For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Walter arrived quickly and Angel gave him my weapons and off we went to the clinic. Sky insisted on coming along, so did Muffin. The others would continue to search the secret passages and try to find more. At the last minute Galyna decided to come along too. “This just does not seem right,” said Walter. “I guess you never thought about the possibility of arresting me,” I said, chuckling. “No, that is for sure,” he said, “um, this is not a real arrest, is it?”
“No, not really,” I said, “I have just been relieved of my duties because I am considered a danger to the team.” “I do not understand that one,” said Walter, “how could you be a danger?” “Because I was given some kind of drug that has a controlling agent in it,” I said, “and it seems that it is meant for me to kill someone on the team. I guess that way I would be arrested and sent to prison. The person doing this wants to destroy me and the team.”
“Hmm, that sounds a lot like Lavina Steve,” he replied, “we need to go after her again.” “We will, once this case is over,” I said, “hmm, perhaps you could start checking around and see if someone knows where she might be.” “I will do that,” he said, “and I will let Crandall know too, he has a lot of contacts that might help us.” “Good, I was hoping he might,” I said.
We arrived at the clinic and Chung was ready to do some tests. Majori had already been detained by the security from Baldwin. Walter told Chung to check for a certain drug, or a mix of two particular drugs. One was actually a new one for Chung. That surprised me, I thought he knew every drug ever made. He took a lot of blood from me for those tests. Then off to my room to lie down for a while, and think. Sky and Muffin stayed with me.
Walter and Kristina stayed as extra guards. Kristina knocked on the door and asked if she could come in. She was looking very sad. “I’m sorry Steve,” she said, “I did not realize this would happen, but I was just following the rules.” “Do not worry about it,” I said smiling, “if you did not do it, I would be forced to dismiss you from the team.” She produced a weak smile. “Hey, you can do a lot better than that,” I said. She produced a wide smile then. “That is much better,” said Sky, “I am glad you found out about this or who knows what Steve might have done.”
“That is true,” I said, “whatever this drug is, it seems to work at night through a dream.” “That is when your brain is most susceptible to programming by a drug,” said Kristina, “I have been studying about different drugs to see if I can be a help with that sometimes.” “That is a good thing to do,” said Sky, “we all need to broaden our education in different ways.”
“Yes,” I said, “and we will add our medical staff to our regular training as well,” I said, “and make them a closer part of our team.” “That would be good,” said Kristina, “it might improve loyalty with them.” “Now we need another nurse,” said Sky. “Chung said his niece is coming to join us,” said Kristina, “I think that would be great.” “Yes, he did mention that before,” I said, “she just needed to finish her training.” Galyna came in next and said she had some interesting information.
She had talked to a woman at the building where Denise is moving to, but she told Galyna that the woman we thought was Denise, was actually Sofie. That would mean the dead woman we found was really Denise. “Sofie and Mack must be working together,” I said, “and neither one has found the jewels yet. Now with Mack out of the way, Sofie figures she can take them all for herself. She does not understand that anything we find will now belong to Sky since she now owns the chateau.”
“Yes,” said Galyna, “but there is more. Sofie has a son living near here and he is mixed up with some kind of gang.” “Hmm, so they would likely want those jewels too,” I said, “we will need to watch for them. You were right about her holding something back.” Chung came in right then and gave us the news. Walter was right, it was a mix of those 2 drugs he mentioned. I kind of thought he would be right considering the work he has done with drugs before.
Chung also said I could continue working on the case, but no weapons until this drug is completely out of my system. I will need to be checked every other day. At least there will be no lasting effects from it. Chung wanted me to stay at the clinic that night. Sky would stay with me, plus Crystal came over too with MC. Muffin was already here, so it should be a safe night…
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Good morning to everyone on this mild December day! It is cloudy once again, that makes 4 days in a row now, and more cloudy days on the way this week. There are not many birds out here this morning. That seems to be a normal thing now. The chickadees and nuthatches still come, and some of the blue jays. There are 2 downy woodpeckers, but the hairy woodpeckers have stopped coming. Good thing the chickadees keep coming most of the day. I cannot understand what happened to the blue jays though. Oh well, perhaps they found better peanuts at another feeder.
Speaking of finding. It was a cloudy day like this, only colder, when Dad suggested going out to look for insulators. This would be our third time looking for insulators in the winter. “It is too cold,” I said. “It is a beautiful day,” said Dad. “Remember the last time we went looking for insulators in the winter,” I reminded him. “That was different, it was colder and much more snow,” he answered. He then reminded me of two places we thought would be good to check at a later time.

“I was thinking more of later in the fall,” I said. “Where is your sense of adventure?” he asked. “In a nice warm bed, which is where I should be,” I replied. My arguments went unheeded and there we were, out in the snow and cold looking for those chunks of glass and porcelain. There was a place on a hill where the poles were very short and we could easily reach the bottom crossarm to get the insulators. We had permission to do that.
The problem was, it was a steep climb to get up the hill to these poles. We stood there looking at the problem. “Too hard,” I said, “may as well go back home.” “We can do it,” said Dad, “I will lift you up and you can reach that tree and pull yourself up the rest of the way.” “That was a quick turn from ‘we’ to ‘you’,” I said. Anyway, I was soon on his shoulders reaching for that small tree that was supposed to hold me from falling to my death 6 feet below.

But, I was not able to reach it. Hmm, I decided to stand on Dad’s head. I did that once before and it worked. So that is what I did. Dad yelled and wobbled a bit. That made my foot slip off his head and back down to his shoulder. He yelled louder as my boot slid over his ear and knocked his glasses off. I tried to balance myself and knocked Dad’s hat off with my other foot. Dad yelled again and started dancing around.

I grabbed the crossarm to keep myself steady. Dad claimed I kicked his head and he fell backward sliding head first down the hill a little ways, only about 10 feet, though Dad claimed it was closer to 100 feet. He got snow down his back in the process of sliding. That made him yell again. “You sure yell a lot,” I said. Well, I guess we will have to continue this story tomorrow, otherwise it will get too long for one post. Thank you for reading, have a great day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.