Sundoc

The Phantom of Pear Tree Bottom

Once upon a time, there was something foul in the parish of St. Ann. In fact, several things were a little off. If you stuck your clown nose in the air, you could smell the stench of acrid smoke. Somebody was burning garbage again. God only knew what was in those fumes. Or sometimes you'd catch a whiff of something dead; road kill of speeding cars on the North Coast Highway.

Auntie Brigadier General was no ordinary clown. She'd been around the block before making Runaway Bay her home. It seemed the perfect place to settle. She didn't plan on staying long. She never did.

Auntie Brigadier took up jogging in the mornings. The world behind the screen of tall lush trees at Pear Tree Bottom was her secret paradise. But it wasn't hers alone. Sometimes she passed a friendly German lady who'd been walking there for nearly twenty years. The German lady claimed it was good for her heart. Auntie Brigadier eyed the woman's rosy cheeks, and figured it must be true. Auntie B met an older woman walking at Pear Tree Bottom. The sprite slender person explained she'd lived there for a long time, too. She was a biologist doctor. She'd made many field trips to the site and taught a lot of people the value of the ecosystem there…

BLAH< BLAH< BLAH…

 

The night before her final clown battle Auntie Brigadier gathered her children. She sat around the open fire and spoke softly to them.

"Evil" she began, "is anything false that pretends to be true. It's the grinning face of a human wolf about to devour its prey. Evil will cloud your vision and confuse you. It will rock your cradle gently with one hand to lull you. But beware, the other hand lights a fire in your bed as you sleep."

 

"Out of great evil, good must come," my friend Markus insisted.

Well, I guess it's up to me what I make of this.

 

DIS STORY AIN'T DONE YET…