Mary Beth Hughes

            I was dealing with some people that were in a Jesus/Bird of paradise cult. They believed the bird lived in their hearts. I didn’t trust them. That’s all I remember from the dream other than that there were two middle-aged white people that I met from the cult. They were very clean cut and there was one man and one woman, possibly a married couple.

            My upstairs neighbour, David knocked on my door and gave me a bag of burgers and other sandwiches on Kaiser buns wrapped in foil. He said he’d just got back from a three-week visit to his childhood home in Ethiopia. He said his 92-year-old mother is getting senile and talks to him as if he still lives in Africa. I asked why he doesn’t bring her to Canada but he answered that she’s too old.

            In the late afternoon I took a bike ride. There was a very aggressive rider on the Bloor bike lane. I passed her when there was a space between the posts that line the lane but couldn’t manage to slip in before they were close together again. She said something as she went ahead but I couldn’t make it out. I was just about to pass her again when she went through a red light.

            I rode north on Warden to Mack Avenue but only took it as far as Danforth Rd because I’ve already explored the other side. I went back to Warden and continued north. I didn’t turn right on Bamblett Dr or Bell Estate Rd because the dwellings were all identical, new and lifeless. My next right turn was St Clair. The first street that ran off St Clair was Santamonica Blvd, which first took a sharp turn west before going south and then made a half circle around several shorter streets before going briefly north and ending at Newland. I took Newland to Birchmount, went south to Danforth Rd and then followed that southwest to Danforth Avenue and then west towards home.

            I stopped at the Bank of Montreal just before Yonge just in case it was still open because I wanted to check with them about the investigation into whether or not the money that I’d left in the machine two weeks ago had been rolled back in. They were closed and so I just took out $300 and didn't forget it this time.

            Yonge Street and Queen Street had a lot of people that looked like they were up from the States for Caribana this weekend. I don't know how I could tell they were Buffalonians but I could.

            I stopped at Freshco on my way home where they had Canadian cherries and blueberries from B.C. and more Ontario peaches. I also bought a tomato, some yogourt and a jug of half lemonade and half ice tea.

            I had ribs for dinner and watched two more episodes of The Man Behind the Badge.

            In the first story an undercover cop is investigating a crooked gambling establishment in Salt Lake City whose clientele is mostly mine workers at a local site. The cop is posing as one of the gambling miners. We are told that the cop is one of three miners that hang out together but he isn’t revealed till the end. Unfortunately the download was incomplete and so I didn't see the last few seconds when his identity would have been revealed. Rose, the manager of the gambling den was played by Mary Beth Hughes, who acted in a lot of B movies.

            The second story was about a Bureau of Securities agent trying to track down a conman who was selling fake oil stocks to naïve middle-aged country women. He was so charming that one woman that had gotten bilked still wanted to marry him even after he was in jail.