Slip Slidin' Away

I'm still in Memphis. Visited Graceland again. Nothing. Went to see Elvis's grave. Nothing. I don't know what to do. Do I buy a plane ticket to Hawaii on the chance that the next clue is there? I don't have much of the Jester's money left - I've spent it on gas and motel rooms and food. Perhaps a thousand is still left. Enough for a plane ticket. One ticket.

Have you ever read Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead? I had to read it in high school. Didn't understand it back then, but then a few years ago I caught the movie on television and watched it all the way through entranced. They were trapped, stuck in the play, unable to escape their own demise, even though they knew it was coming. And every time a scene from Hamlet came up, they said their lines and played their parts and then went back to being lost, unable to be free.

I've been feeling like that lately. I'm stuck in this game, unable to move forward until the code is solved, unable to avoid whatever is coming, even though I know something is coming. I can feel it. The Jester has to be up to something. I haven't seen the Misfits since that incident at Starbucks - it seems like forever ago. Why? Why send me a fake finger and then cut off the real one? Why send me on this wild goose chase in the first place? I don't know. I'm just an actor in a play.

Speaking of which, there was a note under the door of my motel room. I'm sure it will lead to something which will lead to something else:


KIDOSEA RVJ DBHSCX

is

The Gift Shop of Oz

The OZ Museum was...disappointing. Sure, there was lots of Oz memorabilia, but it all seemed fake. Like Las Vegas fake. I paid $7 to get in and wandered around the museum until it closed at 5 P.M. I couldn't find anything. Finally, I went to their gift shop and looked around there. The gift shop was manned by a painfully cheery-looking woman whose name-tag declared her as "Gladys." I bought a pair of sunglasses just so I wouldn't look out of place. "Gladys" bagged them and told me to have a great day.

On my way out, I looked in the bag and saw that not only was there the sunglasses, but there was also a USB drive. I looked back to see "Gladys" cheerfully wave at me.

On the USB drive, there was only one video file:




There's only one problem with the video: I can't see a clue anywhere.

Fuck.

I Still Need to Know...

...where to go.

Where am I going? What am I doing? Following a trail of breadcrumbs left by a sociopath is like something out of a comic book. I feel like going "Holy smokes, Batman! The explosion happened at sea - a C! For Catwoman! Catwoman must be behind this!"

I'm well rested now, but I've got nowhere to go. I keep looking through Karen's diary. Looking at that stupid coded message for me. Is this whole thing a fake? Why go to all that trouble? Why do this at all?

I want to throw this book back into the lake. I want to forget about the Jester and the Misfits and the Man in the Seersucker Suit and the Wooden Girl. But I can't. Because Derek is alive somewhere and I'm going to find him.

Now where should I go next?