Black Friday and it’s time to help the economy. I don’t have the dedication to the task equal to that achieved by those who were sitting in a long traffic line at 10 P.M. last night waiting to get into Toys ’R Us. I have a picture of tomorrow of half the nation jumping around dancing, or playing tennis, in front of their large flat-screen TVs, encouraged by Microsoft and Sony to emerge from the chysalis of couch potato-ship to become butterflies, physically interacting with the LED or plasma flowers that dominate their living space. This post will have to be short – our economy depends on it.
Larry and the Bear cont’d.
10
Blue Falls, August 21
Bill slammed the door as he rushed back into the house,
“That’s it, I’m calling the police. Those bastard’s have spray-painted graffiti on my car.”
Moira’s head dropped forward onto her chest,
“Why can’t they leave us alone? Haven’t we suffered enough? With Larry disappearing, we should have sympathy, not this hate.” She collapsed on the couch quietly sobbing while Bill called Police Chief Kennedy.
The knock on the door came five minutes later and Bill let George Kennedy in.
“Did you see they’ve written ‘Pervet’ on the trunk of my car,” said Bill, trying not to shout in spite of the anger he was feeling.
“Yeah, saw that. They can’t even spell. What else has happened?”
“They threw eggs at the house the night before last,” said Moira through sobs, “and Bill was laid off. Some of the guys threatened to strike if he wasn’t fired.”
“Jeesh, I’m sorry to hear that.” George was fiddling with his hat and searching for something comforting to say. “It’s only a few bad apples out there that’s causing this. Most folks sympathize, you know, but they get scared off by the few crazies. Look Bill, it would probably be better if you went out of town for a bit. Things will quieten down and not get worse. In the meantime, I’ll ask around to see if I can find who painted your car but it’s probably overgrown kids.”
“No news of Larry?” asked Bill.
“No, I’m sorry, nothing yet.”
“Okay George, I’ll go and stay with my Dad for a while. Will you make sure that Moira’s okay here?”
“Don’t you worry Bill, Walt and I will keep an eye on things around here. Moira will be fine and I’ll call you as soon as we know anything.” He smiled at Moira and headed back to the station.
Bill dumped his bag by the front door and as he gathered up their laptop computer, he told Moira
“You’ll be OK with me out of the place. I’ll spend the time with the website. It’s getting lots of traffic with other parents wanting to post details of their missing kids and others wanting to give money.”
“Well at least it's some action,” said Moira, “ the police don’t seem to be doing anything.”
Bill went across and sat with her.
“I had an idea last night. We can really get this web search moving if we turn it into a non-profit site for posting profiles of lost kids. I’ll change the name from ‘Larry’s Home Page’ to ‘Larry’s List’.”
“But isn’t that just going to take the focus away from Larry?”
“We’ll keep a picture of Larry at the top, but we’ll get a lot more people looking at the site and looking out for the missing kids. We’ll get a much bigger readership. As a non-profit, we’ll be able to take donations to pay for it all and, maybe, provide a little income so I can concentrate on looking.”
“Okay Bill, but call every day, won’t you?” and Moira hugged him as hard as she could. Bill could feel her cheek, wet with tears, and he found it hard to let go.
Green Ore, August 22
“Here’s some chicken food for the hens John,” said Suzie as she gave him a plastic bowl. “Go and feed the hens and see if you can find me some eggs.” ‘John’ trotted off on his new favorite occupation and Suzie turned to Kevin
“I didn’t tell you last night as you were tired and it was late, but ..”
“But what? Come on say it.” Kevin wanted to get on and get the weed sorted out so he could get it off the property.
“Well, he said he was missing his Mom.”
“Oh. He seems OK this morning.”
“Yes but it’s probably going to get worse and he told me where he’s from.”
“Oh,” now she had Kevin’s attention, “where?”
“Blue Falls. He must have got into the car when we were up at the weed garden, and been in the back all night.”
“Oh, Jeesh! We’re going to have to get him back up there somehow. But we’ve got to keep away from the police – they’d have us for kidnapping and with all this stuff in the house, we’d never see daylight. I’m going to have to think.” He went over to his loom. That was where he felt most relaxed; as he worked on his designs, he could think.
TBC
So did you stimulate the economy?