Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. Bernard’s Secret. Chapter 7.
I woke up slowly, looking at the ceiling, everything a bit blurry. “Are you okay Bernard?”, asked Carine. “Yes, I think so,” I responded and sat up. Apparently I had fainted, during which time I had this odd dream which I told everyone. A dream about Antonella, being married to her and on a case trying to find her little brother. But I could not remember anything more, even though Jennifer tried to help by giving details of that case. But I could only remember the part I had dreamt about. Baldwin had called Dr. Hunter about getting in some brain specialists and they arrived the next day and I went through a whole new bunch of testing.
They did not think there was any permanent damage to my brain and that Chung’s antidote treatment would likely work in time. But how much time? There was one area of my brain that did concern them a bit and another MRI was needed to check it out. It seems that my memory is still there, we just need something to bring it back out, that’s where Chung’s medicine comes in. Hopefully.
((just a note, Antonella and Jennifer are the same person. I will be doing a post to try and give some background to those who may have missed previous stories so you don’t get too mixed up))
We still do not know who was shooting at me or why the helicopter attacked us, but my team is working on that. I feel bad not being able to help right now. I ask the cats to come for a walk with me, I needed to be alone for a little while and think. Kat said it would be okay, but to stay on the property. That was fine with me, it is a large parcel of land with some nice trails for walking. The cats were constantly on guard looking around and listening carefully.
We come to a small pond and a nice bench so we sit down for a while. The cats stop for a drink, then watch the ripples they made. “Found them!”, yelled Annalie. The others come running. The cats had been shot with some kind of dart, but were still alive. But…where is Bernard? Annalie quickly takes the cats to the clinic where Chung checks them out. They had been poisoned! Meanwhile the others continue to look for me. Then Kristina yells.
The others run over to where she is kneeling down among the trees digging furiously with her hands. The others join in when they see what she is doing. They got me dug out of the shallow grave and quickly rushed me to the clinic. I had been stabbed and then buried, being left for dead. But I was still alive, though I had lost a lot of blood. They had no blood to match mine, but Carine had the same blood type. I would never have lived long enough to have some blood shipped in.
Baldwin had his men join in looking for any evidence they might be able to find to let us know who is behind this. While I am lying in the bed at the clinic, unconscious, my brain is very active. I am back at that old house from our first case again, and it is so real once more, it could not be more vivid. I am looking at that portrait over the fireplace again, I take it down and remove it from the frame, but there is nothing. But it has been removed from the frame before, that is obvious, but why?
Perhaps there had been another painting in the frame originally and it was removed for this one. I hang it back up. Muffin sits beside me and helps me look at the painting. Meow,meow.=What we look for? “I do not know Muffin,” I said, “but there is something about that painting, something important, I am sure of that.” Then we go up to the third floor again and I look at the books in the bookcase. That is the one I had looked at briefly before, and I take it off the shelf and sit down.
I look through the book, it is not very big. It gives the history of a family I never heard of before, then I come to a page and stop. “There it is Muffin”, I said, “that is our clue.” At that point I woke up and looked around. How did I get in the clinic again? The cats are in a small bed next to mine. What happened to us, why am I in so much pain? I press the buzzer and Kara comes in right away and calls for Dr. Hunter. “Nice to see you awake again Bernard,” he said. I frown and open my mouth…but nothing comes out…
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Wandering Through Wednesday. #6
Good morning everyone! It is cloudy and a bit chilly here this morning. The temp is 14F (-10C), and it is very windy from the northwest, so the temp has been dropping since early morning and is supposed to continue dropping throughout the day. Yesterday we had quite a bit of freezing drizzle, most of the day really, so there is ice on everything again. It was terribly difficult getting the hanging feeders ready for the birds this morning. I should have brought them inside last night. Oh well, they are working now and the birds are feasting.
Just put out some more food for the birds, they had finished the first batch. Yesterday I was outside for a while counting birds. The redpolls are tough to count, there is a lot of them and they fly around a lot. However, I positioned myself in a good spot where I could see all but one spot where they feed, plus all the trees. And I started counting. Finally they actually stayed still for quite a while so I got a good count on them, 127 birds. But there were still a few I could not see along the side of the apartment. So I think it would be safe to say there are about 140 of them.
Good thing they are so small, they do not eat much. So that puts the total bird count at somewhere between 250 to 300 birds. It will vary a bit from day to day though. The numbers of grosbeaks will vary each day, possibly due to visiting other feeders in the area. We also got another 3 inches of snow overnight. So I was busy already shoveling snow off the deck. When I was finished all the birds had arrived for their breakfast, the trees were full, and the feeders were full.
One of my friendly chickadees, I think it was Chester, was sitting on the railing beside me and I was talking to him. Suddenly from out of nowhere a northern shrike came flying in, like a super fast missile. The birds scattered, but the shrike had his eyes on one bird, my little chickadee. The shrike picked him up and nearly flew right into my face. But he got the chickadee and was gone across the street. I sure miss having those blue jays around. I just cannot figure what happened to all those blue jays.
There were 22 of them at the start of winter, now only Baxter and Betty come around and they are not very regular. The blue jays hate shrikes and will keep them away from the feeders, they have been doing that every winter, except this winter. I knew this shrike has been around all winter and because of the large number of birds here, it is a good attraction for this bird. But hopefully he doesn’t stay around too much. These shrikes live in the far north for breeding and only come here during the winter. Normally they leave by mid March. Have a most wonderful Wednesday everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 