Bon Voyage to Janie

Rucci the Tile Kidnapper has struck again. Janie, who got so tired of hearing the word "awesome" that she started charging co-workers every time they said it, was dropped at a phone booth at the now-defunct CVS Pharmacy on 17th Street and Andrews Avenue on May 28. By that time, she'd collected so much money in the "awesome" jar that she had hit the streets looking for a happy hour. She started at the phone both, perhaps calling some friends to come and meet her, but she never did make it very far. Rucci just recently discovered her in a red automotive newspaper box not far from the phone at CVS.

Nobody really knows how Janie wound up there. Maybe none of her friends were home that night. Maybe she realized she didn't have any friends. Maybe she was just really, really tired and crawling inside a little red box just seemed like a grand idea. Then again, she could have been looking for a good used car and fell asleep waiting for callbacks. ... and while sleeping perhaps she began to dream of fairies, and then she transitioned directly into another dream ... about a ferry of a different kind.

By the time she woke up, she was feeling a little faded, but apparently her dream was about to become a reality. This e-mail and the above photo arrived in the Tilefortlauderdale e-mail box today.

"Janie decided to skip Friday 'Happy-Hour' and spend her new found "Awesome-Cash" in a different way! She wanted to join her cousins on her OWN magnificent journey! All she knew was, she wanted a secret Ferry-Ride and was going to get one. She would take her jar with her and order strangers to pony-up a buck when she hears 'Awesome!' That should just about cover the cost of the ferry. Ahhhh, another of MTM's offspring leaves the nest to take yet another trip to far off lands. Will keep you updated on her wild time and final destination."

R&R, the team of Rucci and Sherry, thought another recently dropped tile might make good company for Janie, so the next day, they went to Birch Park to search for her too, but the secret-telling Veronica was nowhere to be found. She may have been hiding, or she might have just run off, or maybe she was curled up somewhere in the park, resting up from telling all her secrets night after night.

They did, however, encounter the heart art, and the old train, and Rucci is seemingly a longtime visitor to Birch Park.

This followup e-mail arrived just after the e-mail about Janie's new adventure: "The next day we were hiking in Birch Park and saw the hearts within the hearts you were speaking of and wanted to take Veronica with us also but we think she was discovered as we know that area well and REALLY looked for her. I actually rode that little train long ago ... the part where it would travel over the narrow tressel, the conductor would stop the train and declare "If anyone doesn't like the way I'm driving the train, THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN GET OFF!!!" Too funny! R&R"

R&R have been picking up tiles for some time now and taking them on adventures in places like Tennessee and North Carolina, and then photographing and recording the exploits for this site. Sherry shares the tile adventures with everyone down at the firehouse too.

We'll have to wait and see what become of Janie. As for the aptly named Vulnerable Veronica ... no one knows where she is tonight ... probably beside a little patch of thriving flowers, somewhere out there in a field, whispering about her trip to the trees.

As for Janie, I wish her an awesome bon voyage.