"Take back the streets!"

That was the shout I heard last night while walking through downtown of a place misnamed by the post office, I'm told - another blunder by the government.

I turned to see who'd yelled.  Nobody, or so it would seem.  The sidewalks were empty but the open door of Patrick's told me I might find my answer there.

My wife and I entered the shop.  Furniture, fabric remnants, a man at a sewing machine staying busy and the eyes of a guard dog staring at us between the slats of a kid's bunk bed.

Thirty minutes before, we'd sat at a window booth of The Sicilian, a popular gathering place for those who want to be seen and not seen at the same time.  My wife ate the daily special while I wolfed down a plate of gyros.

We watched the action outside the window, wondering about the sign we'd been told to fixate on, "Historical Complex."

An Owens Cross Roads police cruiser cruised by cruisingly.

A convertible Mercedes sedan and a Volvo wagon waved their behinds at us from in front of Patrick's.

A Subaru delivered some dry cleaning to Patrick's.  At last the signal we'd been given for the go-ahead.

A customer inside The Sicilian kept trying to get my attention.  I was supposed to be on a staycation (domestic holiday) and not taking down no notes from no rogue operatives but I listened to what he had to say anyway.  He was saying "yes" and "no" out of both sides of his mouth, partly out of fun and partly out of his serious side.  His demonstrated intelligence shows he's very useful.  His female companion didn't make it clear whether she was a "yes" or a "no."

Our server, a pretty young woman, the perfect example of the hope and verve of the next generation, shared some anecdotes with us.  Her missing vest button gave my wife and me some new ideas for passing messages in the future - we'll keep you informed (but not in this blog 'cause it's getting too much attention from "them" right now, if you know what I mean).

We finished our desserts, tiramisu and baklava, and casually wandered over to Patrick's.  Following our instincts, we dug through a stack of remnants and found the message my wife had been promised.

Can I get a day off in this business?  Apparently not.

We got back in the car and drove around town, looking at the businesses that were out of business, including a coffee shop, a church and a restaurant.  When you can't drink caffeine and eat a slice of pie at a place of worship, the world has gone to shit.  Of course, that's why we were in the town, to round up some recruits and get updates from some of my buddies from the old days, former playground mates and now generals in their local "armies."

I drove us in a random pattern, finally finding the historical complex and the lettering on the business signs that formed an anagram just for me and the missus.

You belong to any secret societies?  I don't.  Not that I haven't been invited.  Some of the ones you know, like the Masonic folks, have been wanting my membership for a long time.

Thing is, I gotta be neutral.  I can't lean one way or the other on account of what I promised the Great Mother and the Great Father a long time ago.

Well, after deciphering the anagram, I found out I was going to get surrounded by some folks looking for any secret signs from me while I was in this town of theirs.  Some of them would be Masonic types and some would belong to another secret society I can't mention on account of it don't exist.

We moseyed on through town and looked at more houses and neighbourhoods, getting a feel for the place and what the folks here could offer.

Eventually, we pulled into a parking spot in front of our prearranged meeting place and took care of some official business that's none of your business but we all gotta do it so it's no secret.

It wasn't until I left the place of business and my wife inside talking with the ladies up front that I got the answer to who yelled, "Take back the streets!"

You see, I got friends all over.  They tell me they provide me a special security force that nobody can see 'cause although I call myself the messenger boy, they call me their de facto leader 'cause I'm the only one who's got the goods on everybody and the connections what some others only think they got.

So, I sit down in the car and there across the street is the fellow who was sent to tell me it's time to call in all favours.  The generals have got their soldiers trained and ready.  The IT army has got all the mobile phones bugged and the computers hacked.  The domestic help has got all the houses wired for eavesdropping and gotten us copies of all the illegal activity going on with their employers.  Our lawyers on retainer have got all the lawsuits lined up and ready to go.  Accountants have all the ledgers fully documented.

All I gotta do is give them the signal and the streets will be ours again.

I done told you I'm just an ol' country boy disguised in city clothes.  My family history runs deep into the roots of this continent's government and further back to other continents and other eras.  My family has agreed that we're going to lead our species to greater causes than any one country or government seeks.  We don't care who gets in our way or who falls behind because we're carrying the greatest standard our species has ever seen.

Is it time to take back the streets?

Almost.  I've got a few more people who need their chance of "convincing" and if they say "no," then let's get this party started.

Plus, I want another day of staycation before I have to hunker down and work with my computer programmers to put all the controls and switches into manual mode so we can accelerate our plans, which means I'll have to sit at the control station for days on end and make sure every group is acting on their agreed-upon subproject objectives.

Remember, if anyone asks, I'm just the messenger boy.  I'm unimportant.  Nobody knows who I really am.  If anyone gets in your way, you have our various groups at your disposal to do as you see fit.  If any organisation - corporation, government, etc. - gets in your way, we can motivate whole groups to act at once, including new methods for tectonic plate activity (some of our scientists say they can activate volcanoes but I think it's still in the theory stage at this point), atmosphere manipulation and other large-scale demonstrations of what it takes to bring a whole society to a halt.  However, I suggest we stick to targeted economic disaster as a motivational tool because ecological disaster affects both sides.

The fate of our species is in our hands.  Let's make sure our actions are meticulously thought-out and taken seriously but with a sense of humour.  Some of you will jump early and that's okay.  We still support freedom of choice.  I recommend that most of us hold back until the moment is right.

I suggest we all take a couple of days to enjoy life on this planet to understand what we're about to do.  If you get too tense in anticipation, you lose your edge when you're needed most.

By the way, many of you have your day in the limelight coming to you, according to the Book of the Future.  So don't despair.

I still prefer anonymity, using a pen name for my byline.  After all, this is all about you and our species, not me.  I just happen to be standing or sitting here in this spot.  Someone will take over for me when my turn is up.  It's what I've always wanted to happen, training my replacement(s) to excel, finding new avenues to explore that'll open their eyes to fresh ideas for our species to spread across the universe.