Vandal Scandal

about three years ago I moved to a neighborhood right downtown. thirteen year old me was given freedom, and suddenly the entire city was at my fingerips. but it wasn't quite in the palm of my hand.

no. That luxury belonged to the Nuerological Sleep lab on the corner of 1st Ave North and 22nd.

Or better yet, the entity I had nicknamed "the Vandal"

It started with the Sleep lab. I was suspicious of the place, of its tan walls and vacant, quiet premises, the way it was almost hauntingly invisible, a void in the middle of the most colorful street in the city. I did my research on the head doctor, on what they studied- I watched the doctors go in and out, I even memorized their schedules.

Eventually I gave up. I had nothing to go on. Just a gut feeling.

That was until I saw the symbol for the first time, about 2 years later. It was simple- a black circle, about an inch below a black triangle. I searched the internet for something that matched, but I found nothing that looked exactly like it.

about two months ago I started volunteering at the local courthouse. Every time I passed I looked at the sculpture they have on their lawn, bright red chairs of every unique shape. It was on one of those brief looks that I saw it. The symbol.

I'd only seen it two places now. The Sleep lab and the Courthouse. It had to mean something. Except that places so serious and important always- and I mean always- scrub r paint over vandalism. especially on such iconic art installations.

But I wasn't fully sold. we have nearly 700 murals in my city, and about 7000 acts of vandalism each year. Some of the better ones have a signature- Fade and Moon among the legends. This was probably a signature of a very picky vandal.

The third time I saw it, I was climbing a tree in front of the Museum of Fine Arts. A museum known for its high-end events and exclusive, inhospitable property. They allowed the banyan and African trees to be climbed, and every now and then you could project movies on their outside wall. But don't you dare take picutres on their sidewalk.

Carved in the africa tree was the symbol.

That was last week.