"She's not coming back Arlo. Something spooked her-- I know you saw it. She wanted to run out of that cafe. Her hair was standing on end like she'd seen a ghost!"
all images from pixabay
Daniel was right, but Arlo snapped back. "Her hair always looks like that… and she'll come back, she's just going to get her car!"
Arlo knew what Daniel was talking about though. Mel had jumped from the table like she'd been bitten by some hidden fangs. She'd then insisted on taking the hover-bike back to Hill Valley by herself, and had insisted that she'd be right back with her car. It had been less than an hour, and Arlo knew he needed to calm down, and stop bringing his bad vibes into merry Lakeland. But something had freaked her out.
Arlo just didn't like the idea of Daniel acting like he knew Mel, trying to creep around inside her head like that. A chill crawled across his scalp as he realized that he'd never even met Don Felger in real life, and that he hadn't even seen a picture of old Felger in a long time-- maybe Daniel Holt actually was Felger!
Of course, none of that notion actually made any real sense when he thought it through a second time, but Arlo shuddered and realized how touchy he was suddenly feeling about the subject of Mel.
Daniel sat down and pointed with his eyes to Arlo's nervous fidget, and spoke kindly. "You know you can stay here as long as you like. We have some things to go over… no matter what you decide to do. First, do you think any of the HVPD recognized her… or got a good look at her when they were chasing you?"
Arlo thought about it, and looked up. "She knows some of them-- they come into her shop sometimes, but… I dunno."
Daniel had a way of making bad things seem great with his Lakeland spirit. He looked at Arlo with a serious lean. "I just needed to know, so when you go back to rescue her… we know to take the Lakeland parade straight to the Hell Valley jailhouse to get you both out!"
Arlo was amused, but shook his head. "She'll be back in a bit."
Pizza and flowers. The streets of Lakeland had many scents, depending on the street, but the average smell-per-street was pizza and flowers. Arlo had found the guilty flowers. Carts with bundles of fresh flowers seemed to be frequent, and the white purple pink lilies seemed to be one of the major sources of this towns aroma. Arlo walked around smelling things as the town began to wind down.
Livestock farmers, seen as local heros to many, showed up around this time of the day in Lakeland to clean and tend the numerous vegetable carts and canning stations throughout the downtown area. Nothing was wasted. Selecting the older produce from these carts for their animals, they played their part in the circulation of food in their community.
In the mornings, the vegetable farmers-- also extremely valued players in this cycle-- would have fresh loads to add to the carts, starting the symbiotic loop again naturally. Like diplomats between their community and nature, these farmer's reward was to simply live in great abundance, and to encourage a peaceful coexistence between humans and their worlds-- to live knowing surely that they are making a logical and natural choice by sharing that surplus with their communities.
As he watched this circulation in action, Arlo started thinking about what didn't really make sense. Daniel seemed to be actually serious about having a Lakeland-style anti-gravity parade drive right in to Hill Valley. He was actually planning it with the float designers.
Daniel was the embodiment of the Lakeland mind. It involved a playful logic, a spirit of daily adventure in a community of wise fools. Any day of the week Daniel could be found wearing costumes and 'parade gear', and seemed to act as the cheerleader for the town, as if they needed one.
A parade though. Arlo wondered if Daniel realized how far behind Hill Valley really was. The HVPD cops were controlled, and they had been delegated all of Felger's might. The TV was controlled, and it had hijacked all of the public's might. A messy place for a colorful parade, was all Arlo could think. These Lakeland parade engineers had been living in the flowers too long, they'd forgotten, or never knew, the ever watching eye of the Science Board. They were fearless, and it was terrifying.
Arlo had walked the length of the main markets, and had nearly reached the intersection with the bird's nest light that he'd seen on his first visit to Lakeland. Looking down the highway, he imagined-- just for a second-- a parade crawling away towards Hill Valley. He tried to envision it, and see it clearly, he tried to hear the singing cars, trying to get what Daniel was talking about.
Arlo realized that he was exhausted. It had been a busy day. He listened down the highway now for the telltale growl of Mel's old Z car, but the long old road was still quiet.
With the urge to lie down on a sun-warmed bench, and with a such a bench on the corner by the bird's nest calling his name, Arlo laid down on it and fell asleep instantly.
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