TRACKS

WHAT IT IS

To many it is a certitude, to some it is immaterial and to still others it is obvious that teddy bears belong to someone.

When Justine Flagstaff walked through the door of her room at the Moose Lodge, the warm hues of the rustic wood made her feel comfortable and reminded her of her own room as a child. Bright silk flowers on the dresser, a bay window adorned with colorful trinkets and a cute teddy bear on the bed launched her into a tranquil mood. Justine’s three night stay was all the time Leo, the teddy bear, had to convince her to contact Ned Doucet and for all of them to start their journey to Plot 82. Each night as she slept, Leo would squirm out of her arms, bounce out of the room to the white water fountain and return with this new elixir, replacing the water in her glass on the nightstand. Leo would then sit atop one of the many pillows on Justine’s bed and whisper into her ear about taking a wonderful train trip to Missouri.

The last time Morley saw Justine was on her last scheduled day at the lodge when she pushed a fifty dollar bill on Morley, begging him to let her take the scrumptious teddy bear. Morley insisted the bear did not belong to the lodge, but the bill remained crumbled in his hand as Justine, with Leo firmly in tow, climbed into her car.

WHAT IT IS NOT

Mikey and Don eased the two-car freight train along the spur line. The fall colors sizzled along both sides of the track, and the silence of the large steel wheels rolling over the smooth steel impressed the two veteran railroad men. A speed of five miles an hour was a delicious treat and the twenty minutes to the main line was twenty minutes to savor.

Dispatch ordered the train to come to a complete stop at mile three where they would be joined by a track inspector. Mikey eased on the brakes and the train glided to a stop. They waited for an hour; no one showed up. Radioing dispatch resulted in dead silence. To relieve the monotony, Don went to check on the freight:  the one thousand five hundred and sixty six wooden crates of coyote apples all appeared intact.

Davey Doucet was hired by the Business Development Director of the Indiana Railroad company to investigate the bizarre disappearance of a two car freight train from a spur line outside Indianapolis. Doucet walked the spur line for a week looking for clues of what might have happened. A steel suitcase, warm to the touch, was the only thing of interest he found.