Preparing for the Big Day

The first thing that Kopper knew she needed to do was get the reading pad that she and Mrs. Flaminkoh shared modified to broadcast. Without letting Mrs. Flaminkoh know or without getting the person doing the modification suspicious of her reasons. She might be able to turn away Mrs. Flaminkoh’s eye for long enough to avoid suspicions from her. The modifier was a different matter. The local bar tender was the one she had targeted to do the job. From her conversations with him she determined that he had been an Art previously; he was an ancient story teller that shuffled around behind the bar with a long white beard and a kind smile for all his patrons (except the drunks). Through the stories she had concluded that the man who everyone called Barkeep and seemed to have no other name, an Art who had worked as an engineer on the pad technology. The technology was simple by Art standards so he would very likely have been regarded as a lower engineer, but Kopper knew that he had been lower by choice not from his lack of skill. It was this skill and ingenuity that she saw that made her certain that he could modify her reading pad to do what she wanted even though there was virtually nothing for him to work with...if she could convince him to do it. Mrs. Flaminkoh and Kopper would undoubtedly arrange to meet at the bar after each did their errands around the small village, so it would be no problem getting to him. If she failed to get the modification done then she would be far from successful in her overall goal, so this worry fell at the top of her list.

It was one week until Mrs. Flaminkoh and Kopper were scheduled to go to town and two months until the lawn receivers/deliverers would arrive to pick up the lawns of the region. Word had come that out of every dozen lawn growers, or equivalents of those meeting the quota, one person would be allowed to attend the celebration. A special crew would come through for the turf with a vehicle so that the lawns would only be traveling about a day, from the furthest regions. Those that grew the lawns would not be able to travel so quickly and so there presented an interesting quandary. The village Mrs. Flaminkoh and Kopper were associated with was located at about the farthest point that the turf growing was requested and so the growers from this area would need about two weeks travel time if they walked at a normal rate and about one week if they were swift. This meant they would have to leave before they were given official dispensation to attend. Everyone also knew that even if they met the quotas, officials would tell them they hadn’t and so not the full number of people would be allowed at the celebration. The talk fo the village was whether it would be worth anyone’s time to travel to the celebration. If someone did go it would doubtless make the village look pious to their local priest, and they really needed to improve their image or they might loose some government business. On the other hand, the people were wondering if they could do without the government and their evil priest. The celebration did present some lingering appeal of its own though. Everything would doubtless be beautiful, the grounds, the buildings, the people, and the village could hardly boast anything a percent so grand. Further, other people of their class would be there too and after the higher ups retreated into their grand banquets in the evening, those who didn’t have to serve would have a party of their own. Yet, going would require attendance at the celebration in order to achieve the goal of brown nosing the priest and there would be no point in going if the goer did not brown nose a bit. Going to the celebration would probably mean standing in a crowded muddy pit, cordoned off for the common people where they could barely hear anything but would still be expected to participate in such things as the chants and the kneeling...in the cold and mud. Last month’s meeting of the village officials had determined that they were going to send two people (out of the four they should have been justified in sending) and that these people would be chosen by vote by the entire village and the outliers like Mrs. Flaminkoh and Kopper. People wavered between saying they didn’t want to leave their farms in the spring when they needed attention just to travel for something like this and a holiday that they would be given official dispensation to take and the village was rumored to be supplying a small stipend for travel expense. Kopper’s second worry that vied for the top spot was if she could get one of the travel spots, again without raising suspicion from the village and worrying Mrs. Flaminkoh. This time Mrs. Flaminkoh looked to be the bigger problem than the village, but it wasn’t totally clear. Mrs. Flaminkoh would likely object to Kopper traveling from the village and to a crowded area because she could be recognized and that would be exceptionally awkward. Kopper was a bit nervous about this point as well so she wasn’t prepared to defend her idea to Mrs. Flaminkoh that would allay these fears.

So two things were on Kopper’s mind the week before the village meeting. Kopper was about to tell Mrs. Flaminkoh the whole thing several times, but just couldn’t get anything out. They would be working on things together and Kopper would drift off into thought about how to present the two matters, then jolt awake to Mrs. Flaminkoh saying something in the form of a question which she hadn’t a clue how to answer or to her hands getting burnt, pecked, splintered, or otherwise injured from her inattention. Of course Mrs. Flaminkoh knew that something was up, but her long years as a teacher had taught her when to pry and when to wait and Kopper showed definite signs of the waiting tactic, at least for now.

The walk to the village was hazardous for Kopper; only one fall in Mrs. Flaminkoh puller her own arm into an L and tucked Kopper’s hand in since it seemed that Mrs. Flaminkoh was stuck walking with a distracted Kopper that refused to stay home. So they traveled to the village with Kopper walking like a newly blinded person learning to lean on a guide, but Kopper didn’t fall but two more times and so was only slightly dirtier than the condition she had left the house in.

“Light, hisst... LIGHT! Fine, hey Kopper... Kopper!” Mrs. Flaminkoh managed to obtain a few seconds of focus from Kopper’s eyes and continued, “Perhaps it would be best if you hung out with Barkeep while I do the few errands and then we’ll go to the meeting at mid afternoon together.”

Kopper bobbed her head and made her own way across the square with better balance and resolve than Mrs. Flaminkoh had seen in days. Mrs. Flaminkoh trusted Barkeep and was satisfied that she seemed to have made the right decision by entrusting Kopper to him for a few hours.

“You have some mission which I can see involves me and I will not be able to escape,” Barkeep chuckled while delivering the line to Kopper. He motioned her to a booth that was located out of view from the door. He joined her carrying two mugs of beer, after serving the only two other customers.

“Oh, you are a good excuse to rest these old bones. Drink half your mug before you try to explain anything, you know well I can fill the silence with many words without any prompting. It is good to see your face here today, for I have had a feeling about you and this grandly horrible lawn using celebration that is coming up. My old bones have been squeaking with some sort of knowledge about you and this thing. I question their knowledge since they were wrong about the storm last week, but maybe their error was due to their preoccupation with you. You know, my dear, though you have only been here a short while, most have us have grown to feel that you have been here forever and that you are close family. It seems that this creak in my bones is not ominous, but rather a warning to me that I get myself into the mood to help you out. I didn’t know you were the source of the noise until you walked in that door and things started to make sense. Now that I am talking it seems that you are meant to go to the celebration. Enough from me I can see, what did you come here for? Besides my daughter’s magnificent beer of course.”

“Ahh, well at least you confirm that I am not crazy, or maybe that I am crazy but taking others with me,” Kopper sighed. “This last month I have held a plan within me, but have feared to reveal it to others. I somehow know that it will end in both good and bad, but I am not sure who to take down the road to glory and ruin with me. I think God is telling us both that I can share with you, which is such a relief! Maybe you can then tell me who else I should tell. Oh, and it is so good that you are included because I need you to do something for me for my plan to work out. Do you think we are both crazy or do you think God in her infinite wisdom has brought us together?”

“Humph, yes well I suppose God could be a she, you really should be careful about that Light, dear. I don’t care much but I think many people around here would report you to our beloved, ah-hem, priest. In any case, I do think that we are slightly crazy, but not crazy to God. He has brought us together for he ordains everything that happens, it is up to us to cooperate with him or struggle against him. Tell me your plan that I might be able to help you adequately.”

It was two hours later when Mrs. Flaminkoh found Kopper munching on some pumpkin seeds while staring out front door (she had moved to a more prominent booth so as not to appear conspicuous. Barkeep’s daughter and her husband were taking care of customers while Barkeep was in the back catching a nap before the meeting and the rush in drinks that was sure to follow. He had advised Kopper to not tell him everything when she got to the part in her plan that involved her being nervous about all the people that might recognize her. He claimed that the less he knew about who she really was the better for them all and he didn’t think it was critical for understanding Kopper’s plan and helping with it. So Kopper stared at the door waiting for Mrs. Flaminkoh while mulling over how much she should tell the dear soul that had given her so much. Kopper didn’t want to put Mrs. Flaminkoh in any danger of harm–physical, mental, or spiritual–and so she chose her words carefully when she quietly presented the plan to her dear friend.

“Well, I wondered what was eating at you,” Mrs. Flaminkoh responded after hearing the version of the plan presented to her. “I was beginning to wonder if you were going to drop into the fire sometime when I wasn’t there to fish you out and then I would have never known what you were so distracted about. Your eyes tell me you have not told me everything and that is fine, I know that my usefulness to you does not extend to all you are doing. Right now I suppose you need me to help you get elected to go as one of the delegates to the celebration. Something you haven’t thought about is that you’ll need the other delegate to be trustworthy and inconspicuous. No, you can’t take me. Something tells me that I would be recognized or perhaps only that I would draw attention somehow and that would result in your recognition and that would definitely not be a good thing. No, we need to think of another dependable companion for you that will understand that he or she cannot know everything about why you are going. Where is Barkeep? He would have insight into who this other person might be. Ah I see you have told him something of your plan already. Did you tell him who you really are and why you are hiding here in this remote backwater of a pond?”

“No, he told me I shouldn’t and I feel now that he was right to say so. But he is helping with the plan in another way, which reminds me that ahh I trading reading pads with him for the next month and a half,” Kopper looked into Mrs. Flaminkoh’s face to see that she understood the vague reasoning behind why the trade was necessary. “Right now he is napping since business after the meeting is likely to be quite brisk. Somehow I feel our answer to traveling companion is right before us and yet I cannot quite grasp it.”

Mrs. Flaminkoh and Kopper finished off the pot of tea without know who they were going to get to go with Kopper and without knowing exactly how they were going to get Kopper ‘elected.’ So they slowly crossed the square to the meeting house that was also the church and took their places. Since the government was also the church the priest was presiding over the village meeting; he had traveled from his residence to this place he called putrid to bring what he considered his great light to the meeting. The town leaders who had made the decision last month regarding the number to send to the Easter celebration were all seated behind the priest and some started to nod off during the seemingly long liturgy that proceeded the meeting.

The first person to get nominated was slow in coming but after that a barrage was sent fourth. After some declining and two narrowing votes Kopper and four others were on the final list. All this without Mrs. Flaminkoh or Kopper having to try and figure out a way to get her there. In fact neither of them had said a word, except Kopper accepting the nomination and Mrs. Flaminkoh gracefully declined a nomination and made a quick suggestion as a replacement. Barkeep had nominated Kopper as, “an outstanding example of humility and submission that would represent the village well and would return with encouragement for all.”

Each of the five candidates were then given an opportunity to speak in regards to how each felt they would benefit from the pilgrimage. Kopper managed to say something about how she had long dreamed of making a pilgrimage rather than just traveling due to the plague then she quoted some text that she remembered from her trial. She was the first to speak and the others seemed a bit stunned and the next two bumbled through their speeches that were nowhere near as good, the two after that made a feeling appeal but it lacked the quotation that gave Kopper’s such force. The fifth person, who had been nominated by Mrs. Flaminkoh, spoke just as well as Kopper had and managed to not overlap with any of her ideas but meshed with Kopper’s ideas in such a way that it was obvious to everyone who would be traveling come a month and a half.

The meeting dispersed and many of the people crowded into the bar for drinks while some of the less fortunate people, including the leaders, had to dine with the priest. The conversations at the bar were brisk and cheery while the conversations at the village leaders house were halting and dull. It seemed to everyone that the best people had been chosen to brown nose to the priest when the time came to go to the celebration, but fortunately for them the priest had not included them in his dinner plans. Kopper and her new traveling companion ate, drank, and danced (to some lively, but sacred, music since the priest might hear) that night without a care about the upcoming journey. Kopper knew that trouble would come soon enough for her and she hoped to shield it from her friend as long as possible, perhaps until the very verge of the finality of the plan.