Hidden in Plain View

            I had promised myself that since my summer begins after my final exam that I would go to Bike Pirates on the next day it was open. On Thursday I was true to my word and got ready to leave a little after 11:00. I looked for the dual language book that I’d been reading before school started but I couldn't find it anywhere. I'm pretty sure I haven’t lost it but it bugs me when I can’t find things. The worst thing is when I find them in the most obvious places.

            For something to read while standing outside of Bike Pirates I took my Norton Anthology of Romantic Literature and read part of the introduction, which had not been required reading for my course.

            The always pleasant Dawn opened the door and greeted me. Most of the customers this time were women. If that keeps up they'll have to change Sunday to being for men and transgender people.

            I didn’t have any major problems with my bike other than that my front brakes were not connecting very well. I just wanted to do a tune-up to get ready for long bike rides again. Den noticed right away that my headset was loose and so I worked on that first. I never know exactly how to do those kinds of adjustments because some things have to be turned one way and others the other.

            My back brake pads needed to be replaced and so I bought a new pair, but then the brakes needed to be adjusted for the fact that there was now more rubber against the rim.

            I had to also adjust the front brakes, which required more help from Den because I never seem to get the hang of using the tool that tightens the cable.

            With help from Bob I readjusted my gears, but I had to tighten up the cable to get the derailleur to reach all the way to the top. Bob said I would never use the top small gear wheel with the large gear wheel anyway. Apparently it puts stress on the chain.

 I finished by doing a quick cleaning job with a toothbrush and degreaser on the parts that had accumulated the most dirt over the winter, which were the back brakes and the derailleur. I cleaned off the chain and then re-oiled it.

            I paid $5 for the brake pads and gave a $15 donation. Dawn wanted to give me some pound cake but I didn’t want to stick around. I went straight to Freshco where I bought blueberries, raspberries and bananas. Their quality cheddar was on sale and so I bought two kinds. I got some yogourt, bacon, eggs, refried beans, potato chips and salsa verde. When I got home I realized that I’d forgotten to buy soymilk and so I prepared to go back out. First though I took the bike computer that David had given me and donated it to Bike Pirates.

            I went to No Frills. I thought about buying three steaks but I didn’t see a best before date and I wouldn’t be eating them until Sunday. For the same reason I didn’t buy a chicken earlier at Freshco because it was best before April 21^st and Sunday is the 21^st. I got the soymilk and a jug of vinegar and decided I would go back to No Frills on Saturday to buy meat.

            I had chips with refried beans and salsa for lunch.

            I practiced my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” once. I’ll be playing it at Queens Park for the anti shock rally on May 11, so I figure if I play it once or twice a day I should have it back in shape before then.

            I did a more thorough search for my dual language book but I still couldn’t find it. It’s definitely not on any of my bookshelves. I’m pretty sure I saw it once during the school year. I’ll have to clean my place and see if it’s behind or under something.

            Thirty seconds after writing that last paragraph I found it on a bookshelf in the bedroom with my french grammar exercise books. Relief overwhelms embarrassment.

            I had a tomato with dressing and two boiled potatoes with margarine for dinner while watching The Rifleman.

            The story begins with Mark finding a dead body on his way home from school. He rides home to tell his father but while calling for him a stranger grabs him and tells him to stop yelling. The man apologizes for scaring him and then Lucas arrives to introduce him as a cousin by marriage named Artemis Quarrels. He explains that he’s hired Artemis to fix hi roof while he’s passing through. Artemis turns out to have been a sailor and he’s full of so many tales about pirates that Mark takes a liking to him right away. Lucas goes to get the corpse and take it into town. A drifter is arrested for the stabbing because he has some of the man’s things but he swears he didn’t kill him. He says the man had a pearl-handled 44 that he’d refused to sell to him and argues that if he’d killed him he would have taken the gun. Later Mark is helping Artemis put away his tools when in his wagon he finds a pearl-handled 44. Artemis is upset when he discovers Mark has found the gun. Meanwhile Lucas is beginning to think the drifter may have been telling the truth and persuades the sheriff to ride out and talk to Artemis. Artemis invites Mark to take a ride with him and they are about to leave when Mark mentions that he’d left a note for his father. Artemis says he forgot something in the barn but Mark catches him destroying his note. Artemis is chasing Mark when Lucas arrives. Artemis threatens to shoot Lucas with the pearl handled pistol but Lucas knows that Artemis believes that guns are too beautiful to shoot.
            They don’t say what will happen to Artemis but the drifter would have been hanged. They kind of whitewashed it so Mark will have fond memories of pirate stories.