She is Real

Eli II

The night ahead of Eli was going to be a long one. He knew very well that he wasn't going to get any sleep, he had to devise a plan to safely return the card without Earl noticing and finding out about the extra change he had lying around. As he wrapped himself up in his blankets and settled in to bed, he started to think of all the ways he could first try to convince Earl not to go. When he came up with nothing he decided to move on to strategies on how to sneak to the teller's tent, expose the teller for being a fraud, exchange his card back for his money, use the money to buy something small that would fit into his pocket without suspicion and make his way back to Earl having the appearance that he hadn't left. Right. This was going to be a long night.

*****

Eli hadn't gotten any sleep. Of course he knew this was going to happen but he had no idea how hard it was going to be to get himself out of bed the next morning. As soon as he saw the sun start to rise, he considered closing his eyes. Slowly, slowly they started to drown out the light around him until,

"ELI!!!!" Earl. Earl was coming to the market today. Whenever something exciting happened in Earl's life Eli knew the procedures. Earl always got up at the butt crack of dawn but when something exciting was going to happen, he got up with extra energy. He was always prepare to hit life head on but when he was excited... let's just say he took his helmet off. Eli managed to drag himself out of bed. Half asleep, he wandered aimlessly around his room for a few minutes to wake himself up. When he decided he was about time to make breakfast, he yanked open his old and creaky bedroom door.

"There you are!" exclaimed Earl, "I've been waiting for hours! I want to hit the market early so hurry up and start the scrambled eggs."

"I didn't buy eggs," Eli moaned, exhausted.

"Why the hell not?" Earl retorted clearly frustrated at Eli for raining on his parade.

"The egg boy wasn't at the market yesterday but I assume he'll be there today so we'll have eggs for brekky tomorrow," Eli said trying to calm Earl down.

"Fine," Earl settled, "it'll have to be toast then won't it?"

"Yes," Eli sighed. Eli took out the loaf he bought from the baker the day previous and got to work toasting, buttering and spreading any other topping Earl wanted. Eli ate his toast quickly to provide himself more planning time as he got dressed for the day. Earl had already done so given the excitement of the near future. Eli didn't know how anyone could be excited on a cold day like this one. He bundled up tight with a few layers of warm clothing and peered out his window at the gloomy, gray sky. A light snow fell from the sky but melted immediately and crushed everyone's hopes and dreams of building snowmen- which was the only good part about snow in Eli's opinion.  And so, as Eli became more and more depressed at the gray sky, damp ground and cold temperature, he continued to further his plan.

********

Eli and Earl stepped out the door into the cold, dreary atmosphere. Eli's plan was officially in motion. Here it is:

Step one: talk to Earl the entire way to the market. Let Earl know that he was supposed to go see the baker from yesterday to give him feed back about the bread from the day before.

Step two: arrive at the market and head to the "baker's stand"

Step three: return the card and expose the fraud.

Step four: buy a new trinket on his way back to Earl.

Step five: show Earl his new trinket and convince him it was bought yesterday and he forgot to mention it.