THE RUSSIAN MAFIA and ROCK MUSICIANS
I can’t believe it! I keep running into the most interesting people! Just when I think there are no more ideas for my upcoming best-selling novel, I find another plotline.
This past Saturday, I was at the pool. I am usually alone in this hospital-run facility. Sometimes there is a random guy in the lap pool swimming his fool head off. Occasionally there are a few old ladies who chat with each other non-stop and pretend to be doing a work out. But as I said, usually it is just me by my sweet lonesome in the therapy pool exercising somewhere between an aerobic workout and a yoga stretch class.
This particular afternoon, I was surprised to see a group of eight or so guys. They were in both pools. Only a few were really working out, but they seemed to be watching each other and talking quietly about the others.
My imagination seems to be blossoming the more I write. As I surreptitiously scoped out my pools’ invaders, I imagined who they were and what they were doing.
As I was preparing to leave the pool, my curiosity got the better of me. I told them of my penchant for writing mystery stories and told them I had them all figured out. They were undercover cops on a stakeout trying to nab drug dealers that were working out of the hospital’s wellness center. They laughed and told me they were a Christian band in town for local festival called R.U.S.H. I go to the church that sponsors the event, but as I am a little past their target audience (by 50 years or so), I was unfamiliar with them and their music. We all got a good laugh, and I got another twist in the current story I’m working on.
Well, bless my heart! Today Ronald and I were having breakfast at our favorite diner. At the end of the aisle was a table of about eight guys who were all pretty well built. I immediately imagined a Russian weightlifting troupe who were actually spies plotting to overthrow the local government – or some such foolishness.
I passed by their table and heard them talking. Not Russian. Definitely American. They were talking about production. Since Fayetteville is a big movie production hub in Georgia, I figured they were a film crew or something. Disappointing to say the least.
After Ronald and I finished, I went to their table and told them they had absolutely ruined my day! I explained my swimming episode to give them backstory. I then explained I thought they were Russian spies, but they had been talking too American – hence, my ruined day.
“How do you know we’re not Russian?” one young man asked. Imagine my surprise when he started speaking fluent Russian! Or that’s what I assumed it was. I’ve heard enough Eastern European languages to believe he knew what he was doing.
“Hey, sounds legit to me,” says I. “And the guy next to me does look Eastern European! Maybe I’m right!”
The Russian speaker pointed to the most bulked up of the group. “And see? He has tattoos with Cyrillic lettering.”
Now there are probably only ten people out of a hundred in Georgia who know what Cyrillic script is. And wouldn’t you know! I was conversing with one! I admitted that they just confirmed my next plot line, we had a good laugh, I wished them a good day, and left.
I didn’t ask them what they really did. I know now. They were really members of the Russian Mafia who were infiltrating the film company, thereby advancing Communist propaganda on a naïve American public! TADA!
As we traveled the back roads home, Ronald teased me that I needed to watch my back now that I had blown their cover. I shushed him and pointed to the twelve-inch spike lying in the road.
“Vampires!”
“What?”
I glanced nervously at the abandoned shack we were passing. “I think the vampire was able to defeat or scare off his attacker and all that is left is the spike.”
“What?”
“You know, the silver stake through a vampire’s heart gets them every time! Unless, the vampire gets you first,” I explained.
“Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind.”
I’m still trying to figure out how to incorporate today’s revelations into my story.
I tried to find a Bible verse about imagination. The only thing I found that I could apply was Philippians 4:8 “Whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Hmm. I may have figure out how to merge my plotline and today’s imaginations with that Word of Truth. Hmmmmm.
Blessings
Kara Beth
