Chapter 2 - The Stone Breaks
Hunter Tanner kept The Stone of One Thousand Souls on his study desk in his room at Delta House. It sat next to his big Mac computer and next to a few empty beer bottles. School was not Hunter’s forte, but he did want to graduate more than anything so he could help provide for his mother. So when Hunter needed to study, he put on his Walkman, shut the usually open door to his room, and put his head down in his book.
That afternoon he was reading ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy and he didn’t have one iota of an idea of what it was saying. To Hunter, it was words on a page arranged in lengthy, winding sentences that made not one lick of sense.
His attention was disturbed by a loud bang!
The door to his room was flung open by none other than Richie Dinklage. Yes, of those Dinklages. The billionaires of Dinklage Oil & Gas.
Like Hunter, school was not Richie’s strong suit and he was one of the only members of the Dinklage family not to matriculate to an Ivy League school or equivalent. Instead, he went to Robin State College, paid in cash in full because his parents Cordelia and Richard Dinklage needed him out of their hair – badly!
Richie was on the baseball team with Hunter but he could have been a linebacker on the football team. He was massive and he towered over Hunter as he sat at his desk.
“Hey man, what’s the problem?” Hunter said, looking up at Richie.
Richie’s face was bright red and his blue eyes were bloodshot.
Richie took Hunter’s Mac by the handle, picked it up and threw it down on the ground sending plastic flying everywhere.
Hunter shot up from his desk. “Hey man! What the fuck what the –”
Richie walked up to Hunter and grabbed him by the collar of his sweatshirt. “You fuck with my girlfriend one more time and I will fucking kill you. Do you understand me?”
“I – I!”
“She told me you fuck twat.” Richie let go of Hunter and pushed him backwards into his desk, sending the Stone of One Thousand Souls, plummeting into the air. Hunter watched in horror as his prized possession slipped away from him as it came crashing to the ground. When the stone hit the ground, it didn’t land with a thud like a normal rock.
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In fact, the stone burst like a pinata sending a puff of black dust around the room, so cloudy and so viscous that neither Hunter nor Richie could see what was in front of them.
The window at the far end of the room was open. Hunter loved the fall air of New Hampshire and kept his windows open at every hour. It just so happened that the thick black dust storm began to pour out of Hunter Tanner’s room and into the alleys of Robin State College. It was a windy day and the dust particles rode the wind like a surfer rides a wave. What was once a small dust storm began to spread its black dust particles out into the streets. One dust particle landed on a little girl riding her bike down Main Street. One dust particle landed on the eye brown of Mrs. Edna Klopf, the town librarian who was having her ham sandwich outside in the warm fall sun.
It made its way into the Mayor’s Office who kept her window open on this lovely fall afternoon as she prepared for the town’s annual Pumpkin Fest. It fell right on her forehead which had been sweating as she thought of all of the arrangements that she still had to make!
Another dust particle made its way through the nooks and crannies of Robin State College and on to the nose of a short, black-haired boy with rich chocolate skin and thick wire frame glasses who went by the name Otto Finch. The dust fell just as he was biking down Main Street to meet his best friend Lucy Lemon for lunch.
Mayor’s Office Is Latest Victim Of Vandalism
October 27th, 1998 – Robin Daily News
Robin, NH – Robin Mayor Shelly Strout appears to be the victim of a recent string of vandalism affecting the city of Robin. According to public officials, on Wednesday night a window in the Mayor’s Office was broken when a large rock was thrown through it sometime around midnight. City officials warn that the act could have been politically motivated given the recent staffing changes and tax adjustments that have happened at City Hall.
“There are a lot of people in this town who are on a witch hunt against me and it’s completely uncalled for,” said Mayor Shelly Strout in an exclusive interview with the Robin Daily News regarding the vandalism incident. “I have been doing everything I can to ensure that our community has the funds it needs to be a community that thrives. A small tax increase shouldn’t cause such an alarm and outburst. We’ve been slightly increasing taxes with inflation every year since I’ve been in office and this year is no different.”
Just recently, Executive Assistant to the Mayor Sarah Shrouder departed the office unexpectedly. This follows the Mayor’s Chief of Staff Aaron Sweet departing earlier this October due to the Mayor’s proposed tax increase package which Sweet called “demonic” according to sources inside City Hall.
“A lot of people are really upset with the Mayor right now,” said Ellen Gardner, a well-known anti-tax activist who is frequently found at City Hall meetings and grassroots protests. “If she continues her tyrannical tax increases, not only are you going to see a lot of folks leaving Robin, you might even see some civil unrest.”
Local law enforcement officials differ with the Mayor’s concerns that this may have been a politically motivated event. Sources chalk it up to a bit of trickery as the Halloween season approaches.
“This is not a violent community,” said Police Chief Daniel Harris. “I can assure everyone that this is an isolated incident and not a cause for concern.”
