Still wondering...

(Continued from January 3rd)

A few years ago some of us got to wondering about that young girl and her boyfriend, and about the baby too. Seems to me, and some other people in town, that this whole thing kinda got started with them. – Some say they had nothing to do with it, and we just started doing this because we needed a little break in the middle of winter. Others claim we’ve always done it. And I’ve even heard some people say there’s no good evidence that "the Co-op thing" really happened. But most folks don’t seem to think about it much at all. They say we just do it for the kids, and for the family, and that it’s good for business.

Some of us, however, just can’t help wondering, and now there are some groups and individuals dedicated to investigating the story. Some meet regularly, write books and pamphlets, ask questions, and follow leads. Personally I just like to blog and talk with anyone who’s interested.

Some people say the government, and/or multinational corporations, are involved in a cover-up, trying to get us to forget the Co-op thing or believe it never really happened, but I think it’s simpler than that. Most people are too busy, especially at the end of the year, to go looking for “the story behind the story”, so to speak. And the whole thing is good for the kids and the family and business, so people don’t want to get too serious about it and maybe mess up a good thing. Just let the hens roost and ejoy the eggs, they figure. And sometimes, when I’ve spent another sleepless night talking or blogging about it, I think maybe they’re right. But then I always start wondering about that baby boy – he’d be all grown up now – and I start trying to find him all over again.

And there’s a funny little story that turns up from time to time, though I’ve never been able to nail it down completely. – Sometimes it’s attributed to the Co-op manager, but he disappeared a few weeks after the event, and no one seems to know exactly where he went. And sometimes a cashier or stock-boy is the source. – But anyway, the story goes that a couple of weeks after the “night in question” three people show up at the Co-op store making “discreet inquiries”. They’ve come a long way, from some big eastern think-tank or university, and must have somehow known this thing was going to happen. But, anyway, no one has anything much to tell them, so they leave town pretty quick.

End of story, except that a few days later some high-powered businessman pulls up in a limo and starts asking some very indiscreet questions of his own about the baby and the three who were looking for him. When no one can tell him anything he get’s angry, threatens the manager and storms out. A few days later, the Co-op gets trashed, and a few days after that the manager puts his house up for sale and leaves town.

Maybe it’s just a story, one of those urban legends, but it seems to me people generally fall into three groups. Some, like the guy in the limo, are kind of angry about the whole thing, like it’s all some kind of personal insult or a threat to their way of life. Others, like the manager, don’t know much and don’t want to know. They just want to keep their head down and stay out of the way. But me,... well, I’m in the third group. Like those profs, or whatever they were, I just need to know what this big, bizarre mystery is all about.

Of course, sometimes I think it’s all too crazy to matter, but then someone asks a question, or makes an offhand remark, or the end of December comes around and people start putting up reindeer and sox again, and I just can’t help wondering....