.
Published by Sortmind Press eBook: paperback: cover design by Michael D. Smith |
Synopsis
Jim Donne
Arriving by bus from the southern city of Cuxlacjs, Jim Donne realizes he has no memory of a previous life. He reads a joint order from the Cuxlacjs Regional Council of Public Services and the Zarreich Provincial Assistance Authority stating that after the death of his mother Lois, and after being found unable to hold his graphic artist job, the bureaucracy has determined that he cannot take care of himself and has sent him to Zarreich Province to live with his grandmother.
He navigates to Emily Donne’s house in the small-town suburb of Eicsine and greets a good-looking older woman he’s never seen before. Emily has been estranged from her daughter Louise and never knew she had a grandson. She’s received her own state order mandating that she take care of Jim; the authorities advise that since both she and Jim are artists, they may wish to collaborate to further Zarreich culture.
Jim remarks that his letter says his mother is Lois while hers says Louise. Emily regards this as a typo as she fumes about the bureaucracy. She’s dubious about being saddled with Jim but has no legal recourse. She explains her .38 pistol and how she retired from the Zarreich police ten years ago. Her paintings hanging throughout her house are excellent and compelling.
Jim is disturbed by his attraction to this flirty older woman, feeling she can’t really be his grandmother. He makes a pass which she rejects in disgust. Horrified, Jim begs her to kill him with her .38. Exhausted and despairing, Emily offers to figure out a legal solution in the morning. She retires upstairs and locks her door.
Diana Arbor
Jim stays up late, perusing her art and her diary. He seethes that bureaucrats regard him as incompetent to live in the real world, and feels he’ll create astonishing new art.
Then gang leader Steve Dorch breaks in, strumming Emily’s guitar and singing obscenely. Jim. Livid, Jim gets Emily’s .38 and shoots the intruder repeatedly. But Dorch keeps bantering until Jim blows his head off. He saws Dorch’s body into pieces, puts them in a garbage can, then shoots himself in the head.
When he comes to the next morning he realizes he’s only grazed himself. He remembers a disturbing dream of waking in a tawdry drug commune and making love with a sensuous young woman, Diana. Now he meets the garbagemen who’ve just thrown Dorch’s body into their truck. One of them, Pentacre, had been in that dream.
Chief of Police Eric Cathedral inspects the house, apparently missing all clues. Jim considers him a fool until Eric remarks that he knows Jim is the murderer. Jim drives Dorch’s car in a frenzy across the mountains to the city of Zarreich and applies for work at Cathedral Mortgage Corporation. Larry Cathedral describes mindless clerical duties using technology frozen for the past fifty years. Jim eagerly takes the job; Diana is a receptionist for the company, and he knows they’re destined to come together.
An elevator takes Jim to the bright corridors of an underground university, where the glib counselor Matthew invites him to become the twelfth member of a student commune. But somehow dim hallways also lead to Pentacre’s drug house.
The alternate mass market paperback cover from lulu.com, using art by iStock.com/bulgac
Contents
1. Jim Donne’s Arrival
2. Emily
3. Attraction or Friendship?
4. Regarding Emily’s Art and His Own
5. Dorch
6. Diana
7. The Investigation
8. Jim Nearly Confesses
9. Eric Comforts Jim
10. Emily Taunts Jim
11. Nothing Superfluous About Her
12. The Doomboat Freeway
13. Jim’s Donation
14. Cathedral Mortgage Corporation
15. Buddha Pong
16. The University of Zarreich
17. The Bathroom Elevator
18. Underground
19. All This Loveliness
20. Jim Cathedral
21. Larry
22. Jim’s Research Project
23. The Shack Afterwards
24. Diana’s Own Sex Project
25. The Promise of Bed
26. The Cruel Party
27. I’ll Record You All the Way Down
28. Turtle Man
29. The Proper Grammatical Use of Dorch
30. Registration
31. Sea Girl of Cuxlacjs
32. An Inquiry into the Meaning of Tonight
33. The Bonfire
34. So I’ll Probably Marry Her
35. Jim and Oceanmouth
36. On to Drulgoorijk
37. The Roadblock
38. Polyhedrons
39. A Sad Journey to Work
40. Larry Helpfully Piles It On
41. The New Mailboy
42. Maybe I’ll Let Him Live
43. Jim Finds the .38
44. Exchange
45. Light Fibers
46. The Circle
Blog History
Zarreich: The Unexpected Second Draft, August 13, 2024
Zarreich – The Draft Covers, August 29, 2024
Dreams Used in Zarreich, September 1, 2024
Zarreich – Publication at Last, December 10, 2024
All words and images (except actual cover art) copyright by Michael D. Smith