Spinning Wheels

It’s got to be a virus!  My head throbs; ears are plugged; throat is swollen almost shut; I’m freezing, sweating; my stomach is upset. 

The upside is that I’m having fabulous dreams, and I’m not eating.  What a way to lose weight! 

It could be the heat and humidity causing me to hallucinate.  However, I do remember the phone ringing: I spoke with several friends today, each concerned about my health.   Come to think of it, I’ve also been on the internet...  Do you suppose the combination of virus, out of control humidity and temperatures, fever, friend’s tales and computer suggestions are about to produce an upcoming, sure-hit movie?  This spinning tale of mine has all the ingredients: espionage, drugs, travel, intrigue, romance, and stars.

I’ve always had my suspicions about internet intrigue.  Possibilities for stories of deception, drugs and denials are rampant when it comes to internet sleuthing.  Fascinated by names, I googled Leonardo, Antonio, Vincente, and Armando. When several names I googled came up with connections to drug dealing, wealthy sportsman, Brazil, drugs and drug trafficking, I knew I had to be onto something big.

My doorbell rang.  Appearing at the door was this lithe damsel with bouncy curls talking time travel, Detroit crime scenes, guns, and police scanners.  Scanners flash in my mind; immediately Mom came to mind. I was back in the sheriff’s office at the jail with Mom listening to calls on the police scanner to see if Dad needed to check out some bank robbery in Starbuck, a shooting at the abandoned railroad yards, or a beer bust on the lake. 

LAKE brings to mind Italy and the Isle of Capri where nephew Karl and his fiancé Katie are jetting to a Hollywood-scaled wedding of her high school classmate, a ballet dancer in LA.  This long-legged beauty is marrying a Hollywood producer at a dream location.   What new worlds of glamour and intrigue are opening with my fanciful imagination!  

Hollywood flashes; I conjure a movie set, a Brazilian fishing camp with wealthy sportsmen parading big bellies dripping with gold chains, natives in stages of undress, stirring pots of lobster bisque or some foreign food.  The scene must have something to do with drug cartels and Hollywood producers.  I envision a private jet carrying a drug lord arriving at the scene, puffing a Cuban cigar in Panama hat and white linen suit.  His son Pablo is riding in a helicopter to a first grade classroom in Mexico City, taught by my daughter Kate.  I know there must be something sinister involving those wealthy folks who attend private schools in Mexico with barbed wire and cement walls.  Patrolling guards surround the school armed with machine guns to ward off abductions asking for exorbitant ransoms.  A few years ago, Kate attended parties at the home of a Mexican TV executive whose daughter was kidnapped and held for ransom for several years.  So much intrigue south of the border!

Mexico flashes, bringing to mind my handsome son-in-law Bernardo as well as his friends Fernando, who runs fleets of trucks throughout Mexico, and Cesar, who ships pineapples from the family plantation.  A truck Bernardo runs in Mexico was abandoned by a disgruntled driver who needed cash.  The boss wasn’t giving raises, so the driver stole the tires and sold them.  The law operates differently on the other side of the border.  When Bernardo was held up at a gas station, after withdrawing cash at the bank to pay wages for his cleaning crews, he didn’t bother to contact the police.  He knew there could have been repercussions: the robbers got his wallet with all his identification and a picture of his blonde American wife.

Law flashes.  Law enforcement in Mexico is nothing like it was in Pope County, when Dad was Sheriff DeKok and his side-kick Deputy Lynn Krook apprehended bank robbers and drunks.  In the sixties, some crooks actually enjoyed returning to jail for Mom’s cooking.  Talk about different worlds.

Beverly called.  My actress-cousin is getting humorous “senior” roles for film, movies, and commercials.  She’s had a nightmare day, but also the “time of her life” at her latest “SHOOT”.   Beverly, alias “Scarface”, has a badly bruised face from a fall.  She’s not starring in a horror flick, but Bev’s shoot is being filmed in an 1870’s farmhouse in rural Minnesota where Hollywood’s makeup artists are doing a fine job covering her black eye, bruised chin and thin black scar running down her face.  The film is set in “Charlie Tumbledown”, a farmhouse basement and barn filled to the rafters with questionable treasures.  Quite the character, Bev keeps on jumping into new adventures.  Her last Grand Casino commercial line “We’re BUSTED!” got raves!

OH, my aching head...Time to take another aspirin.  My head is really spinning today.