The Overachiever

Posted on April 17, 2021 by hdh

O – The Overachiever…If you only really knew him

Larry was an overachiever. Everyone knew it, yet he was still liked and trusted. That was a big mistake. For you see he only gave the appearance of being an overachiever. In fact, he mastered the way to deceive people into believing that he’d done things in his past, that he hadn’t really done. 

Larry was a go-getter in high school. He was involved in lots of after-school clubs and activities. That was probably why he was so well-liked. Everybody knew him. He was on the high school’s championship football and baseball team. Actually, he was the gofer on the football team and the batboy for the baseball team. But that counts that he was on the team. All the players and coaches appreciated all the work he did. So, onto his resume, he wrote that he was on the championship high school football and baseball teams. 

His college credits included a 3.89 average. Granted that only happened during one semester, and that was the semester the faculty went on strike and the COVID shutdown occurred, all of which when resolved allowed students to get grades of Pass/Fail instead of letter grades in any course they took in their major. Larry would have received D’s in 2 of his major subject classes which would have brought his GPA down to 2.13, but by allowing him to take those classes Pass/Fail, his average for the semester was 3.89. No job application ever specified what the college GPA you put down represented. It was assumed it was an average for his entire four years.  He actually graduated with a GPA of 2.57. Yet based on what he put on his application, he was looked upon as a top-notch student.

That helped him get a job with a prestigious securities exchange firm. Of course, they realized really early that his math and economic skills weren’t the best and he was quickly demoted to do menial tasks. The company did not want to fire him with the credentials he professed; fearing lawsuits and the like they kept him on. All he said to others was that he worked for their company, and no one questioned doing what.

And then his great uncle Marvin died. He was a very rich great uncle. Larry had been buttering his uncle up for years spouting of all his accomplishments and the many places Larry had been to. It helped that Larry played GeoGuessr* on his computer a lot. Larry could name places his uncle had never even heard of and he made up stories about all the streets he’d traveled on. If his uncle ever wanted to check to see if Larry was telling the truth, his uncle would have discovered that the places Larry referred to were real. 

So it was no surprise that Larry inherited the bulk of his uncle’s money. Larry quit his job. Now he could do all of the things he claimed he did. But why bother? He liked how he lived. He liked being admired for things he didn’t do. There was no need to change. He just continued his life of luxury and deceit. 

Sometimes living out a lie works. 

——————–

*GeoGuessr is a geography game that takes you on a journey around the world and challenges your ability to recognize your surroundings. https://www.geoguessr.com/

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

N – Nanites: the Next Generation

Posted on April 16, 2021 by hdh

N – Nanites: the Next Generation

Did you ever dream that you were in a movie you’d just seen? Or you are in a movie that you saw ages ago? Combine that dream with an imaginative mind and sense of adventure and you have my latest wish: To be a transportable nanite in a living organism. My wish is not to re-enact the movie but to be put in a similar environment. 

For those of you that don’t know what a nanite is, it is another term for nanobot, which is A very small autonomous robot, typically the size of a biological cell, designed to work alone or in very large numbers to achieve some task. 

Two movies that come to mind, which didn’t involve nanites, but did involve shrinking someone or something to a microscopic level are “Fantastic Voyage” (1966) where a scientist is nearly assassinated and a submarine filled with scientists and doctors is shrunk and injected into the ailing scientist’s body to cure him, and the movie “InnerSpace” (1987) where Dennis Quaid is shrunk and instead of being injected into a rabbit, he accidentally gets injected into Martin Short and lots of adventures follow. 

Imagine how much you could learn about science if you were actually inside the subject that you were studying. You want to know how the brain works, this way seems a lot more productive than probes and an MRI. You could move to and from different parts of the brain and follow neural pathways. You could better understand the functions and parts of different organs in a living body. Even in a dead body, your autopsies would be much more reliable. 

Think of how you might be able to discover cures for diseases or mental illnesses. Your little nanite self would not only be able to collect data but also initiate repairs. Personally, I think being able to do that would be very cool. 

How about using nanite-you in a witness protection plan. You are reduced to a nanite and hidden away in a secure person or animal instead of a safe house. 

The more I dream of this idea and think about its potential, the more real it becomes to me. 

My latest dream involves me being a nanite in my own body that I can communicate with from outside my body and direct to look out for me. 

  • “Nanite-me, schedule me for a 10-minute nap and make sure all my vitals are appropriately replenished.” 
  • “Nanite-me, remind me about calling my son at 4:00 and reduce the guilt response.” 
  • “Nanite-me, when I’m playing softball today, pay attention to where I want to hit the ball and adjust my swing accordingly.”
  • “Nanite-me, I would like to surprise my wife with a romantic dinner tonight, please signal her nanite privately to please reduce all her anxiety and frustration levels prior to coming home and maintain the appropriate pheromones I exude on her arrival. “

Now I’m sure that a lot of you out there have a different opinion on the use of nanites in this fashion. There are of course ethical and moral issues with this ability. Invasion of privacy, the right to be who you want to be, culpability should something go wrong with what you do, to name a few. I’m sure lawyers will make a bundle, should this ever come to pass. And it should be noted that nanites in science fiction shows and movies seem to always wreak havoc.

However, to all you nay-sayers, this is my dream. I think it would be a fun way to use nanites. Feel free to wish or dream your own ways to use or not use them.  

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

What’s in the bag? (unabridged)

Posted on April 15, 2021 by hdh

B – What’s in the Bag?

If there is one thing I hate doing, it’s laundry. If I owned a washer and dryer, it might be easier to get my laundry done, but I don’t. So every week or so I fill up a bag with laundry and trudge on down to the laundromat. It’s so boring. I have better things to do.  Most of the time I just start my laundry and leave. At some point, I come back, and if I’m lucky and late some other customer got pissed off enough that I wasn’t there and has taken my laundry out for me and dumped it on a table. The same thing goes for the dryer. I mean, who wants to wait in a laundromat for over 2 hours. Not me. 

Things changed yesterday. I did my usual trip, brought my bag of laundry, threw the clothes in the machine, and left. I got delayed at the bar I frequent, so didn’t return until 3 hours later. When I got there, there was no one in the place. My wet clothes which should have been either in a washing machine or thrown out on one of the tables were nowhere to be seen. However, I did notice my laundry bag in a corner, tucked in behind one of the dryers. I checked the bag and it was mine; no one else would put their laundry in a tie-dyed bag with a sign on it that said, “If found, please wash or burn”.

Someone must have not only unloaded my clothes but then dried them, folded them neatly, and even wrapped them in separate packages of parcel paper. Not wanting to appear ungrateful, I wrote a thank you note and signed it with my first name. No need to give more information out than necessary. 

The bag seemed a lot heavier than I thought it would be. It must have been due to the excess wrapping paper. When I got home I just threw the bag on a chair next to my bed and didn’t give it another thought until this morning. 

I dumped all of the packages onto my bed. The strange thing about it was that all the packages were pretty much the same size. I hadn’t noticed that yesterday. I was beginning to get suspicious. I carefully unwrapped one of the top parcels and found it was a pair of my pants and t-shirt. However, to my surprise, the package underneath it did not contain any of my clothes. It contained a stack of $100 bills. In fact, 500 hundred of them. As I moved on to open other packages they pretty much all contained large stacks of money. When I was done, I had unpackaged, two shirts, one pair of pants, 6 pairs of socks, and $500,000. 

I wasn’t sure what to do next. Should I go back to the laundromat and return the bag with the money? Should I go back to the laundromat and try to retrieve the note I left and then keep the money? Should I report what I had found to the police? 

… to be continued in “D – Decision to be made.”

Continue reading →

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

M – Where’s the money?

Posted on April 15, 2021 by hdh

“This is a conclusion of B – What’s in the Bag?. It was followed by D – Decision to be made, G – Gone!, and J – Jeff comes up with a plan. You may want to read them first if you haven’t already.”

M – Where’s the Money?

As soon as Eve/Yves left, I got a call from Jeff. “Well done, Now we wait.” 

I was confused. “Wait for what? They have the key, meaning now they have access to $400,000. Aren’t they going to just take it and run?”

“You might think that,” Jeff explained, “but those two are greedy. Once they figure out that what they have is $100,000 short, they’ll be back. They won’t get away, we have them covered. However, if we nab them now, they’ll be able to implicate you and Ronald in their scheme. We need to catch them with all the money.”

So now the scenario was changed. With one day left on their 3 days warning to me both of the crooks were watched carefully. Making sure that they weren’t anyway near my house, both Larson and Jeff staked out my house. Hidden cameras and more mics were installed and we waited. We didn’t have long to wait.

It was early the next day that I got a call from Eve. She said that she had recovered the money and had passed the money on to her organization as it was intended. She said that was coming over to my house to return the key and lockbox. I told her that I was happy they were successful, hoped the immigrants appreciated the donation, and awaited the return of the key and lockbox. 

When they arrived at my house, all was set in place. I let both Eve and Yves into my living room. Not surprisingly they weren’t carrying a lockbox.

“Where’s the lockbox and key?” I asked, sounding confused. 

“Oh yeah, about that,” said Yves, pulling out a gun and aiming it in my direction. “There appears to be some of the money missing. You wouldn’t by any chance know where it might be?”

Jeff had warned me this might happen but assured me that I would be all right. Staring at a gun aimed at me did not inspire my confidence in Jeff.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” I replied.

“You’ve got a choice, Harvey.” Eve pointed out, “You can give us the money, or you can give us your life. Pick one…and I’d do it quickly if I were you. We’ve got a plane to catch.”

Jeff had suggested that I act afraid for the next part. Trust me I had no problem showing fear at this point. 

I pointed to my stereo cabinet and said that the money was in there. 

Eve went over to the cabinet and opened it. Inside she found my tie-dyed laundry bag filled with $100,000. “I trust it’s all there.” She said glaring at me. 

I replied, “It is. When would I have had time to do anything with it?”

“Good answer” was Yves’ snarky remark.

“This money isn’t going to help immigrants is it?” I asked.

“Yeah right,” Yves answered, “We go to all the trouble of taking this money off of Chase’s hands just so we can help some lousy foreigners. Do you think we’re stupid or something? The two of us did the work, we get the rewards. Now if you excuse us, we’ll take our leave.”

“I think you’ve said enough,” Eve called out to her partner. Then turning back to me she said, “It’s in your best interest to forget this ever happened. We’ll be long gone before you can do anything about it.”

The next thing I know, I’m tied up and gagged and they leave. I guess they didn’t want to have a murder charge added to any of their crimes, should they ever be found out. 

And found out was, in fact, exactly what happened. No sooner had they left the house Larson and Jeff came out from my back room, untied me, and then joined a number of police at the thieves’ car and arrested them. It didn’t help their cause that they were in possession of the $500,000 ($400,000 from their trunk and $100,000 in a tie-dyed laundry bag) and that the serial numbers of the bills matched the ones that had been stolen from Chase Bank.

To top it all off, I received a $10,000 reward for not only providing information but actual assistance in the capturing of the culprits. 

And what did I do with the money? I gave $500 to Ronald. Even though he had lied to me and had taken some of the money, he was still my friend and did get his house messed up. After speaking with Rhonda, I was pointed to an organization called “Make the Road New York” which is a real organization that helps immigrants and working-class people achieve dignity and justice. I donated $8,000 to them. As for the remaining $1,500, you better believe that I bought myself a washer and dryer for my house. There is no way I wanted to see the inside of a laundromat again.

    

—————

Special thanks to two of my writing group friends, Rhonda and Jeff, for their help in giving me direction for this story. They are not to be confused with the Rhonda and Jeff that helped me solve this crime. Check on Yves and Eve’s arrest record and trial if you doubt me.

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

L – Lego Man

Posted on April 14, 2021 by hdh

L – Lego Man

From early childhood to his pre-adolescent days, my son’s collection of Lego pieces increased geometrically. He had everything from basic sets, to Star Wars collections, to Pirate adventures and more. It got to a point that we ended up buying large shelving units with multiple bins from Ikea, just so we could store some of his completed projects as well as the plethora of loose pieces from disassembled creations. 

We even went on a vacation to Legoland in California when he was 10 years old.

His desire to have more legos and to create real things with them increased a thousandfold after that trip. 

I don’t remember when it happened. I’m still not sure if it was a dream or reality. As I woke up that day, I felt very stiff. My skin felt rather brittle and moving was difficult, more robotic than natural. As I reached the bathroom and looked in the mirror over the sink, I knew what was wrong. I had turned into a Lego man. 

I called downstairs but no one answered. As I walked to the stairway I noticed that everything around me, the walls, the stairs, the windows, and doors were all built out of legos. As I stepped outside I saw an entire landscape of lego construction. What does one do when one discovers that their world has turned to lego? It was very hard to walk, for every step I took connected me to the floor, step, or ground that I was attempting to walk on. On the plus side, as hard as it was to move, being planted on the surface made it less likely that I was going to fall down and get hurt.

And then I saw him. It was my son. He was real and not lego.  I could tell by the smile on his face that he had accomplished something that no one had done before. Not only had he built an entire lego environment, but it appeared that he had created his own lego family as well. I assumed my lego wife was somewhere else or he hadn’t constructed her yet. 

I didn’t know whether to feel proud and congratulate him on his achievement or get angry at him for what he had done to me. He slowly came up to me and put his hand on my arm. I felt a twisting motion and a popping sound, like my arm was being pulled out of its socket and that was all. 

The next thing I knew I was back in bed again, only this time it was a lot easier to move around. A quick look at myself in the bathroom mirror showed that everything was back to normal. 

I rushed downstairs and into my son’s room just as he was putting some legos back in a bin on his shelf. 

“I just had the craziest dream,” I said to him. 

“I don’t think so,” was his reply and he just smiled at me, with that same smile that he had had on his face when I had seen him as Lego man. 

We never spoke of it again. But every once in a while when I would walk in on him while he was building something with Legos, he would just tilt his head at me, nod, and give a  knowing little smirk.

My son grew up, graduated college, got married, and is now living far away from us in a house with his wife in Virginia. For the most part, his Legos remain, stored in those same bins in our basement. Some pieces have been given away to others, but the rest of his collection of random pieces lives on as does some of the major creations he made. All except for that one big construction that I’m sure he made way back when that I guess I’ll never really find out if it was real or just a dream. 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

K – Kitten, the afterlife for me

Posted on April 13, 2021 by hdh

K – Kitten, the afterlife for me

    Have you ever thought about the afterlife? Does your soul go to another plane of existence, either up or down, or maybe even parallel? Or are you reincarnated as someone else at some future time? My personal preference is that you are given a choice. Kind of like, when you were in college and you might have taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator survey to see what type of work you were best suited for. Only in this instance as you are approaching your demise all your life’s information is fed into a supercomputer (real or ethereal) and it determines what the best placement for you in your afterlife is. 

    My result, I’m sure would be to return as a kitten. Think about…

    I’m always curious and want to explore new things. I enjoy being hugged and comforted. I always am on the move. Other than sleeping, I want to get up and go and do lots of things at the same time. I don’t consider myself a morning person nor a night owl, though if something interests me I’m ready to go. I certainly have no aversion to napping, though sleeping 16 hours a day might be a bit much. 

    I do love baking and cooking things at times, but to have an owner that serves me all the time. I could live with that. 

    Occasionally I do get into mischief. But most cat owners I know, just accept mischief as part of being a cat. As a kitten, you get even more leeway. 

    I probably wouldn’t be too keen on licking myself clean all the time instead of taking showers, but on the positive side, your cleaning tools are always with you. 

    And the thing about kittens is that they grow up to be cats, which is cool. I’ll still be able to jump and play and as a cat and you have much more control over your environment and the people you interact with, meaning you’re the boss. You also get to have nine different lives before you have to take the next survey for your future life placement. 

    So that’s where I stand. When it’s my time, there is no need to give me the placement form. It’s pretty clear where I should be placed. 

And if perchance, for whatever reason I don’t qualify as a kitten, PLEASE don’t make me a dog!

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

J – Jeff comes up with a plan

Posted on April 12, 2021 by hdh

“This is a continuation of B – What’s in the Bag?. It was followed by D – Decision to be made and G – Gone!. You may want to read them first if you haven’t already.”

J – Jeff Comes Up With a Plan

I got hold of Jeff right away and explained the situation to him. He had me ask Ronald if he had called the police yet about the break-in? Ronald said that he hadn’t. Jeff told me to sit tight for a while as he had some things to check out and said he would call me back within the hour and not to let Ronald notify the police. 

It only took 45 minutes for Jeff to get back to me. He gave me some instructions as to what to ask Ronald and then told me that he was not going to contact me again until the time was right. He said any communication with me should go through his friend Rhonda. 

Jeff had been friends with Rhonda since their college days. I knew that she was a retired CIA agent in covert operations. Now she worked as an advisor to certain art museums and charity groups. I had met her a few times at some of the writing groups I attended with Jeff. The interesting thing about Rhonda was she never looked the same and she never used the same name. Jeff had explained that it was part of her CIA cover. I got used to it. 

Jeff’s idea was that, as a cop, he might be recognized by those involved in the bank heist. Based on the description I gave of Eve, Jeff said she was an employee of Chase Bank, and probably with the help of the other Yves were the people the police were looking for. Jeff had a plan to catch them, but it all depended on the answers that Ronald gave me. Based on stories I had shared about Ronald with Jeff, he seemed to have the same opinion of Ronald as my parents. 

After I hung up with Jeff, I confronted Ronald. The two questions I asked him were – What was the real story behind the stolen money? and  How much of the $500,000 did he still have that he didn’t put in the lockbox?

At first, Ronald tried to convince me that the story was real and that all the money was taken. But even I knew Ronald well enough to know that he was lying. Eventually, I got the truth.

After I had left Ronald with the money he took it to the lockbox. This was a very strong lockbox with only one key, which he had. When he purchased it he was told that it was super secure and that nothing could break into it without the key. As he was putting the money into the box, his greed got the best of him and he decided to skim some of the money from the bag. In fact, he skimmed $100,000 of it and stashed it between his mattress pad and box spring in his bedroom. As luck would have it, the lockbox had been found by the thieves but the $100,000 had not. The part about him going to the store for the paper and coming back to the trashed house was the only true part of his story, so guess he hadn’t actually lied to me; he just left out a bit of information. He tends to do that a lot.

I called Rhonda on the phone and explained what Ronald had reluctantly shared with me. To my surprise, Rhonda said that was what Jeff was hoping for. Rhonda told me that the next part of Jeff’s plan all depended on me and on the inexperience and greed of the crooks. I was to wait for 2 days and call Eve up and arrange for a meeting. Rhonda said from this point on, I would always be watched and wired. I was to meet with Eve and Yves at my house. I was to tell them that I discovered that the money had been in a lockbox but the lockbox was stolen. I was to tell them that the money should be safe since I was the only one with the key for it. And then say nothing more and let Eve make the next move.

It was clear that Jeff and Rhonda were not letting me in on the entire plan, but I did what I was told. Rhonda visited me later that afternoon under the guise of an old friend named Pat with her boyfriend Larson. Larson was the guy who wired me up and told me how it worked. After they left, I occasionally went out on errands but nowhere in particular. I knew that Rhonda was having me watched, but I didn’t see anyone.

Ronald had to give up the $100,000 to me and the key to the lockbox. Jeff sent someone to his house to relieve Ronald of both items and to make sure that he stayed in his house for the duration of my activities. 

After 2 days I made the call. Both Eve and Yves agreed to meet with me. I did exactly as Jeff said. They both reacted with enthusiasm. 

“That’s great news,” said Eve. “Why don’t you give us the key for safekeeping? Then you can continue trying to find the money.”

Had I not known that they were the crooks, I would have begun to be suspicious, but I played dumb and said, “That sounds like a good idea,” and gave them the key. 

…to be concluded in “M – Where’s the  Money?” 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , | 3 Comments

I – Island Wish

Posted on April 10, 2021 by hdh

 

I – Island Wish

 

I didn’t believe in wishing wells. That was until I was visiting my old friend, Dave, in the backwoods of his home upstate and he had one of those old-style in-ground water wells. You know the kind that is built of stone and have a wooden crosspiece built over the opening. Where a bucket is attached to a long rope. You drop the bucket down into the well and then crank it up until you find the bucket full of water. 

Dave told me it was a wishing well. All I had to do was throw in a coin and wish for something. I humored him by taking a quarter out of my pocket and tossing it in the well and made a wish. “I wish I was on a deserted island,” I said out loud.

I really should have been more specific with my wish, for the next thing I knew I was standing on, you guessed it, a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. 

It’s been three days now since I got here. There are some woods on the island where I found shelter and fresh streams with water I can drink. I have managed to find some berries and other edible plants that have sustained me, but that’s about it. 

When I go to the shore all I see is an endless skyline and water. The island itself is very small. I can walk the circumference of it in about 2 hours. It’s made up of white beach sand on the perimeter, bordering a dense forest of trees and greenery covering the center part of the land portion. There are some pathways through the forest, but they don’t lead anywhere in particular. As to wildlife, I see very little other than birds that come and go with the island winds. Luckily for me, the weather is somewhat warm during the day and cool but not unbearable during the night. 

I can not see any way off of this island. Like I said I should have been more specific with my wish. I’m hoping that Dave figures out that I’m missing and can figure out a way to find me. Of course, that would assume time passes at the same rate here on this island. 

What I find interesting is that there is always enough for me to eat and drink. No matter how much I pick or find, there is always more food and water at the same place that I had picked over the day before. 

I will say this.  It is very peaceful here, though occasionally I do miss company. I certainly don’t miss the frenetic craziness of my real world with its Pandemic restrictions. 

So that’s it. Here I am, now a true believer in wishing wells, wishing that I had wished for a working wishing well on this island. 

————-

 

Author’s note: A week later I was wished back to Dave’s house by Dave himself. He had figured I had learned what I was destined to learn. We didn’t speak of it again.

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

H – Hearing, What did you say?

Posted on April 9, 2021 by hdh

H – Hearing, What did you say?

Did you ever wish you could hear differently than you do now? I do. 

When I was young I heard everything, whether I wanted to or not. My parents talking in the hall about where they could afford to send me to camp. My friends and not-so-friends talking about me when they thought I wasn’t paying attention. The actual dialogue in movies I went to. My older sisters modeling teenage behavior in their interactions with my parents so that I could be prepared when I reached their age. 

When I was outside I could hear every nuance of animals making noise. The wind as it rustled up leaves or blew through the air pushing clouds through the sky. The mosquitoes and bees as they targeted me for food and pleasure. The sound of the Good Humor and Bungalow Bar ice cream trucks.

Thinking back to those days, I miss all of the sounds that accompanied the sights all around me that aren’t as obvious to my ears now. 

As I grew older there came a time when I learned how to shut out some of the sounds that I heard. My parents arguing. The sounds of my Chemistry teacher who used to drag chalk across the blackboards creating a high-pitched squeal, just to get his students’ attention. Through the paper-thin walls of my college dorm room, I could hear from the next room either a loud blasting stereo or tv or his girlfriend’s commentary on his amorous prowess, “Will you stop laughing? Will you stop laughing?”  It may have made me laugh, but I still needed my sleep for the big test the next day. 

Now we come to my older ages. I wrote a little about this during my first year of doing the A to Z Blog Challenge in 2016 https://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=550. Now, I get a piece of junk mailing about every 3 weeks, inviting me to get a free hearing test so that someone can sell me hearing aids, even before they know that I might need them. It’s also where at least once a day in talking with my wife or someone else, I have to ask, “What did you say? Because this is what I heard…” 

Here are a few new examples of mishearing people since the 2016 piece:

  • My son was giving us a tour of the university he works at and commented about the “newness of the university.” To which I replied, “What about the nudists of the university?”

 

  • My wife was in the bathroom washing her face and said that she had “splashed herself” My response, “You flashed yourself?”

 

  • Sitting on the couch responding to whatever the request was with, “I’ll get up if you insist.” prompted her confusion, “What did you say about heating strips?”

 

  • And finally when responding to my question “What are you looking for?” I heard, “I’m passing gas” from the kitchen instead of “half and half”. 

 

Though my hearing nowadays does give us lots to chuckle about, it also misses a lot of sounds that used to provide me comfort. The ambient sounds that I hear now are more likely to be an air filter or computer fan. And then there is that perpetual hiss that I get in my right hear constantly from tinnitus. 

I can compensate sometimes by putting on wireless headphones that focus the sound directly to my ears. This works well when doing foreign language tapes or when listening to either low voices or heavily accented dialogue on TV. Nothing seems to help when I’m in a crowd or in a noisy environment. I guess all this is expected as you age. 

So I occasionally do take those hearing tests. I’m informed that my hearing is okay for my age, and that hearing aids might help me but aren’t imperative. Since hearing aids are not covered very well by insurance, I live with what I have, “Okay hearing for my age.” 

What’s that I just said, “Soaking herring in port mayonnaise?”  Well, you know what I mean. 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Personal Stories, Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

G – Gone!

Posted on April 8, 2021 by hdh

“This is a continuation of B – What’s in the Bag?. It was followed by D – Decision to be made. You may want to read them first if you haven’t already.”

G – Gone!

I grabbed a jacket and left my house and headed for Ronald’s. I had not gone more than a block when I noticed a car with tinted windows following me on the road. I knew it was following me because it went at the same speed I was going at. When I stopped, it stopped. When I moved, no matter what speed, it matched me. I didn’t know whether to run and try to escape or stop and confront the driver. I tend not to be very brave in times like these, not that I’ve been in a situation like this before. I prepared to run.

Needless to say, my hesitation was noticed and the decision was taken out of my hands. The car pulled right in front of me, the passenger door swung open and the driver called out, “Get in the car!” He had a slight French accent. This wasn’t a request. 

As I said I’m not a very brave person so I did what was asked. 

When I got into the car, the driver said, “Close the door!” rather emphatically. Which I did. The driver was a rather tall, muscular man. His hair was slightly gray. He looked to be in his late 60s.

“Where’s the money?” was the next thing out of his mouth. 

“Wha…Wha…What money?” I replied.

“Don’t play stupid with me, what did you do with the money in the bag?”

Before I could even consider an answer, a voice from the back of the car piped up. “Yves, don’t be so rough on the boy, or we won’t get his help.” I turned around to look and there in the back seat was a woman, with dyed red hair, brown eyes, and what appeared to be a pleasant disposition. She looked to be in her 50s. She had a gentle smile on her face as she looked at me and said, “Don’t be alarmed, Harvey, we need your help in finding our money. My name is Eve, same as my driver, only spelled differently. We work for an organization called Rescue Undocumented Immigrants Now. We raise funds to help those poor people that want to become hardworking members of our country. We were supposed to receive an anonymous donation of money a few weeks ago. It was supposed to be left at a local laundromat. When we got there the money was gone. There was a note with your name on it. But no one else was around. We, unfortunately, left the note there. It took us a while, but as you can see we discovered where you lived. Isn’t the Internet wonderful for finding people? Now can you help us find the money? Those immigrants are in desperate need. 

It sounded true to me. She had such a way with words. I told her I didn’t have the money anymore but would try to find it and get it back to her. She seemed pleased. 

“Thank you so much, we do appreciate it.” She handed me a card with her phone number on it and said that she would be in the area for only three days. “Just give me a call when you have the money.”

I opened the car door to get out and as I was about to shut it, Yves, the driver, called out, “Don’t forget, you got three days to get our money back. You don’t want to know what will happen if you don’t find it. Our donor, will not be very happy.”

With that, I closed the door and their car sped off. I immediately ran to Ronald’s house. When I got there and knocked on his door, he opened it an inch to see who was there. Seeing me, he opened the door wider, grabbed me, yanked me into the entryway, slamming the door and locking it behind me. 

My eyes surveyed his front room. It looked like a tornado had hit it. Furniture was tossed all over the place, pictures were torn off the wall, floorboards pulled up. All he could do was hand me a copy of today’s Newsday, and pointed to the headline on the front page. 

 “$500,000 Stolen From Chase Bank”.  

A quick read explained about a robbery that had occurred 4 weeks ago that was just being publicized now. Police were looking for anyone that had information that would help in the apprehension of the criminals involved. A reward was mentioned. 

Before Ronald could tell me what had happened, I told him what had happened to me.

He told me his story about stepping out to buy the paper that morning and coming home to the mess I saw now. He cried out, “That’s it! Forget what I said, I want nothing to do with that money.” 

“But we have to do something. We have important information that could help the police. And there is a reward also.”

“You’re on your own,” Ronald said.

There are some risks Ronald will take. Obviously, this wasn’t one of them.

I thought about what to do. I did have a friend in the police force. I was pretty sure he would be discrete and give me a hand. I took out my cell phone and dialed Jeff’s number. Jeff Jameson was a 7th precinct detective and has been a friend of mine ever since we met at the community group center working on writing grants. He’d know what to do. 

…to be continued in “J – Jeff comes up with a plan”

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2021, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , | 6 Comments