After a 2 month break, I’m back to this. Hopefully, I can pick up the pace and catch back up…
The Ballad of Bonaduke—
Episode 55: Cursed
DETAILS: Series: The Ballad of Bonaduke, #55 Format: Kindle Vella Story Read Date: September 19, 2024
“Out of curiosity, have either of you taken the time to explain what we’re doing?” Om asked the others.
“I’ve been busy.” Zero said
“Same.” Alan added though less convincingly.
“Honestly I’ve gotten used to it.” I said and leaned back in my recliner.
“Well I commend your patience. Ok, first let’s call the circle to order. Then we’ll go over what has happened up to this point.”
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. And then his new…friends? Acquaintances? People who keep popping up in his life?…start explaining exactly what’s going on to him while they set up a new HQ and try to teach him about his abilities (and everyone tries to understand them) while they try to fund their further work. This plan doesn’t go so well, they end up stealing a book that contains (for lack of a better word) a malignant presence (something like a demon or nasty djinn), and things have gone really poorly since then. It’s almost like they’ve been cursed.
What’s Cursed About?
So, it’s been three weeks of everyone licking their wounds from the last episode (good time for me to take a break from the series, too, it turns out). Bonaduke hasn’t had much to do to recover, but the rest have.
At the end of the three weeks, the team—well, circle—meets in order to regroup and move into the next phase. The meeting starts with the above interchange, and then…hold on to your hats, readers. The characters explain things to Bonaduke and the reader! Not in the kind of detail that I’d like—but enough. Then they start looking to the future.
So, what did I think about Cursed?
With that last line of the quotation above, Om is now my favorite character in the series. No contest. Yeah, I’d have a appreciated more details, but after the drought we’ve been in since Bonaduke was taken off the streets by them, this little bit of information was enough.
I can care about the circle, I get an idea about their goals and what they’re trying to avoid. I want to see them succeed for reasons beyond “they’re who we’re spending time with.” Yes, I want more—but I’m greedy that way. I’ll take what we’ve been given.
And it’s tantalizing to think we might be getting a better idea of their goals in the next episode, too.
Beyond that, it was good to see the group take some time to recover. To slow down, and not just bounce from escapade to escapade.
All in all, one of my favorite episodes thus far.
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