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arisalty · 4 years

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Please Come Home For Christmas (sure as the stars shine above)

Merry Christmas! The person I got for the Secret Santa in Powerless was @skylagamingv2, and while I’m not great at writing Logince, here’s my take on it!

Songs mentioned are Venus by Sleeping at Last and The Fairytale of New York by The Pogues

Words: 4.7k

Tw: Swearing, Remus appears for a bit, food is mentioned n eaten, there's one panic attack and one breakdown because of being touch-starved, if I need to tag anything else, please do tell me!

Sunday 1st, December, 5:15 am

“You’re daydreaming about him again, aren’t you?” Virgil broke Roman’s trance loudly, the faint light from his hat and shoes allowing Roman to see the raised eyebrow in the surrounding darkness.

“Uh…” Roman let the syllable rest on his tongue as he desperately looked for something to say. “Maybe..?”

Virgil rolled his eyes.

“If you like him so much, why don’t you, like, try and talk to him when we’re packed.”

“Different box,” Roman pouted and dropped his head into his hands.

“Then, hooooow about you going up to the tippy-top of the tree to seem him?” Patton pushed his way past the fir branches, as ever, carrying his signature tray of cookies.

Roman paused for a few seconds, contemplating the fanatical, absolutely wild, insane idea.

“Surely it’s impossible getting all the way up there?”

“Of course not!” Patton bubbled. “It’s-”

He was cut off by Virgil remarking,

“It’s only really challenging and possibly deadly.”

“But!” Patton intervened quickly. “I’m sure that the bravest, boldest, most bodacious nutcracker in the world definitely has the nuts to do it!”

Virgil looked down to hide his grin, even though he shook his head in joke disappointment.

Roman looked between the two elves, with their dainty little outfits of red jackets and flashing hats, one beaming up at his boyfriend while the other smiled softly at the other, and with a crushing sense of longing, he realised that maybe, just maybe he could have that.

Virgil looked up and gave half a smile,

“As dangerous as it is, Patton has a point. If anyone can do it, it’s you, dude.”

As cynical as he could be, Roman knew that Virgil was being genuine, the look in his eyes just as supportive as his bubbly boyfriend.

Patton beamed up at Roman.

“See! You’ve already started to believe in yourself more!” He giggled, before holding out his tray of cookies once more. “Now, eat up; it’s nearly 6 o’clock and you’ve got a big day tomorrow!”

Yes, Roman thought, I’ll start later.

Sunday 1st December, around midnight

As the sun set and the light’s flickered on, the steady march of time brought midnight with it. Every ornament on the tree, from the tinsel to the angel at the top to the deer on the baubles, found their body revived of control, and they blinked, waking slowly from their suspended quiet, allowing their consciousness to readjust to animation. Only one little wooden figure was already restless, his little fingers tapping away at his side until his body seemed to spring into action, allowing him to stretch and crack his joints into fluidity.

Today's the day, he thought, today's the day I set out for the top of the tree.

He paced restlessly in his secluded part of the tree, waiting ‘till his friends would join him in his state of movement; he didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to them.

After many minutes of very frustrated waiting, Roman couldn’t hold himself back from bursting into Patton and Virgil’s living space, only to find them very drowsily rubbing at their eyes and stretching, obviously only just having woken up.

“Roman, we love you, but what are you doing here?” Virgil yawned, looking like he needed nothing more than a coffee. “Couldn’t you have waited for me to get a coffee or something first?”

(Both Roman and Virgil ignored Patton’s frustrated huff at Virgil.)

“Good morning!” chirped Roman. “I'm here to see you before I head off. I didn't want to go before saying goodbye.”

“Well, as you’re here, take a cookie!! You’re gonna need the energy!”

Gratefulness filled Roman as he picked up two of the cookies. These were his friends, these were the ones backing him. These two were the ones that believed that he could do it; he could make it to the top.

“Uh… Ro? You good, man? You finished your cookies a few minutes ago you’ve just kinda been staring at nothing for the past two minutes.”

Roman blinked, snapping out of his thoughts.

“Oh, sorry, I was just thinking.”

Vigil shook his head fondly. “What are you still doing here? Go get your man!” Virgil took this time to push the nutcracker towards the exit.

“Uh, I mean-”

“Go!” Virgil gave Roman one last shove, pushing him out the door, laughing all the while.

“Good luck!” called Patton.

Roman smiled as he started walking.

Logan was once again, bored. It was only the second night of being awake on the tree. But it got lonely at the top of the tree, with barely anybody to talk to, nothing to do but watch the lights flicker and the hands of the grandfather clock tick round to 6 o’clock. But what could he do about it? He was an angel, the most beautiful ornament, stuck to the top of the tree with metal stopping him from moving. Furthermore, he couldn’t even move in the night for the fact there would be no point; even if he did manage to get off his stupid metal podium holding him in place, the humans would surely notice his movement and put him back, and so the cycle would repeat. Over, and over, and over. No, it wasn’t worth it.

Well, mostly. One fine gentleman caught his attention once, a few years ago, but never had the opportunity to meet ever passed. He was a nutcracker, white uniform decorated in golden thread, with a bold red sash across his chest, folding back around the other side of his body at his belt.

Logan had never felt the urge to want to meet and talk to someone as much as he had when he saw him. But they have yet to be in proximity with each other, let alone converse and befriend one another.

Logan sighed, letting his thoughts drift off into memories where he saw the nutcracker, even though they were only brief flashes at a time.

Logan let his mind wander to the constellations that decorated his dress, naming them as he went.

Monday 2nd, midnight

To say that the previous day’s expedition was a bust would’ve been putting it lightly. Roman had tried to jump between two ranches, misjudged the distance and fell, (luckily) landing basically on his own doorstep and reversing all the progress for that day.

Nevertheless, he was not discouraged, because there was the chance he fell between the branches to his death, and what is any fairy tale without a struggle?

He carried on.

Wednesday 4th, midnight

Roman sighed.

It had been 4 days of trying to get to the top of the tree and he had made total progress of nothing. Well, he had made it almost 3 layers of branches up, but obviously, he was back to where he started so something had to have gone wrong.

He managed to fall on the first day, and after that, he caught his string on a branch and the next day a human moved him downwards.

While Virgil was busy worrying that Roman might hurt himself, or that he would get trapped on a branch, or fall and die, or give up and not climb anymore, or starve himself and pass out, Patton spent his time trying to communicate with the Angel at the top of the tree.

He had heard a rumour that the Angel, Logan, as he had found out, was extremely intelligent, and Patton hoped that Logan knew morse code, because that was the only way he could really communicate with the top of the tree.

He had worked out what he wanted to say - “Roman is coming” or

“.-. --- -- .- -. / .. ... / -.-. --- -- .. -. --.” - and he had been flashing it unconsciously from his hat, but something about the thick swathes of branches gave him the feeling that Logan may not be able to see it.

Patton sat thinking for a few minutes.

What’s a way to get the lights in a viewable distance?

Oh no.

Virgil is going to kill me.

Virgil found Patton shuffling along a branch, arms held out for balance, little hat flashing in irregular bursts, past halfway out along the longest branch.

“PATTON!! What the fuck are you doing?!”

Patton winced, glancing over to see that Virgil’s eyes had blown wide with panic, limbs locked up and behind him, Roman, hair messed up and hat discarded, look on in worry.

“Uh, love, don’t worry-”

“I’m sorry- the fuck- don’t tell me to not worry!! You’re halfway along a branch above instant death!”

“I’ll be fine, V, I promise. I just need to get a message—” Patton waved vaguely to his hat —“to the top of the tree, and then I’ll come back, I swear. Okay?”

Patton watched as he couldn’t comfort his boyfriend as his breathing picked up, as he started thrashing in Roman’s grip, as he couldn’t name the things around hands. But as much as he wanted to get back to him, get back to Virgil to comfort him, he needed to do this for Roman. He deserved love as much as the rest of them.

He took careful steps onwards, trying to create minimal movement, as the branch was moving a lot easier now.

Surely, this must be far enough by now?

Patton stopped and put all his energy into boosting the lights in his hat.

Dit. Dah. Dit. Dah. Dah. Dah.

The little light blared into the expanse of the room, and Patton waited for a few minutes just to be sure. He looked skywards and turned around to make his way back, satisfied with his job.

“Roqdestrmmdkn? What the everloving fuck is that meant to be?”

Logan had been zoned out. It was only the 4th day and he was bored and passed the time with blanking out and letting his focus slide. There were not many productive things to do. He only noticed the little blinking light at the bottom of the tree after Deceit rattled up towards him and motioned with his sparkling tail.

Logan had watched the lights repeat it’s pattern 4 times, a lengthy gap between the repeats. Yet the message he tried to translate back was just a mix of letters, none of which make sense together.

“Are you sure you translated it right? I have no doubt, of course, just asking the obvious questions,” Deceit looked up at the angel, his long, yellow tinsel body curled around the tree and the hem of the deep blue dress.

“Yes, of course, I’m sure! I’ve done nothing but teach myself different forms of communication from this solitary post,” Logan answered hotly.

“Well, it might be just you. Or it might be the other person. We only know after we talk to them, whoever they are. But that definitely wasn’t an elf,” Deceit replied coolly, unfazed by Logan’s outburst.

“How do you know?” Logan saw past the lies.

“Oh, definitely wasn’t the fact that they had a flashing hat and shoes.”

Logan accepted that. He wasn’t noticed, mainly because he was busy figuring out the morse.

“My point is… maybe they got it right. Maybe they were a little… rusty. How about you try shuffling it around a little bit. It might give you something to do instead of staring and mope.”

Logan shrugged, going back to observing the room.

“PATTON!!” Virgil felt the yell rip from his lungs as he saw his lover trip over a cluster of needles, flailing as he fell forwards, grabbing onto the shaking branch.

“Roman please, let me go. Roman. Please. Let go.”

The arms around his chest did not move.

“RomAN. LET. ME. GO.” Virgil’s voice deepened, echoing in their small space.

Patton looked up from where he lay, gripping the swinging branch tightly, face showing a myriad of emotions; fear, apprehension, worry.

“No, no, Virgil. Please don’t come to me. I’ll make it back. I’ll shuffle back once the branch stops swinging. Just don’t touch the branch, or it’ll swing more. Promise me you won’t, Virgil? Okay? Can you do that for me?”

Virgil let out a small shaky breath from beneath the arms holding him in place, wiping at the tear tracks that had marked their place down his face. Patton looked pleadingly at Virgil and the resolution seemed to drop out of the other elf. Virgil gave one shakey nod, and Patton relaxed.

He started working his way closer to the trunk of the tree, and while the branch was still drifting slightly from side to side and shuddered when Patton moved more quickly, but Patton was back to the sturdier parts in no time, and Virgil fell into his arms, burying his head in Patton’s shoulder.

Roman left them to their comforting embraces.

Tuesday 10th, about 3 AM

Roman was about halfway up the tree now and he had since met Deceit, the resident tinsel? Snake? Deceit seemed to be a mix of both, to be honest.

A flurry of squawking shattered the comfortable silence Roman travelled in.

“COME HERE YOU BASTARD BIRDS!!”

Roman grabbed a hold of a branch near him as the tree shook and another nutcracker tumbled down from above him.

He was made with the same design as him, just his sash was a deep green, and his white suit was instead black. His face was a manic mixture of wide, crazed eyes, a deranged smile scrawled across his face and feathers and fir needles entangled in his hair.

The similar, yet so different, nutcracker stuck a hand out with an air of uncaring confidence.

“The name’s Remus! To whom do I owe the pleasure?” Even the way he spoke alluded to his madness.

It didn’t stop Roman from reaching out hesitantly to grasp his hand.

“Uh… Roman..?” Roman responded, having gotten over his shock at how forward the other character was.

“Are you quite sure? You seem unsure. I don’t want you to be unsure.” The words tumbled from Remus’ mouth like sand from a broken hourglass.

Roman blinked in shock again, before clearing his throat and readjusting himself.

“Yes, yes, I'm quite sure. Roman Princeton.” With a sweeping gesture, Roman took off his hat, eyes glancing at the printed gold lettering inside the hat.

“Princeton, you say?” an eyebrow raised. “My, that does, it seems, make us brothers!” With a mirroring flourish, Remus took off his hat and spun it around to show identical gold lettering. His smile stretched wider, and she bounced nearer, catching Roman’s arm by hooking his elbow around it. “Well, dearest brother, will you join me on my quest?”

“Your quest?” Roman queried.

“Yes, a goal I have to complete! Come! Follow me.”

Without giving Roman chance to excuse himself, Remus set off at a brisk pace, hopping between branches with the care of a drunkard in a tree (which is to say, little to no care at all), dragging Roman along all the while. Roman wanted to detach from his apparent brother’s arm, for fear of falling off the flailing fir branches. But soon, the erratic steps and bounces calmed somewhat and let Roman catch his breath and stand more firmly on the branches. Oh, and for Remus to let go.

They travelled in silence for a while, til Remus broke it.

“What brings you up this side of the tree then? I’ve not seen you around here before.”

“I’m on a quest of my own, to the very top of the tree to try and win the heart of the angel.”

“Logan? Really? He’s got a bit of a stick up his arse. He’s no fun!”

“I’m not so sure that our types of fun are the same,” Roman muttered under his breath, as Remus took a flying leap over a branch unnecessarily.

“What’s your quest then, Remus?”

“Oh me? My quest is to defeat all the birds!! They like perching in MY area!!”

Roman frowned but didn’t respond.

“Did you know that all the birds in this tree don’t have penises! They get cloacas. All of them! Even females! They rub them together when they start to feel friskeeey,”

Roman regretted ever coming into contact with his long lost brother.

“Yes, but have the birds ever actually done anything wrong?” Roman interrupted the still babbling Remus.

“Nah, I just felt like it one day and since then we’ve been in this war!” Remus bounced along, apathetic tone filling the space.

“Then why don’t you leave the birds alone? Aren’t you just terrorising them?”

The questions cause the chaotic nutcracker to freeze ahead of roman, spinning around on his heel almost robotically, eyes wide and fury upon his face.

“So you’re on their side, huh? You want to stop me from having fun?”

Remus drew the sword from his scabbard, an identical one to roman’s own, advancing, like a dangerous cloud, the dark green backdrop of the tree framing the nutcracker.

Roman didn’t bother drawing his own sword; he didn’t want to fight, especially this high in the tree with a high chance of falling. So, as any smart person would, he ran, looking for a way to get up to the next layer of branches. Unfortunately for him, he found himself back to where he was, while still an angry rattish man following him with a very sharp sword. Roman looked around as he started running the circle again; there were slightly more low hanging branches, there were baubles which he could possibly jump from one to another, but it was dangerous- extremely so; as his options were running thin, he noticed in the corner of his eye a brilliant flash, which drew his eye to the glittery tinsel that was Deceit.

“Oh, he’s going to hate me so much,” thought Roman, as he took a run up and leapt, grasping hold of the yellow strands that made up Deceit’s body.

Roman hauled himself up to the next level, expanding the distance between him and Remus -- after all, it’s difficult to climb a string of tinsel with a sword in your hand -- and Roman decided to play a waiting game, and hid in a bauble with a hole cut through it, where a LED candle had been placed.

Well, it worked, and Remus soon gave up trying to find his brother, stomping off with a cry of “FUCK YOU BIRDS!”.

Saturday 14th, midnight

Logan had long worked out what the elf had been trying to say ("Roman is coming," a simple mistake of pausing too long in some places and not long enough in others). Since that day, he had been trying to get down from his solitary post.

Damn this blasted metal pole down the back of my dress.

Logan was getting irritated. There was no way to push himself upwards to get off the pole. So, he sulked. There wasn’t anyone to listen anyway. He’d been trying for seven nights now with no luck.

He ended up just listening to the music streaming quietly from the TV after one of the humans had fallen asleep on the sofa. Thankfully, it wasn’t Christmas music for once, just a gentle melody and quiet words.

...you. At first, I thought you were a constellation. I made a map of your stars, then I had a revelation: You're as beautiful as endless, You're the universe…

Logan decided he liked this song. It filled him with a warm feeling, and slowly, he began humming along to the song, committing the words to memory, and he could almost imagine the smile on Roman’s lips. It was sweet.

At that moment, he felt such a huge burst of longing he had to let out a shuddering breath he hasn’t realised he was holding. He had never felt so lonely, never wanted a hug more in his life, never felt like his heart was going to be ripped out of his chest like this before. He felt his arms tuck into his sides, his body curling as much as he could, curling in towards himself, trying to cradle the warm feeling that was flickering away from him ever so quickly. Logan let out another shuddering breath and he couldn’t stop the tears tracking their way down his porcelain cheeks.

The song had long moved on when he broke out of his state, arms crossed around his torso, squeezing in to try and bring comfort.

“Logan? Are you well?” The tinsel had moved up towards him, speaking softly, wanting to help but not knowing how.

Logan shook his head, not trusting his voice to work.

“Look, I’m going to move closer to you, okay? I’m going to try and give you a hug, okay? Well, to the best of my ability.”

The soft shuffle of tinsel over tree brought a small amount of comfort to Logan, but he felt himself flinching away from the brush against his skin. Deceit had moved back instantly, afraid to make him more uncomfortable.

Why? Why was he like this?

Logan breathed out, opening his arms to the snake, and Deceit moved back slowly, resting his head on Logan’s shoulder, and logan let out another shuddering breath, wiping his tears away before tucking his head into deceit’s tassels.

“I just want to get off this goddamn pole, Dece.”

Deceit nodded, slowly.

“I don’t know, I can’t help you.”

And Logan felt a small smile slip onto his face.

As it turns out, Logan is absolutely terrified of heights.

Deceit had curled around the bottom of the spoke and Logan had used it to boost himself off the pole.

Only, now that there was no security and he was free to walk about, every step causing something to wobble, vertigo settled in and Logan found himself sat, clinging onto the pole that he had been restrained to or dear life, eyes pressed closed until he was sure he wasn’t looking down.

“I’m going to stay right here and not tell Roman that you will not be meeting you partway down.”

Logan nodded quickly, trying to get used to having his eyes open, but he still had to press them closed sometimes.

“Okay, but please be quick, I don’t like being up here alone.”

You should resume your standing position, something inside him reminds him. It’s nearly 6 o’clock.

Damn the goddamn time, too, he thinks.

Thursday 19th, about 5 AM

There wasn’t far to go now. Just a bit more.

Deceit had helped him get unstuck from the branches twice. It was far easier to get the loop caught up here. All the branches were much closer together and felt more like wading through a jungle than climbing a tree.

Roman looked from his current spot to see how much further he had to go.

Not far, thank all the heavens.

He couldn’t wait to see the angel once more, to see him and learn about him, and to comfort him and keep him company.

He let his mind wander to the quiet Christmas music being played as he clambered through sweeping branches. He let himself hum along to the music, singing when there were words to be sung.

“When you first took my hand, On a cold Christmas Eve, You promised me, Broadway was waiting for me.”

He let the lyrics flow out of him, the melody washing him with a warm sense of nostalgia.

“You were handsome-” Roman was interrupted.

“You were pretty, Queen of New York City.” chimed another voice, perfectly in tune with the song. It was distant but audible, and definitely from above him and Roman felt his heart flicker with hope.

“When the band finished playing

They howled out for more

Sinatra was swinging,

All the drunks they were singing

We kissed on a corner

Then danced through the night.” They finished the verse together, and Roman felt himself sink down to listen to the sweet sound of this other person.

They made through most of the song, but they felt words dying on their lips, as the time ticked over to 6 o’clock.

Perhaps they may finish a song together tomorrow.

Friday 20th, Midnight

Logan was filled with the residual warm feeling that had settled in his heart yesterday.

That couldn’t have been anyone but Roman singing yesterday; he knows the voices of every other creature that is near the top of the tree. That was not a familiar one, but it was a blessing to hear; Roman sung like an angel, however backwards that statement was. He wasn’t lying.

“What’s got you all dopey then?” If Deceit had eyebrows Logan was sure that one of them would be raised.

“Didn’t you hear him? His voice was so sweet and smooth and I don’t know how to feel ab-”

“My, my. I never imagined the day I’d see Logan Sanders swoon.”

“Oh, quiet, snake.”

“Well, guess I won’t help you get down towards him, then.”

“Wait! No, Dece come back, please!”

Deceit turned his head back towards the angel and tilted his head downwards.

“Grab on then.”

Logan felt a wide smile slit his face, and he grabbed a hold of Deceit’s neck? Body? Did Deceit even really have a neck? Either way- unimportant.

Deceit gently lowered Logan through three layers of branches, before stopping, and asking Logan to wait there, before disappearing into the expanse of branches.

When he came back up, clinging to his neck was a smartly dressed nutcracker, white tunic laced with gold embroidery and red sash drawing attention to his more muscular physique.

(Logan didn’t hear Deceit mutter, ‘go get him, tiger’ to Roman before he slipped away)

God, Logan was swooning and damn, was Roman really, really hot.

“Oh my god, you’re actually here.” The words tumble out of his lips before he could stop them.

“I can’t believe I’m here, either, to be honest.” Roman chuckled, hand moving up to rub at his neck shyly, and Logan was gone, eyes full of wonder and nothing was stopping him from walking towards Roman.

“The night sky once ruled my imagination,” Logan felt himself sing as he looked into Roman’s eyes. “Now I turn the dials with careful calculation.”

“After a while, I thought I'd never find you. I convinced myself that I would never find you when suddenly I saw you.” Roman started singing, and Logan felt his hand reaching out to grasp his hand.

“At first I thought you were a constellation. I made a map of your stars, then I had a revelation: You're as beautiful as endless, You're the universe I'm helpless in.” They sang together, quiet melody being weaved between their words.

They sang together, and Logan felt on top of the world, more so than he had when on top of the tree, and Roman felt on top of the world, higher than he’d ever been before. As the song came to an end, they rested their foreheads together, quietly appreciating each other’s presence.

“Can I hug you?” Roman asked tentatively. Logan paused for a second, then nodded.

The warmth that settled in his bones, the ease of the itches under his skin were so unknown and so distant in memory it felt like a lost memory returning. Logan had never quite felt as completed or safe as he had then, and he latched even tighter to the smaller nutcracker.

Roman tucked his head into the angel’s shoulder, feeling the taller man relax and settle more, tension easing out of his muscles, slowly but surely, and the gentle shuffling of his wings drew Roman’s hand up to stroke them softly, and Roman felt Logan shiver in his hold.

Logan whispered something almost inaudibly, and Roman let out a quiet chuckle.

“You’ll have to speak a little louder for me to hear, lov-”

“May I kiss you?” Logan kept his eyes trained to the floor, and Roman choked on his words. “I am no fan of feelings but you’ve quite encaptured me, but do not feel obligated to do anything bec-”

Logan was cut off with a sweet kiss, lingering slightly and stealing his breath.

“Please shut up and kiss me again, Logan.”

Logan didn’t hesitate to fulfil Roman’s request.

#logince #powerless secret santa #powerless #logince fic #oneshot #logan sanders #roman sanders #skyla #skylagamingv2 #romantic logince #moxiety

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keywestlou · 4 years

Text

LEFT HOME FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS MORNING

My self-quarantine took a reluctant brief break this morning. Day 110. Only for an hour. A doctor visit.

Doctor appointments frequent at my age. It has been more than 3 months since my last. Doctor’s office called to reschedule me. I said no, not yet. The nurse said, yes.

Two appointments made. One for blood work. The other to get the blood results and have a physical. The blood work this morning. Physical next week.

I hated leaving the house. I was not comfortable. I have self-quarantined because I am an excellent choice for the coronavirus to visit. Over 80 and other ailments.

Appointment at 8.

I still knew how to drive a car. I enjoyed the drive downtown. I had not been in Key West proper in 3 months. Saw how Cow Key Bridge was coming. Little traffic into downtown.

I arrived at 7:50. I was the only patient. Me and the nurse who was going to draw my blood. I was done and out at 8. Since I was out, thought I should take a look at Duval.

Duval shocking! Roughly 35 percent of the stores empty. Nothing inside. One a business that had been on Duval for more than 20 years. Gone!

One whole block of Duval on one side empty.

Went to Whitehead. A small block across from the Custom House empty. Perhaps 3 stores formerly.

Very few people on the streets. Not the time for people. Too early.

Drove to the Southernmost Point. About 20 in line. Tourists, I assume. No social distancing and no masks.

Drove through the Casa Marina area to Flagler to head home. Something else was obvious. Many high end homes for sale. Saw that also when driving down the Boulevard. Several for sale signs at the entrance to an area of fine homes.

An indication prices will drop. Both for sales and rentals. More radically than 2008. This is only the beginning.

I was home by 8:45. I enjoyed walking from where I park the car to my house. The air smelled good. It was the firs time I had smelled fresh air in over 3 months.

I was a good boy. Wore my mask and gloves.

Will have to make a similar trip next week. I must be frank. I am not comfortable leaving my home.

Coronavirus cases are moving upward in Monroe County and Key West itself. I attribute it to reopening too soon and taking down the barricades at the entrance to U.S. 1.

The cause is being dealt with in a limited fashion.

The police and Codes are out making sure the rules are followed. First time a serious effort. From what the Citizen reports, they seem to be doing an effective job.

Bars a continuing problem. Drinking outside the bar, also. Permitting too many people in a business an additional problem.

Written warnings being given. Second time a citation to go to court.

A pool room on Flagler had more than 50 percent occupancy. Police and Codes warned staff and patrons. Police and Codes returned 1/2 hour later. Still overcrowding. Two $500 citations were issued.

Key West announced all beaches will be closed for the July 4th weekend. Good!

Hope it keeps mainland people from coming down. Mostly young. Follow none of the rules.

The County controls whether barricades will be erected again to keep non-Keys residents out. It helped to keep the virus numbers down.

The businessmen of Key West got pissed off. The barricades were removed 2 weeks ago. The numbers going up since.

County Administrator says no decision made yet re the barricades. However, he thought they would not go back up.

The numbers are important when determining what precautions are to be taken. New cases total 236. The numbers are spiraling upward. Yesterday 17 new cases. A one day record.

I wrote in yesterdays blog re Abraham Lincoln. Whether he was a racist? Whether his statues, etc. should be taken down?

I thought many of my readers would be up in arms. Haven’t heard so far. However, I did come across an interesting article in The Blaze on the internet this morning.

The Black Student Union at the University of Wisconsin-Madison wants the towering statue of Lincoln on campus to be removed. The group acknowledges Lincoln was anti-slavery, but claim he wasn’t pro-black: “He was…..very publicly anti-Black. Just because he was anti-slavery does not mean he was pro-Black.”

The student group views Lincoln as a symbol of racism.

Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob and Clarabell may be the next to be attacked for racism.

Howdy Doody was a famous radio show. Then a major TV show. A kid’s show. Even older kid’s watched it. The show’s theme runs through my head even to this day.

When I was in college, most of us rushed to the game room at 5 to watch the Howdy Doody Show. We used to sing the theme song along with the show’s members.

Buffalo Bob: Says “What time is it? / Kids: “It’s Howdy Doody time!”

“It’s Howdy Doody time. / It’s Howdy Doody time. / Bob Smith and Howdy too / Say howdy to you. / Let’s give a rousing cheer, / Cause Howdy Doody’s here, / It’s time to start the show. / So kids let’s go!”

The show had a “peanut gallery.” Young children appeared on the show daily and sat in the peanut gallery.

The peanut gallery could rise to the level of racism.

The situation is sort of like white men going black faced in minstrel shows.

The term peanut gallery is black derived. Concerned vaudeville shows. Blacks could not afford good seats. They sat in the cheapest. They ate peanuts while watching the show. If they disliked an entertainer, they heckled and threw peanuts at the person.

Peanut gallery was born. Howdy Doody had both the peanut gallery and the peanuts.

In addition, the term “hecklers” is black derived. The blacks watching the vaudeville show and throwing the peanuts came to be known as hecklers.

A significant issue has arisen. The claim that Russia paid Afghanistans a bounty to kill American soldiers. Standing alone, important. More important perhaps is whether Trump knew and what he did about it.

I believe the usual Trump/Putin scenario took place. Trump asked Putin if he did it and Putin very strongly denied. At some point Trump will tell the American people that he asked Putin and Putin denied. The issue was closed as far as he was concerned.

What does Putin have that gives him such control over Trump? Must be sex or money.

Trump made visits to Russia many times before his election. The issue keeps popping up that Putin has photos of Trump engaging in sex games with a prostitute.

Trump did business big time with Russian banks. Whether he or his family still do, I do not know. There is a suspicion the Trumps owe money big time to Russian banks. Most Russian banks are government owned.

Who knows what the reason. Time will tell.

I heard an interesting comment on a TV talk show last night. Something to the effect that the person who owes money to a bookie, is always nice to the bookie.

Biden is making a speech this afternoon in Wilmington, Delaware. It is reported he will say as part of the speech that Trump calls himself a war time President, but is surrendering to the virus.

How true!

No matter how you cut it, the Chinese are one smart people! They cheat and get away with it. Enterprising!

Wuhan is part of the story.

It has been revealed that China is the home of massive gold bar counterfeiting. Wuhan one of the cities where they are turned out.

Gold is valuable collateral. Counterfeit gold not. It has been described as “ghost collateral.”

In recent years, China has made 83 tons of phony gold bars which have been used as bank collateral. The banks are stuck!

The counterfeiting is done in one of two ways. Either gold plated copper or gold plated black tungsten plate.

Amazing!

Tonight my blog talk radio show. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Nine my time.

So much to talk about. I never get to cover it all.

Join me for a quick moving and interesting half hour. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Enjoy your day!

LEFT HOME FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS MORNING was originally published on Key West Lou

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