Very Strange Day

 My sister messaged me this morning. A car had flipped over in front of the new build. It didn't look like anyone was hurt, but a tow truck was there trying to turn it over and get it hauled away.

Huh. 

I putzed around the house this morning. Tim worked on a leaky line for the clawfoot tub. 

The auction started at 4, but you always want to be able to have a bit of a look-see and make a mental note of what you are interested in. We went there with no intention of buying but to see how things all play out there. 

So.

We didn't buy anything. Well, except for one cast iron pot belly stove, a rocking chair, a brass outside gas light, another box of fittings for antique gas lights because Tim's got 3 boxes of pieces and parts of gas light fixtures upstairs, and he's always looking for more parts (short answer: I have no idea), two boxes of tools, an old suitcase of tools, and a box of wooden toys for Rudy and little David at Christmas time. Total cost for all that treasure: $47.57. 

Now, it was me waving my hand for the toys. It was taken down to the minimum of $2. Nobody bid, so I did. Tim looked shocked, sitting next to me with two boxes of tools already. No one bid against me, and so I got them. The box contained two wooden trucks with trailers, a wooden car, a wooden bucket loader, a shape sorter, a set of alphabet blocks (all the letters are there) and oddly, about 50 small padlocks with keys. I was pleased with that. The toys were in perfect shape. 

The little cast iron stove? It wasn't something that we wanted, but Levi had once said to Tim that he collects those for his hunting shanties, so Tim made up his mind to get it if we could. We did, for $5. 

We were amassing a quite a stash of stuff, when a very sturdy rocking chair came up for bid. It's one of those super heavy duty ones with a seat about 2 inches thick. The auctioneer was calling out numbers, and the price was dropping lower and lower. It got to $2 and someone bid. I raised my hand at $3 and again on $5. Tim looked unhappy. We do not need a rocking chair. I leaned over and said, "The kids broke Levi's porch rocker..." He looked relieved. I got that bid for $5.

When we left, we had a pretty fair-sized truckload of stuff. Tim said, "We're stopping at Levi's on the way home. If we don't, we'll have to unload that heavy rocker and the cast iron stove so that I can take the truck hunting tomorrow. Then we'll have to load it all up again to run it up to them." We knew that they were away at a wedding, but we just figured that we'd set the things on their porch. 

We pulled up to the dark house and dropped the tailgate. A car pulled in behind us almost immediately. 

Shadow did not like this man. He retreated to the front corner of his house, barking madly, and he would not stop. Grandma's dog across the way took up the call as well. 

The man said, "Where's Levi?" 

Tim said, "They aren't home, they had a wedding." 

I had an uneasy feeling. He had a flashlight. He said, "Oh, I sold Levi a bunch of tools. I have some more for him."

Tim said, "Well, he's not here." 

The young man said, "Do you know any logging companies that would be interested in buying tools?" Logging companies do not work in the dark. 

Very peculiar. 

Tim said, shortly, "No, we don't." 

Shadow kept barking furiously, hidden in the shadows in the dark. 

It is dark at an Amish house when no one is home. No lights inside. No lights outside. We just stood there in the glare of his headlights. The man kept saying he wanted to sell these tools tonight. The dog kept barking. 

Were they stolen? What was the rush? Did he need drugs? Did he even have tools to sell or was he taking advantage of a dark Amish house on a lonely hill? Was his intention to steal tools to sell? Who knows. Any one of those scenarios was completely in the realm of possibility. We have quite a drug problem in our area and that goes hand in hand with theft.

In the end, he finally went back to his car and backed out of the driveway. We pulled out behind him. When we got to the intersection, he stopped for a longer than necessary at a stop sign out in the middle of intersecting dirt roads. Finally he went straight. We made our right turn, but I saw that car stop. 

"Something is very wrong here," I said. "Why is he stopping? There are no houses. We need to make sure that he's not going to turn around and head back to Levi and Mattie's."

Tim pulled into a driveway and turned around. We went back and turned down the road that the car was stopped on. When we did, he began to drive. We followed, at a distance. He stopped again. So did we, keeping far back. After a time, he put on his 4-ways.  He didn't move. Neither did we. 

The stalemate went on. I said, "You know what we need to do? We need to go back and park in front of the sawmill facing the house. We can shut off our lights. We just need to make sure he doesn't come back. He'll never even see us in the dark."

Tim said, "That's the thing to do," and backed up so that we could turn on a side road. As soon as we backed up and headed in the other direction, his four ways went off and the car began to move. Watching him from the rear view mirror, I saw that he went over the rise but then he stopped the car once again. 

"Something is definately up with him," I said. Tim agreed that there was something suspicious going on. 

As we headed back to Levi and Mattie's, we passed by their neighbor. They are friends. I said, "We should tell him so that he can keep an eye on things."  He's not Amish, and we pulled up behind his truck. I went to the door and a man answered. 

I explained the situation. He asked instantly if the car had under lights. When we said that it did, he said "I've seen that car a couple times tonight driving by real slow. I wondered what he was up to. And Levi isn't home," and I said, "I know. They are at a wedding, and won't be back until tomorrow." 

He said, "You know, I feel like a little walk tonight. I'll take a pistol and walk down there and sit for a while."

"Thanks," we said. 

We headed home then. A deer jumped out in front of us and Tim had to slam on the brakes. We went sideways, but did not flip the truck or hit the deer. Tim calmly said, "Yeah, the brake on the left side grips before the one on the right. That might be a problem in the snow."

That's enough excitement for one day.