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Thread: Ebert and the Mysterious Encounters and Finds

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    Default Ebert and the Mysterious Encounters and Finds

    There was a man, who had eight friends. One was a friend still from his childhood, four he had met where he worked, two were his neighbors. And there was one friend who showed up when this man, Ebert, found himself on a curious adventure.

    Ebert was sent to a neighboring community to open a new branch, with those four co-workers who were his friends, for the business they worked for. This community was a little distant, tucked in a valley that did not have it on any route going further, and neither Ebert nor his friends had ever been there. But the supervisor who sent them had lived there for a short while, many years ago. He talked about that community fondly.

    The branch opening up in Winding Downs was for those workers to assemble and distribute the Perpetual Assistance desktop storing and cleaning units. Ebert and those with him, Lenny, Roger, Terry, and Dan, had long hours there, but during the work week they were housed in a company building with each having their own suite. But the manager there started watching Ebert very carefully.

    Ebert knew his job, and he did it well enough, in the process of assembling, and when he was managing the distribution, especially so when he realized he was being watched closely. At length, when nothing was changing, Ebert saw no resolution which he really desired would come without him going to the manager to confront him about his careful monitoring.

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    The manager, Jordan, surprised Ebert when he said, "I saw posters of a wanted felon, and your face looks like what was shown on them. I looked at your employment history, I don't see any problems in it suggesting that you are that felon with an alternate identity, and you show you are a good worker. But I want to be very careful, that I am not fooled by those things. If you were this felon, I want to be able to catch that, so that you would be turned in."

    Ebert did not have anything to say, other than he really was Ebert, after all. But he went away after that thinking that the manager's explanation meant he had not excluded the idea that Ebert was really that wanted man.

    At the end of that work day, Ebert went to Lenny, Roger, Terry, and Dan and told them there was a felon loose that looked like Ebert, but was someone else, but their manager Jordan was suspicious of him because of this.

    "Well," said Lenny, "if that felon gets caught, you would be in the clear. It may be more likely if you and some of us helping you would look so as to find him, to have him caught. If he is in this area, we just need to find the one looking like you in the area."

    Ebert answered, "I will have to go ask Jordan where the posters were seen. Then when we have the name of that felon, maybe one of you can go to the police station, without me so I am not mistaken for him, asking where he was seen last. You don't have to ask more, but we could then know if he is likely here in Winding Downs."

    Jordan, the manager, had not left. Ebert caught up with him and asked him, "Where were the posters you saw of the wanted felon you thought might be me?"

    "The one I remember seeing last just before seeing you was at city hall. Even though you are not him as you say, the face is just like yours."

    "Well, it isn't me, and I never have been in trouble with the law. But thanks, I should know about the posters."

    Ebert turned to go, still feeling sure Jordan was watching after him as he left. When he came again to the corner, where Lenny, Roger, Terry, and Dan were waiting. "There are posters of the felon at city hall. We should go there."

    They went to the city hall of Winding Downs. The city was really small, the building of city hall here was small likewise, not much more than a modest house. As they wandered in, the four looked to the walls to see any posters. There notices of all kinds. Then Ebert spotted a face on one, and coming near he saw it was like his.

    Ebert walked all the way up to the poster. There were just very small differences in features from what he would expect looking at his reflection. The face in the poster wore his hair rather differently with it combed down over his forehead, Ebert didn't have a shirt like that one in the poster, either. Ebert motioned to his friends to come there and look. The felon was identified as Raul Weckland. A reward was shown of 2500 bucks.

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    "Do you remember this name now?" Ebert asked. "I am writing it down," Roger answered him.

    "Then you can go to the police station, and ask in what locations he has been seen. I will wait at my suite in the company building instead of going with you and being mistaken for that felon, and be taken into custody."

    Ebert walked back by himself. He looked around himself going along the residential avenues, self-consciously, thinking now any might mistake him for that wanted felon, It was a very quiet community though, and he didn't walk up near to anyone, and after twenty minutes he came to the company building, and went in peace to his suite.

    He made a simple burrito for himself, and took one of his containers of natural cola, as he waited with concern until his friends would come back.

    Ebert worried about what he would hear, but it was not for very long. Before the day was almost gone, he heard the knock and went to open up, and he let Lenny, Roger, Terry, and Dan in. "That felon, Raul Weckland, had been seen in this community, last year, but then in five other communities and villages most of which were in this regional area," Roger told Ebert.

    "Which place was the last known place he was seen?" Ebert asked.

    "It was in Washing Walls, but that was at the beginning of this year, he was not seen since," Terry said.

    "I still think we might maker a trip up to Washing Walls then on our weekend, and we could just look around there then," Ebert offered. "We could still be watchful here in Winding Downs. It would not be so hard for you to spot him if you were to go where he would be. You would first wonder to yourself if that was me, but he wouldn't be wearing the same things I wear!"

    "We probably cannot just overcome him when we see him," Dan observed.

    "No, that should not be our plan," Ebert answered. "We should just note exactly where he is seen, and notify authorities immediately, that he can be apprehended. He should not notice that any of us have observed and identified him, until they come and apprehend him."

    Lenny said, "We can all do that, and be watchful around here, patrolling around Winding Downs a little bit after work each day this week, until this weekend if nothing changes." Roger, Terry, and Dan agreed to that.

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    The four still hung around together for a part of the evening, each having brought small treats to share. They talked of their hometown, that they liked to return to on the weekend. But with this plan to find the felon who was such a lookalike for Ebert, they would skip that coming weekend going back. But they could still communicate with friends and family they had back there, and let them know they needed to skip coming back on this weekend. But Ebert himself just had three friends only back there, and there was no immediate need for them to see him. He let them know, but he was as much with friends here.

    This community though was much smaller than their hometown. Winding Downs had just less than fifty homes or residence buildings, with a population determined a few years ago to be of just over four hundred. There was the city hall and a small court house, a police station, three gasoline stations, five grocery stores, one tool shop, one furniture and reupholstery location, the water agency, and one small park with a very small pool.

    The following days Ebert's four friends there in Winding Downs were especially alert after they left work. They would separate from one another, going around in an inconspicuous patrol each in the four directions from the center of that community. Ebert himself did not want to be spotted by Raul Weckland, the wanted felon, which could tip him off that some people would be friends with a lookalike who would know about him and watch for him. So he went from work right back to his suite. He even stopped going to the nearby grocery store, to not give any chance to being seen. It was good that his friends also were willing to stop at the store to bring items Ebert needed. But the weekend came without any seeing the lookalike Raul around there, though the four were looking carefully.

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    That first day off, Ebert and the four went together up to Washing Walls. It was a larger community than Winding Downs, with the population of people determined a few years ago to be fifteen hundred forty, out of that valley and around the low mountain to one side of that valley, up against its steep side.They went first to a small hotel, where they would rent two rooms there. "Who knows, we might even find Raul staying right here," Roger said, "he has to stay somewhere in the community he is in, he wouldn't be likely to stay in a home he has here, I think."

    "He might be here, but we can't know for sure," Terry said, "we will just have to go out to look right after we eat. And Ebert would stay in here too, and he could watch from the windows to see if he spots Raul going by at all."

    Ebert agreed to that, and his four friends planned how they would divide to patrol inconspicuously again, here in Washing Walls. It would be a larger outing, they realized, as Washing Walls covered more area. They were soon done with the submarine sandwiches they had there, and Ebert's four friends with him went out, and divided in four directions. Ebert watched them leave from where he looked out of the window, and he hoped that Raul would be found before they would go on to still look in other cities and communities. He did not want the problematic suspicion of him remaining in the place where he worked.

    Ebert's four friends were soon out of sight from where he watched. It was left to him to watch this area central to where the friends dispersed from. He made himself comfortable at his seat there to watch for a long time. There was for quite a while just the routine passing of ordinary strangers, with just some interesting ways some wore things for somewhat different appearances. It occurred to Ebert that he could be sitting there a long time to watch, and he should have something more for snacking on while he watched. He hurried away from the window to grab a jar with nuts that he had brought, and a bottle of water, and came right back. He saw then that something was happening below. A vehicle below had stopped, with another parked or stalled in the cross direction in front of it. The one in the first vehicle, a large man, had come out from it and walked over to the other vehicle, speaking loudly at the one in there. Ebert looked at the man still sitting in that other vehicle. And he realized that man seemed to look like himself.

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    Ebert thought for a brief moment, and then realized if this was the man he sought, as it seemed to be, he would not get a better chance then this moment to have him apprehended. He would need to be sure it was him. He hurried to the door and out to the front of the hotel. Once he was sure, he knew he would have to notify authorities.

    Ebert came to main door at the front of the hotel. A tall man stood there, and that man gave a surprised look at Ebert. "What is your hurry?" he asked, as Ebert tried to hurry by.

    "I think I spotted a wanted felon that I and friends I came with were watching out for. If it is him, he is in is in a vehicle that seems to be stalled, right in front!"

    "Wow! If it is that felon, how do you think you would stop him?"

    "I will notify authorities, that officers can come and apprehend him. I better go on and see, now!"

    "But if you see it is him. do you think he will not notice you observing and realize he does not want to stay there, and do what he can to flee while you are notifying them?"

    "I don't know. But I have to see him."

    "I have an idea that would be better."

    "Then come out with me while I look. I don't want the one I think is him to move on already before I am out there." Ebert broke away from the engaging man, to go quickly out. The tall man followed after him.

    They came out to two empty vehicles. One had clearly pulled out from being parked in front of the hotel. Right in front of it, hardly more than a foot away, was the other vehicle that had come out from a driveway on the side, and stopped right there. But where were the men that had been in them?

    Ebert saw another man, who seemed quite young, standing at the door of a store just next to the hotel. Ebert went to him, and asked him if he saw where the men of those vehicles went to.

    "That one man from this vehicle on the left came out of it, and demanding the other one to move his vehicle, or face him, and he was really threatening. That man of the other vehicle went out the door on the other side, and started running, going that way. He went pretty fast. The other man ran after him, but he doesn't look like he is in shape to run far, and wasn't that fast."

    "Along that street there?" Ebert asked, pointing to the street he thought was indicated that turned from the main one with hotel there along it.

    "Yes there, just a couple of minutes ago, at most."

    "I will go see if I can spot them!" said the tall man that had come out of the hotel with Ebert. He then ran quickly to where the other street turned at an angle from that main street.

    That man turned just then, and called to Ebert, "I see them, about a block this way, one chasing the other. I will go and try catching up!" He then ran that way, where he was quickly lost to sight from where the building next to the hotel stood. Ebert hurried that way to see what happened.

    As he came to that street, Soapy Way, he saw the tall man rapidly running. But the man who had come out from his vehicle and then pursued the one seeming to be his look-alike was much further, and he turned into a parking lot of some store or business further on, where the one he pursued apparently went. Ebert jogged that way for awhile, but he could not go as quickly or as far while jogging at that rate. He stopped to just walk by the time he reached half the way to that parking lot, where the tall man had already turned running in that way.

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    Ebert came to the large parking lot. It was in front of a large store, but not a sort that he had seen before. There was a stone wall for its front, with a wooden door, and a dark window to the side. It was with a sign at the top of the stone wall front, which read, "Supernatural Promotions". But where was the tall man he had met briefly, and those men who were pursued, one of them pursuing the other? Ebert saw none of them, and there was no one in the parking lot, but just a couple of vehicles. Fencing surrounded this lot and went to the back of that store, Ebert could see there was no getting away anywhere around that store. So he headed to the store opening.

    Ebert saw a large man, who looked to Ebert like he would have been the manager of this store. He couldn't yet figure out what sort of store it was. It had a couple of wide aisles between rows with shelves. There were low tables, one in each aisle, with items on them. There were shelves stacked up higher on the walls on either side of the interior of this store. There were books standing in line in a few areas, like in a book store. But there were other items, not yet recognized by Ebert, and he wanted to ask about who he was looking for first, before seeing anything. "Excuse me, I believe you might have seen a tall man hurrying in here, looking for two others that would have come here."

    Just then, he saw the tall man, who came around a row from the other side just then. "Did you find where they went?" he inquired.

    "I found this man, who went after the other one," the tall man said, and right after him came the large burly man who Ebert had seen earlier yelling at the other man. That man saw Ebert then, and he stared at him for a while.

    "So what happened?"

    "This jerk pulled his vehicle right in front of mine, where it stopped, so that I couldn't go on. You look very much like him. But you are dressed completely different. He didn't respond to me when I went to his vehicle and asked what his problem was. I was trying to figure out how to deal with him, and looked back at my vehicle for just a moment, and he hurried out the other side of his vehicle and started running. I wasn't going to just let him get away with leaving his vehicle in front of mine, so I ran after him. I saw him turn in this way, where this store is located, and so when I got here I went in to look for him. I don't understand, I don't see where he went."

    Ebert turned, and looking he saw the large man who seemed to be the manager standing a little way not very far from them, watching. "Didn't you see that other man run in here? He may have looked a bit like me. Where could he have gone? Is there another way out of this store, besides this front entrance?"

    "No, there isn't," that man answered. "This man you want to find has been coming here and studying, and has advanced far in these ways. It was going to happen soon, which we knew. He has advanced, he has gone to the next level."

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    "What does that mean?" Ebert inquired. He then looked up. But the ceiling above which he saw must have been about the same height as he had seen the building reach, outside.

    "It means he is an adept, and has gone to another level from this reality. He isn't here now."

    "Come this way," the tall man that Ebert had spoken with earlier told him. "Look with me around this store."

    Ebert was too stunned to do anything else, so he walked with that tall man. The other large man who had run after that one who was now missing followed after them. As they walked along one aisle, along the middle, going toward the back, that tall man introduced himself. "I am Rodston. I am a travel agent, with my business here in Washing Wall. I know many people in this town. But I haven't seen you, and I am pretty sure I haven't seen this other guy that was chased, that you think was the felon that should be caught, who I hear would have looked like you."

    "I am Ebert, from out of town, with my friends. We work in Winding Downs. I had been told at my work that I looked like this felon on a wanted poster, my supervisor was watching me carefully, probably with being suspicious of me. I went with my friends to see the wanted poster, and my friends inquired where he had been seen. He didn't seem to be in Winding Downs anymore, where he had been seen before. So we came here, the next town, to watch for if he could be spotted here. My friends divided to look in different directions in this town, and then I am the one who seemed to find him. But now he isn't here."

    "Well, here is the back of the store. There are no exits in any direction here. See back along this aisle. And now this aisle." They walked along, looking. Every aisle was empty. And the man who would be the manager still was at the front, watching them. "Unless you would want to buy something, here, we might just go. That man certainly isn't here." Ebert looked carefully at the rows along the aisles, but there was no spot along them that would have given a place to hide in.

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    As they returned to the front of the store, Ebert was noticing items on the shelves. Besides a number of books, there were trinkets, including rings and other things that could be worn, there were also sticks of incense and candlesticks. And there were a large number of crystals.

    "He certainly isn't here. What kind of store is this, and what would it have to do with his going to the next level of reality?" Ebert asked the man who apparently managed this place.

    The man answered, "Supernatural Promotions is actually a schooling center. Participants coming here make an overall payment, with which they acquire things here along with thorough training. Ralph was one of the most promising and advanced of our trainees. We were pretty sure he would advance to the next level ahead of any of us, trainers and trainees, but it is still a surprise he had advanced this quickly."

    "And this means he is gone, body and all?"

    "Yes, it can happen as he reaches a much higher vibrational state. Others don't make that advance bodily, only coming to it when their body expires, and they pass on to it as an aura. But here we push for that advancing bodily. Are you interested?"

    "Thanks for that explanation. I will give some thought to it, and maybe come back to you about it," Ebert replied. He walked out at the entrance they had entered in, and Rodston went with him.

    The other man who had been chasing, before either of them, followed after. "I don't believe it!" he exclaimed.

    "I don't really believe it, either" Ebert said. "Do you?" he asked Rodston.

    "I didn't think he could just advance bodily out of this universe, right then, anyway. But how do you think you can explain it?"

    "He is the felon we were looking for, I am sure. I don't believe that man of the store is a manager, but is covering him, he is hiding there somewhere."

    "We can't just confront the man we saw in there such that he would cooperate to show the hiding place he is in. It is still just your suspicion. We can't go to the authorities for this not having more certainty," Rodston replied.

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    "I am surprised you are saying 'we'," Ebert said to Rodston, "and that you are so involved in what I am dealing with."

    "You seem to be a very likable guy, and if the felon you want caught looks so much like you, as this guy thinks," Rodston said, turning to the man he had chased after, "I can see how it is important that he is caught. It would help society and it would really help you with this issue. So I want to be helpful. I still will be, if you don't object."

    Ebert nodded, not knowing what to say just then. The other man, whose name they had not learned, said, "Well, I hope you catch him too. He should be caught and turned in. I really have to get back to my vehicle, if I ever see him again he will be turned in. Sorry if I can't be of more help than that." He turned and walked off in the direction from which they had come."

    "Do you have any plan for what to do next?" Rodston asked.

    "I had told that man that I would consider the training he offers. If he does do something for that as he says, here, I would have to be ready to make that overall payment up front. I am not sure I want to, it may be a cost too high for me. But I don't see it useful to wait here, the felon won't come out where we can see him if we still stand in front of this place in sight. I should go back to where I was staying, where my friends will return to shortly. I had said I would give time to consider the training anyway."

    "I might come here to do the training," Rodston told him.

    "You would?!" Ebert responded.

    "Sure. If there is any training that man can actually give, I will see right away, and as I don't look at all like the felon you were after, my coming to training won't be suggesting anything for him to be suspicious about. If that felon is still there, he would come out from wherever he hides in there sometime. I will just try to be there long enough to make it likely I would be there then. It clearly is important that he is caught."

    "But how can you give so much time to this?"

    Rodston answered, "I am off for the week ahead. The travel agency is not at all busy now, and I can have this free time, and can be here more than you and those who came with you from out of town can be, as you would go back again."

    "If you are helping in this way, you might want to be in contact still. I would want to know right away that this convict is caught, that I and my friends aren't going to still be looking."

    Rodston agreed, and the two of them exchanged numbers. They came out from the parking lot to the street, to go back toward the hotel where Ebert stayed for this weekend with his friends. They saw the large burly man that had come to this place, who they followed, he was all the way up the street, coming to the main street where the hotel where Ebert stayed was. As they went that way too, they saw him turn to go where he had left his vehicle.

    Ebert thought about that, and then said, "I wonder why the convict just willingly left the vehicle he was driving behind."

    Rodston said then, "He might have been stealing it. That might even be why it locked, and he couldn't drive it anymore."

    "So you think, he's a car thief too?"

    "It would explain a lot for that. We are going that way. We can check on that vehicle, maybe someone else would come for it," Rodston answered.

    "I want to be back at the hotel when my friends return. They won't search all day.

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