July 13th 1947

   On the road again, and lucky to be alive!

  What a day! What a night! I hope the bleeding stops soon. Hoping to get some sleep soon too. It should be easy, once the pain killers do their job.

   Champ is driving, and Champ doesn't talk much, not like Gooter and Muggy.

  Gooter and Muggy, jeez, I actually feel sorry for them, after what happened to them today....

  But I'm getting ahead of myself, before I dose off, I'll write down the events of this horrible day, after I've had about six hours of sleep I'll take overdriving for Champ.

  Where do I start?

   I woke up this morning wanting coffee, so I got dressed, and left my motel room. I saw Gooter and Muggy pitching pennies against the outside wall of my room.

  As usual, those skinny goons were laughing and grinning like morons. I ignored them as I wandered over to the little cafe' adjacent to the motel. I had a cup of java, five in fact, ham, eggs, and something called grits. Cowboy food!

  I wonder if my dear old grand pappy, ate grits when he was a member of El Head's gang, back in the day. If he did, he didn't say so in his journal.

  I looked up at the clock and noticed it was near 10:30. The
rendezvous was set for high noon, and I wanted to see the sites, and maybe pick up
souvenirs for Meg and the kids.

  I left the cafe' and walked over to Gooter and Muggy, to tell them I was going to wander around for awhile, and for them to keep a close eye on the truck. They looked up at me briefly, from their crouched position. Gooter started laughing and punched Muggy in the arm. Muggy responded with a knowing grin, right back at him, like their was some joke on me that only they understood.

  "Who needs em?" I thought as I hoofed towards downtown Boneport.

  I window shopped awhile, around several storefronts, nothing much interested me.

  It seemed like an endless parade of brick buildings, with a handful of blank faced people milling around, seeming un bothered by the fact that they were who they were, and these were probably the leading businessmen of this burg.

   Soon, however, I found one interesting shop, that had some weird looking dolls in the windows. Meg and Little Meg are girls, and girls like dolls, so I figured, what the hey! I'll buy some dolls!

  I walked into the strange little shop. Weird decorations, silver moons and stars, hung from the ceiling. Candles of all shapes and sizes. Some for sale, some in use. The smell! I can't describe the smell. Not unpleasant, but not really pleasant, no.

  The only person in the joint was a rather plump, gray haired woman, working behind the counter. She was kind of odd, in that though she was a white woman, she dressed like a mix between a Gypsy and Redskin. And she was barefoot! Go figure!

  She was nice enough though, warm smile. And boy, could she talk! She made Gooter and Muggy seem like mimes! She said her name was Harmony. I asked her, "How much for the dolls?", and she asked me what I wanted them for. I told her they were for my wife and daughter, little keepsakes. Her eyes grew wide, and she began chattering away about how these dolls were not toys and blah blah blah, yackety smackety!

  I got the picture, it was voo doo stuff. Before my old pal, Bennie got the chair for gunning down Nathan Detroit, he told me about working for the crime boss, known as the Zombie Master. Bennie told me that voo doo was nothing to fool around with, despite what Cole Porter says.

  Harmony, didn't stop at the voo doo warnings, she just kept right on jawing about anything and everything.

   What with her talking so fast, and the later events of the day, taking up so much space in my noggin, I can’t recall everything she told me.

  She talked mostly about strange things that happened around these parts, Boneport and the smaller towns across the river.

  She mentioned some place called Ju Ju road, and the creature called the Hairy Man!

  She spoke of the colony of Vampires in the swamps near Dark Oaks plantation. She'd never seen these vampires but she knows they are there.

  She mentioned Opossum Trudueax, who lures kids to their death in the bayou, with his colorful umbrella.

  She informed me of other strange events that have plagued this area for centuries, but no one else will talk about them. She told me her theory, that this town is one of the special areas where dark forces are stronger and are harder at work.
 

 She and some of her correspondents have been compiling a list of such places. Some of the areas she mentioned were towns like Arkham, Mass. Harrisonville, NJ. and Sunnydale CA. and some small country in Europe called Vasaria.

  I just smiled and nodded, and tried to look interested, hoping for a break in her endless speech, where I could say "Well, it was nice talking to you, I gotta go now" I may be a criminal, but I'm polite.

  Fortunately, another customer came in, obviously some one she knew, a cohort. Harmony, and the new customer, gave each other a strange look, then they both stared in my direction. I knew I wasn't welcome there anymore. At random, I grabbed several nick nacks off a shelf. Silver jewelry for my gals. I plopped some cash on the counter, and Harmony put them into a bag for me.

  As I exited the shop, I looked up at the big town clock, and saw that it was 11: 41. I hoofed it back to the motel, as fast as my feet would go.
 

 Gooter and Muggy were sitting and drinking hooch, in the exact same spot where I had left them pitching pennies earlier. I slapped them around with my Derby hat, to get them motivated, seeing as how we were late.

  Gooter and Muggy always look at you like they don't savvy English, but they follow orders if you talk mean enough.

  We hopped into the truck, and headed downtown, Gooter drove. Gooter and Muggy immediately started talking about when they were pitching pennies, like they were reminiscing about something that happened years ago.

  I ignored them and stared out of the passenger window, flicking ashes from my cigarette. Once again I passed row after row, of two story red brick buildings.

   The Golden Sphere Map Co. was located near the corner of Spring St. and Milam. I saw the name on the store front window. For such a grandiose name, the place looked unassuming. The company name was painted in plain black letters, neither big, nor small, on the large glass.

  Gooter drove the truck around back, through an ally, and we parked behind the Golden Sphere building. The other trucks were already there.

  Before I even got out of the cab, I could see, Detroit Durant, giving me a cold stare. I wish I'd known he was in on this, I would have stood in bed.

   Speaking of bed, I think the pills are starting to take affect,
I'll catch some winks, and write some more in an hour or so, it's a long drive, so I'll have plenty of time to write.

  Jeez! What a day!