RASPBERRY

WHAT IT IS

They were well ensconced in the middle class, driving an Audi e-tron, living in a gated community in Brooklyn, vacationing across North America and bringing up two perfect daughters to be sober citizens of the world. Their silent EV hugged the twisting paved road leading to ‘The Pioneer Cabin,’ a four thousand square foot colonial style abode overlooking Lake Springfield.

The children were excited. They leapt out of the car and ran toward the cabin only to abruptly stop in unison and run back to fetch Babs and Betty, two identical orange teddy bears who had been the girl’s favorite companions…like forever. The teddy bears were virtually indistinguishable from one another, so one of the little girls fashioned a pair of make-believe eyeglasses out of round plumbing washers and twist ties and fixed them over her teddy bear’s eyes, a kind of teddy bear John Lennon, she was Babs, the other Betty. There was one other difference between the two, a difference no one ever noticed, Babs had no retail tags…no made in Vietnam…no 100 percent polyester!

It was the adults who unloaded the luggage, keeping an eye on the playful girls and receiving polite nods of welcome from the six men sitting on the deck of the next-door cabin. Sleep came hard and fast for the little girls on that first night and as the family slept away the hours, Babs got up and visited the neighbours, smelling some fresh raspberries left on the kitchen table and checking out the general layout of the cabin.

WHAT IT IS NOT

Mutt just started crossing the Confederation Bridge over the Northumberland Strait when the 70km/h winds picked up to something closer to ninety. His big rig was fighting the cross winds and he was grateful to be hauling heavy steel and not Styrofoam insulation. He looked at the covered bird cage on the passenger seat, the two juncos from Missouri were now awake and scratching and pecking on the ribs of the cage.

McCormik messaged Mutt that he believed he isolated an enzyme that accelerated the junco’s ability to metabolize and subsequently degrade toxic chemicals like those used near Plot 82. He needed Mutt to bring him some live Missouri juncos to further develop his hypothesis and Mutt was more than willing to help out. A basket of fresh Missouri raspberries was also requested and now sat in a cooler behind the passenger seat, Mutt was unsure if the fruit was a part of McCormik’s experiments or if he was just partial to the fruit.

As Mutt pushed on to Charlottetown,  he was unaware of the dragonfly wedged behind his exhaust pipe. This dragonfly was the successor to No. 1.