h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chapter 21: Viola’s Third Question

A87815181

“Third question,” Viola said. “Why did one brother take the family Blemnox, while the other became a Mardachi?”

“For that, we need to go way back,” Forty said. “Melbourne and Knox were the sons of Augustus Mardachian, who grew up in a small Baltic country called Litestvia. Augustus excelled in everything he did. Most people would have thought this to be a blessing, but Augustus just found it hard to choose a career path. His father urged him to be like Thomas Jefferson, an American whose wide-ranging abilities had helped him rise to the top. There was one catch: there was no top for Augustus to rise to in Litestvia, a country ruled by royals so confused that they often got lost in the forest moving between their many castles. Augustus could only join that family by marrying a princess who would probably fsget hopelessly lost and be written out of the family along with her husband.

“Go to America,” Augustus’ father urged. “They need another Thomas Jefferson, as the previous one died in 1826."

“So Augustus sailed for America, arriving in the state of Maryland in 1838. He married a woman that he met on the ship, and looked for a place to live. There was growing tension between the northern states and the southern ones. If they went to war, it would not pay to live in a state that was on the losing side. Augustus bought contiguous land in Maryland and Pennsylvania, ensuring that half of his plantation would belong to the wining side no matter which way the war went..

“In 1839, Knox and Melbourne were born. Augustus proudly wrote out their names for the town clerk and was horrified to find that his handwriting was misinterpreted. His a’s came out as e’s, making the children’s surname ‘Merdechien.’ This was ruinous! Anyone familiar with French would think the family name referred to dog poop. Casting about for solutions, Augustus came up with the idea of renaming the family by combining the first four letters of the sons’ first names. This led to such possibilities as ‘Knoxmelb’ and ‘Melbknox.’ Then he tried inverting ‘Melb’ and dropping the k in ‘Knox.” The result was Blemnox.

“This seemed like a good solution for a while. The brothers grew up, built the Blemnox mansion, and farmed the land. They grew quite wealthy. Then the Civil War came along. Melbourne sided with the North, Knox with the South. When the North won, Knox grew discouraged with his family's whole plan. He changed his name by dropping the last two letters from the original name. Melbourne tried to talk him out of it. This led to a rupture between them. Knox Mardachi moved away and was never seen again.”

[Proofreading is a pain! I corrected words like "misinterpretated" before posting this, but one typo still managed to sneak by. I wonder if anyone can spot what it was. ]

[Amy P]

Do I fsget a prize if I spot it

Deb

Are you by any chance referring to a missing word?

or a missing letter?

or both?

or the typo mentioned by Deb?

or a period too many?

There's a missing letter. And yes, you win something, though I don't have a clue what it could be.

I just finished writing the whole Blemnox saga, except for a prologue and maybe an appendix for the last two days of November. Naturally the prologue comes at the end rather than the beginning. That's the Blemnox way!