Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller Saturday night, May 11, was a good night for mystery and suspense. Rain was falling, which helps any story lacking suspense, from Hill Street to Hemingway. The city of Askov lay quiet under the steady rain, and Cliff and Wilma Krogstad lay quiet in their bed as the rain pounded the roof. Cliff and Wilma don’t usually think about mystery and suspense at three in the morning, rain or no rain: They are usually too busy sleeping. But on May 11, Cliff heard a strange noise, and the mystery began. “Cliff and I were sleeping, and all of a sudden, we heard someone come in,” Wilma recalls. “We thought it was our son, going to bed. Then we heard him get up again.” Cliff stumbled bleary-eyed out of bed to investigate. He came back wide awake. “Boy mother, there’s a strange woman in the house,” Cliff said. “You should see the room, it’s a mess.” Mystery in Askov... You should have seen the woman. She was, ah, she didn’t have, well, she seemed to be lacking, um — t...

David Heiller It’s funny how we can get too much of a good thing. I’m thinking of the rain that has fallen lately. It started on Wednesday night, May 19, and really hasn’t stopped since then, and I’m writing on Sunday night, May 23. John's model? It’s getting to the point where John Holzwarth is sketching out plans for an ark, and Pastor Tony Fink is rounding up pairs of animals on the sly. I know, we needed the rain, the water table is low, people are starving in China. But enough is enough. I could predict it was coming though, and I’ll take a little credit (or blame). Here’s my theory. One: I planted grass seed on Wednesday afternoon, a lot of grass seed, $64 worth, all around the yard and over the geo-thermal field. It was a big project, aided I must add by my good neighbor Duane Thomford, who bladed and dragged the acre of ground just right. So after the grass seed and fertilizer were all scattered carefully in place, using the Farmers Co-op handy-dandy s...