Gratefully most all the gourds survived their trip home, some did get broken..... which takes me to an earlier story about the Water-bed and the UPS Man. I will also note here, it took forever to recover my claim on the broken gourds, but it was resolved. That was not the only thing that took forever to resolve.
My credit card company need documentation that the card was used fraudulently. Than goodness for the Santa Fe police report. They too finally honored my over charge and I did not have to pay. Not long after returning home I received a call from the District Attorney's Office regarding Michael Soutar. It seems my charge against him began the ball rolling for more charges. They wanted me to come back to Santa Fe and testify against this man. Oh my gosh, I couldn't afford another plane ticket to Santa Fe. They seemed to understand and I spent several phone calls recounting the information as I knew it.
Michael Soutar was to go before the judge on November 22, 2004. The District Attorney's Office called me to tell give me the outcome of this event. Michael was charged with 22 counts of fraudulent activity! He was to be sentenced in December. You'll never believe that the District Attorney's office called me the day after he was before the judge, to inform me that Michael Soutar had escaped while on work duty at a park! Everyone seemed to be in shock and of course, the Santa Fe Market was closed forever.
Time passed, as it seems to do. In February of 2005 I received a call from a women that wanted some ornamental gourds for her gift shop, The Blue Spring Heritage Center. She tells me that her shop is near the end of the Trail of Tears in Arkansas, in Eureka Springs. I'd never heard of Eureka Springs, but sent her the gourds and was content that she ordered them.
In August of 2005, my daughter Emily calls, she wants me to turn on channel 45 on the TV quickly! Low and Behold.......... it is America's Most Wanted and they are looking for my con friend, Michael Soutar !! Yep, talk about falling off my chair! I got the entire history of his antics on TV! It seems that he had a real way at persuading women to fall for his lines. Hummm, guess conning artists is no different. He had been dating three women at the same time, duping them of their money. One day they found out about one another and let's just say "stuff hit the fan!" They took him to court and won and hence the probation issue. They then went on to tell the story of his fraudulent activities in Santa Fe. Of course, they were looking to capture him and put him away! So I sort of felt I'd been conned by the best of them!
In September of 2005, my "Annie Oakley" friend Marcy, who keeps popping up in my stories from the Wagon Train Rides to the first story in "The Web We Weave", was driving back to Massachusetts from this year's trip out west. We are happily spending a couple days together, working in the studio, and she tells me she'd just spent the weekend with friends in Eureka Springs! There it is again, Eureka Springs, AR. Where the heck is this place. She also commissions a gourd for a friend there that is getting married. Cool.
Winter comes, February of 2006 comes around, cold and gray. A newly retired friend and I are in the studio visiting. We were reflecting on the long winter, how much we needed sun and so on. It was then I said, "I'd love to be in Santa Fe, where it warm and sunny." She said, "well, let's go!" About that time my dear husband walks in the door and hears our talk, he says, "this is a perfect time, I want to go too!". Well if Richard goes, so must her husband, and now we are driving and I'm seeing weeks of being gone, not just a few days! I decided to research this idea and find out when the Gathering of the Nations Pow Wow in Albuquerque happens. While visiting this site on my computer, I found myself looking at their listing of musical artists. (By this time, I'm very much more acquainted with Native American Flute music) I picked one name from a list of thirty names. Just one............ when I read the name, nothing clicked in my brain, but when his website popped up, I remembered with a jolt, it was John Two -Hawks. The Native man playing flutes at the Jackalope in 2004. I decided then and there to order a CD, I'd heard his music and liked it, yes a CD was necessary.
I called the number and remember talking to a woman. I told her my story of hearing John Two-Hawks at the Jackalope and a little of how I happen to be there. It was a nice conversation, she ask about my art and what I did. She thought maybe I might be interested in an Artist Retreat in April. I told her that I'd think about it and ordered the Cd's.
I spoke with my friend again about the trip to Santa Fe and about maybe waiting and going with me to an Artist Retreat. This certainly fit my schedule better, a nice long weekend, rather than a couple weeks on the road driving to and from Santa Fe. We agreed to do the retreat. I called back to schedule it and started asking questions, dates and such.... "oh, yes, now where are you located?" She replies, "Eureka Springs, AR". She also tells me that she remembers me from the Jackalope and her best friend ordered gourds from me for her gift shop, the Blue Spring Heritage Center.
Well, needless to say, you could have knocked me over with a feather! Oh, yes there is more to The Web We Weave, part three!
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