Whilst I ain’t one to sound the alarm every time a tumbleweed rolls ‘cross the road or a stranger tips his hat too slowly, what happened Tuesday afternoon in the good scrublands of Lyon County has folks sharpening their glances and oiling the hinges on their screen doors.
At just about 4:27 in the post meridian–when most honest folks are either boiling beans or wondering if the sun’s gonna fry their garden again–the sheriff’s deputies were summoned to a home out yonder on Grassland Road. The call was about some goings-on that didn’t sit right with a young lady who had been out mindin’ her business and puttin’ shoe to the sidewalk.
Around 4:09 p.m., a white four-door carriage of the modern kind–one of them that look like a boiled egg with wheels–crept up on her. Inside were two grown white fellows, reckon thirty to forty in age, which is just about old enough to know better. One of ‘em sported a goatee, which is facial hair worn by men who either read too much poetry or not near enough, and the other wore a red shirt — a color known to inspire revolution and bulls.
Here’s where things tilt toward the peculiar. One of these fellas leaned out the window and asked the girl to pluck them a flower–a strange request for strangers to make and one that likely set off every common-sense bell in that girl’s head. To her credit, and I believe she deserves some, she did not tarry with flower-picking nor conversation–but lit out of there like a deer who’d heard a rifle’s bolt snap back.
The car rolled eastward toward whatever mischief or misunderstanding awaited it down Grassland Road. The Sheriff’s office says they’re sniffing around for video contraptions that might’ve caught sight of the odd scene and are encouraging any soul with a flicker of information–be it first-hand, second-hand, or off a porch camera — to ring them up at (775) 463-6620.
Now, I ain’t sayin’ the red-shirted gent and his goateed accomplice was up to villainy outright–maybe they’re just awkward suitors from a bygone century–but if you ask a child for a flower from a moving vehicle, don’t be surprised when you find the whole county lookin’ at you sideways.
The Old Blog in the Desert 