In all the laughter, Molly had a flashback of a conversion she had had with Linorio and realized why he must have left.
“It was the award!”
As she said it, she swung round and crashed her hand into a pottery vase of flowers. The water and flowers went everywhere, and the vase smashed to the ground.
“Oh no, sorry! Look what I’ve done! Such a lovely vase!” she cried out in a panic. Jeni appeared from nowhere and helped clear up the mess.
“What award?” both Viktor and Jonathan asked in unison, while they picked up the scattered pieces of the broken vase.
“There was an award that was planned for him.” Molly was flustered and dabbed at the water around her side of the table as she remembered more details.
“Yes. It was called the Acclaimed Hero Award. I remember we laughed about the acronym and how he was finally going to have his A HA! moment. We started making up silly names for awards. But he was serious. He said he was worried we were going back to the old ways of thinking. He’d said it was the Great Spirit, animals, plants, insects, trees and all the people who had made it happen, that he was just a part. He was so worried we’d gone back to giving all the credit to one person, one reason. That we were losing connection with the whole.
“Maybe we can do something. Let’s find him and get a message to him. We can tell him we’ll organize it so the award goes to a group or something. We’ll make sure he is left in peace. I hate the thought that people have hounded him so much he’s had to vanish like this to escape. Viktor, you start it. Open a group on the Notice Space to let everyone know. Maybe we can still contact him.”
“I’ll do it. You’ll see it next time you plug in.”
Before anyone could step in, Molly passed her token transfer chip over the menu and paid the bill. “My turn,” she said. She wanted to make her way home. There were many people to contact, and she felt like her brain was scrambled as she tried to figure out where Linorio could have gone.
“Love you Viktor. I’ll call you Tuesday. Take care of yourself and remember to eat well,” she said.