CHAPTER FIVE

  For a good fifteen minutes Leland made his way down Main Street exploring the shops and business available. He stopped to lean against a large window in front of a shop where high above his head hung the sign, “ Ye Old Timers”. He was curious about the shop as it was framed as the original antiques store in town. This was a grand place to begin his plan as he knew that shops that had been rooted into any town with age always had the most information to share.

  Pushing the heavy wooden door open as the bell chimed as he entered, he immediately could sense the wealth of information that he would use to turn this town on its head.

  It only took a second for Mr. Kratz to make his way to the front of the store. He wore a sport coat over a crisp white pressed shirt and a bow tie with a hanky in the upper pocket, dark dress pants and dress loafers. He pushed his wire rimmed glasses back onto his nose and slightly squinted as he approached Leland. With a swallow, light tone voice , greeted his visitor,” Good morning, sir. Can I help you with anything? Are you looking for something in particular?” he was asking with his hands folded in front of him.

  Noticing the insecurity of the proprietor of the shop Leland took a small step forward knowing how uncomfortable the shop owner would become. For a long minute Leland leaned on his walking cane with the handle having a carving of some sort of grotesque creature on it with large red eyes. Obviously, the cane was designed to unsettle anyone eyeing it and it worked every time.

  “ I was just curious about the shop.” Leland stated never looking Mr. Kratz in the eye. He turned slightly to scan the merchandise for a beginning conversation piece. “ I so admire history. It tells us so much about how far humans haven’t progressed. Don’t you agree?” Leland asked with a smirk on his face.

  Mr. Kratz titled his head just a bit as he looked harshly at his customer, “ I think it shows just how progressive humans truly are. So much history and we are so far from many of these pieces came from. You know time does not stand still, for anyone.” He remarked thinking himself so above this odd man in his shop.

  Turning to look directly into Mr. Kratz eyes Leland made no expression, but rather with a flat expression and sound tone he replied,” Time was never designed to stand still. It is the only thing in the universe that is truly unchangeable. Unlike humans who have believed from the very beginning of time that they could control every aspect of what is to come. As you can see by your own collection of timeless pieces even furniture, things, trinkets change in time, but time itself has remained the same.” He spun around and walked away from the irritating little man.

  For once in the longest of time Mr. Kratz said nothing. He realized that staying silent would be the best path for now. He quickly turned back to inquiring whether or not Leland was actually looking for a special piece to purchase, “ So, is there anything that I can show you? Anything of interest you would like to inquire about?” he asked again.

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  Saying nothing for several minutes Leland turned to face Mr. Kratz,” Show me the oldest piece you have here and please include all information regarding its history. I’d love to know more about the town’s history and its settlers. You must know particularly everything about everyone. Right?” Leland said leaning in towards Mr. Kratz knowing that this little squirt of a man loved to gossip. And gossip he did.

  More than an hour after entering the shop and speaking to Mr. Kratz Leland finally left the shop with plenty of information just about every single person, family and business owner in Hershel. One thing Leland knew from years of experiencing human nature the citizens of any town who are left out, labeled as odd, or usual always know the most about everyone. If you want to know about a town’s secrets find the one person who doesn’t fit into any category and go befriend them. Even if your friendship is false, they will be so glad to fill in all the spaces never realizing that you used them for your own destructive purposes.

  The next three hours Leland would casually walk around town, being mostly polite, talking to each shop owner and collecting information about their business, family history and views of other towns people. He learned in a very short time who was angry with who, which town’s people had the most jealousy of others. He even was able to see which persons had unmentionable desires for another’s love. Who was honest and who was not. It only took a little encouraging, a right thought, or a questionable statement to get people started telling on one another.

  After getting a good idea of all the information he needed Leland made his way back to the hotel. He needed to get out of the sun and rest. He had a long list of ideas as to how he would begin his mission, but he needed to move at an easy pace. In order for this plan to work it had to be installed with caution so that no one put together the pieces of how and why the fall had begun.

  His objective was to pull the ground out from under this so called,” peacefully living” environment and to bring everything within the city limits to its knees.

  He would show them what power really was all about and how easy they all could turned and be broken. They would have no choice but to come to the clear understanding that for every good they believed about themselves it only took the hint of an evil whisper to over throw that thin line between good and bad.

  His cane moved with ease with each step. His long black coat moved casually with every stride. Leland moved as though there was no air surrounding him. There was a dead silence as the town's people could feel the unknown eeriness of disruption among them.

  It was obvious that the mere presence of Leland un-nerved every person who came in contact with him. Just being in the room screamed weirdness, or something did not feel right. He made everyone uneasy and he knew it. This was part of how he carried out his master's wishes.

  If he could tilt the very fabric that held the town together, create distrust, unbalancing of the security and faith these people believed in then he could win his mission ending with less effort than lighting a cigar. Over the hundreds of years that Leland had spent among humans he had learned just how easy it was to conquer their very spirit and heart of their souls.

  Taking a seat in the very back of the café at the last booth Leland slide in and made himself comfortable. He could watch every person that entered so as to gather more information about all of the town's people. He knew that in order to accomplish his mission he had to dig deep into the private lines, way beneath the surface of as many of the most important folks in town.

  Every town had a cluster of persons that were either the center of all business or of the people’s business. There were always those who had dirt on everyone important as small towns were always the easiest target as the ingrained know it all always like to talk. No secret was ever kept quiet or hidden and Leland knew this better than anyone else on earth.