Children and adults everywhere just lost their last thought.
Ever walked into a room to get something and then once you're there, you can't remember what it was? Or you raise your hand to answer a question and once you're called on, your mind goes blank? That's what happens when a think causes something to disappear.
Every once and a while when a child goes missing, not because of a cannibalistic witch, but because they don't believe in themselves. However, Thinks and things has a mostly positive track record of granting things that help the world, not hurt it.
The problem with low self-esteem is that it acts like an infection. The same can be said of happiness. It's like when someone yawns and then you feel compelled to yawn as well. When someone smiles, it's hard not to smile back.
The Fixer isn't certain what's happening with Thinks and things. He needs to find out what's going on and report back to The Boss. The Boss has an unlimited amount of patience but last night, time stopped for one full second. All of the things that the Fixer has fixed have been in close proximity to each other, he should be closing in on Thinks and things soon.
The platypus. The ferret. The hamster. The star nosed mole, the pygmy, the sucker footed bat, and even the blob fish. The mule and the puggle. Komondors, sloths, and introducing...the durtle.
All of the above were dreamed up by people. When the Fixer approached the very first mule in the world, he wasn't too sure if he should leave the case file “as is.” The puggle was pushing it. But the durtle. The durtle is just plain ridiculous. It's almost as Thinks and things wants to be found, thought the Fixer.
Ben was perched on several phone books at his dining room table, coloring with crayons. A handmade birthday card, still wet, stood against a vase of dandelions. Thinks and things was going through the five-year-old's portfolio. He pulled out several crayon drawings of the durtle. A cross between a dog and a turtle. Basically, a dog with a turtle shell.
Ben switched over to water colors. He dipped his plastic paint brush into a paper cup of water and tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to turn the rock hard ovals of cheap pigment into something usable.
He swiped the brush across the paper but only managed to rip and smear a lumpy stroke of color across the paper. “Do you want me to color your portrait again?” offered Ben.
Thinks and things looked at a growing stack of paper, dripping of colored water, causing all of the portraits to stick to each other.
“Can you give a message to someone for me?” Thinks and things glanced at the cat clock with the moving eyes and tail. He had been watching Ben color for hours and hours. He couldn't wait any longer.
“To who?” asked Ben.
“A man who wears a cowboy hat,” Thinks and things paused as he composed the message in his head for he could not write very well in the English language. “Tell him to meet me where the dandelions don't grow. Can you remember?” Thinks and things was waiting until Ben was looking him and had his full attention.
He repeated, “Tell the man who wears a cowboy hat to meet me where the dandelions don't grow as soon as possible. Got it?”
“Yes,” Ben picked out a lemon colored crayon.
The Fixer did drop by soon after Thinks and things left. He collected the Durtle and the eggs as Ben wiped his tears away, having said goodbye to “Sam.” The Fixer put “Sam” and the eggs in a box in the back of his truck (the Durtle bites twice as hard as any dog or turtle).
“Are you a cowboy?” Ben asked once the Durtle was out of sight.
“No,” the Fixer, having been asked that many children, “I just like to wear the hat.”
“Oh. Okay then,” Ben selected a thin tipped paint brush and painted a pair of wings sticking out the backside of a monkey.
Name: Ben Mathiason
Location: Fergus Falls
Think: The Durtle
Thing: Half dog, half turtle hybred. Status: fixed pending as is
Comments: Eggs collected. Wax sticks as coloring utensils-simple yet innovative. Must try sometime.
The Fixer buys his daily heap of papers-national, state, and community-and drinks his fruit smoothie with a straw. He tried coffee once and couldn't fathom what the big hype was about. He starts with the small, local papers first and then works his way up. Among them was a small write-up for a church bake sale and a review of a mason sponsored pancake breakfast.
Also, there was a very small bit about a supposed bear or some equally large animal, visiting and vandalizing a convenience store a week ago. The bear, if it was indeed a bear, busted the door down, stole a few sandwiches and then left.