Bribem's Delayed Again!

     Bribem's Delayed Again
 
      No! 
     What bad luck! 
     Bribem just texted again (this is a day or two after the other post.)     
     Here's what he said:

              Permit! Delinquent! Sptphff. Can't make it. Again!!!

     I translate that to mean he forgot to get a building permit for the strengthening of the dam he's working on, and was therefore considered delinquent in technical terms, having done the work before applying for the permit. (Earlier in his life, that word, delinquent, would have applied in a different way.)
     Maybe I made a mistake in planning to open with Bribem. Knowing him as I do, for the past year of so, I find him usually reliable. Fortunately, I still have those tales from the 1970s plus a lot of new ones. Here's another in the series:

Reg Fox, Prisoner, and a Bird


     Reg Fox rejoiced that he could see at least a patch of sky through a chink the size of two BankAmericards high up on the wall of his windowless cell. One morning, however, he discovered a tangle of twigs stretched across the opening.
     A sparrow's nest gradually took shape as the sun climbed its way up in the morning sky. As the bird came and went on its errands of construction, the prisoner struggled with the issues.
     He has a right to a home, as do I. All creatures (according to the chaplain) deserve reverence. Yet he will cut off completely the view of the sky that has sustained me through these long months. Why must I sacrifice my contact with the outside world in order to honor this fellow creature's right to a home? At that point Reg got an idea.
      The next time the bird appeared, he cried, "Ho, Bird! Since you, by your action, have blocked my connection with freedom without so much as a building permit, don't you think you owe me something in return?"
     The bird shrugged and asked what Reg had in mind.
Reg explained that the warden habitually laid his keys on a rock at the creek at evening wash-up time. All the bird needed to do was seize the keys when the warden's back was turned. The bird readily agreed, stole the keys as planned, delivered them through the hole to the prisoner, and watched his escape.
     Alas! A new prisoner took up residence in the cell. This lout destroyed the nest and eggs in his attempt to enlarge the hole and his chance for freedom.
     Moral:
     Before you would a-rescuing go,
     Better check the quid pro quo.