“If that’s what keeps me out of Heaven, I was the one who decided to do it, and I can live with that.”
“Would you be willing to pray with me?” Zoe asked.
I smiled and bowed my head. I prayed that she would decide what was right for her.
◊◊◊ Monday March 7
My phone rang at five a.m. It was Frank.
“I might have made a slight miscalculation. We released your video from the studio and the one from the farm. It’s blowing up in Europe this morning. You have a hundred thousand new followers on social media, and it was on all the morning shows over there. We’ve been flooded with media requests.”
I sat in silence. Once I got over my shock, I pulled my phone out, and Frank was right, my social media accounts were going nuts. The hashtag
“Okay, now what?” I asked.
“Something like this can build into a huge story. We need to let doubt be the focus of the day. You can’t do anything to put a damper on the story yet. I think we can use it to get people to your fundraiser on Saturday.”
“How many do you think they should plan for?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we doubled the event. If you thought a thousand, then plan for two right now.”
“Do I need to worry about the farm? I don’t want people running all over it; we’re just starting to get it ready,” I said.
“Well, if it were up to me, I would suggest you get some security. I’d also encourage you to keep someone with you today until we know what this turns into,” Frank advised.
After I hung up, I let Duke out and went to the house to wake up my mom and dad. I was no longer their favorite when I told them what was going on; I’d neglected to tell them about the video I’d shot at the farm.
Dad got up and called Caryn, then ordered me to make coffee while Mom took her shower. The noise woke up Little David, so I ran upstairs to get him. Peggy was dead to the world, so I changed him and brought him downstairs with us.
Dad was in the middle of telling us that Caryn would take care of the security when the gate buzzer sounded. Mom turned on the TV, and we could see it was a reporter. This was going to be worse than the fight with the ‘Baby Dick Gang.’
“When this is all done, we’re going to have a long talk about unintended consequences,” Dad said.
I just gave him a look. He’d been right there with me. How was this all my fault? For once, I was glad my mom was there. She told the reporter what she thought of him ringing the bell at such an early hour. When he persisted, she called the police. Maybe not how I would’ve handled it, but when the local constabulary showed up, the reporters seemed to back off. That’s right, ‘reporters,’ as in more than one. We now had several more littering the street.
Duke looked out the front window and decided he was tough. His announcement woke Peggy up. She freaked out a little when she couldn’t find Little David in his bed. Dad made me explain why she’d been woken up and why there were reporters and police out front.
Dad called Frank to figure out what we should do. It was agreed that I should go out, look nervous, and do the ‘no comment’ routine. When I opened the front door, I was blinded by camera lights. I was dressed in a sweatshirt, sweats, and slippers, and looked like I’d just crawled out of bed.
Ten reporters shouted questions. I did my acting job and ran back into the house. When I came back in, the local station had been doing their usual local farm reports when they broke in with a special report. They acknowledged it was all a prank, but played all the video, and then showed me looking worried and running back into the house.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if he really did have the Millennium Falcon?” the anchor asked and then returned to talking about corn futures.
Mom wasn’t impressed with my acting skills and sent me to my apartment to get ready for school.
◊◊◊
Fritz showed up to drive me. When I got into the car, he turned and stared at me.
“You’re a little shit, you know. We already had to call the police and have them arrest two college kids who tried to break into your barn. The local police have blocked the entrance to the park to keep nonresidents from getting back into the farm area.”
“More unintended consequences,” I said.
“What are you talking about?”
“My dad told me he planned to talk to me about unintended consequences. This was supposed to be a fun thing, but it looks like it may be getting out of control.”
“Well, let’s hope that it doesn’t get worse,” Fritz said.
He dumped me at the back door. We’d gone by the front entrance, and paparazzi and press were waiting there.
◊◊◊
