Short Fat Stubby Finger Stories PRESENTS

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EPISODE 60

Meanwhile, in the barn, the rest of Raji’s crew were attempting to understand the instructions that they had been given.  However, their collective dim-wittedness made it difficult for them to comprehend even the simplest of technical instructions without being shown what to do at least twice.  Harri, who was dubiously the brightest among them, had been given the task of trying to instruct the others in the raising of the statue.  The major problem Harri and the group were facing was their not having had any training in the use of tools or basic engineering that most school children would have been given.  They simply could not understand the key points that Joseph had given Raji. who in turn had explained what was needed to be done to Harri.  They were actually trying to convince Harri that they needed a soccer ball to block tackle.
“A soccer ball?”  Harri asked as he rolled his eyes, “Where did Raji find you dimwits … in the alley behind an overcrowded opium den? Block and tackle is not a football game.”
“Not a football game, Harri. You use it in a football game, Mylanos replied with apparent, though misguided, sincerity, “it is a strategic move.  I know. I once won a grand final for my team when I was seventeen using a block tackle.” Mylanos replied
“How?”  Harri asked in disbelief, “Just how did you win a game of soccer using a block and tackle?”
“No, no, Harri … I keep telling you, it is not a block and tackle … it is a block tackle.  This takes place when an adversary comes right up to the opponent who is in possession of the ball while the player is standing still with the tip of his foot still on the ball.  The adversary stares into the opponent’s eyes and takes him on with his magic eye, and then, while the opponent falls under the spell of the adversary, the adversary casually sneaks his own foot around the back of the ball and legally using his foot to take the ball away from the opponent.  This is a very skillful move, Harri, and I scored three more goals that way, that day, and we went on to win the eleventh grade, second division, mixed gender cup.  I was the pin up of all of the girls on the team. I was a hero that day. Like Andy Warhol, I had my fifteen minutes of fame … and it lasted for months.”
“Did Andy Warhol play soccer too?” A frustrated Harri asked for no particular reason, nor did he care for a reply, but the strange, half grin, half confused look on Mylanos’s face was no more than Harri had expected.
“I am not certain,” Mylanos replied in a faltering voice, “I think so.”
“Were you born the son of a mule and a donkey, you foolish man?  That is a block and tackle,” Harri exploded, pointing at the rope and pulley,” It has nothing to do with football.  All we have to do is to connect that hook up there to the tractor, then pull on the rope. When that is done we will see the statue.  We will lift the statue on to the truck … and then we can go home.  Understood now?”
“Yes, Raji. No football. But I still don’t understand all the things we have to do?”
Raji rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time that morning, but before he could say anything, Raji walked into the room and demanded their immediate attention the minute he noticed the tractor had not been moved.
“What is going on?  Why is the statue not raised?”  He thundered.
“That is because you hired fools for assistants.”  Harri whined. “These fools cannot understand what I am trying to tell them.”
“And what are you trying to tell them, Harri?”    
“I am trying to tell these fools to find the eye bolt and they say that there is no such thing as a bolt with an eye.  They say that bolt’s eye would be destroyed when the nut was tightened on to the bolt.  And when I tried to explain about the block and tackle, they wanted to play football.”
“Then why don’t you show them what you want them to do, Harri?” Raji asked in a tone of smugness.
Harri, who himself really had no idea what they were supposed to do, was not going to be made to look a fool in front of the others.
“That is not my job,” he protested, “My job is to instruct and give orders.”
“He is right, Raji, sir.” One of the workers spoke up, not just for himself, but also for the entire group who all nodded their head in agreement, “Somebody should be in charge of identifying everything so that Harri can do his job of instructing and ordering.”
Raji shook his head in disbelief.
“It is true, Raji, Sir.” Another chimed in.  “It is a very complicated job, trying to identify all these strange things … and then use them.”
“Perhaps you could show us what we are looking for, Raji, sir, and then we could follow Harri’s instructions and orders.”  Yet another offered.
Raji sighed and rolled his eyes. “Wherever did I lose my mind and employ you lot?  Come with me.”   Patiently, as if giving school children their first lesson, Joseph walked them through each step that they were to follow.  Each movement that Raji showed them was followed by collective ooooh’s and aaaah’s, and then they repeated each keyword back to Raji.   By the time that he had finished Raji’s patience was close to exhaustion. Fortunately for him his phone rang and he excused himself as he stepped outside to answer it.
“Raji is a good teacher,” Harri exclaimed delightedly, now that he and the rest of the workers understood what they must do, “Alright, men, it is time to get busy!”

********

As Harri took his newly coordinated co-workers through their paces, Raji walked around the side of the barn to ensure his phone call was taken in private.  But as he stood there facing the wall, deep in conversation on his satellite phone, he barely had time to notice the shadows approaching him before the skies turned to night, and the stars exploded in front of his fast closing eyes.

********

The shadows left Raji laying where he fell and moved cautiously to the barn entrance where they waited; waited, quietly watching every event that unfolded within the huge building. The seconds passed quickly and it wasn’t long before they felt it to be safe and cautiously slipped inside and merged in with the other shadows that resided within the large building. Bright sunshine flooding through the holes in the roof and the odd window illuminated much of the barn, and that in turn increased the depth of the dark shadowy areas as it had when Joseph and Martin had made their way to the depths of the barn only two and a bit days beforehand. And it was under these conditions that the physical shadows went about their movements unnoticed by the five men who were busy working under the instructions and orders of the man they called Harri.    

 ********

“We have found it, Harri, Sir.  Shall we open the box to make sure that the statue is inside?”  One of the workers asked excitedly.
Harri ran over in time to find the others crowded around a large oblong box.
“Is it locked?”  Harri asked.
“Yes, Harri, Sir.  The two men called out in unison.
“There are three locks on this side.”  One man said.
“And there are three locks on this side.”  The other man replied.
“Then, no – we must not desecrate the contents.  Nor must we damage the box the statue travels in.  Come, we must get this on the truck before Raji returns.”  Harri said in an authoritative voice, “and hurry – there may not be a lot of time left.”  The six men lifted the packaged statue and quickly carried it over to the truck where they placed it, upright, on the lowered hydraulic tray.
“You.” Harri instructed, pointing at one man, “Go and tell Raji that we are ready.  You,” pointing his finger at another, “Raise the tray.”  
The man that had been ordered to get Raji ran to the door, but two figures suddenly emerged from the shadows directly in front of him.  Each had a gun in their hands, and before Harri or any of his co-workers could realise what was going on; far less take any evasive action, they were all dead.  Their blood quickly being absorbed by the hay and dust covered barn floor that their bodies lay on.
The two shadows walked over to the truck and onto the ramp and pushed the body that lay dead beneath the lever off the tray.  The lever was then pulled and once the tray was at floor level on the truck they used a trolley already waiting in readiness to move the statue against the back-wall of the truck and secured it with ropes and ties that were also laying in readiness on the floor.  When this task was finished they both got down from the truck. One went to the front and climbed up into the driver’s seat, the other into the passenger seat. The driver ignited the engine and drove the truck out of the barn, heading directly to the roadway.

********

Once they were outside the farm gate the truck stopped. The passenger got out and entered the vehicle parked just out of sight of the farm. The two vehicles then drove off in the direction of Trenthamville leaving nothing but carnage in their wake.

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It was a strange little convoy that made its way back to the village of Trenthamville: the furniture lorry … and the black limousine.

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