Kingdom Gone
Created | Updated May 19, 2005
Story Idea
Synopsis: A chance encounter in a diner on the outskirts of a large city brings together three wanderers far from home: Jeff, heir to the throne of a tiny country which has vanished mysteriously overnight; Fiorello McDoodle, an extraterrestrial whose early retirement was supposed to have been spent on a resort planet, but who unluckily crash-landed on Earth and cannot leave; and Fiorello's wife Edna, the brains behind the diner and the motel/resort complex she hopes to eventually build. Hint: Will Jeff begin to discover pieces of his old kingdom for sale on eBay? Will Edna recognize in Jeff a kindred spirit? Will Fiorello discover that his dreams of retirement Nirvana are not really all that different from the kingdom that Jeff and Edna are patiently piecing together next to the diner? Will anybody finally have the nerve to tell Edna that she should hire a cook because she can't make anything edible?
The August sun can play tricks on your eyes, especially when you've been
on the road pretty much all day.
Further ideas:
Attila, not Fiorello
The McDoodles have wanderedto many planets. On one, A composer wrote a song For God, who did not sing the piece as written. The composer had to go back and change the piece so that it matched the way God had sung it, since God doesn't make mistakes.
On another planet, it is widely believed that you can make time go backwards if you drive your car in reverse. What they don't know is that their clocks just don't work right.
When the kigdom was lost by Uncle Kirby in a gambling incident, the pieces were auctioned off on the Galactic Auction Net. The parapet that the McDoodles inherited from their uncle had Jeff's old language tutor, his daughter, and Jeff's sister. He meets these one by one in the diner, but their memories of what they had done before the sale have been erased.
The name of the big city Jeff is leaving is Cambodence. The river behind the trailer camp is the Wachaquoddanoag. The suburb done the road is Zenithville. Further down the road is a sizable Indian state,
the result of years of political and legal wrangling by some smart young Indian lawyers.
Still no name for Jeff's lost kingdom. Excelsior would be good, or something with Bella or mont in it.
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Ideas for another story:
--Government by a coalition of princesses
--Mountains have been moved since the last time you were here. (They had to be moved because they blocked the view for one of the princesses.
--Grandmothers in pink cardigans have formed an organized gang. <evilgrin>
--Name for imaginary country: Hapathulasoznia
--Infiltrated by someone from another dimension who (1.) sees the future, and (2.) has a compulsion about writing books that reveal future events. This person is persona non grata, and cannot afford to be discovered, so he/she has to come in disguise.
--Taxman has the unusual job of collecting taxes from people who have donut trees.
--Doorknob thief is at large in the community again.
Synopsis: A chance encounter in a diner on the outskirts of a large city brings together three wanderers far from home: Jeff, heir to the throne of a tiny country which has vanished mysteriously overnight; Fiorello McDoodle, an extraterrestrial whose early retirement was supposed to have been spent on a resort planet, but who unluckily crash-landed on Earth and cannot leave; and Fiorello's wife Edna, the brains behind the diner and the motel/resort complex she hopes to eventually build. Hint: Will Jeff begin to discover pieces of his old kingdom for sale on eBay? Will Edna recognize in Jeff a kindred spirit? Will Fiorello discover that his dreams of retirement Nirvana are not really all that different from the kingdom that Jeff and Edna are patiently piecing together next to the diner? Will anybody finally have the nerve to tell Edna that she should hire a cook because she can't make anything edible?
The August sun can play tricks on your eyes, especially when you've been
on the road pretty much all day.
Further ideas:
Attila, not Fiorello
The McDoodles have wanderedto many planets. On one, A composer wrote a song For God, who did not sing the piece as written. The composer had to go back and change the piece so that it matched the way God had sung it, since God doesn't make mistakes.
On another planet, it is widely believed that you can make time go backwards if you drive your car in reverse. What they don't know is that their clocks just don't work right.
When the kigdom was lost by Uncle Kirby in a gambling incident, the pieces were auctioned off on the Galactic Auction Net. The parapet that the McDoodles inherited from their uncle had Jeff's old language tutor, his daughter, and Jeff's sister. He meets these one by one in the diner, but their memories of what they had done before the sale have been erased.
The name of the big city Jeff is leaving is Cambodence. The river behind the trailer camp is the Wachaquoddanoag. The suburb done the road is Zenithville. Further down the road is a sizable Indian state,
the result of years of political and legal wrangling by some smart young Indian lawyers.
Still no name for Jeff's lost kingdom. Excelsior would be good, or something with Bella or mont in it.
------------------------------------------------------------
Ideas for another story:
--Government by a coalition of princesses
--Mountains have been moved since the last time you were here. (They had to be moved because they blocked the view for one of the princesses.
--Grandmothers in pink cardigans have formed an organized gang. <evilgrin>
--Name for imaginary country: Hapathulasoznia
--Infiltrated by someone from another dimension who (1.) sees the future, and (2.) has a compulsion about writing books that reveal future events. This person is persona non grata, and cannot afford to be discovered, so he/she has to come in disguise.
--Taxman has the unusual job of collecting taxes from people who have donut trees.
--Doorknob thief is at large in the community again.
