A lot of questions remain, but a lot have been answered. My buddy called me this morning to report that he spent half an hour on the phone with my friend’s brother. My buddy believes that what he was told is probably true.
It seems our friend has lost his marbles. The lack of marbles diagnosis was not made by the brother, but by a real doctor, or so we’re told. My friend’s brother also said that my buddy and I will not be allowed to ever visit our friend as long as he is in this place, per the doctor’s orders. It seems our friend still believes he has his marbles, but apparently they are nowhere in sight.
The brother has also gotten word to the sister about our friend’s dive off the deep end and she believes the story as well. It seems we didn’t know it, as he was living out west, but our friend wasn’t wrapped too tight. It seems over the past few years he has been losing a few marbles at a time. Now the bag is empty and his brother brought him back east to keep an eye on him.
It sure did seem like he made the decision to return east on his own and according to my buddy seemed rational, but I guess not. Living up in the mountains of the northwest, he had pretty much insulated himself from the world. He hadn’t worked in 20-years, but he really didn’t have too. It seems impossible, but when he came out of the woods, he admitted to never having seen a USA Today and was quite taken with the colorful newspaper. He had no idea how to work a computer, couldn’t even turn one on and hadn’t watched a TV for a long time. Apparently he found HD TV, which he saw in the airport on the trip back, quite fascinating.
He did know about 9/11, but didn’t know about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Oddly, he had stockpiled books of crossword puzzles and could knock one off in record time. Not just the wimpy ones, but New York and Los Angles Times crossword puzzles. I guess there isn’t much else to do out in the woods.
The sheriff, or whoever, got all his guns and his brother took the truck and brought it back east. There wasn’t much else, except the money accounts of which the brother now controls.
According to my buddy, calling from his hot tub, in two weeks our friend will be legally free to walk. He can walk out of the place he is in and become a free man – a man without marbles. The brother says our friend is in a very angry state of mind and says that once out, he plans to head back to the mountains.
One problem is that he hasn’t driven, other than into the nearest town for food and supplies, in years. He really can’t drive anymore and he admits that. He was putting less than 1,000 miles a year on his truck. And, while he has money, he has none to spend.
So what happens now?
More doctors get involved in the search for the missing marbles, which the current doctors explain may be missing for good. The brother is looking for help in determining what to do next. Those two weeks will go fast and the people at the place where our friend is say that they legally have to discharge him, marbles or no marbles.
Apparently, his ability at crossword puzzles has people in amazement. He sits, grumbles and mumbles and rips through a crossword puzzle like he had all the answers.
If true, it’s all so strange. It makes you want to grab hold of your own marbles and hold on tight. And for heavens sake, any affinity for crossword puzzles should be viewed with grave concern.
We’ll see what happens in two weeks.
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
