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Jack Piper and the Chamois of Fire - Chapter 11 Table of Contents

by Flava Dave

Did someone mention a possible "Conspiracy?"

ack stood at the edge of the crowd of students outside the dorms and peered through the darkness at the newspaper stuffed in the spokes of the cruiser's rear wheel. Then he took a good look at the two people crouching next to the bike. They were obviously both college students who had come out of the dorms when the power went out. One of them wore a flannel shirt, cut-off shorts, Chucks, and a backpack. The other had on an old Ragbrai tee shirt and a pair of plaid shorts that didn't go together at all.

JPCOF The student wearing the old Ragbrai shirt said, "Do you have any matches? We need to light this thing on fire." It was an odd question to ask someone in cycling clothes, but it was dark, and the two students were so focused on the cruiser that they hadn't taken a good look at Jack.

At first, Jack was going to say no, but then he remembered the lighter that Dog Bait had shoved in his jersey pocket at the start of the training ride. "How about a lighter?" he said, holding it out toward them.

"Thanks," they said, grabbing the lighter and flicking it at the newspaper stuffed in the wheel.

"Say," said Jack, "You guys wouldn't happen to know how to get to Bloomington Street from here would you?"

"It's over that way," said the student in the flannel shirt, pointing vaguely behind him while they continued to flick the lighter at the newspaper.

"Uh, it looks like you guys are really busy, but could you give me a little more detail?" asked Jack, hopefully. Meanwhile, the crowd outside the dorms was getting more and more restless.

Suddenly, a small yellow flame leapt from the lighter to the newspapers stuffed in the rear wheel. "Here, hold this and follow us," said the student in the old Ragbrai tee shirt, handing Jack a wad of extra newspapers.

The student in the flannel shirt threw a leg over the cruiser and stood on the pedals while the student in the old Ragbrai shirt hopped onto the bike seat. They pushed the cruiser off from the curb and rode double toward the crowd. Meanwhile, flames shot up from the back wheel, nearly engulfing the rear end of the student sitting on the seat.

The flaming cruiser tore through the crowd like a runaway comet. Jack followed in its wake on his own bicycle as best he could, riding within the comet's tail of ash and bits of burning newspaper. The crowd let out a tremendous roar, and Jack glanced over his shoulder just in time to see small round lights bobbing up and down in pursuit in the darkness behind them. Jack guessed that these lights were from flashlights held by security people chasing them.

As they emerged from the crowd, the newspaper in the cruiser's rear wheel was almost completely spent. The two students tried to jump the bike over a curb to escape the pursuing flashlights behind them, but they got hung up and nearly tipped over. This gave Jack just enough time to pull alongside them and ask in desperation one last time, "How do I get to Bloomington Street?"

The flashlights were closing in, but not before the student in the old Ragbrai tee shirt managed to shout, "Down the hill, across the bridge, and take a left!" Jack pushed off and got his shoe in the toe clip as fast as he could. He cinched down the toe strap and was away before security could lay a hand on him. The two students on the cruiser were not so lucky.

Jack found himself on street heading downhill and across a bridge over the Iowa River. Judging by the streetlights and well-lit buildings on the other side of the river, Jack could tell that the power wasn't out in the rest of the city. As soon as he cleared the river, Jack took a left turn and found Bloomington a few blocks later. Within minutes, Jack was safely at his apartment door.

As he took his hands from the handlebars, Jack noticed that he had been clutching the extra wadded up newspapers that the students with the cruiser had given him. It was a copy of Tuesday's Des Moines Register newspaper, and one of the headlines caught Jack's eye. He flattened out the newspaper under the porch light and read…

Lucas County Next to Ban Group Bicycle Rides




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