The Disappearance of a Pied Piper

Still Lost, But Searching

The new day started with a couple dozen more sightings of scorpions in the homes of the missing and around the homes of those, who were either single or empty-nesters.

A dozen or so reported sightings of meteors, creating a light display in the sky, and about four, that seemed to be the size of a man's fist, that landed in the Atlantic Ocean within about ten miles of Nevermore Island. Their impacts created larger waves, that a few surf enthusiasts took advantage of.

The deputized searchers explored new squares on the island map in search of the missing, but every square searched came up empty, too.

The four assigned officers steadily worked through their lists of houses to search for clues, but every time they seemed to come up empty as well.

Chief Bud Best racked his brain more with each passing day with regard to the information they knew about the souls missing, the insane lack of clues, and grasping at anything that might lead to an answer to this growing Mystery of Fairly Same.

I guess it's time to visit the preacher's domain, again because I can't disturb him. He's not there. Bud thought. Ruth. Chapter #2. Should be interesting.

The ride out to the church gave him time to ruminate over the reasons why he, an atheist, was excited to be reading some religion's holy book. I guess it's comforting to know, that people from other cultures went through hard times like the ones we are facing right now. Whether the story is historically accurate or not makes little difference to me. The fact is, that somebody had to write the story, contemplating issues, that are quite universally human.

The opening of the clearing in the woods seemed to Bud as some sort of mentoring session, that said, "A whole new world is beginning to open up to you, Bud Best. Look closely and listen carefully."

Turning into the same parking space was beginning to be second nature, an exercise in muscle memory. Picking up the Bible, and finding his exact spot on the right front row of the auditorium was becoming a comforting activity. Amazingly, this is my respite from the growing uncertainties of my world.

He found the bookmark/letter, and opening the Bible to Ruth 2, he started to read, "And Naomi has a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz."

Go figure, he thought. This mourning lady arrives back in her hometown, and the first thing the writer mentions is the fact, that Noami, the widow has a rich relative, named Boaz. I know families in Fairly Same are really important to us, that's why the parents of the missing children are grieving so much. But what does it matter, that her relative is rich? That can't take away the grief, can it?

Verse #2 shows Ruth as an industrious young lady, who was all about meeting physical needs, like food. This stranger from a foreign land really seems to love her mother-in-law, who must be at least middle-aged by now. New town for her, yet the hometown for the older lady with the first order of business being to find food and shelter. This speaks well of Ruth.

Verse #3, "And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers:" Note to Self: 'Must learn what gleaning means.' Bud reads on, and laughs out loud, "Now, would you look at that! Ruth just happens to be in the field of the older woman's rich 'cousin,' I'm guessing. What a coincidence!"

Reading on in verse #4 we find, that Boaz greets his workers by asking for them to be blessed by his God, and they responded in kind, Bud thinks, and the very next thing he says is in verse #5, "Whose young lady is this?" I see where this is going. Apparently, Noami's 'cousin' is getting up there in age, too, but he is not blind to youthful beauty. The servants tell Boaz the girl's background as a Moabite, who is herself a widow.

Bud continues reading and smiles broadly when he reads verses 8 and 9. "Oh, ho, ho," he chuckles out loud, "Boaz must be quite a bit older than Ruth because he calls Ruth, 'my daughter,' and he tells the young men, who are his workers to 'not touch' Ruth, which is no doubt to sexual touching since she is a beautiful young lady. He wants Ruth to stay in his field 'by my maidens.' He doesn't want to lose track of her. Boaz, the older man, is smitten with Ruth, the younger woman. Ruth falls on her face before Boaz, and asks, 'Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?'

Bud read the rest of the chapter and came to understand some important things about the Jewish people and about the challenges being faced by the people of Fairly Same. Boaz really likes Ruth. He tells her about the good things people are saying about her, and he believes those things. He blesses Ruth by his God. Ruth says, "Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord." Well, if that isn't the most amazing understatement. "Find favor"? Little lady, he's got nothing but favor for you. Boaz gives her carte blanc. Eat with us. Reap with us. He told his "young men, 'And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose.'" In other words, "Drop some of the grain on the ground so she can pick it up." At the end of that day, she had an insane amount of grain, (enough to fill a five-gallon tub,) to take home to her mother-in-law.

Bud was overwhelmed by the hopefulness of the story of Ruth meeting Boaz. I need a break. So, he replaced the bookmark, laid the Bible on the offering table, and strided out of the church to go for a walk in the clearing.

For about a mile Bud walked apace, taking large strides, puffing big breaths, and letting off steam. Then, he slowed down, starting to assess his life. Two days ago my family was still intact, Bud thought. My children were, once again, urging me to "get saved," whatever that means. The fact remains, that my children love me with all their hearts, and for some undetermined reason, they disappeared, and I'm still feeling grief just as if they had died. My children, 18 other children, and the preacher are simply not here, and I don't any answers as to why they are not here. If I had had to bury them, then I would know where they are, and I could start over with life in a "new normal," but they are gone, and I am in limbo.

Falling to his knees, he cried out, "God, if you are real, then show me in a way I can understand. I still don't know why you let those boys beat me up in Ireland when I was a teen, but please don't take my kids from me. Please, lead me to the answers I need to solve this mystery, and if you are real, please tell my children, that I love them."

Bud got to his feet slowly, and thought, Somehow I feel better, lighter, maybe even different, but I still don't know what I believe about God. I've got to keep reading in the Bible. I know somehow my answer is there. I've just got a hunch about it.

"Chief, you need to get here, now," Jerome was nearly screaming into the radio. "We've got a situation."

"On my way," Bud answered back, peeling out with rocks flying as he turned on his flashing lights and siren to "Go code."

When he arrived at the PD, Jerome, and Rich were talking with half a dozen official-looking men, wearing the insignia, World Tech. Bud sidled into the conversation to bring himself up to speed.

"We realize, that this is a little backwoods, podunk town. That's why we are giving you one month to work out all the bugs in the system to bring you online." The leader said. His name tag read, Grifflepeg.

Bud inserted himself. "I was called in moments ago, but I'm the Chief of Police. If you will tell me what this is all about, I will be more than happy to cooperate in any way I can."

Grifflepeg said, "We represent the New World Government, and it is our responsibility to bring all outlying countries, and remote lands into compliance with the World Financial System."

"How did this change happen?" Bud asked. "We've been operating at peak performance for years. We've never defaulted on any financial operating system."

"Two days ago there was a great worldwide disappearance of citizens," Grifflepeg informed him. "The New World Government was established, a new President was installed, and a new system of human tagging was approved to keep track of our world citizens to insure, that such an occurrence would never happen again."

"Disappearance of citizens?" Bud asked. "Every one of our 21 children has disappeared as well as one adult."

"Make a note of that, Jurriffic," Grifflepeg barked. "22 citizens on Nevermore Island have disappeared as well."

"It is done, my Commander," Jurriffic saluted.

"What do you require of us?" Bud asked.

"My six men of World Tech will spend the next two days installing new cash register systems into all of your businesses," Grifflepeg informed him. "We will begin to monitor these new installations over the next 30 days. Any glitches in the system will be rectified post haste. Your job is to insert barcode chips into every citizen on the forehead or on the wrist. This will save transaction time in every purchase, giving us the GPS location of every citizen to prevent future disappearances."

"Speaking of that," Bud said. "Have you found clues to determine what happened to everyone, who disappeared?"

"That information is classified," Grifflepeg said, "but I can tell you, that the answer heretofore is highly unsatisfactory."

"So be it, Sir," Bud answered. "You and your men are free to get to work. I still have a town to care for, and they are wanting answers. Since you've provided me with no new information, I've got to share with them the things I've found out so far."

"I see no concerns with that plan," said Grifflepeg. "Carry on."

"Should you need any support," Bud said, "My two men, Jerome First and Rich Deux, will be your go-to liaison between you and me. You sound like you will be here overnight. More Fair Hotel is the best in town. Jeremy Bedford is the owner. Tell him I said to give you his best accommodations and put it on my tab."

"I will keep that in mind, Chief," Grifflepeg said, "However, we run our operation around the clock. If rest is needed, then we have an SUV parked on the main street."

"As you wish," Bud responded with a cold stare. "I've got work to do."

The next 18 hours were nearly as frustrating for the World Tech installers as the past two days had been for Chief Bud Best, his force, and the townspeople. Finally, the installers informed Grifflepeg. "We can't do anything with these old telephone cords. There's just not enough bandwidth on dial-up processes. We've got to go back to Italy for Ultraocular Fibertransive Synoptocables."

"Have you been able to make even one transmission to the home office?" Grifflepeg asked.

"Not even slightly, Sir," Jurriffic said. "World Tech is so far ahead of this island, that you may as well call them cave dwellers."

"Officer Jerome, tell your Chief, that we appreciate his help so far," Grifflepeg said. "We must return immediately to home base. Apart from any atmospheric delays, we should return to finish the installations in three to four days with the UFS cables. The new financial transaction machines have all been placed in their operational locations. Do not attempt to use them, yet, and do not bother or tamper with them in any way. We will know, who touched them when we return since they are equipped with fingerprint logging devices on each hull."

"Understood, Sir," Jerome said. "Safe travels."

The World Tech installers and their supervisor were in their SUV, speeding down to the main port at the southern end of Nevermore Grand Beach. Their ship disembarked within the hour.

"They just set sail for home base, Chief," Jerome radioed to Bud. "Do you have any assignments for us until we get a few hours off for some rest before our night shift?"

"Tell, Stan I said for him to man the fire tower with binoculars, tracking the ship until it goes out of sight over the horizon line," Bud said. "I want to make sure they are safe in our waters. I feel I owe that to them."

"Will do," Jerome said. "They shouldn't be more than a few hundred feet out to sea when he starts tracking them. I'll make sure he has a walkie-talkie to report anything he sees, that is out of the ordinary."

"Very good, Jerome. Thanks."

"5 X 5," Stan called over the talkie-walkie. "Good thing I brought a tall mug of coffee. Not much to see out here, but a ship sailing in a relatively calm ocean."

"Stay alert, Stan," Jerome said. "It's very important to the Chief, that they are safe, while in our waters."

"Will do," Stan said. "Do you need me to check in every hour on the hour for a progress report?"

"Not necessary," Jerome assured him. "Just call in, if something bad happens. In that case, we'll help in any way we can."

"Check."

The next couple of hours were fairly the same, like our town's name, Stan thought. Hold up. Hold that thought. The skies darkened over the ship, and Stan looked up to see a meteor, which was apparently the size of a semi-tractor-trailer, accelerating across the sky toward the World Tech ship. The meteor hit the ship with a full force of impact, that he could see clearly, even 50 miles away.

Nearly dropping his walkie-talkie over the side of the fire tower, Stan finally got a grip, radioing Jerome. "Jerome, we've got a problem. Did you see that meteor? It hit the ship! It hit the ship! Call the Chief. Tell him the impact has created a huge wave, that is headed this way."

"Will do!" shouted Jerome. "Stay there, and keep us apprised."

"Of course," Stan said. "I don't know where I could go. I'm pretty high off the ground, but I don't think the Grand Beach is going to survive this one. People need to get to the high ground almost immediately."

"Got it. Out," Jerome blurted. Switching to the radio, Jerome urged, "Chief, we've got an emergency. Stan said that meteor struck the World Tech ship, creating a huge wave, that's headed this way. He urged us to get to high ground immediately."

"Understood," Bud responded. "Get your megaphone, and drive as fast as you can around town. Tell the residents to follow me out to the church property. It's the highest spot on the island. I'll meet you at the head of Old Church Road. I figure we've got 15 minutes to assemble, then we'll all have to drive like crazy to stay ahead of the wall of water. Get on it."

"Yes, Sir," Jerome said. 15 minutes later 20 cars were lined up behind the Chief's car.

"Follow me, Everyone," Bud shouted. "No speeding tickets, today."

As they "drave their chariots furiously, like Jehu," they reached the church property as the wall of water started to subside in the woods just short of the clearing.

Everyone parked in the church parking lot, got out of the cars, and walked toward Chief Bud Best. "Now, what?" Grady asked.

"Now, we say, 'Good 'bye' to our missing children," Bud assured him. "All of our homes are gone. Any possible evidence, that we may have missed, regarding our missing children is gone. All the new equipment from World Tech is gone. All of our food is gone. Nevermore Island is now living up to its name. Our entire survival is predicated on learning how to live in the one space we all avoided for so many years. The church must now be a source of survival, whether we like it or not. It's all the island we have left."

"!Qué Dios nos bendiga!" Israel said.

"What does that mean?" Bud asked.

"May God bless us, all!" Israel responded.

"So, you now believe in God, Israel?" Bud asked.

"What do I have left?"

"Good point," Bud shook his head, affirmatively. "Everybody fan out and search for anything that we might be able to eat. Between the church auditorium and the pastorium, there should be plenty of shelter for tonight. Tomorrow, we'll make plans for the future at least as much as we're able to plan. We're now on a desert island. Like Israel said, 'May God help us.'"