Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Saturday Stories. #17 Hiking, Part 3.
Happy Saturday everyone! It is quite nice so far though it did get cloudy after starting off nice and clear. However, the clouds are breaking up again and the sun is presently shining, which is very nice. There is a song sparrow in the tree in front of our building and he is singing his beautiful song, it sounds so nice. There is also a robin singing across the street.
There were more birds singing earlier this morning but I guess they are out eating now. Well, we better get going with our story today and see if we can finish it. If you want to read part 2 from last week, just click on HERE, then click on the tab that shows up. Krissy and I had just looked down the steep side of a hill that we needed to climb down.
We met a cute little chipmunk along the way.
Krissy was excited about it, I was not. I hooked a new kind of climbing belt to each of us. “Does not look very strong,” said Krissy. “It is strong,” I said, “now, if you fall then I can hold onto you.” “If I fall, I will likely pull you down with me,” she said, “and we will both fall to our death at the bottom of this steep cliff. Then the bears, wolves and vultures will eat us and that people find will be two skeletons hugging each other and that is how they will bury us.”
He was busy looking for food in the dry grass.
We looked at each other. “No,” I said, “I will hold you, we will successfully get down and live happily ever after.” “My story is more dramatic,” she said. “Mine is realistic,” I said, “besides, your dad would kill me if we both died falling down this cliff.” “True, he just might,” she agreed, “hey, wait a minute! That was sneaky.” “I still won,” I said. “Fine, now we are tied,” she said.
We do this, trying to say something that the other person agrees with, even when they don’t. Oh well. We began our descent. Things were going good until Krissy slipped on some moss. Hmm, she was right, we both fell, and landed on a ledge. “See, I told you this would happen,” she reminded me. About 3 times actually. “Now what?” she asked. “Now we keep going down. She looked on one end of the ledge, I looked on the other end. “Any other ideas?” she asked.
Although this is not the same chipmunk, I did have some peanuts which I gave him.
“Well, we could jump,” I said. “That would make my story true,” she said, “so I would win.” “Except we would both be dead,” I said, “and that means a loss.” Well, instead of going down, we went up again and over to a different ledge where we could actually walk down, slowly. Very slowly. But we finally got to a spot where the walking was easy, nice large pines all around us. “Well, we made it,” I said, “although we are not where we want to be.”
“Where do we want to be?” she asked. “Waaaaay back that way,” I pointed. She groaned, then sneezed again, then started coughing. “My poor head,” she said. “We will just cut through the trees this way,” I said, “it might be shorter.” “I don’t like that word “might”, she said. Anyway, off we went through those nice tall pines.
They certainly love peanuts!
The walking was quite easy for the most part and, surprisingly, we got back to the car quicker than I thought we would. Krissy was coughing quite a bit now, but she had settled down by the time we got back home. It was a nice hike though, except for the bear, and that slight fall we had. Krissy’s mom was not too happy that one of her best plastic containers was now full of holes.
“That was Steve’s fault,” said Krissy, “he let the bear eat my nice cake. I feel terrible, I’m going to lie down.” Her mom looked at me. “Um, I will check on her tomorrow,” I said. “You better,” said her mom. Krissy was feeling better the next day though. Well, that ends another adventure, I will have something different for you next week. Have a great weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The French Chateau Case. Chapter 11. Moving Again.
We had jumped into our waiting cars and drove away as quickly as we could back to the airport. Once back in the air, Cynthia looked at me. “May I ask a question?” she enquired. “Ask as many questions as you like,” I said. “Oh good!” she exclaimed, “What was the point in shooting me yesterday?” “That was in case Cramer asked for proof that you were indeed dead,” I said, “those very real bullet holes should have been enough to convince him. But for some reason he never asked for proof, kind of odd.”
“I have holes in my stomach??” she asked with a very worried look. “Yes, and they are very real looking too,” I said, “but Kat was there to make sure the bullets did not go into you. Remember that fake skin she put on you before we left?” “Yes,” she said, “it certainly feels real, but it made me look 10 pounds fatter.” “Minor detail,” I said, “that is where the holes are, not in you, so when Kat rips off that fake skin, the holes will be gone too.”
“I do not like the ‘rips off’ part,” she said, “maybe some of my real skin will come off too.” “No, it won’t,” I said, “but if you have any hair on your stomach, it will rip off too.” “Oh, stop saying ‘rip off’ please!” she said, still worried. I asked Kat to explain things better for Cynthia. “I will just rip it off,” she said. “AAAAAA!!” replied Cynthia.
“Tell you what,” I said, “I will buy you something nice because you were so cooperative and helpful on your first case. What would you like?” “That blue swimsuit I was looking at the other day,” she said smiling. “I will get you two,” I said. She gave me a big hug. “Rip it off Kat!” she said. After that big scream maybe I should get her 3 swimsuits. Oh well.
We were soon landing in South Carolina where I would meet with Rossana and other police officials about the information I had about Cramer. Kat and Jennifer came with me. “We can’t really use this information in court because of the way you, uh, found it,” said Rossana. “Yes, I know,” I replied, “but at least you have some concrete proof he is the main boss of this organization and Jenkins only works for him. Now it is up to you to get your own proof.
You know where to look, in that big safe of his. It is also full of money and drugs, though he may move that soon, so you will have to move quickly.” I did not mention Mr. B or what Matt and his team will still be doing. I warned Mr. B. to be extra careful while the police are moving in on Cramer. He did not mind waiting a little, because once Cramer is out of the way, his whole organization will be weak and easy to crush.
But he also warned me to be careful, Cramer will likely have some of his best men already in place to attack us again. We will be ready for any such attack this time. Now it was time for us to get back home and we were soon flying across the ocean once more. Sometimes I think we spend more time flying than anything else.
This new invention of Kat for making such realistic bullet holes might come in handy on other cases if we want to fake the death of someone. These are special bullets too that put the person to sleep and it really does make it look like the person is dead. Soon we were landing at the airport with another hours drive to get home. We were all looking forward to getting home again.
But, instead of our drivers taking us home, they took us to Baldwin’s office building in the city. Baldwin met us there in his armored car and we went driving around the city for some time before finally stopping at a large home in a certain part of the city. It was one of Baldwin’s safe houses. I did not like the thought of this, it means our chateau had been attacked again. Sure enough, that is what happened.
But they were able to get Sky and the girls out safely, so that made me feel better. However, our chateau had been burned, obviously the work of Cramer’s men in retaliation for burning Cramer’s chateau. Unfortunately, now we have nowhere to live, this house is too small for all of us. But the guys are away for now and they stay at Baldwin’s place anyway.
And with so many still at the clinic, we can make do, though it will still be crowded. Mandar has a small office building he is not using, so he is having that renovated for us, it will make a good temporary home. Apparently it is located in Switzerland, which will be a little different for us too. It is a bit far from the clinic though, so we will use helicopters to travel back and forth.
Well, it seems our part in this case is now over since it is now an active police case and that means we cannot get involved. Well, I guess we can always rest up for a while instead, we do need it again. Kerstina is already working on the antidote for Aari and his team, I sure hope it works. We will find out in a day or two. Hopefully we do get some rest but I doubt we will get it, we seldom do. I wonder what our next case will bring us?
The End. A new case will begin soon!
©2024 Steve McLeod.
