Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Our October Hike. Part 6.
Thanks. I looked around. “Hey, a nice long branch, that will make it easier to cross,” I said. “Right”, said Dad. “Really, just use it like a cane, stick it in the creek as we walk across,” said I, and off I went. The log was very slippery but the branch did help. “Here”, I said as I tossed it back to Dad. The branch hit the side of the creek in some wet mud and splattered the mud onto Dad. “My glasses!”, he shouted, “they’re covered in mud.” “Wash them in the creek”, I called back.
He bent over to do so, and slipped on the mud. Dad yelled. He just kind of slowly went down into the creek. Right up to his waist. That was too much. The look of terror on Dad’s face. Priceless. “Bonehead!,” he called out. How could he be enjoying that? Dad decided to walk across the creek. He figured he was wet anyway, so why not? Makes sense, I guess. Then about half way across he sat down. That was hard to believe, sitting in the middle of the creek, he was now up to is neck in the water.
He claims he slipped on a wet rock. All the rocks in the creek are wet. But he finally made it across and we are at the bottom of that hill. We looked for a better way up than the way we came down. That wasn’t easy, but we found a spot. The rain had almost stopped. “Good”, I said, “now maybe we won’t get so wet”. Dad just looked. That was it. I couldn’t hold back any longer. I burst out laughing. Think I laughed most of the way up that hill. “You go up first,” said Dad.
Naturally. Suddenly it started to rain hard. Anyway, Dad and I started off up that hill. It really was a somewhat large hill. And not that easy getting up. Especially with all that rain. That hill was all rock. Granite actually. With some trees. And a lot of moss. Which was now wet. Wet moss is very slippery. “Get going”, he said, “can’t you see it’s raining?” “We are already soaked,” I said, “can’t possibly get any wetter”. Off we went. Everything was going good until my foot hit some loose moss. I slipped. And slid down.
Poor Dad. He tried to get out of the way. But he wasn’t quick enough. Whump! “Oooo!” Seems my foot collided with Dad’s stomach. He sat down. “Tired?”, I asked. Dad just looked. After he relaxed for a bit we continued our climb. “I’ll go first,” said Dad. That’s odd I thought. He always wanted me to go first. Oh well. About 2 thirds of the way Dad suddenly stops. I didn’t notice that and bumped into him just slightly. He sat down again. “Tired?”, I asked. Dad just looked. “It’s okay, we can stop for a while,” I continued.
Dad said, “shhh.” “Why?”, I asked. Dad pointed up the hill. There was a black bear just starting to come down, heading our way. I moved a bit to get a better look and stepped on a loose rock. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!,” yelled Dad. The bear stopped, then took off running. “That got him running,” I said. “Bonehead!,” said Dad, “you stepped on my ankle”. “Oh,” I said, “I thought it was a loose rock.” “Someone has a loose rock,” said Dad. Not sure what he meant by that.
We finally made it up the hill and there was no sign of the bear at the top, which was nice. Dad was quite tired by the time we got back to the car, but he suggested stopping at our favorite coffee shop on the way back. “Good idea,” I said, “I’m hungry.” “I’m the one that didn’t eat,” said Dad. “You should have eaten your sandwiches,” I said. Dad just looked. At the coffee shop the waitress said to Dad, “you’re sure wet.” “It was raining quite hard out there,” said Dad. “But your son isn’t as wet as you,” she said. “He’s smaller,” said Dad. She looked puzzled a bit but took our order and left.
“You have mud in your hair,” I said to Dad. “Why didn’t you say that before we came in here?”, Dad asked. “I just noticed,” I said. Dad just shook his head and put his hat back on. When the waitress came back she asked Dad how he had gotten so muddy in the rain. He was still covered with mud. “He fell in the mud when we tried crossing a creek on our hike,” I said trying not to laugh. The waitress laughed however, so I did too. When it came time to pay Dad took out his wallet and water poured onto the floor. “Did you go swimming too?”, asked the waitress. That was too much, I burst out laughing and went out to the car. “How do you laugh so much?”, asked Dad. “Practice,” I said.
The End.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Lost Doll. Chapter 4.
“I don’t care!”, yelled young Danny, “you can’t stop us now!” That was in response to my saying we had found his Dad. At that moment the older Danny came walking into the room. That caused the housekeeper to let out a loud scream of terror! Unfortunately we made some mistakes here. One, we all turned to look at the housekeeper. Two, we failed to check and see if young Danny had any more weapons. He did have another gun and he seized the moment when we were looking at the housekeeper. He pulled the other gun and began shooting quickly.
He managed to shoot 3 times before Jennifer gave him one of her deadly kicks, which silenced him completely. But there were 3 victims. The first was the older Danny, who lay on the floor, he had been shot in his upper leg. The third victim was the housekeeper who sat slouched over in her chair, dead. The second victim was me, I was shot in the shoulder area, but no bones were hit. The police and ambulances were called. The older Danny’s wound wasn’t so bad, the bullet missed the bone. He’ll be okay. Mine wasn’t bad either, just a short overnight stay at the hospital, while the others stayed at a nearby hotel.
The older Danny still wanted us to stay on the case, and he promised to give us more details, which would certainly be nice. A simple case has already meant 2 people getting killed, and 2 others wounded. Older Danny had told us the doll must be in the house somewhere and it is very important to find it. I’m starting to think it’s filled with the family jewels, acquired legally or perhaps illegally. But one thing at a time. Danny dashed my hopes on that one however, by saying there is nothing in the doll that is valuable in itself, but, it can lead to the family inheritance, which is considered to be quite a large amount of gold.
Hmm, can’t fit much gold in a doll, so there must be something that tells us where to look for this gold. And that’s what he mentioned next. Inside the doll is a map showing exactly where to find the gold that was hidden back in the early 1900s by Danny’s great grandfather. No one even knew about it until 2 years ago when Danny found an old letter in the attic that told about the map in the doll. Hmm, something tells me there is nothing to this old rumor.
How come no one knew about it all this time? It’s hard to keep something like that a secret. We went back to the house and found the letter Danny had told us about. It looked authentic enough and written by his great grandfather to his son letting him know about the gold. Apparently the great grandfather buried it before he got married. And it was gold he had robbed from a bank back in 1899. The bank closed it’s doors in 1905. The next day Danny was home again so I asked him, “is it possible that your grandfather found the gold?”
“No, my grandparents and parents were very poor,” he said, “and with all that gold they would have been quite wealthy.” That makes sense, but something about this doesn’t make sense. I don’t think Danny is telling us the truth, except that he does want that doll found, but for a different reason. But what could that be? Then someone drove up to the house. “Who’s that coming?”, asked Jennifer. Danny looked out the window. “I have no idea, never saw him before,” he said.
I told Danny we would go back to our rooms, but if he needed help, just yell. While he went to the door I told the cats to hide and listen in. “Well, Danny old boy,” said the very plump man, “how’s things these days?” “Oh, hi Bert,” said Danny, “keep your voice down, I have company, but they’re down the hall in their rooms right now.” “Interesting to know,” said Bert, “is it those PI’s?” “Um, yes, uh, how did you know?”, said Danny. “I keep track of everything going on around here Danny,” he said with a smile, “have they found that doll yet?”
“Why no, no, they haven’t,” said Danny nervously, “we had some trouble with young Danny, he wanted everything for himself, but he’s dead now, can’t bother us anymore.” “Good, very happy to hear the news Danny,” said Bert, “but don’t try to leave me out of this, I can be a dangerous man when I need to be.” “Oh, don’t worry Bert,” said Danny, “you’ll get your share, I promise you that.” “I never worry,” said Bert, “it’s you that better worry, I don’t like being crossed. Did you tell the PI’s what this is all about?” “Oh no, I wouldn’t do that,” said Danny, “I just told them some made up story. They believed it.” “For your sake they better believe it,” said Bert, “I’ll be in touch.”
To Be Continued.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
