20. Peru
In the small village of Iio, Peru, at the corner of San Pedro and Elias Aguirre, Rupert Earlson stood at the front of a classroom. He wrote down the parts of basic speech: Noun, Verb, Pronoun, Adjective, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection. He lectured for a few minutes giving examples of each. Then he grouped his students into five groups, giving each a piece of chalk.
“Pick someone to write on the board for your group.” Earlson moved the back of the class while his students picked a writer. After a few minutes, each group had one person standing at the board. Earlson called out, “Adverb.”
The students sitting in their seats shouted and cheered. While the writers raced to write as many adverbs on the board as they could chalk in the two minutes Earlson had given them. It was a fun game. However, the parts of speech were not fun or easy to learn, but games bought out the competitive side in the students.
After a few rounds, the students were excited. The writers at the board knew that injections had to be next. It was the only part of speech left, and it was the most fun because it included swears and curses followed by an exclamation point.
Earlson smiled for the first time in weeks. As he said, “Interjection,” and as he started his stopwatch, he saw Agents Farth and Gaines standing in the doorway. Earlson’s smiled sagged, and he thought, two more weeks and he would have been ready to take out the Coca-Cola Enterprises’ factory, just outside of town, which was stealing fresh water, bottling it and selling it to Iio.
“Stop!” Earlson yelled. He walked up to the board. He erased miss-spelled worlds and words that weren’t interjections. When he was done awarding points, the wining team cheered as if they were at a fútbol match. After the class settled down, he dismissed them.
Earlson erased the board and banged the erasers before walking over to greet his guests. “What can I do for you?”
Agent Gaines asked, “Rupert Earlson?”
“Yes.” Rupert limped over to a chair. He sat down and pointed the agents to the classroom desks. “I’m he.”
“We believe that you might be able to help us locate someone,” said Agent Farth. “Do you have a few minutes to answer a couple of questions?”
“Sure.”
“Has a Daniel Seward contacted you?”
“No. Should I be expecting him?”
“We believe that he might,” Agent Farth held out his card, “come looking for you.”
“Why?” Earlson took it and placed between the pages of his textbook.
Agent Gaines said, “Just a hunch. You both attended the University of Michigan around the same time.” He tied to get comfortable in the school desk then decided to stand. “You both were members of an environmentalist group that we’ve linked to several disturbances over the years.”
Earlson stood. “Do you suspect me?” He put his hands over his mouth. “I only joined because there was this girl I liked.”
Agent Farth stood and put a hand on Earlson’s shoulder. “No. No. We’re just following up on a few leads.” He turned to Agent Gaines.
“However,” Agent Gaines said, “Many of the club’s members have been turning up dead, so were here to warn you.”
“Warn me? Should I be afraid?”
“We don’t think so.” Said Agent Gaines, “But then again, perhaps.”
“What should I do?”
“If Daniel Seward contacts you, please call us.” And with that, both agents shook Earlson’s hand.
Earlson stood. “Well, thanks. I guess.” His left shoulder slouched lower than this right.
As Agent Farth walked through the door, he said, “Nice gig you have here.”
- End -
