Chapter 50

In the morning, I awoke to the drip drip drip of thawing. The sun was sparkling through multitudes of gigantic ice spears all along the eaves of my roof. The tradescantia zebrina potted plant hung from the eaves ages ago by persons unknown in an attempt to kill it was blossoming in the low direct sunlight ... in the ice. Its leafy vines were tangled in the clear watery icicles.

I yawned and stretched ... my hand struck one of the numerous Cleveland Engineering boxes stacked in every available space.

“Oh, yeah ... that.”

<Yeah ... that.> thought my nemeses ... nemesis ... whatever. <Where did all this crap come from?>

“You don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?” asked Sally, as she walked around the corner.

“Where all this crap came from.”

“Where DID all this,” an expansive all encompassing gesture of the hands, “Come from?”

“UPS,” I said.

“When?”

“Just before I got to Bree.”

“What?”

“I was having an adventure of the mind and the UPS man knocked. He delivered all this crap,” I explained ... which was no explanation at all.

“Why here?” Sally said. “Why not to the Avocado Garage?” She was looking at the boxes when the address on every exposed box caused her to laugh. “The Log Cabin on Wolf Creek Road? Oh, please, Karen ... you didn’t. You did.” She laughed so hard she had to sit down.

Then came the hiccups. She was in distress.

I walked by on the way to the bathroom. Crossing my eyes and waggling my fingers with my thumbs in my ears, I yelled, “BOO!” right in her face.

She shrieked ... and laughed.

It worked ... the hiccups stopped.

I was pretty smug as I made my way to the throne.

While having my morning ritual I asked, “No school today?”

“According to the radio, the thaw hit in the mountains last night ... severe flooding ... you should see the creek.”

I finished the paperwork and headed out.

I opened the mudroom door. The roar of rushing water was audible. Then I noticed the whole house was shaking ... mini earthquake. As I watched a huge boulder smacked the Wolf Creek bridge and jammed under it. Trees started to collide and tangle. More trash slammed into the jam and water started running over the road.

“Sally. Get in the van.”

I threw on some clothes, opened the gun-safe, grabbed the lock-box and started for the van. Wolf Creek was in flood ... heck ... little Wolf Creek which ran behind the house was overflowing. In ancient times ... perhaps as recent as eleven thousand years ago ... this whole area was a shallow lake. I think we’ll watch from the ridge.

I pulled up in front of Maria de la Natividad Valero y Asensio’s house ... my rent house.