Wednesday, January 20, 2016

the man with the chicken tattoo

I woke up on a barge loaded with sheep being dragged across some short
stretch of water by a boat being driven by a man whom I could not see
in the early morning light before sunrise. I don't remember how I
ended up there and the polite farmer who gave me a ride back to
mainland didn't know either. On the boat ride back he explained how he
has loaded his sheep onto the barge in the darkness many a time before
and never has he had a man turn up. I had to laugh at how casually he
spoke of the situation. I, on the other hand, was panicking inside as
I was quickly realizing that the surroundings were anything but
familiar to me and when my question on location finally came up, panic
turned to complete terror.

"so where are we" I asked?

"well this here is Little Village Lake, and that island is known as
Baker's Island. Although I don't think it's an official name, just on
account ah John Baker Senior, who died long before I came to this
earth, cuz he was doing some kinda illegal activities there. but we
are heading back to Parker's landing, which is named after my family
on account ah we owns all the land around that spot." He rattled off
the short description in such a way that I actually found myself
enjoying his style of story long enough that I, for just a moment,
forgot I had no clue where this was.

"what is the closest city or town?" I tried to say matter of factly.

"well Woodruff is not far, maybe 40 minutes" he replied.

"Woodruff?" I had no clue where Woodruff was.

“Yeah, Woodruff, do you not know where you are? “ He laughed “First I find a guy sleeping on my barge with a tattoo of a Chicken on his arm and now he has no clue where he is!”

“Chicken on his arm?” he mumbles as he looks to his arm to see a fresh tattoo of a chicken on his arm with a scroll in its mouth. 

To be continued...... 

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