Going to Francine's kitchen to get a glass of water, Jake looks out the window and sees a buck with a huge rack of antlers in the backyard. "Hey, guys, you have a pet," he says, taking a sip of water.
"What?" Francine says as she comes into the kitchen, "Yikes! Look at the size of him! Guys, come here!"
Donald and Masani come in and take a gander at the buck. "Oh, no, Sugar, he is not eating my peppers. I worked too hard on that garden for that!" Masani says and heads outside.
Donald sighs and follows her.
Jake says, "There is no way I'm getting close to that thing," as he and Francine watch Masani try to shoo away the buck, who alternately chews on a pepper and looks at her.
Having his fill of pepper apparently, the buck wanders over to the neighbor's yard. Francine and Jake go outside and join Donald and Masani and watch as he grazes. "Thanks for your help," Masani says, sarcastically.
"Those are some big antlers," Jake says.
"Where did he come from?" Francine says.
"They have been bulldozing abandoned homes in Cleaveland a lot these past few years under the shrink to survive urban planning philosophy," Donald says.
"Um hmm, and in addition to the nice community gardens and parks that have popped up as a result, I bet there's a chain of woods now all the way from here to wherever he normally hangs out. I'm writing my councilperson, and if a mountain lion shows up to eat him, I'm moving," Masani says.
"The mountain lion is going to eat your councilperson?" Jake says.
"No, Dear, the deer," Masani says, "But if the lion is hungry enough maybe it'll eat the councilperson too. All I know is that it ain't eating me."
"I don't think they should bulldoze abandoned homes," Francine says, "All that does is make housing more expensive because there is less of it to go around. I don't know why houses are so expensive to begin with. Anything else you buy, its value plummets the moment it's used. Cars. Books. Whatever. But with houses, people think they should be worth more, for some reason. It's still used."
Donald clears his throat, and says, "Well, most of the houses they are bulldozing are in pretty bad shape. They might become a crack house, but for the most part no one is going to live in them again anyway. It is a bit sad, but it is better to demolish them. They do not attract criminals or rats then, nor expose toxins such as lead to the air. Letting nature take the land back can also detoxify it, and it certainly enables the city to concentrate its services elsewhere, which given the current economic situation is a good thing."
"Well, I think it's all part of the plan. They want to turn North America into a vast nature preserve," Francine says.
"Well, whoever 'they' are, they're succeeding," Masani says, watching the buck gracefully leap over a fence into the next neighbor's yard.
Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel, which is available in print and as an ebook.
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