Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Saturday’s Solitude #20.
Good morning everyone! It’s a beautiful, sunny morning, a little on the cool side and quite windy which makes if feel even cooler. But the sky is a rich, brilliant blue with no clouds in sight. The sun is shining on the leaves making the green look as though it should still be summer. And also making the yellows stand out in their glowing gold colors. More and more leaves are turning yellow and falling from the trees landing on the grass letting us know that fall is here to stay, at least until that next season arrives, which we won’t talk about just yet. We have 6 months to talk about that season, no point in starting early.
Speaking of early. In the summer I enjoy getting up early, about 4am, to watch the sunrise. I can’t really see the sunrise very well from where I live presently, can’t even see the sun until about 9am, though I can see the sun shining on the tops of the trees. It would be great to watch the sunrise down at the river, I imagine it would be quite beautiful. The singing birds would be remarkably plentiful as well, there would be many more varieties than around the house here. Water birds would be waking up, gulls calling to each other as they float over the water. Loons would be calling in their amazing wilderness voices.
Different species of sparrows would be singing along the shore, thrushes would be singing from the pines further inland. I can just hear an owl hooting as he takes advantage of a little daylight hunting before going off to rest for the day. Sandpipers would be running along the rocky shore looking for tiny insects for their breakfast. Squirrels would be waking up, munching on some pine cones and chattering at each other. Robins could be heard singing from the tops of the trees. Many species of warblers would be flying about looking for insects to feed their young and themselves. But they would also take some time first to sing beautifully from the trees and bushes lining the river shore.
A kingfisher would be sitting on the branch of a dead tree, overlooking the water, waiting for a minnow to swim past so he could dive in to get his breakfast. He would chatter as he moved on to a different tree hoping that fishing would be better at that spot. Soon he would dive into the water and come up with his prize. A great blue heron would be walking silently past in the shallow water by the shore, barely causing a ripple as he lifts and puts his feet back in the water. The water, crystal clear as it is would be calm like a mirror, reflecting the whole scene around as the sun rises slowly above the trees. The sky being clearest blue ever, just a perfect morning. A summer sunrise morning at the river, just beautiful. I hope you have a most beautiful weekend everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Old House. Chapter 8.
I got down on the floor and rolled King over. He had been stabbed with the same knife used on Bradley. I didn’t remove the knife because I didn’t want to tamper with evidence, but guess I should have. I must move King, though I guess I could just leave him here, but no, I’ll take him down to Bradley’s room. The cats returned just then and I told them to go get the girls right away. They quickly returned with Jennifer and Annelie. Jennifer checked for finger prints on the knife. I told her there would be two sets, Bradley’s and mine, and I was right. “That doesn’t look good Steve,” said Jennifer.
“A minor point at the moment,” I said, “first let’s move the body.” So we carried him down to Bradley’s room and laid him on the bed. “My two prime suspects,” I said, “it doesn’t make sense.” “It does if someone doesn’t like men,” said Annelie, “just like Katrina would do.” “Interesting thought,” I added, “several of the girls are out on bail right now. I’m going to sleep up in the sitting room on the third floor. There’s something about that room that will give us a clue.” “Okay,” said Jennifer, “but we’re going with you.” So we all moved up to the sitting room, and there was a bedroom directly across the hall so the girls decided to use that, but left the door open.
The cats and I stayed in the sitting room. When I talked to the cats, it was in their meow language so no one could understand us. I told Muffin to really think about this room, there must be a clue here, or why would someone go to all the trouble of duplicating the room so exactly. I walked around the room looking at everything, but nothing seemed to make sense or give a clue for this case. Meow,meow.=Look here, this different. I go over to where she was looking at some books on a little shelf. One book was sticking out from the others.
Muffin remembers details better than me. I look at the book, it was small and on the cover was a drawing of a house, but not any house, it was this house! It was given to a young girl for Christmas in 1921. One hundred years ago, that’s interesting in itself. Then I heard Tracy Kendall calling up the stairs for me. I knew it was her, she had a rather unique high pitched voice. The cats and I went running down quickly and went to their room, but when I opened the door, they were both asleep in bed. Even my opening the door didn’t wake them up. I closed the door quietly and as we came back to the kitchen I heard the front door close.
The cats and I went quickly out on the porch and I looked all around with my flashlight, but there was nothing. I told the cats to look under the porch, but to be careful. They came back and said there was a window under there. Meow.=Window open real easy, we do it. “That’s good,” I said, “that’s how someone disappears so fast. We’ll check that out better in the morning.” Going back in I suddenly realized that perhaps someone just wanted to get me downstairs. We ran back up and checked on the girls, but they were okay and awake.
They heard the voice too and were getting ready to follow after me. And Jennifer now looked just like…Kat! Amazing how much they look alike. We close the door and put on our scrambling devices. “I figured that if they went after Kat once, they might try again,” said Jennifer, “so maybe we can confuse them a bit. I already talked it over with Kat, we’ll just try not to be seen together. So for now you’ll have two wives Steve.” So we all went over to the sitting room, Kat and I sat on the love seat. Meow?=Why they do kissing thing? Meow,meow.=That not real kissing, it pretend kiss to fool bad guys.
Meow.=Look like real kissing to me. Meow,meow=Naturally, pretend kiss must look like real kiss because if only pretend kiss it will look like pretend kiss and won’t fool bad guys like pretend kiss that look like real kiss can do. M.C. just looks at Muffin and blinks. Meow.=That not make sense. If it look like real kiss it is real kiss. Meow,meow.=No, no, you not understand, it pretend that look real because a real pretend is needed to look like a pretend real. Then she stops. Meow,meow?=Now you have me mixed up, you want me to bite tail? M.C. flips his tail around the other side of him. Just then we heard Susan screaming and crying…
To Be Continued.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 