Reading The Clues

Another mystery dropped itself in Mrs. HM's nonexistent lap on Friday at 1:40 p.m. I was sitting at the kitchen table with HIPPIE, watching YouTube videos of Jolly eating food at Dollywood. They're two British guys named Josh and Ollie, who try American foods, and sometimes give them to British schoolboys to get their reaction.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

After I jumped back into my skin, I looked toward the front door. I didn't see anybody trying to peer through the wavy glass to get a distorted view of me. No way was I getting up to hobble to the door. I was not expecting a visitor. Not expecting a package. Jack was not barking. Whoever it was could just go away. It was 18 degrees. I didn't want to leave my heater and stand in a frigid draft.

Then I worried if it could be somebody bearing bad news. Surely they would knock again. I know they could hear the TV sounds. No further knocking.

First I called Farmer H. You know, to make sure he was still kickin'. And then to see if he had told somebody they could come out for hunting or junking. He answered.

"I'm still alive. No, I don't know of anybody who would be out there. Unless it was them tree guys again."

"The tree guys already got permission from me to work over in the BARn field and the other field."

"Unless it's a different guy this time."

"Well. They can do what they want. I don't want to open the door to talk to them. I guess I'll call Pony and make sure everything's okay."

"I just talked to Pony a few minutes ago."

"Oh. Then I won't bother."

That set my mind at ease, with both of them being okay. For the next hour, the mystery was still on my mind. Farmer H said our neighbor Tommy had called him last week to take him to work! He left a message that Farmer H heard later. He's not a taxi. He doesn't always hear his phone. In fact, it rang Thursday night at 9:10 and 10:15,while Farmer H was snoozing. Didn't say who it was from, but he thought it might have been the buddy he put the sewer pipe in for, and wrecked his trailer. Farmer H thought he might have been calling to see if he'd be at his SUS2.5 on Friday.

Anyhoo... when I got up for a bathroom break an hour later, I decided to look out front. Just in case there was a package or a note. Nope.

Little Jack was sitting in the sun. I gave him a piece of grease bread. I saw footprints along the front brick sidewalk. Could have been from Farmer H going out to SilverRedO to get something, since he does use the front door sometimes. 

Then I saw footprints going the other way. Off the sidewalk, towards ShackyTown Boulevard. I don't think Farmer H has been over there since the snow. He usually drives SilverRedO over to the BARn in this kind of weather. So the best I can guess, it WAS one of the tree guys. Or a junker buddy of Farmer H. 

I'll tell Farmer H about the footprints. Just in case he wants to slow down and look in the BARn field on his way home.