What is the most important thing about carrying? Is it the bag or its content?
Nest, isn’t that where birds live? But what about mankind, home? We live differently, and I guess there is a difference between what we call home and a nest. I would say that the local bar or pub is a nest where we sometimes test our wings, but of course we will never really learn to fly there. Maybe, just maybe, some of us would call a nest a home, but that I guess is because they never really leave.
So what about entering? Is there a difference between going home and versus going somewhere else, like a nest for instance? When we have learnt the answer to that riddle, we will be invited.
Right…! Last Friday, our story ended like this:
Liam and Eve were let into Mr. Cantini’s night club when Liam held up a piece of paper in front of a doorman’s face. How far would that take them? Was it enough to meet with this Mr. Cantini guy or not? Would they reach the $50,000 reward? What was on that piece of paper that seemed so important? This entry will explain it all… I think???
…
Entering the Nest
Liam and Eve were welcomed by another man as they were let in to Mr. Cantini’s very fancy, old-fashioned-looking night club. The man approaching them was very stylish in a black tuxedo, crisp white shirt, and black shiny shoes. His hair was combed back, slim and shiny, and he was tall and muscular, of course. Eve glanced up at him with glaring but happy eyes as she stuck her head out from behind Liam. “Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah,” she jabbered to herself approvingly.
“Do you have anything you want to leave in the cloakroom?” the man politely asked them.
Liam, who had just put the paper he had showed the doorman back in his briefcase, stopped walking, and Eve bounced into him a bit as she was occupied looking up at that handsome, tall man. Liam then, in a thorough manner, opened his briefcase again, found the paper and…
“I like cars. I like purple cars,” he proudly explained to the man.
The man seemed to get the message. “No cloakroom then,” he said to himself.
A bit further down the hallway was a desk with a girl behind it, discussing something with other people who just had passed them from behind.
“Have you made any reservations,” the man kindly asked Liam and Eve.
Liam, who still was holding his paper in his left hand and his briefcase in his right, put down his briefcase and switched hands, while the kind, tall man waited patiently for an answer. Eve continued to happily glare up at the man, and when Liam straightened up again he raised his right hand high, holding the paper firmly in front of the man, and…
“I like cars. I like purple cars,” he once again proudly and thoroughly explained.
It must have been a very clever tall man, as he now most certainly got the message. He guided Liam and Eve past the desk with the girl charging entrance fees, and at the security check he took Liam and Eve aside and asked another man and a girl in uniform to come forward.
“We need to check all our guests so they don’t bring anything illegal with them—is that okay?” the tall man asked Liam and Eve.
“Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah,” Eve jabbered.
Her face became a bit more serious, and she pushed Liam in his side, urging him to open his briefcase and let the uniformed man search him. Eve did the same, opening her colorful, knitted bag to let the uniformed woman search her, too.
“He’s clean,” the uniformed man said after having searched Liam. “Just a lot of slips of paper with pictures on them.”
“She’s clean too,” the uniformed woman said after having searched Eve. “She’s got just envelopes with pictures on them.”
The tall handsome man seemed both pleased and puzzled, but he didn’t say anything. The uniformed man helped Liam to close his briefcase, and the uniformed woman handed over Eve’s bag.
“Please follow me,” the tall man said.
And Liam and Eve did… in their way of course, lining up so closely behind the tall man’s back that he had to frequently turn to check that they still were following. It was quite a procession entering the big, open, high-ceiling room, with luxurious decorations in every detail. Not many of the fancy people there could have missed that entry, the tall elegant tuxedoed man in the lead and two midgets following too closely behind, like ducklings scared to lose contact.
Liam and Eve were guided through the room over a big open floor and up two steps to a platform where only a few low tables, sofas, and armchairs were arranged with lots of room among them and a few people at ease. There were exotic flowers, a separate private bar, and staff specially assigned to serve just this area. Luxury and high class entered another dimension here, and with a view overlooking the room. This was Mr. Cantini’s domain, and from here he was in control and he wanted everyone to know it.
The duck procession stopped halfway in front of Mr. Cantini, who was sitting in his armchair with some guests—two couples on each sofa—quietly chatting. The tall man cleared his throat and Mr. Cantini turned to him.
“I have two visitors who have brought something I thought you might want to see, Sir.”
The tall man stepped aside, and immediately behind him stood Liam, now face to face with Mr. Cantini. Mr. Cantini didn’t look like much like a gangster in his fanciest night club with his guests, and particularly not with these guests. He liked to be surrounded by celebrities, and this night was no exception, with a couple of gorgeous actors on one couch and a man who looked like he could be a politician on another, with his girlfriend. But Mr. Cantini’s eyes, when he saw Liam standing there in front of him, with a strange glaring face sticking out from behind him, revealed something else. This kind of people, showing up here, in his night club: that he didn’t like.
Liam didn’t do anything; he just stood there proudly looking at Mr. Cantini, urging him to speak, like this was the first line in a play.
“So…,” Mr. Cantini hissed.
Eve pushed Liam in his side to make him respond. He did then, and in style, his style of course. He stood his briefcase on the table in front of Mr. Cantini, much to his dislike, and retrieved his paper to show him.
“I like cars. I like purple cars,” Liam announced so everyone around the table (and farther) could hear.
Liam held the paper up high so Mr. Cantini’s celebrity guests could also see it. Mr. Cantini’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the paper, then he looked at his now very amused guests and he recognized Liam’s voice. The paper Liam was holding up to him was a printout from a website:
Liam was the one who had called that number and in his way told Mr. Cantini about the school where the car could be found. At first when he spoke with Liam on the phone, Mr. Cantini thought it was just a bad joke, but nevertheless he had to check. And when his men went there, they just “happened” to show up at a bad time for Shaggy and his gang.
“ YOU, it was YOU on the phone telling me about my car!” Mr. Cantini burst out, first staring at Liam and then at the paper he was holding up in front of him. “What is this?” he asked as he motioned for and was given the paper.
“The reward, the $50,000,” Eve was quick to add, poking her happy, glaring face out from behind Liam.
“What the…?”
“The reward, the $50,000 it says. There, it’s all there,” Eve repeated, pointing at the paper.
Mr. Cantini stared at Eve for a second, and then he took his cellphone out from one of his suit’s inner pockets and dialed a short number. He told someone to come down and bring a laptop. It took about two minutes, and during that time Liam entertained Mr. Cantini by showing him all the other slips of paper he had brought with him in his briefcase. They were all pictures of cars in various colors, and with every picture Mr. Cantini was shown, Liam repeated his “I like cars” line.
Mr. Cantini went silent, looking at Liam and at Eve sticking out her head more and more from behind Liam. The pictures he couldn’t escape from as Liam made sure he saw them, holding them right up in front of his face. When he could, Mr. Cantini glanced at his now very amused guests. They didn’t laugh out loud—they didn’t dare—but they had to work hard to stifle their laughter.
A man with a laptop showed up running, and Mr. Cantini gave him Liam’s printout and asked him to check out the site. It didn’t take long to get the Martha May page open with some tinkling music in the background.
“Turn that stupid sound OFF!” Mr. Cantini yelled through gritted teeth.
The laptop man turned the sound off, made some more clicks here and there, and after a few seconds turned the display towards Mr. Cantini.
“You are… Hrmm, your car is on the purple page between a purple toy watering-can and a purple cuddly cat, there,” the laptop man tried to explain while pointing.
“Yeah, yeah. There see, the reward, $50,000 it says,” Eve chimed in, with the laptop man nodding at her.
Mr. Cantini felt things were getting out of hand, and if they had been anywhere else and he had a gun in his hand he himself would have shot that laptop man down in an instant.
“There, the reward, the $50,000 it says,” Eve repeated.
Everyone knew about the reward, as this kind of rumor spread like fire. But a picture of his car, a private portrait and his very private cellphone number displayed on a site like this—no one had been aware of that. They all also had heard that the car had been found smashed up, but who’d taken it or what had happened after that seemed wrapped in mystery.
“What about the reward?” one of Mr. Cantini’s celebrity guests commented, a bit amused.
“Yeah, what about it?” another one chimed in.
Suddenly it had come to a point where Mr. Cantini had to prove to be a man of his word, and no one there doubted that Liam was the one who should be rewarded. But before Mr. Cantini got a chance to answer, Eve was quick to say, “Cash, I like cash.”
There was giggling from the celebrity corner, and Mr. Cantini was caught. Once again while controlling his anger he dialed a short number on his cellphone. He asked someone to come down with the money, and he especially repeated cash to make that clear. He told the laptop man to disappear, and he asked Liam and Eve to sit, and he ordered two chairs to be placed at the table next to him. As Eve sat, she started to empty her knitted bag, and out on the table a lot of envelopes were spread.
Mr. Cantini thought he had seen it all but was taken by surprise again.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Envelopes, envelopes it is,” Eve was quick to answer.
“But, what for?”
“The money, it’s for the money, the $50,000 reward.”
“But, what about all the pictures? All the envelopes have the same picture on them. That old apartment building, what’s that for?”
“It’s where the money is going to be sent. There,” Eve answered, pointing at a picture on an envelope as there were nothing to it.
“What? Are you going to put the money in those envelops and post it?” Mr. Cantini asked, stunned.
“Of course! You should never go out with too much money in you pocket—you can be robbed you know.”
There was a giggling heard from the celebrity corner when Eve delivered that last statement. Mr. Cantini, however, didn’t know what to think, and he didn’t look amused either.
“But the address, there’s no address???”
“We use picture post: much better,” Eve replied shortly and once again pointed at an envelope picture.
“What the he… sorry. What is “picture post”?”
“We get the money sent home to us, to our house that is pictured here on the envelopes. See,” Eve explained to Mr. Cantini, holding up an envelope pointing at the picture one more time to let him have a closer look.
The celebrity corner had a hard time not laughing out loud, and Mr. Cantini felt the color in his face disappearing. At the same time, a lady showed up with a small package that obviously was the money. Mr. Cantini straightened up as he was handed the package; not a word was exchanged between him and the lady, only silent looks, and then she went away.
In order to save the situation in front of his guests, Mr. Cantini handed over the small package containing the $50,000 reward to Liam and Eve.
“Yeah, yeah,” Eve jabbered.
“I like cars,” Liam chimed in almost at the same time.
Then Eve opened the package, took out the money, and slowly counted it on the table in front of all the curious eyes and filled some of her picture envelopes full. Nobody said anything while Eve was counting. After that, she put all her envelopes back in her knitted bag. Mr. Cantini stood up and called for that tall handsome man again to guide Liam and Eve out.
The tall man came up to him to receive instructions, and as a last word, Mr. Cantini tilted his head up and whispered, “I want my money back. Take them to the wheel.”
…
To be continued next Friday.
