Gilding the Lily

Photo Fiction

Brett Paufler

Page 4

So, we're on the other side of the bridge now (in the 'Upper' part of Lili'uokalani Botanical Garden, looking back over the bridge) and there's the homeless guy -- or so I presume. Seriously, I do some strange stuff myself, so maybe he's just some rich eccentric. Also, in the lower part of the picture is a path leading down under the bridge. I never made it there. The story may have taken a different (wait for it) direction if I had.

Instead, my mind focused on the dwellings that backed up to the park. This one inspired no thoughts of any significance, though looks like a nice enough place to live (nice location, at least).

Backside of an Apartment Complex Overlooking Park

This giant apartment complex, on other hand, did. All those balconies with all that 'character' looking out. I should be able to do something with that.

This balcony appears to be used as a sort of storage/laundry area. To me it's sort of like looking at mannequins in a store -- only without the mannequins -- and so, your job is to decide who would live there. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you much about the occupant of this one.

This black tarp covering the view (probably used to block out the sun and keep the apartment cooler, I'm thinking), well, this has obvious (in story, fictional) implications. Rather than the sun, someone was trying to block the view of something else -- some nefarious, ever seeking, presence.

Turning around (figurately speaking, I probably had to try some to arrange this picture) and there's the waterfall.

And here's a GIF of that self-same waterfall. I do like those GIFs.

Another GIF of Waterfall Showing (Off Limits) Wading Area

And here's a nice wading area. Yeah, as a kid, I would have loved to play in that. And in a few moments, school let out, and a half dozen or so little imps (call them what you will, I'll call them imps) did in fact make there way to this very spot. (Make, run, belligerently declare their presence as they strode proudly forth, what's in a word?)

A Ladder Being Stored on an Apartment Balcony

Anyhow, the tarp was blocking something (an evil presence, undoubtably). This ladder, on the other hand, is what the tree would be looking at. So, maybe the occupant has some sort of anti-tree job: landscaper, tree trimmer, lumberjack, carpenter, who knows. Whatever the specifics, the tree has firmly regained it's position of being the bad guy. Of course, I still don't know who, what, when, or why of the entire thing (the where being down by the tree), but I'm feeling like synchronicity and happenstance are on my side and time will tell soon enough.

An other View of Waterfall with Yellow Caution Ribbon Tree

Soon enough being mere moments later as someone had wrapped a tree with a yellow caution ribbon. Clearly, one must be cautious of those them there trees.

Caution Ribbon (DO NOT ENTER) Wrapped Around Tree

Can't you just feel that tree staring at you mockingly. Um, OK. Neither can I. But it's a small difference from "CAUTION: DO NOT ENTER' to 'CRIME SCENE: DO NOT ENTER'. So, right there, we have a plot, a child died. I didn't know how or why, but I knew where: right there. And it happened last night.

This is a picture at the end of the Upper Lawn. If you blow it up enough (or squint real hard), you can see two kids begin their decent of the path and into the stream bed from which they shall never return!!! (Or, you know, until it's time to go home.)

Anyhow, I like to think of these blurry images as ghosts... or one of those flashback sequences wherein our two detectives guess about what happened. Oh, and two detectives is the best number of detectives for a story to have. It allows a witty back and forth repartee that is easy for the reader follow (and author to write), because when there are three or more characters involved in a conversation one can't cut to the chase and leave out the 'he said, she said' like I do here.

"OK, yeah. So, I see that. This is where they went down to the river."
"Yep, right here." (I'll show you the path the kids wore into the grass later.)
"But what I don't see..."
"Is how the tree did them in?"
"Yeah."
"Trees are evil. Falling branches -- not to mention folks falling from wooden ladders -- count for more fatalities each year than all the serial murders in the world combined."
"You're joking, right?"
"No, I'm completely serious. You saw that ladder, just mocking that tree, and the tree has to look at it 24/7, so you know it's just boiling mad. Good thing the ladder was made out aluminum or you and I wouldn't be standing here."
"Right. So, um, how did you get on the force again?
"Oh, no, no, no. If I'm going to do this story-gig, I'm going to be freelance all the way."
"None of that pesky constricting logic that being on the force brings with it for you?"
"Oh, no. Not for me. Once you take that first step down that slippery logical slope, you stop seeing all those potentialities that other folks miss."
"Because they're not there."
"So, you're on the force, aren't you?"
"Yep, I play it by the book, assigned to keep you in line. Personally, don't ask me why they let you in on these investigations in the first place."
"That's easy, it's because I always get my man, woman, small child, or in this case, tree."
"You seriously think it was the trees?"
"Not trees, tree. And yes."
"How? How does a tree..."

What? Strangle? Stab? Burn? Or bludgeon someone to death.
I don't know. And in truth, at this point I don't even know the cause of death.
Some things just aren't important to me.

"How can the 'Cause of Death' not be important?"
"They're dead. What more do you need to know?"
"Opportunity! Motive! Without either, you don't have a case!"
"Eh, we'll get to that, soon enough."

The Next Exciting Installment of Gilding The Lily

(((Note: while the pictures are real (as real as pictures can get) all the text should be treated as fiction -- or at least, unreliable. Nothing has been fact checked. Things change. And the truth sometimes only serves to get in the way of a good story. Thus, taken as a whole, these web pages that comprise this story should be viewed as a record of one man's flight of fancy as he takes a walk on a long sunny afternoon. Nothing more. Nothing less. And most certainly, no disrespect to any individual (living or dead) is intended.)))

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