Armed with a new theory gifted him by Chief Niwot by way of a dream, Frank had a new found goal of returning to the city of Boulder some of the joy that had left. He hit the public library to do some research both online and using an older more reliable technology called books. He had no problem finding information online but he could only due so much diligence on the source to be sure the information was not dreamed up in a purple haze or whatever color haze was common these days. Not that it mattered. He was colorblind.

He had more trust in books. They never pretended to be interested before asking for money, a different but sad story altogether. He used the internet to see if there was any suspicions that Native American Mythology had anything to do with the Mural. The internet was good for rumors, innuendo and conspiracy theories and the Mural may touch on all three.

He wondered if the animals resident in the mural were like the shadow and thus temporarily inhabitants. If they were, he had no clue as to how he could move them off the artful wall. He returned to the underpass and took a brief survey of what animals were and were not on the wall. It gave him comfort to know that the mural contained a population that was no where near that of Noah’s Ark. Thinking about that made him realize that the wall was lacking a hummingbird. If that realization had hit him a few days ago it wouldn’t have landed with much impact. The Chief Niwot dream had taught him that many Native American Tribes associated hummingbirds with joy, luck, love, and even resurrection or renewal.

He hoped that the lack of hummingbird in the mural indicated that joy and love had not totally left Boulder, yet. He thought about making it a habit to check the mural daily for the existence of a hummingbird but decided against the idea for now. He reasoned that if it did appear it may deal a death blow to his attitude. For now he was going with the belief there was still love, joy, luck and the hope of renewal. He needed hope.

“Hey, I need to talk to you!” echoed from behind him.

The body parts of Frank that could clench did so for a brief second, realized it wasn’t helping , then released and he took off running.

The words “Hey, I need to talk to you” yelled by a man was always an indication that he should not stick around. Come to think of it, those words uttered by a woman was also a good reason not to linger. His legs were ahead of his thoughts fortunately and his feet weren’t failing either.
Hope was temporarily put on hold.