* * * * *
GREER GALLERY,
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
(FEB. 23, 1968)
It had taken eight months of planning. But, tonight was going to be the night!
The black janitor wheeled his semi-rusty bucket of ammonia and water into the Chinese wing of the art gallery. There, he withdrew the sponge mop and started cleaning the floor with it. As he did so, he hummed along to the latest tune from Motown, via the earpiece of the transistor radio he carried in the right lapel pocket of his cover-alls.
It was only when he got between the TV camera and the statue of Sun Wu Kung that it happened.
The statue was four feet tall, and was supposed to represent the Chinese monkey "god's" punitive petrification (by Buddha, himself) atop Mount Hua-kuo in Jiangsu Province. Unbeknownst to most others, however, the real statue had been stolen the night before! And, in its place, had been left behind the unlikeliest replica in the world: Little Jimmy Locke, himself.
Coated with painstakingly applied papier-mâché, which had then been just as carefully painted to resemble the statue's porcelain exterior.
Now, however, small cracks were beginning to appear within the papier-mache', as Little Jimmy commenced the yogic exercises that would free him from this ersatz cocoon. Exercises similar to the ones that had helped him enter the trance-like state needed to endure the twenty-fours he had just gone through! And, the only reason the nearby TV camera was not recording this on videotape, at that moment, was due to the electronic expertise of Gary Sparks.
Sparks had served as an electrician's mate, in the U.S. Navy, during World War II. And, after his honorable discharge, he applied what he had learned to the neophyte television industry. That is; till he was wrongfully blacklisted, as a "Communist sympathizer," by HUAC!*
Two months ago, difficulty with the videotape recording equipment had compelled the calling of a TV repairman. The latter, of course, had been Gary Sparks. Then, two nights ago, Sparks had returned--far less publicly--to the museum. Helping Little Jimmy make a recording of Henrique Manolo (a foot-juggling capoeirista from Brazil) peacefully cleaning the floor of the Chinese wing. It was that recording which had camouflaged their substitution of the Sun Wu Kung statue, twenty-four hours earlier. And, it was now similarly protecting them as they commenced the final phase of this ambitious heist.
Once the last of the papier-mache' had crumbled off him, Little Jimmy flexed his shoulder muscles. He then jumped down and headed for the display immediately adjacent to "Mount Hua-kuo." That being the glass-topped display case...
...containing the Hsia Jie-ji.
Henrique, seeing that his boss was now free of the cocoon, put the mop back in the bucket and turned off the transistor radio. He then watched as Little Jimmy used an aerosol spray can to mark the presence of infra-red lasers around the base of the case. Lasers that were all too-easily reflected by the use of mirrors inserted into the kind of picture frames that usually stand up, on a night stand, with the help of adjustable triangular wedges!
Five minutes later, the two of them had silently-but-deftly removed the glass top, itself. By which point, the fourth member of the crew had joined them! "Princess" Soo Ming Toy; acrobatic contortionist and trapezist. She had been lowered down, through the skylight, on a rope held by the fifth--and, by far, the strongest--member of the crew; former heavyweight prizefighter George "Gorilla" Simeon.
It was Ming Toy who dropped the real statue of Sun Wu Kong back down to Henrique's waiting hands. And, after he had put it back atop "Mount Hua-kuo," he laid down, on the not-yet-mopped portion of the floor, flat on his back. Following which, Little Jimmy (the Golden Dagger-axe tucked under his left arm) ran toward Henrique's feet.
Faster than one might say "Allez-oop," Henrique had launched his boss straight up towards the waiting arms of Ming Toy! And, when she had both of her hands clasped about Little Jimmy's right wrist, a snap of his left hand's fingers signaled Gorilla to pull them both up and out. Whereupon, the carefully cut-out pane of glass was glued back into the skylight, while Henrique cleaned up all the papier-mache'.
Little did they know that, while each of them was mentally congratulating themselves on a job well-done, another substitution had been quietly made. Only this substitute was painted gold, and had a hollow handle!
Inside of which was a shrunken man named Pepe Garcia.
tbc
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry for the delay: I've had enough writer's blocks this past winter to fill a quarry!
Chapter End Notes:
*HUAC: House Un-American Activities Committee. The branch of the U.S. House of Representatives most notorious for conducting the anti-Communist "witch hunts" of Hollywood from 1948 to circa 1953. Everybody in show business who was politically left of center wound up being deprived of work during those shameful years.