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+---- Thread: *Chapter 45: The Truth is Out There (/showthread.php?tid=51696)
*Chapter 45: The Truth is Out There - lock180 - 06-17-2024
The Book of Zen
Chapter 45: The Truth is Out There
The following events you are about to read happened from the perspective of Zenzeroni’s roommate Linguine Zamboni. Viewer discretion is advised.
Linguine was thrilled to learn about who his roommate was going to be. Having worked his way to culinary school his whole life to be able to bounce his ideas off someone else who shared his love for the culinary arts instead of talking to the stone faced expressions of everyone else in his life was going to be epic! It only got more epic when he learned that Zenzeroni Xystarch II was going to be his roommate. Could it really be the former baseball champion’s son? How lucky could he be? But he had to make sure not to show too much emotion. But he also didn’t want to look like he didn’t care at all. Hmmm, finding a middle ground would be hard.
To distract himself Linguine began hanging some of his pictures and memorabilia on the wall and he had just gotten to his high school diploma when there was a knock on the door “Excuse me?” Zenzeroni says wandering in and looking confused.
“OMG, I have been waiting FOR-EVER for you to get here you must be Zenzeroni!” Midway through the sentence Linguine realizes he is coming on way too strong and tries to play it off toward the end of the sentence but instead just sounds very strange. The rest of the day goes by fairly quickly and Linguine realizes that Zenzeroni has no idea what is going on. He also notices something else strange with Zenzeroni. Well, maybe not Zenzeroni himself, but things happening around him. The first thing Linguine noticed was Zenzeroni’s fainting problem. After losing in the tomato fight Zenzeroni had passed out and was brought to Doctor Fettucini Mozarella. The only problem was, that was not the doctor that worked at this school. Having taken a tour of the campus prior to moving in, Linguine knew the doctor was actually Doctor Kale. Linguine hadn’t thought much about the change in doctors assuming Doctor Mozarella to have replaced Doctor Kale. But Zenzeoni would strangely pass out multiple times throughout the semester and the doctor never seemed to really do anything to actually fix Zenzeroni. The second strange occurrence was Zenzeroni’s immunity to punishment and emphasis on reward. It seemed no matter how badly Zenzeroni struggled in classes he still received fairly good grades. Of course, Linguine wanted to see his roommate succeed, but this went beyond being the teacher’s pet which Zenzeroni was most certainly not. This is what made it all the more strange. The head chefs all seemed to hate Zenzeroni and yet Zenzeroni was receiving near perfect grades… but why? Finally was the entire football team. George creating the secret serum was just one problem in the grand scheme of the team. Why and how was Zenzeroni chosen?
However, Linguine’s questions only grew as the biggest question would come to the forefront; who was the man in the cowboy hat? Linguine first noticed him at one of the football games where he saw him on the sidelines but not really close to any of the players. He would walk up and down the sideline as if stalking his prey and if someone noticed him he would begin to walk away before turning back around and doing it all over again. Then Linguine saw him again in the hallways on campus. He tried blending in but to Linguine he was painfully obvious. At the time Linguine hadn’t thought much about it but all of a sudden he began connecting the dots. This was no student and there was a common theme about this cowboys where abouts. Everywhere he was, Zenzeroni was too.
Linguine became worried for his new friend and roommate and started following Zenzeroni which is when he saw another troubling factor in Zenzeroni. Zenzeroni had gone to the hot tub prior to the championship game and as Zenzeroni followed him he watched as while Zenzeroni was in the hot tub all alone he started talking as if he was having a conversation with someone. The only problem was there was no one else in the hot tub with him.
With the doctor, weird behavior from Zenzeroni, and the cowboy Linguine began to think he should call the police to get involved but before he did he wanted to get a better visualization of this cowboy figure so, Linguine began disregarding his classes to track down this mysterious cowboy figure and he finally does as the cowboy is digging through Zenzeroni’s things when Linguine arrives in his dorm room. Surprised the cowboy jumps out the window from six stories up but when Linguine looks outside and down below there is no evidence the cowboy had landed. Befuddled, Linguine goes about his day like normal until going to his lab to work on a new dish he had been tweaking for the past year. As he washes his hands and gets ready to start the lights go out and when they turn back on it isn’t the cowboy that stands in front of him nor is it the doctor however it is a man that Linguine recognizes in seconds “George?!”
“In the flesh.”
“I thought you were arrested weeks ago for the performance enhancing drugs. You should be in prison for life right now!"
“Well I have connections in high places and you are getting too close to the truth so I’m afraid your little detective mission and time here at Spaghetti School is coming to an end.”
“What? What do you mean? Who do you know? Who are you working with? How did they get you out of prison and what do you want with Zenzeroni?"
“Look, here’s the deal. If you would have just been a normal roommate we wouldn’t have to be meeting like this but here we are. You are getting in the way of what we are trying to accomplish here and it is ruining everything.”
“I don’t understand. What are you talking about.”
“You are far too close to the truth than we are comfortable with. We have an operation to run and you are jeopardizing the very foundation of it. I can’t have you running around watching Zenzeroni 24/7. I can’t have you questioning the people I am working with to put certain— plans in place. So…maybe things could have been different in another life but this is the way the cookie crumbles.”
“What are you doing to him! Who is the doctor? Why does he keep passing out? Who is he talking to? Who is the cowboy! The football team the school WHAT IS HAPPENING?!”
George smiles and gives Linguine one last wink before the lights go out…forever.