It Could Happen Here - CZM Book Club: The Barrow Will Send What it May, Chapter Three

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

Margaret reads Robert Evans the second book in her Danielle Cain series.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My husband cheated on me with two women. He wants to stay together because he has cancer. Should I stay? Okay Sam, that has to be the craziest story in OK Storytime podcast history. Well John, that's because it's dump of week and this user writes, last week we had an attempted break-in. I asked my husband, who was supposed to be at his mom's,

to come over and change the locks, but his mom told me he wasn't with her. And it took me less than an hour to find the first two women he was cheating on me with. Did you leave him? Well, to find out how this story ends, follow the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Prohibition is synonymous with speakeasies, jazz, flappers, and of course, failure. I'm Ed Helms, and on season three of my podcast, Snafu, there's a story I couldn't wait to tell you. It's about an unlikely duo in the 1920s who tried to warn the public that Prohibition was going to backfire so badly it just might leave thousands dead from poison. Listen and subscribe to Snafu on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? How goes lower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. What's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Listen to The Hook Up on the iHeart Radioio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Hey kids, it's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith. That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, d***less version of me. And that's the name of our podcast, Beardless D***less Me. I'm the old one. I'm the young one. And every week we try to make each other laugh really hard.

Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing. A lot of bad language. It's for adults only. Or listen to it with your kid. It could be a family show. We're not quite sure. We're still figuring it out.

It's a work in progress. Listen to Beardless **** with me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. You get your podcast. spaghetti western type deal. Yeah. Well, fortunately we were like really in sync with each other. So that's really what that matters. That's what made it work. Yeah. Well, welcome to Cool Zone Media Book Club. The only book club that you don't have to do the reading for it because I do the

reading for you. There might be other book clubs where you don't have to do the reading. Actually, every book club I've ever been part of as an adult is a book club I didn't do the reading for so I feel like this is a We're like well in line with normal book club behavior. I think yeah. Yes, absolutely and to keep in line with it I also brought my sword to this book club. Oh I'm ready. That's a nice sword Thank you

It's based off a sword in a novel that I read recently for a new fantasy series. Okay. That a bladesmith I know just happened to also read and made this sword. And I said, I will buy this sword. And now I have it. Amazing. It's a good sword. I recently, I did a bunch of episodes about the raiders on Harper's Ferry, besides John Brown. Yeah. And I went to Harper's Ferry and I took photos of the sword, the bleeding Kansas sword that he had. Yeah. Or that the other Raiders had. And I was like talking about the sword

and how I thought it was this one French artillery sword. But then a listener told me that it was actually the American copy of the French artillery sword. And I found a place and I bought one and then like two weeks later I got an email telling me that actually they were out of them and they were gonna give me my money back. That's heartbreaking. I know I know I had actually bought two one for someone else. Well I am also on a John Brown related arms quest I'm having my blacksmith put

together like a short spear with a bowie knife Type tip to it a good old pike. Uh-huh. It's more of a glaive, but yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah inspired by the John Brown I I definitely was looking harder for the John Brown pikes than I was for the John Brown sword But I did not find the John Brown pikes Yeah, that makes sense but What I did find was my own copy of my book. I actually had to go buy the e-book of my book because I

don't know if people know this but when you send a book off to a publisher they do like final edits that are not in your file so you don't have a copy of the final book on your own computer. But I do now. Anyway, we're on chapter three of The Barrow Will Send What It May, the second book in the Danielle Cain series. By the time you're listening to this, you missed the Kickstarter or participated in the Kickstarter for this book. But don't worry, there's pre-orders for the third book in the series.

But that's not what we're reading We're reading the second one. Hell yeah chapter 3 Morning came too soon for my taste I'd scarcely been asleep before the first birds announced their desire to herald the dawn Brynn was spooning me and the idea of staying there like that was a lot more interesting than getting up to go chase down what? A demon? A resurrectionist? Zombies? There'd be coffee though if I woke up. Sometimes I think I let myself get addicted to coffee not because

I liked it, not because caffeine did me any favors, but because it takes the urge of a physical addiction to provide any kind of upside to getting out of bed in the morning. It didn't bother me, thinking like that. Brynn liked coffee even more than I did, so as the dawn light came in through the window, I untangled myself from her and went off to figure out the kitchen. Vasilis was already there, chopping potatoes. He brought the blade down slowly with each cut, working silently so as to not wake the house.

I found myself the coffee grinder. It would be fine. Waking up was fine. Over breakfast, we worked out our plans. Vulture and Thursday would take the library's car, actually the old bookmobile, and head up to Glacier for the day, see what they could find. Doomsday and Vesillas were going to go through the library, see how much information they could dredge up about the Book of Barrow and Resurrection.

The rest of us, Heather, Brann, and myself, would see what we could find out in town. Presumably, we'd start by talking to Asola and Gertrude. We'd reconvene at sunset or whenever the boys came back from Glacier. Now that I was awake, fed, and caffeinated, I was actually fairly excited to get this thing figured out. Everyone likes a good puzzle. Turns out a puzzle with magic in it is twice as interesting. Brynn, Heather, and I hopped on bicycles, janky old cruisers perfect for a town as flat as Pendleton,

and went off to find a sola. I had my travel pack with me, emptied in case we found anything. The few people we saw looked friendly enough. Outside the gas station slash grocery store slash diner combo, an older fellow waved at Heather, who waved back. The tattoo on her arm was fresh, a simplified Ouroboros. This town actually likes its punks, I asked. We run the library. Vasilis and Asola are from here, too. Well, Vasilis is from Greece, but he's been here 20 years. People don't really understand us, but they also don't really mind that they don't, if that makes sense.

It did. I'd never really stayed put long enough to get that kind of feeling in a town, but I'd met a few folks who had over the years. It sounded nice. A bit lonely though. Living in one place always sounded kind of lonely to me. It took us maybe 10 minutes to bike out to the western edge of town. It had been a tourist town that was easy to see.

The gateway to the great outdoors or some shit. We must have been closer to Glacier than I realized. The last block of town held four bed and breakfasts in a row. One of them, the first we passed, even looked like it was probably still operational. The lawn was maintained, and a little fountain shot water up about a foot from some rocks in the front yard. The other three B&Bs, though, were boarded up and overgrown and, to my eye at least, all the more beautiful for it. This one's it, Heather said, parking her bike along the wrought iron fence of the last house

on the block. The building itself was small, barely more than a cottage, but its yard was expansive and it backed onto forest. If I was rich, I would live somewhere like that. Or, you know, since I was poor, I'd squat someplace like that. It would be nice to live somewhere where you didn't have to worry about the cops kicking down your door, but the trade-off of being law-abiding didn't sound worth it. We didn't lock the bikes.

We didn't even have bike locks. You too might wanna go up there alone, Heather told us. I think if Asola wanted to talk to me, she would have by now, you know? So Bren and I opened the iron gate and started up the front walk. Never been on a zombie's doorstep, I said after I rang the doorbell. I figure it's more like Lazarus' doorstep. The guy Jesus resurrected? That's the one.

What's the story with him, I asked? Hell if I know, just that Jesus brought him back from the dead. Why was he so special? Go away. This last bit came from inside the house, right on the other side of the door. Bryn and I looked at each other. We come in peace, I offered. And if you want to come in peace, you should bring a peace offering, a peace offering,

like the things that you can get from... Oh, I thought you were going a very different place when you said come. No, no, no. All of our products. I. No, no, no. All of our products. I was like, oh, are we advertising for hims again? Great. That's right.

There are other product thems, which I'm very excited to see hit the market. And here are the ads for that. My husband cheated on me with two women. He wants to stay together because he has cancer. the ads for that. living with his mom while he is in recovery so that it takes the pressure off me caring for both him and her baby until he's well enough to move into our new home with us. So far. Well, last week we had attempted break-in. I asked my husband who was supposed to be at his mom's to come over and change locks, but he wouldn't.

Then his mom told me he wasn't with her. I went to Facebook and it took me less than an hour to find the first two women he was cheating on me with. Oh, what else is he lying about? Well, one thing my paranoia just wouldn't let up was about the cancer and his treatments. I asked his mom about it, who told me he doesn't have cancer. She also informed me he was in rehab, not the hospital.

He suffered from addiction and was trying to recover for me and our baby. Did she leave him? Well, to find out how the story ends, listen and follow the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is this a good time?

It's me, Dylan Mulvaney, and my dear friend Joe Locke from Heartstopper and Agatha All Along is my very first guest on my brand new podcast, The Dylan Hour. It's musical mayhem and it is going to be so much fun. I like a man. You like a man. What do I like, Joe? You like a man too. We often, there's some cross pollination happening in here.

Not like, no. Have we? No. No. Not yet. Never say never. I cannot wait for all you girls, gays and theys to join me on this extremely special

pink confection of a podcast. There is so much darkness in this world and what I think we could all use more of is a little joy. Listen to The Dillon Hour on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Love ya! Prohibition. It's no secret that banning alcohol didn't stop people

from living it up in the 1920s. When we're five years into Prohibition, the government is starting to go, okay, this isn't working. In fact, you might even say it backfired spectacularly. I'm Ed Helms, and on season three of my podcast, Snafu, we're taking you back to the 1920s and the tale of Formula Six. Because what you probably don't know about Prohibition is that American citizens were dying in massive numbers due to poisoned liquor and all along an unlikely duo was trying desperately to stop the corruption behind

it. They were like superhero crusaders turning the page on a system that didn't work, wasn't fair and was corrupt. So how did Prohibition's war on alcohol go so off the rails that the government wound up poisoning its own people? To find out, listen and subscribe to Snafu on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? Ow, goes lower? From Blumhouse TV, i Heart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend. And Santi was gone.

I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Hmm, pillow talk. the most unwelcome window into the human psyche. Follow our out of his element hero as he engages in a series of ill-conceived,

investigative hookups. Mama always used to say, God gave me gumption in place of a gag reflex. And as I was about to learn, no amount of showering can wash your hands of a bad hookup. Now, take a big whiff, my brah. Listen to The Hookup on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

["The Hookup Theme Song"] And we're back. We're not cops or nothing, Bryn added. Yeah, I didn't think the two crust punks at the door were cops, but I'm not trying to talk to anyone. Why not, I asked. That's a shitty question to ask, and I knew it. Asola wanted to be left alone. She'd made that clear in a thousand ways. Yet here we were, prying.

I'm gonna open the door, but only because I'm too tired to yell through it, Asola said. You can't come in. All right, Bryn agreed. The door swung open. I don't know why I expected her to look like a zombie or something. I mean, I'd met Gertrude already and she looked normal enough. But I legit assumed Asola was gonna look like a zombie.

Asola didn't look like a zombie. She looked instead like, well, one of us. She wore a slip dress that showed off her full figure, and her hair was tied up in a loose bun, revealing tattoos across her neck. Even though she probably wasn't a day over 22. She had a claw hammer in her hand. No, wait, both hands. She had a claw hammer in each hand.

It's just that only one of the two was raised. Instant friend crush. What are you doing here? She asked. You're going to get yourself killed. On a long enough timeline, Bren agreed. She had her hand hovering near the folding baton on her belt. No, I mean, if anyone sees me talking to you, I don't know what's going to happen.

You might wind up dead. That's an argument for letting us inside then, I offered. That's an argument for y'all leaving, she countered. True, I agreed, but we didn't go. Who would kill us? Barrow? I don't know, she thought about it. No, not Barrow.

What happened to you and everyone up at Glacier, I asked. She put the hammer down and met my gaze, unflinching. Somehow, this was even more intimidating than when she had the weapon raised. We all died. Okay, that's all I'm gonna say about it. Okay, I waited for her to tell me more anyway. Look, you're wasting your time talking to me.

Who should we talk to then, I asked? Gertrude? What's she got to do with it? No, no, Gertrude's innocent. I don't think she knows anything. A soul aside, then set the hammers down on a table near the door. Look, if I tell you where to look next, I am guessing you'll die.

Magic is too fucked up to be safe, at all, for anyone. Hunting down madmen with access to it, that's worse. You really, really should just skip town and never look back. Forget the name Barrow. Forget the name Pendleton. Forget me. Forget Gertrude. Ain't gonna happen, though, Brin said. You want to know what's going on. You want a man named Sebastian Miller. Gertrude's husband?

Ex-husband, Asola said. He runs the gift shop on the east edge of town. With the dinosaurs, I asked? With the dinosaurs. Don't confront him. Don't let him know you're investigating him. Don't let him know you're investigating him. Don't let him know you exist. Don't tell him I talked to you.

Thank you, I said. She started to close the door. Wait, I said. I still have so many questions to ask. Yeah, well, I've got about three more seasons of Xena I plan to watch while I pretend like I don't exist. So I'm afraid I'm too busy for questions." I'm sorry, Bryn said as the door was closing.

I'm sorry about whatever happened to you. The door hesitated. Thank you. The door closed. We reconvened with Heather out by the street and told her what we'd learned. Hey, that's more than I've gotten out of her, Heather said, and we used to live together. So, Sebastian Miller, I said.

I bet he's at Dawson's right now, the diner, grocery store, or whatever. He's there most weekdays, only opens the gift shop on the weekends. Do we go to Dawson's or the gift shop, I asked. Are you kidding, Bryn asked? Solo's pretty clear about that. We'll go to his place now while he's not home. And just break in, Heather asked? Yeah, Bryn said.

Heather seemed to think that over for a minute. All right. We had to bike down side streets to avoid Dawson's, but it still didn't take us longer than maybe 10 minutes. Everyone we passed looked friendly, but riding through town during the day, you could tell that the town was poor. Destitute, maybe. About a third of the houses were abandoned, and most of the rest were poorly maintained.

Every road but the main one was full of potholes. They were probably maintaining the main road for the sake of tourists, if one day the tourists came back. Or maybe they were maintaining the main road for their own sake, for their own dignity. It was hard to tell. We cut through an alley, the small town kind

that goes between backyards instead of brick buildings, to approach the gift shop from the back. It was easy to pick out the right place. A 20-foot tall brontosaurus with purple paint chipping off its concrete kept watch over the backyard. How will we get in? Heather asked. What are we looking for? I asked. Don't know and don't know, Bryn said. We'll know it when we see it. To both questions. The building was a plain cube, two stories tall and peppered with windows. I went to the closest one, popped the screen out, and tried to lift the glass. Locked. I put the screen back in and went to the next one. You get much crime in Pendleton, Bryn asked?

No, not really, Heather answered. No cops in town either. Sometimes the county sheriff comes in to handle something, but we're pretty much on our own. People usually lock their windows, I asked. The next window was locked too. No, Heather said. Assel is something to hide, Bryn said.

I mean, we are trying to break in, I said. Kind of justifies his paranoia. Help me up this Apatosaurus, Bryn said. It was deceptively hard to get a hold of since the ridge of its back was just out of reach from the ground and the whole belly of the thing was round. I think it's a Brontosaurus, I said. I gave her a boost with my good arm, and she straddled the beast like she was riding it.

Vulture would have wanted a photo for his Instagram. Hell, I wanted a photo, because Bryn looked awesome as a cross-punk dino riding cowboy. But you're not supposed to take pictures of yourself at the scene of any given crime in progress. I thought brontos weren't real, Brynne said. I thought they were all Apatosaurus now. Nope.

My youngest niece had been obsessed with dinosaurs last time I had gone to see her in Illinois. She'd schooled me good when I tried to say that Brontosaurus weren't real. They count as real dinosaurs again. This by the way, unrelated is how I feel about Pluto. Yeah, I feel strongly this way about Brontosaurus. Because it's one of the dinosaurs that I used to know all of the dinosaurs, Margaret. When I was like a little six year old kid, I had an 800 page dinosaur encyclopedia, not a kid's book, like very small print. And every dinosaur

in that book I knew I could recognize them from their skulls Oh, yeah, I can name like four dinosaurs today It's like all the Latin I learned it's just gone, you know as a teenager I was translating the fucking Indian into English and I have like four words now See I took three years a lot and I only learned four words the whole time But yeah that more to do with the teacher who let us cheat. Right, right, right, yes, yes. Before he got kicked out of the school for acting inappropriately, but that's besides the point.

We all liked him because he let us cheat. Yeah, my best teacher also got kicked out of the school for something, a way he broke the law, but not that way, so it's fine. Yeah, is this like, is it a completely normal thing that if you go to high school at some point- He was just a drug dealer in his free time. Yeah, like, yeah.

We had a teacher who was, the art teacher was stealing kids' paintings and putting his own name on them and selling them. That is, that's actually kind of awesome. And- That's, that's fun. That's a good grip. He was passing, I don't think he knew any art and he was passing like he would print out from course catalogs from colleges

Their art and put it up on the wall as like his art as an example of what we should do Amazing. I know and then when he got kicked out everyone like through we actually got kicked out for Another inappropriate thing he was doing his students. Right, right, of course. Yes, that seems obvious. Yeah. Anyway, something about brontosaurus. So, oh geez. Okay, well, I didn't look at the next line. Next thing you'll tell me, that Pluto is a planet.

Brynn reached down to help me up, but I waved her away. My shoulder was way too still stitched up to climb something like that. Brynn started to climb up the beast's neck towards the building. You think it'll hold? I asked, by which I meant, I don't think it'll hold. But in a second she had scrambled up to the little brano head and was looking at the wall of the building about five, maybe six feet away. She was gonna jump. She would have had to cross the distance and get a hold of the narrow window ledge, pull herself up, then hope the window was unlocked because there was no other logical way down.

Hey, uh, I started. I'd really rather you didn't, Heather shouted. Brynn jumped. Time didn't slow down or anything. Maybe it sped up. One second I was yelling and the next second, no the same second Brynn was clinging to the windowsill which couldn't have been more than three inches deep. She pulled herself up and crouched on the sill. Brynn should have been a cat burglar. Actually for all I knew she was a cat burglar. Actually, for all I knew, she was a cat burglar. She got the window open and disappeared inside.

What do we do? Heather asked, unspoken. Do we try to follow her because I don't want to? No, I said, answering her unspoken question instead of her spoken one. I went to the closest window. About 10 seconds later, Brynn was on the other side of it and let us in. And what was inside Robert Evans was the most amazing deals. Just...

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, yes. I didn't have anything funny to say. Yeah, no. Probably gambling. Roll the ads. Please, get out of here.

Here we go. Gambling. I love gambling. Yeah. Sports gambling. Good idea. Yeah, gambling, it probably... Roll the ads, please. Gambling. Get out of here. Here we go. Gambling? I love gambling. Sports gambling? Good idea.

Yeah, gambling, you always... What they say? Let people gamble on everything. People who gamble all the time are always doing great. That's what everyone says. Uh-huh. It's a good thing to do constantly, every hour of every day that you're awake. Yeah.

Ugh. Here's ads. Ugh. Here's ads. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. It's dumpin week and this user writes, my partner told me when we first got together that he has cancer. He's currently living with his mom while he's in recovery so that it takes the pressure off me caring for both him and her baby until he's well enough to move into our new home with us. He's good so far. Well, last week we had attempted break-in.

I asked my husband who was supposed to be at his mom's to come over and change locks, but he wouldn't. Then his mom told me he wasn't with her. I went to Facebook and it took me less than an hour to find the first two women he was cheating on me with. Oh, what else is he lying about? Well, one thing my paranoia just wouldn't let up was about the cancer in his treatments.

I asked his mom about it, who told me he doesn't have cancer. She also informed me he was in rehab, not the hospital. He suffered from addiction and was trying to recover for me and our baby. Did she leave him? Well, to find out how the story ends, listen and follow the OK Storytime Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is this a good time? It's me, Dylan Mulvaney, and my dear friend, Joe Locke from Heartstopper

and Agatha All Along is my very first guest on my brand new podcast, The Dylan Hour. It's musical mayhem and it is going to be so much fun. I like a man. You like a man. What do I like, Joe? You like a man too. We often- We have quite a similar- There's some cross pollination happening in here.

Not like- No! Have we? No. No. Not yet. Never say never. I cannot wait for all you girls, gaysays and theys to join me on this extremely special pink confection of a podcast. There is so much darkness in this world and what I think we could all use more of is a

little joy. Listen to the Dylan Hour on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Love ya! Prohibition. It's no secret that banning alcohol didn't stop people from living it up in the 1920s? When we're five years into Prohibition, the government is starting to go, okay, this isn't working. In fact, you might even say it backfired spectacularly.

I'm Ed Helms, and on season three of my podcast, Snafu, we're taking you back to the 1920s and the tale of Formula 6. Because what you probably don't know about Prohibition is that American citizens were dying in massive numbers due to poisoned liquor, and all along an unlikely duo was trying desperately to stop the corruption behind it. They were like superhero crusaders turning the page on a system that didn't work, wasn't fair, and was corrupt. So how did prohibition's war on alcohol go so off the rails

that the government wound up poisoning its own people? To find out, listen and subscribe to Snafu on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? How goes lower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all-new fictional comedy podcast

series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend. And Santi was gone. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Hmm, pillow talk. The most unwelcome window into the human psyche.

Follow our out-of-his-element hero as he engages in a series of ill-conceived investigative hookups. Mama always used to say, God gave me gumption in place of a gag reflex. And, as I was about to learn, no amount of showering can wash your hands of a bad hookup. Now, take a big whiff, my brah. [♪ music playing on radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio And we're back. I lost $10,000 during the ad break because I had a gambling machine in my pocket. But on the upside, you continued your addiction to dopamine. That's true. Which is constantly spiking every like six seconds as a result of all of the different

compulsion devices that have been forced into your life. That's a good point. So, with the story, I wonder what was going through the head of the person who decided that the world needed hundreds of shot glasses with the words Pendleton Montana emblazoned on the side. Because I didn't share that particular opinion.

But what do I know? Maybe they'd moved thousands of them already. I pocketed one, then spent a full minute having an ethical argument with myself. I don't have any particular issue justifying theft of necessities or from big box stores. But a shot glass wasn't food and this wasn't exactly a Walmart. The store looked like any roadside bullshit gift store anywhere. On the other hand, the guy who owned the place was probably a bad man. Isn't that why we'd broken into his place?

That was terrible logic. That was state logic. A man wasn't guilty just because he was being investigated. I put the shot glass back. I am pretty sure 18-year-old me would have laughed at 28-year-old me, but 18-year-old me was kind of an asshole, so I didn't really hold myself responsible to her. I also didn't need a shot glass. There wasn't much we could imagine him hiding inside the store itself, so after

the briefest of searches we went up the stairs to his apartment. Heather took watch by the front window, since she knew what the guy looked like and the truck he drove. Brynn and I combed through the apartment, careful to set everything back into its right place. Since we weren't wearing gloves, we absolutely should have been wearing gloves. We wanted to make sure he never even suspected we were there. It was frustrating, anxious work.

One slip-up could land us in prison. Even the natural joy of snooping was diminished by how careful we had to be. There were two photos framed on the wall. One of Gertrude and a man who must be Sebastian holding hands on a mountaintop, with a valley and a river in the distance below. He was an unremarkable old white man, hard to distinguish from any other. The other photo was of a younger couple in the same place, probably the two of them 30 years earlier.

Younger, he looked happy and handsome. The difference between the two made me sad. Happy old couples give me a sort of hope. But judging by these photos, the happiness had been gone for decades. There were glaciers in the background of the older photo, but they had melted by the time the newer one had been taken. More sadness. Why should the march of time be inherently melancholic?

It didn't seem fair. I opened the frames carefully. No hidden notes, not even a date written on the corner to sate my curiosity. I hadn't done snooping like this more than a handful of times. The first time, a couple of us had robbed some rich asshole's house and sold his stuff for food. I was young, reckless, and I'd never been to jail, so it was just kind of fun. The second time, the whole affair had been deadly serious.

My friend's mother had been trapped in an abusive relationship, so he'd broken into the man's summer home for blackmail to hold over his head so that she could leave him in comparative safety. That time, the stakes were too epic for it to be thrilling, but righteousness imparts a kind of high of its own. Both of those men had had entertaining secrets like embarrassingly crass porn collections

or a false bottom drawer with cheesy ninja weapons hidden inside. Sebastian Miller had an easy chair, a bed, a bookshelf full of mediocre but not embarrassing books and a fuck-off big TV. A mounted deer, nothing impressive, and a run-of-the-mill hunting rifle hung on the wall. My pack stayed empty. They're a basement, I asked at last after I checked every damn horror book on his shelf for a hidden compartment.

Maybe through the office downstairs, Heather said. Okay. Office, basement, and then I give up. We'll find something, Heather said. What's he like, I asked. He weird or anything? I never thought twice about him until Gertrude came back, Heather said. He drives a 1950s truck.

That's about the most interesting thing about him. He used to come by the library sometimes, check out thrillers for himself, romance for Gertrude, called her Gertie. He was the only one in town who called her that. I don't think she liked it. The office door behind the checkout counter of the gift shop was locked with a deadbolt. I get out my tools, I keep a tension wrench and a basic rake and

a hidden pouch on the waist belt of my pack. Usually to break into dumpsters for food and set to work. Who the hell are you people, Heather asked. Climbing into second story windows, busting out lock picks like it's nothing. Brynn laughed in that out of character giggle of hers. We told you, we're demon hunters. We should get a crew name, I said. The Ulixians, Bryn said without hesitating.

We can't name ourselves after a demon we banished, I said. No, no, think about it Bryn said. Ulixi wasn't bad because of what he did, stopping those who wield power over others. He was bad because he was a single manifestation of that ideal. We could do the same work, but as people, not omnipotent. It doesn't really roll off the tongue, Heather said. Fine, Brin said, fine.

The tension wrench gave way in my hand. The lock turned over and I opened the door. Just an office. Well, an office straight out of the 80s or 90s or whatever. Big ugly monitor on a big ugly desk and the carpet was about twice as thick as could be reasonably justified. There were two other doors on the far wall. One of you a hacker too Heather asked? I shrugged. Sure Bryn said, vulture is. We went through the drawers, found nothing but business receipts and junk mail.

To be honest, I don't think we'll find anything on the computer either, I said. I think this whole thing is a bust. I opened one of the two doors, a closet with cleaning supplies and office supplies. I opened the other door. Now here was something interesting. The door led to a short hallway, about 10 feet long, with another door at the other end. Above the door, someone had crudely carved in Greek letters, Tepotos Antana Den Parasae. Bryn and I stared blankly.

Uh, Heather said squinting. Tepot's Antana, den tha Parasite. What does that mean, I asked. No clue. I can't really speak Greek. I just learned how to sound it out a couple of years ago. Basilis is Greek. I think I was trying to impress him. How long have you and him?

Brent started to ask. I don't know if she trailed off because she was shy to ask with me around or she realized it wasn't the time and place. Five years, Heather said. It's good, mostly. She opened the door. A set of plain wooden steps led down into darkness. I sometimes wish... I don't know, Heather said. I wish things were easier between us, more relaxed. He's not controlling, but somehow I just… I wish I felt more free. She took a step through the doorway.

This time, my perception of time slowed down. I saw her hand move, and green light rippled out across… something, like someone had strung an invisible window screen across the doorway. Her whole arm pierced that veil, and she screamed. She didn't have time to stop. Momentum carried her forward. Every bit of her on the far side of the doorway

glowed with green fire. I grabbed for her. The fingers of my hand, my goat-bitten hand, went right through the doorway and it tingled. My wrist, though, passed through and it hurt like fire. Well, most of the times I've gotten burned. Fire only hurt later, once the nerve endings started growing back or whatever. This time, it hurt immediately, like how fire hurts later. I got a hold of her jacket and yanked back. She fell on top of me. She stopped screaming.

If she was breathing, it was too faint to hear. Dun dun dun! Woo! That's the end of chapter 3. Hell yeah. Well, what an episode. It's a book. Alright.

See you all next week. See you all next week for more chapter. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, CoolZoneMedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources where it could happen here, updated monthly, at coolzonemedia.com slash sources.

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