Chapter Seventy-Four: Edgar to the Rescue

Alec Reagon looked grimly at the group.  “What’s wrong with you?  You’re supposed to look scared.”

His mother nudged him.  “Look behind you.”

Alec turned around.  Behind him was Edgar and a small SWAT team with their weapons all trained on Alec.

“Oh, fudge,” Alec said.

“I’d drop that rifle if I was you,” Edgar said.

Alec dropped his weapon.

“How did you find us?” Hillary Reagon asked.

“We’ve been tracking you for months,” Edgar said.  “I figured you would try to go to the last place you thought we would think of.  So I thought that this farm was the place you thought would be the last place we’d think of.”

“I think I understood that,” Luna said.  “I think.”

“If you’d kindly follow these marshals,” said Edgar, “there is a van waiting to take you to a federal holding area.”

Alec sighed and shrugged.  His mother looked at the SWAT team and the marshals and shrugged as well.  The two of them slowly trudged along behind the marshals and in front of the SWAT team.

“Wow,” Strange Brew said.  “That was so amazing.”

“Were you really able to psych them out that way?”  Grace asked.

“Really? No,” Edgar said.  “Actually Marge called us and let us know there was something up in your woods.  But I didn’t want them to know that.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Cat.  “I’m just really, really glad that you showed up.”

“So relieved,” said Blue Sky.

                                                                    *

The group reconvened in Groovy House.  

“So is this it?” Darren asked.  “Is this the last we see of the Reagons?”

“I certainly hope so,” Edgar said.  “While it’s up to the courts to decide, I hope and expect to have them behind bars for a long time.”

“I can’t imagine any jury finding them innocent, given how much they’ve done,” said Nancy.

“I can’t either,” Edgar said.  “While I suppose you never know, the evidence in this case is overwhelming.  And your friend, Don York, seems more than anxious to testify against them.  I’d be real surprised if they’re not in the pen for a good, good many years.”

“So now what?” Sal asked.  “Will we see you again?”

“Oh, probably,” Edgar said.  “I’ve gotten to like this place, even if you’re all a bunch of dirty, pinko hippies.”

“Speak for yourself, big boy,” Chuck said.  “I think of this as fuchsia.”  He ruffled his brightly pastel gown.

“Well, I guess it’s goodbye for now,” Edgar said.  “Hopefully the next time I come here it will be for purely social reasons.”

“I’ll walk you to the door,” Luna said.  “There’s some things I want to check out with you before you leave.”

When Edgar and Luna left the room, Dan grabbed Sal and Nancy and Cat and Viv and Darren and Marge.

“We’ve got to talk,” he said.

The seven of them went to the back house and began to plot.

“We need to make sure Luna doesn’t find out about any of this,” Sal said.

“Absolutely,” said Nancy.

Chapter Seventy-Three: What Was Out in the Woods

“Really,” Strange Brew said.

“Really,” Ken said.

“Okay, okay,” Luna said.  “We’ll check it out.”

“I’ll come along,” Dan said.

“Yeah,” Sal said.  “Me, too.  I want to see what’s gotten everybody spooked.”

The five of them headed out the door and slowly trudged through the snow toward the wooded section of the commune..

“You’ll see,” said Ken.

“Maybe,” Sal said. “I’ll have to see.”

“Well, what I see,” Luna said, “is some type of shelter in there.”

“Where?” Dan asked.

“Look over to the left, just beyond where all the tents used to be.  If you look carefully, there’s something rising by the tree.”

“It’s camouflaged!” Sal said, surprised.

When the five of them got there they found a lean-to covered with snow with a makeshift cabin built around an insulated tent.  It looked cozy and comfortable and very well hidden.  And there was nobody there.

“See,” Ken said.  “Harry was trying to let us know that someone was living here.”

“See,” Strange Brew said.  “I told you there was something out here.”

“Yeah,” Luna said.  “Well, now we’ll have to tell the others.”

                                                                    *

That afternoon everyone assembled out in the wood.  Or almost everyone.  Marge and Zelda stayed back to tend to the houses and prepare dinner.

“Who could have put this there?” Cat asked.

“Hobos?”  wondered Will, who was now walking on crutches.  He was barely balanced on them in the snow.

Blue Sky turned to Grace.  “Didn’t I say there was something out here?”

Grace looked at Blue Sky and then looked at Strange Brew, who was on the other side of her.  “Okay, okay, okay,” she said.   “I was wrong.  There was something out here.  So sue me.”

“Wait,” Luna said.  “Let’s not get into an argument now.  This is important.  This doesn’t look like something a hobo or homeless person would have.  Those insulated tents are quite expensive.”

“I agree,” said Sal.  “Someone was hiding out here.”  

“I’ll bet they were up to no good,” said Darren.

“A fugitive from the law?”  suggested Sowbug.

“Probably,” said Viv.  “But I think the bigger question is where they are now.”

“Miles away, I hope,” said Lois.  “It looks abandoned to me.”

Earthworm and Dandelion and Mo were examining the construction of the lean-to and cabin.

“It’s odd,” Dandelion said.  “This was made with really good materials, but whoever made it didn’t have much construction skills.”

“Wait a minute,” Chuck said.  “Expensive tent, really good materials, no handy skills, and possible fugitives from the law.  I have a very scary idea about this.”

“Yes,” Nancy said.  “It sounds only too familiar.  I think several of us are probably thinking the very same thing.”

“Maybe you were thinking of us,” a male voice said from behind the group.

Everyone slowly turned.  Standing behind the group was Alec Reagon and his mother, Hillary.  And Alec was pointing his semi-automatic sniper rifle directly at Luna.

Chapter Seventy-Two: Harry’s Daring Escape

“He’s gone,” Ken wailed.

“Who’s gone?”  Grace asked.

“My buddy, Harry,” Ken cried.

Grace looked at Marge.  “We have someone living here named Harry?”

“Harry’s a gecko,” Marge said.

“A what?”

“A lizard.”

“He escaped,” Ken said.  “I can’t find him anywhere.”

“He can’t have gotten out of the house,” Marge said.  “Let’s search this place from top to bottom.  We’ll find him.”

They started with a search of Ken’s room.

“I’d given him a corn cob as a treat,” Ken said.  “Then Harry piled it on top of the branch that I put in the aquarium and that got him up high enough to push the screen off the glass and climb up and out.”

“Well, he’s certainly not in here,” Grace said.  “I’ve looked under your bed, and in your closet, and through all your dirty clothes, and the only thing I can say is that you really should do a whole bunch of cleaning in here.”

“Never mind that,” Marge said.  “Let’s search the other rooms.”

They had looked in every room and were back down on the first floor trying to think of other places that they might have forgotten when Darren came in.  He was no longer on crutches but was using a cane to get around and still limping.

“Unbelievable,” Darren said.

“What?” asked Grace.

“I try to walk in this house and I’m attacked by a dragon,” Darren said.

“A dragon?” yelled Grace.

“Well, it was a small dragon, but it went charging outside when I opened the door and it almost knocked me over,” Darren said.

“Harry!” screeched Ken.

                                                                    *

“I just thought of something,” Ken said as they began searching through the snow for signs of Harry.

“What did you think of?” Marge asked.

“The last time Harry tried to escape, he was warning me about the fire,” Ken said.  “I wonder if this is his way of trying to say something.”

“Let’s find him first,” Marge said.  “Then you can ask him.”

“It’s impossible to see lizard tracks with all these footprints around,” Grace said.

“I’ll try to get beyond all the human tracks,” Ken said.  “I’ll walk to the edge and do a big circle there.”

“Be carefully not to stamp out any tracks while you’re doing it,” Marge said.

“I’ll be very careful,” Ken said.  “I’m looking very carefully.  And look…”  He pointed out a place in the snow where tiny little tracks could be seen.

“Are you sure that they’re lizard tracks and not squirrel tracks?” Grace asked.

“I know my lizard,” Ken said.  “Those are Harry’s tracks, I’m sure.”

“They lead toward the woods,” Marge said.  “Toward the old camping ground.”

Ken was charging ahead.  “Harry!” he called.  “I’m coming.”

“Let’s wait here,” Marge said to Grace.  “If he finds Harry, he’ll be very happy and if he doesn’t, we can keep looking.”

“I think these really are squirrel tracks,” Grace said, pointing at some heavier tracks that led to a nearby tree.  “So I guess those were lizard tracks.”

“Harry!” Ken yelled.  A minute later he yelled, “Found him!”

Marge and Grace waited patiently while Ken lingered in the wood for a few minute before he headed back.

“Let’s get him inside,” Marge said.  “I don’t think geckos like the cold.”

Harry was huddled inside Ken’s jacket.  

“I didn’t know that lizards shivered,” Grace said, “but I think he’s shivering.”

“That’s me,” Ken said.  “He’s co-cold.”

When they finally got inside, Ken said, “I think Strange Brew was right.”

“Right about what?” Marge asked.

“I think there’s something out in those woods.  You know, I think that’s what Harry was trying to tell us.”

Chapter Seventy-One: A Foggy Winter’s Day

A couple of weeks later, the weather suddenly turned warm.  

One morning, the commune woke up and it seemed like everything had turned to mist.  Beyond the houses was a grey cotton curtain.  Shapes and forms could be dimly seen through the warm winter murk.

“Man, it’s spooky out there,” said Strange Brew.  “I was checking on the animals and I started worrying about whether I would become lost in those wild wisps and clouds.”

“I know what you mean,” Blue Sky said.  “Even walking to the farm stands is an eerie adventure.  I’m scared something is going to come out of the haze and grab me.”

“I think that you’re both letting your imaginations run away with you,” said Grace.  “It’s just a little fog.  You’d think you’d never seen fog before.”

“I don’t know,” said Strange Brew said.  “That’s more than a little fog.  It’s more like a soft seductive pale brume.  It’s uncanny.”

“Hey, what’s with the weird miasma that’s taken over the farm?” asked Paul G as he entered the room.  “It’s gotten creepy outside.”

“I want know, what’s with you all?” asked Grace.  “Am I the only one not being bewildered by the fog?  It’s really not that scary.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re fine with it,” Blue Sky said.  “But it’s way too unsettling for me.  I like to be able to see my way around without worrying about things emerging from the fumes.”

“Yeah,” said Paul G.  “It’s like cream of gruesome soup out there.”

“Fine,” Grace said.  “You can all frighten yourselves to death over a little fog.  See if I care.”

She was starting out of the room when Patsy came in.

“OMZ,” Patsy said.  “It’s like the place has been taken over by translucent spectral vapors.  Has anyone else noticed?”

                                                                    *

Two days later, the fog was but a memory.  The weather had gotten colder and everything had gotten clearer.

Nevertheless, the foggy day came up in the commune meeting.

It wasn’t an item on the agenda.  Instead, Blue Sky happened to mention it when the commune was discussing repairing the toilet.

“Speaking about messy,” Blue Sky said.  “I hope we don’t see another day like Monday for a while.  I was totally unnerved by that gruesome gloom.”

“I can’t figure out what happened to everybody,” Grace said.  “There was a little mist around and the entire commune was freaked out.”

“It wasn’t ‘a little mist’,” Patsy said.  “It was a full fledged mystic mystifying mist.”

“Hold it,” Marge said.  She was attempting to be the facilitator for the meeting.  “We’re discussing how we can get the bowl fixed.  Let’s not get off track again. We’ve got to keep focusing, people, just keep focusing.”

“Yeah,” said Chuck.  “And all that muck soiled the hem of my best baby blue pinafore.  We need to do something to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

Dan started to respond, but Strange Brew broke in with, “You got to understand.  There was something in that fog.  I don’t know…”

Marge said,  “Excuse me but Dan was trying to speak.  Come on.  At least pretend to keep on topic.”

“Sorry,” Strange Brew said.  “But you should know what I saw.”

“Can we get back to the topic of toilets?” Marge asked.

“I do have a solution,” Dan said.

Almost simultaneously, Patsy asked, “What did you see?”

“I don’t know,” Strange Brew said.  “There was something in the woods.  You know, the woods where we had been camping.”

“Oh, you’re just caught by those clouds again,”  Grace said.  “I can’t believe that grown ups would be so scared of a little fog.”

“A little fog, nothing,” Blue Sky said.  “It was an absolute cream of pea souper.”

“Yeah, and what’s important...” Strange Brew started.

“The toilet? Please?” Marge pleaded.

“Wait a minute,” Blue Sky said.  “What was important?’

“I’m sure that there was something out there,”  Strange Brew said.  “I saw something moving in that mist.”

“Sure,” Grace said.  “It wasn’t the mist that was moving,  believe me.  It was your mind that was moving.”

Dan was looking bewildered, Luna was looking at Marge, and Marge was staring at the floor with her head in her hands.

“Okay,” Strange Brew said.  “I just wanted to let you know.  There was definitely something out there.  I swear.”

Chapter Seventy: Zelda’s Daughter

A week after Bill Schmitt visited the commune, Zelda’s daughter came by.  It wasn’t anywhere near as pleasant a visit.

“Where is she?” she said to Ken.

“Where is who?” Ken asked.

“That crazy old lady,” the woman said.  “I’ll take her off your hands.”

“Are you talking about Zelda?” Ken asked.

“Of course I’m talking about Zelda.  How many crazy old ladies do you have here?’

“You can’t take her,” Ken said.  “We love Zelda.”

The woman looked at Ken.  “Obviously there’s several crazy people here.”

Marge came in just then.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

“She wants to take Zelda,” Ken said.

“You can’t do that,” Marge said.  “We love Zelda.  She’s like everyone’s favorite grandmother.”

“Okay,” the woman said. “So there’s a lot of crazy people here.  You still haven’t answered my question.  Where is she?”

“Who are you?” Marge asked.

“I’m her daughter.”

Marge and Ken stared at the woman for a moment before Sal came into the room.  And behind her...

“Yvonne!” yelled Zelda.  “They told me there was someone in here asking for me.  I should have known it was you.”

“Come on,” Yvonne said.  “We’re getting out of here.”

“I’m not going,” said Zelda.  “You can’t make me. They love me here.”

“I got that,” Yvonne said.  “But I’ve known you longer and know what a pain you really are.  I’m going to spare them before they learn it the hard way.’

“If Zelda doesn’t want to go,” Sal said, “you can’t make her.”

“Wanna bet?” Yvonne said.  “I’ll be back here and I’ll come back here with a lawyer.”  And with that she stormed off into the snow.

                                                                    *

“She’s always been trouble,” Zelda said the next day.  “All my family’s a bit off but she’s the worse.  Except for her son, Alvin.  Let’s hope that Alvin doesn’t show up.”

“I thought you said that no one in your family ever thinks of you, except at the holidays,” said Nancy.

“I didn’t think anyone did,” Zelda said.  “I wonder how she found me here.”

“I don’t know,” said Ken.  “But you have another visitor.”

“Oh, no,” said Zelda.  “I hope it’s not Alvin.”

“Is Alvin in his forties?”  Ken asked.

“Oh, yes,” said Zelda.

“Then it’s not Alvin,” Ken said.  “This guy is about your age.”

“Oh, my, oh, my,” Zelda said, as the man walked in.  “It’s Theo!”

“Zelda, Zelda, Zelda,” Theo said.  “What’s all this about you making trouble for Yvonne?”

“I’m not making trouble for Yvonne,” Zelda said.  “She’s making trouble for me.  I just want to stay here at this commune.”

“Excuse me,” said Nancy.  “Who is this?”

“This,” said Zelda, “is my husband.  He left me years ago to live with a woman half his age, but we never bothered getting divorce.”

“Yes,” said Theo, “and Matilda sends her regards.”  He looked at Zelda carefully.  “You really want to stay here?”

“I really want to stay here,” Zelda said.

“I had to see for myself.  Okay, I know I owe you.  I’ll see what I can do about Yvonne.”

“She says she’s coming back with a lawyer.”

“I’ll talk with her,” Theo said.  “Sometimes her bark is worse than her overbite.”

“If worse comes to worse, we know a bunch of lawyers,” Nancy said.  “I don’t think there will be a real problem.”

“Yeah, but you don’t know Yvonne,” Zelda said.  “She holds a grudge.  You never know when she’ll suddenly decide to do something.  She’s not the most stable person I know.”

“Now, now,” Theo said.  “That’s no way to talk about our daughter.”

“It’s true, though,” Zelda said.

“Yeah, it’s true,” Theo admitted.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: A Visitor with a Story

Ken sighed as he opened the door to an older man.

“Do you want to live here?” he asked as he showed the man in.

“Nope,” the man said.  “Done that.”

“Done what?” Ken looked confused.

“Lived here.  This was my place eight years ago and since it was a pretty boring day today, I thought I’d see who lives here now.”

“This was your place?” Ken asked.  “You owned it?”

“Yep.  That’s what I said.  I sold this place to a guy who wanted to develop it.”

“Oh, goodness.  So what happened to the guy you sold the place to?”

“The fool ran out of money,” the man sat down on one of the living room chairs.  “I heard some young woman bought the place for half of what I sold it for.  Stories I heard said she wanted to start a commune here.  Or maybe just a farm.”

“She did both,” Ken said.  “This place is a commune and a farm.”

Marge came in to see what Ken was up to.  

“Well, hello,” she said to the visitor. “What can we do for you?”

“Hello, yourself, young lady,” the man said.  Marge grinned.  It had been a while since anyone had called her a young lady.  “I was just explaining to this earnest lad here that I used to own this land.  I just came by to see who was living here now.”

“Oh, there’s a bunch of us here now,” Marge said.  “Do you want to meet the crew?  You could stay for dinner.”

“Dinner sounds lovely, but it will need to be another time.  I need to be headed home before dark and it gets dark pretty early these days.”  He paused and then leaned over toward Marge.  “What I’d really like to do is meet with the young woman who purchased the place.  Just so I know who owns the land nowadays.”

“I think that can be arranged,” Marge said.  “Let’s go over to the side house.”

                                                                    *

Luna and Dan sat with the older gentleman in the parlor of the side house.

“What did you say your name was?” Luna asked.

“I didn’t,” said the man.  “No one has asked me my name yet.  It’s Bill Schmitt.  I live up in Browningsburg now, but I used to own this place.”

“What do you think of what we’ve done with the farm?” asked Dan.

“Don’t know, didn’t get to see much of it with the snow,” Bill Schmitt said.  

“Would you like to see it?” asked Luna.

“Sometime but today I’ve got to run soon.  I mostly wanted to see you.”  He paused.  “Would it be alright if I came back sometime and checked things out?  Maybe come back when the weather’s nicer?”

“Sure,” said Luna.  She held out her hand.  “My name is Luna Lagoon, by the way.  This is Dan.  He helped me start the place.”

“Lagoon, huh?” Bill Schmitt thought a moment.  “You wouldn’t know a Wilma Lagoon, would you?”

“That’s my father’s mother, my grandmother,” Luna said.  “Do you know her?  I think she lives close to Browningsburg, now that I think of it.”

“Small world, isn’t it?  She and I both go to the Ebenezer Non-denominational Zionist Church on Sunday and I often take her out for muffins afterwards.  She claimed that some of the pastries at the bakery came from her granddaughter’s farm.”

“Yeah, they might have,” Luna said.  “Some of our stuff has been bought by folks who resell them in their shops.  I hope you liked them.”

“They were darn good.”

“Hey, we can give you some cupcakes and fruit bread to take home with you,” Dan said.

“I’d be much obliged,” said Bill Schmitt.  “It’s great to see this farm flourishing.”

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Zelda!

Ken looked wistfully out the window at the snowy landscape. To his surprise, a chartreuse Saab had pulled up in the drive and an elderly woman was getting out.

He rushed out the door to help her across the slippery walk.

“Hi,” he said to her.  “Who are you here to visit?”

She looked right back at him.  “I’m not here to visit anyone.  I’m here to join the commune.”

Ken stopped right there at the doorway.  He looked at her, looked at their breath coming out in frosty puffs, and helped her inside.

Once Ken had the door shut, he asked, “You want to join the commune?”  His tone was skeptical to say the least.

“You bet,” the woman said.  “Back when I was thirty-three, let me see, that was in nineteen-sixty-six.   Anyway, there were suddenly all these communes everywhere.  I really wanted to join one but I had a husband and two kids and a job and I couldn’t.  I figured when the kids grew up, I could join a commune then.”

“But…” Ken started.

The woman paid no attention.  “Then when my kids grew up and my husband left, I started looking for communes.  Unfortunately, that’s when my kids started having kids and needed all this help and I was grandma, and there was no time to join a commune.”

“But…” Ken said again.

“But now I’m eighty-two years old,” she continued.  “And my kids are grandparents and no one ever thinks of me except at the holidays when they check the obituaries to see if they need to send me cards and I was in the bookstore and saw this book called ‘The New Commune Cookbook’ and it said there was a commune around here and I thought I’d come over here and join up.”

“But…” Ken said, but this time it was Nancy who interrupted him.  She had just come in and heard the last part of the monologue.

“Wait,” she said to Ken.  Nancy turned to the woman.  “Do you cook?”

“I’ve been cooking for fifty years.  I can cook anything.”

“Can you bake?” Nancy asked.

“Do Canadians like hockey?  Is the pope a Catholic?  Do bears…”

“Got it,” Nancy interrupted.

Dan was passing by with Luna.  “I don’t like hockey,” he said softly to her.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Luna told him.  “Hopefully if they don’t find out, they won’t take away your citizenship.”

Nancy walked the woman into the kitchen.  “Are you willing to try to bake this bread?” she asked pointing to a recipe in the cookbook.  “I’ll get you whatever you need.”

“Let me at it,” the woman said.

                                                                    *

The bread looked a little bit odd when it came out of the oven but Nancy was quite surprised when she tried a slice.

“Whoa,” said Nancy.  “This is tastes better than it does when I make it, and I make it pretty darned good.”

“I thought adding mustard and lemongrass would give it a little zow…” said the woman.  “I like to experiment while I cook.”

“So, you really want to live here?”

“Absolutely.  Like right now.  That’s exactly why I came.”

“Well, you’re in,” Nancy said.  “What’s your name?”

“Zelda,” said Zelda.  “Where can I put my stuff?”

“We’ve got one room left in Harmony House.  I guess it’s yours.”

They went out to the Saab and pulled out several suitcases.  Ken helped and with three of them struggling, they were able to carry everything in one load. Fortunately the walk was well shoveled and they had no trouble getting the stuff out to Harmony House.

“Like I said, I came here to join you,” Zelda said as they were walking.  “I just knew I had to be here.  I really wanted to live in a commune and your place was the only place for miles.  I didn’t have a plan B to fall back on.”

In Harmony House they passed Darren reading in the living room, sitting with his leg up wrapped in a big cast.

He waved at them.

“What happened to him?” Zelda asked.

“That was our last baker,” Ken said.  “He had a little accident.”

“Pay attention to where you walk on the kitchen floor,” Nancy said.  “And don’t move around too fast.”

“I’ll remember that,” Zelda said.