Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘desert adventure’

A Secret Place

“So,” said Bernie, “there we were in this cave.”

“He loves caves,” Suzie said. “For some deep psychological reason.”

Bernie blushed. That hardly ever happens, and only with Suzie. “It turned out to be one of those caves that gets narrower and narrower. Pretty soon we were crawling along, me and Chet.” 

I remembered that part. Bernie is one of those real slow crawlers. 

“And then, way at that back, we saw a tiny chink of light – a cave with two openings, if you get the idea. We squeezed through this back opening and found ourselves high up on a steep rise, with sheer rocky walls on all sides and down below, completely in shadow, this miniature canyon, a square no bigger than half an acre or so. The kind of place that’s invisible except maybe from the air.”

“And there was something down there?” said Lt. Stine.

“Don’t rush me,” said Bernie.

A Plateful

“Freud or no Freud,” Bernie said, “we went into the cave.”

“Bartender?” said Lt. Stine. “Another round.”

“And guess what we found in the cave,” Bernie said.

The can of film? Whoa! That was from the Greed Case. And by the way, what was going on with that? Humans have this saying about having too much on your plate. This is the kind of time they would say it, but it’s a saying I just don’t get. I lay on the nice cool patio tiles at the Dry Gulch Steakhouse and Saloon and sighed.

“Here’s my guess,” said Lt. Stine, raising a fresh drink. “A UFO.”

Bernie’s face darkened. “That comes later,” he said.

Sunday June 14, 11:30-3:30: The Hounds at Highfield – www.highfieldhall.org

In the Glitter Mountains

“We were at the northern end of the Glitter Mountains,” Bernie said.

“You hiked all the way out there?” said Lieutenant Stine.

Bernie shrugged. “We just kind of got going. That happens sometimes.”

Did it ever! Just me and Bernie, deep in the desert. Love those desert adventures.

“I’d heard,” Bernie was saying, “about these petroglyphs that are supposed to be in the Glitter Mountains, just waiting to be discovered.”

Petroglyphs were one of Bernie’s interests. I’d seen a few. Petroglyphs turn out to be scratches in the rock. If Bernie likes them, that’s fine with me. 

“Anyway, we were climbing up when we ran into these two guys chiseling away at the rock,” Bernie said.

“Stealing petroglyphs?” said Suzie.

“Exactly,” said Bernie.

“And you didn’t like that?” said Lt. Stine.

How did Lt. Stine know that? He was right: Bernie hadn’t liked that, not one little bit.

Cruller, Part One

Lt. Stine was this big shot from downtown. He actually had something to do with me and Bernie getting together, but don’t ask me the details. Maybe they’re in Thereby Hangs A Tail. Lt. Stine’s all right, but I like Sgt. Torres better. Right now Stine was at our door, wanting a word with Bernie. 

“By the way,” he said, “got half a cruller left. Think Chet would be interested?” 

Hey! It turned out I liked Lt. Stine just as much as Sgt. Torres! 

I went to the corner, got busy with the cruller. Lt. Stine noticed Suzie. 

“We can talk in front of Suzie,” Bernie said.

“Come on,” said Stine. “She’s a reporter.”

“This’ll be off the record,” Suzie said.

A complicated discussion, but I liked the sound of their voices.

Stine nodded. “Need to know what happened in the desert, Bernie,” he said.