Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Wednesday’s Wanderings. #34
Good morning once again everyone! I hope you are all fine and enjoying your day so far. Well, Christmas is only 3 days away and I imagine a lot of you are busy with preparing things, getting ready for family dinners, gifts being wrapped and stacked under the tree for Christmas morning. There are a lot of Christmas traditions people have. In our family we always opened presents Christmas morning, but some do it on Christmas Eve. One year dad and I had gone out on our yearly trip and found what we thought was a perfect tree. Dad kind of measured it with his arms and said it would be the perfect height.
He was a bit off, by about 18 inches (45cm). So we took it back outside and he cut it shorter. Still too tall since we had a star decoration to go on top of the tree. Back outside and he cut it down some more. Mom suggested he should measure it properly. He said that would not be necessary. It was much too short now. Later that morning we were back out looking for another tree. There was not much snow that year so it was easy walking around. Until suddenly dad yelled as he fell into a hole. Well, not really a hole, but a space between two outcrops of granite.
He said his feet were stuck at the bottom and could not move either one. I suggested taking his boots off. Dad just looked at me. That did it, I was laughing again. I started clearing the snow off the rocks. Dad yelled to stop, the snow was falling into that space and getting into his boots. I suggested again, to take his boots off. He bent over to try and hit his head on the rock. He groaned. I tried pulling him out, that was a waste of time. I said to turn sideways and I started to turn him. He yelled again and said he can’t turn. That was because of another waist problem, which was getting bigger every year.
Dad gave his sarcastic laugh when I mentioned that. And of course that got me laughing even more that before. I suggested he should take his parka off, that would make him looser around the middle and might help to get him out. He thought for a moment and decided to give it a try. Amazing. He could not get the zipper fully off though, but I pulled his parka off anyway. He made some odd noises as the zipper passed over his nose. “I think the zipper is broken,” I said. “That’s not all that is broken,” said dad. I wonder what he meant by that? I tossed his parka in the snow.
Then I told him to hold my arms while I pulled. Unfortunately I slipped on the rock and fell with my knees on dad’s shoulders, scraping his ears and knocking his glasses off down between the rocks. “My glasses!”, dad yelled. “Did you lose them again?,” I asked, “you need to be more careful.” “Bonehead!”, he said. He tried to bend over to get them and hit his head on the rock again. He groaned again. I laughed again. He was getting cold so wanted his parka back. I dragged it over and put it down on him. I guess some snow came along and went down dad’s neck, actually all over him.
He yelled again. I laughed again. Finally I joined him down there, and being smaller, I could bend down and try to turn his feet. I tried but nothing worked, until I gave a great big tug and his one foot turned sideways. Dad screamed for some reason. But I could not reach the other foot so I told dad to move his loose foot. He hardly moved it at all, so I pulled on his leg and moved it out of the way. Dad yelled again. I laughed again, well, actually I was still laughing from before.
I had to push the other foot in the opposite direction to get it unstuck, but it worked. Dad yelled. I continued laughing. But we did find a nice tree right after that. Dad even found his glasses. I related the morning events to mom when we got home. Mom looked at dad and said, “good thing Steve is with you all the time, what would you do if he wasn’t there?” “Have a safe and quiet trip,” he replied. Not sure what he meant by that. Well, the birds are busy and it looks like it is time for more coffee, don’t you agree? Have a wonderful Wednesday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Sleepy Town Mystery. Chapter 14, Surprise, Surprise.
It hit! I had walked, carrying Kat over to the couch. I only took baby steps, but I did it. “I walked,” I said to Kat, “I carried you over here!” “That’s fantastic news Steve!”, she answered. “I knew you would walk again,” said Chung, “disks in back moved out of place, press on nerves that work legs. Because of your previous injury it was too dangerous for operation. But when you fall, everything move back, work proper now. But you must be careful, just baby steps for now, and no more carrying Kat or anything. Take slow, it will come.”
He smiled and then left again. “Amazing how Muffin had to tell you to kiss your wife,” said Kat. “Oh yeah?”, I said and kissed her again. Meow,meow!=Ooohhh, that good one! “And don’t you think you should maybe be lying down and purring for Kat?”, I asked Muffin. Her ears go straight up and she lies down purring loudly. “You better go sit down again,” said Kat. “I suppose that might be a good idea,” I said. I just got sitting down when George, the head security man came in with 5 other men from his team, but something was obviously wrong.
“Well, this is nice and easy,” said one man, “kill them both right now.” Muffin had disappeared when they entered the room. Chung came back right then too. “What do you want?”, asked one of the men. “Must change bandage, so no infection,” he answered. “Let him do it,” said the first man. “You hold bandage, here,” said Chung to Kat. She was a bit puzzled since the bandage did not need changing yet, but she went along with it anyway. Chung looked and no one was looking their way so he handed a gun to Kat instead of a bandage.
“Hide behind the couch,” she whispered. He did so quickly. “Hey, what’s going on!” yelled one of the men. Kat quickly shot two of the men which drew their attention away from me. I pulled a gun next and shot 2 more. Then Muffin jumped on the back of the last man that had a gun pointed at George. He screamed and George turned on him, took his gun and shot him. Well, that finished that. The rest of the security crew came in at that point. They had been out looking for the shooter. They heard the shots just as they were coming back. They didn’t find the shooter, but did find his gun which he had left behind. Why he would do that is anyone’s guess.
But it was nice to have things settled down again. The remaining guards removed the bodies and had ambulances come to get them. Then George called Baldwin to tell him the news. Baldwin called me right away. “Why didn’t you call me after the first attack?” he asked. “I didn’t want to disturb your meetings,” I replied. “Disturb me, disturb me!,” he yelled, “I want to know what is going on! There will be a crew of men there from one of my companies, George knows them well, and they are going to replace all your first floor windows with bullet proof glass. And no arguments.”
“Okay,” I said, “that would actually be a good thing to do, thanks.” While I was talking to Baldwin Muffin had called M.C. on their little transmitter. Meow? MEOW!!! Meow. meow. MEEOOOOWW!!! “Okay M.C.” said Jennifer, “what is going on, sounds like something exciting.” Meow.=Not much happen. I go scouting now. And he tries to leave, but though his feet moved, he did not. He looks back, Jennifer is holding his tail. Meow.=That trouble with having long tail. “Okay you, talk.” she said. So he told her everything. He did get a couple things mixed up.
He said Kat had been shot in the head, for example. “WHAT???”, yelled Jennifer. She was on the phone right away. “Hi Jennifer, how is it going over there?”, I ask calmly. She started talking so fast I could barely keep up. But she was a bit upset that I had not called her with this news. “Well, I did not know what was going on over there and I did not want to call if that General had arrived already,” I said to her. That seemed to satisfy her, which was good. They were still waiting, but then she said a vehicle was coming so we cut our conversation short. Now it is time for me to worry again, I hope everything goes well with their plan…
To Be Continued.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 