Denise Duong and Gabriel Freeman gave me a live tour of their MAINSITE Contemporary Art exhibition, The Left Hand of Liminality, before it opened to the public for the return of the in-person 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk. The show is open to in-person viewing from May 14 through July 9, 2021.
Author: Dennis Page 41 of 175
While driving to visit his parents for Mother’s Day weekend, Junfeng finds himself on an alien planet where he is gifted with a shovel with the power to bury any problem or dig up the solution to any problem.
Junfeng took the blood-stained shovel that the alien thrust into his hands. With his car stuck in a sand dune when he was in a forest a moment ago, he felt denying the shovel from the strange purple person – that was the only living being around in sight – would lead to even more trouble.
“What is this for?” Junfeng said without thinking about the words that came out of his mouth.
“I’m surprised that’s your first question,” the person said in English. “I was expecting, ‘Where am I?’ or ‘Who are you?’ Looks like I picked the right person for the job.”
“What job?”
A tentacle erupted from the sand a few steps in front of them. The top half was purple and looked like an octopus, while the bottom half was brown like a spider’s leg. With a panic scream, Junfeng smacked the tentacle, sending it to retreat to the ground.
“Yeah, sorry, those are a problem on this planet. Oh, my name is Modva. I created this shovel with the power to burry any problem or dig up the solution to your problem. Neat, huh? I still have some bugs to work out, but you can beta test those for me.”
Before Junfeng could ask anything, Modva pushed him, causing him to fall backward through a freestanding door. The door slammed shut and disappeared the second it closed. He stood up, dusted himself off, and gathered his bearings. The last of the sun’s rays were settling behind the trees. A familiar, in the sense that was from Earth, car drove past him.
“Looks like I’m back in Canada,” Junfeng said, reasonably certain he was at the same spot before he wound up on a desert planet. He had only taken his eyes off the road for a second to get a drink of water, and when he looked up, he crashed into a pile of sand. “And I guess my car didn’t make it back with me.”
Junfeng remembered what the person said about the shovel being able to dig up solutions to problems. With nothing to lose, he walked over to a patch of dirt and started digging.
“Maybe I’ll unbury a nice car, like a Tesla or something,” Junfeng mumbled.
After digging a small hole, a light shined through. The ground rumbled. Junfeng stepped back as a brand new Tesla car drove out from the dirt. He walked around, inspecting the silver vehicle to make sure it was real. He looked back at the hole, and it patched itself up. He put the shovel in the backseat and got in the driver’s seat. The car had a full charge and was ready to drive. He checked the glove compartment, and there was even insurance and title paperwork in his name. He buckled up and shifted the car into drive.
“This is going to impress my parents,” he said, bobbing his head.
Junfeng was not particularly excited about his weekend visit to his parents for Mother’s Day. While he loved his family, lately, they’ve been increasingly negative about him being a mentalist. Granted, he was barely making ends meet performing a few corporate party gigs here and there, but he was doing more each year.
I know they just want what’s best for me, he reminded himself. Hopefully, this car will show them I’m doing well, but I’m sure they can find something else to critique, like the lack of a girlfriend.
He glanced at the shovel in the backseat.
“I wonder,” he said.
Junfeng pulled over to the side of the quiet road and started to dig.
“Okay, magic shovel, bring me the perfect girlfriend,” he said, feeling a mix of awkwardness and hopefulness for making such a wish.
He was about a foot deep when a hand burst out from the ground like a zombie movie. Junfeng fell backward as a gorgeous woman with long, blond hair emerged. She appeared to be about the same age and height as him. She was unfazed by the chilly May weather with her flora pattern sundress.
The woman extended her hand out and smiled. “Hello, lover.”
Junfeng took her hand, standing back up. “Hello, there – um, what’s your name?”
The woman thought for a moment. “I don’t have one. I guess you have to choose one for me.”
“Oh, okay,” Junfeng said and thought. “How about Pearl?”
“I love it!” Pearl said, hugging him.
“All right. I think this is going to work. Now, we just need some sort of backstory before we see my parents,” Junfeng said, excited. “I can’t exactly say I dug you up.”
Pearl giggled. “I can’t wait to meet your parents! Where do they live?”
“They’re about an hour north of Vancouver,” Junfeng said. “But we’re almost there. Come inside, and we’ll work on our story.”
“This will be fun,” Pearl said as she got in the passenger seat. She pretended the dashboard was a drum set, drumming her fingers to a beat in her head while Junfeng put the shovel in the back. She stopped when Junfeng got seated. “Okay, so how about this: You saved me by pushing me out of the way from a runaway truck?”
“I think that’s a bit too far-fetched,” Junfeng said. “I was thinking of going with something more grounded like you enjoyed my performance at one of my corporate gigs.”
“I like that,” she said, slapping his leg in excitement. “Let’s say I work in HR too for this company. That’s a good job, right? Of course, it is. Plus, this story allows our story to be more natural and make you look good at being a…”
“A mentalist,” Junfeng finished.
“A mentalist. That’s so awesome, doing what you love. Not many people can say that.”
“I wish my parents would see it that way.”
“Tell me about your parents.”
“Well,” Junfeng started, thinking for a moment on what to share. “My mom, Akina, moved to Vancouver from Japan to be a TV actress. However, she changed careers and became an accountant because she said she wanted something more stable. That’s where slash how she met my dad, Nathan, who owns a movie prop equipment rental company.”
“Do you have any siblings?” Pearl asked as Junfeng pulled into his parents’ driveway of their country home.
“No, it’s just me.”
“Anything else I should know about your family?”
“Not that I can think of, but I’m sure you’ll get to know them over the weekend, and we can always say I didn’t tell you much. I’m sure my parents will be happy to see me with anyone. The bar of expectations for improvements is pretty low at this point.”
“Don’t you worry, Junfeng. I am going to make you look so awesome in your parents’ eyes.”
Junfeng laughed, and his face turned slightly red, thinking, Did I ever tell her my name? Surely I must’ve or shovel magic? He shrugged the thought off, and they both got out of the car.
Junfeng’s father, Nathan, opened the front door to their modern single-story log cabin home.
“You’re late,” Nathan scoffed.
“Sorry,” Pearl immediately apologized. “It was my fault. We had to go back to my place because I forgot some things.”
Nathan’s grumpy demeanor shifted to forgiveness upon seeing Pearl. “Oh, you brought a lady.”
“Yes, this is Pearl.”
“Hello,” Pearl said with a smile and a wave. “It’s nice to meet you!”
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Nathan said as he opened the door, and Pearl stepped inside. He turned to Junfeng. “You got any bags?”
“Right, yes, I’ll go get those. You go inside. I’ll join you in a moment.”
Nathan nodded and closed the door behind while Junfeng jogged back to the car. He grabbed the shovel out from the backseat and opened the car truck so no one could see him dig up two overnight suitcases. Junfeng shook off the dirt, returned the shovel, and closed the doors. He jogged back up to the front door. With one hand holding the suitcases, he opened the door with the other. He dropped everything the moment he saw his family dangling in the air.
Pearl held his parents by their necks. Her arms were now tentacles like the kind he saw on the desert planet.
“Hi, there, lover,” Pearl greeted with a smile.
“What the hell?” Junfeng shouted. “What are you doing?”
“I was just telling your parents how wonderful you are,” Pearl explained, keeping a smile.
“No, not like this!”
“Oh,” Pearl mumbled. She squeezed tighter. “I think my way is working. Don’t worry. I’ll be done with them soon.”
Junfeng looked back and forth between his parents and Pearl before coming up with the idea to run outside and grab the shovel. He flung open the door and yanked the shovel out. His car started to move and transform on its own.
“No, no, no, no, no,” he repeated. He looked at his shovel. “Let’s see if I can bury this problem.”
He rammed the shovel into the dirt and flung it at the car as it took a robotic humanoid form. The soil caused the robot to screech, reminding him of the wicked witch getting wet in Wizard of Oz. He tossed another patch at the robot, weakening it more. Several shovels fulls of dirt later, the robot sank into the ground. As much as he wanted to catch his breath, he knew he had his original problem still.
Junfeng dug up one more shovel full of dirt and raced back inside. He tossed the dirt at Pearl, causing her to drop his parents. Pearl’s arms morphed back to their human form. She hissed at him like a vampire hissing at the sun and leaped at him. He ran outside, and she followed.
Before Junfeng could strike the ground with the shovel, Pearl tackled him, tossing the shovel aside as she pinned him down.
“Why are you trying to stop me?” Pearl demanded with a mix of rage and tears. “I only want what’s best for you.”
“You’re hurting my parents!”
“But they’re hurting you!”
“They’re just worried about me!”
“They’re stifling your dreams.”
“No one is stifling my dreams. The only one who can do that is me.”
Pearl screamed in pain as a pile of dirt hit her back. She fell on top of Junfeng, losing her grip over him. With her weakened, he pushed her off as another pile of dirt landed on her. She cried out as one last shovel full of dirt hit, causing her to sink into the Earth.
Junfeng’s mother, Akina, stood over him with the magical alien gadget in hand. She dropped the shovel, helped her son up, and hugged him. He hugged her back.
“I am so sorry we were so hard on you,” Akina said. “I do not know how, but she showed us one of your performances. You were really, really good.”
“Thank you,” Junfeng said. “Are you okay?”
“I should be asking you that,” Akina said as she let go. She took a moment to admire her son. “Come on. Dinner is ready. I bet you have a story to share.”
Junfeng picked up the shovel. “Hold on. I should bury some suitcases before those come to life too.”
Thank you for reading! This story was inspired by the writing prompt: “You were in your car just a minute ago. Now you’re in the middle of a desert with no sign of life anywhere. Except for that person in a lab coat. They walk up to you and you notice they’re holding a shovel stained with fresh blood. A shiver goes down your spine.”
The person in the lab coat, made me think of my end-timer character, Modva, who I’ve only featured in one story so far. From there, I thought about making this shovel “magical” with the power of burying problems and digging up solutions, with it having issues in vain of the lyre from The Problematic Lyre. I got another story in mind for Modva that I think would be fitting for an October release, so stay tuned for more!
Thank you again to Janine De Guzman at Design Pickle for bringing the opening scene to life! May your Mother’s Day trip remain on Earth.
In this episode of Uncovering Oklahoma, I get a tour of Flora Bodega, a cooperative grocery store in the Paseo Arts District. Then I traveled to Norman to taste some authentic Chinese noodles at Magic Noodle. Next, I visited The BeetBox, a food truck that travels all over the state with a mission to change cattle country one vegan meal at a time. Finally, I saw the new Artful Inlet murals in Downtown Norman from the Norman Arts Council.
Thank you to my supporters on Patreon for their continued support of making Uncovering Oklahoma possible! Supporters get awesome rewards, like early access to my episodes. Big thanks to my superstar supporters: Revolve Productions and the Keller-Kenton Family. Join today!
A profile on Sean Kouplen written for the Oklahoma Venture Forum on the subject of Growing Business in Oklahoma.
For over two years, Sean Kouplen was the Secretary of Commerce and Workforce Development under Governor Kevin Stitt. Under this position, Kouplen was in charge of economic development for Oklahoma, which involved bringing new businesses and helping the existing businesses grow. During his tenure, he brought in 100 new companies.
“We had some really high profile recruitment efforts,” said Sean Kouplen. “You may have seen the Tesla effort. I led that effort and initially recruited them here.”
Although in the end, Tesla went to Austin, Texas, Kouplen learned Oklahoma could compete in the electric vehicle manufacturing world. He began to market to electric vehicle manufacturers and said there are “some big, big, big ones that are looking at this state now.”
While recruitment efforts were one aspect of Kouplen’s job, he learned Oklahoma’s major companies were founded and grew here, and so he began asking, “What programs can we use to help our businesses grow?” One of the projects Kouplen put together was a venture capital advisory council, which includes people like Rick Nagel with Acorn Group and Erica Lucas with Thunder LaunchPad, to name a few. They would put together monthly investment calls, where they would feature companies and have investors calling in.
One of the surprising facts Kouplen learned as Secretary of Commerce and Workforce Development was that Oklahoma could compete with anybody on a global scale in business.
“We are a very low-cost state. We have excellent educational institutions, excellent training,” said Kouplen. “We have excellent incentives for businesses that are either growing or wanting to move into the state. We’ve got a great location, great abundant natural resources, very flat organizational structure. I could get a company that was going to bring a hundred jobs to Oklahoma, in to visit with the governor in a matter of days. And you go to Texas, and they wouldn’t even talk to you if you don’t have a thousand jobs. And so I think that was a tremendous advantage.”
Kouplen believes one of the challenges the state faces in helping businesses is getting the word out about the available resources. He’s worked to centralize all those in one place at okcommerce.gov. The website features both incentive and non-cash programs to help entrepreneurs. Some of the tools for entrepreneurs in Oklahoma Kouplen mentioned include 36 Degrees North, Love’s Innovation Group, Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance, and Thunder LaunchPad.
“I visited with a company in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, in my banking role, and they are expanding, building a big building. And they mentioned having a manufacturing plant in California, where they were very frustrated,” said Kouplen. “I laid out some of the things that the state could do to help them relocate to Oklahoma, and they had no idea. And I think they’re going to move hundreds of jobs here based upon one conversation. So that’s what I’m saying, in my opinion, we have the ingredients. We just have to continue doing a better job of packaging those and getting the word out through avenues like this.”
Sean Kouplen will be the featured keynote speaker for Oklahoma Venture Forum Annual Award Event on Wednesday, May 12th, 2021. Kouplen said he is excited to come to speak to Oklahoma Venture Forum about what he’s learned and what he sees in Oklahoma’s future.
This is the story about the day I thought to put cinnamon rolls into a brownie mix. I shot this video a few months ago as a camera test, but I never bothered to edit and publish it because of self-concious reasons, however, I want to start making for fun videos for my personal channel.