A leaf from a tree in New York flutters to the ground settling on a slick of water. A man on his way to work slips on the leaf. He stumbles, losing his umbrella. The umbrella, caught by a gust of wind, blows into traffic. A taxi swerves to avoid the umbrella hitting a courier on his way to the UN. Unconscious, he is rushed to the hospital. His packages containing a time sensitive document do not get delivered, resulting in the collapse of an agreement affecting the lives of hundreds of people a continent away.
And so it can be said that the falling leaf in New York has had a profound and unexpected effect on the matters of mice and men thousands of miles away. I mention this in passing to illustrate how little I could have surmised the chain of events that would be set in motion through the simple act of disposing of my morning cup of coffee.
Noon the next day and I was sitting at the bar at Blarney’s when ‘batman’ walked in, looked around, spotted me, and without hesitation came over at a quick clip, grabbed my arm and said “Follow me!”, moving towards the back of the bar and into a booth. He stared across the table at me, sweating, and hissed “What the hell youse done man!”
The kids were looking at me bug eyed, Mason was open mouthed and Joycelyn just looked blank. “What next?” was all she said. “Damned if I know. I just grabbed the remaining eight cards and skipped. I’m pretty sure no one knows where I am. I’m hoping some time away will clear my head and I can plan a way out of this mess. I’m leaving for Brazil in a week or so. Thought I might spend a month or two down there and see if things die down in the meantime.”
Flavio and I ordered another round of drinks and were in the midst of speculating on what just happened and how it might be relevant to our investigations when a very handsome woman in her mid thirties and dressed to the nines approached our table and sat down. “My name is Marcella. Meet me in the bar at the Barao Center Hotel in 30 minutes. It’s important.” At which point she simply stood up and walked off.
“The evening bodes stranger and stranger” I said to Flavio, watching Marcella’s very cute bottom march out the front door. “What do you make of that?”
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