Bonus Day!


What a bonus morning. Lots of blue sky with the sun shining through and the air barely moving the seed heads of the tall dried grass stems make me feel overdressed; no need for a waterproof, padded jacket on a morning like this. On the way to the coffee shop, I pass the still closed stores recuperating from yesterday’s onslaught guarded by litterbins, spilling over in silent testimony to the crowds that have passed.

A news item from the BBC caught my attention this morning. It focused on our fellow traveller, Cimex Lectularius, who is with us more often than we would wish. This is the common bedbug that has been hitching rides with us from metropolis to metropolis around the world during the last decade. We, like later-day James Bond characters, need to diligently check our hotel rooms and places of work for bugs and not be satisfied until our sweep comes up clean.

Apparently the UN building in New York is heavily ‘bugged’ and the suspicion was that the BBC Studio there was included in the ‘bugging’ although apparently no one had actually uncovered one. These days of hi-tech haven’t produced a foolproof detection system; the preferred method of detection is the dog’s nose. They will bark once if they sniff out a bug, and bark a lot if there are lots of bugs. (There is no truth in the rumor that the local dog-walking park had to be fumigated or that the walkers are barking mad.) Sometimes it is hard to sleep when there are such attention grabbing broadcasts to listen to.

Ref: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9232951.stm 



Larry and the Bear cont’d.

11
Green Ore, August 23

         By mid-day, Kevin and Suzie had the buds of their cannabis plants trimmed of their leaves and ready for drying.
         “This looks like a good crop,” said Suzie holding up one of the budded stems, “more than half of the resin glands are a nice amber.”
        “Yeah, it was a good season. I’ll get these out to our customers so they can dry them and use them when they want. I’ll be back before 3. Can you get all these leaves and stems into the compost heap and stirred in, they’ll rot faster that way.”
          Suzie nodded, “No problem, I’ll get John to help. It’s best to keep him busy. He mentioned his mom again this morning.”
       “Yeah well we’ll try and get him back up there this afternoon. Look I’d better get going before it starts to rain.” Kevin grabbed one of the cardboard boxes holding Ziploc bags containing buds and labeled with the names of the customer while Suzie carried the another out to their car.

          He was back by 2:30. It had been raining for about an hour and there was no sign of it letting up.
        “Okay you two, let’s go for a drive.” Kevin was keen to get them moving. Suzie got ‘John” into his coat, and he grabbed Snuggie while Suzie grabbed his monkey-pack.

        Suzie got into the rear seat with ‘John’ and got him strapped in on top of a couple of cushions. The car was warm and moist. With the rain on the outside and the windows misting up, the visibility was poor and ‘John’ was off to sleep before they had gone ten miles, lulled by the warm air and the steady drone of the road noise.
       “What are we going to do when we get there?” Suzie was nervous now, things could go wrong if they hadn’t thought it through.
       “I’m not sure,” said Kevin. Nothing had come to him except that they needed to get ‘John’ off their hands. The uncertainty, combined with his struggle with the inadequate demister, was making him tense. “Perhaps we can…” and he tailed off. “Let’s see when we get there.”
        “Okay. Looks like he’ll sleep all the way. It’s about an hour from here isn’t it?”
       “Yeah won’t be long.”

        They approached the first set of lights in Blue Falls and stopped with a jolt as color changed to amber. ‘John’ woke as he lurched forward against the seat belt nearly losing Snuggie. Suzie lent across and wiped the condensation off his window. The rain had stopped and the windscreen was clear.
      “We’re in Blue Falls ‘John’,” said Suzie “tell us when you see where you live.”
Kevin drove slowly around, going up some of the side streets and round the blocks.
      “There,” shouted ‘John’, “that’s Mom’s car.” He was pointing across the road at a blue car parked in a driveway with the trunk open.
Kevin took a right and went round the block and stopped at the curb where he’d turned into ‘John’s’ street. The road was deserted. The front door of the house was open; it looked as though some one was in the process of emptying the trunk of the car in the driveway.
      “That your house ‘John’?” asked Kevin.
      “Yes” he replied.
Suzie undid his seatbelt, helped him get his monkey pack on and opened the door.
       “Go and see your Mom, we’ll wait here,” she said as he got out.
‘John’ ran across the road, and as he got to the driveway, Moira came out to collect the last bag of groceries from her car.
       “Mom, Mom,” he shouted,
       “Larry!” she shouted and rushed to pick him up. Hugging him to her, she rushed indoors. Kevin reversed the Toyota into the side street, turned and took off.
       “He’ll be alright know,” he said as he pulled up a few streets away to let Suzie get into the front seat for their journey home. “We needed to find a new plantation site closer to home anyway, so we won’t need to visit here for a while.”
       “Yeah, but won’t he tell them about where he’s been?” Suzie thought Kevin could be too laid back sometimes.
       “Ahh no! We never took him into town, and he was asleep for the trip back, he won’t remember.”

Blue Falls, August 24

        “Well,” said George turning to Bill and Moira, “it’s great that he’s back and unharmed, but we’re not getting anything we can work on from Larry here. I was hoping that he might have come up with something after he’d had a night at home, but nothing doing. All he remembers is a river and feeding the chickens. He seems to be very keen on chickens, perhaps you’ll have to get some.”

          “We’re just thankful that we got him back safe. We’ll let you know if he tells us anything new. Thanks for your help,” and Bill led his family out to the car and set off.

           “Where are we going Bill? This isn’t the way home.” Moira had expected a left turn at the last junction. 
          “Just got a collection to make,” said Bill and he grinned but wasn’t going to say anymore and drove on in silence. Moira sat quiet with her thoughts of relief at things working out well; now she could imagine a future.
Bill turned into a driveway and parked,
          “I’ll just be a minute,” and he was off up the drive.
Moira turned to Larry in his car seat and asked
           “You okay back there, not thirsty?”
Larry shook his head and carried on playing an acrobat game with Snuggie turning somersaults, while he held his paws.

Bill opened the far side passenger door with
           “Get on in girl” and a young black lab got up on the seat beside Larry and tried to lick his face. “A new friend for you and Snuggie bear, her name is… well I guess you can find a name, can’t you?”
Larry had no doubt as he wrapped his arms round her neck, “I’m going to call her ‘Suzie’.” And Suzie it was. She became his main playmate. Snuggie went into retirement on the shelf, just sitting and looking across at Larry’s bed.

                                            


Green Ore, December

            Kevin and Suzie settled back into their old routine. All the old books had gone back into their box. They both missed ‘John’ but not enough yet to think about a permanent solution of their own. They were happy to have had ‘John’ just visit for a while.
They wouldn’t be back to Blue Falls for a long time; there was no need now. A suitable site for a plantation had been scouted for next year. It was much closer to home and they had already done some brush clearing before it got to be cold enough to leave footprints in the frost or snow.
                                   
                                                   

JG

Black Friday


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

Thanksgiving


Thanksgiving started with a sunny morning with everything quiet. Turkeys everywhere keeping the morning activities focused and households off the streets. All working hard preparing ‘the trimmings’ to go with their bird. Let us hope that those trying to deep-fry their bird will make it through without calling out the fire engines. Our local station has sent its engine out for a warm up run early today.

At noon the mystical dog walking hour has arrived. A myriad of energetic, purposeful dogs being walked by partners, spouses or relatives, that is anyone but the people seen pounding the sidewalks the rest of the year. I meet one plump Jack Russell being constantly dragged away from fascinating smelly spots by his walker who is plodding along, looking resigned to doing his duty whilst his charge is getting no chance to do his. The plump little dog is well wrapped up in a thick knitted coat, which has inch wide red and black bands encircling him and emphasizing his pampered life style. I’m thankful that it’s not raining; otherwise the coat might shrink and become a foundation garment that would turn him into a svelte little impostor.


Larry and the Bear cont’d.
9
Green Ore, August 21

       'John’ was settling into the rhythm of Kevin and Suzie’s routine. He loved playing in and out of the trees and bushes with Snuggie and taking him down to the river. He would often just sit on the bank and toss sticks into the water and then pretend they were boats as they got tossed about in the wavelets and eddies of the fast flowing water. Although Suzie had bought some other toys, Snuggie was his anchor, who was treated to long stories when no one else was around.

        Kevin stacked the washed dishes in the rack and turned to Suzie, who was sitting on the floor and pulling old books out of a box
       “I’d better go and harvest our crop this evening. It’s only a hundred plants; I can manage on my own. That way you can stay here with John.”
        “Are sure you can manage?”
       “Yeah, no problem. If I leave at six, I’ll be up there when it’s still light and I’ll only need to hike in and out once. I should be back before midnight.”
That’ll be great,” Suzie smiled at Kevin. She was pleased to get the weed growing over with and get it distributed to their medical-use customers. Until it was in, there was always a chance that their small plantation would be found and destroyed. The money was nice but she felt good about helping people feel better.

          Kevin called ‘John’ over as he went to his loom
       “Hey John, com’n let’s get started, you’ve got a few more rows to finish.” He sat at the loom and waited as ‘John’ came running. With ‘John’ settled on his knees, he said
      “What’s it going to be next? The green or the brown wool? Don’t forget we’ve got that twig that you collected to start weaving in.”
          “L’orange, please.” ‘John’ knew exactly what he wanted.
        “Oh yeah, you’ve got a great eye for color,” Kevin said as he reached for the shuttle with the coarse orange wool.

Half an hour later and Kevin’s foot had gone to sleep. He needed to stand up and stretch to get the circulation back. ‘John’ went over to sit with Suzie who was still sorting through books.
         “All my brothers read these when they were your age,” she said pointing to the small pile of worn thin books with broke spines and dog-eared pages. She picked the pile up and took ‘John’ over to the couch and they started to go through them together. When they had got through the first two, Suzie saw that ‘John’ was only at the very earliest stage of learning to read. Their next two hours were spent on starting to teach him just as she had taught her youngest two brothers several years ago.

They broke off for an early evening meal. Kevin and ‘John’ left Suzie to the washing up while they went outside; Kevin to check that he had everything he needed for this evening’s harvest and ‘John’ to feed the left over scraps to the hens. He loved feeding the hens. It took less than a minute for the scraps to vanish and he trotted back to Suzie with the dish. Drying her hands, she asked
          “Would you like to try some more reading?”
          “Yes please, can we try the one with the monster things in please?”
        “Okay, monsters it is,” and they went back to the couch. Kevin stuck his head through the door and called
           “See you soon, ‘Bye Suzie, ‘bye ‘John’” and he was gone.
           “Where’ Kevin going?” ‘John’ asked,
         “He’s gone to get some herbal medicine for some of our friends who can’t grow it for themselves.”
          “Wish I could see my friends.” ‘John’ looked up from the book and straight into Suzie’s eyes. She saw him blink a couple of times and his eyes looked watery, and then he looked down at the floor and mumbled
            “I miss my Mom.”
Suzie gave him a big hug and kissed his cheek, which now tasted salty as his tears wet her lips.
         “We’ll try and find her for you,” said Suzie, “but you’ll have to help us. Tell us where you lived.”
         “Blue Falls.”
Suzie went quiet as the thoughts raced around her mind. He must have got in the car when we checked the weed patch. God he must’ve been in the car all that night. How’re we going to get him back? How’re we going to keep the police out of it? She lifted him onto her lap and held him close, rocking backwards and forwards.

       ‘John’s’ attention switched to a large book on the floor with a dinosaur picture on the cover. He wriggled free and picked it up. Bringing it back to Suzie, he asked
         “Can we read this one?”
       “Of course, jump up and I’ll read it to you. After that it’ll be bedtime and I’ll read you a story when you’re in bed.” Suzie concentrated on the task in hand and pushed the looming disaster away until Kevin got back.
           TBC

Morning Chill


This morning no longer qualifies as fresh but is cold with an unremitting grey sky. Not a uniform grey but patchy, like an old carpet that has borne the burden of boots, kids and dogs over many years. The still air causes no ripples on the almost deserted ponds. Just a cormorant acting as sentry on each log. But as I round a corner, a flurry of ducks and geese rush out from the reeds to open water.

Then, in a far corner, I spot three pairs of Buffleheads. The males white with black backs and wearing a large crest to show who’s boss, although the drab females probably know differently. A birder has stopped his big silver SUV in the middle of the road to watch with a pair of binoculars sticking out his window that looks like they've been recovered from the bridge of a WWII battle cruiser. Big car, big binoculars, I shrug and I walk on. In a quiet corner of the ponds I notice ice around the reeds. The water level must have dropped an inch or so as some of the small isolated clumps are wearing spiky tutus of ice above slender stems, whilst other larger clumps are garbed in more decorous skirts which fall down to touch the water and hide any sight of their stems from prying eyes.

Passing the ‘time-out’ corner of the car sales lot and I see that the unworthy van has been joined by a sister bearing her own ‘Rent Me’ sign. I am left to speculate if their rather overblown charms have failed to attract the attention of passing gentlemen. Will their fate be to end up on a run down lot amongst the industrial sites in town where their customers may abuse them at will?


Larry and the Bear cont’d.

8
Blue Falls, August 3

          Moira was on the couch with a box of tissues. The crying jags kept coming. The telephone was no longer her friend. At first she’d rushed to answer it expecting, longing for good news. Now, she couldn’t bear to answer it. The phone rang for the third time that morning and Bill picked it up. Quickly, he slammed the receiver down. The third crank call.
         “How can they make up such stuff,” he said, “I’d never, never hurt my son. These people used to be our friends.”
         “It’s not all our friends,” said Moira in between sobs, “It’s just one or two hurtful people,” and she reached for another tissue and blew her nose. 
         Bill knew better. He’d taken unpaid leave from his job after he had overheard some of the guys gossiping about him. His boss had sympathetic and told him to take the time that he needed. But Bill knew that would run out pretty soon; at some point they’d have to find someone else to do his job.
        The pressure on Moira was high too. The sympathy that she got when she went to a store always seemed tinged with suspicion. It was difficult for her to decide if she was just imagining it or not and she even found the suspicions creeping into her thoughts.
Bill stopped pacing and sat down beside his wife. He put his arm around her shoulders, squeezed gently and said
        “We have the second radio appeal filming this evening and I’ve been thinking that we’re going to have to some more impact.”
        “How can we do that? It’s only a small station and TV haven’t been round.”
        “I know, I know,” and Bill gave her another hug, “I’m going to set up a website and announce the address tonight. It won’t be fancy and we can use the facility that comes with our internet service. I’m going to call it ‘Larry’s Home Page’ and put up picture of him. People can contact us direct then.”
        “We’ll just get more cranks like the phone calls,” and Moira started to cry harder.
        “Maybe, but its easy to delete that sort of rubbish. More important we can reach further. The police don’t seem to be trying, they just seem to be waiting for somebody to walk through their door and hand over Larry.”
        “But what if he’s dead, what if he’s been abused, I….I don’t even want to think about it.”
        “He’s not dead,” Bill tried to sound confident, “we’d have heard by now. We have to keep the faith – we will get him back.”

        Bill went off to their computer to struggle with the ‘easy’ software, and after an hour and a half, he had the first part of ‘Larry’s Home Page’ done. At the end of the afternoon, the site was up and consisted of just two pages with lots of their cute family photos, a big appeal for help and their e-mail contact information. He kept the phone number off in case the number of crank calls escalated. He was ready now for his local radio station interview. Too bad the station range was only fifty miles. Green Ore was seventy-five miles to the south.
TBC

Snow





The first snow of the year. Huge wet flakes gathering on the grass, trees and my coat. No wind, just parts of the sky drifting down, covering the land to make black and white pictures out of scenes that were in full color  yesterday. A half-inch snowflake drifts down slowly onto my hand and sits there in its hexagonal perfection. By the time my camera is ready and pointed, only a drop remains where perfection sat. Like one of life’s moments to be enjoyed now before we pass on to the next.

Back indoors, the full color palette is restored and we approach the portal to our Second Life where our avatars never catch colds or a hang over. Other social networks will do as well to add the color that’s disappeared with the summer.



Larry and the Bear cont’d.

7
Green Ore July 28

After breakfast Suzie, Kevin and ‘John’ went out to visit with the four hens that had provided their breakfast. Suzie poured a little grain into a dish and held open the pen so that ‘John’ could go in. Immediately, the hens crowded round and pecked at the grain in the dish until it was empty. This was a new and exciting experience and he wanted more. Suzie refilled the dish. It was soon empty once again.
            “Com’n ‘John’ we’re going down to the river to find some pebbles for Kevin,” and Suzie opened the door to the pen and held out her hand.

The river was a little over a quarter of a mile through the tall trees along a well-marked path. They came out just below a bend in the river where the bank was about three feet above the fast moving water. The bank was tree-free and consisted of a mixture of grass, Oregon grape, red huckleberry, and red elderberry. As they made their way towards the bend, Suzie dropped her shoulder bag by one of the small Oregon grape plants.
                “I’ll dig that one up on the way back, it looks about the right size.”
             “Okay,” said Kevin and then turning to ‘John’ “Are you going to help me find some nice flat pebbles?”
‘John’ just nodded, this was much more exciting than his old backyard. There was no noisy river there and it didn't smell the same. The peaty smell of the woods was familiar but the smell of the river was quite different, much fresher and the air was cooler to close to the water. The bend, where the ground sloped down to the water with a big array of pebbles, had accumulated pebbles worn smooth by the action of one against another as they were moved along when the river was in spate and dumped on the bend. There were all sizes, shapes and colors and walking on them was not easy, especially for someone with small feet.
             “Careful,” said Kevin holding ‘John’s’ hand to prevent him falling. “Look there’s a nice one.” And he picked up a flat grey-green one with two veins like thin white stripes running through it. He found another three to his liking and helped ‘John’ back towards the grass.
Suzie had already made her way back to the shrub and had pulled out a trowel and some pruners from her bag and had started to dig up the small shrub. She turned to ‘John’ and said
             “Its just the root we need, I’m not going to take it all. I’m just going to cut this part off and then leave the rest of the plant.”
             “Are we going to eat that?” ‘John’ was curious and couldn’t see why she should want a root. He began to think of the witches in the stories that his Mom used to read to him – they cooked up strange magic potions.
                “The root makes good tummy medicine,” said Suzie, “and we get it for free.”
‘John’ was relieved at that answer and asked
                “Can I go and explore, please?”
               “Yes, but don’t go out of sight and keep away from the river.”

Suzie and Kevin sat on a fallen tree and watched ‘John’ running around, playing some imaginary role around the trees along the edge of the path. Kevin was the first to speak
                “Seems a nice kid. Nobody would just dump a kid, would they?”
                “I wouldn’t have thought so, but you find terrible things in the newspapers.”
         “Well yeah, that’s why we don’t bother with them.” Kevin could never see why he should pay to get depressed.
            “Look, I’ll drive back to the store in a minute and see if people are looking,” Suzie said. She couldn’t remember seeing any cars or trucks stopped when she went to get the milk.
            “Okay,” said Kevin, “I’ll keep an eye on him ‘till you get back, but don’t go telling people that we have a stray kid, we don’t want people poking around here. If they’re looking, they’ll let you know.”

Suzie hurried off, telling ‘John’ that she’d be back in a minute as she passed him. It took her thirty minutes but neither ‘John’ nor Kevin noticed how long it had been. They had been busy making a boat from a piece of bark from a dead tree with a stick for a mast and a leaf for a sail. They were launching it from the bar of pebbles on the river bend when Suzie came back.
           “Hey ‘John’ I got you some new clothes,” she said as she got close. ‘John’ took no notice and got the boat launched into the current. It rushed off downstream leaning over as it got buffeted by the eddies. She called again
                 “Hi John.” He still didn’t notice and Kevin tapped hi shoulder and said
              “Suzie’s back and she’s brought you something.” ‘John’ made his way carefully back over the loose pebbles and went to meet Suzie.
            “Look ‘John’, I’ve got you some new tee shirts and things from the store,” and she held the bag open for him to see.
              “Thank you,’ he said and rushed off down the bank trying to catch up with his bark ship.

Suzie just shook her head at Kevin and he shrugged his shoulders
               “Looks like we’ve got a kid. Lot less painful than the usual way, and no diapers.”
          “But what about his Mom?” Suzie was trying to imagine how she must feel. Kevin wasn’t so sympathetic,
          “You can’t just loose your kid like you can your phone. He was either dumped or he ran off when his folks stopped in Green Ore, and if that’s what happened, they’d ’ve been back looking. Anyway, it’ll be fun to have a kid.”
                “I guess so, and we can give home schooling a try.”
           “There you go girl, there’s lot of things we can teach him.” It looked to Suzie that Kevin already had plans.
             TBC