Although I was ready to forgive and forget the whole thing, Oliver was not.“Oliver, what do you mean you’re dropping them as our primary timber suppliers?” I ask him after he declares his decision at the office a day after the strange meeting in the morning, “I thought we all agreed it was a misunderstanding and are putting it behind us for good.”The past day had gone pleasantly enough, after the strange incident. Coraline had been stunned to learn what had happened while she hid in the bathroom, and Oliver was miffed to learn about the lukewarm nature of their apologies.“So, they just came around to pat themselves on their backs for being good boys,” he’d grouched, “typical. How very typical of them.”“Well, at least they did that. I know plenty of people who would rather go and air out their dirty laundry in national media rather than apologize,” I told him, remembering how Stone and his father acted after the expelling incident.“Dirty laundry? That sounds like something that ha
“What on earth…?” I utter as I take in the sight in front of me.I stand in front of the hunting lodge construction zone, right in front of the structure that is to be the main building of the hotel. The morning air is crisp, and the sun is already shining, brilliant rays filtering through the leaves of the canopies in the sorest surrounding us and hitting the ground, warming up the air particles in between. About twenty or so workers and senior staff stand around me, while Oliver and Coraline flank me. And all of us are staring.“Fallhill does not belong to you. Leave!” Coraline reads what is written on a wall of the structure aloud. These words are written in black oil and red paint, alternating between them, in a bold, large font that takes over the wall. Surrounding it, there are skulls, knives, guns, trees, and animals drawn, all in surprising detail as if the perpetrators of the deed had plenty of time in their pockets. Whenever winds blow through the forest, the strings of toil
The police came and went. While they were there, they asked some questions, took photographs of the crime scene, did some more detecting around, and then told us to stay put and notify them immediately if there were any other criminal activities happening on the premises. Of course, they did not forget to question me thoroughly, because for some reason they seemed to be under the impression that I had something to do with the graffiti.“I’m the manager of this construction zone,” I tell them, “I’m not here on vacation or anything. It means that I oversee the construction of this place on behalf of the company that owns the place. Why on god’s green earth would I want to trash the place where I work?”Over their shoulders, I see Oliver glaring at anyone and everyone wearing a police uniform and Coraline glancing at us, worry and annoyance warring on her expression.“Who knows, maybe you have something against the boss.” One of the detectives suggests offhandedly as if all of this is a
This is the first time I take a drive to town, and I am quite surprised to find the town as busy as it is. And then I check the date. It’s a Sunday. Of course, it’s a Sunday. I should’ve known from the distinct lack of workers in the construction zone.Because it’s Sunday, everyone is out and about, enjoying their free day of the week. There is a farmer’s market and a flea market, side by side and buzzing with people. At a distance, I could also see an honest to God fair, with merry-go-rounds and Ferris wheels, and all sorts of entertainment opportunities. The small town was excited and high on energy, and I wished we could come over here and enjoy it.Curse whoever chose today of all days to draw shit on walls.After driving down the roads of Falenridge one too many times, I wait about fifteen minutes lurking around street corners until I finally find a spot to park.With a sigh, I get out of the truck and lock the thing up. According to google maps, the nearest hardware store where
At first, I don’t hear it. Because there are so many people around, and there are plenty of people calling one another. So, I keep on walking, not even wondering who was calling whom.And then the same voice hollers again, “You in the brown and red jacket, stop right there!”I’m wearing such a jacket, I realize belatedly. Confused, I turn back to see who was calling me in the middle of the town.The man is brawny, which is the first thing I notice about him. He looks angry for some reason. Surrounding him are three more guys, all wearing the same kind of expression. And it makes my blood run cold.Oh, God, what now? Who were they, and what were they trying to do to me? Were they inching for a fight? For the life of me I could not figure out why they would want to fight me, I’d literally never seen them before. But then again, most of the people I’ve gotten in trouble with had not seen me before in their lives. My mind runs a mile a minute upon seeing them. Were these people coming fro
This is the first time in my life that I’ve made a bunch of men about my age look so damned frightened of me. I don’t know what I look like exactly. But I’m aware that my teeth are borne, and my hands are clutched around the bag of cans in my arms as if I’m ready to hurl it at any unfortunate target any moment now. I’m right in the little group’s leader’s face, and he stares at me with wide eyes. I know that I’m lighter than them, but at the same time, my body had inadvertently fallen into the offensive position I learned at the Adrenaline Rush club which seems like ages ago.I’m breathing hard and I feel ready to pounce. At that moment, I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty and wipe the floor with everyone trying to get on my damn nerves.But of course, bullies are often cowards.“Fine, we believe you,” Manager Paul’s, whose last name always keeps escaping me, son backs away, gulping. So are his friends, “just stay away from our property.”Perhaps I should have listened to Oliver when
“Please tell me we haven’t run into another problem,” I whine as soon as I get in the hearing range with Oliver. Suddenly, all the excitement I had felt upon driving to and back from town washes away as if I has been splashed with a torrent of water. It’s still way too early in the day for this, “because I ran into some unsavory characters back in town, and please do not tell it’s the timberyard’s manager’s son here with his daddy to create more nuisances!”Oliver’s brows furrow in confusion, “You ran into Paul’s son?”“Yep, and it was not pleasant.”Oliver opens his mouth, probably to ask, but shakes his head. “You know what, I’m not going to ask until we get this one out of the way. And no, I won’t say it’s a problem, exactly. It’s not related to us directly, but well…” Oliver sighs, “you know when I acted this job I really didn’t expect to run into these kinds of things. Thought it was too much movie cliché, you know. But now…”“Oliver, man, I understand why you’re so shaken up, I
Because the day is already lost to cleaning up the mess in our own construction zone, we make our way further into the mountains so we could survey the damage in the Owl’s Peak project. At first, we only thought Gill Erwin the supervisor was just here to lament his own woes after hearing about our incident, but it turned out that he wanted us to come and see the damage ourselves and see if we could make a connection with our own.“Maybe it’s two different groups,” he remarked, “maybe it’s one. Maybe they really are eco-terrorists, rather than normal delinquents looking for a bit of fun.”“The man’s stressed like he’s trying to pass Medical school without studying,” Oliver mutters to me after Gill takes his leave after getting us to agree to take a look at his damage. “I bet a month’s salary that he’s not going to be sleeping soundly for a week at most.”“The damage done to his place does look more ominous than our little graffiti,” I reply, scratching my chin as thoughts flit through