Chapter Seven: OTIS GOES TO HELL / POLUTROPOS

Chapter 7

OTIS GOES TO HELL

 

  Otis held Polutropos close to his heart.  There was a long, aching hiss that came from the direction of Dante's Inferno, the former hot spot of the South Bay Riviera.  Suddenly the mist turned green and without moving a muscle, Otis found himself gliding into the yawning doors of the condemned building.
  Once inside, the room began to spin like a whirlpool and there was the very loud sound of something chunky going down a great drain.  A huge disco ball violently swung round and round the room. Otis had to keep ducking to avoid being hit.  Stobe lights occassionally pierced the green air.  He soon recognized the voices of a fierce high school band called Charybdis singing, "Burn, baby, Burn, Disco Inferno".  When he caught glimpses of them, he knew something was up.  They had all died when their van drove over one of the steep Palos Verdes cliffs more than a quarter of a century ago.

  Otis and Polutropos hit bottom and an unearthly silence enveloped them.  There was an eerie canal where thick green fluid slowly sludged.  On the other side of this revolting river Otis could see many transparent people who did not seem aware of him or each other.  One of the see-through people was a dead ringer for his beloved Penny.
  "Do you see what I see, Polutropos?"  It was a rhetorical question, so Otis was mortified when the puppy grinned ear-to-ear like a Cheshire cat and answered, "Yes."
  Polutropos got the giggles and this really disturbed Otis even further, but he didn't put the puppy down.  He didn't want to have to search for him in this place.
  "Damn Circe!  Hell!  I'm having a flashback!"  Otis moaned.
  Circe had sent him to hell.  The spirit of the Prophet Teiresias appeared to Otis and explained that the reason the others seemed hollow and unaware was because they were mere PRE-IMAGES of people who would soon be arriving in hell but were not dead yet.
  Teiresias went on to say that unless Otis could get home in time to change the flow of events, Penny would be raped after the poetry party that very night and in a moment of insane despair she would take her life.  Otis recognized other PRE-IMAGES flickering on the other side of the eerie canal.  Professor Antonio, Melanie, the Skylla Surfers and the stranger on the beach who had warned Otis about the Skylla were all PRE-IMAGES.
  Otis was eager to leave hell and rescue Penny.  However, Teiresias indicated there was one more matter to attend to.  Although Otis had not eaten of the prize-winning three bean habanero chili that was made from the poached beef of the Helios Cattle Ranch, Polutropos was guilty as hell and must be punished.  Otis was free to go, but Polutropos was not.

- To Be Continued -