The Ballad of Bonaduke—
Episode 41: Garden Conversation
DETAILS: Series: The Ballad of Bonaduke, #41 Format: Kindle Vella Story Read Date: December 15, 2023
I felt one step closer to knowing what was going on, however I was a long way off from having enough information to decide if I wanted to throw in my hat with these guys.
The Story So Far…
A drunken Michael Bonaduke decides to use a grift (with maybe some sort of magic/magic-like “help”) to win on a scratch-off lottery ticket so he has money to buy more to drink. He pulls off whatever he did, gets his money and some booze and stumbles off into the darkness to drink himself into oblivion so he can start again the next day. He’s hit by dark memories (probably what’s driving him to the drinking) of fire, pleading, and screaming. There’s going to be a price to pay for his grift, and he’s trying to be ready.
He’s abducted by some representatives of a mysterious group who subject him to a test—if he passes, everything will be explained to him (and hopefully the reader, too). He passes—and is brought somewhere for answers, or maybe training, or maybe another test. Time will tell (or things are going to get really annoying). Answers aren’t quick to come—but the mysteries and questions keep piling up.
Things get hairy and Bonaduke leaves and finds himself back in the neighborhood he started from. He takes refuge in a homeless encampment shortly before a police raid. He’s apprehended and finds himself an interrogation room and shortly escapes after using his grift (but with results he didn’t quite intend). He finds himself by a group of squatters who seem to have strapped a woman to a chair for reasons that can’t be good. He attempts to rescue her before he even realizes what he’s doing, and seems to have succeeded—well, the two of them got away from the group anyway—breathing but bruised. They make their way to a fast-food taco joint and Bonaduke really needs to refuel to keep going. He tries, but fails to get food because he keeps passing out. Thankfully, the clerk is the same guy from the liquor store and he both recognizes him and gives him first aid. The woman (Zero) wakes up and shows some abilities of her on as she helps them escape from her captors who’ve tracked her down. One thing leads to another—Zero and Bonaduke’s magics don’t mix well (at least until they understand what each other can do?), and they end up in a video-game race against the squatters in a tricked-out version of Eric (the clerk’s) car. Note, I said video-game race, not a video-game-style race. They’re actually in one. When dumped back into reality, he’s surrounded by bruised and broken bodies (of people and cars). And then he gets into a supernatural fight and survives…just.
Or maybe not. But he gets better.
What’s Garden Conversation About?
Um. On the one hand, not much happens. But it’s the way that not much happens that’s the interesting bit. Alan and Om deal with the lock that Bonaduke had flexed his magic on in the last episode. The results are better read than explained.
Then the injured Bonaduke and his two associates climb the apartment building’s stairs to the roof where they encounter, once again, something better read than explained.
Like I said, not much happens.
So, what did I think about Garden Conversation?
That opening quotation speaks for me–both in context and at the end of the episode. Still, we get so much information here about magic and how it works in general (and some more details about Bonaduke in particular), that I am comforted and pleased. I need someone to reciprocate Bonaduke’s opening up and a good follow-up to what Om told us still–but we’re so close to being given enough to grasp the magic system.
We also learn a lot more about the various players.
Sure, I could belly-ache (again)* about how it took 41 episodes to get this. But why? We got it. The explanations we had to assume were forthcoming have started to arrive. Also, the plot inches along a bit–and we get one of the best visuals in the series so far (followed shortly by one of the most disturbing).
* Same goes for the grammar and spelling.
Great closing. Possibly Slaywood’s best yet.
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