 Matt -
I have to admit, I was doing the dishes Saturday evening and I saw some of the neighbor kids passing between houses towards the pond. I watched them from behind my drapes like a weirdo. One kid carried what looked like a sailboat--only it didn't have sails. Another kid had a remote control for it and it swam across the water. Can you guess what conclusion I drew? -KC
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 So I left the copy of Moby Dick on the front steps, on display, like you said. It was gone when I checked on it. My covert stakeout skills suck. I don't know who took it, or where it went.--PLEASE hold your scolding! I did get a footprint in the dirt below the first step! It was a child's footprint (or an adult with abnormally small feet).
-KC  Seriously Matt, I know a three-second Google search would translate MCMXC to 1990. You don't have to be a know-it-all partner like when we were kids! And, yes, we do have some kids on the block. They are about 10--or 12?--but I will NOT stalk them. That's creepy, especially if I'm--as you put it--"discreetly hiding behind a building or bush." I will not be arrested during a Curious Kids escapade! What's Plan B?
-KC  Matt -
Don't worry! Bella is laid to rest next to Mr. Tonkles. Her collar seems normal, no tears or debris. I did notice a bit of yarn on the bottom of the flashlight. I don't know why you need to know, but the flashlight is yellow and the copywriter year of the book is MCMXC - you can translate that. It's one of those large print editions for kids. -KC  Matt -
It's no joke! I swear it really happened! The case of Bella, Book, & Flashlight is officially open! Here are the details: Bella was placed on the doormat, wet. The book was facedown and opened to random crinkled pages. The flashlight was, well, a flashlight, but was left at the top of the stairs, not next to Bella like the book. I can't make sense of it. - KC  Matt -
Remember when we were kids and solved mysteries? Like The Case of the Soda Pop Dandelions? Where we followed footsteps in the dirty, found a patch of the neighbor's law, without dandelions, and Lucy's doll? I think the Curious Kids need a 20 year reunion... because I found Bella, my cat, dead on my doorstep with a flashlight and a tattered, water-worn copy of Moby Dick. What do you think? -KC  Stay tuned for a new special series! These are mini-mysteries are written via postcards. Yes, they really do get sent out and the recipient reads one card (clue?) one week (or so) at a time! The mini-mysteries, however, are all fiction.
I am excited about this exercise--as I buy postcards every time I travel and they mostly sit in a box for years. Wait, does this mean I get to write off my next trip as a business expense? Ha! Stay tuned because this series is coming at ya soon!!  NOTE: This series chronicles the wishes Tina writes in the Wish Journal she received from her aunt when she turned 13. To better understand Tina's character, be sure to read her other wishes in chronological order. It was time, Tina could feel it. It was late spring and the window was left open just a bit so that the crickets serenaded her from afar. The last stroke left Tina's right side nearly useless. Even her grandkids couldn't understand her, couldn't have fun and make memories with her. Before Gemma had left that day, Tina asked her to dig out that old Wish Journal and leave it on the table beside the bed, next to the dinner she didn't have an appetite to eat. She grabbed the pencil foreignly with her left hand and then opened to a clean page in the journal. She rested her dead right arm on it as a paper weight, to keep it from closing on her. Shakily, she began to write the final entry in her Wish Journal. Wish #19: I wish a world of luck and happiness upon my daughter, Gemma. My last wish is for my dear Gemma: the child I hoped and prayed for and loved more than my own life. My wish is that she lives a long a fulfilling life, full of good choices, happy memories, and to always find the positive side.
I wish she will live every day knowing I loved her, up until my last breath and beyond. Both her father and I love her very, very much.  NOTE: This series chronicles the wishes Tina writes in the Wish Journal she received from her aunt when she turned 13. To better understand Tina's character, be sure to read her other wishes in chronological order. Tina was at that age where it hurt to move. Ever since her mild stroke, she had been living in an assisted-living home. Each morning she woke up with the sun illuminating her hospital-like room. She would shuffle down to the Common Room on good days. But on days like today, she sat in the wheel chair beside her bed and watched television until a nurse came in with a meal or medicine. Once a week Gemma would visit with eight year old Vivian and three year old Max. Tina's heartstrings pulled knowing that her grandchildren would never know their grandfather because those memories of Mitch never left her. One could say she almost eagerly waited to be reunited with him, if it wasn't for the weekly visits from her grandchildren. She was having a painful morning, most likely because the grandkids came for a visit yesterday and Tina walked up and down the hallway and out into the garden with them, smiling and laughing at her prodigy. She would have a nap today, there was no doubt about that, and an early bedtime. For now, though, she watched the morning news coverage on the war, the flooding, the hurricane that hit the gulf, and the clear signs of climate change that silly politicians denied half her lifetime ago. She tisked at the state of the world. Then an idea formed in her head, one could tell from the way her head tilted and her eyes drifted from the television set to the cedar chest in the corner. With creaking bones and sore muscles, she used her feet to move the wheel chair into the corner and bent down into the cedar chest. She rummaged around the few precious belongings she was able to keep when the house was sold and she moved into the home. The Wish Journal was old. The leather cover was dried and flaking off in the corners. Some of the pages were warped with moisture and turning colors. There were enough pages for twenty-five wishes, but she knew she didn't need them all. Wish #18: I wish for a better planet for my grandchildren. I wish humankind would get their act together and think of each other instead of themselves. Maybe then Mother Nature would stop punishing them and the innocent.
I wish we could take care of our planet and work with it instead of against it. I wish for a better planet for my grandchild. I wish their children and their children and their children will know what fresh fruit tastes like and the feel of soft grass beneath their feet, and that the sky is blue and the taste of fresh, crisp water. I don't want them to ever go without the simple pleasures that make this life worth living. I wish humankind loved one another as much as they love themselves.  NOTE: This series chronicles the wishes Tina writes in the Wish Journal she received from her aunt when she turned 13. To better understand Tina's character, be sure to read her other wishes in chronological order. It was a cold day in October when another notice came from the bank, threatening to repossess the house unless the mortgage was paid. It's funny; when Mitch and Tina bought the house, they thought they were on track. They made all the right decisions. Then, when Mitch was laid off, they hit a tough spot they barely crawled out from under. And when Mitch got sick a few years back, the medical bills started to add up. The thought of it all still made Tina's stomach knot. It had been years, nearly 32 of them, since Tina last pulled out the Wish Journal. She had all but forgotten about it until her heavily pregnant daughter, Gemma, found it while putting away her mother's laundry. "Hand me that, Gemma. And a pen, too," Tina instructed and with her arthritic hands she began to write, despite Gemma's pessimism. Wish # 17: I wish I could keep this house. I wish to keep this house and home. I wish to wake up every morning for the remainder of my life in my bed, shuffle into the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee, and sit in my blue arm chair to watch television, visit with friends and neighbors, and make all who enter feel at home.
And while home can really be anywhere, I wish to remain in this house where I can live out my days with the memories of Mitch hiding in the corners. I want this to be the house my grandchild remember and where we can make memories that will last longer than me. This place is my livelihood and I wish to keep it. |
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