Tinker Bell (2005, bronze) by Diarmuid Byron O'Connor

Sean got home that night late but sober, more or less. Certainly the beers took the edge off but the enormity of dangers, dangers created by NORTHCO, to the area was so great. I mean danger trees and danger to other foliage and danger to critters and danger to human beings.

He checked his email and found a hello from Bernice.

What are you doing tonight? The email relayed.

Came in at 5:30PM evidently. Well, I missed a party tonight. Hahaha

He sat on the couch and pulled out a doobie he had rolled that morning after he had grabbed a last beer. He clicked on his favorite double feature:

Subway Slut & Thigh Noon.

He awoke suddenly from his sofa paradise. There was someone calling to him:

I need to go out now.

What?

I need to go out NOW!!!

Sparky, glowing in the night light was standing on all fours in front of him.

Okay.........Slowly Sean removed himself from the couch and went to the front door and opened it up for Sparky's easy exit.

OPEN WIDE FOR SPARKY, Sean sang.

He waited by the open door until the mutt performed his duties, welcomed him back in, shut the door and moved into the bedroom.

Did that dog just speak to me?  Sean drifted into a deep sleep.

Frank awoke suddenly in the middle of the night. He ran into the bathroom and let loose. After finishing his duties he took a look as was his practice before flushing. IT GLOWED.

NOW THERE IS SOME HOLY SHITE!!!!

Frank's breathing became difficult, he was gasping for air and he began to perspire profusely. Then he began writhing in pain issuing from his gut.

MY GOD I AM GOING TO DIE!!!

Frank awoke, it was morning.

Another terrible dream. I got to get some sedatives or something. What in the hell is going on, Frank thought as went into the bathroom to 'check things out'.

Frank arrived at work an hour early. He was kind of relieved that his office was still there.  Thank God Sean had been running things for the last ten day. He had half of the normal stack of mail he would have received over the vacation days.

Well let's do it, he thought. He went through the normal reports from accounting and personnel and procurement. Frank quickly dictated everything. It was kind of neat. His dictation went right into the office computer and he could see what he had been saying. Jenny's job was simply to 'polish' everything.

He was old fashioned enough that he liked to sign hard copies for the file. That way there was a paper trail. He instructed Jenny that everything had to go by Sean first, since he did not wish to countermand some order by his subordinate which would only underline the mess he most probably created by his impromptu absence.

As he was finishing up this onerous task, he found a package from the Federal EPA marked 'confidential'. It was thick and all Frank thought was 'oh oh'. It had not been opened and ...there was no post mark on the damn thing. What the hell? He opened it carefully after looking around. It was 9:00 o'clock already and he was not sure he wanted anyone to see this package.  He stepped over to the window overseeing the office and shut the blinds.

There was a cover letter inside the package written in ink of all things:

Mr. Frank Stanton:

We greet you from the Underground EPA. We advise that you not share this with any of your co-horts at NORTHCO at this time.

We know what you have been doing. And we are watching you closely.

We enclose pictures of flora and fauna in your area as well as five other areas across the country. You should notice a pattern...

As he reviewed the correspondence he glanced at the pictures referenced.

That's enough of that Frank thought. He bundled it all up again into the envelope and tossed it in his brief case. This looks like homework to me.

He called Jenny in.

Jenny, I am sorry for the extra work. Do what you can with my correspondence.

All ready began the set up Frank. Don't worry.

Okay. Thanks Jenny. See if you can get Bernice from accounting in here and Sean. Sean should be first. Then get Tom. That should keep me busy for the rest of the morning.

Jenny left and five minutes later Sean entered. Sean carefully shut the door behind him.

You all together today Frank?

Horrible nightmares Sean but I was surprisingly rested when I came to at your place. I have heard that people who have had seizures have a kind of rested composure after they awaken. At any rate, I just received a semi-anonymous package today from a government office, believe it or not. Can you drop by to go over it tonight?

For sure.

Now Sean as far as the office stuff, I can see you did a lot of work because my mail was half what it normally would be. And I thank you for that.

You are welcome.

I dictated memos and letters and Jenny will get them to you to review before they go out. Just make any changes you wish and get them back to her. Okay?

Yes; of course.  Say I thought I had my own nightmare last night. But it turned out not to be a nightmare. Sparky spoke to me last night.

Are you sure you were not dreaming Sean?

I was sure I had been dreaming until I noticed my entertainment center was still on. I had hit record on a permanent set up I have in there. It records all sounds coming into the room. I did it for a number of reasons, one which is nefarious  in nature.

Frank rolled his eyes, as if he could not guess. Dogs do not have the proper larynx for this, do they?

You ever see those videos on TV, Frank? I did not say that Sparky sounded like Ronald Coleman or anything. But Sparky made himself clear. At least clear to me.

But there was the recording this morning. I will bring it by tonight.

Good. Better stay off this subject. Do you see Alernon today?

He is supposed to show up at noon. We shall see.

Thanks Sean. So far it is just you and me...and Sparky I spose.

Sean chuckled and left.

He pulled out the reports from Bernice in accounting.

Oh, why here it is. 40% of the income for last month came from the Government including DOD. But what the report does not say and cannot say is that another 38% came from contractors WHO GET ALL THEIR GODDAMN MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT.

And this was all 'worked out'. NORTHCO had its own 'constituency in government'. NORTHCO had been allotted too much money according to the dems, since they had no idea even what NORTHCO  actually did but the repubs managed to get the monies they want to the corporations they want by filtering monies through other contractors.

But Frank could not get a grasp on what these monies were being used for.  As far as the info he gleaned from his personal computer, there was no heading of armaments involved here. But what does he know?

Something clicked, he went back to the brief case and took out the three page letter:

There are at least five areas where the results seen on the enclosed pictures are demonstrated.

North NY State, Buffalo area

Eastern South Dakota

Western suburbs of Atlanta Georgia.

Salem Oregon

Las Vegas

Holy shite. There it is. NORTHCO has offices in four places that he knows of and they are all listed here. Las Vegas though; I wonder.

There was a knock at the door of Frank's office; he quickly tucked the letter into his suit coat and responded:

Enter.

It was Bernice from accounting. Hi Frank. I assume you have the reports so I just grabbed a bunch of completed forms here.

Oh come in Bernice. It's all ok. I assure you. There are just a few questions I have and I thought maybe you might have an answer.

Sure Frank.

Is there...Does NORTHCO have an office in Vegas?

Uh...Bernice was wondering if Frank had clearance for this information. After all she received the information about Vegas in the strictest confidence. But Bernice had been bothered by a number of things lately...like her hands glowing, actually GLOWING  at times. And Sean had mentioned off handedly that Frank was helping him with his dog.

Frank, I have to speak frankly with you but I am afraid.

Frank rose up from his chair and walked around his desk to shut the door. He normally did not shut the door in his office when a woman was alone with him, but he needed some information.

Well. I can promise confidentiality. I am not going to pretend you are getting much more than a promise from me, but I do not think you have cause to believe that I will cross you on this. It is up to you, but you can sure save me some time if I can get some simple answers anyway.

We have had an office in Vegas for three years. Bernice blurted it out like a preschooler caught in the school yard throwing dog poop at Billy Thorton... But I digress.

What exactly do we do there?

Frank, I do not even know what we do here.

God, I thought I was the only one, responded Frank.

What information are you privy to concerning the Vegas operation Bernice?

We should not talk about this here Frank.

You are right. Listen, another friend whom I trust here is coming over to my place about six. Could you make it.? I will order Chinese or something.

Love to. I have wanted to speak to somebody about these 'matters' for a long time.

But we keep this between us, right Bernice?

She nodded. Bernice was going to ask who the other 'friend' was but she had an idea it was Sean. And maybe she could work out something with him after the 'meet' so to speak. She had no idea why, but she was soooooooooo horny lately. Then she thought about the neon affect on her hands. I wonder if these things are related?