For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The girls were sitting around the room and Sky was looking at me. “Well, do we get to find out who this mysterious Mr. M. is?” she asked. I gave her my phone and she then passed it around to the other girls. Kat handed it back to me. “I certainly did not think of that,” she said. “It appears that Mike, Brent and Dan got the idea a couple of years ago,” I explained, “but they needed money to back their venture.
Everything was going well until about 6 months ago when the backers decided they wanted Mike to be the main man running the operation. That did not sit well with the other 2 and a lot of grumbling and fighting began between them. Finally the backers told Mike it was time to get tough and get rid of his friends and their wives, or they would get rid of all 3 of them.
They also wanted him to get rid of Penny, that is where Blade comes in since Mike could not kill Penny himself.” “That is so compassionate of him,” said Sky sarcastically, “so now he runs that casino by himself.” “Yes, and he hides money and other things for the backers who are involved in all sorts of crime,” I continued, “and now Mike is going to start up doing some of those things here in this little town as well.
Chief Darryl will have his hands full dealing with that sort of crime.” “Yes, this quiet little town will not be so nice if that happens,” added Crystal. The night passed quickly and quietly, which was nice. I needed another good night of sleep, that headache came back again. It must be these late nights, we only get about 4 hours of sleep each night and that is just not enough for me at any time.
We went out for breakfast again and while we were there, the not so friendly crew of 3 came in and sat across the room from us. Guess they do not like sitting close to us. We got our order in and my phone rang. It was Tracy. “Steve, we are at the hospital with Penny,” she said, “she answered the door while we were making breakfast and some guy stabbed her and took off in a fast car.
She is still alive, but it is touch and go right now.” “Stay there with her, at all times!” I said, “I will call Chief Darryl to make sure you do not have trouble with hospital staff.” Darryl went to the hospital right away to explain about the girls guarding Penny, that way they can stay with her at all times. “Sky, let us go and say good morning to our ‘friends’,” I said casually.
We got to their table and I stood there staring at Blade while he continued to eat. He finally stopped and looked at me. “If you do not leave now, you never will,” he said. I then very quickly hit him hard with the back of my fist. That knocked him off his chair, but he quickly got up again and stood like he was going to attack me, holding his knife tightly in his hand.
“You are dead now,” he growled. “You would never get close to me,” I told him, “my wife can pull her gun and shoot, accurately, in just one second. Remember that. Now, remember this also, if Penny dies, you will die too. And there is nowhere you can hide where I cannot find you.”
“You idiot!” exclaimed Brink, “why did you not tell me?” “I do not answer to you,” he replied, “I answer to Mike alone, that is why I am here.” “Then I would suggest you leave, speedily,” I said, “get out of this town by 3pm, or I will hunt you down. That is a promise, and I keep my promises.” “I will leave when Mike tells me to leave,” he said, “not before.”
“Then you better tell Mike what I said Brink,” I said, “you disobeyed what I told you, now you have me and The Fox to worry about. That casino of yours is finished for good.” We then went back to our table, just in time for our food. The other 3 left in a hurry though. This should get interesting now. I doubt that Blade will leave town, not while Penny is still alive.
I put in a call and Team 5 arrived quickly going straight to the hospital to help guard Penny. Meanwhile, “Okay Mike,” said Drake, “we thought you could handle looking after this casino, but it seems we were wrong. You can still be co-manager with Brink and we will take care of that guy that has caused you so many problems. Who is he and where is he?”
He told Drake and they left. After we got back to our room, Kat and I went downstairs to see if they had more painkillers. The man said no, so we drove over to the pharmacy which is fairly close by. It only took a couple of minutes, but as we came out there were 3 men leaning on our car and 4 others came alongside us.
They put us in the car, blindfolded us and off we went. They only said 2 words to us the whole trip and that was “get in”. We drove a long time, hours it seemed like, but finally we stopped…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Good morning on this beautiful, sunny Wednesday! It is quite hazy this morning although I am not sure if that is a smoke haze or not. It is hard to tell from up here, though looking at the leaves on this small tree in front of our building, it does look like it might be from forest fire smoke. The leaves are beginning to change color a bit more in our neighborhood now.
But they are falling off quickly too, before they change color completely. So, we may not get a good color this fall, once again. I might have mentioned that already anyway. On Monday they checked the smoke alarms and the fire alarms. Everything was fine. Then yesterday they came and changed the the smoke alarms. Why? Because it was time to do so.

Song Sparrow. They are heading south now.
So, why did they check them the day before? Because it was time to do so. Seems to me like it was a waste of time to check them knowing they would be changed the next day. But, apparently they did not know they would be changed. Some miscommunication there somewhere. And a waste of time. Plus making noise two days in a row. Sorry for repeating this, but it was kind of crazy.

Fox Sparrow. My favorite sparrow.
Then, 3 hours after putting in the new smoke alarms a different electrician came along to check and make sure the smoke alarms were put in properly. More noise. Poor Muffin. She has not had a good week at all. That loud noise must be hard on her sensitive ears. It was hard on my ears too. But at least I knew what was going on, she did not.
But she seems nicely relaxed again this morning. We had a good playtime. She ate a bigger than normal breakfast. Now she is sleeping. Hopefully it will be a quiet day. Because of all the extra things going on yesterday, I did not get out for my walk. Sigh. But I did spend time on the balcony at least, so i did get some fresh air anyway.

The maple leaves are changing color now.
I will try to get out for a walk again today. After all, this nice weather will not likely last for very long. Something I forgot to mention yesterday. There was a bumble bee on my balcony Sunday afternoon checking out my geraniums. Amazing how it found those flowers way up here. Well, time for another cup of coffee while I do some more straightening up in here. I hope to get back to reading everyone’s blogs soon too. Have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.