The mysterious origins of the Colosseo Letterpress Poster have been protected by the last of the Knights Templar since its first printing a few months ago. Thanks to a defector here is the story as never before seen on the internet. Oh and it involves Cameron Moll Colosseo Martian iPad Giveaway...
The note tucked under my door had said to come to the most rundown corner of town, to a shabby library that looked like its best days had been decades ago. Once I had crossed its threshold I was to proceed to the special collections area and upon engaging the librarian responsible for it in conversation casually mention that “the weather seemed a little arcane lately”. I thought that was an odd line to work into a conversation but…
“Hi” I said to the surpisingly young man who sat at the special collections desk. For some reason I had been expecting an old lady. “How are the special collections today?”
“They are fine”
“Excellent!” I replied. I was really expecting someone a bit more talkative. I decided I might as well just throw the line from the note out there and see what happened. Nothing was going to bring it up naturally and trying to keep this up was like communicating with a martian by signaling with the screen of an iPad. “The weather outside seems a bit arcane today don't you think?”
“This way please” he said and walked out from behind the aging desk.
We walked through the entrance to the special collections section and down a dimly lit hall whose grey green carpet seemed to have been left uncleaned for years. Maybe the special colletion is actually some sort of mold that grows in ancient carpets.
At the end of the hall a dark wood door with no windows barred our way. The librarian reached up and tapped gently on it three times, tracing a pattern I could not make out between each place he knocked. Then leaning close to its rough surface he said, “cameron moll colosseo ipad martian giveaway” and stepped back towards me.
As the door began to move it sounded as if it had never been opened. The screaching of the hinges rough grinding sound of wood sliding along rough concrete made the setting feel even creepier then it already did. I thought seriously about calling this whole thing off and running for the exit as quickly as I could.
Before I could high—tail it out of there the librarian shoved me through the door and I stumbled into a room filled with glass encased manuscripts and lit by the gentle glow of bare incadescent light bulbs hanging from the high dark ceiling. I saw a cloaked figure sitting at a long table in the center of the room. There was an empty chair facing him.
As I pulled the chair into place and seated my self the cloaked figure tossed back its hood revealing an aged pale man. His white hair was nearly the color of his pale skin with only the bright blue of his eyes to give any sign of life and color in his face. He smiled and the white of his face seemed to run into the white of his teeth like water dripping down a mirror.
“Welcome” He said.
“Glad to be here” I responded. I noticed that under the cloak he was wearing a Boston world tour t–shirt. Weird.
“So what can I do for you?” He asked.
“Wait a minute! I was told to come here to learn about the origins of Cameron Moll's Colosseo Letterpress Poster and something about a martian and maybe an iPad giveaway. You contacted me. Or, well… someone did.”
He laughed and once he was done said, “That's right! I did contact you. My name is Shamus (not really his name. He told me I would be hunted down an turned into a punching bag if I mentioned his real name. Besides I've always liked the name Shamus for characters) and I used to be a Knight Templar.”
“Really? A Knight Templar? I find that a little hard to believe since you’re wearing a Boston world tour t–shirt.” I said. This was getting weirder by the minute.
“I like Boston. Besides we, I mean they, aren’t those old knights in armor anymore. That stuff’s heavy and it rusts like crazy. I was on the IT detail. How else do you think I found your address and information so easily?”
Made sense to me. I guess the Knight's Templar had modernized some since the 1500’s.
“I was on assignment in Salt Lake City when I became aquainted with the details of the story.” Shamus said.
“Wait. The Knight’s have a base in Salt Lake?” I asked.
“Yep sure do.” He replied. “So… I was in Salt Lake when I was assigned to escort a martian who was in town for a meeting with some clients.”
“Did you say ‘Martian’?”
“Yes I did.”
“Ooook then.”
“So Cameron had just finished his first poster, of the Salt Lake City Temple, and he was looking for a new subject to tackle” said Shamus. “He had just come back from a trip to Rome when we, the martian and I, met up with him to discuss a project.”
“So… Cameron is doing design work for a Martian?”
“Can’t really tell you the answer to that one. NDA. You understand. Well in the course of the meeting Cameron mentioned his trip and finishing the previous poster. They got to chatting about Rome and favorite gelatto spots when the Martian pulled out his iPad…”
“Wait a minute! The Martian had an iPad? Those just barely came out. That meeting had to take place a year ago, at least.”
“Where do you think Steve Jobs gets his ideas? Ooops. Wasn’t supposed to say that either. Ok so they were looking at some of the video and photos from the trip and discussing the results of the twitter poll when the Martian said ‘You should just do the Colosseo’ and that was that. Cameron agreed and they signed the deal, not for the poster, and I drove the Martian back to the space port…”
“Um. Space port? There is a space port in Salt Lake City, UT?”
“Uh, um. I meant airport. Sorry.”
He sort of winked when he said that last bit which makes me a little uncertain of his actual sanity but hey… he did contact me with this story. Not that the rest of the story hadn't already made me question his sanity…
“So that’s it? That’s the whole story behind the poster? Is that the reason for the fifteen with the Martian on them?
When I looked up from my notes to see his response all I found was an empty room. He was gone. Vanished like the morning mist that rises out of storm drains and I was left with nothign but my notes.
I stumbled out of the room and walked out past the now deserted Special Collections desk to the main library. I kept looking for Shamus or the librarian who had helped my meet him but, they were gone.
Oh yeah. One weird thing did happen to me on my way out. I heard a rustling down one of the aisles of books and when I looked down to the end the lights above it exploded. Through the blinding light and crashing darkness I thought I saw an orange figure, about my height, but rounder and kinda strange, not quite human, lurch around the corner. I think I spent to long on that moldy carpet…