The Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the End 7

Patrick once again stood in his yard next to the old oak tree, giving his eyes time to adjust, his elvish features having faded away as he stepped through the door. The first sound that he heard was his doorbell and knocking. “I am in the back yard,” he called as he began to walk to the fence, curious to see who it was. He rarely got visitors, usually just a child needing a little tutoring, a Jehovah’s witness, or the random salesman going door to door hocking his wares. Therefor he was mildly surprised to see a woman walk around the corner of the house, she was attractive as human female went, and actually seamed to have a few elvish qualities. He stopped at the fence, still curious, and waited for her.

“Excuse me, but are you Mr. Katz,” The woman asked as she drew closer to the fence. “I am, how may I help you?” She looked him up and sown as she approached the fence, “I am detective Sara Aspin, I would like to ask you a few questions about the shooting at the school earlier today if you have the time.” He nodded and opened the gate allowing her to step through. “I am not sure what light I can shed on this unfortunate event, but I am willing to do all I can to assist the police,” he said as he closed the gate and led the detective into the back yard. She looked around at the lush landscape that surrounded her, from the deep green of the grass to the rainbow of colored flowers that adorned nearly every inch of the sizeable back yar, she was impressed. “Wow,” she exclaimed as she bent to smell some violet and red tea roses,

 It seems you should be teaching the ag class instead of English. These are beautiful, Mr., Katz.” He smiled as she enjoyed his garden then led her to a small table where a tea set was set up, “Please, detective, have a seat.” She did.

“I am not sure how I can help, but I will do my best,” he said as he took his seat, “It was a true tragedy and my heart and prayers go out to the families if the poor children,” She watched him as he took his seat, noticing how gracefully he moved for such a large man. She took out her notebook, spent a few seconds looking over a few pages, then looked back at him. “I have a few standard questions I have to start with, they should not take long, then we will get into the real questions,” Sara said as she flipped to an empty page in her book and pulled a pen from her pocket. The day moved on as they sat there, her asking questions, him answering. Soon the sun began to go down and the garden night life began to wake up, crickets began to chirp, fireflies flew around blinking their lights off and on, the frogs from the pond began to croak. Finally, the two rose, shook hands, and Patrick walked Sara to the gate and let her out. He turned and looked at his garden one more time before heading for his back door and vanishing into his house. ‘It’s time to begin my battle plans,’ he thought to himself as the door slowly closed behind him, leaving the days events on the stoop he headed up stairs to begin his meditation and planning.