I have been AWOL for the past several days. The gist is I was dead-dog tired and needed a break after working non-stop with my student on his 20 page paper, along with my online students, plus a daughter who needed some help on something she was writing, plus, plus, plus…
So, we went up to Ojai with some friends after volunteering at the Homeless Breakfast on Saturday. (This was after celebrating Father’s Day for Ray on Friday instead of Sunday since there were a few conflicts.) We had fun with our friends, pitching tents, sitting around the campfire and sleeping under the stars. Of course, we had the spectacular full moon, which brightened the orange grove to the point of seeing quite well even in that very dark place at night. The evening was cool, the stars bright, and the moon spectacular. It was a good weekend to visit a place where city lights are truly not present – a treat for us as well as for our guests.
Last night, Ray and I stayed after everyone else left. We rested in the afternoon and headed to bed just after dark and before the moon rose. (You don’t stay up late when there’s no electricity; or, at least, we don’t.) We were lying in our tent about to settle down for the night when I saw the beam of a flashlight at the far end of the grove. Now this is just where two thieves broke into our neighbor’s workshop and stole a few tools several months back. (A rare occurrence in those parts, but this had happened, nonetheless.) We watched intently, thinking perhaps it was the neighbor (Ralph), but after just a few minutes we saw two flashlight beams and heard two men talking quietly off in the distance. (Sound travels when there are few other night sounds.)
At that point, Ray was changing into his regular clothes and I thought I best do the same. Ray put on his shoes; I, my sandals, and off we went in the direction of the voices. (I was wondering, of course, what we were going to do if these were indeed those thieves.) We walked about fifty feet from where they were and Ray called out, “Who’s there?”
A voice responded, “Who is there?”
Ray called out, “It’s Ray and Len, the neighbors.”
“Yes, it’s us,” I decided to add.
There was a pause, then the male voice said, “It’s Ralph.”
Ray said, “Aw, we were about to call the police. We thought you had those thieves back over here again.”
Ralph, still far off in the shadows said, “Oh, don’t do that. We’re just looking for one of my ducks. I came home and was going to pen them up for the night, but I’m missing one.”
His friend called out, “We need to keep looking before it gets any later.”
Ray and I said good-bye and headed back to the tent.
We both couldn’t help but laugh. What a typical Ojai mystery: out in the dark in the middle of an orange grove in search of a lost duck.
Needless to say, we both drifted right off to sleep. No worries here except wondering if we were going to hear a quack quack as a duck waddled by in the middle of the night.
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