Uncle Baxter sat at his desk comfortably in his large office. Presently there was a knock on his door. “Come in!”

Baxter’s nephew Robinson came into the room.

“Ahh! Robinson! Your mother let me know you were coming! Tell me, how do you like the city, does it beat the cabin life in Nowhere Ville?”

Robinson was grave. “Actually sir, it is quite strange. I’d always wanted to come to the city because it was in my books, but now that I’m here I’m having some trouble.”

“Trouble? What trouble could be happening in paradise?”

“Well…you see…”

“Spit it out, my dear nephew! But never mind, give your uncle a hug!”

Robinson and Baxter hugged each other, then Baxter patted Robinson on the back. “It’s good to see family my boy, it always is. Even for a cooperate owner like myself who hardly has time for those sorts of things. Tell me, is your mother well?”

“Yes, well. She is quite fond of Tralla, who is still young.”

“Any word of your father yet?”

“No. He left to fight in the war because he has always believed in patriotism, but we have had no word from him. Only a letter came…”

“A letter? Not an email, or Facebook, something of the sort?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. As you know, we don’t even have electricity.”

“How do you manage?”

“Quite comfortably, but work is always near.”

“Yes, the same is here. Only the taxes are higher. Tell me, why did your mother send you off here?”

“It was my own>

“Well…” Baxter thought for a moment. “At present, I do need a new typist. My other is in the hospital. I’m actually getting new employees everyday now.”

“Why so?”

“Oh, this swine flu. Wiping out everyone.”

“Swine flu? I never heard of such a thing.”

“Yeah, it is very popular in the city.”

“How does one get it?”

“The…well, they shouldn’t get it. Not with vaccines anyway. I had my whole staff get them.”

“Did you get them?”

“Boy, no! Do you know what are in them?”

There was a knock on the door and they both turned. Baxter beamed on seeing the young secretary enter.

“Robinson, this is my secretary Jenny. She’s working double shift right now as the tour guide. She’ll show you the city now.”

There was a pause as the room became silent.

“Jenny! Take Robinson away!”

“Yessir!”

She grabbed Robinson and led him out the door, silently closing the door behind her. “Excuse Mr. Baxter, he is so busy these days with the economy. And yet I haven’t seen him suffer from it. In fact, I hear he is doing much better than he is letting on.”

As they walked through the halls of the cooperation, Robinson tried to make conversation with the secretary. “So…people are getting sick, I hear?”

“Or getting laid off. I’m surprised I haven’t been fired yet.”

“And did you…take the, the vaccines?”

“Oh, that. Well, no. Do you think I should?”

“Mr. Baxter, er, my uncle seems to think there is something the matter with them. He hasn’t taken them himself.”

“That skunk! I almost lost my job because of that. I lied just to get by. Don’t tell him that.”

They entered the parking lot, and Robinson looked at a cell tower close by. “What is that thing? It looks like a metal tree.”

“Or the eye of Saramon.”

“The eye of salmon?”

“Listen, I’m not sure what your uncle wants me to do, probably to make you comfortable on your first day before you’re broken like the rest of us, so we’ll just take in a few sights and call it a day, okay? Where are you staying by the way?”

“It’s a…hotel I think.”

“Just tell me where to find it when we’re finished here.”

“So…as a secretary, what do you do exactly?”

“I’ll show you tonight.”

At night, Robinson stood in the doorway to the bedroom staring ahead. “What has made you to come to such shame, girl? Why, when I walked with you today, did no one look at me in the eye except for those that wanted to sell me something? Now I see what you were trying to sell me. So this is it. The city. Civilized society. You must think we in the woods are uncivil. How do you define what civil is? …Put your clothes back on. God made you to be with one man. I see that my naivety has brought this on. What was once called manners is now called deceitful flattery? My, girl, had I known that your lives revolved around your work. I tell you then, tonight you will have a day off! Be gone! I love you as Jesus did, but I will not tolerate this! Never! Never! I am too weak to take your demons out but one day perhaps when I am stronger and have prayed for a backbone of spirit! Now, dress and be away!”

Jenny looked at him as she left through the door. He closed the door, and rested his back against it. “Oh, God my Father who is in Heaven…please show me how to survive here. Tell me whether I should go back. I don’t know why I am here. Perhaps you have a purpose for me. I pray that you tell me that purpose soon.”

At the office the next day, Baxter sat in his office with Jenny. “Well?” asked Baxter.

“Henry, he isn’t like one of those boys, or men.”

“Boys are only men in grownup suits. C’mon, I know: I am one.”

“Be that as it may, he is different. He seems to not be buying anything.”

“Not buying? What do you mean?”

“Well, we went to the malls and all the biggest stores and he just walked about with a look of disgust.”

“He was disgusted?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

“He doesn’t like Cooperate America.”

“No.”

“I see. He would much rather sit by a warm fire than a glowing television; he’d rather walk on leaves than drive a car. What are these types of people? On top of everything he probably reads the words of patriots in bygone eras. He seems to me like trouble. I don’t know what I’ll tell his mother after I fire him.”

“Yes, he would be better off back at home, I think.”

“You seem to me as if you’d been doing too much thinking lately. Why is that? Nothing interesting on TV?”

“Well, I sat down last night at my flat, and my hand wondered over to the light switch. I touched a book, Henry, and the words seemed to be read through my fingertips. I read until morning.”

“What book was it?”

“I didn’t have time to read the cover. It was like I was in a trance!”

“Hmmp! Well, that settles it: my nephew is a lone wonderer and my secretary is a reader? It was an old book, wasn’t it?”

She said nothing.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with scum like you two. I feel as if my world is slowly turning into a bubble, and all one has to do is pop it, and my world is over. I feel like Nebuchadnezzar after he realizes Daniel had killed his god Bel. What am I to do with these feelings? I say I need to clear my head, that’s for sure. I’ll start by firing you, and I’ll hold onto him for a little bit until I break him.”

“Why not fire him right away, in case he breaks you?”

“That’s a great>

A moment later Robinson and Jenny are thrown out of the building onto the street. They begin to walk. “C’mon, Rob, it wasn’t always that way with me. I have issues that could fill the tower of Babylon if it never fell and was hollow. You didn’t have to like me to begin with, although, since I hear you live in the woods, I’m no doubt one of the first girls you’ve ever seen?”

“That’s right! So what! I have visions of meeting a nice gal and seconds later she wears the ring I give her! That’s just the way I am! I’ll be happy to rid myself of that nonsense, and you too for that matter!”

“Oh, oh, Little Naive. Your heart must be broken soo baadly.”

“Lay off for a moment or two, huh? When does the bus come around?”

“It doesn’t come today.”

“That’s just swell for me, isn’t it? I suppose you want me to ride with you.”

“Boys come, boys go. As for girls, they come, and now I go.”

“Then go! I’ve had too much of a headache from you anyway!”

She drives off, and he looks at the cell tower. “What do you want?! You’re probably finding some wicked way of scrambling my brain! You’re no better than her, you’re no better than her!”

Back at his hotel, Robinson finds on his door a NOTICE sign, and the door is locked. He goes to talk to the hotel clerk.

When he gets into the front office, the clerk stares him down.

“I’d like…” began Robinson.

The clerk shook his head. “I’m a good man, but I’m a little sloppy. I’ve seen you come and go and you don’t care a nickel to leave a dime. Don’t you know that here, if you don’t pay, you don’t stay?”

“Well fine! Fine then! Common hospitality isn’t among this lot, is it?!”

“Wait, are you in trouble kid?”

“Well sure: I’ve no where to go! And I have no stuff!”

“Right, right, well we sold all of that. Listen, you can stay with my son and I until you’re able to walk on your own two feet again, agreed?”

“No room?”

“Nah. I’ve never been hospitable before. I want to take it for a run. But if I do something wrong, you just let me know, agreed?”

“Alright.”

Garrett the clerk’s son looked over at Robinson, who was on the other bed, or couch, or something rather. “Rob?”

Robinson looked over.

“Where do you come from?” asked Garrett.

“The mountains.”

“Why did you leave?”

“I wanted to get married.”

“At your age? But you’re so young!”

“I know that now, thank you. But the fact of the matter is, I’ve been restless for most of my life. Thought a women might calm me down.”

“Oh, she can calm you down, and make you go crazy.”

“Take my advice and walk on your feet first.”

“I can’t run fast.”

“Sure you can, just move you legs, it’s easy!”

“Did you run in school?”

“You don’t need to be in school to run. How did you get educated?”

“My parents.”

“What does your dad do?”

“Lives. Don’t know where he is now. He went to fight the government’s war.”

“Oh, I see. My brother did the same. I really hope he comes back because I don’t think I oughta grow up without him. I’ve always been fond of the fellow.”

“Where’s your mom, Garrett?”

“Sometimes moms grow wings and fly away. Sometimes it’s the fathers, as you know. They fly away and no one really know why.”

“I’m going to go to sleep.”

“Goodnight then.”

“Goodnight.”

The light was turned out. There was the sound of a door opening and the clerk came into the dark room. “Are you kids asleep?” When he didn’t hear anything he said, “Good boys.”

Somewhere Robinson was trying to write on a piece of paper. Garrett came by. “What are you doing?” asked Garrett.

“I’m trying to write a letter to my mother.”

“Why don’t you use the internet?”

“I wouldn’t.”

“A phone?”

“Never.”

“How ya gonna get yer message to her?”

“Carrier pigeons or smoke signals. What are you doing?”

“I’m getting ready to learn something.”

“Are you going to school?”

“What? That’s not really what you do there. No, I’m not going to listen, I’m going to learn!”

“How?”

“I go out in the woods and play around. I learn about gravity, nature, and gain not only physical awareness of my surroundings, but I begin to understand why I was born.”

“Why were you born?”

“ ‘Member, I’m only beginning to understand. You should come with me, it might do your heart good.”

“My heart. That thing feels like a bag of potatoes.”

“Then lighten the load!”

Garrett snatched the paper Robinson was writing on, and Robinson chased after him. Finally Robinson caught up to him and subdued him. “See!” said the panting Garrett, “you sure did run!”

“That’s because I was after something that I wanted.”

“Well, I figure you just have to want something then. Here’s my advice to you: get your life moving, and the wife, the Only Girl in the World, will come to you.”

“Let’s move along; I’ve thought my whole life, and now I want to do it no more.”

“Sometimes take a break, but don’t stay in the habit. At any moment when you’re not thinking something may happen that you hadn’t thought about.”

“I understand.”

They wandered into the park.