Don Lake Writer

Year: 2014

WOW! This Looks Good

Trying new recipes is exciting, finding them exhilarating. Adventurous cooks endlessly clip and save new recipes, recipes they think look really good. When my pile reached a foot high, I knew it was time to do something … the answer is this cookbook. A collection of recipes, presented just the way they were piled in my kitchen cabinet, with only the anticipation of discovering what could be next as organization. Enjoy!

[toggle title_open=”Close Excerpt 1″ title_closed=”Excerpt 1″ hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Collecting recipes is something all of us who love to spend time in the kitchen do. The great chefs do it, adventurous cooks do it, and housewives looking for variety in their meals do it; everybody who cooks does it.

Recipes come from a variety of sources; newspapers, magazines, friends, internet, package backs, advertisements, parents and grandparents, anyplace that someone has managed to write down ingredients and the method of combining and preparing them. We all do the same thing, we clip them and put them someplace where we can find them again.

My technique is to pile them up in a safe place, a place where they won’t be disturbed, but where it is easy to add to the pile. The last time I went to add one more, YIKES! The pile had somehow grown to nearly a foot high. Something had to be done. All those recipes I’d saved for the past twelve years, plus a few strays here and there, needed organizing.

The answer, one not available to cooks of yesteryear, was to scan them into the computer, sort them by category, and compile them into a book. A cookbook of recipes that looked good enough to save, not necessarily that were tried, just saved. That effort is this cookbook.

The recipes included here are presented just as they were in the pile, or just as they would have looked had my mother pasted them into a notebook. If there is a reference to who published them, it is purely coincidental. They were all in the public domain, somewhere, at some time, put forward for people to clip them and try them. This cookbook stays true to that ideal.

Unlike real authors who try and write balanced, or theme-centric cookbooks, I simply followed one principle; if it looked good to me at the time, I clipped it. Organization is limited to alphabetizing, sort of.

I hope, as you go through the pile, you too will find things that look good to you.[/toggle]

December 2, 2014
Somehow Different

Over a period of nearly 80 years members of the Lake family have been taking pictures, some 70,000 or more. No matter the format – prints, slides, or digital – or the subject matter, they were all lovingly converted to digital so that they may once again be seen, this time in print, on computer monitors, and on television screens.

The vast majority of those pictures were of people – family and friends – and scenery snapped while traveling. But a few were somehow different. Those images were unusual, or odd, or somehow noteworthy, but each with a story, or a comment, to go along with it.

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Still Life with Baseball

Take a boy on a spring camping trip and the critical necessities seem to always get collected together in an interesting and artistic way. Here we see the grill, the stove, the mosquito repellent, a toy, a handkerchief, paper towels, and most importantly the gloves and ball for dad and son to have a game of catch.[/toggle]

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Grandma’s Hand

There is nothing quite so comforting, so reassuring, as Grandma’s hand to babies and little children, even if that child is a chicken.[/toggle]

December 2, 2014
Orofino Miss

Shelby Tyler,in her seventeenth year,will leave the only place he’s ever lived,Orofino Idaho, and venture to Brazil for her senior year in high school. These brief photo-essays are designed, first, to help her get through her inevitable homesickness, and second, to tell her sponsors a bit about her, her town, and a sampling of the United States. The initial section begins with a look at Orofino itself, continues with a look at nearby sights, and expands to include the entire state of Idaho. The following sections touch upon the Pacific Northwest, California, and finally the Pacific Southwest. Shelby has lived, visited, and seen every spot, although she may have been too young to remember some of them.

[toggle title_open=”Close Excerpt 1″ title_closed=”Excerpt 1″ hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Orofino, Idaho, sits at the base of Idaho’s Panhandle, on the Clearwater River, and not far from the adjacent states of Washington and Oregon. Orofino is part of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.

“Sometimes I feel like it’s in the middle of no where! We are surrounded by mountains, and unless it’s warm, there isn’t a lot to do. It’s beautiful though and I love it!”

Orofino Idaho, Clearwater County’s county seat, sits nestled in a deep valley in the western foothills of the Bitterroot Mountains. The Bitterroots make up one section of North America’s Rocky Mountains. Some 3,300 people call Orofino home. Another 5,300 live in the remainder of Clearwater County. Given the county’s size of 2,488 square miles (6,444 square kilometers), it is obvious that Shelby lives in rural America.

Pioneers first settled in Orofino over 150 years ago, but waited to assume the permanence of brick structures until the first two decades of the twentieth century. Like most western towns, Main Street lies adjacent to the railroad tracks. Orofino’s downtown, however, lies one block east on Johnson Avenue.

“It’s small but pretty nice.”[/toggle]

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“Shelby, Yourself”

You are a part of all that surrounds you.
Celebrate your connection to life as you step into the future.
Your abilities can take you to the top,
but it is your character that will keep you there.
Build your character well for it is the foundation of your being.
The adversities you will face will not build your character
– they will reveal it.
Unlock your potential.
Every moment has a hidden gift.
Discover. Dream.
You will create your tomorrows by what you dream today.
Dreams are the touchstones of your character.
Imagine the unimaginable.
This is your time. This is your life.
Seize the moment. Delight in your youth.
Life is your canvas and no one can paint it but you.
Inside you is the key to everything you can imagine and more.
Learn from yesterday, live for today.
You are the hope for tomorrow.

Let Brazil launch you higher than ever before. [/toggle]

December 2, 2014
Orofino Girl

Kylie Tyler, in her seventeenth year, will be leaving the only place she’s ever lived, Orofino Idaho, and venture to Italy for her senior year in high school. These brief photo-essays are designed, first, to help her get through her inevitable homesickness, and second to tell her sponsors a bit about her, her town, and a sampling about the United States itself. The initial section begins with a look at Orofino itself, continues with a look at nearby sights, and expands to include the entire state of Idaho. The following sections touch upon the Pacific Northwest, California, and finally the American Southwest. Kylie has lived, visited, and seen every spot, although she may have been too young to remember some of them.

[toggle title_open=”Close Excerpt 1″ title_closed=”Excerpt 1″ hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Orofino, Idaho, sits at the base of Idaho’s Panhandle, on the Clearwater River, and not far from the adjacent states of Washington and Oregon. Orofino is part of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Orofino Idaho, Clearwater County’s county seat, sits nestled in a deep valley in the western foothills of the Bitterroot Mountains. The Bitterroots make up one section of North America’s Rocky Mountains. Some 3,300 people call Orofino home. Another 5,300 live in the remainder of Clearwater County. Given the county’s size of 2,488 square miles (6,444 square kilometers), it is obvious that Kylie lives in rural America.

“When I leave for Italy, I’ll be flying into Milan, where I’ll be picked up by my first host family, and driven to their home in Turin. Emanuela and Vincenzo Greco are very nice people. Their son is going to Texas the year I’m going to Italy, and they are very excited to have a daughter.”

Pioneers first settled in Orofino over 150 years ago, but waited to assume the permanence of brick structures until the first two decades of the twentieth century. Like most western towns, Main Street lies adjacent to the railroad tracks. Orofino’s downtown, however, lies one block east on Johnson Avenue.

“Orofino was a logging town. During the County Fair, called Lumberjack Days, there is a logging competition in which local loggers have contests in chopping wood, climbing trees, and axe throwing.”

Orofino’s status as the county seat means that it houses the county’s official buildings. For example, the courthouse sits at the beginning of Main Street. Kylie’s father, the Prosecuting Attorney, maintains his office in the courthouse. “Turin is a city of 2,000,000 people. That’s quite a difference from my town of 3,300 people.”[/toggle]

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It seems as though just yesterday,
I was still a little girl.
Back when I had such a simple view of life
and the playground was my world.

Each year passed by
as quickly as it came,
bringing new experiences;
nothing remained the same.

Before I knew it,
high school was already passing by;
friendships, sports, and school
became the center of my life.

But now that’s almost over
with only a couple of weeks to go
I cherish every passing day;
the last OHS experiences I will ever know.

I’ve finally reached the top,
but it’s time to start anew.
Orofino is behind me,
Italy suddenly is in view.

A brand new life, beginning fresh,
I’ll leave it all behind
learning from the past, I take the step
and begin the rest of my life.[/toggle]

December 2, 2014
One Lap Around California
It’s a simple idea. Drive all the way around California, keeping as close to the border as possible without ever crossing it, yet stay on excellent roads: California highways, U.S. Highways, and even Interstate Highways. Along the way you’ll see cities, mountains, ocean, and desert, all the while getting to know the real California.

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California highways, U.S. Highways, or even Interstate Highways.

Each person’s experience will, of course, be different, but each one will be highlighted by:
- Bests – such as the beach named the best in America or the Navy base named the best in the world
- Birthplaces – such as the birthplace of the physical fitness boom of the 20th Century
- Busiest – the world’s busiest port of entry
- Firsts – such as the first tunnel under an airport runway, the first motel in the world, or the US Olympic training center designed from the ground up to be an Olympic training center
- Highest – the highest point in the continental United States
- Hottest – the hottest place in the United States
- Largest – such as the largest alpine lake in North the world’s largest resort hotel (when it opened), the largest Japanese Segregation Center, the largest man made small boat harbor, the largest concentration of lava tube caves, or the largest wood lath building in the world (when it opened).
- Last – such as the last non-Essex class aircraft carrier from WWII, or the last working lumber style cookhouse
- Longest Running – “major” street race in North America
- Most – such as the most photographed bridge in the world, the most beautiful government building in America the most grand Victorian house in America, the Southernmost Russian settlement in North America, or the most visited American Castle
- Oldest – such as the oldest tree in the world, California’s oldest working wharf, or the oldest human remains in North America
- Only – mobile national monument
- Rarest – species of pine tree in the United States
- Smallest – such as the smallest county, by population in California or the smallest place ever to host the Olympic Games
- Tallest – such as the tallest trees in the world, or the tallest thermometer in the world
The list of those things included here is not meant to be comprehensive, just representative of all of the amazing, unique and otherwise noteworthy within California’s borders. They are not, like Burma Shave Signs, always visible from the road. Some are. Some are even part of the road itself. Others are nearby and need a short drive to be visited. All are included because the editor thought them interesting. [/toggle]

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Playa Del Rey Incline Railway

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December 2, 2014
All American Road

Look for America on US Route 12 and you’ll find auto workers, pioneers, factory hands of all types, politicians, farmers, cowboys, explorers, miners, Indians, and sailors among others. They’ll be in large cities, small cities, towns, hamlets, and sometimes in places with no names at all. You’ll find them in forests, prairies, mountains, an sea shores, and alongside rivers, dwelling in apartments, houses, ranches and even RVs. Drive its nearly 2500 miles, America is there, on the All American Road.

[toggle title_open=”Close Excerpt 1″ title_closed=”Excerpt 1″ hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]America has always had a love of the automobile, ever since there was such a thing. Where else to begin the quest for America but in the heart of one of the things we love best. US Route 12 begins in Cadillac Square Park in the center of downtown Detroit, and heads out through Motor City.

The first, famous, search for America was published by Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America,” 1835. Perhaps his hardest times of his entire trip was slogging through the wild forests of Michigan, a place where he met and wrote of the ultimate American pioneer. US Route 12 traverses that same area.

America works, and perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in Chicago, Emerson’s “City of the big shoulders” and the center of the Industrial Heartland. While US Route 12 only spends a short distance in Indiana and Illinois, it cuts through the heart of it, steel mills, refineries, railroad yards, and factories.

American politics are the politics of a progressive concern for the little guy, the underdog. Perhaps nowhere has that been more visible than in Wisconsin’s capitol of Madison. From La “Fighting Bob” La Follette to today’s Scott Walker, Madison is at the cutting edge. US Route 12 is a Madison main road.

Amber waves of grain, perhaps the most recognized line from “America the Beautiful,” lives in the broad fields upper mid-west portion of America’s heartland. US Route 12’s longest unbroken stretch of similar scenery is through the wheat fields of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

The cowboy, symbol of independence and self-reliance, is alive and well in the American west. Perhaps nowhere else does his life remain as pure as in Montana. US Route 12 crosses Montana from one side to the other.

Explorers, brave men risking everything to find out what is beyond the next mountain, have always been American heroes. Lewis and Clark in their incredible journey of 1804 – 1806 led the way through the American West. A long stretch of US Route 12 is designated as a part of the Lewis and Clark trail.

Gold, the lure of gold to bold men, and the exploits of those men are a part of the American legend. The largest gold rush of the Pacific Northwest occurred in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho, the last mountains conquered by US Route 12 when the road was completed in 1962, and where towns carry names like Orofino (Fine Gold).

Indians, the iconic American, our true native sons, once lived everywhere along the All American Road. The last to be conquered, the Nez Perce, rely on US Route 12 as the main east-west artery through its reservation.

The American soul seems somehow tied to the sea. The sea brought the first settlers, great glories, and the means to make a living for as long there has been an America. US Route 12 ends at the port of Aberdeen on the Pacific Ocean.

Look for America on US Route 12 and you’ll find auto workers, pioneers, factory hands of all types, politicians, farmers, cowboys, explorers, miners, Indians, and sailors among countless others. They’ll be in large cities, small cities, towns, hamlets, and sometimes in places with no names at all. You’ll find them in forests, prairies, mountains, on sea shores, and alongside rivers, dwelling in apartments, houses, ranches and even RVs.

Drive its 2483 miles. America is there, on US Route 12, the officially designated, All American Road.[/toggle]

December 2, 2014
Mystery Spot

To settle a bet about pirates between Eddie and his sisters, Eddie took them down shortcut along the river path toward the harbor. There, in the darkest, bushiest place, a one-legged man ambushed them, and before they could escape, told them of a mysterious spot in the nearby mountains, where water runs uphill, compasses go crazy, and if you get too close you forget to dig for it. When their science teacher verifies that such a spot may exist, they race to find it before the pirates do.

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One sunny July day, Albert Keenan went to his office early for an important pre-trial meeting. He was so concerned about the meeting that he forgot to text his three children the list of all the extra things he wanted them to do that day. When the children finished their daily assigned chores, they sat on the porch, smart phones in hand, and tried to decide what to do the rest of the day.

Kathy, the oldest, in junior high, said, “We should download a good book to read.”

Nancy, in elementary school, said, “We should go downtown and get a Latte.”

Eddie, also in junior high, said, “We should go down to the pier and find a pirate.”

Nancy wrinkled her nose. “There’s no such thing as pirates, not since the Spanish sent all the New World’s gold home on treasure ships.”

“I agree,” said Kathy. “And besides, those ships all sailed the Atlantic Ocean. None of them ever came by here. Santa Christina is a Pacific Ocean port.”

Nancy typed on her phone, and then held it close to her brother’s face. “See, no pirates in the Northeast Pacific.”

“I don’t care what you or Google say,” Eddie snapped off his words, “I bet if we went to the pier right now we’d find a pirate.”

“What would you bet?” Kathy asked.

“I’ll bet you a latte,” Eddie said.

“Hey,” Nancy said. “If you two are having a latte anyway, why don’t we just go downtown and get one?”

“That’s fine with me because Kathy’s buying,” Eddie said.

“Not me, you’re buying.”

“Hush you two,” Nancy said. “This is easy enough to settle. We’ll just swing by the pier on our way downtown. Then we’ll know who is going to buy.”

There are two ways to get from the Keenan house to the pier. One is the boring way along the city’s streets. The other, is the overgrown path along the bank of the San Andreas River. Since all three of them still wore the clothes they wore to do their chores, flip flops, cut-off Levis, and T-tops for the sisters, Bermuda shorts, sandals, and a muscle shirt for Eddie, they decided on the path along the river.

The river once again ran wild. Salmon and trout swam in it. Trees and thick bushes lined its banks. In the summer there were sand bars to fish from, rope swings above the cliffs, and lots of good swimming holes. In the winter, there were floods.

Eddie led them single file down the river path. About half the way to the pier, they entered a thick stand of trees and bushes. When they reached its heart, a man jumped into the path in front of them. Both girls screamed at the sight of him.

He dressed in rags, tattered shoes, and with his gray hair and beard long and knotted, he looked like most of the Santa Christina homeless. A tri-corn hat perched on the back of his head. The bottom half of his right leg was different. It was a cockeyed stainless steel prosthetic. He supported himself by leaning on a dirty crutch.

“Argh,” he said. “See what the path brought me this morning.”

Eddie backed up three steps. Nancy moved close in behind him. Kathy, the oldest, stepped past them both and faced the man.

“Let us by. We’re on our way to the pier,” she said, her voice firm, her back straight. Since their mother died two years before, Kathy became the watch dog for her younger brother and sister.

“To find a pirate,” Eddie added.

“Shiver me timbers,” a deep and raspy voice uttered. “A pirate is what you’re looking for. And why do you want to find a pirate? Is it treasure you’re after?”

“No,” Kathy said. “We’re trying to decide who gets to buy lattes today.”

The man stared at them.

“A latte is not so much a treasure as a treat,” Kathy said.

“Aye, a treat is it,” the man said. “Well finding a treasure is a treat too. Do you know there’s treasure around here?”

“There’s no treasure around here,” Nancy said. “All the treasure went to Spain.”

“Argh,” the man said. “Don’t you be so sure. There’s talk of treasure in the mountains close by. They say that when you get to it your compass goes crazy, water runs uphill, and you get so sick and dizzy you forget to dig for it!”

“Oh bah,” Kathy said, “A compass always points north and water always runs downhill.”

The man’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“What is that place?” Eddie asked.

“It’s the Mystery Spot,” the man said. “Where it is, that’s a mystery. And why things do what they do there, that’s a mystery too. But one thing people say, they say the creek that runs by it flows into the San Andreas River. They say if you drink the water from that very creek just as it meets the river, you won’t get dizzy when you get to the Mystery Spot.”

“Phooey!” Kathy said.

“Phooey!” the man shouted. He reached out and grabbed Kathy with the hand not holding his crutch.

“Ouch! Let go! You’re hurting me!”

“So you don’t believe in treasure, eh?”

Kathy screamed.

“Argh, yell all you want girl, no one can hear you. Haw, haw, haw.”

Just then, Eddie darted behind the man’s back and kicked his crutch as hard as he could. The crutch flew into a bush. The man toppled toward the dirt path. He let go of Kathy’s arm and tried to catch a branch as he fell. He missed.

“Run!” Eddie said.

The three of them dashed past the fallen man and ran until they were standing on a sandy, beach.

Nancy stopped to catch her breath. “I’m pretty sure we’re safe now.” she said. “Is that ugly man following us?”

They all peered back toward the path. When nothing appeared, Eddie asked, “Do you suppose there really is treasure up river?”

“I doubt it,” Kathy said. “I don’t think we can believe anything that crazy old coot had to say.”

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The San Andreas River path ends at a broad, sandy, beach where its fresh water meets the sea. Kathy, Eddie, and Nancy walked through the sand toward the nearby Santa Christina pier. They could see several sail boats and a few yachts anchored in the bay. Commercial fishing boats snuggled up next to the pier. An inflatable Zodiac moved around among all of them, its one-man crew first talking to sailors on one boat, and then another. Eddie could make out the words “Fish and Game” painted on the Zodiac’s side.

When the three reached the pier’s pilings, they climbed up a long ladder from the beach to the top of the pier. Toward the sea end of the pier they could see several parked vans with company names painted on them. Next to the vans were piles of crates waiting to be loaded on either a ship or into one of the waiting trucks. There were no people anywhere in sight.

The pier, intended, but never used, as the railroad terminus for the entire central coast, was very long. They walked for five minutes before they came to a man leaning against a railing. Dressed in seaman’s shoes, blue trousers, a blue shirt, and a sailor’s hat, he looked every bit the part of a commercial fisherman.

“Excuse me, sir,” Eddie said. “We’re looking for pirates. Do you know where we can find one?”

“Why, now that you mention it, I myself am a pirate.”

“See,” Eddie cried, pointing at his sister, “I told you so.”

“You don’t look like a pirate,” Kathy said. “You look like a fisherman.”

“Of course I don’t. How do you suppose I could sneak up on people right here in the harbor if I looked like a pirate?”

“Is that your pirate ship?” Nancy asked. She pointed to the trawler tied to the pier below where the man was standing.

“Yes, it is.”

“It looks like a fishing boat to me,” Kathy said. “It’s even got crates all over on its deck.”

“You may think those are just crates,” the man said, “But they’re not. Those crates cover up my ship’s guns. When we come sneaking up on our target we don’t want them to know we’re ready and able to shoot them.”

He pointed to the top of the tallest mast. “See, we even keep the skull and crossbones flag hidden until the very last minute.” They all looked. No one could see a black flag.

“What do the flags up there blowing in the wind mean?” Eddie asked.

“They tell the other ships that we sail as soon as the tide turns. It’s been coming in for some time. We need it to be going out before we leave. Saves fuel, you know.”

Nancy asked, “Do you just go about capturing ships at sea, or do you also look for treasure?”

The man laughed. “Oh, we look for treasure all the time,” he said with a wink.

“We just heard about some treasure buried right here in Santa Christina, or at least near here,” Eddie said. “It’s buried at the Mystery Spot.”

“It is? Well now, you wouldn’t want to tell an old pirate all about it now, would you?”

Eddie continued, “We don’t know exactly where it is, but when you get there your compass goes crazy, water runs uphill and trees grow sideways.”

“I know a spot like that on Big Rock Candy Mountain,” the man said. “There, when the water gets to the top of the hill, it turns into lemonade.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Nancy said.

The man quickly answered, “Speaking of compasses, have you ever seen a ship’s compass? It’s kept right there in the pilot house.” The man pointed to a structure near the bow of the ship.

“I’ve never seen one,” Kathy said.

“Come with me then, all of you, and I’ll show it to you.”

Nancy said, “I don’t think we should”

“I don’t think so either.,” Kathy said. We’d never get into a car with a stranger. We certainly shouldn’t get into a boat with a stranger.”

Eddie said, “I wouldn’t miss it for anything. Come on.”

Eddie followed the man down a gangplank to the deck of the trawler, his sisters trailed behind. Two sailors, also dressed in blue clothes, met them at the bottom of the gangplank. They saluted and said, “Welcome aboard.”

By the time they all got to the pilot house, the sailors had untied the ship and were pushing it away from the dock with long poles.

“Wait,” Kathy said. “We’re moving!”

“Of course,” the man said. “The tide has changed. We’re on our way to the open sea.”

“We can’t go to sea,” Kathy said, “Our father would kill us.”

“Now, now, don’t you get so uppity with your Captain. You know how pirates get their crews, don’t you? They shanghai them. You are all now a part of my crew.”

“I don’t want to be crew,” Nancy cried. “I want to go home.”

“Too bad. Give me your phones.”

“No!”

A sailor snatched Nancy’s phone from the back pocket of her cut-offs. Then he caught Kathy’s hand and wrenched her phone from her. The Captain swung his arm, smashed it into Eddie’s wrist, and then calmly picked up the phone from the deck where it fell. He then dropped all three smart phones into a cloth bag, and pulled the drawstring tight.

“Thank you,” he said.

A sailor appeared from the hatch next to the pilot house carrying a pile of clothes. “These should fit all right,” he said. He gave each of them a blue shirt and blue dungarees.

The three of them stood on the deck, holding their new clothes, when the Zodiac drew alongside. It slowly turned until its bow touched the center of the trawler. The roar of the Zodiac’s twin outboards filled the air.

The Captain glared at Kathy, Eddie, and Nancy. “Go on, get dressed, you’ve work to do. Hurry, I’ll have no lay-abouts on my ship.”

A crewman put his hand on Nancy’s back and gave her a shove toward an open hatch.

Just then, Eddie heaved the clothes in his arms into the sailor’s face, and yelled, “Follow me! Jump!”

Eddie took three steps, climbed the rail, and jumped down onto the deck of the Zodiac. Nancy and Kathy leapt in right behind him. Eddie broke their fall when they landed.

The Captain laughed out loud, and threw the bag of smart phones to the man standing at the Zodiac’s controls.

The three felt the Zodiac shudder as it backed away from the side of the trawler. A man stepped from the ship’s controls to where the three lay sprawled on the deck.

Nancy screamed, “That’s a pirate ship. They shanghaied us.”

The man looked at the trawler, now under full power, rapidly moving away from the Zodiac and its occupants.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Kathy Keenan, and this is my brother Eddie and my sister Nancy.”

“Are you Al’s children?”

“Yes.”

“I thought so. He’s looking for you. What are you doing out here?”

Eddie said, “We came to find a pirate. We did, so now Kathy owes us all a latte.”

“Well, that “pirate” just wanted to teach you a lesson about getting onto boats with strangers. And, I’ve got work to do. I think we’ll all stay out here in the bay for a while. The latte, and your father, will have to wait.”

Kathy said, “They took our phones. Could you call our Dad and tell him where we are?”

The man held up a cloth bag. “I’ve got your phones in this bag, but you don’t get to use them until your father gives them back to you, probably after he makes sure you’ve learned your lesson.”

[/toggle]

December 2, 2014
Maniac Motion

The two arrived shortly after the great earthquake rocked Santa Christina. She came to teach music, he to recover the invention stolen from him by his nephew. But only when an aftershock threw the nephew into the river gorge, and John found the nephew’s credentials, did the undercover detective from Washington DC revealed himself and the peril the Keenan family faced.

[toggle title_open=”Close Excerpt 1″ title_closed=”Excerpt 1″ hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”] First there was a loud BANG, quickly followed by a shaking and rolling of the entire Santa Christina School.

“Earthquake!” yelled John and Crystal’s teacher. “Hurry! Everyone under their desks. Hurry! Hurry!”

John and Crystal hunkered under their desks. From that vantage point they saw their books, pencils, and papers fall onto the floor around them. They heard the books crash to the floor from their shelves. They saw the glass from the windows break on the floor next to their desks. Crystal and several of the other girls screamed.

In Kathy’s classroom the scene was much the same. The older students were somewhat more composed, but they were still very scared.

The shaking and rolling went on for almost a minute. When the building stopped moving all of the tall windows, made tall to let in as much light as possible, lay broken on the floor. The only things that moved after the building settled down were the heavy lamp fixtures that hung from long chains from the high ceilings. It took several minutes before the fixtures stopped swaying back and forth.

Ebenezer, and several other parents, rushed to the school just as soon as the earth stopped shaking and rolling. The school, a clapboard, wood-frame building, stood defiantly when Ebenezer arrived. From the school yard where the students had gathered they could see several of the town’s brick and stone buildings with entire walls lying in rubble. A few of them were burning. Children and parents clung to each other and watched the black smoke rise into the gray, foggy sky.

Ebenezer spoke to his children. “Kathy, John, Crystal, you have just experienced a very large earthquake. Earthquakes are a phenomenon of nature. They happen all over the world. As you now know, they can be very frightening. Once the first one occurs there are often several others, smaller ones called aftershocks, which occur for several days afterwards. They too can be frightening, but we will live through all of them.”

“Father,” Kathy said. “There was lots and lots of damage. Lots of things were broken and smashed. Was anyone hurt?”

“I don’t know yet,” Ebenezer said. “I’m just thankful that we are all safe.”

“Father, was our house damaged?” Crystal asked.

Ebenezer put an arm around each of his girls. “I hope not. We will see when we go home in a few minutes. I’m sure we will all have work to do to get things cleaned up,” Ebenezer said.

John pointed his finger downriver from the school. “Look at the new river bridge. The scaffolding is all twisted and broken, but the bridge is still standing.”
“The bridge was almost complete. It was scheduled to open in just four or five weeks,” Ebenezer said. “It’s a good thing it was so far along. Iron bridges don’t get strong until all of the tresses and supports are in place. Almost all of them are already installed.

“Come along now children, the officials here at the school have now counted you as safe. We can go home now.”

When the four of them entered their house they found things scattered on the floor. Two chairs had moved across the floor in the parlor. All of the cabinets, bookcases, dressers, chests and armoires were in their proper places.

“This is not bad at all,” John said.

“Take this as a lesson, children,” Ebenezer said.

“Always secure your furniture to the house walls to keep them in place during an earthquake. And always keep the doors and drawers well latched. It helps keep things safe in times of crises

Kathy, the eldest, had assumed many of the family responsibilities after their mother had died of the pox in 1872, said, “Come on now, let’s get to work and get the mess cleaned up.”[/toggle]

[toggle title_open=”Close Excerpt 2″ title_closed=”Excerpt 2″ hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]School remained closed for a full week while officials carefully examined every inch of the building. They found a few places in the foundation that needed to be repaired. All of the rubble was cleaned up and hauled away. Finally, all the windows were replaced. The school seemed better than new when it reopened.

Mister Scarlotti, the school’s science teacher, had spent the break from classes building a new set of science demonstrations to show his students. The first was a heavy ball with a pointed tip at its bottom. It was attached to the roof beam in his classroom with an iron chain. Under the ball was a low table covered in sand.
To each of his classes he showed how the ball and chain formed a mechanism called a pendulum. He had the students carefully smooth out the sand. He then pulled the ball back to the edge of the table. When he let it go, the point on the bottom of the ball traced a line in the sand.

The pendulum swung back and forth for a long, long time. It was still swinging in its straight line at the end of class, but the lines in the sand had moved. “Students, this shows that the pendulum swings true, but because the earth rotates, a pattern appears. This is one way to show the principle of harmonic motion.”

The science class students didn’t quite know what to make of the pendulum demonstration. The first three classes that saw it, including Kathy’s, were mostly bored. The pendulum was tracing out its pattern for John and Crystal’s class, when a noticeable earthquake aftershock struck Santa Christina. Everyone knew what to do. They quickly ducked under their desks.

The shock, vibrating, and rolling lasted just a few seconds. The pendulum swung wildly through it all. When the shaking ended, Crystal bent down and studied the lines in the sand. “My goodness, isn’t that pattern pretty. It looks like a flower,” she said.

The rest of the students rushed over to see what a sand flower looked like. Mister Scarlotti told the students to draw the pattern in their sketchbooks. For their homework he asked them to tell him what kind of flower they thought it might be.

That afternoon, after their chores were done, and before Ebenezer came home, Kathy, John, and Crystal sat around the kitchen table looking at the sketches John and Crystal had made.

“You two made pretty good pictures,” Kathy said. “It only takes a lot of imagination to see a flower in what you drew.”

“I think they’re pretty good,” John said defensively. “We couldn’t trace it you know. We had to be artists and draw it.”

“I like mine,” Crystal said.

“Then tell me what it looks like,” Kathy said. “To me it looks like a tangled ball of string.”

John started flipping through the pictures in the gardening book he’d taken from the shelf in the den. “Let’s see, which is the tangled string flower? Oh, here it is! The book says it is a …..” John paused to sound out the word.

“Hydrangea,” Kathy said.

“That’s it,” John said.

“Let me see that book,” Crystal said. She ripped the book from John’s hands. “Here it is. It’s an aster.”

Kathy took the book and flipped through it. She went all the way through it, scanning every page. After she started through it once more, she stopped on a page near the front of the book. “It’s pretty easy. It’s a daisy,” she said.

Ebenezer walked in to find his three children standing shoulder to shoulder at the table staring down at a book and two sketches. “Hello children,” he said.
“Father, come, you be the judge. Tell us which one is the correct flower.”

Ebenezer contemplated the sketches for a time, and then the two candidate flower pictures. “It’s a daisy,” he declared.

“Thank you father,” the three children said in unison.

“Now then, tell me what this is all about,” Ebenezer said.

For the next ten minutes the children explained the demonstration of harmonic motion to their father.[/toggle]

December 2, 2014
Evil Eye
- When gypsy queen Madam LaRue arrives in Santa Christina, she wields a strange power to daze, then capture Nancy, and whisk her away to the secret gypsy camp. Eddie and Kathy must act quickly to try and find her, and save their sister from Madam Larue and her son Gaston. But first, they need to decipher the gypsy code, and overcome the gypsy’s mastery of light.
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A new poster hung on the big sign board on the front lawn of the Santa Christina School when Kathy, her younger brother Eddie, and the youngest, Nancy Keenan finished the day’s classes. The poster’s red and yellow colors caught Nancy’s eye. The poster read:

Coming, October 1

The Great and Mysterious

World Famous

Magical

Madame LaRue

Learn Your Future

Cure Your Sickness

Enhance Your Life

4 PM at Santa Christina Pier

“How about that!” Nancy said. “Imagine Madam LaRue coming here to Santa Christina. Do you suppose we’ll get to go see her?”

Eddie said, “It’s tomorrow.”

“I don’t know,” Kathy said. “We’ve got lots of things to do tomorrow after school. You know how Dad is about getting our chores done right and on schedule.” Ever since their mother died, older sister Kathy made sure her brother and sister conducted themselves the way their father wanted them to. This was no exception.

“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” Nancy said. “He might be nice and let us.”

When the three of them got home from school that day they found their father, the attorney Albert Keenan, on the front porch waiting for them. “What did you guy’s learn in school today?” he asked.

Kathy said, “I learned about prisms, rainbows and how they’re made.”

Nancy followed with, “I heard a story about gypsies. They’re really mysterious and exciting.”

Eddie looked at Nancy, and grunted, “I learned that when your little sister follows you around, all your friends tease you.”

“I thought what you’d say was that you learned about the coming of the gypsy, Madam LaRue.” Albert smiled when he said it.

Nancy said, “We saw the poster outside school.”

“Do you want to see her?” Albert asked.

“Yes!” All three of them said together.

“You can go. However, just remember that all gypsies are fakes. They put on a good show. They’re very entertaining. But what they do best is make stupid and unsuspecting people believe what they say. They’re very convincing. They’ll talk the shirt right off your back. But in the end, everything they say and do is only to get people to give them their hard earned money.”

Albert paused. “Do you understand?” he asked.

“Yes,” they all said together.

“You can go,” Albert repeated. “But stay together at all times. They’ve been known to snatch a lone child.”

“We will, Father,” they all said at once. “We will.”

“I guarantee it,” Kathy added.

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The next afternoon Kathy, Eddie, and Nancy went straight from school to the base of the Santa Christina pier. Once there, they found yellow caution tape wrapped around a line of orange cones marking the area where Madam Larue’s show would take place. A small crowd already sat or stood behind the tape. Kathy led her brother and sister to a spot in the front row to one side of center. There they sat on the ground and waited.

A few minutes before four o’clock a crane lifted a large white wagon with gold filigree from the bed of a flatbed trailer and set it on the pier. A minute later four coal black horses appeared from the back of a horse trailer. A man hitched the horses to the wagon, and parked it at a spot by the rope. The Keenan’s found themselves sitting next to the wagon’s left front wheel.

After a short wait, a gypsy man dressed in a white shirt with billowing sleeves, purple pants, polished high boots, and a red bandana on his head, emerged from the front door of the wagon. He carried a gold cane in his right hand. After carefully surveying the crowd twice, he pointed at Nancy with his gold cane. “You there,” he said. “Move back away from the tape. The machine goes there.”

Nancy inched back. Her brother, sister, and all the others nearby moved back a foot or two.

The gypsy then reached into the wagon and brought out a piece of furniture that Eddie thought looked like a small science lab table. On top of it sat an odd shaped candle, several scientific looking clamps, and what looked like the eye piece from a microscope.

The gypsy and an assistant then descended to the ground carrying the table. They set it on the ground next Nancy, and then he busied themselves attaching polished pieces of glass to the clamps.

“Look there, aren’t those pieces of glass lenses and prisms?” Kathy asked.

“Yes,” said Eddie. “They’re just like the ones our science teacher, Mister Caverretta, showed us.”

“Hush,” Nancy hissed. “I can’t hear what the man is saying.”

Once attached, the gypsy carefully checked each lens and prism. While he did, he recited over and over and over again:

Blue in the eye,
- Red on the forehead,
- Your mind is mine.
- Red in the eye,
- Blue on the forehead,
- Your mind is yours.
Nancy asked, “I wonder what it means?”
Kathy shook her head and said, “I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”

A short time later the man lit the candle. Its orange-white glow made it nearly invisible in the afternoon sunlight. The gypsy then set a white sheet of paper by the eye piece, and made a few small adjustments to the lenses and prisms. When he saw a blue spot and a red spot appear on the paper he smiled and said, “Good.”

He then turned a lever. The blue and red spots moved over the surface of the paper. “Very good,” he said with a chuckle.

The man then climbed up on the wagon. With a great show of his puffy sleeves, swept the gold cane slowly from side to side, and waited for the crowd to fall silent. When it finally did, he roared in a deep voice, “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you the great Madame LaRue!”[/toggle]
December 2, 2014
Silicon on Silk

Yvette knew it was a crazy idea. How could anyone think a microchip, injected into a person’s body, could seek and destroy cancer cells? Still, there was nothing to lose. They’d cut off her boyfriend’s leg if it failed anyway. But, it worked. And it worked agin on her aunt. Then, when she tried to tell people her secret, no one believed her. Only her old friend, Elena, now deeply involved in the local gang and drug scene, offered any help at all. Together, they set off on an adventure to prove to the world that cancer was conquered.

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Chapter 1

The envelope sat alone on the narrow table in the entry hall, face up, clearly showing the University of California at Santa Barbara Graduate School of Engineering logo in the upper left hand corner. Gabriella’s mother walked past it several times that sunny, San Diego spring day. Each time she did, she smiled and thought how proud she was of her eldest daughter. Even if that envelope didn’t hold what Gabby hoped it would, consideration was an achievement.

Gabby parked in the driveway a little after six, came in through the garage, and plopped down in a chair at the kitchen table. “That’s it Ma. I did it. Today was the last class at San Diego State. Finals next week and I’m done.”

“You should be happy.” “Just exhausted. Wow! My favorite. That really smells good. Something special happening tonight?”

“Maybe.” Maria Cabrera wiped her hands on her apron, retrieved the envelope from the hall, and set it in front of her daughter.

Gabriella picked it up. Her hands shook so much she needed both of them to hold it still enough to read.

“Aren’t you going to open it?”

“I’m scared, Ma. What if …” the hard bang of the front door slamming shut caused her to jerk her head around.

“Hi, Gabby. Hi, Ma. Hey, that smells good, what’s up?”

“How many times do I have to tell you not to slam the door?”

“Gotta celebrate. Won both the hundred and two-twenty today. Blew those Morse High girls away. They don’t call me Corvette for nothing. Whatcha got there Gabby?”

“The letter from UCSB.”

“Well open it,” Yvette said. “You’ve been waiting for it forever.”

Gabriella carefully slit open the envelope and removed the tri-folded letter. She unfolded it. As she read she began to slowly rise from her chair. Then, she leapt into the air, tossed the letter toward the ceiling, and screamed, “I’m in! They accepted me! And they gave me a technician’s job for twenty hours a week too. Woo-Hoo!”

Yvette wrapped her arms around her sister and gave her a bear hug.

Gabby collected the letter from the floor. “I can’t believe it. Me, in the Micro-Electronics department. Man. And my job’s in the Detector lab. How great is that?”

Both young women grabbed their phones and started texting. Maria picked up the handset with the twenty-foot extension cord, and began dialing. Less than an hour later Uncle Pedro and Auntie Beth arrived carrying a casserole overflowing with enchiladas. By dusk the Cabrera house was crawling with friends, neighbors, and relatives. Uncles Jack, Roberto, Dan, and Ben were playing Mariachi music around the fire pit. Laughter echoed everywhere.

Only Yvette and her six-foot-nine boyfriend, Daryl, sat quietly together. Every few minutes Yvette repositioned the ice pack on his outstretched leg. “My knee just hurts all the time. They say it’s just growing pains, but I know something’s wrong. It started hurting really bad at basketball camp. I just know there’s a problem in there,” he said.

“It’ll be okay. Don’t worry.” “It’s not broken. There’s something else. I wish they’d find out what. I hate not knowing.”

* * * * *

Seven weeks after her junior year ended, Yvette was still working for her Aunt Blanca. “You’re amazing,” Blanca told her that Monday morning. “No other high school kid has lasted this long. Keep up the good work. Only three more weeks until school starts.”

Yvette sighed, got out of her aunt’s car, and walked toward the first house of the day. She’d been on a crew that cleaned four houses a day, six days a week, all summer. “FAST AND THOROUGH’ was the motto, and fast and thorough was what she was during her work day. Tired was what she was every night.

That night, after finishing the day with the largest, most knick-knacky house of her entire schedule, she collapsed in a chaise lounge under the pepper tree in her backyard. Her phone rested on her lap, but she laid her head back and closed her eyes rather than start texting. The Laker’s theme song ring she’d programmed for Daryl shook her out of her reverie.

“Hello. How’d it go at the doctor?” “Cancer. They found bone cancer. Osteosarcoma.”

Yvette screamed.

“They may have to chop my leg off at the knee.” Yvette screamed and sobbed at the same time. Her mother pushed open the screen door and ran to her youngest daughter.

“ ‘Vette. ‘Vette, are you there?”

Maria snatched the phone out of Yvette’s shaking hands. “Hello. Who is this?”

“It’s me. Daryl.”

“What’s wrong? Yvette’s collapsed into a crying blob.”

“They told me its cancer. They may have to chop my leg off.”

Maria sank into a chair next to Yvette. “Oh no. I knew you were in pain.”

Yvette grabbed the phone back from her mother.

“Yes, Mrs. Cabrera. But it’s a good thing I was. Without the pain it may have gone on much longer without being detected.”

“Daryl. Say it isn’t so. Say you’re joking.”

“I wish I was. The pain was the thing. There’s something special about cancer cells that cause them to hurt, at least when they’re in joints and organs. It feels like acid or something was poured in there.”

“Acid.”

“Well I don’t know that it’s acid, but that’s what it reminds me of after watching all those scary movies.” “What are you going to do?”

“The doctor is going to try some stuff, he says there’s not much anyone can do, except get lucky or cut the leg off.”

Yvette screamed again.

* * * * *

A week before the fall quarter started, Gabby drove home for a weekend with her family. Yvette sprawled on the living room couch, waiting for her sister, and trying to recover from her last day of house cleaning until Saturday. After a noisy reunion, the dinner dishes were cleared, washed, and put away, Gabby got a box out of her duffel bag, and sat with her mother and sister at the kitchen table.

“You guys won’t believe the cool project they’ve got me working on in the Detector Lab.”

Gabby took a small bottle, sealed with a plastic cap, out of the box. “Ma, ‘Vette, this is the greatest invention of all time.”

“Come on Gabby. All Time?” Yvette said.

“Top ten anyway.” Gabby held the bottle up to the light. “See these little flecks in there? Well, those are special micro-circuits, not only in what they do, but how they’re made.”

“Very nice, honey,” Maria cooed.

“Listen, those circuits are built on silk. Silicon micro-circuits on a silk substrate. We call it ‘Silicon on Silk’.”

“So.” Yvette looked half interested, half bored.

“SO! You see, silk dissolves in blood. Sooooo, you put these into the blood stream and they go around measuring things, or detecting things, and the body just naturally gets rid of them a couple days later. Just like if you get some dirt or something in a cut. Isn’t that cool?”

“I guess,” Yvette said.

“Now these here, they even have some iron on them, so once they’re in the blood stream you can use a magnet to steer them to the place you’re interested in. Steerable Silicon on Silk.”

“And that’s good, because?” Yvette asked.

“Well,” Gabby hesitated. “These ones were supposed to detect acid, and when they did, emit a short stream of electrons that an external meter could detect. They didn’t detect acid particularly well, and the electron beam killed the cells it hit, but it did earn it a name.”

“Let me guess,” Yvette said. “Streaming Steerable Silicon on Silk.”

“Hey, ‘Vette, very good. You’re right. The whole unit is called SSSS, pronounced sis.”

“I’m still not clear on the concept,” Yvette said.

“It’s a research tool. First, you inject one of these into the blood, and steer it to a spot in the body. Then, if what the device is programmed to find gets found, it emits a stream of electrons. It’s as easy as that.”

“Let me see if I’ve got it now,” Yvette said. “First you shoot up, then you take it to a place that hurts, then it goes ZAP, and then the hurt is gone.”

“Yeah. Kinda. Sure.” Gabby said. Yvette jerked bolt upright in her chair. “Really?”

“Really.”

Yvette looked in the box. She counted five bottles in it, each holding six micro-circuits.

“I’ve been up there two months now,” Gabby said, “and already I can make these. In fact I made every one of these.”

Maria said, “You made these?”

“Yeah, Ma. The lab’s kinda like a special kitchen. I just follow the recipe, and then bake them.”

“My goodness.”

“These don’t work quite the way the professor wants them to. We’ll be starting a new design next week. That was lucky for me. It gave me time to learn without pressure. They all liked what I did.”

“I’m so proud of you,” Maria said.

“Since these are obsolete, I get to keep them as souvenirs. Cool, huh? The people at the Detector Lab are really great.”

Gabby put the sixth bottle back in the box. “For now, I’ll keep them here in my closet. My place in Goleta doesn’t even have room for an extra pair of shoes.”

Yvette took the box, carried it to the bedroom she and Gabby shared for sixteen years, and carefully put it on the closet’s top shelf. When she returned to the kitchen, she heard her sister saying, “The thing is, Ma, all this is a super-secret. Nobody can say anything about any of it. But, I may get to write up some of the technical descriptions for the patents. How about that?”[/toggle]

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Chapter 2

It took Yvette until lunch on Monday to find Elena. Once good friends, they’d drifted apart when Elena began dating a member of the Verde Cruz gang. Now all Yvette could be sure of was that Elena would know where to get what she needed.

Yvette finally saw her old friend when Elena walked into the cafeteria. Yvette slid into line next to her just before the pile of trays next to the salad bar. “Hi, Vette, been awhile. How ya doin’?”

“Movin’ fast.”

“I heard. You were all-city last spring, right?”

“Yeah. Got lucky. You still runnin’ with the Verde Cruz guys?”

“Still am. Once you start it’s hard to stop.”

“I can imagine.”

Neither spoke again until they’d each picked up a tray and set them on the three stainless steel bars in front of the Jell-O. “El, I need a little help. Can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure.”

“I’m gonna shoot-up. Can you get me a needle?”

The shorter girl turned and looked up into her old friend’s eyes. “Don’t do it. Especially you. Don’t do it.”

“It’s not what you think. Really.”

“It never is. Don’t do it.”

“The needle has to pass an object a hundredth of an inch wide. I think I need a special needle.”

“You’re right. They call those gutters. Weird for the first time.”

Yvette reached under the protective glass cover and slipped a Taco Salad onto her tray. “Can you get it? I’ll pay.”

Elena laughed. “Gear is free. You pay for what’s inside.”

“Um, I’ll be doing my own insides.”

“Oooooh, bad idea, Vette. You’re likely to kill yourself. Better to have a good supplier.”

“Can you get me what I need, even if I don’t buy anything?” “For you, Vette, sure. Meet me and Roberto in the parking lot after school tomorrow.”

* * * * *

Yvette arrived at the lot the next afternoon with her backpack slung over her shoulder and a leather briefcase big enough to hold two three-ring-binders in her hand. On her second scan of the cars in the lot she saw Elena leaning against the trunk of a candy-apple red, lowered, and flamed ’57 Chevy. Yvette waved, and then walked through a row of parked cars to meet her friend.

“Hi, El.”

“Hi Vette. I’ve got what you asked for, but I really gotta tell you again, it’s a really bad idea to make your own.”

“Got it.”

Elena held out a dark green, velvet box, about the size needed for a necklace. “Nice,” Yvette said.

Elena smiled. “Green velvet, the mark of the Verde Cruz. Everything’s first class.”

Yvette opened the box. Inside lay a milky, plastic syringe with gradations marked in CCs on one side. With the plunger depressed, it was about four inches long. Yvette snapped the box shut.

Elena then held out a second green velvet box, this one about the size needed for a bracelet. Yvette opened it to find three shiny silver needles, each embedded into a milky, plastic, threaded, circular block.

“Some assembly required,” Elena said. “You fill the syringe through the opening, and then screw the needle into it. Every time you use the needle you clean it. Boil it. The plastic won’t melt.”

Yvette examined the tip of one of the needles. It was cut on a diagonal, pointed and sharp, but with a large slot for the liquid to flow through. “That should do it.”

“It’s what you asked for.” Looks like I’ll need a pretty good vein for it.”

“Yeah, full-on mainline. Be careful.”

* * * * *

Daryl and Yvette sat side-by-side in the back of Daryl’s pick-up, leaning against the cab, their legs stretched out toward the tailgate. The Sycamore above them showed the first signs of fall in the yellow late afternoon sun. The happy squeals and laughs from the children playing on the climber at the other end of the parking lot washed over them. Yvette leaned over, kissed her boyfriend, and said, “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Yvette slid down until her lap was next to Daryl’s aching knee. She unzipped the leather case, took out the larger green velvet box, a small bottle of water, a pair of tweezers, and one of the bottles holding the Silicon on Silk micro-circuits. She propped the syringe, open end up, between her legs. She carefully picked up a micro-circuit with the tweezers and dropped one, and then a second, into the syringe. Then she poured enough water in to reach the 100CC mark. The tiny pieces of silk floated on the water. Slowly, making sure not to spill the liquid in the syringe, she removed a needle from the smaller case, and screwed it onto the syringe.

“Okay, I’ve got that part right. I think.”

Daryl nodded.

Then she took a cotton ball out of the case and handed it to Daryl. “When I pull the needle out, you press this down on the spot, and hold it there until the bleeding stops.”

“I will.”

Yvette then took a small horseshoe magnet out of the case, removed the iron bar held between the magnet’s two legs, and balanced the magnet on her lap. Next she removed a bungee cord from the case, wrapped it around Daryl’s thigh a few inches above his knee, twisted the ends together, and handed them to Daryl.

“Roll over. The vein we want is on the back of your knee.”

The tall boy rolled onto his side, exposing the back of his knee below his basketball shorts to Yvette.

“Good. Now twist and tighten the bungee cord. When I see the vein, I’m going to stick the needle into it. Go on, twist.”

After a few seconds, Yvette pushed the needle into a blue line in Daryl’s leg, and prayed. With one hand she held the magnet against the skin, keeping it just below where she thought the tip of the needle should be. With the other hand, she slowly depressed the plunger until it was empty.

“Okay, release the bungee and be ready to hold the cotton.”

A few seconds later, Daryl said, “Ready.”

Yvette gently pulled the needle out of the leg. “Got it,” Daryl said. Yvette then slowly slid the magnet along the back of Daryl’s leg until she came to the knee joint. Once there, she counted to ten, moved the magnet a half inch, counted to ten again, and repeated the procedure until the ends of the magnet had rested on every square inch of the knee. As she moved from spot to spot, she watched a purple blood bruise slowly spread across Daryl’s knee and creep up his thigh. “Did you feel anything? It looks ugly.”

“Nope, didn’t feel a thing.” Daryl leaned back against the cab.

Yvette unscrewed the needle, put it back in its box, put the syringe in its box, put the bar back across the magnet’s legs, and then put everything back into the leather case. When she slumped back against the cab, he put his arms around her, held her until she stopped shaking, and then gave her a long, gentle kiss.

“How did you know how to do all that?” he asked.

“I didn’t. I made it up.”

“Do you really think it’ll work?” She looked into his eyes. “No.”

“Me neither.”

Yvette added, “But no harm done. Those micro-circuits will dissolve and go away in a couple of days, no matter what.

* * * * *

Yvette’s phone began blaring the Laker’s theme song three hours before Daryl was to pick her up for the evening’s football game. “Hey, Vette, get on down to the gym. You’ve got to see this.”

Ten minutes later Yvette walked into the gym, passed the practicing girls’ volleyball teams, and entered the side of the auxiliary gym area set aside for basketball. One group of boys were playing five-on-five, full court. Several other players sat by courtside awaiting their turn. Yvette leaned against the wall and watched.

Daryl, a full six-inches taller than anyone else, and almost a foot taller than the boy guarding him, dribbled beyond the three point line waving a play to his teammates. He took one step right, passed, spun, took two giant steps down the lane, caught the return pass, stopped, and shot a five-foot jumper.

“Too close!” yelled his defender.

“Sorry.” “Hey, man. You’re too tall. You gotta stay outside to make things fair.”

“Sorry. It’s been awhile.”

After Daryl’s team made their eleventh basket, the losers left the court, and Daryl rushed over to Yvette. “Did you see that? Did you?”

“Yeah. A little awkward, but not bad.”

“No, not that. I’m out here. No pain, nothing. Everything’s fine again. Isn’t that great? Gotta get back out there. Pick you up at seven.”[/toggle]

December 2, 2014