Spark Riley tried to recall how he came to be standing in
the road, his hands trembling from nerves, the afternoon sun causing him to
squint. He was hoping he was a faster
draw and he wished he were facing away from the sun instead of into it. He couldn’t see a thing.
The cattle seemed loud in his peripheral hearing. He thought it odd that someone would be
driving a herd through town, and he also questioned peripheral hearing. Where
had he come up with that?
A car horn suddenly snapped him back to reality. A momentary sigh of relief came over him as
he quickly realized he wasn’t in an old west town having a shoot-out, but was,
for whatever reason, attempting to cross a busy, downtown street. As he hurried to the curb he thought how
funny all of these cars honking at him sounded like a herd of cattle mooing
for him to get out of their way. Safe up
on the sidewalk he tried to recall the past 30 or so minutes. He had obviously wandered away from the home
again, but how had no one seen him?
Perhaps his subconscious was far trickier than the conscious him.
Meanwhile, back at the home, Nora Hoverton had several
meatloaves baking in the ovens and was whipping up the third batch of mashed
potatoes when she heard the news that her friend Spark was again missing.
She summoned Betty to take over making the potatoes and
quickly removed her apron and headed out the back door of the kitchen. She wasn’t quite sure which direction to
drive, but remembered that last time he had wandered away he had been found downtown,
along the river-walk shops. She knew one
thing for sure; she had to have Sparky back at the home before Cloris Buzzkill
did her 6 pm headcount.
Before Sparky had mentally started to lose it, he was the
head wisenheimer. He never let those
front office types off the hook. He knew
they all took their jobs too seriously and he was quite adept at convincing
them of almost anything. He would have
them searching for imaginary lost heirlooms, or send them on fake errands and
he could always con them out of a second dessert.
Nora had long been secretly in love with Mr. Spark Riley and now
found herself in a panic to find him and bring him back. As she drove into town she scanned the
sidewalks, side streets and alleys. She
didn’t even want to consider checking the local hospital, not yet.
