He's disappeared, Batshit I mean, 1 month of the restaurant open and no sign of him. I start to get a little concerned, make some enquiries, in Riondel I ask at the general store, it turns out he slipped, fell, maybe broke his hip, at the hospital...they cleaned out his house in Riondel, didn't want him living there anymore, wasn't safe for him...
Call the hospital, but his alias, Kootenay name, it's not good enough.
And now to the troublesome task of finding out his real name. Ask about Riondel, no one knows it. Or if they do they're not saying. And here, I should note, is a big breach in Kootenay Etiquette - you use the name people provide you and don't ask any further. Lots of people around here have good reason not to give you their real name - from the draft dodgers, growers, and people with warrants outstanding, to the plain old "it's my party name", you take everyone at their word and don't pry.
But I gotta pry if I'm gonna find him...
Ask about in Nelson, a few carefully directed queries and I have it...
Pretty ordinary, a quick Google turns up thousands of results. (later research would prove that his real name - for the purposes of the interweb, anyways, is no better than his pseudonym).
Back to the search, rumour had it he was staying at his sisters...
Didn't know he had one. But on the first call it's BINGO.
And take him for dinner and catch up...
Found him, grown old overnight, he's been moved by agencies to Nelson, all of the doctors, nurses, chipping in to get him a place, furnishing his new apartment at a home up ... street, he describes it, he's tickled pink, loving all the attention and fuss he's stirred.
But he's of a sudden grown old, his hip, not broken but a pinched nerve, he's lost 14 lbs, the hip was minor, he was another 17 days in the hospital with pneumonia, he's telling the same stories he's told a hundred times, living in town, this will be good, easier to find him, to take him out, there's shows he'd love, the burlesque, drag shows, night-clubs, town will work a lot better for sure, but I can't help but thinking this newly found comfort will be the death of him...