The Story of The Infinity Box
The Story of The Infinity Box
The best place to start with The Infinity Box is 1984 and the opening of the Watering Hole Lounge in Silver City, New Mexico. I was the first employee in the door on opening day, followed by Glenna Chilton an hour later. Over at maintenance they had a fellow name Bill Stephens, who like Glenna, was new to the Silver City area, the she only from northern New Mexico up around Taos, while Bill had relocated from down in Alabama, with his brother, Randy.
Away from a day job Bill played bass and sang with a primarily country oriented band called Southern Wind and played bars and clubs. Bill was a very outgoing person, Glenna was too. Now that is a huge step away in the other direction from me, the consumate introvert. Honestly, I had trouble carrying on a conversation with myself, I was so shy. Bill was an easy friend though, and Glenna in her own way was to. It always helps to meet people like that. Bill's brother Randy was pretty easy to befriend too, and Bill's partner at maintenance too, and his name was Jorge Rivas.
Jorge was little bit different i that he loved telling the tall tale and you had to question what he said at times; was he talking reality or fantasy. If you looked in the dictionary under cherub Jorge would be the face in the picture. It was perfect; I had my first job of being i charge, I had some great friends I could work with and socialize with as well, discovered Dungeons &Dragons with Bill and Randy, and horror of horrors, I fell in love with my work partner.
Now you want to thin k, how is falling in love with a pretty girl a nightmare from hell. We were great friends, and we did things together, like taking the keys one night that lock up the bar and the swimming pool and locking the pool with ius inside and the lights out so we could use the jacuzi. On y 33rd birthday she picked me up, took me to meet oir friends at a bar/dance hall, then a restaurant to eat, or maybe we ate first, anyway, Bill had me out with him most of the day, Mexican food for breakfast, with beer, more beer playing pool, then up in gthe mountains and more beer and a bottle of Jack Daniels. By the time I was with Glenna I was gone and sick, sick, sick. She had to take my sick self home another time just like that and put me to bed.
Our first company Christmas party held in the bar its first year open, we sat together like we were gthe only two people in the building. We also spent plenty of time going somewhere to eat, or having it delivered to us at work and we enjoyed expensive taste, like lobster and crab. But there was always that thing where we were very close but we weren't dating and I was very immature and we had problems between us, but I still stood out as the an guardian angel when an elderly pervert started stalking her. We were friends, she went her way, dated men she had a romantic interest and I loved her quietly .
Its funny, when she got married there was a thought that instead of our friend Kathy being maid of honor maybe Glen would pick me. And the day of the wedding there were a few who wondered what I was going to do when the preacher came to the part where he asks if anyone knows any reason why these two should not be married, and I was silent and laughed to myself. She participated in the first ever Miss Grant County Beauty Pagent, and I was there and it turned out hurtful for her, and we were a couple on New Years Eve that first year we were friends, and we had our one and only dance, and then she and her family moved back north and she was gone and the sun went down for me.
Playing Dungeons & Dragons at Bill and Randy's house got to be something that was almost as special. We sat on gthe floor of their living room that first time with our books and character sheets and maps, and he magic dice that made the game, and we learned by taking terms as the dungeon master. It was apparent from the start that they were best as players with their Sherlock Holmes way of thinking, and I exceled at being the dungeon master with my maps and my high powered schemes that elevated player characters to god-like status quickly. Every game night was another thrilling adventure. In no time at all we added two more, Stanley Styles and Todd Cook.
At the Watering Hole the two of them became known as members of the board which was just a collection of drinking buddies that were like players from gthe television show Cheers, and Stanley was always greeted when he dropped in like Norm Peterson. He was always filled with myrth, mischief while Todd was the same but different. Todd, as it turned out was not of the age necessary to be in gthe bar to start with but no one ever noticed or questioned his age and we kept it that way.
As gamers they brought great diversity to the table, and it was a grand table to be sure. It could have easily seated a dozen people. We tried numerous times to get Jorge seated at the table but he always had a story to tell about why he couldn't make it. But by not being there he still established a personality for a character, something that would with time become something important.
When I say personality I probably want to talk persona instead because as players each became stereotypical within the character groups and types.
Bill was a ranger who listed Norse Mythology as a religion. But another class called bard fit because of the connection to music and performance. Randy was a similar character, but as well as ranger he also fit under the category called monk. Stanley, he hated his class because he was a healer and the clas had an alergic reaction to using blade weapons and a mace or warhammer just didn't suit his personality, so he was head strong, rebellious and antagonistic constantly. In his own way he performed like an academy award winning actor. Todd: he played the part of the rogue/thief, dark and mysterious, clever, innovative. We expected George to provide a big, powerful warrior who was less serious and lots of funny, but it was still and always just a wish.
A change i n employment for Bill and similar job for Randy brought Scott Towler to the fellowship. Scott brought a head-strong persona who had his way and thought that was the way to go, and his chosen category for a character class was the paladin. Big armor, huge sword, honor and codes, and we had an unstable, explosive team to play with, and my wizard as a non-player charachter nade it perfect, almost.
We played, I made notes, drew maps, and we played and an island kingdom took shape and all sorts of background characters came into being and then boom, I got the idea to design characters who were modelled after our personalities and trats, tendencies, habits, and with our own names, no more fictitious made up characters, one big adventure.
We played, and we had our best moments and created a storybook place fairy tale that I recorded, put into words and then attempted to publish, but without luck. It had battles, magic, solid back story, credible characters. a very small hint of romance, but it wasn't enough.
There were basically three rewrites of the story, one to take it from first person to third so it was easier to tell, then two rewrites to make it tell the right story with a sense of charm readers would want to wrap their arms around and hug till sunrise. Putting Glenna in the story was an idea, kind of like flying an airplane into an enemy ship. I decided that what I needs to move the story to the right ending was for the pretty girl and the not so dateable non-player wizard character to be romantically involved in a story with REAL Characters who were never romantically involved and and not a compatible mix.
I named my solution Elizabeth and Harley and made them a make believe version of reality. Does that make sense? I got my real people with romantic feelings but pretended that it wasn't them at all so it could be them if you wanted to see it that way. No hits, no runs and certainly no one was fouled. What I felt like I came away with afer all of the rewrites the story felt like a bed time story set in a fair tale world with a prince and princess and he evil villain trying to wreck pumpkin coaches on a much grander scale with real characters who suffered and grew as people.
Why was it necessary to have the story and make it a Wizard of Oz/Cinderella tale with a sense of charm rather than lean on an apocalyptic nightmare and characters who don't survive. How about over thirty years of watching people fade away beyond memories into nothingness.
We took on three more players, big Cole Conner who was thief/rogue, Jon Theil, another ranger, and Stanley's cousin Jim who wanted to be a wizard. But with the new guys came the end of Bill and Randy who went home to Alabama, and then slowly there were none at all, all scattered around the coutry and what is the sense of that? Why alow something that was a treasure to be lost like that. Ah, but there is the Internet now and it is possible to find anyone if you try hard enough.
Bill and Randy are still in Alabama, and hanks to Facebook we are connected again, Stanley and Todd to. And I know where Scott is, not Jorge, and Glenna's brother John who I wrote into the fairy tale as a barbarian and was happy about it. Todd lives in Vegas, Stan in New Mexico, Scott in Texas and John in Arizona, and Jorge is in New Mexico but going low profile. Here I am, right here in Nebraska with my little corn field garden and one missing, one heart that hurts.
I discovered that Glenna had a difficult life, legal troubles, battles with drug and alcohol, an apparent failure of her marriage, domestic violence and a threat of death by someone she dated, and there is every possibility that she is no longer alive. Holding on to one another does not promise a happy ending, but it does promise a shoulder to lean on, one to cry on, and sometimes a champion to stand between good and bad.
We are again the fellowship, we have our story in print, and maybe there is a sequel. I still have a need to know, is she out there? I learned from writing the Infinity Box and you know what, my heart never lets go and I discovered from the writing that after all these years, I still care as much for her now as ever, and I will always have that one last adventure waiting for my mates to saddle up.
The best place to start with The Infinity Box is 1984 and the opening of the Watering Hole Lounge in Silver City, New Mexico. I was the first employee in the door on opening day, followed by Glenna Chilton an hour later. Over at maintenance they had a fellow name Bill Stephens, who like Glenna, was new to the Silver City area, the she only from northern New Mexico up around Taos, while Bill had relocated from down in Alabama, with his brother, Randy.
Away from a day job Bill played bass and sang with a primarily country oriented band called Southern Wind and played bars and clubs. Bill was a very outgoing person, Glenna was too. Now that is a huge step away in the other direction from me, the consumate introvert. Honestly, I had trouble carrying on a conversation with myself, I was so shy. Bill was an easy friend though, and Glenna in her own way was to. It always helps to meet people like that. Bill's brother Randy was pretty easy to befriend too, and Bill's partner at maintenance too, and his name was Jorge Rivas.
Jorge was little bit different i that he loved telling the tall tale and you had to question what he said at times; was he talking reality or fantasy. If you looked in the dictionary under cherub Jorge would be the face in the picture. It was perfect; I had my first job of being i charge, I had some great friends I could work with and socialize with as well, discovered Dungeons &Dragons with Bill and Randy, and horror of horrors, I fell in love with my work partner.
Now you want to thin k, how is falling in love with a pretty girl a nightmare from hell. We were great friends, and we did things together, like taking the keys one night that lock up the bar and the swimming pool and locking the pool with ius inside and the lights out so we could use the jacuzi. On y 33rd birthday she picked me up, took me to meet oir friends at a bar/dance hall, then a restaurant to eat, or maybe we ate first, anyway, Bill had me out with him most of the day, Mexican food for breakfast, with beer, more beer playing pool, then up in gthe mountains and more beer and a bottle of Jack Daniels. By the time I was with Glenna I was gone and sick, sick, sick. She had to take my sick self home another time just like that and put me to bed.
Our first company Christmas party held in the bar its first year open, we sat together like we were gthe only two people in the building. We also spent plenty of time going somewhere to eat, or having it delivered to us at work and we enjoyed expensive taste, like lobster and crab. But there was always that thing where we were very close but we weren't dating and I was very immature and we had problems between us, but I still stood out as the an guardian angel when an elderly pervert started stalking her. We were friends, she went her way, dated men she had a romantic interest and I loved her quietly .
Its funny, when she got married there was a thought that instead of our friend Kathy being maid of honor maybe Glen would pick me. And the day of the wedding there were a few who wondered what I was going to do when the preacher came to the part where he asks if anyone knows any reason why these two should not be married, and I was silent and laughed to myself. She participated in the first ever Miss Grant County Beauty Pagent, and I was there and it turned out hurtful for her, and we were a couple on New Years Eve that first year we were friends, and we had our one and only dance, and then she and her family moved back north and she was gone and the sun went down for me.
Playing Dungeons & Dragons at Bill and Randy's house got to be something that was almost as special. We sat on gthe floor of their living room that first time with our books and character sheets and maps, and he magic dice that made the game, and we learned by taking terms as the dungeon master. It was apparent from the start that they were best as players with their Sherlock Holmes way of thinking, and I exceled at being the dungeon master with my maps and my high powered schemes that elevated player characters to god-like status quickly. Every game night was another thrilling adventure. In no time at all we added two more, Stanley Styles and Todd Cook.
At the Watering Hole the two of them became known as members of the board which was just a collection of drinking buddies that were like players from gthe television show Cheers, and Stanley was always greeted when he dropped in like Norm Peterson. He was always filled with myrth, mischief while Todd was the same but different. Todd, as it turned out was not of the age necessary to be in gthe bar to start with but no one ever noticed or questioned his age and we kept it that way.
As gamers they brought great diversity to the table, and it was a grand table to be sure. It could have easily seated a dozen people. We tried numerous times to get Jorge seated at the table but he always had a story to tell about why he couldn't make it. But by not being there he still established a personality for a character, something that would with time become something important.
When I say personality I probably want to talk persona instead because as players each became stereotypical within the character groups and types.
Bill was a ranger who listed Norse Mythology as a religion. But another class called bard fit because of the connection to music and performance. Randy was a similar character, but as well as ranger he also fit under the category called monk. Stanley, he hated his class because he was a healer and the clas had an alergic reaction to using blade weapons and a mace or warhammer just didn't suit his personality, so he was head strong, rebellious and antagonistic constantly. In his own way he performed like an academy award winning actor. Todd: he played the part of the rogue/thief, dark and mysterious, clever, innovative. We expected George to provide a big, powerful warrior who was less serious and lots of funny, but it was still and always just a wish.
A change i n employment for Bill and similar job for Randy brought Scott Towler to the fellowship. Scott brought a head-strong persona who had his way and thought that was the way to go, and his chosen category for a character class was the paladin. Big armor, huge sword, honor and codes, and we had an unstable, explosive team to play with, and my wizard as a non-player charachter nade it perfect, almost.
We played, I made notes, drew maps, and we played and an island kingdom took shape and all sorts of background characters came into being and then boom, I got the idea to design characters who were modelled after our personalities and trats, tendencies, habits, and with our own names, no more fictitious made up characters, one big adventure.
We played, and we had our best moments and created a storybook place fairy tale that I recorded, put into words and then attempted to publish, but without luck. It had battles, magic, solid back story, credible characters. a very small hint of romance, but it wasn't enough.
There were basically three rewrites of the story, one to take it from first person to third so it was easier to tell, then two rewrites to make it tell the right story with a sense of charm readers would want to wrap their arms around and hug till sunrise. Putting Glenna in the story was an idea, kind of like flying an airplane into an enemy ship. I decided that what I needs to move the story to the right ending was for the pretty girl and the not so dateable non-player wizard character to be romantically involved in a story with REAL Characters who were never romantically involved and and not a compatible mix.
I named my solution Elizabeth and Harley and made them a make believe version of reality. Does that make sense? I got my real people with romantic feelings but pretended that it wasn't them at all so it could be them if you wanted to see it that way. No hits, no runs and certainly no one was fouled. What I felt like I came away with afer all of the rewrites the story felt like a bed time story set in a fair tale world with a prince and princess and he evil villain trying to wreck pumpkin coaches on a much grander scale with real characters who suffered and grew as people.
Why was it necessary to have the story and make it a Wizard of Oz/Cinderella tale with a sense of charm rather than lean on an apocalyptic nightmare and characters who don't survive. How about over thirty years of watching people fade away beyond memories into nothingness.
We took on three more players, big Cole Conner who was thief/rogue, Jon Theil, another ranger, and Stanley's cousin Jim who wanted to be a wizard. But with the new guys came the end of Bill and Randy who went home to Alabama, and then slowly there were none at all, all scattered around the coutry and what is the sense of that? Why alow something that was a treasure to be lost like that. Ah, but there is the Internet now and it is possible to find anyone if you try hard enough.
Bill and Randy are still in Alabama, and hanks to Facebook we are connected again, Stanley and Todd to. And I know where Scott is, not Jorge, and Glenna's brother John who I wrote into the fairy tale as a barbarian and was happy about it. Todd lives in Vegas, Stan in New Mexico, Scott in Texas and John in Arizona, and Jorge is in New Mexico but going low profile. Here I am, right here in Nebraska with my little corn field garden and one missing, one heart that hurts.
I discovered that Glenna had a difficult life, legal troubles, battles with drug and alcohol, an apparent failure of her marriage, domestic violence and a threat of death by someone she dated, and there is every possibility that she is no longer alive. Holding on to one another does not promise a happy ending, but it does promise a shoulder to lean on, one to cry on, and sometimes a champion to stand between good and bad.
We are again the fellowship, we have our story in print, and maybe there is a sequel. I still have a need to know, is she out there? I learned from writing the Infinity Box and you know what, my heart never lets go and I discovered from the writing that after all these years, I still care as much for her now as ever, and I will always have that one last adventure waiting for my mates to saddle up.