Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Solitude For Saturday. #2
Good morning on this chilly Saturday! It is a beautiful morning, some clouds, some blue sky, but the sun is not shining at the moment. There is a bit of wind from the south which will be bringing some milder air with it, mainly for tomorrow. Even today should not be too bad, except the wind will make it feel colder. Even now it feels like -31F (-35C) with that wind blowing. Wind truly does make a big difference in that temperature.
There are dozens of birds out here this morning. It is hard to count those little redpolls, but I think there is around 40 of them now. There is more than 30 each for the pine and evening grosbeaks. I mentioned walking down to the river the other day and showed a couple pictures from that walk. It was absolutely beautiful. There was really no wind on my walk to the river. It was cloudy, calm and quiet. Not a sound as I walked through the trees.
At one spot I stopped because there was a flock of chickadees and nuthatches. So I listened to them and watched as they passed overhead in the trees, constantly looking for food in the bark as they went. And they were talking to each other the whole time. This was a true country pleasure. I kept walking along into more silence with only me making a sound. I stopped again. It was totally quiet. Surrounded by tall pines it was like walking through a tunnel. It was darker here, like it would be in late afternoon after the sun has set.
I keep walking. It is downhill now, winding through the trees, the last section of the path before arriving at the river. The sun comes out now with thin streaks of light making their way through the trees. There it is. The river has more ice than last year, but still mainly open water along the part where I sit. Hmm, no bench. Someone obviously decided to take it. That was too bad. I like to sit on that bench and rest for awhile, enjoying the beauty, the quietude of the river. The river was fairly calm when I first arrived. Fortunately there is an old stump there, so I brushed off the snow and sat down. Beautiful.
I watched as 2 goldeneye ducks swam around, diving now and then looking for a meal. They do not mind the cold water, and it is cold. The only reason it does not freeze is because of the current in the river. It is a dangerous current, able to pull a strong swimmer underwater very quickly. It does not bother these ducks though. They just swim lazily along. I can hear them each time they dive under. That is the only sound out here.
Beautiful solitude. Watching the water. Listening to the ducks. The beautiful snow covered trees surrounding me. This is a great place to come. Stress, problems, disappear in a place like this. The wind comes up. Not real strong, but blowing off the cold river it makes it feel much colder. I decide it is time to come back home. Well, more about my walk home another time. Thank you for joining me on my walk to the river today. Enjoy your coffee, have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Mystery Of The Beginning. Chapter 9.
Kat picks up Muffin. “Hey kitten,” she says, “you can’t give up, we need to find Steve and stop John once and for all. I need you to help me find Steve.” Meow,meow!=Yep, you right! Me not give up, we go find my human and stop John for sure! “That’s my girl,” said Kat, “the fury of the Kat, and the cats!” Meow,meow!=Yep, and the cats! Meow!=Me too, and the cats! Just then another car drives up, this time it’s Baldwin and Rock, plus 3 of Baldwin’s men. Annelie is checking Jennifer to see if she has any broken bones, or worse. “Good thing you’re almost a doctor,” said Baldwin, “how is she?”
“She will be fine, but we need to get her to the hospital,” said Annelie. “I will take her in my car,” said Baldwin, “it will be faster than waiting for an ambulance to get out here.” Rock carried her to the car. “Kristina, you are now glued to Jenny,” said Kat, “you do not leave her and no one goes into her room unless Baldwin says it is okay. Anyone else tries to get in, you stop them.” “Okay, I understand,” answered Kristina as she got into the car. “I will leave Rock and 1 man for you Kat,” said Baldwin, and then he drove off.
The others got in their car and drove to the house. It looked deserted, and likely was, but they had to check anyway. “I can’t get any signal at all,” said Annelie, very concerned about that problem. “I thought that was supposed to work anywhere?”, asked Kat. “It is supposed to,” answered Annelie, “unless Steve hasn’t had the opportunity to start the device.” “I don’t want to think about that,” said Kat, “keep trying while we go take a look.” The rest of them went in the house and searched all over, but they found no one and no clues either. Finally they decide to leave but as they got outside Muffin remembered something.
Meow,meow!=Me remember, there is secret passage, one we not check yet. Must start upstairs in third house. What she meant was the third floor of the house which was a separate apartment. It had a secret stairway that led to each floor and to the basement. That is how our “ghost” managed to get around so easily without being seen. Rock went in first and they followed the stairs and little passages around all the way to the basement. Meow,meow.=In there is little kitchen room. It looked just like a wall and they could not find a way to open it.
“Are you sure this is it Muffin?”, asked Rock. Meow,meow=Yep, me sure, push on wall. Rock just pushed with all his might and smashed the door right off it’s big hinges. He looked around the room with his flashlight, then pulled the chain that turned on the light in the middle of the room. “Look Kat,” he said, and pointed to a corner of the room. A young woman was curled up in terror, she had been beaten, tied up and left to die there. “Carry her out of there Rock, bring her upstairs,” said Kat. He did so, and once upstairs he untied her and put her on a chair.
The woman was crying and kept saying, “please, please, don’t hurt me anymore.” “We don’t want to hurt you, now here’s the deal,” said Kat, “you help us and we will help you. Or we can tie you up again and put you back in that room.” “NO, no, please, I will help, anything,” she pleaded. “Okay, we will start with an easy question,” said Kat firmly, “what is your full name?” “Melanie Sunshine Morel,” she said. One of the men went out to the car while Kat started to clean up Melanie a bit. He was soon back with a note for Kat which she read out loud with information about Melanie from the time she was born until now. The woman was amazed.
Then she started crying again, she said it was because of the pain. “We will take her to the hospital too,” said Kat to Rock, “carry her out to the car.” They had her put in the same room with Jennifer so they could watch her more closely. “How do you feel little sis?”, asked Kat. “Terrible,” she said, “but only because I messed up badly. I knew Steve would try to sneak away and I wanted to go along to help protect him. Instead I got him captured.” She really started to cry hard at that point. Muffin and MC jumped on the bed, purring loudly. Meow,meow=It not your fault, you try your best, it that terrible human John. And we going to find him and bring back my human. Both cats hug Jennifer and she stops crying. “Now, back to you Melanie,” said Kat, “where did John take Steve?”
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 