Just when I reached the front of the yellow truck,
I heard,
what’s become a routine,
“PSSST,
walk slowly just past the truck and stop.
Don’t look in the bed.
Then kneel down and tie your boots.
Take your time.
They’re watching you!”
Of course, by now, I knew the routine.
I did exactly as instructed.
I was “in the game”.
It was during this short, slow walk that I heard the beginning of the plot.
“The General’s ‘gone to seed’.
Go across the road and get a couple apples.
Come back and sit down by the back tire.”
So I did just that.
Salivating like Pavlov’s dog to hear the rest of the storyline.
With a couple, big, juicy, yellow Golden Delicious apples
in hand, back at the rear tire,
I “parked it”.
To become “one with the game”,
I tilted my head back and swept the scenery around me.
Slowly.
Zen-like.
Aside from the shadowy circumstances, it really was nice.
And remember,
this is someplace I’d always dreamed of going to one day.
And here I was.
Nonetheless.
Then,
the Zen was broken.
“Everyone still loves the general, mind you.
Once he was a great man.
But, he’s lost his way.”
I continued to pretend I was all by myself.
For those who were watching.
“And we’re still all loyal.
But,
some of us have decided to leave.
Go our own way.
And Wilson needs to get out now.
With us.”
“That’s why we sent for you.
We got a plan.
On Halloween night.
With the full moon.”
If I wasn’t ‘in the game’ before, I sure was now.
“Wilson said we could count on you.
Can we?”
At that moment, I was the best ventriloquist on the planet.
Through clenched teeth,
and the biggest, nonchalant grin/smile on my face, I said,
“Absolutely!
Wilson’s ‘blood of my blood’ (5).”
BSOT
Ian
{p.s. footnote 5 – I thank you, Richard Llewellyn, for
“How Green Was My Valley” }
me, the Dalai Lama & Jack Nicholson 
this is a test
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