STAR TREK;
Inside Out
“Greg and the Igogs”
A large mansion; a small yellow car approaches the main house, and parks near the private garage.
Matt Winston parked his car, his yellow Miata, behind a black Lamborghini, which was parked along side the latest, and most gas guzzling, Hummer. There were several other cars parked in the private garage as well. It was quite evident that Brad Green, the President of Paramount's TV division, had done quite well for him self.
The large mansion Winston had come to was the home of Brad Green. Like many tv-studio heads, Brad got his start by being the son of a movie mogul. And, after a string of motion picture flops which he developed, Brad was demoted to the television division. Before arriving at the mansion, Stu, Matt’s agent, warned him about the strange things he might see while visiting Brad’s mansion; and to just keep quiet about them. Matt had no idea what Stu meant, but Stu said he soon would. But, as most things Hollywood, it was in the best interest of all if these things stayed hidden away from the leering public.
Matt walked up the path that led to the front door of the mansion, which had been previously owned by the legendary Rock Hudson.
A very tall elegant looking black man, clearly the butler of the mansion, opened the main door and let Matt in.
“Mr. Green will see you shortly,” the Butler said with a deep and slow baritone voice.
Back in the 70s, Matt Winston had come close to filming a Blaxpotation film version of Batman. He had even gone as far as getting William Marshall signed up to the project, but it fell through. But had it gone through, Matt thought to him self as the butler showed him into the main receiving area, this guy would have made the perfect Alfred.
“Can I call you Alfred?” Matt asked.
“You can call me Mister Dick Man,” the butler replied, “but I would rather you call me Lucifer.”
“Okay,” Matt said, feeling somewhat intimidated, “I will call you Mister Dick Man.”
“No,” Lucifer said, “I would be offended if you called me Mister Dick Man. I also want to add that I do not care for bigots,” Lucifer said, “So, please call me by my given name; Pandora.”
Matt just smiled, having no idea what just took place.
“Please wait here,” Pandora said, “Mr. Green will come down here to receive you.” Then Pandora held out his hand. In his massive black hand was a small plastic container that contained Listerine tongue depositories. “Your breath is very pungent,” Pandora said. “Mr. Green takes great offense to those who have pungent breath.”
Matt took the container from Pandora, opened it, then took one of the tiny slivers out and placed it on his tongue.
“Thank you Pandora,” Matt said, “I hope my breath is not as offensive as before.”
Pandora reached out, grabbed Matt by the neck, and drew him closer and sniffed his mouth. Then he let Matt go.
“It will suffice.” Pandora said.
“Pandora, how long will I have to wait?” Matt asked. “I have another appointment later on.”
Pandora shook his head. “I do not care to be referred to by that name,” Pandora said, “If you would be so inclined, please call me by my pet name; Mister Dick Man. And as for your question, Mr. Green will be down at his own discretion.” Mister Dick Man said.
The large man turned and left Matt alone in the receiving area which was right next to a spiraling stair case. Matt hoped he would not see the butler again, not sure as to which of the three names to refer to him as; Lucifer, Pandora or Mister Dick Man.
As Matt stood alone, he wondered what Green would be like. Then, finally, he heard foot steps come down the stairway. What he saw next was definitely one of those strange sights Stu must have been warning him about.
Three midgets came down the stairway. Two of them were white, one of them was black, and they were all bald men. They were naked, with the exception of strategically placed leaves over their genital area. The two white midgets had red stripes painted from their chin all the way down to their belly buttons. The black midget had a yellow stripe painted down the front of his body as well.
As they came down the stairs, they each held large pots. In the pots were black and white rose pedals that the three midgets were throwing over the shoulders. Brad Green walked down the stairs behind them. He wore a long black trench coat.
“Mister Winston,” Brad said, “Thank you for coming.”
Brad weighed, at best, one hundred and fifty pounds. Hanging over Brad’s left shoulder, and dangling as it did, was the trunk of an elephant, which Brad petted as though it were a cat.
The midgets stopped at the bottom of the stairway. Green stopped right behind them, and placed his hand on the head of one of the white midgets, and the other hand on the black midget.
“I love black and white,” Brad said with a transfixed smile. “If only our oceans were filled with a layer of black and white rose pedals then perhaps our world could throw off the Nemroms. They will destroy us, the Nemroms, and devour our young. It is only a matter of time.”
Matt just kept his thoughts to himself.
“So, did you like the script Mister Green?” Matt asked.
Matt had come at Brad’s insistence, after he had read the script. Apparently there were one or two issues Brad wanted to fix before giving final approval to start production in the weeks ahead.
Brad nodded. “I liked the script,” Brad said, “I liked it mostly because you wrote it with white paper and black ink.” Brad paused. “I love; I truly love black and white.” Brad said again, this time raising his left food behind himself. “It is so swell. You too must like black and white. You could have written your script on purple paper with green ink, but you didn’t. You went that extra effort to please me. You must be rewarded.” Brad said.
Brad removed his trench coat. Beneath his coat he wore knee length t-shirt with the image of Audra Lindley on it. He put his hands back on the heads of the two midgets.
“Please, place your hand on Toby 1 and Toby 2.” Brad said, motioning with his eyes at his own hands atop the midgets.
Matt did as Brad asked, and placed his hands on the heads of the two midgets.
“How does that feel?” Brad asked, with complete reverie in his voice.
Matt could barely stop himself from laughing; but it was his career that was at stake, and at this point, Matt would try anything.
“This is very powerful,” Matt said.
“I find that by stroking their heads like this,” Brad said as began to run his fingers across the two bald heads, “I can channel the black and white power and create my own reality. You can do this too, but only if you realize that the Nemroms are not our friends.”
Matt nodded, and went along with the conversation. “I hate the Nemroms already. God damn those Nemroms. How do we stop them sir?”
“That brings me to the script,” Brad said. “I want our starship captain to have these beliefs. I want at least three episodes of the first season to be about the struggle between the Nemroms and our saviors; The Igogs. He, our starship captain, should be one who partakes in the Igog faith, even if only secretly. Through him I want to warn the world about the Nemroms. I want the oceans of the future, when we see the Earth, to no longer have blue and green oceans, but black and white streams of rose pedals. It will be a signal to all, that the Igogs can be our protectors, our guides, in these uncertain times.”
At that moment, the three midgets got on their knees and started chanting in unison. They were chanting “IGOG IGOG IGOG IGOG”.
Matt nodded his head. “I will see to it that our main writer has three episodes written about the Igogs and the Nemroms. Do you have something he can read so as to know what to write about?”
As the midgets continued to chant IGOG, Brad walked past them and over to a desk. He opened it and took out a very old looking book. On the cover was a strange oil-painting of two unicorns knitting sweaters while eating bananas.
“This,” Brad said, “is the book of Igog. He will find all he needs to know.” He handed it to Matt. “I want you to leave this on the catering table during the filming of the show. I want it there as a beacon to all who are drawn to true salvation.”
Matt looked over at the midgets as they had now rolled over on their backs, and with their arms and legs waving about, continued to chant Igog.
“Thank you,” Matt said. “I will take this and guard this with my life.” Matt said.
Brad smiled, confident that his religion would soon spread across the world and save millions, if not billions.
“Then,” Brad finally said, “I will go ahead and green light a twenty-six season order, sight unseen. Just be sure to follow the Igog path.”
Brad clapped his two hands together, and then the midgets rolled back over, and then, in unison, they all stood up and began to walk up the stairway. Brad, putting his robe back on, followed them.
Matt waited, and after a few minutes, and no return of Lucifer/Pandora/Mister Dick Man, he helped himself out the door and back to his car. As he walked back to his car he heard strange sounds coming from the mansion, from the upper level. He didn’t even want to guess what the sounds were, so he got into his car and drove away; laughing as he did.
Continued….