Saturday, October 31, 2009

17.The mystery is solved


So there it was.

The mystery was solved.

The meaningless but symbolically meaningful scrawls decorating the mollusk shells of our neighborhood had been placed there by this young crab tagger for his own selfish reasons--a fact that (he was right) I would NEVER understand.

That the mollusks of the neighborhood had worked a lifetime to make their shells as beautiful as they could was not a consideration for this young tagger.

He would mark them--cowardly
and unknown at night--so the good residents of the neighborhood would fear the something that prowled at night.

He was the opposite side of the coin from me I guess--I worked to bring a little peace and happiness--he wanted to bring fear and anger and frustration.

Well, so it was.

I thought my way was better and he, no doubt, thought his way was better--strange isn't it?

So--though I had solved the mystery--I had failed to find a solution.

But they say "failure is a better teacher than success"--so at least I had perhaps learned something from this case.

Constable Crab

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Friday, October 30, 2009

16.. The Tagger Explains


"But," I said, "What does it MEAN?"

"You won't EVER GET IT!" The young tagger-crab said to me with a suitably surly expression. "It simply means---ME!"

"You?" I asked, "Why you?"

"Look Pops--I told you, you'd never get it--and you won't! Just LEAVE IT, Pops!"

"But no-one knows who makes these signs--and they are not in any readable language--how can anyone know YOU are the one making them? Is is some kind of advertising?"

"ADvertising? Look Grampa! I don't WANT anybody to KNOW who does it--it's a MYSTERY, see? I'm like a phantom! I'm EVERYWHERE but NO-0ne knows WHO I AM! SCAREY, huh?"

"So you want to scare people?"

"Yeah, but that's only PART of it! I also want everybody to understand WHO rules this neighborhood! I DO!!"

"But nobody knows who you are..."

"You're not totally dim, Pops. But you'll never get it! You are just too OLD!"

"Oh." I replied. This young crab was right about one thing--we could not communicate at all.


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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Reality Check


It not only happens in Constable Crab's imaginary neighborhood--here is an example in my own neighborhood in Escondido, CA.

(Tomasito photo, 2009.)


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Monday, October 5, 2009

15. A Tagger


"What in the WORLD are you doing?!" I asked the young crab.

"Making my mark--tagging, of course." He replied without batting an eyelash.

"But, WHY on EARTH? What does it MEAN?" I asked .

"What's it to ya, Grampa?" He replied.

I was feeling a little flustered. "I am Constable Crab--I am partly responsible for the welfare of this community--so, what are you doing?"

"Oh, yeah. I heard about you--you are the do-gooder lawman who snoops around this area. Well, I am a tagger, Pops--and what I do is TAG. Get it?"


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Saturday, October 3, 2009

14. Caught in the Act


It was not far to the shell opening.

I was quickly out--ready for anything.

Anything, that is, except what I found!

Cooly painting one of the mysterious signs on the broad, white side of my borrowed used shell--was a young crab--a crab of my OWN KIND!


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