River
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River - 22 free porn video
Chapter 22
So far: the river has cured the doctor of cancer, although he won't
admit it yet. Progress in getting a bank branch for the town has taken
a different tack, with the possibility of a credit union managed by
Alison. Both of Alison's children are registered for school in
September, although not without problems.
------- ------ ---
On Friday many of the townspeople were standing outside of Red Door
First Nations Arts and Crafts, as the new store was named, and that
name was now clear for all to see. Carl Bluelake had finished painting
the store sign that was being erected by some volunteers from the
reserve. River was ecstatic about the design, which was clear and
readable by anyone speeding past on the highway, yet had a First
Nations motif that spoke to the culture of the people of the river.
And while most of the people were concentrating on the signage,
another crew worked in the vacant lot next to the store. Kyle Audette
was erecting his homage to Rube Goldberg that he had been working on
for the past week or more, and lately he had spent nearly 20 hours a
day on it while his girlfriend George was in California to install the
machine-parts totem pole that had caused such a buzz on the Internet
last week. It alone had made their website famous, and was still
drawing sales of the other more mundane items the store was selling.
The store was not yet officially open, although almost everyone in
town had been inside by now, either volunteering to help, or just
dropping in to snoop, but online sales were already over the $1000
mark.
Kyle explained his invention. "The three bicycles in the front power
the whole thing," he said, pointing to bikes of different size, from
beginners to adult that were fixed in front with rear wheels raised
off the ground to power pulleys. "The bikes are geared differently, so
a child on the smallest bike has an advantage over Dad on the full
size bike," he explained. "Pedaling as fast as possible makes these
chains at the back turn these wheels, which make the billiard balls
rise up inside the machine. The faster you pedal, the faster your ball
gets to the top."
"Once the balls hit the top then chance takes over. There are 15
different places where random options come into play, and George said
that there would be over 30,000 different ways the balls could go
through the system. Sometimes they get stuck, and you have to get back
on the bikes again to raise another ball up to the top to dislodge
your first one...although you never know, it might wind up helping
the ball of one of your competitors. Want to try? I'll race you."
"Sure," River said. "Let's get all three bikes going." She looked
around and then saw who she wanted. "Liesl? Do you want to try?"
"Do I?" the girl said, bursting with pride at being the first in the
town to try the new device. She hopped on the smallest bike, River got
on the second one, and Kyle got on the adult one, and when River said
'Go' they all started to pedal.
Liesl used the advantage of youth, not to mention the gear
differential, and had her ball up to the top of the machine in about
two minutes. Kyle was about 15 seconds later, and River's was last,
but only by a few seconds. Then they watched the balls start to work
their way down the machine, triggering different switches and devices
as they went in true Goldberg fashion. The race was not a given. Even
with her long head start, Liesl's ball went off into a weird area like
a bowling alley, and had to run along the alley three times before it
had knocked all the pins over and it could continue to run the course.
At that point, it looked like River would win, having caught up with
Kyle soon into the course. But then her ball stopped dead. Suddenly
one of those 'perpetual motion' drinking bird toys came into play.
Every time it bent over to sip on the water a tiny gear raised a
barrier a fraction of an inch, finally letting the billiard ball
proceed to the end of the course. When it did, there was a huge cheer,
and River turned to see that most of the town was arrayed behind
them, watching the race.
Liesl eventually won, with River just beating out Kyle, who jokingly
insisted that he needed to make some modifications to the game so that
the inventor would always win. The entire game had taken just over
five minutes to play.
"Can I go again, River?" Liesl begged.
"Rule the first:" River intoned officially. "He or she who wins the
race gets to go a second time against new racers. But only once. After
that it is back to the end of the line to wait until the machine is
free again. Who else wants to try?"
Almost every hand in the crowd went up, and River picked two
townspeople to try against Liesl, since the first game had been all
reserve people. Others formed into three lines to take turns after.
River turned to Kyle, and spoke with him as the next race started.
"This is great Kyle. I have no doubt that it will eventually stop
being so popular with the locals, but it will be perfect for people
travelling through. Different sized bikes were a stroke of genius. It
means that a little kid will have a chance against an older sibling.
And the adult bike means that even parents can get into the action.
Riding a bike for a couple minutes like that is a great exercise for
someone who is driving a car for eight or more hours straight. This
thing is going to make St. Mary's a must-stop location on the trip
across the lake. And hopefully a lot of those people will come into
our store and buy something, or go somewhere else in town."
As she talked, River found herself watching the second race. It was
addicting: the true mark of a successful Goldberg device. Liesl lost
to the town teenager this time, and gladly gave up her seat to another
child who had gotten into that line. The second line didn't move,
since the teen took his right to play a second time, and those waiting
to play realized that they needed to cheer for the people on the bikes
for the other lines, since they would move the line faster if the
person in their line lost. This added a whole new dimension of
interest for those in line, as they cheered on the other players.
River watched three more games, and as Kyle said, each time the games
played differently, as promised. She finally had to pull herself away,
and head into the store. Connie was away today, and would be for the
next two weeks, so River would have to stay close to the shop, which
was just now starting to have a few pre-grand opening sales, although
the store sales were a small fraction of the online proceeds.
"Thanks again, Kyle. Now we just need to decide how much that thing
costs. How many hours of work went into it?"
"No River," Kyle said. "George and I discussed this, and we decided
that this would be our gift to the town. We made so much money on the
totem we don't know what to do with it all, so this is a freebie for
the town."
"That is so sweet of you," River said. "But I do want to know how much
it was. Someone else might want to buy one."
"It took 100 hours," Kyle said. "George did a lot of work on it before
she left, and I've been at it steady since you visited."
"So $15,000, at a shop rate of $150," River mused. "It is worth a lot
more. Your weird inventiveness isn't something that can be billed out
like a machine. Let's say $40,000 if someone wants another one. Okay?"
"Wow. Yeah, sure. I'd love to make those things full time. They are as
much fun to build as they are to play. The hardest part was deciding
when to finish. I kept coming up with new features to add. The fact
you were raising the sign today gave me a deadline to work towards.
The one thing I can promise is that no two machines will ever be the
same."
"And I will promise that we won't sell any more to places along the
TransCanada Highway. At least not for a couple hundred miles either
direction from here. I kinda like the idea that we only sell them to
smaller towns like ours, which need a tourism boost. No big cities,
and no WalMarts or the like," River suggested.
Just then April Audette rushed up. "Look River," she said, holding up
her camera. A video started to play in the viewfinder and River saw
herself, Liesl and Kyle on the bikes. They were pedaling like mad
until Liesl's ball rose to the top, when the video showed the path her
ball took down to the bottom.
"I should have had three cameras going," April said. "One tracking
each of the balls, and possibly a fourth one looking at crowd
reactions and stuff. I did get shots of the next few games, though,
and I can edit them together to make it look like just one game. I
thought it would be good for the webpage."
"It sure will," River said. "You are a great Chronicler for the
people. After you get it edited the way you like it, get it to Colin
and have him post it."
That evening the video went onto YouTube, and over the weekend it went
viral, hitting several million views a day. The video led people to
the store website, and the result was that on Monday morning there
were hundreds of orders for the staff to process.
------ ------- ----
Royal VP, Assistant Missing
Toronto (CP) ? A vice president and an assistant from the Royal Bank
headquarters are missing after a boating excursion on Lake Ontario
yesterday.
Hanson Langston, Vice President of branch operations for the bank, and
his administrative assistant left Toronto Marina at 7 a.m. headed out
onto the lake for a short excursion. Marina staff were told to expect
them back by noon.
An aerial search of the lake was commenced shortly after 5 p.m., but
found no traces of the boat before dark. The water was calm all
afternoon, with waves under a foot and most other boaters described
the water as being "like glass."
The weather station at Pearson Airport said that radar records showed
a small anomaly at mid-lake at about 8:05 a.m., similar to a
waterspout. This anomaly was considered to be a false reading, due to
its short duration and the otherwise ideal boating conditions.
Also on the boat was Lois Macintyre, Langston's executive assistant.
Alison handed Nick his tablet, which had carried the story on the
website of one of the Toronto newspaper's. "So the river seems to have
completed its promise to settle the matter for us. How will this
affect my settlement?"
"I learned of this when I was talking to the bank legal people this
morning," Nick said. "The story just got posted though. They seemed to
think that we would just let everything go as a result. I let them
know that we were proceeding with the full $5-million lawsuit. I'll
settle for a million before it goes to court: they still won't want
the tarnish on their reputation that will come from a trial. It will
take a week or two before they come back with an offer, I suspect."
"What about the police and Mark's case?" Alison said.
"Oh, I wish you would let me run free on this one. I've already
notified them that we expect a $15-million false arrest settlement,
and that would be easy to get. Are you sure that you won't let me
proceed on it?"
"Yes, in the car on the way back Mark was pretty adamant that we don't
do anything to harm Inspector O'Rourke. He says the man was fair,
honest, and completely blameless in the affair. It is Constable Orange
that caused most of the problems. And his son."
"Well, the son is either in jail now, or will be soon. The father is
also locked up, since he mouthed off to the judge at his bail hearing.
He found out that the courts do not give police officers a free ride
just for being police," Nick said. "I'll keep the lawsuit open until
the police give us what we want, and then we will drop it."
----- -------- -----
Acting Inspector Ron O'Rourke was expecting this call. He had just
been notified that he had a meeting at 3:00 p.m. with Police Chief
Richard Bendeleve. This would be where the mess Const. Orange had made
of the affair with the boys last week would cost him his job, or at
least his chance of becoming an inspector. The only question seemed to
be whether he would be broken back down to assistant inspector,
detective, or right back to patrolman. Word had gone through the
division like wildfire yesterday that a lawsuit of $15-million had
been laid against the department.
The clock hit 3:07 before O'Rourke was ushered in to see the chief,
not a good sign. However the man was smiling, or at least not angry.
"You have heard that we were served with a major lawsuit yesterday, I
assume," the chief said.
"Yes sir."
"You know that we don't really have a leg to stand on in our defense,"
the chief continued. "They might settle for $5-million, or eight, but
my budget can't afford that kind of hit. That is a lot of cruisers and
equipment, or some jobs. The city isn't going to bail us out when news
gets out of what happened to that kid."
So that was it, Ron thought. It is over. "I will resign if you think
it will help," he offered.
"No it won't," the chief snapped. "I was speaking to the boy's lawyer
this morning, and he gave out conditions we have to meet to mitigate
the lawsuit. 1) they insist that Constable Orange be relieved of his
duties as soon as possible. Apparently he is not loved by the union
any more than by us, and they won't fight it. The fact he is sitting
in a jail cell right now makes that easier."
"Yes sir."
"2) that the police department clear all records of Mark Waters from
the division and force in general. It will be as if he was never
arrested. 3) the department will give a personal statement of apology
to Mark Waters once the other two items are disposed of. And the
lawyer was adamant that the apology be given by Inspector Ronald
O'Rourke of 32 division."
"Wait. What?" Ron tried to process the last bit. "Does this mean I get
to stay as acting inspector?"
"I'm afraid not, Ron," the chief said. "What it means is that before
that time your role will change to full Inspector, not acting. The
lawyer fellow up north seemed to think that you were the one person on
the force who was on the ball on this entire episode. Congratulations.
I've already started the ball rolling on your confirmation, and you
should be fully listed as inspector by this time next week."
"That is great. How much did they lower their demands by?"
"All the way to zero. If we make all those things happen, they will
drop the suit entirely. You will issue the official apology, but I
insist on being there when you do it. I want to meet this kid. His
lawyer was pretty clear that it was at his insistence that you not
lose your job over this."
Ron stifled back a sob. "He is a special kid. He could have been set
for life. He said he was only in grade five, so it will be a few years
away, but I'm going to start a scholarship fund to cover his
university costs when he gets there."
"Consider that the force will match everything you put into the fund.
A few thousand dollars instead of millions is a bargain. And I bet you
can get him into one of the union scholarship programs. Maybe we will
be lucky and he will have an interest in law enforcement. It would be
kinda cool if he was to wind up in one of our uniforms one day."
----- ------ -----
Rod was happy with the performance. He had never sounded so eloquent
as he had in telling the people of Stone Ledge about their heritage
and history. The river was small and shallow here, less than knee
high, and only about 100 people at a time would be able to enter the
water. Therefore he had done two talks, one for the elders, and
another more passionate one for the young people of the reserve. After
all, one part of River's mission for him was to connect with the young
people and let them know that they had a future.
Afterwards, he met many of those young people, and was astonished at
how they hung on his every word. There were about 30 who had already
signed up to travel away for high school, mostly to Thunder Bay,
Sault, or Sudbury, but three all the way to Ottawa. Many expressed
interest in changing their location to St. Mary's, and Rod told about
the town and all the new things that were happening there. One girl
asked if it would be possible to change their plans, and make St.
Mary's their destination, and several others nodded in agreement.
"I really don't know the answer to that," Rod said. "You should ask
your teacher from last year. She would know." The reserve had a two-
room school for students from Grades 1 to 8 in split classes. It
appeared that most of the grade nine students wanted to switch to St.
Mary's, while the older students were split, with a few interested in
changing, while most wanted to continue at the high schools they had
already attended.
After the ceremonies in the river, and the lengthy meet-and-greet that
followed on the riverbanks, the people of Stone Ledge retired to
prepare a feast for their visitors. Ria, Marilyn and Shelly had sung
beautifully, and as local boys erected their tents for them Shelly
commented: "I feel like a rock star. Everyone is treating us as if we
are something special. I think at least 20 people were begging for us
to stay at their homes. Luckily we had planned on sleeping in the
tents: it made it easier to turn people down."
"It also means that we will be able to pack up and leave early in the
morning. I had planned three days to walk to Ice Springs, but the
elders say it can be done in two days. Especially since some of the
boys have asked to join us and carry our gear. We will leave the
canoes here, and anything we don't need, like dirty clothes and the
like. The trail is good and we should be able to walk in before dusk
on Thursday. There is no road to Ice Springs, everything normally
comes in by air. Or foot, like we are doing."
"It must be a small place," Marilyn noted.
"Yeah, fewer than a hundred people I think. Less than half the size of
this place. But they are of the people, and we need to sing and talk
to them too."
"Well I like doing this," Shelly said. "Compared to what I was doing a
month ago... I mean, then I was treated like dirt, but here people
respect and admire us."
The walk to Ice Springs was hard, and the river was not able to help
as much as it did canoeing to Stone Ledge. When Rod or the girls got
tired, they found wading in the inches-deep water would restore them,
so they often waded from one side of the river to the other. The young
boys along with them were amazed at how wading in the river could
restore them. Normally it was too cold to wade in, although all of
them had stood in the water for over an hour to listen to Rod talk on
Tuesday night.
They spent Friday in Ice Springs, and discovered that there were only
nine high school students there. Two others, who had dropped out were
inspired by Rod's story to go back to school, and in the end seven of
the 11 were interested in transferring to St. Mary's. The other four
all promised to make a pilgrimage to the river at some point over the
next year. The plane into the reserve was from Terrace Bay's airstrip,
so they thought they might be able to make a side trip to the river.
Most of the adults also promised to make a trip to the river when they
could, although for many leaving their reserve was something that only
happened every few years.
The other part of River's reasons for the trip was to find out about
skills that the local members had that might help fill the shelves of
the new store, and several were identified. There were no canoe
builders since the river up here was not navigable, but two were
skilled at building dogsleds, and three more did snowshoes. Most of
the women did Makizins, and one was very skilled in beadwork for
ceremonial dancewear. Rod and the girls gathered samples to take back
to River.
The trip back to Stone Ledge took all of Saturday and Sunday, and the
small group was happy to be back in the lands that the boys recognized
again, meaning they were close to the reservation. About a mile out,
Shelly crested a hill and froze. About 300 feet in front of her she
could see the body of a young girl, hanging on a rope from a tree.
Shelly screamed, drawing the attention of Rod and the others. Then
they noticed that the girl was twitching. She was still alive. All
bags were dropped, and they ran towards the girl.
Makenna
- 22.05.2021
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