Batch

09-24-2013 -- I'm walking down Hickory toward Greenleaf, just passing the Goodwin house when somebody comes running, screaming, out of the house and into the street, which causes somebody who was driving down the street to swerve onto the lawn, causing me to have to dive out of the way to avoid being hit.

This causes me to roll out of the way, and into the Goodwins' back yard, where I find the police are looking around, and I start to learn what is going on. A mad gunman has fired on some people, perhaps even killed some people, and they have him trapped here in the Goodwins' house, but he's hiding inside, and they don't know exactly where he is, and he could pop out at any time and shoot somebody, so they are being really cautious.

I slowly make my way around the back yard and then the side yard, feeling like I am being watched the entire time, and like he has a gun trained on me ... very nerve-wracking. I eventually make it to the front yard, then start heading down the street toward Greenleaf again, but now I am going for help, though I don't really know where or what kind of help. A sports car pulls up and offers me a ride wherever I am going, and it is the guy who almost ran me over, and turns out to be a friend of mine.

The guy is sort of a cross of Dave D, Sean S, and Phil L, a nice guy, but a little bit of a trouble-maker, and I am ribbing him about almost running me over, and he explains that the gunman shot at him and he was trying to avoid hitting the woman that ran into the street, and it is not his fault ... and I am never going to let him live this down, am I? And I tell him no, I'm not, but I am starting to climb into the car with him.

That's when his older sister shows up. She is rather pushy and unfriendly (reminds me of Tina, the older sister of another of my childhood friends) and explains that he had no permission to borrow the car, and was already going to be in big trouble with his parents, but now that he's crashed it into the tree in the Goodwins' yard .... He goes off with her in the car, and I am forced back on my feet to try and find help. I am now right by the corner of Hickory and Greenleaf, and may be renting a bike to ride while looking for help.

I am considering a particular model because it is being advertised by a Brian Keith-like curmudgeony sales person who is pushing that model, and I am soon walking it by the house with the hedges. I notice that a dog who has always been loud and unfriendly and kind of scary now seems to want to be friendly, and the neighbors are talking about the killer down the street, and I now find myself going home.

Soon I am at the Hickory house, collecting mail at the front door, and as I walk inside, I find somebody who is an odd cross between my cousin Lyle, Horatio from CSI:Miami and James Spader, and he is proposing theories about the killer while running a long strip of film negatives through his hands. He seems to be developing the film, and drying the various chemicals off the strip.

Mom doesn't buy his theories, and doesn't seem to trust him at all. She says he can't claim to have had knowledge about this months ago when it only happened in the last day or two. (Strangely, I haven't heard him say a word about knowing about this months ago, and it has only happened in the last few minutes, so I have no idea what she is talking about.)

Soon the area is turning into a cross between a school (large school, high school or college, not a small grade school), and they are trying to recruit mom to do some kind of undercover investigation where she would be posing as a returning student, but she doesn't want to do it. I think she is afraid she'll find she likes it too much, and will really go back to school, and she doesn't want to do that.

She finally agrees, and steps into the hospital / college / whatever it is, and starts having to dodge several young men with very Weasley-red hair and bearing, who are running around trying to find food that they can reheat for more and larger meals. Meanwhile, mom is dodging around doing her investigation, and I find the place is turning into more of a cross between the TAMS facility and Hewitt, and I am on the second floor in the offices trying to find an attractive young lady who I may have a thing for, and trying to stay out of trouble.