I just heard the Tan Man yell “Tunnel” from my daughter’s old room. He wants her to crawl under the covers of her bed and lift up the sheets to play under. That’s one of the things I missed in California. I’ve gotten spoiled by seeing him regularly. This morning he was talking to himself in his crib when I peaked in at him. He rolled his head over to look at the door and smiled when he saw me. He stood up with his hands outstretched and called “Moloch!”
That’s our yellow short hair cat with the short helicopter tail. “So what am I? Chopped liver,” I asked. When I turned around with the boy in my arms Claudia, who had followed a short distance behind me, turned around to scamper with exaggerated tippy toe racing steps back to our bed. “Grandma,” “Tunnel!” he shouted.
I tossed Tanner on the bed, Claudia lifted up the covers and we all crawled under them with Grandma and Papaw lifting up the covers into a “tunnel.” Moloch usually joins us to make it a foursome but this time he only skittered around outside despite the Tan Man’s efforts to entice him under the covers with us. I hadn’t fed the cats yet and I’m sure Moloch was more interested in luring me downstairs to prepare his breakfast.
Tunnels are one of the Tan Man’s favorite things. I think an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine helped inspire his enthusiasm for them. Its great fun to seclude yourself with your friends in the dark of a tunnel. I rather imagine Dr. Dixon’s school board doing the same thing for the past three years knowing, or thinking, that no one would interrupt their Red Plan reverie. What an annoyance it must have been for them when Gary Glass got elected with 60% of the vote. Gary’s no fun in a tunnel and they kept him prowling outside of it like our hungry Manx waited for us to come out.
Now I read that three and perhaps four of the incumbent school board members have decided to run for reelection to finish their Red Plan fun because, as Dr. Dixon says, it would be a challenge for a new board to figure out how to untie his Gordian Knot. He said much the same thing two years ago before he had pulled it quite so tight.
