A Pleasant Story

Chapter Thirty-Two

Investigating Cows - Part Two


Carla's next stop was the police station. She already knew there was a cow there, but she hadn't been able to reach Carl since returning from Twikkii Island with Dustin, and she'd been worried a little based on Dustin's description of the body he'd found.

She walked into the empty lobby and confirmed that the cow had a panel underneath. It was definitely a listening device.






A little nervously, she called out for Carl, who was supposed to be there based on the last schedule she'd seen. But she was nervous--what if he didn't answer?






She breathed a sigh of relief as Carl came into the lobby from the hallway.

"Hello sister!" He said in his strange and oddly formal voice. "It is good to see you! But what are you doing here? You are not working here today, are you?"





Carla hesitated before she replied. She knew the cow was listening, but she had to find out if Carl was drugged, or being controlled somehow. She didn't know what to say. She paced a little as she thought, and suddenly got an idea. When they were kids, they'd had a cat named "Hat and Scarf," a name Carl had come up with as a joke because "Mittens" was such a common name for cats.

She said to him, "I was just thinking about that cat we used to have, remember? Her name was Snowball, right? She was funny!"




Carl looked at her for a moment, then replied, "Oh yes! I remember Snowball. She was a great cat."

Carla's heart dropped into her stomach. She didn't know what it was yet, but she'd confirmed that something was very wrong with Carl.

Carl continued, "I have a break now. Would you like to take a walk with me?"




As much as she'd like to spend time with her brother and find out what was wrong with him, Carla had too many houses left to visit. She shook her head and said, "Not today, Carl. I've got some errands to run."

He stepped toward her and took her arm, leading her outside.

"I insist," he said. "We have so much to catch up on."

Carla resisted a little, but he was stronger and led her out into the courtyard. He pulled her to a spot far from the door to the police station, then released her arm and leaned close to her.

"All right," he whispered in his normal voice, "What do you know?"





Carla was startled. "Carl! Are you okay? What's going on? I thought you were, well . . . "

"Do you think 'Hat and Scarf' is a name I wouldn't remember?" he said. "Now again, tell me what you know."

"I know we had to come out here because the cow is listening," she said.





Carl nodded. "That's why I played along with 'Snowball.' We don't want to tip them off that we know anything. So far, I've got them fooled that I'm working for them. I've been acting dim-witted to throw them off."

"Well, you did it well. I thought you'd turned into an idiot or they were drugging you or something," Carla said.

"I need to get back inside so they don't get suspicious," Carl said, "So tell me quickly what you know."

Carla explained to him what she'd been doing, about Dustin's work and what they'd found on Twikkii Island. When she mentioned the body, Carl nodded.





"That's Seth Abbadon. He did something to anger Yukionna and she had him 'taken care of.' I think she runs the whole family in their various enterprises--all illegal. They moved into Pleasantview about a year ago, and they've been slowly taking over. "

Carla interrupted to ask him for more details but he said, "Later--let's meet up somewhere safe. You keep identifying the houses with cows and I'll call you when I get off work."

Carla gave him a hug of relief and left to continue her search. She was so glad that Carl was okay, but she was also worried that he was undercover with such a family. Playing at double agent was a dangerous game.






She continued on her cow search and next visited the Ottomas home. She met Peter outside and gave him her story and he was friendly and welcoming.

As he led her inside, she scanned for the cow but couldn’t see one, so just told him the same story she’d told Tara Kat and the Kims. He told her she was welcome to walk around.





As she moved toward the back of the house she met Tommy, who said he knew Anthony from school.

“He’s a teenager now,” she said, “just like you!”





She met Samantha Ottomas in the bedroom and Carla noticed she was pregnant. Samantha filled her in on the rest of the family.

“David, our eldest, just went off to college. Sharla is next and she’s at work right now. You met Tommy, and we have twin girls too. They’re upstairs.”

"Wow," Carla said, "Five kids and another on the way! You have a full house here!"

Samantha laughed. "You don't know the half of it! Peter's mother lives with us, too."




Carla said, "My Dustin just left for La Fiesta Tech last night! Maybe he'll meet David there!"

"I'm sorry you can't meet my mother," Peter said, "but she has a new boyfriend and has been spending a lot of time out of the house. I hope she'll spend more time home once the new baby comes--we could use some help then! But she might be having too much fun."

Dora was.





You can go upstairs if you’d like to meet the twins, also,” he said.

Carla climbed the stairs and turned down the hallway and stopped suddenly. There were the twins all right.





Carla smiled nervously and said, “Uh, hello. I’m Carla.”




“Hello Carla,” the twins said together. “Come and play with us.”





“Come and play with us, Carla.”






“Forever.”





“And ever.”





“And ever.”






Carla shrieked, “No thank you!” and ran back down the stairs. She was catching her breath in the living area when she spotted the cow. She confirmed that the cow had the transmitter panel. They'd all had it so far, and this one was no exception. She wanted to know how all these cows had made their way into peoples' homes, but didn't want to ask where the listeners might hear. She didn't want anyone getting suspicious about her motives.





Carla said goodbye to the many members of the Ottomas family and headed for the mall. She thought she remembered seeing a cow in the hair salon, but wanted to confirm.


She stopped in shock at a sudden thought. If they were listening, they'd heard her cover stories, and knew that she'd first said "toxic mold" and had changed her story later. "Dammit," she thought to herself. "That was careless. Well, I can't do anything about it now. Maybe they don't listen to everything."


As she entered the mall and walked toward the salon, a man was loudly yelling from the center platform, but Carla was focused on her mission and ignored his ranting.

His voice carried in her ears as she passed by.


"And lo as it is written, 'this is chemistry: that we walk in obedience to the commands of plumbob. As you have heard from the loading screen, plumbob's command is that you walk in chemistry. There are many deceivers, who do not acknowledge plumbob and any such person is the deceiver and the anti-plumbob.'"





Carla found a cow in the salon as she'd expected.






She began to wander around the mall to see if there were more cows and was browsing the Holiday Store when Priya Thomason greeted her. Carla knew her and her husband Alec because she and Kaylie had eaten at restaurants where they worked when they were dating. She also remembered meeting Priya's ex-husband Sanjay at Brandi's memorial.

Priya greeted her happily, then said, “Alec is just out here. Why don’t you come say hi? He’s been judging a cooking competition.”




,

Carla followed her and saw Alec near the photo booth, which had a cow on the ground next to it. After greeting Alec, she thought of a way she could avoid an inspection of their home.


“Oh,” she said, “Look at that cow. I wonder where you can buy them?”


Alec looked at it and said, “We have one like that, but Priya bought it.”

Priya looked at him, startled. “I didn’t buy it! I thought you did!”





Carla had gotten what she needed to know and quickly made her excuses to leave. As she exited the mall, the yelling man was continuing with his rants.


“And when you speak to Plumbob, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to speak standing in the code and on the loading screen to be seen by others. But when you speak to Plumbob, go into your closet and close the door to speak to Plumbob, who is unseen. Then will Plumbob, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Carla thought it would be nice if he followed his own instructions.





Carla was getting tired and thought the large and creepy house on the outskirts of town would be her last stop that day. She could continue the search tomorrow. Plus she wanted to get home to see Tom meet his kitten!

As she approached the house, she saw Kaylynn coming toward her.





Kaylynn said, “I’m just out for a walk. What are you up to?” Carla explained her mission of visiting the homes to “get to know everyone.”

Kaylynn squealed, “Oh, can I come with you? I’ve always wanted to see inside this house!”





“Um, sure,” Carla said, as she couldn’t think of a good reason to say ‘No’ quickly enough. She supposed she could distract Kaylynn from the cows if they found any.

She needn’t have worried; their knock at the front door wasn’t answered.





Carla planned to leave but Kaylynn had already started walking around to the back. Carla was glad she’d followed when she found a cow near the back door. She examined it quickly then put it back. It had the panel, all right.




Kaylynn then shouted for her to join her. “Hey, come see this!” she yelled.





Carla joined her and looked at the old statue Kaylynn was pointing at.

“Isn’t that freaky?” Kaylynn said. “It looks like a really nice statue but it’s gotten all gunked up. You’d think they’d have enough money to take care of it if they can live here in this mansion.”

Carla agreed, then said they needed to go.






Their departure was interrupted, however. As they walked down the driveway, two large guard dogs came towards them and Kaylynn yelled.





Carla didn’t hesitate. She stepped forward strongly and said, “STOP!” then commanded the dogs to sit. They, recognizing the authority in her voice, obeyed. The bigger one asked for a belly rub, and Carla complied while Kaylynn watched the other one nervously.





“How did you do that?” Kaylynn asked.


“It was part of my training. Most guard dogs are trained to chase, not to fight. I took a chance that these two would be the same.” Carla then continued to herself, “Phew, luckily!”

Kaylynn shyly patted the smaller dog. “They seem nice!”





“Just don’t run,” Carla said. “Then we’d be prey.”


They said goodbye and Carla continued on her way home.


Back at the house, the teenagers were very excited about Tom’s kitten and wanted to set up a way to surprise him with it. Before they could come up with a plan though, the schoolbus arrived and Tom walked in the house.




The four of them stood still and tried to look innocent, then Anthony laughed. “Smooth, guys!”

He turned to Tom and said, “We’ve got a surprise for you! Close your eyes and I’ll direct you.”





Anthony guided Tom into his room where the kitten was napping in the bed Kaylie had set up. When he opened his eyes, Tom squealed and picked up the kitten and cuddled him.





“Is he mine? What’s his name?” Tom asked.

“He IS yours, so you get to name him,” Kaylie said.

“I’ll think real hard about something good,” Tom said.







Carla ordered a fancy dinner delivered and they all sat down to enjoy it. She and Kaylie certainly hadn’t planned to end up with four kids— and a kitten! —but it seemed to be working out all right.