Cockeyed

“I mean honest in the sense that they are in touch not so much with their i

And they’ve learned not to be afraid of it but to have fun with it. They’re more like the Thais in that respect, except in Thailand people are not so crude about it or so insistent.”

“Exactly. They have a sense of proportion. They may be in touch with their i

“Well, Hu

“‘Cockeyed caravan of life,’” Timmy said. “I think that’s what you mean, especially in Hu

“I just hope,” I said, “that Hu

“A price must be paid.”

“I’ve made some mild stabs at getting Hu

154 Richard Stevenson

Timmy said, “That corn must be done.”

“Right.”

“Donald, I have a lot of trouble thinking of Hu

Burroughs.”

“Oh no, not Burroughs. Hu

My cell phone went off, and when I saw that it was Hu

ChAPteR twenty-two

The Brienings were at it again. They had phoned Nelson and told him that they had read on somebody’s Internet blog that Rita Van Horn’s disappearance was a hoax, just as Bill O’Malley suspected it was. Mrs. Van Horn, the blogger reported, had been spotted in a motel in the town of Lake George where she was staying under an assumed name. Obviously, Arletta Briening told Nelson, this was all part of a scheme to delay or even avoid paying the Brienings the half billion dollars they were owed. When Nelson insisted that the Van Horns knew nothing of this, Arletta said she was sure the report was reliable because the information came from one of her fPAAC friends and they were honest people.

“Did the blogger give the name of the motel?” I asked Nelson.

I was back at the house on Moth Street, where Nelson and Lawn had arrived in person to deliver news of the new threat from the Brienings.

“No, he didn’t. I asked Arletta and she said no.”

“This is probably somebody’s malicious imagination at work.

Do you have the blog uRL?”

Hu

“No, Uncle Hu

Nelson had the address at blogspot, and while Lawn sat by the kitchen phone sca

the living room downstairs.

Art went online and found the blog called Blood of Tyrants, a right-wing anti-Obama bilge-fest. It was the work of someone calling himself Tom In Paine. In addition to the flag-draped anti-tax and pro-gun screeds, there were stories on “typical” gays as child molesters and links to ex-gay ministries.

A posting from that morning described Bill O’Malley’s

“expose” of “Huntington Van Horn’s gay lifestyle” and the fPAAC

suit against the lottery for spreading “perversion and immorality.”

Tom In Paine credited O’Malley for first revealing that a missing persons report involving Hu

I said, “There must be dozens of motels in Lake George.

Tom In Paine had to know that this would be hard for us or anybody else to check out and refute.”

“Mom enjoys Lake George,’ Hu

“I’m sure you’re right, Uncle Hu

I asked Nelson if he knew the name of the motel.

“No, but Mother would know.”

“Antoine doesn’t go in to work till four o’clock tomorrow, so maybe he and the twins could ride up there. Tyler and Schuyler could work on their homework in the car.”

‘Well, we really have to do everything possible to get Grandma Rita back quickly,” Nelson said. “Arletta reiterated to me that CoCkeyed 157

their deadline is Wednesday for the half billion to be turned over.

In fact, she said noon Wednesday, not a minute later.”

Hu

“Why New Jersey?” I asked.

“Because that’s where Karen A

“New Jersey, the coma state,” Art said. “It’s on the license plates.”

“I am thinking more and more,” Hu

“That is what Mother prefers,” Nelson said. “But that’s easy for her to say, because she and Dad have nice pensions from the county. No, I think you’ve been right, Uncle Hu

“I am just so grateful,” Hu