(7:47 am Thu Nov 04, 2010)
(8:24 am Thu Nov 04, 2010)
Well gentle reader, here we are again, time for a little "chat" as it were. I don't know what is happening right now. Or should I say right up in now? It is hard to believe that we find ourselves still on the first novel day when we are already on our fourth novelling day. I did not expect that at all. To top it off, the first novel day is still not over. I keep getting tempted to rush things and just give you a sort of outline summary of the rest of the day but that just never seems right for this part of the story. And so we press bravely on.
(8:30 am Thu Nov 04, 2010) 6619
(8:56 am Thu Nov 04, 2010)
So Baldy burst around the corner at speed and dashed up on the front porch where Mary and Cooper / Buster were sitting, Mary on her wooden rocker and the gull on an ironing board that Mary had brought out and set up. Baldy wondered how she had had the time to do that. Sometimes she amazed him.
"OK, so what's the plan Mary? You wanna get the barbecue going?"
"Let's see, we don't want to risk an open flame if we don't have to, no need to risk setting the thing on fire. I could try my hear dryer or maybe a lamp."
"Not the hair dryer Mary, that thing hurts my ears. Try the light bulb."
"I think we should try the lamp first, what do you say?"
"That's what I'm talking about. You should listen to me more often."
So Mary went in the house and came back a few minutes later trailing a drop cord and with a table lamp missing the shade in her hand. She set the lamp down on the wooden boards of the porch and turned it on then went back inside.
A minute or so later she came back out with the map in her hand and sat back down in her rocker.
(9:09 am Thu Nov 04, 2010) 6844
(2:29 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010)
(3:34 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010)
Am I good at burning time or what gentle reader?
The heat from the light bulb revealed more of a map and more text:
Wisdom before treasure.
Je vydt jxyi jhuqikhu
Oek ckij vyhij vydu myitec
Jxud myitec qdt jxu dehjx ijqh
Mybb wylu oek oekh vyhij sbku
The teacher says to look for important information below the door of my house.
Cooper started to laugh.
Baldy was angry. "What are you laughing at gully? How does this help? What is this gibberish?"
"Looks like I am not the only one going wisdom giver on you poochie. You treasure map looks to be trying it on for size too."
"Hey, the name is Baldy. Don't start with poochie around here! And what sort of wisdom giving is that? Wisdom before treasure?'"
"You two sure are excited. So Buster, I are you going to be like Baldy and get all excited over every little thing?"
"Hey! Come on now Mary, I don't get excited over everything. You know I am one cool doog. And the bird's name is Cooper by the way, not Buster."
"Yap, yap, yap... What are you so excited about Baldy?"
"I hate it when she ignores me like that. Well Cooper, I tried to tell her to stop calling you Buster, let's see if she pays any attention to that."
"Ah wisdom. So. It comes before treasure huh. I wonder what that means. And what about the gibberish? Do you know anything about codes Baldy?"
(Now gentle reader. Don't go trying to break these codes for yourself. For one thing, you only have the codes and not the drawings so you are not likely to find the treasure location from them in the first place. For another thing, you might run into technical measures / anti circumvention gotchas depending on what country you live in. You don't want that. For still another thing, all will be made clear in the right time. And for the last thing, I have already collected any treasure that there might have been for my own self. Or at least I will have done so before you get a chance to get it. So you see, there is really no reason for you to get all excited over the treasure on your own behalf. It is more than acceptable to get excited on Baldy's behalf though. Or Mary's or Cooper / Buster's.)
(3:55 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010)
(4:47 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010)
(Yo ho!
I want to know,
Where did my time go?)
"No. I don't know much of anything about codes. You?"
No, not really. What about Mary?"
"I don't really know but she may, she is pretty smart, plus she seems to be able to find out about pretty much anything she wants so that may be a good idea. What about it Mary? Can you tell us what that says?"
(5:31 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010) 7345
"Hmmm, The teacher says too look for important information below the door of my house. We need to figure out which teacher this is. What do you guys say?"
"I have to think about this some. I gotta go take a nap, perhaps I can dream the solution to this whole thing. You put your brain to work to Cooper. I will check with you and Mary in the morning. I'm gone."
"Later doog."
"Where are you heading Baldy, how can you check out now just when it is getting exciting?"
Baldy didn't bother responding to that. He was to worn out to be much use to anyone anyway wo why not check out.
After Baldy left, Mary and Cooper / Buster pondered over the map for a good while longer but did not make any real progress at all. Eventually Mary gave up and packed it in for the night. She took the map and the lamp inside and then pulled the drop cord in and coiled it and put it away in the cupboard. She then went out to her shed and got a broom handle from an old broken broom and wedged it in the corner of her bathroom as a perch for Cooper / Buster for the night. She thought about putting up in the dilly tree with Baldy but sometimes raccoons or feral cats came around at night and she did not want to trust to Baldy to wake up in time.
(6:02 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010)
And we're finally back to syncing novel time and novelling time gentle reader. Yes, I haven't told you yet what happened on the days in between but I can give you a quick run down as not much progress was made on the map front.
OK, so basically Mary began to feel better as a result of her little salt water therapy, Baldy and Buster went through bouts of getting along famously and bouts of getting on each other nerves, kicking up a serious racket during the latter. Oh, yeah, Buster decided to go along with being called Buster for the duration of his stay with his new friends. It was getting too confusing being called Cooper by Baldy and Buster by Mary so she asked Badly to switch.
Everyone worked on figuring out the map during spare moments throughout the day and during meal times. But no one made any real progress or even had any semi bright ideas on how to proceed.
And so the days passed. And so we are back in the united present.
(6:48 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010)
The little family is sitting at the dinner table in the neat little clapboard home. Baldy has been getting more and more antsy with each passing no progress hour. So much so that he has become mostly unbearable and Mary and Buster have both independently put their minds to the problem with a will, trying to come up with some idea to settle baldy down and give him some direction to get his mind moving in some positive direction.
It was as he was eating some jack fish that Buster had a brain wave. "Hey Baldy, you know how that map is talking about wisdom?"
"Yes. Don't rub it in again please."
"Oh, I am not about to rub it in, far from it. I don't think I could take another day of you like this. No, I have an idea that may help us get moving towards a solution to this puzzle. OK, so wisdom. Who is wiser than the owl? I just remembered that I know this old owl who lives out South Beach way. Down Marshall Drive past the boat ramp. We should go find him tomorrow and see if he might have some clues for us. He may know about breaking codes too."
"Well, what are we waiting for, let's get going!"
"What now? I said tomorrow. We haven't even finished dinner yet."
"Who care about dinner, let's get going."
"I am not going anywhere tonight. You are on your own mabeezo."
"Come on man, how am I going to find an owl on my own at night? You need to come with me."
"Nothing doing, tomorrow, let's get a good night's sleep and head out in the morning."
Baldy finished the food in his bowl and got up, "Forget you then, I am going on my own. At least give me the best directions you can, OK?"
(6:48 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010) 8101
"OK, so you go out Blue Hill Road almost to the end and then take a right on Marshall Drive just before you get to the ZNS radio towers."
"You mean the ones where the copper went missing from a while back?"
"That's the ones. OK, so then you keep on Marshall Drive while it curves and turns and you will eventually come to a T junction, go right and then keep on going on Marshall until you see a building on your left that looks like a fort. Just to the west of that across the street is where the owl hangs out most of the time. But seriously Baldy, it is night, he may be out hunting. We should wait until tomorrow."
"Thanks Buster, I am gone, if he is not there, I will just hang around until he comes back. later."
So Baldy ducked out of the house without letting on to Mary where he was heading. When he had gone, Mary went to the kitchen to do the dishes and Buster went to the phone and placed a call to South Beach. He managed to get in touch with Zevelyn, a wise old owl.
"Hey, Zevelyn, can you hear me? Yeah, this is Buster, no wait! This is Cooper. Yeah Cooper, the sea gull you met two years ago out by lake Cunningham. Right. No, I haven't really changed my name. I injured my wing the other day and the lady who is nursing me cant seems to say Cooper so she is calling me Buster and I have just sort of decided to go along and not fight it and it is growing on me some. Sorry."
(7:45 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010)
"So listen, I sent this dog Baldy out to consult with you to see if you can help him to figure out this treasure map. At least it is a map and we all think it is a treasure map. So see if you can help him but either way, send him further. We need to keep him occupied, he is driving us crazy."
(8:00 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010)
"You sure you want me to do that to your friend Cooper? That may not work out so well for you in the end."
"Yeah, do it for me please."
And so the stage is set gentle reader. Baldy is off on his quest for treasure but he has been warned 'Wisdom before treasure' and he is off to consult with a wise old owl. A wise old owl who has been clued in to help him and / or send him on. And so the day's quota of words have found their way into existence and it is time to shut down the factory until the dawn. Good night gentle reader and sweet dreams.
(8:11 pm Thu Nov 04, 2010) 8581
No comments:
Post a Comment