Tom Herald stood among his fellow reporters watching the Seattle Seahawks practice for their upcoming game that Sunday*. Truthfully, he'd rather be anywhere else but there.
I'm a serious journalist. I should be covering serious news, he realized.
Yet his last major news assignment, investigating the death and suspicious circumstances of known criminal Lionel Ulysses, had gone nowhere.
Did he have a tail? Or did he not? wondered Herald.
The police said no from the start, and a fake tail had even been discovered by a homeless person.
Yet the question of who killed Ulysses had never been answered.
Maybe my editor's right and I have been working too hard. I'm not even 40 yet. Could it be time for at least a vacation, if not finding another line of work?
Then Tom felt his cell phone vibrate in his jacket pocket.
Retrieving it, he saw the text message from his fledgling girlfriend Alice Stevens.
DINNER 2NITE? MY PLACE? 8ISH?
Tom smiled at the message. It had been a while since there was anyone even platonic in his life.
It was WAY too early to say how things would turn out with her, but there was a definite interest in Alice, and not just physically, for the subject of sex had yet to come up between them.
In fact, Tom realized he hadn't even kissed her yet!
Got to do something about that, he realized, texting back OK and asking if he should bring anything.
JUST URSELF, was the reply.
Putting the phone away, Tom thought about what he could do to either get the Ulysses investigation going again, or perhaps come up with a new story to cover.
Anything but football, the baseball fan complained to himself as his thoughts drifted back towards Alice and both his personal and professional future.
MEANWHILE, BACK IN MOON LAKE...
Amy Howler's twin younger brothers Jay and Leon were within their second period classes at Moon Lake High School.
Jay was taking Algebra 1, when the teacher noticed he was squirming a lot in his seat.
She walked over and said, "Is there something wrong Mr. Howler?"
"Not sure ma'am. Did you ever have an itch you just couldn't scratch?" he asked, while trying to rub his back against the back of his chair.
"Sometimes," said the teacher, and then she lowered her voice and asked, "Have you had your first transformation yet?"
"No," replied Jay, looking at her anxiously.
The teacher sniffed him and replied, "I'd say soon. By this weekend at the latest," she observed with a smile, before resuming the Algebra lesson.
CONCURRENTLY...
Leon Howler was in gym, taking a shower as part of getting ready for the rest of his school day.
However, no matter how much soap and water he used, Leon just didn't feel clean, as if there was something...
Realizing he couldn't stay in the shower much longer, Leon turned off the water and started drying off.
If he noticed how much he kept dragging the towel across his back, as if trying to scratch an itch he couldn't reach, Leon never said anything to anyone.
__________________________________________________________________
*Note: It is Thursday, October 29, 2015 in the overall Moon Lake of Earth 1 story line, which includes the Anderson, Tad, and Jenkins threads. In 2015, the Seahawks defeated the Dallas Cowboys IN Texas. Their fictitious game this "coming Sunday" against an unnamed opponent takes place in Seattle.—tmw.