Agent 912 On Holiday Almost

Today's Link
Cherie's Place

Saying for the Day
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
~Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, c.1420

Picture of the Day
From the archives

A Picture Story from Jeff's Portrait of Words

Poor Agent 012 was now in Vegas but not on Holiday as he would have liked but on assignment.

He brought Cinnamon back without further incident.
He was lauded as a hero.
He was given a medal that he can’t show anybody because he is a secret agent.
He even got a pat on the back from the Chief who told him he was the best agent the Agency had.
There was even talk of moving him up to a lower number like 010. The last 010 had been crushed under an elephant while on duty at a circus and would be in traction for a long time.

After his debriefing he bought some roses for his wife and went home. It was great seeing her and the kids again. She would never know the length he had gone to to stay faithful to her. But none of it mattered because he was home and he had been promised a week off. He was going to cut the grass with nobody shooting arrows at him. He would play with the boys without worrying that their stuffed toys might have bombs in them. He would go to bed withy his wife and not have to worry that Cinnamon was coming through the wall. It was going to be wonderful


But in the morning there was a message on the answering machine saying there was a problem at Noodles and he needed to come in right away. It had something to do with the soup.

Of course, it had nothing to do with soup or noodles.
The Chief was sending him to Vegas because they had a tip that Mute , the head of the most evil agency in the world ,was meeting his agents in the Sunny Space Casino at the roulette wheel every day at 3:00. The tip was given a 90% reliability rating by the Agency computer.

So here was Agent 012 staying at the Sky High Hotel across from the Sunny Space Casino. The hotel was unique in that it had its stairs and its elevators on the outside of the building. Agent 012 could stand on the stair outside his room and see the roulette wheel in the casino.

He even had telescope sunglasses so he could study faces and send images back to the agency. Every day he watched from 2:30 until 3:30 and was now convinced he knew who Mute was.

That is he knew what he looked like even though he didn’t know his name. He always wore the same white hat and the same shirt. It just had to be him. He had really thought that the head of such an evil group would be in better physical condition but he was still sure it was him.

So Agent 012 worked out a plan to capture him. He would wait until the henchmen left and then he would take him prisoner. He would drop him at the local Agency outlet “ Candles and More Candles”. Then he could fly home. By the end of the day he might even be 010.


So he stood off on the side pretending to watch the roulette wheel. He even made a bet on number 10. He won but didn‘t notice since he was watching Mute. The money was left on 10 and 10 came up again. Now there were thousands of dollars in the pile but he still didn’t notice and once more it was all bet on 10 and again he won.
“Hey buddy do you want your winnings” he was asked.
“Sure” he said not taking his eyes off of Mute. “Put it in a bag.”
Suddenly he felt a gun in his back. “ It’s a trap”, he thought.
This is not going to be my day.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal
Immediately after church Tammy and Tommy UK rushed over to Mabel’s convinced the old puzzle was the key to getting rid of the shadow. Over and over in Tommy UK’s mind the words of the driblet “ put the pieces ..from the past ..where they belong “ kept coming back. This had to be the puzzle and all they had to do was put the pieces where they belong. But first they had to find the puzzle.
Mabel had no idea where it was. She was sure she hadn’t thrown it away. It was solid wood and Herman hadn’t been able to destroy it by throwing it at the wall. Herman hated it so he wouldn’t have taken it with him. In fact Herman doesn’t even seem to remember he had the puzzle. At that point, the words of the dribblet “ he knows, but he doesn’t know” came back to Tammy and she was even more convinced that the puzzle was the answer. All they had to do was find the puzzle.
Mabel thought it might be in the “Herman Trunk” but she hated to move her prize African Violets in order to open it and find out. Tammy pointed out that if she didn’t move them the shadow would get the flowers anyway. Even if the flowers died it would be a worthwhile sacrifice to save the town. So with great care they moved the flowers from the trunk to the dining room table with Mabel fretting the entire time.
Then the trunk was opened and Herman’s childhood was packed in front of them. There was the Detroit Lion hat that he wore even to bed for six years though the Lions were losers even then. There was his little red fire truck. He loved that truck. There was his bag of marbles or what was left he lost a lot of them to the other kids at school. There was the baseball glove he wore when he dropped the fly ball and cost his team the championship game. Piece by piece they unpacked poor Herman’s life. There at the bottom was the puzzle board. There was a space for the rocking chair, the cow, and the bird but no pieces. How could they put the pieces where they belong if there are no pieces?
Does this mean the shadow wins? Can’t we still drop the bomb? Have we come this far only to fail? Where are those pieces? Why did they let Herman play in a championship game? Where is Herman? And of course is Tommy UK really the undertaker’s kid? Perhaps if you read News from Pigeon Falls tomorrow there might be an answer or two.

Wrap Up

Rough breathing day. I used a tank and one half of the small tanks of oxygen. I started the day by printing out a month of blogs for my sister Dawn. I'm so far behind I won't tell you which month. Then I brought the Bible Study on the St. Mark's website up to date. After that Betty and I started on the story that we will post on both our blogs tomorrow if it is ready. It is based on the same pictures as our two individual stories today. Check in and see the depths to which story writing can go. In the afternoon we worked on the layout until we ran out of plaster cloth.My sister Dawn called while we were in the basement.When I got back to the computer I visited all the story blogs listed on Jeff's blog. They were so much better than mine but somebody has to be on the bottom so others can be on the top. Then I visited some of my links.
Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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