Chapter 55

Harold looked across the canyon. It was still quite dark and he could just barely see the other side. It was very deep, with cliffs on either side. The moon was full and the rocks were all strangely red. On the opposite side of the canyon there was a little ledge with a circular cave maybe 3 meters deep, and a hundred meters below the flat plateau from which the canyon had been cut. On the ledge, Harold could clearly see a zebra. It was eating some grass and occasionally looking over the edge. The zebra looked quite normal except for a blood redness to his coat. He was really a deep blood red and black zebra. Harold realized that it was his duty, his responsibility to protect the zebra. It was walking near the edge of the small ledge it was on. The rocks broke away from the edge under the weight of his front hoofs and the zebra just stood there. How to tell it to get back from the edge? How did it get there? Harold awoke in cold sweat. He got out of bed and walked down to his study. He sat at his desk.

He picked up the phone and dialed. "George."

"Harold, What do you want?" George was in bed, it was about 2 am and that was where George usually was at 2 am.

"I don't know. I know I don't want, what I now have. I have to do something, George. Remember before this whole thing started we just wanted to make some money and live well. Well, I didn't make any money and this is not living well. Everyone thinks I am a success but I am desperately unhappy. I certainly didn't achieve the main purpose of life."

"Harold, It's 2 am. Have you been drinking?" George got up, took the cordless phone into the bathroom and emptied his bladder.

"Drinking no, thinking yes. George. I can't even go to a restaurant. I drive around in those tanks wearing a bullet proof vest. I feel like an NRA member, and I don't support the right to arm bears. But every crack baby now has an automatic weapon and is searching for excitement. Their mothers took cocaine to the point of neurologically induced anhedonia, and now they search out excitement like rabid varmints. I am tired of being that excitement."

"Harold, the crack babies with automatic assault rifles are too brain damaged to recognize you. You have to worry about the paranoid schizophrenics and psychopaths. They are your real threat. And your friends that you call at 2 am. Remember Harold, most guns are used by friends on friends. A permanent solution to a temporary problem. Call in the morning."

"George, I am serious. I lost two security men at the MacDonalds. Two dead men simply because I wanted lunch. I feel horrendous guilt over it, and all I wanted was a little fast food. I can't go out. I can't live life as a prisoner. But, I have a solution to my problem. I have figured out what to do."

"Harold, I told you never to think after midnight. Your brain will turn into a pumpkin."

"I am going to go to Venus, George. I am taking Emily, the kids, and anyone else who will go with me, and I am going to go to Venus. I can't stand it here, and I am going to leave." The phone went silent.

George looked into the phone. He blinked his eyes and wrinkled his forehead. Then he looked at the phone again and replaced it on his ear. "I'll miss you, big guy." Tears came to his eyes.

Chapter 56

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