A Long Lonely Road

A Dark Wind Brings No Good

Book 10

By TJ Reeder

              We were planning to head up to Shiprock to see about a horse for Beth when the Commo lady came running up all breathless saying a call had come in that Charley was in bad trouble in a small town just over the Arizona line. No other information was given, we just needed weapons. If Charley was in trouble we were gonna need weapons!

    I sent a runner for Ralph and when he arrived I told him what was going on and to get the bird warming up and get the armory dudes to mount the guns, He took off at a run. I gathered Willy and Joe and told them what we knew and told them to get some shooters loaded up and to get drivers for the Dodge and the Jeep.

    In thirty minutes we were lifting off, loaded for bears, lots of bears. We were landing in Shiprock before I got the damn seatbelt tight, I never could get them hooked up right. I think it was because of seeing a Marine who’s belt jammed when the bird got hit and we watched him burning before we could help, Well one of the troops shot him in the head before it got too bad but still. It’s a memory that stays.

    We unassed the bird and were met by Old Woman and Charleys brother and got the story. Word had come to them that one of their People was in jail in a small town just over the line in Arizona for stealing gas and was gonna be hanged for it. Charley had taken off with two other elders to try to get him out of jail and word was the Sheriff had locked the three of them up too.

    I asked where this place was for sure and told Old Woman we would bring Charley back or we wouldn’t be back, harsh words but I was pissed. I could hear Sandy’s jaw popping and May was just stroking the butt of her 45. Beth was calm and serene looking but I could feel the heat coming off her as we took off.

    We located the place and avoided getting too close but seeing a truck on the highway we landed in front of it and scared the shit out of an Asian couple with three kids.

    I held my empty hands up and I walked to them followed by the girls, I think seeing the women helped to calm their fears.

              I introduced myself and found there name was Lee, not a big surprise but they all spoke perfect English.

              Their story was that they had topped a small rise and saw a road block ahead and armed men were dragging people out of their vehicle, they were so busy they never noticed Mr. lee backing up his truck and turning off on a dirt road that took them way out of the way and around the town listed on their map as Good Water, nice name for a shit hole! I didn’t even get warned about my language.

    I asked them where they were going and was told they were in fact heading for our area because they heard race meant nothing in our area. I was torn because of the plague issues and asked them if they had seen it, they hadn’t but had heard the same and headed out a month back, working for fuel as they went.

              I thought for a moment and said, “Ok, here’s the deal, I’ll have the chopper take you to our place if you let us use your truck, which was a nice crew cab four door job, to go into the town and look things over.”

    Mr. Lee was gonna think it over, probably worried about losing the truck, but his wife said, “Yes! Kids unload!” And with not a word of protest the kids bailed out and started grabbing their packs, “BOB’s,” their mom said with a smile. I was thinking these folks were gonna fit right in with us.

    We got them and their gear into the bird and after giving Ralph some orders we piled into the truck and turned around and started driving along like we had not a worry in the world. We could see the road block a mile away. They were so stupid about where they placed it. As we got closer I could see several rough looking men standing in a line waiting for us.

    I told the girls that if they made one move out of line we were gonna smoke them and then go on into town.

    I stopped a good 30 yards away from the five men and stepped right out to stand behind the door, Sandy did the same on the right. May and Beth stayed inside but had their doors open.

              One of the men yelled out for us to all step out away from the truck and to kneel down with our hands on our heads.

              I said, “You’re kinda a stupid son of a bitch ain’t ya?” He looked like he swallowed his chaw but we wanted to go into the town so I said, “Really, we ain’t gonna do that, we are just heading to Flagstaff to be with family.

    I knew that wasn’t gonna work when one of the others said, “Well hell, then y’all just let us check yer truck for any non-whites and you can head on down the road.

              Sandy said, “Y’all don’t like folks of color?” The talker said, “Nope we don’t and we got a jail full we plan to hang Saturday night before the dance.” Sandy said, “OH a dance? Can we stay for the dance daddy? Please?” May joined in with her. I said, “Well I don’t know, these folks don’t seem too friendly.” The first dude said, “Well I’m sorry but we have an unpleasant job and sometimes we get too touchy. Y’all go on in to town but check in at the Sheriff’s office.” I said, “Well ok, since ya put it that a-way. And thanks! My girls shore love to dance.” I grinned and they grinned and Sandy smiled with her lips but her eyes looked like two black holes in the door to hell. I swear she is gonna be hard to handle I just know it.

    We started driving and Sandy mocked me. “My girls “shore” likes them sum dancing?”

              Beth was laughing and May was smiling real big, then Sandy started laughing so hell we all did. She scooted over and kissed me in the ear then shoved her tongue in it causing me to run off the road. I hate that shit! “Stop cussing!” Sigh.

    We had about three miles to plan our play but I figured we could do it. But I had no intentions of going right to the Sheriff’s office. We rolled into the town and I saw a café right away so we pulled in and piled out and went on in like we lived here.

              A young girl came to wait on us and said, “Y’all sit where ya want and I’ll bring water.” So we sat where we could see the truck and looked at the paper menu. Looked like not much so I settled for coffee the girls wanted pie and coffee.

    When the girl brought the coffee I asked what the town was like. She got a scared look and glanced at the kitchen and lowered her voice and said, “You’re strangers here so get out while you can!” I asked, “Why?” She said, “Since the new Sheriff and his men took over things have got real bad!” She said her dad would skin her for talking to us. I said, “Well ask your dad to come out here, please.” She took off like a scared deer. In a couple of minutes a man came out carrying our pie and looking like he, too, wanted to run.

    I asked him to sit down which he did but he was scared to death. I decided to be right up front. I told him my name and his eyes got big, then he looked at the girls then at me again and said, “God I hope you’re here to help us out.” Then he started talking so fast it was hard to keep up.

    The so called Sheriff had showed up one day and just took over, said he had a decree from the Governor saying he was to keep the peace and to keep the area pure for the white folks. He said that same night most of the Mexican and Indian folks headed out of town as fast as they could go and nothing was ever heard about them again. The girls were getting pissed, I already was. The man’s name was Jasper and he told us all about how things were. The Sheriff and his men took what they wanted when they wanted it including women and of late had started in on the older girls. Same old song and dance, I was so tired of this crap.

   He said he kept his daughter out of sight when any of them was here and so far had gotten away with it. I asked about the Indians in the jail, he said that on Saturday evening they hung any non-whites, as they called em that was caught during the week but things had been slim of late and then in a matter of days there was four of them.

    The deputies were all laughing about how they was gonna do a rope dance and it might rain. I asked why they didn’t fight back, he said the first day the deputies had rounded up all the guns in town and the few they didn’t find weren’t enough.

    I was thinking that one good man with a good rifle could have killed Hitler in the very beginning but it never happened.

    Nobody wants to be the one who lets it all hang out and pay a price. I asked how many deputies there were, he said about twenty five and that there had been more but some folks coming thru had fought back and took out the entire road block crew and escaped. Them we needed, but they were long gone. So we would do it our way, hard, cold and fast.

              We had our coffee and pie and watched a truck with five men in it drive up, I saw the badges on their shirts and said, “Girls, bathrooms.” Beth and May got up and headed for the cans. Sandy scooted her chair back and took her 45 out and held it in her lap out of sight.

    They came in like they owned the place and looking around spotted us and headed right for us.

              The one in charge said. “You was told to report to the jail house!” I just looked at him and waited, he blinked first. He said, “You’re under arrest!”

              “For what?” I asked. “For not doin what ya was told.” I had to laugh, it sounded like my mom saying, “You just wait till yer dad gets home!” Only she never said that and dad never came home, Iwo Jima was a place a lot of Marines didn’t come home from.

              He was working up to it and since they were used to being the big dogs on the block they never thought to look close. When somebody ain’t afraid of you there has to be a reason, and it usually ain’t gonna be good for you!

              Before he did ‘the stupid thing’ he looked around and said, “Where at’s them other bitches?” Sandy shot him. Just like that, she never uncrossed her legs, just shot him then the one next to him. I may have got one of them, I know May and Beth did.

              I looked at Sandy and said, “Well shit! I wasn’t done talking to the asshole!” She smiled and said, “Oops.”

              I swear sometimes I think she takes after me god forbid. Beth and May were at the door waiting for reinforcements to charge in but none came.

              Jasper said, “Well if I had doubts I guess I don’t now, yawlz are who ya say you are.”

              I told him I hated to make a mess and leave but we needed to get to the jail right away, he asked if I was crazy. May said, “Yeah, we wonder ‘bout that a lot!” No respect.

    We headed right down the road and spotted the sheriff’s office and got out and went in. The big hoodo was sitting in the chair behind the desk with his feet up; several of his so called deputies were sprawled around the room.

    I said, “Howdy! Yer road block crew said to check in.” He looked at his watch and said, “Yeah, damn near an hour ago, where you been?” It was easy to see he was pretty well impressed with himself. All dressed up in a black suit with a very white shirt and a string tie, polished stove pipe boots and a cute gun fighter mustache, what is with these assholes? They all watch the same cowboy movie? He said, “Well?” I blinked and said, “Excuse me, what was the question?” He was already getting mad, short fuse I guess. I said, “OH!! Where was we? Well I got lost.” “Lost?” He yelled! “The fkn town has one street and you got lost?” I shrugged looked down toward the floor for just a second and said, “Well, I don’t do good in cities.”

              Now his crew was laughing and that was making him ever madder, he stood up, all of five feet with 4 inch heels on his boots of him. I smiled and said, “I bet those are hard to walk in huh?”

              I was tired of the whole thing so I simply pulled my gun from under my jacket and heard the girls do the same. The bunch stopped laughing. The so called sheriff said, “You won’t make it ten feet I have five deputies just down the road and they will be here in seconds.”

              I said, “Well then, I guess we need to get to business so drop all your weapons first, which they did. The pretty boy was last and I could see he loved his gun rig because he gently set it down. It was pretty, all tooled black hollyweird gunfighter style holding two real looking colts. Sandy said, “Kick it over here.” He said, “Go fuck yourself,” so she shot him in the foot. Then she picked up the rig and passed it to Beth.

    I got the keys and headed for the cells where I found Charley and his people plus several others who it turned out were folks who stood up against the Sheriffs take-over. They all trooped out and in the light of the main office it was easy to see the results of the beatings handed out by this bunch.

    I told them to gather all the guns and anything else they wanted and to head outside. We backed to the door where Sandy said, “Get Beth away from here.”

     I didn’t ask, I just took Beth’s hand and high stepped away down the street. Sandy and May smiled and holstered their guns and with economy of movement each tossed two grenades thru the door, shut it and took off running away from the building which about 4 seconds later blew all to hell! I didn’t know what they had in mind but that wasn’t what I was thinking, abrupt, always abrupt.

    We got set and waited and sure ‘nuff here come the posse, riding to the sound of the cannons, well ok grenades but WTF.

              They rolled right into a bad day, Charley and his People shot the shit out of them, and then shot them some more.

              I counted, five in the café, seven in the office and six in the street, that was eighteen and five at the road block we stopped at, I had no idea about the other roadblock. I figured some of them had some smarts and were heading away post haste. The locals slowly came out looking stunned then started yelling and acting like it was a good day. I guess it was for them.

              Jasper come running up all out of breath and said he saw some leaving town in an old truck, just hauling ass. I figure the road block fools went too and someplace down the road they will meet their end as all of their type seem to be doing since they can’t lawyer up.

    We waited in town for another hour and at last heard Ralph coming, he flew over the town and landed in an empty lot.

              Sandy asked Jasper what kind of truck the asshats were driving; he said it was an old red Ford. She ran to the chopper followed by May and jumped in, make go motions to Ralph who looked at me and shrugged. I pointed up and he was gone.

              Jasper said, “Was them Pigs in the door of that bird?” I smiled and said, “Where did you serve, Jasper?” He said, “Same place you did John, door gunner.”

              We shook hands and I could see the longing in his eyes, I said, “When they get back if you want I’ll have Ralph take you up and see if your skills are still good.” I swear he almost cried!   

              Thirty minutes later they were back, Ralph made a thumbs up gesture. I pointed at Jasper and pointed up, he got it and smiled.

              Off they went and a ways out I could hear the 60 working and I could tell there was an expert on the gun. Sandy and May will hose a whole belt non-stop so Ralph makes short belts to give the barrel time to cool before they burn it out. Door gunning is an art and apparently one never forgotten!

              When they landed Jasper was smiling so big we could see his back teeth. He came over and started shaking my hand and saying, “Thank you, thank you!!”

              His daughter was looking at her Dad like she didn’t know him at all. Beth hugged her and said. “It’s ok honey they never grow up.”

              I asked Jasper if he would like to move to the canyons and be our door gunner and train another one.

              He just said, “Come on honey we have to pack, we’re moving.”

    Well it has been a day and we still don’t have a horse for Beth. Charley and his people were fine, just a few bruises but ready to go home. I sent them with Ralph and we headed home in the borrowed truck.

    We got to Shiprock and headed in to see how the men were. Charley was there but the others had headed home. Charley looked at me and the girls and just nodded, that was all that needed saying. He knew, we knew.

              We spent the night and the next morning we went with Charley to the horse area. His wranglers had several in the corral waiting for Beth. She had heard May’s story so she walked to the fence and stood quietly.

              Nothing, the boys ran those out and brought on the next batch, nothing, Beth was getting down but Charley said to relax it would come when it was time and sure enough when the next bunch were run in, and after a bit of milling around a really pretty mare walked right up to Beth and nuzzled her. Beth put her arms around the horse’s neck and put her face down by the horse’s nose and they breathed each other’s air. Now I don’t have a damn clue about this stuff, it’s like the girls and their witchcraft or whatever it is. I just know it is and that’s that. Take it or leave it.

              The mare was a really pretty Sorrel with almost white mane and tail. It was love at first sight. Charley smiled and said, “I knew it!” I looked at him and he said he told the boys to run this one in a ways back he wanted to see if he was right.

              I asked, “Right about what?” He said the boys had said this mare was standing at the fence looking off in the direction of the canyons since yesterday morning when we headed out but then we got the call about Charley being in trouble. As I said, I don’t know, I don’t have to know, the horse and Beth know and that’s enough.

    The boys had her loaded up and on the road before we could blink. I asked Charley where all these horses come from. He just looked at me and smiled.

              Looks to me like the People ain’t only taking their lands back. Good for them. ‘Bout time.

    We got home and found everybody wanting to know everything. The Lee’s had got settled for now in a large military tent  until they chose their hobbit house and got set up and were still in shock at how they had been accepted. Mr. Lee was glad to see his truck was unhurt.

              I guess it’s still rougher out there then we know. We told everybody the story after dinner and one of the women quipped that maybe I needed to settle down and stop shooting up the countryside, all to laughter. I said, “Hey, I fired one shot and I’m not sure I even hit anybody.”

              I pointed at “them” causing Sandy to say “What? I’m supposed to let some redneck trash refer to us as bitches?” That got laughter. Plus even more when it was told she shot the sheriff in the foot ruining his shine. But the best was the grenades thru the door that brought the house down. Also she had added to their gun collection with the pair of colts the dude had. They don’t miss anything when it comes to their collection.

              I’m pretty sure I went wrong someplace with them, they seem to flock to the flames like a moth, but thankfully they seem to always escape.

              I guess it’s because nobody thinks they look dangerous, the tight black jeans don’t help either, help the other guys I mean. It’s hard to worry about some good looking chick in tight jeans, you just don’t expect her to just up and shoot you.

    Me? The bad guys watch me like a hawk and never see it coming from the babes. Anyway, this little war was just a flash in the pan so to speak.

              Charley and his people are fine, the townspeople are fine, we got an experienced door gunner and cook out of it and a nice family joined us and I have no doubts they will become an asset.

              All in all it’s been a good few days and I’m tired and I want a few cold beers and a nap, then I think we need to go see the house.

              I got my nap and in fact got more then I expected, Beth joined me and napping with her is like hot apple pie, wonderful.

              When I woke up the whole gang was here and the day was about gone, how that happened I don’t know, but drinking beer in the middle of the day and being tired to boot may have something to do with it.

              We got up and went for a swim then bummed dinner which is always wonderful.

    The Lee’s had already entered the evening cooking fest. Mrs. Lee who is named Lyla and Mr. Lee who is named Brad had a fire going and Lyla had made a fish dish with fresh caught striped bass that was to die for, with some steamed veggies and brown rice. I was gonna spend a lot of time at their fire!

              Their kids were already off with the others flying off the cliff on a beat to shit bike no doubt, but Brad said they were born in water and may even have gills.

    Lyla had a degree in Horticulture! So she and Mable were already best friends. Brad had been in the Army for ten years and served in an artillery unit. I couldn’t believe our good luck. Just out of the blue, so to speak. So I took him for a walk along with Jasper and half the tribe to the low boy trailer where the girls jumped up and peeled off the tarp.

     I thought Brad was gonna crap his pants! He was all over the guns; in minutes he was a kindred spirit to the girls who filled him in on the battle of LA. I wonder how it is that when we need some special skill it just pops up looking for a home. I really can creep myself out at times.

   It was too late for the climb to the house so we headed back to the trailer where we piled onto the bed and read for a while which we all enjoy but don’t do much of.

    Morning came as usual in a tangle of legs and hair in my face. Hell I couldn’t even move so I just laid there thinking until they woke up. I wanted a shower and food so I wiggled out of the pile taking my bath kit and headed out the door.

              I had the shower to myself for five minutes and then it got crowded, and slippery between the soap and the shampoo. I figure one day I’ll fall on my ass from all the slippery stuff on the floor.

              Food was calling so I bailed out and went looking for somebody who might give me a hand out. Mable and Wilson were having a good time cooking big veggie omelets.

              I took one and sat on a tree stump and got two bites before the plate was taken and the stump became so crowded I had to move.

              I was getting another omelet when that plate was removed from my hand. Wilson asked why I let them treat me that way; I asked if he wanted to try getting the plate back for me? He said, “Hell no!” He was fixing me another one when Beth arrived so he just handed it to her and got a warm smile. He said, “Oh, I see now.” I smiled and said, “Yeah, that’s part of the dues I pay.” Wilson soon handed me an omelet that I got to eat all of and it was good!

              I walked to the next fire and got a big mug of coffee and the lady said, “John just take some cups and the pot or you’re gonna make several trips.” She helped me. The girls smiled and thanked her and said if they had a decent husband he would think of them, life in the monkey cage. Sigh.

              We headed up on the ridge and looked the place over, all was well but where was the water gonna come from. Sandy said, “Well we talked to Willard and Wilson before Wilson jumped ship and they have a ton of irrigation pipe more then enough to tap into the creek way up above the place it falls into the canyon and we just let it use gravity to flow right here.” I was impressed, they said the shower was going to be right out the back door facing the drop off; it was going to be like the others, a black container which will fill from the water line with the pressure of the 4 inch pipe and the downhill run. Also there was a line going into the kitchen area to feed the sink and provide drinking and cooking water. They had it all worked out except the outhouse which was going to be a problem but they seemed to think for now a porta potty was going to work temporarily. Ok, I agree. So when does the water go in? When do we move in?

              They said the stuff for furnishing the house was coming today and would be here in about two hours. They also told me that I was off the hook for the lighting, which I had totally forgot about. They had taken care of it while I was busy supervising the construction of the beer cooler.

              Somebody has been on the radio to the Fort. And they were right on time, Willard driving and a crew following along to see Wilson and Mable and move us in.

              And Mrs. Willard had joined the group. Me thinks I smell a rat! I think Willard misses his old buddy and is hoping his Mrs. will love the canyon.

    I watched Willard ease the box truck up onto the ridge like he did it every day and the fun started. I had no idea when the girls had time to look at stuff like furniture and other household stuff but there it was.

    When you’re simply driving up to a furniture warehouse and loading up only the very best, you can furnish a place in a manner few can afford.

    An all leather living room set, matching recliners and several matching love seats were first. I guess we were going to have lots of company which is fine with me. The place is cool from the thick walls and the windows open at top and bottom allowing the cool air in and forcing the hot air out.

              They had found a bed that looked big enough for a rifle squad complete with all the bed covers and such, where, I don’t know, but it’s comfy looking and I plan to sleep here tonight.

    I like some art, mostly what’s called cowboy art, and happily my ladies aren’t into the crap that art snobs stand and look at for an hour before making some snobby proclamation.

              I will admit I was shocked when they hauled out some original Remington’s! And Charley Russell’s they said came from a huge ranch house that was empty but notes were left saying where it went.

    We, as a nation and world, have lost so much and yet we have saved so much too, I only hoped others are doing the same.

    There are beautiful glass and wood gun cases that the girls will fill with some of the beautiful stuff they “acquired.”

              When the place was filled up with as much as it was going to get, it looked beautiful, but I still felt funny about it, the whole world was scrabbling to stay alive and we were living in a beautiful home filled with salvaged stuff. But damn it guilty or not I loved it! And we were gonna do the same for anybody who wanted one.

    The last item off the truck was a beautiful Black Walnut bar with back bar and six stools, the booze I had to provide. If “they” haven’t traded it all off I have some good stuff. I looked at it and was so proud of them.

              The first night in our new house in our new bed was awesome! On the ridge there was a nice breeze blowing off the lake and the open windows let it flow thru the entire house. I think we all slept the best we had in who knows how long.

    With the new day came more work, the solar equipment was going in and surprise! Our newest resident was an expert on solar! How is it this happens? A cannon cocker and solar expert. God loves us. Or Buddha. Whomever, we thank you!!

    Brad said he got out of the army and looked for a field that had a future and figured solar power was it.

    I told him we had enough solar stuff to light the whole state but really nobody to set it up. We had used small individual Solar setups for the hobbit houses. He said he was our man and went to work that morning with a few of Harvey’s young men who were ready to learn anything and everything. The way they went at it and from what I saw of Brad’s teaching abilities I figured we would have a full solar crew in a short time.

    I looked for Beth and the girls and found them with the horses, of course. and admiring Beth’s horse. I asked her its name and she said, “Well she told me a bit ago. It’s Penny.” “Ok,” say’s I. “Penny it is. She’s for sure the color of a new penny!” I looked at May who said, “Not yet but I can feel it trying to break thru.” “Ok.. good ‘nuff,” says I. “What y’all wanna do today?”

              “Go riding what else?” Says them. I said, “Well maybe we should try working a bit, you know help out with the chores. They all smiled and said, “John get your mule saddled and don’t forget your rifle, our job is patrolling to keep everyone in these canyons safe and we are doing that today on horseback and tomorrow we are patrolling the lake.”

              Well good, coz I ain’t a farmer and Harvey won’t let me near the rock working and Brad said maybe I shouldn’t climb ladders at my age and no I didn’t shoot him.

    Patrolling is my idea of a good job and Bucks idea of a good job. We smiled all day, nobody tried to kill me or Buck or Beth. We road about 20 miles and saw nothing, well nothing amiss. We saw plenty of critters, snakes, lizards, a couple of some kind of turtle and a few Ki-youts. I wanted to shoot them but the girls said, “No!” Shit, they’ve shot so many people they are like the black plague but a “youte” oh hell no.

              Their logic was that the boys shot them enough when they came after our chickens and that out here they had the right to live in peace.

              I didn’t really plan to shoot one I just like to get them going, Beth is never fooled, and she just smiles and watches the feud go on. 

    We saw some wild burros with babies which excited the girls, I said, “No, it’s not gonna follow you home.” Glares and a pair of tongues sticking out, so childish, so I stuck mine out at them, they flipped me off. Funner then a bleeding hang nail for sure.

              I will admit to any and all that my ass was sore and beat from the day. We made it back in time to eat. I simply fell down and leaned against a rock face and May brought out some cold beer, I drank two real fast and almost fell asleep in my bowl. But we were having stew and hot buttered bread with grilled veggies from Lyla which were awesome. Cake from somebody, it was a feast since lunch was a homemade granola bar which I complained about but was informed I was getting a bit of a belly.

              I hate them. (Do not!) I can! (Can not, so shadup!) Shit (Don’t cuss the baby can hear you!) Sigh. “Can it really?” I ask. Everybody looks at me knowing what’s going on but ignoring it, leaving me looking like a loon.

     I said, “If I say shit out loud can the baby hear me?” Every woman there all said “Don’t cuss! The baby can hear you!” Sigh, and stop sighing all the time! So, I got more cake, pot gut or no. As the imperial Grand Pooba of this cluster fk I have to have some rights, right? (HA!!) Ok! Power! (HA-HA!) It’s a circus; I live in a circus, surrounded by clowns, clowns with strange brain waves.

              They break out in song.. “Clowns to the right of me, Jokers to the left, here I am, stuck in the middle again.” Then everybody was singing it, God hates me! (Does not!) Sigh…

              Down side to a great house on a hill, climbing up to it sux, I may sleep in the trailer tonight. Now I have two pulling and one pushing. Where did I go wrong? I lived a good life, quiet, honest (HA!) Quit it.

(Nope!) We made it. I could have done it at a run (shit!) Stop cussing! The baby can hear! (So? the baby already knows that word) (Yeah, thanks to potty mouth daddy). I give up (bout time hahaha).

              Great news!! The shower works!! And it’s big enough for a party! It is a wonderful shower with two of those rain forest shower heads that rain on you side by side, so it’s one shower space.

              Why am I complaining with three wonderful naked slippery wives in here with me? I don’t know, Old? I guess, Cantankerous? (Yes!!) 

    We gather on the big bed and talk about the day and most everything else, we are going on a lake patrol tomorrow which scares the crap out of me because I don’t drive boats and guess who does? But I’m hoping with Beth along she will keep them calm.

    I think I passed out first and slept like a wintering bear. Between the cool breezes thru the house and the seemingly extra room in this bed it’s wonderful!

    First up makes the coffee, and they will lay there till hell freezes over before they will open an eye, their bladders will resemble a whale blowing before they will admit defeat.

              So I do the right thing and get up to make coffee, and of course let the beer out from the night before, just saying.

    While I’m outside taking care of morning issues they, of course, got up and using their gigantuous coffee cups, drained the pot, well there was an inch of coffee and grounds.

              And they smile with no sign of shame. Then Beth pulls a cup from behind her back and laughs at me as I tremble with wild desire…for the coffee.

    We make our plans to patrol the lake and visit with anybody we meet. Then off to breakfast, bumming as usual. I should add here that when I say bumming it’s just a joke, the clan gathers for breakfast in the communal cooking area either bringing food or help with cooking or clean up.

    The girls usually did some of all of it. They would take something and help out,

no slackers in this family, my job is to control them (Hashanah) and to eat everything in sight. Or maybe I should say everything they leave.

    I wanted to take a pontoon boat for the lake patrol but they wanted to play plus cover the lake faster, so we took some kind of jacked up flying water bullet somebody found and brought in.

              I’m waiting for them to mount a machine gun on it. (Working on it buddy boy!) Sh… (Good boy).

    This damn thing burns way too much fuel which ain’t gonna last much longer although the recovery crews put a goodly batch of Stabo in it. But we don’t do this very often so WTF as they say.

    We loaded up and headed out, well-armed as usual and the girls did hold it down somewhat. We didn’t need an upset baby making Beth lose her breakfast.

              We slowed down when we came to one of the sail boats plying their trotlines and just passed the news as we knew it. All was well on their side of the lake and they had heard nothing to worry about. I passed on the word about a plague in the cities but they weren’t worried since their settlements were far more isolated then ours.

              We moved on to the other boats which all had the same word. Things were settled good on the lake since the first spat of trouble that ended right on the water when the wanna-be king had had a heart attack compliments of Sandy and her fast .45, but not before he killed one of his own people.

    We went quite a ways but it would take more fuel and time then we have to do the entire lake so we bagged it and made it home for lunch, of course.

              With nothing pressing we went home and cleaned our weapons out under the one nice tree near the house, that took an hour or so and after showering the gun crap off I headed for a nap, Beth joined me while the girls headed off to see who needed help with something.

    They must not have had luck helping because in an hour they were back and said everybody was taking siestas which had caught on with us. We were up early and stayed up late so a nice long siesta made it a perfect day.

    Time passes at its own pace here in the canyon. I believe I’ve said it before and will again. Nobody works hard, no reason to.

              We grow or hunt our food and we have all we need. We aren’t building a retirement; we are retired, from the old rat race. It’s just not important anymore.

              Like the cells full of gold, silver and jewels in the fort, who cares? Nobody even guards the stuff, the doors are open. We don’t need it in our community, maybe in outside towns we might but that’s fine, we can spread the wealth and get some commerce going where the people want it.

              It’s like Harvey and his people working so hard on our home, I could hand them a hundred pounds of gold and a sack of diamonds, but for what? Or a truck load of ammo but hell we have it right here and it belongs to all of us. Want some? Go get it.

              So how do you pay somebody for helping, just by being there if and when they need help.

              But there are so many willing hands here that help can be overwhelming, so the girls and I do what we do best, we protect our families, clan, tribe or whatever, which includes all the canyon folks, the lake people, and Charleys People.

              We are good at that, better then most folks, so when we are needed we go. And everybody knows when we go we may not make it back. I don’t say this; it’s what they say to us.

              And we all are happy with the arrangement. Of course the girls do a lot of stuff with the other women but it’s more for the companionship of other women plus they like to eat so helping grow food is their way to feel good about bumming.

    I don’t hunt when we are here because the younger lads take care of that, they ask in the morning what the ladies want and they go find it, fish is easy, the lines are out and checked daily. Rabbit demands a bit more work because they are so tasty and get hunted more. Deer is something the ladies all agree on together before hand so it will be used up or so it was before the cold cave.

Now deer or beef can be hung and used as needed. But feeding so many means nothing will go to waste.

              We have folks who tan the cow hides and some who can make a pair of boots, need boots? Stop off and get fitted and pick them up when they are done.

    We have a better life here then most of these folks ever had or ever would have had before the lights went out. I know the kids have just blossomed in this life, help when you can or are needed, play or study or go fishing or hunting or whatever. They are growing up to be better citizens then they ever would have in the so-called civilized gang filled world they would have grown up in. We have a good life here in case I haven’t mentioned it.

    On a whim I asked Ralph to take one of the girls up on an aerial scout in the small plane just to see what’s what. Sandy won the toss and they took off,

              May and Beth went off to work in a garden, I wandered off to the ammo loading shack and chatted with the loading crew who complained about not having enough to do since we hadn’t been shooting much.

              I agreed, so I took a can of 45’s to the range and spent time on my draw and shoot drills, I had noticed the girls were getting faster then me and I can’t have that.

              Shortly May and Beth showed up with a few other ladies who wanted to shoot so it turned into a training session which I really enjoyed.

              When our ladies leave their home spot they go armed so they do need to practice just like I do. It was fun. I was showing them how to draw and shoot without really aiming. That’s called “Shoulder Point” shooting. I’ve done it so long I have to slow down and force myself to use sights. I started them off slow to develop their muscle memory and before we were done for the day they were showing a lot of improvement.

              All wanted to do it again tomorrow so we settled on in the morning when it’s coolest but after they had done their morning chores.

              We policed the brass up and the girls and I took it to the two Old Farts as we called them, like I got room to talk. They said, “Well shit, John we didn’t ask you to shoot so much!” I told them to get to work because the women were training for the big match. What big match?? The one I just decided to hold in two weeks.

              Beth and May were up for a match but I told them they were going to have to shoot in the “pro” section because they shoot more, this was really for the ‘other’ women. They loved it.

              They told Sandy as soon as they landed and she was pissed she missed an afternoon of shooting but I reminded her she gloated over winning the ride with Ralph.

              I’m number one I guess since that’s what she waved in my face. Can’t I ever win?

(Nope, never have never will)

    We spent the two weeks before the big match helping the ladies who wanted to compete get some practice and just in general get pumped up for it.

    What started out as a whim has turned into a major event. I guess folks were bored or something but I believe too that folks realize we live in a very violent world even if our little island is safe.

    And of course the event has become an excuse for a feast day, which is always a good thing, people are coming from all the canyons and from across the lake even though we seldom have much contact with the, as we refer to them, “fishing villages.” But getting to know everyone that lives here will help us know when somebody comes along that doesn’t belong, so this is a good thing.

    Even Charley and a lot of his people are coming just to be a part of the event. I’m glad since I miss Charley if too much time passes.

              Old Woman is coming which has all the ladies excited and pleased. She fills a leadership role I believe is missing among the women.

              Hell, I don’t know, she just brings wisdom with her and since she came out of the shadows at the last get together she has become more approachable it seems.

    We set the whole thing up for three days as far as the match part of it; the feast will last until it ends, if it ends.

    Recalling the days when I shot matches I got Joe and Willy and several of the men and a lot of the young people together and laid out what I had in mind. Mostly it was for the ladies but there was going to be a part that was two gun, rifle and pistol, a sniper shoot and a man on man event where two shooters face identical targets and on the beep from the timer they draw and start shooting, the person who knocks down their targets first moves on and the loser is out.

    Without going into a lot of the match which would be boring as hell is you’re not in it or watching it suffice to say it was a blast (Pun Alert!)

              My ladies didn’t shoot in it but did have a side match on the dueling tree which is six plates on an upright stand, when hit they swing to the other side, the point is to keep them moving so you don’t get all on your side, if so you lose.

              Sandy and May are pretty close but Sandy has more experience and edged May six out of 10 runs, of course May vows to be out here practicing daily!

    But they compete in a good way. The sniper shoot was won by a young man maybe 18 years old, young eyes will out most times. What he don’t know is he will be the designated “hitter” from now on IF he can shoot like that for real. Most people are great on paper but just don’t have what it takes to turn out somebody’s lights, which is not necessarily a good skill to have. Time will tell with him.

    The main thing the match did was teach all the ladies that they can defend themselves with hand guns if needed and that’s a good thing.

    It also introduced the Lee’s to the entire community and also Jasper our new cook and door gunner and his daughter!

              I’m waiting for others I know are making the move as soon as they can. Like our good friend “Ma” from up north. I figure he will roll in one day. I expect “Ma’s café” will be turned over to his young helper and her and Jack will own the world soon.

    Will and Marylyn from St. George were all settled in and had become members of the extended family in the canyon. So many others, and all of them good folks, will bring good things to the Settlement on the Lake.

    One of Charleys young men came in second in the sniper shoot and missed winning by a quarter of an inch. He too will be offered a slot in the precision shooters group.

              But again it was the ladies matches that I enjoyed most. And they really got into it which was the best part.

              Well the food was right up there in the best part section, too. We had a wonderful time and everybody voted to make it a bi-annual event. The Old Farts were whining about the work of loading all those empty cases, but in truth they love it.

    I just hope the match idea wasn’t some portent of things to come. But if so we will face it together as a family, and a damn tough family at that.

    Boredom is setting in for the four of us, the girls are really feeling it, hell Walker is pacing around like he can’t find a place for a nap, me too.

              Road trip!! But where? And not too long, maybe a couple of weeks, Beth offered the thought that we might put together a scavenging party. Great idea but to where?

              We loaded up our gear and rolled out for the Fort, I figured they might have something in mind that could include us.

    Their hunting crews were all out so we were on our own, so we just headed east and north, I figured we might find something if we looked. We spent almost two weeks going thru abandoned places and while we did find some goodies we found one real treasure trove!

              It was an old house that looked to have been abandoned before the event and in the basement we found case after case of canning jars, hundreds of them, all in boxes, why? Not a clue, they were just there and also boxes of lids with the ring things. We spent the day carrying them out and trying to figure out how to move them and decided we needed a trailer. According to the maps we had, there was a small town about 10 miles away off on a narrow road so we headed that way, and sure enough there was a town, abandoned and partly burned. There had been a fight here for sure and there were several graves looking to be a couple of years old.     

              Markers were stone with names scratched on them and that was it.

              We did find an old flatbed trailer in a back yard and with the small air pump running off the 12 volt we got the tires aired up. Nothing much had been left here and it was depressing so we left and headed to get our jars. As soon as they were loaded and tied down we hit the road back toward home. We wanted to leave this area. Nothing in particular was bothering us, we just wanted out into the open country.

              Our trip was well worth it with the jars and the ladies at home would make good use of them so we were happy and we had spent some good time together out in the open air. But it was time to go home.

    I don’t think in the entire two weeks were ever were more then 150 miles from home as the crow fly’s but the Dodge don’t fly so we had to drive more then that.

    We returned to a good welcome and of course the ladies went batty over the jars, I’m sure there is thousands at the Fort, maybe. But we have these and a bird or jar in hand …

              Nothing much had happened while we were gone, none of the kids drowned biking off the cliffs, no broken bones. Boring as hell I’d say.

   Doc stopped by the dinner fires and joined us which was kind of unusual, not that he was a loner just that he was all alone in the medical thing.

              He had a EMT but she was pregnant and wasn’t gonna be working for a while. I told him I’d put out the word he needed some help in the pill pusher field.

    The commo lady from the day shift was sitting right there so I asked her if she could put out the word tomorrow which she would be happy to do since it was boring as hell sitting there all day listening to static.

    Delegating is cool! Ask and ye shall receive, or not.

    We had been gone two weeks and I wanted my bed, my shower and my ladies so we headed up the ridge where we had the shower and piled into our big bed and we just all sighed and died.

              I think we never even moved. I woke up with no pile of bodies on me so I was able to get up and head out the back door to take my morning leak. I had found that if I stood close to the edge I could hit the water way down below, it was cool, in a little boy kind of way, I grin. From behind I hear “Oh for gods sake!! Will you grow up?” I laughed and said, “Hell no! This is the one thing I can do that y’all can’t and I’m gonna enjoy it!”

    Sandy snorted or at least it sounded like it, I headed in, put the coffee pot on and headed for the shower where I enjoyed the water alone for a change. It was lonely but I manned up and finished, dried off, put on my cut offs and found “them” sitting in the living room, all curled up drinking coffee and yes the pot was empty, they pull this shit all the time, I swear I’m gonna wait to make coffee until I can stand over the pot.

(Like that’s gonna help???) Stop it! (Don’t yell, you’ll wake the baby!) Huh? I give up and make more coffee but I’m not moving from where the damn pot sits. They laugh, even Beth, she’s corrupted at last.

              I think this whole baby listening thing is a crock, but then again I’m a man and that means I’m tuned out on that wave link.

    One place we had not been to and I can’t say why is the town of Page AZ and the Dam.

              Some of May’s people wanted to look it over and see what the EMP had done to the power-producing abilities.

              I figured since we were bored we might take a run up there. Since a lot of the population was Navajo at the time of the EMP I wanted Charley to go along so I contacted him.

              He said he would go along but most all of his people had pulled out of that area as soon as the event hit, can’t say as I blame them. We took little gear except our usual battle rattle and sleeping bags, ok the back of the truck was full, so what?

              We left the next morning early and spent the night in Shiprock and left early in the morning, the girls rode in the back seat allowing me and Charley to chat as we drove, of course it also put them all three behind me where they could plot whatever it was they were plotting. And I know they were because they were awake.

    Charley said Page wasn’t a bad town, just got a lot of weekenders who caused some issues, He said his people who had lived there had suffered from their own weaknesses, booze mostly and some racism. But, he said that the main bulk had moved back to the rez and were doing much better being away from the temptations found in the white man’s towns.

              I fully understood that, having been born in Oklahoma, and half my family was Indian on my granpa’s side. Granma was white and while my dad carried his step fathers name he was white. Granma went to a brush arbor revival and brought back more then she took, it happens.

              So yeah, I’ve seen it from both sides but never experienced the racism part against me but I heard all the comments directed at the native peoples, and saw the bad parts of it.

    I was glad Charleys people had returned to their lands and people. Maybe someday things will change, but not soon I’m sure.

    We got to Page and it seemed to have been bypassed by the main troubles, there was the usual road block but we were recognized by one of the men even though I don’t recall having ever met him.

              We headed on into town and stopped at the former city offices, although I guess they never stopped being that. We headed in and were greeted by the Mayor and chief of police who seemed glad to meet us. We settled into the conference office and explained what we were looking at, they said they had power to the town but there was a great deal of work needed to really get things going again.

    The people who had run the dam never left and had done all they could but were in great need of tech help. May took over and explained what her people did before the event and what their skills were.

              The mayor asked the chief to send out a call for the head man at the dam to come up.

    In the meantime we talked about

everything that had been going on. The Mayor said he had heard all about our adventures and he believed the bad folks were bypassing the entire area because of us. That pleased me to no end. I wanted a buffer zone. He also said he had heard about the so called plague if it was in fact real and they had taken steps to close off access to their area as much as possible.

              I told him the Navajo People were mostly back in their lands and intended to close them off at the first sign of a problem.

    Charley asked how many Navajo were still here but the mayor had no idea, he said some for sure and other then drinking issues weren’t any trouble. He said they had cut off all public booze sales shortly after the event but it still made its way in. He also said that the few Navajo were by far less trouble then a lot of the white trash that showed up after the event. Most had been weekenders who caused problems pre event so nothing changed with them but the chief and his people had put a stop to their crap so over all it was quiet.

    The Chief came back and said the supervisor was on his way, I told the chief that if he ever had trouble he couldn’t handle to call us and gave him the frq’s. He said they did monitor our traffic and smiling said “When we can understand it!” causing a laugh.

    The “Dam Man” arrived and was introduced as that for a laugh, his name was Roland and when he heard what May had to say I thought he was gonna cry.

    He said the brain power was exactly what they needed; they had brawn but weak minds.

              The Mayor said there was plenty of housing and with power it was kind of like before the event, at least they had air conditioning.

    We took a tour with the two of them and looked at the dam and were taken down into it. Not my cup of tea! I was ready to get out and Beth said the baby wasn’t happy at all!!??

              How does she know? She smiled and said, “I’ll tell you later.” Sandy, like me, wanted out of there so we headed up to the light leaving May who seemed fine.

              She showed up in about an hour and said this was gonna work! Cool, let’s go home! Too many people and too much noise!

              We made our goodbyes with the promise of having those who wanted to come here on their way asap.

    I think we must have made the first 25 miles in three seconds flat. Sandy finally said, “Slow down babe we made it.” I did, setting the cruise at 55 and we all took a breath and agreed we were never gonna be in a place like that again. May just laughed at us.

              Now I really wonder how Harvey and his family had stood working under ground all those years.

              Our hobbit houses were under ground to a degree but it wasn’t the same. Can’t explain it but I’m not going back to re-check the feeling.

              Charley had been quiet and finally spoke up and said he wished he could bring his People out of there and get them home.

              I could feel his emotions over it but had no words to help. Beth asked if he and Old Woman were to return would they listen to her. He sat a while and was quiet then turned in the seat and said, “Beth, you are a very smart and amazing woman!” He agreed that if Old Woman said, “Come home,” most if not all would.

    We dropped Charley off and headed home and headed up the ridge, long day and shower and sleep were the order of the night.

              I got up and headed to the bathroom then made coffee and stood over the pot until it was done then poured a nice big cup and went outside to watch the day unfold, We had moved the stump up here and placed it on the east side of the house looking across the lake. The fishing folks were already at it, their sails bright white against the water. Shortly Beth came out and sat with me, she said the girls were still sleeping. It had been a long day yesterday for sure.

    Sandy came out followed by May dragging their “blankie” as I called it; they call it their morning wrap up blanket.

              They joined us on the stump and covered us all with the blanket, I was just fine without it but I would never ruin their morning ritual. Some things just need to stay the same.

    We fixed breakfast for ourselves and after cleaning the mess we headed down to the communal cooking area.

              More coffee and May gathered her people and told them all about the trip to Page.

              I could tell several of them weren’t as open to the whole thing as they had been, a few still were. After talking about it May asked for comments, only about eight said they wanted to go, the rest said they were very happy here and had no desire to crawl back into the entire “civilization” thing. I was smiling because that whole attitude seemed to be cropping up everywhere.

    We made plans to transport the movers when they were packed up and ready to go. I made a point to tell them if it wasn’t like they hoped they were welcome back as long as it was before the plague showed up, after that nobody was getting anywhere close to the canyon settlements period.

              Surprising me not at all one couple decided right there to stay.

    I got word from Charley that he and Old Woman were going to Page the next day, so I told the movers to get ready because we were leaving today. We rolled out three hours later and headed to Shiprock. The next morning we headed out for Page, we had a small convoy with the Dodge and a pair of HV’s with guns up and some pickups for the movers.

    We got to Page and stopped at the road block and were passed thru.

              At the town office we met with the Mayor who took the movers to the dam area where they would be housed. Charley and Old Woman rode in a HV when we headed for the part of town where the Navajo lived; it wasn’t much to look at.

              We stopped a ways back and let Charley and Old Woman go into the area, Charley asked some kids to get their people out and soon there was a good sized crowd gathered and more coming.

    When everybody was there Charley spoke for a bit, then Old Woman spoke for a good while then some of the people asked a few questions.

              Sandy was trying to follow it but had to give up, maybe in another 20 years she might have it down good enough.

    I could see a few of the younger people weren’t receptive to the idea of going back to the Rez so Charley said something and he and Old Woman walked to our truck where we waited while they talked among themselves.

              In the end about half of them agreed to come back. They loaded the stuff that was going into the pickups we brought and rolled home. I could tell Charley was disappointed at the results but some beat none.

              Back in Shiprock he and I talked alone. He said the ones who stayed just couldn’t leave the booze and dope alone and it was their choice. But once the sickness came they were not going to be allowed back except in a quarantined area for several weeks and allowed nowhere near any of the people; tough love.

    We arrived home late the next afternoon after spending the night in Shiprock. The big news was word of a shooting across the water in one of the more remote settlements. We decided to make a lake patrol the next morning to get the word first hand, not that we are the world police but if there is trouble close by I want to know what it is and who’s involved. I think that’s reasonable and anybody who don’t can suck egg as my ol granny used to say.

    We had a quiet evening, dinner was good as usual, the company was great as always, Brad said the solar equipment we had brought from the Fort was all great but he needed some other things and wanted to make a trip to the Fort to look over what they had. Wilson and Mable said they needed to go also so they made their plans, Lyla wanted to go too so they were set, I told them to take the Dodge and trailer if they thought they might need to haul anything back and feel free to take what they needed.

              We headed home and settled in for the night. As much as I love staying over in Shiprock there is no place like home and one’s own bed, Showers were in order and we spent the evening sitting out on the cliff edge looking across the lake. We could see the cook fires in the far off villages making it a nice sight; peaceful even, until we heard gun shots rolling across the lake in the quiet.  

              They were so distant that I almost missed hearing them, Walkers head popped up and the girls all looked to the sound. It was several shots and different guns and from the sound, one was an AK for sure, no doubt!

    We listened but heard nothing more but Beth said she thought she caught the sound of a boat motor running fast. I heard nothing nor did the other two. Walker wasn’t commenting either way.

              Well it would have to wait for morning because I sure wasn’t making a night speed run across the lake into what sounded like a small fire fight.

    We heard nothing more and went to bed but were up early, had breakfast and headed for the boat dock we had built. I insisted we take the pontoon, slower true but a very stable shooting platform compared to the power boats.

              I also insisted we all bring 308 Simi auto rifles for the max power and the longer range. But of course “they” brought their squirt guns too. I told Joe and Willy what was going on and they quickly got their battle rattle together and we headed out with full tanks and ten gallons of extra fuel. I don’t like having exposed fuel but we set it on the swimmer recovery deck at the back so it was protected somewhat.

    Joe took the wheel and laughed at Sandy who thinks us old farts are too slow. We headed for the settlement where we assumed the fight had occurred; I also noted the fishing boats weren’t out yet which is not the norm. I went to the flag staff and broke out the colors as we always do when approaching others.

    We arrived at the village to find several people standing on their dock waiting for us. Their head man was older then me and had a long white beard, he looked like an old time bible prophet and in fact was named Eli!

    Actually he was an old retired Gunners Mate with 30 years in the navy and talked like it.

              We eased into their dock and Sandy and I stepped ashore and shook hands with Eli.

I asked what was going on. He said there was a team of raiders hitting the settlements as well as having attacked a boat from the next village up lake and had shot one of their people. He said it had started several days back and they had decided they would ask for our help today and here we come.

    None of us could understand why they were raiding the fishing settlements, folks here were peaceful and grew their food and took it from the lake just like we do, but they had nothing worth stealing nor did they want such.

              My first thought was women but he said they had women with them and all of them were younger folks, almost kids.

    He said they seemed to be coming from up lake meaning where the rivers feed in.

              We decided to head up that way and see what might happen. We covered several miles before we saw any signs of life; then we saw what turned out to be a bunch of power boats tied up to the shore and fires smoldering. We slowed and headed in to the shore out of sight and tied up.

    It took us about thirty minutes to hike the edge of the lake but we were able to come up on their camp and found them all sleeping off a big party, booze bottles were scattered around as well as bags of pot. With our people spread out in a semicircle we walked in among them and took all the weapons we could see. While the rest were covering them I grabbed one of the males and tossed him into the lake causing him to scream then land with a big splash. This brought everyone awake, kind of.

              I was rather surprised because I doubted any of them was much over sixteen, the girls looked even younger. After they stopped freaking out I told them to get on their knees with their hands on their heads. One of the older boys was moving a hand slowly under the blanket he was sleeping under when May walked over and kicked him in the head, she found a pistol under the blanket so she checked all of them and found several more weapons, including an AK 47 which she handed to me and sure nuff it was the full auto model I had heard last night.

              Willy dragged the swimmer out and tossed him into the pile. There was ten of them, five couples it looked like. Now I was stumped, what to do with a bunch of renegade kids.

    So we split them up like always and started asking questions.

              After sifting out the lies it seemed the boys had decided that the world was ended and they were free to do as they wished in the short time before the sickness wiped out all of mankind.

              They were all from the Page area and were mostly the kids of the summer people. I asked them as a group what gave them the right to rob others of their food and to shoot people.

              The girls and most of the boys all looked at the oldest and biggest guy there who was scared absolutely shitless.

              Sandy walked over to him and pulled her 45 out and dropping the safety placed the muzzle on his forehead and said, “Well John do I shoot him now or when we shoot all of them?

    They all started crying and blubbering at once which went on for a while. So I winked at her and Joe and said, “Not here it’s too early to make a mess. Take him around the bend and do it.” With that Joe just jerked him to his feet and almost had to drag him he was so limp and crying while begging They were out of sight for several minutes when we heard a shot and shortly Sandy and Joe walked back alone, God I was hoping Sandy saw my wink!

              All the kids were now shocked silent and were white faced, one of the girls threw up and then fainted. I said, “Well which of you is gonna tell me why you think you can do this shit?”

              The outcome was that Pete, the “dead” ones father was some kind of self-appointed messenger from God and had convinced his son that most of mankind was going to die for our sins and nothing could save us now.

              Pete having grown up in a very strict household and never having had a taste of freedom was a perfect candidate to decide fk it if he was gonna die for sins he never committed then he was gonna go sin some before the end. Sandy said, “Shit I thought maybe shooting that bastard in Texas might have been the last of this kind of crap we would have to deal with.”

              One of the girls spoke up and said that Pete hadn’t been a bad kid but his father was a son of a bitch and had made Pete the way he was. She said that if we were gonna kill them to get it done coz she had to pee and didn’t want to pee herself while she is still alive.

              I almost busted out laughing but instead May walked over and said, “Come on hon I’ll take you to pee.” She stood up and said “If you’re gonna shoot me let me finish peeing first ok?” And I lost it, then Joe and Willy lost it, Beth was just looking sad then looked at me and said, “I think it’s time don’t you?”

              That got them crying again so I said, “Ok knock it off!” And they did. May took the girl to pee then brought her back after a bit and said anybody else?

              Two said, “Yes please,” and one started crying and said it was too late for her. May said, “Come on sweetie, walk out into the water and wash it off.”

              I asked who the AK belonged to and one of the boys said his dad had brought it back from Iraq which surprised me since it’s pretty hard to do that, he said his dad had been in the Air Force and flew on cargo planes which explained things better. Some folks are in a better position to get shit done then others.

    After the girls were all back Joe and Willy took the boys to pee, when they were all back together I said, “Well, what are we gonna do with you?”

    The girl who had shown the most guts said, “Well I guess, if you don’t shoot the rest of us, we are gonna have to pay for what we did. It was wrong and we all know it.” All of them nodded in agreement.

    Beth looked at me and moved her head and walked away, I followed her until we were well away from the kids, she said, “John these kids must not have much going for them back in Page, let’s take them home with us and let them see how we as a group are handling “the end of the world” and we can evaluate them, maybe some would fit in with us.” She went on to say that the future was going to depend young people learning to be good, honest, strong leaders and if we could get them back on the right path it would be good for all in the longrun.

              I love Beth, she reminds the rest of us of our humanity and I know Sandy really has gained from being near Beth, hell I’ve gained in spirit a great deal.

    So I said, “Ok baby, let’s give it a go, we went back to the kids and said, Ok, load up your gear and pile it in your boats.”

              After that was done we removed the keys from the boats and tied them off to be towed behind us. I had the girls sit on the pontoon boat and the boys scattered out in the other boats. Joe left and returned with Pete the dead guy which shocked all the kids. Pete was a very subdued young man.

    We headed back to the fishing villages where we met up with the folks on their dock. I explained what was going on to them and then made the kids one at a time walk over to the people and ask for their forgiveness. The girls broke down crying and soon the ladies from the village were hugging them and whispering to them. The boys were still scared shitless and just said, “I’m so sorry” over and over.

    Pete was the last and fell to his knees and begged forgiveness and none of us had any doubts about his honesty in it.

    The last thing I did was give all their gear to the people of the village (all except the AK). I think it’s already hanging on the wall at home. I would need to think about that one. I planned to meet these kids’ parents and depending how I felt about the AK dad, he might get it back.

    We checked on the man who was shot and it turned out to be a long ways from his heart. He even said he knew it was an accident when the shooter slipped and pulled the trigger but he needed his ass kicked for not having the safety on. I agreed and said I’d bring him over as soon as the mans wound healed so he could do it. He never answered that idea.

    Well now we have ten maybe orphans and how do we handle them? I guess we need another trip to Page without the kids for starters.

    After getting back to the canyon and getting the kids introduced to the clan and a special word to watch them like hawks we dug up Ralph and told him to warm up the chopper, I asked the commo lady to ring the bell at Page and tell them we were coming. I sent the girls to snag their door guns, why? No idea. Just habit I guess

              We took off and as usual I barely got the damn seat belt on and we were circling Page. We landed at the airport and were met by the Chief and a few of his officers. I asked Sandy and May to remain in the bird and lean on the door with a hand on the guns, I again don’t know why except it is what it is.

    The chief, Beth and I got into his truck and headed to the city office where the usual people were waiting, I handed the list of names to the Mayor who read it and handed it to the chief who looked at it and shrugged and said, “Yep we know em, sorry buncha little shits.”

    I asked where they were, he said he had no idea and nobody cared as long as it wasn’t here. I wasn’t getting anything out of the chief so I asked the Mayor who said he had no idea where they were and since their parents hadn’t said they were missing he  figured it was just that much less to be bothered about.

              I asked where we could find the parents of …and I named two of the girl’s parents, The Chief asked why I wanted to see them which was pissing me off a lot. Before I could let him know how much he was pissing me off Beth said in her calm manner, “Chief if your daughter was missing wouldn’t you want to know where she was?”

    Well she did get a better response then I had so far, he said he would take us to the parents places so we trooped out where we found several of his deputies just standing around and they all followed us. When we headed out Beth smiled at me and winked, I love her smiles and winks but the smile never touched her eyes. Now I was worried.

    Something had sure changed since we brought May’s people here just a few days back. We arrived at a run-down looking house that the Chief said was where the first girl’s folks lived. We got out and when he started to follow I said, “That’s ok Chief, we got it.” Well he didn’t like that one bit but wasn’t going to argue with me. I think he was starting to get the drift that I wasn’t pleased with his attitude. Good, fuck him.

              We knocked on the door and it was opened by a nice looking lady who looked at us both and said, “Can I help you?” Beth took over and said, “It’s about your daughter, can we come in?” She already had tears running down her cheeks when we sat down, Beth told her right away that the kid was safe which caused a change right away.

              The lady said the girl and her friends had all gone missing about a week earlier and nobody would do a thing. I asked who she meant by nobody and she pointed at the door and said, “him,” meaning the chief, with about as much venom as a person could work up. Beth asked her to explain from the top.

    She said that to put it in simple terms the locals who had always loved the summer people for the money they brought in now hated them because they were extra mouths that needed feeding, and even though they worked in the community gardens as well as any other projects that needed labor they were still treated as outsiders. I asked why the kids had all left, she said it was starting to become apparent that the head men in the community felt the kids weren’t pulling their share of the load and had decided that the girls could pay their way the ‘old fashion’ way.

              In the new world we live in gold may not have value but ammo, booze, dope and young girls and women had taken its place. We have seen it everyplace we have been and I’ve hated it everywhere we found it and we did a good job of stamping it out when we found it.

              Now it was looking like stomping time was back. I asked if it was the entire leadership of the town, she said it was. She said most of the locals were good folks but had learned to not push back against the leadership because some folks had come up missing after objecting too much.

              I asked where her husband was, she got teary again and said he went missing after he punched out one of the deputies who had fondled their daughter. She said that was a few months back and that was another reason why the kids took off, fathers were disappearing. The boys were in a better place then the girls but were still being treated rough.

              I gave her the list of names we had for her to look over, she said she knew most of them and all were in the same boat as she was, a couple of husbands missing and all being treated like shit.

              I asked her if she could contact them all and tell them their kids were safe and where they were but to not talk about it at all. She agreed and I told her we would be back in a few days or so and then things were gonna be better.

    We left and I said, “Thanks chief, sometimes delivering bad news is better if the crowd is kept to a few.” He perked right up and asked what happened? I said the kids were screwing off out on the lake, all doped up and drunk and had been playing chicken at high speed when they both chickened in the same direction, the crash caused one boats fuel tank to blow and the resulting explosion and fire had killed several and the rest drowned before anyone could get there. I said one girl lived long enough to give us their names. And we had buried them.

              Ever see somebody hearing what should be sad news try real hard to hide a smile? Well this asshole was not doing a good job of it. He did go on about how he and the leadership had tried to work with the kids but they just wouldn’t leave the pot and booze alone, Beth and I just looked sad and shook our heads.

    His entire attitude changed on the way back to the chopper, he said May’s people were doing a wonderful job and were a blessing. Beth was running her fingers on the butt of her pistol; shit Sandy would have shot the bastard by now.

              At the bird he asked why the guns were on board, I told him we had found some rabid coyotes in our area so we were gunning them from the air.

              He said he sure would like a couple of the m-60’s if we had any to spare, I said sure, we will be back in a few days with some. He was ecstatic.

              We loaded up on the chopper and Ralph took off right away, leaving the Chief and his people in a cloud of dust. We made it home and I called a meeting and explained what we found out. Joe and Willy were all for just taking the town, I didn’t want the town I just wanted the folks living there to be treated well, so a change of leadership was in order. 

    And why was it my business? Well because. Because I can’t stand this kind of crap plus the girls now know so if I don’t they will without me. Not that they couldn’t do it as well or better it’s just that where one goes we all go.

    I figured we would give it a few days and then head back to take the Chief the promised m-60’s except he wasn’t gonna like how he got them. One problem is not knowing just how many of the locals are involved with this mess, and who could be trusted to take over. All legitimate concerns that had to be handled or the whole mess was not gonna go away.

    I talked to the folks who had spent the day observing the kids and got reports on all of them, a couple of the boys are more into laying in the shade and letting others work, they also seem to have hidden some weed and spent the day stoned.

              All of the girls were pitching in and trying to help, all had some gardening experience, Mable said a couple of them really enjoyed it.

              The rest of the boys were involved in different projects that they joined on their own; two were helping the Old Farts with loading ammo and seemed to be real willing and eager to learn. The OF’s said they would keep them as helpers if they wanted to stay on. All in all, the bunch was doing pretty good except the two pot heads. I had a plan for them.

    Three days after our visit to Page we prepared to return, The girls and I were gonna fly back in the chopper, Joe and Willy were going to leave the day before and quietly infiltrate in and around the road blocks, others were going to infiltrate the town and prepare to get involved if it turned into a cluster fk.

              I wanted to end this without killing anybody, I just wanted to get the PTB’s out of office and power and let the people decide who would replace them.

              May asked what if the locals wanted to keep it as it was.

              All I could do then was offer a place in our area for all who wanted to leave. People are entitled to the kind of Government they wanted, be it good or bad. But nobody should have to live under one like this.

    The morning we left for Page I sent for all the kids and when they gathered I told them we were going to change things in Page and afterward they could decide if they wanted to remain here or go back. All of them wanted to stay here.

              I told the two slackers to get their stuff they were leaving, one asked why so I told him, he asked why he should have to do grunt work when his “woman” was doing it. She spoke up and said, “I’m not your woman or anybody’s for that matter and if you wanna eat then get off your ass and work for the right!” Well he didn’t like that but he liked it even less when he called her a bitch and Sandy popped him in the mouth so hard and fast he was on his ass before he knew it. When he got up he started for her which was a really bad thing to do. I was prepared to stop her from shooting him but she just kicked his ass for about five minutes and didn’t break a sweat. I was proud of her, not for fighting but for not shooting the mouthy little shit.

              With that a couple of the men dragged him to the chopper while his less mouthy buddy grabbed their stuff and ran for the bird.

    We loaded up and headed right out. When we got close to the town the girls manned (womanned?) the guns. I really wanted Beth to stay home but didn’t want my ass kicked so I kept my mouth shut. Sandy yelled over the noise “Good boy!” May gave me a thumbs up, Beth just leaned on me and smiled.

              We went in like going into a hot LZ but only found the chief and about ten of his deputies.

              Ralph landed so all of them were under a gun with Sandy standing behind it with it pointed right at them. Ralph shut it down while I bailed out and moved to the side away from the gun, when the dust settled I saw the Chief glaring at me so I asked what was his problem? He said he didn’t like the gun being pointed at him and his men. I just smiled and said, “Well here’s the thing. You and your men drop your weapons and there won’t be a problem, don’t drop them and it still won’t be a problem because “She” will just shoot you.”

    They all just stood there with their mouths open attracting flies, finally when he could speak the Chief asked what the fk was going on. “Simple,” I said, you and the rest of your good ol boys network are out of business and the folks here will elect whomever they want to lead the town.

              There was a lot of yelling but a five round burst from the gun and they all dropped down and shut up. May was backing Sandy’s play with her rifle while Beth covered the other side with the gun. All in all it went well, I collected their weapons, and for their safety I cuffed them with their own cuffs and loaded them into the back of their trucks for the ride to the town hall. I left the boys under Ralphs watch.

    We arrived to find the whole city leadership having a meeting that ended when the Chief was pushed into the room wearing cuffs.

    The Mayor stood up and asked just what the hell was going on so I told him and told him what was gonna be happening shortly. He said, “Over my dead body!” Sandy said, “I’m good with that,” and drew her 45, pointed it between his eyes and dropped the safety, now with Sandy I’m never sure what she will do but this asshole was a believer and dropped into his chair real fast looking both green and pale at the same time, I’ll bet that’s a hard thing to do.

    I asked May to head out to the road block and touch base with our people, she was gone for about 10 minutes and returned with Joe. He said they had the road block crew under control and were bringing them into town. Our people would take over the guard duty.

              I asked the Mayor how they got everybody here in case of an emergency, he said with a fire warning and showed the button on the wall. Sandy walked over and punched it setting off a very loud siren which I could only stand for a few minutes before turning it off.

              But it did its job, the people were coming on the run and soon the street in front was filled with a few hundred people with more coming.

              I waited for another five minutes before going out the door. I stood looking out at the crowd until they grew silent, I then asked the so called summer people to move to one side and the locals to the other and with some grumbling they did it.

              I then told them who I was and that we lived up lake in the canyons and that it had come to our attention that there seemed to be a problem between the locals and the summer people. Most of the people looked around kind of like this was the first time they had heard this, some did know. Then I told them their Mayor and Police department was for now shut down.

              I explained about the missing husbands who had complained about things like their daughters being assaulted by the deputies which really seemed to be a wake up for even more folks.

    They started talking among themselves and I saw several becoming angry and some pushing going on. I let it go for a bit and then said, “Ok that’s enough!” How many of you are happy with the current leadership of your town? A lot of hands when up. So I said, “Ok, there will be an election right now to decide if you keep these people or change things right now.”

    I said all in favor of changing leadership move to the right those wanting the current leadership move left. After that was done I asked the summer people to move to one group or the other. One loud mouth yelled out that the outsiders had no vote. I asked him where in the Constitution it says an adult American can’t have the right to vote? He said, “They don’t live here!”

              I asked the summer people to raise their hands if they owned property here and all raised their hands, I asked loud mouth where he lived, seems he lived in a rented trailer in a park.

              I told him to shut up. When the counting was done the new bloods had it by a very large lead. I then told them they needed to decide who they thought would do the job in a fair manner and this started a loud discussion.

              In the end they voted in a new Mayor and city council as well as a Town Marshall who would pick his deputies.

              The new Marshall was the road block man who said he knew me and even the summer people liked him.

    I told them the Mayor and all the former leadership had been involved in the disappearance of the missing men and the assaulting of young girls. And they needed to dig the truth out and do what was needed.

    I said we would be checking back and things best be going right or we would come down hard. I did tell the parents of the kids we kept in the canyon that the kids had decided to stay on their own and I wasn’t going to make them come back but any parents who wished could move to the canyons and set up a home among us as long as they understood our ways.

              All of them wanted to move right now, so Joe and Willy and the troops they took with them would help them get loaded up and rolling, I think they will fit in real well.

I then asked if the parents of the two pot heads were there. They were so I told them to pick up their boys at the chopper.

    We spent the rest of the day getting things done and after the bad guys were in jail and the new leadership had took over we headed out for home. I was very pleased, a bloodless coup! The best kind.

              We arrived home and after the day in Page our wonderful canyon home was like heaven compared to living in a cluster of boxes full of resentment. I for one will never go back to that lifestyle.

              The Page parents and kids were reunited with both scolding and tears. Yeah I live in the big house on the hill so to speak but in our community we are all equal, want to pave your hobbit home with gold tiles? Fine, get to melting and casting, we have the gold so do it. Of course nobody wants that but if they did they could. Greed isn’t living in our area. The people seem to be so happy and content if those two words don’t mean the same thing. Everywhere we’ve been, for the most part, people want to be left alone to just be happy, they don’t want “Government” outside of a local committee to handle the problems that crop up and damn little of that.

              People are free to come and go as they will, any who cause problems can and will be shown the road. That’s true freedom, live your life as you will, don’t try to force your will on others and don’t be a horsesass. Pretty simple, well, and be prepared to fight to the death for the community if called on.

    We had time to clean up and head to the cooking area on the bum again. The girls jumped in helping where they could while I went to the cold cave for a cooler of beer as my donation to the whole. It’s hard work carrying a cooler full of beer.

              Mable and Lyla had conspired to cook up an awesome strew made from their gardens and some of the boys had gotten lucky and sniped some desert mountain quail.

              The beauty of a big pot of stew is that when you toss in a few small birds with everything else it goes a long way, try to just cook the quail and everybody gets a tiny bite.

              I gave the boys a big thumbs-up and got big smiles in return! Smiles are good! I asked them to tell me about their hunt which showed a lot of smarts and common sense.

              The two boys were maybe 10 or 12 years old and had got an idea and thought it out and then put their plan into action. Part of which involved them going to the Old Farts and digging thru the 22 ammo until they found some CB caps which are like short shorts, they had to expend some of the ammo to learn where the lighter loads were going to hit and having done that they went to a close water hole favored by the quail and using the extra quiet 22 ammo were able to head shoot several birds before the rest got worried and took off.

    Awesome thinking!! And everybody gave them a hand! Now are we gonna starve without the quail? Not even close, but these two lads had an idea to improve tonight’s meal with something we as, a rule, don’t have simply because the sheer numbers needed to make a true meal were not cost effective, as to say hunting with shotguns.

              So they went about it on their own and got it done. The Quail stew was wonderful, the girls had introduced the other ladies to fry bread so we had that to dunk in the stew We had a big fresh salad full of the entire garden. I will admit I miss Ranch dressing and one of the ladies is working at it, but in the meantime she made a really great raspberry with some kind of nut dressing, it is awesome. Cold beer!

              The commo lady sent a “FAK” (find a kid) with the message that Joe and Willy were on the road and would stay over in Kayenta and come on in the next day.

              They also reported several of the People had decided to honor the Old Woman’s request and return home so they were traveling with.

              Charley was meeting up with them in Kayenta and would help them get to their people’s homes. All in all the whole mess worked out real well and we didn’t have to shoot anybody.

    Full of dinner and one too many cold beers and faced with the climb up to the house we headed home. We sat on the lip of the cliff with our feet hanging off into space and watched the flickering fires across the lake but tonight there was no gun fire, all was quiet and peaceful, we laid back and took turns spotting the satellites still racing across the distant skies, maybe still sending to receivers that no longer received, but what was there to send? If nobody was sending messages then the sat’s weren’t bouncing them to anybody…or were they? Hmmm. On that thought I headed for bed. When we got settled it sounded like the old Walton tv show..

Gnite John boy,

Nite Sarah,

Nite Pa,

Good night John…

Well you get it..

Sometimes they play this game for too long, with giggles, I’m usually asleep before they stop, sometimes they lay in bed and whisper back and forth about the craziest stuff, or so I seem to remember when I wake up, of course they say I was dreaming (laughlaugh…)

              We were eating breakfast when one of the kids ran up and said, “A stranger is coming!” Well that was news, so I trooped off with the kid followed by my Praetorian Guards, we watched a lone rider heading toward us about half a mile away, the rider was alone and seemed to know where he was heading.

              Sandy said, “She” I said, “Huh?” “She’s, a she John.” Now I know I never said a word about the sex of the rider out loud, but why bother bringing it up? (He’s getting smarter!!) (Yes he is!! See you can teach an old dog a new trick!” giggles). “I hate you!”

“Do not!”

“I could!”

“Could not!”

“Fine whatever!”

“Oh that’s a good defense!!”

“Shit,”

“Stop cussing the baby can hear you!”

“Oh bull shit!”

“Smack”.. Ouch!!

“Stop cussing, if the babies first word is S * * *t we will make your life miserable!”

(“more then it is now?”).

“YES!!”

    By now the rider was close enough to notice us in the shadows of the trees and headed right for us. She. (Fine you’re right).

(No shit!) “Stop cussing!” “They say it’s too late coz I already taught the baby to say it. I give up.”

              The rider pulled up and sat looking at us, she was between 45 and 60, long blond going white hair, in a long braid with some feathers in it. She looked to be tall. She sat there, on what was with no doubt the best looking Buckskin horse I ever laid eyes on, just looking at us while we looked at her.

              Now I’ll admit it’s not often one sees a middle aged woman alone, riding a buckskin horse accompanied by a blue heeler dog.

    But one with a squirrel riding on her

shoulder??? Now that is a bit weird.

              After we all stared at each other for a bit she said, “Howdy, my name is Vanessa, this is Romeo patting the horse on his neck, that’s Blue, original, I know and this is Nuts pointing at the tree rat.”

              Now I been to two worlds fairs and four black revivals and a gypsy road show but I never in my life seen anything like this!

              It took an elbow from May to pull my head out of my ass enough to introduce us. She nodded and said, “Yep, knew that.”

              I asked her if we could be of help. She said, “Yes you can, where’s the man you call Doc?”

              Ok that was a reasonable question so I sent the kid to deliver the FAK that I needed Doc here RFN (right fkn now!) The kid split and I asked if she would like to step down and have something to eat as breakfast is still in progress. She said, “After I see the Doc that would be good, thank you.”

              So we just looked at each other for several minutes until Doc arrived out of breath (note to Doc, get out more) He stopped and stared at her for a few seconds and said, “Uh you asked to see me?”

              She stepped down off the horse and yeah, she is tall, and stuck her hand out which Doc took. She said, “Well it took longer then I thought it would but I made it.”

              “Uh,” says Doc, “Made what where?” She said, “Well you did put out the call for a nurse, no?” He said, “Well I did mention it to John a while back and he sent out the word, right John?” Well now I was in deep shit, I forgot to follow up on it. She looked at me with strange grey blue eyes that definitely held secrets, like she was looking thru me or maybe doing an MRI of me. She said, “You forgot didn’t you?” I just nodded. Then I said, “No damn it I told the commo lady!” She just shook her head and sighed (wonderful another sigher).

    She asked Doc if he did or did not need a nurse. Doc kind of stuttered for a bit and said, “Well uh, yes.”

              Vanessa smiled and said, “Good! We can start in the morning! And breakfast smells good if I’m being offered breakfast,” she said with a raised eye brow at me.

              I felt like I did when I stuck Mary Jones pigtail in the glue pot on my desk and got caught by Miss Ugly Stick.

              Sandy spoke up and said, “Why sure come on in and set, breakfast is ready!” One of the older boys in the crowd offered to care for her horse, water and feed, she said, “Thank you, sweetie,” and smiled a real smile. Blue followed at her feet and Nuts stayed put. She looked at Blue and said, “Blue, with Romeo, be nice.” The dog immediately turned and followed the horse.

    We headed to the cooking area where Sandy did the intros and got Vanessa a plate and guided her thru the process of getting fed Canyon style, and chatting like all were old friends.

    She sat down and started eating then Nuts started making tree rat sounds so she gave it a piece of pancake with egg on it which it started eating greedily, then she poured a little water into her hand and it drank, weirder and weirder.

              After the tree rat was satisfied she looked at me and said, “Well John, do I get a cold beer or not? It’s afternoon somewhere! I hadn’t got any out of the cold cave before she arrived, it being early, so I headed off for beer feeling very strange. I’m used to the girls fkn with my head but this lady was a bit scary.

              I got back to see everybody laughing at something our visitor had said and even Doc was laughing, maybe a first, I have never seen him laugh and damn seldom smile. The talking and laughing went on so long one of the ladies jumped up and said she had to get to work on her dinner. That broke up the gab fest.

              I just sat and watched, all the girls had warmed right up to her and in some ways that was kind of off putting for me. But I trust the girls ability to separate bull shit from shinola so I wasn’t worried. She asked Doc what he had in mind for her as his assistant; Doc was paralyzed so I asked her to tell us about herself.

              We knew her name so, she told us she had worked in a private practice as nurse practitioner for a general practice Doc.

              When the lights went out she stayed until the shooting started then loaded all the meds she could and headed home, saddled her horse, loaded a pack horse with her gear and headed for the back country. She made her way by stopping in small towns and offering her abilities in trade for supplies and a place to hang her hat so to speak. And that’s how she lived since the EMP.

              I noticed she wasn’t armed and commented on it, she said her thing was saving lives not taking them, I was cool with that. Doc was kind of that way but he did learn to shoot and did keep a rifle in his mobile hospital; I can’t say he would use it but we trained him, using it or not was up to him.

              Vanessa said she had been from the west coast in Oregon to the Gulf and almost to the northern border and had never needed a gun. Hell I can’t take a shower without needing one it seems.

              I told Doc to deal with her and if he liked her creds she could stay and we’d find a place for her to live. The miners stay hard at it doing what they do so well and keep all sizes of hobbit houses ready and waiting for someone to move in and with nearly everything anybody wants or needs to furnish their home at the fort, life is good.

              She said she was kind of a loner in a lot of ways and liked being away from the crush of crowds. Well we are a free society and she could do as she wished. She also asked who the head gardener was, Mable spoke up. Vanessa asked her if she had any medicinal or other herbs growing, Mable told her what we had, she said she had seeds for damn near every useful herb there was and would like Mable to help her getting them growing as soon as possible and to pray there was time to harvest and get them ready for use. Mable told her that she would show her the layout and what was growing and where there was room for more. They talked for some time about the healing powers of plants and herbs, some that most call a weed has the ability to heal or cure. Sounding more and more like another few greenhouses were going up. V looked over at me and smiled.

              Mable was all for growing any and all and learning about the ones she didn’t know about already. Soon they were off looking and planning like two old friends.

              Doc was looking lost, which I understood perfectly, so the girls took charge of finding a place for Vanessa to rest up and spend the night, in the trailer of course. She said she had traveled most of the night as it was cooler and was tired. After she and Mabel were finished talking about all they would need to get and do and looking at what we already had she was ready for some rest. After checking on her horse, who she talked to like a person, and feeding Blue she and Nuts headed to the trailer for some rest. Later the girls went to get her and all bummed dinner, with me providing beer, without having to be asked!!

    I slept great as usual and got up, got coffee going, showered and was air drying when I looked across the canyon at the high ground and saw the strangest sight. Vanessa was standing on a rock, facing the rising sun with her arms spread, head back a bit as if greeting the sun, her hair loose and blowing in the mild breeze, naked. Now as I’ve said skin is skin so it’s not unusual to see somebody sunning or swimming nude, but this seemed more of a Morning Prayer ritual and I think I’ve seen it before, one of the Indian tribes, maybe Northern Cheyenne?? Anyway, I felt like I was intruding so I headed inside and started a second pot of coffee, they were all smiling so I would bite my tongue off before saying a word, Of course I knew there was a cup for me, I just had to find it. Usually Beth had it hidden but I had an inkling they had switched out so I bent down and kissed May who busted out laughing and got my cup off the floor beside her recliner. All was well. I told them about the morning view, Sandy and Beth agreed it was Northern Cheyenne, May was thinking one of the Southern tribes, like the Mayans who were big time sun people. Regardless it was her private thing and we would respect it.

              To me she seemed a bit weird but then again, I’m a bit weird so what the fk. If Doc liked her and she knew her shit she was welcome as his nurse, if she didn’t she was still welcome and could find her own place in the order of things.

              We headed down the ridge for breakfast, my knees weren’t too happy with the climbing but it was good exercise so shut up and keep slogging.

              We found Vanessa and Mable in a deep discussion about herbs and such shit, I understand some green shit we can eat, other green shit will give us the shits. Grunt logic 101. “That which does not kill us can make us wish we were dead,” Or something like that.

              The girls were cooking so I knew we were having hot cakes and eggs with some kind of dead meat. I was hoping for bacon, Rabbit and hot cakes don’t go together, it’s just not right.

              I was wondering how Harvey and his clan was getting along with the “Pork Project” hell for all I knew the lil fkrs had all died. If we couldn’t raise them here I was going to take a reefer truck to Texas and fill it with the damn things! All smoked and cured.

    One thing them damn Texicans can do is BBQ, I think they do it so they can have an excuse to wear their pimped out BBQ guns but regardless they can cook a pig!

    The canned bacon supply was holding out thank the pork gods, now if it would just hold out until we are growing our own we will have it made, I’m betting when Harry and Bear and their clan get here one of them will know all about hogs. I know Bear can eat a whole one but that’s not what I call “knowing” about pigs.

              Doc wandered over and sat down with us and told us about his talk with Vanessa. He said she had a nurse practitioner degree as well as additional training in Herbal medicine plus a lot of back ground in Midwifery, which left me looking dumb or lost or both. May said, “Means she knows how to deliver baby’s,” we all looked at Beth who turned the cutest shade of pink.

    I said I figgered if we had Doc and Vanessa then having a baby should be a walk in the park. The girls and nearby ladies glared at me while Doc shook his head, I told him if he started sighing I’d shoot him.

    One thing bothered me, how did Vanessa know we needed a nurse to help Doc? I know the word never got out and it was just the other day, yet Vanessa seemed to have been heading here before that.

    I decided maybe I’d ask Charley to come visit and bring Old Woman with him and the sooner the better.

              Not that I’m paranoid but…well ok, I am paranoid, every time I slow down and look behind me something’s gaining on me. So fk it, I like paranoid, I think it’s a wonderful friend to have so bite me!

              My girls are looking at me all weird, Sandy asked who I was mad at? May asked who I was arguing with? Beth asked if I would like to take a nap? Doc started to sigh but I glared that idea away.

    I was just about to head to the commo shack when one of the commo ladies wandered up took the last bite of bacon off my plate and finished the coffee in my cup and smiling sweetly said she had gotten a message that Charley and Old Woman were coming for a visit. Now fuck the chill running down the spine shit! I got a freaking ice storm on mine!

              I’ve lived from border to border and been coast to coast and I have to say I don’t believe in other world bull shit! BUT every time I’ve been in the desert country there is some really strange unexplainable shit going on. I believe almost anything is possible out here, I believe if there were ever such a thing as a portal to other dimensions it’s right here in the desert. When I lived in the Mojave desert I saw… well not saw, but felt some really weird shit, I can’t explain it and don’t really want it explained to me, I’m perfectly happy just accepting whatever it is as long as it leaves me alone.

    So now I’m looking at my empty plate and coffee cup and watching the Commo lady heading back to the shack. I feel slightly abused. Beth leaned over and put a bite of bacon on my plate and May poured some of her coffee in my cup, Sandy leaned over and took the bacon and ate it. Love is a strange thing; they were all laughing at my expression. One of the ladies nearby called my name and tossed me a whole piece of bacon! I caught it one second ahead of Sandy who piled on top of me and chewed on my hand till I agreed to share.

    It’s like having pet Scorpions, some days they love you others they nail you. But we do provide comic relief to the whole community, feeding time is comedy hour for everyone.

              My girls are like teeny boppers of a certain age, full of mischief, fun, always ready for anything. But dangerous, very, very dangerous, especially at feeding time, they have no friends when it’s chow time.

              Well Beth is the exception, she’s the calm, warm one and while she might not shoot you as fast as the other two she can get the job done. Yep, dancing with snakes can be fun…. or not.

              Well since they heard Old Woman is coming all the women decided it was feast day (face it; every day is feast day around here). So they all got their heads together and started buzzing like bees with my ladies right in the middle of it all, so I wandered off with Joe and Willy to a shady spot where we talked about all the things we thought needed doing, of course we were just talking about it, not like we were gonna do it.

    Willy said one of the boys had found a wild bee hive that had about a ton of honey in it which seemed to me like a lot of honey or a lot of little boy “enlargement” but regardless we planned to visit it and what better time then now, so we rounded up several of the boys and headed off to see the honey warehouse. We walked maybe a mile twisting thru gully’s into a cleft in a rock wall where we watched a gazillion bees zipping back and forth, now one thing for sure, this wasn’t a job for us flat footed knuckle draggers, we would fk it up worse then Hogans Goat (I may explain that later) not wanting to die, I said we should back off and think about this.

              The boy who found the hive walked right thru the bees and out of sight and returned shortly with a chunk of honey comb dripping with golden goodness! Not so much as one sting!

              That did it! We headed for home and help, I figured maybe Old Woman could offer advice since she probably already knew the bees were here, hell she probably sent them.

              We spent the rest of the day staying out of the way and starving, the women were busy preparing a feast and couldn’t be bothered with something as simple as lunch. Well cool, I went to the cold cave, found some homemade cheese and a few cold beers and snagged some fry bread left from supper and headed for a shady spot.

              My cheese and bread lasted longer then the beer, “they” descended on me like Viking raiders looking for a sheep or whatever. I think I got a bite but I’m really not sure, I did get a beer except for the sip or two Beth took, the rest disappeared followed with very loud unlady like belches. Then they were gone with kisses and head pats and “thank you daddy for the lunch!!”

              Beth was told to go rest so I took her up to the house and we “rested.”

    I woke up from the nap to find the bed full, the feast was ready and it was siesta time. I love a cold beer but one at lunch just knocks the crap out of me, I woke up all logy and feeling grimy so I headed for the shower which really revived me because I screwed up and forgot to open the hot water valve and that creek water is like ice. I think my scream woke up the world because I soon had company. They got the water right so I could come out of the corner where I was hiding. One thing for sure I was neither logy nor grimy! And other things had retreated up inside. I love showering and then air drying, it’s wonderful and cooling on the hot days which is most days. We dressed and headed down to await the arrival of our guests.

              When they arrived it was in a small convoy, Charley could wander over the world alone but Old Woman was never far out of sight of her People, they were very protective of her as they should be.

    Charley escorted her to the common area where we all waited, Old Woman walked to me and took my hand for a minute and said, “We will talk soon.” Then hugged the girls and greeted the other ladies.

              When she came to Vanessa she took both her hands and said, “Welcome home my sister, I hope your travels have all been good.”  

              Vanessa smiled at her and said, “All journeys have stones in the road but it is a part of life and shouldn’t be avoided but learned from.”

              They walked away from all of us to the rock I love to sit on by the water where they talked for a while.

              Charley had come to me and we watched the women talking, I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

              He shrugged and said, “I know who she is and I know her and Old Woman have known each other for most of their lives but that‘s all I know.”

    Now I had to bring up the fact that Old Woman was standing on Plymouth Rock when the first white folks arrived, but Vanessa is somewhere between 40ish and late fiftyish more or less.

              Charley just looked at me and finally said, “John, this is the desert, time is different here, things are different here as you know only too well.” Uh huh, ice burgs on the spine. But he’s right, so I just accept it and let it go.

    The feast was as usual a great success and the Old Woman had all the women in a cluster talking quietly, teaching is what she does. My ladies have spent countless hours with her but they were sitting right there spell bound, at her right hand was Vanessa who I’m beginning to believe is now our resident witch. Vanessa turned her head, looked at me and almost smiled, Sandy and May did smile, Beth never broke contact with the words being spoken.

    We stayed up late into the night and the fire lit the canyon walls with dancing shadows, it makes the entire canyon come alive. Beautiful!

              We headed for bed around midnight and I woke early, showered and headed down for coffee and then to my rock where I found Old Woman sitting. I started to back off but she made a hand motion so I went and sat beside her.

              We sat quietly for a while then she said, “John, do not be troubled about Vanessa as I know you are.” She said she had known Vanessa since they met in college. I almost opened my mouth but didn’t, if Old Woman said it I believed it! She patted my hand and said, “You are growing wiser by the day John, this is good.”

              I asked her about the sickness, she said it was in the cities and many were dying and many were running away but carrying it with them, she looked so sad I couldn’t help it, I hugged her and said, “Well we will fight it as we do all things that come to this land.”

              She nodded and said, “Yes we will,” and smiled, I took my shot while I had the chance and asked if she could explain how it was Vanessa showed up right when needed.

              She said, “Yes, I can John,” I waited and she smiled and said, “But I won’t.” Damn! Foiled again! She laughed and said, “John I may have a price but it’s more then hugs!” Now we both laughed, I really love this Old Woman but then so does everybody.

     “I understand you have located a hive of honey,” she said. I told her all about it but I still think she already knew. She asked about the lad who walked among the bees without fear. I told her I only knew what I saw.

              She nodded and said she would visit with him soon but in the meantime we needed to visit the hive so we headed off just the two of us, well and several young men armed to the teeth, we walked to the cleft in the rock wall where we found Charley waiting for us. I just shook my head when he smiled. He talked to Old Woman then explained to me what was said; she speaks perfect English as does he so why speak in Navajo then translate? He sighed.

    Old Woman walked into the cleft and shortly returned and said, “We will harvest half of the honey; the rest will be left for the bees, this way they will remain here and will provide for your needs for many years to come.” She said the hive had fed many peoples for a very long time and the bees understood that this was the way.

              Ok I’m good with this; I believe anything here in this place. She patted my hand and said, “John you get better and better each day,” now that sounds like I’ve been sick. She said, “Kind of,” and walked away.

    We returned to the canyon and she gathered the girls and Vanessa, Mable and the young lad who found the hive. They sat while she talked, I noted the lad was very serious and listened to every word and when she asked him something they all listened when he talked. Mysteries, where you find them, one thing I wondered was where had the boy come from? We have lots of kids and I can’t keep track of them all but why   don’t I remember him? I would ask the girls when they were done.

              But that didn’t happen because they all stood up and headed off to gather plastic 5 gal buckets with lids, and headed off without a word, I was gonna follow but Charley nodded and I looked and saw all his young men flanking the women.

              Charley said, “We might as well relax since this might take till after dark. So relax we did, we talked about all the things we wanted to get done and the things we didn’t want ever again as far as we were concerned. We both know that in time that will change and progress will raise its ugly head and fk things all up again, but not in our lives.

              I asked him about Vanessa but he just shrugged and said all he knew was what Old Woman said about her and that was it, and likely would remain “it”. Well I hate that crap but nothing is gonna change Old Woman’s mind so in fact that is “It.”

    We talked about how we could seal off the area if it comes to it; Charley explained his thoughts which was better then mine.

              This area is not the easiest place to get into on the best of days and will be much worse with the roads closed and the trails watched.

              The main threat as I see it will come from the Lake itself, anybody can launch a boat and head in here so all we can do is keep them as far away from our canyons as possible.

    We talked about the use of force to hold people at bay and decided the best way was to provide shelter, food and water in places where we can control egress, neither of us were going to start shooting people just running for their lives but we would before we let a sick person into our home area, as distasteful as it would be we had to look at the preservation of all we had built here over the life of a sick person or one who possibly was a carrier.

              This wasn’t going to be an easy task on any level but I felt we could do it. But what if we were faced with a mass of humanity rushing into our area? For me there wasn’t a choice, I’d kill as many as it took to keep my family, clan, and tribe safe and god knows we have the fire power to do it.

              The upside to it is the fact that we are very isolated here and very few people will run into a desert in fear.

    I had a small light bulb go off in my head and told Charley we needed to talk to Doc and headed off to do just that. We found Doc and Vanessa holding a two person conference and Doc said, “Speak of the devil!” He and Vanessa were talking about the plague and what it might be and what we could do to fight it. So Charley and I sat down and listened.

              Doc figured it was going to be something like the Black Plague that almost wiped out Europe back in the bad old days, Vanessa (Call me “V” please) said it might be a flu pandemic like the early 1900’s which was flat horrible.

              Charley asked what it would take to get moving on some kind of idea of what it was. Doc said he wouldn’t have a clue until the first cases showed up. That sounded kind of late to me. But where would we find it short of trolling for a person with it? Doc just looked at me and looked sad but smiled, I said, “Oh no, hell NO! We ain’t going bug hunting!”

              We talked some more and decided to leave in a few days after we acquired some hazmat gear (I’m firm with my NO’s!…shit) I knew we had stuff at the Fort and sent word to them to dig it out and send it our way.

              Next question was who did we have who was qualified to do the research on the poor bastard we brought back and where? That was the stickler, we had nobody who was trained in that field.

              So we put out the word to all our outposts what we were looking for on all counts and waited, and waited.

              Finally we heard from Harry who said there was people in TX working on the whole plague issue and they had a lot of brain power burning the midnight oil. That was a relief coz I didn’t wanna have to deal with it any more then we might have to. And on that note we needed a meeting damn fast on how to handle the issues of people running away but transporting it.

   Charley, Old Woman, V and my usual command staff sat under the trees by the water, I said what we were meeting about and tossed it out to kick around.

              Old Woman spoke first saying that we would have to find a way to stop people from entering, which we were already working on.

    She said we needed to plan on setting up sheltered places where groups who were traveling together could stay until they were proven healthy and then we could take them in or let them pass on with certification they were healthy if that would mean anything to scared communities along the way.

    V added that we would need to keep the groups separate to avoid later comers from infecting people who had proven well, which meant we needed to set up the “camps” right now. “Also,” V said, “Mable and I are going as fast as we can to get herbal supplements for both boosting our immune systems and to help heal or cure. Garlic and honey are two very good supplements. Also parsley is good for our animals. We should also have a goodly amount of apple cider vinegar, if possible.”

              Doc and V both agreed that this flu or plague most likely wasn’t air borne but would take direct contact to pass it on, meaning touch, bodily fluids or droplets from a sneeze or cough.

    Joe asked the question we all had avoided which was what to do when an entire camp proved to have it.

    All I could say was make sure they had food and water and stay the hell away from them. Doc spoke up and said as a Doctor he couldn’t do that, I told him that as the head of our clan if there was in fact a head that I would not allow him to risk getting infected and bringing it back here but that if he insisted then he could stay out in the camp areas and drive to each camp to do what he could, but I would rather he not do that because it would be a waste of a life that might be needed here more then there, we couldn’t afford to lose Doc. Everybody else spoke up and agreed with me, Old Woman said he was needed by his Clan and it must come first, he should not endanger himself. Tough Love. (After the meeting I told Joe and Willy that if Doc made one move to head out to the future camps to lock him up for his own good) I admire Doc a great deal but not enough to allow him to commit suicide. Oath or no oath.

              One thing that in a way bothers me is the fact that we’ve been hearing “Plague” for months and yet it’s not showing up, which I’m not complaining about just want to know where it is.

              We have maintained contact with Barstow, it’s sketchy at times but it’s there enough to pass information. So far they haven’t heard much and there is no mass exodus from the Southern CA. area.. yet.

              Our meeting did establish that we were going to set up temp locations where people could lay up until they showed they were clean, but first we needed to know what, if anything was coming. I’m not happy waiting. I want to head out looking for it but if I go the girls will come meaning Beth and we can’t risk losing her most of all, or any of them for that matter. So I can’t go without a major fight and I don’t want that.

              I settled for rousting Ralph out and before they could react we were in the air in the chopper, the plane would be better in some ways but landing is a problem if there’s something to look at. There wasn’t, we covered an expanding circle from the canyon and saw nothing worth checking out. We flew over the check points Charley had placed on the roadways but they just waved so we headed on.

              We made it back with some fuel left and I saw “them” waiting so I laughed and told Ralph to drop me on the ridge which he did, calling me several colorful names, I told him they wouldn’t hurt him too bad and laughed as I jumped out the door to the ground a few feet under the skids, he flew away and I headed for the shower, if they want me they have to get wet to do it.

    It took them less time to get to the house then it would have taken me to run down the path, which meant they were pissed. They fooled me, all three trooped bare assed into the shower and cuddled. I was waiting for the blade between the ribs but they asked if we saw anything. I gave them a report on it and said I had thought to send the bird up every day but it was likely a waste of fuel. Sandy said Ralph’s small plane could cover way more ground for way less fuel and was a more stable platform for scouting. I guess she would know since she’s spent more time riding in the plane then any of us, I won’t get into it since I just don’t fit.

              After we air dried we grabbed some cold beer from the big fridge and sat on the bed talking about that idea, I wanted information on any sudden large movements of people that could signal the coming plague. I figured we could maybe stop the first ones and get some information if we were careful, meaning keeping our distance and hazmat suits if needed.

              I was still waiting for the fight over sneaking off but it never came, instead they were all excited about the lessons V was teaching about Herbs and their history in helping mankind. I have and do use Aloe Vera plant for many things. In ancient times people migrating from place to place would transport the plants out of fear of not finding it wherever they ended up.

              I’ve used it for sunburn, other kinds of burns, rashes, I’ve drank it by the gallon where it’s bottled as 99% pure, of course that was back in the good old days.

              I love the plant, and that is the end of my knowledge of Herbs.

    The girls were really excited about what they learned and how the Herbs can be used for health. They are really interested in getting Garlic growing here, I said call the Fort; if it grows they have it.

              All three slapped their foreheads and said “Duh.” As much as we get from the Fort we have a tendency to forget about them. They have swept the entire area for thousands of square miles and hauled off everything not nailed down and in fact nothing stops them.

    Now they want a small greenhouse up here on the ridge, I said well when your armor and artillery gets up here where ya gonna put it? They admitted they had rethought the entire issue and decided the stuff can stay where it is since it will clutter the place.

              I’m blown away, shit I figured we would use cases of Grenades for door stops, I watched two heads turn to look at me, I said, “No, not a chance!” They both smiled but didn’t say a word, “shit,” me and my big mouth, wait, I never said that out loud…did I? (laughter..) “Shit!” “Stop cussing!” “Yeah, yeah the baby can hear me…right uh huh…”

              So now we need a small greenhouse which I think beats the hell out of a 105 or a LAV.

    I said I was hungry and that set off a foot race to the bottom of the ridge, leaving me and Beth walking hand in hand slowly, I asked her if she missed being in the rolling fur ball that was the rest of my wives, she said yes but it would come again.

              Lunch being a catch as catch can I headed for the ice cave where I found cheese and beer, two main food groups, I also knew there was a pile of fry bread stashed near the eating area which I found being controlled by “them.” So it cost me a large share of my cheese and beer to get the bread, it was worth it!, others wandered in and got more beer and cheese. I was laying in the shade using somebody’s tummy as a pillow and more to myself then anybody I said, “I really miss potato chips.” That woke up everybody and soon the girls and several other ladies were planning to raid the potato storage area, then somebody said they missed burgers.

              Need I say more? Supper became a BBQ, while we had never used it we have a big meat grinder so that became my job. I drafted Joe and Willy to help. I didn’t know how many mouths we fed daily until I started grinding meat, beef and deer mixed, it takes a lot of burgers to feed this many people! The ladies were baking buns in the earth ovens. Somebody said bacon burgers would be great but the thought of running out of canned bacon for our hot cake and egg breakfasts ruled that out for now until the Hillbillies get the hog thing going.

              Speaking of whom, we sent out word by FAK to all the different canyons about the BBQ, we usually eat late in the evening just for the coolness of the evening and everybody showed up, all bringing something to the feed.

    And yes all this from my day dreaming comment about missing potato chips, which we had loads of! Now I remember why I missed them! We never lack for good food but this was by far the very best feed!

              Harvey said the pigs were doing great and were free ranging with several armed kids doing the protecting and herding them to different areas, they may have been born wild but with the free food they got in the beginning they weren’t as wild, the next generation would be even better, And they would eat damn near anything.

              Between the pigs and the cows the Brammers were working and with the goats that seemed to be everywhere we weren’t lacking for meat for sure. Maybe we could leave off the deer now, everybody likes deer meat but we all liked seeing them slipping down for water in the evenings and as time passes they get less and less afraid of us, also their Fawn crops seem to be growing with fewer predators around and those little guys were fun to watch as were the baby goats who are cute as can be except they grow up the be adult goats and the biggest pain in the ass there is.

              We have kids whose job is to keep them out of the living area and they are doing a real good job of it.

              Nothing pisses me off more then heading to the motor pool and seeing a fkn goat standing on the roof of the Dodge! Bastards! If they didn’t give us milk and cheese

(kind of) and meat if we want it, I’d drive them all into the lake to feed the fishes. Well ok maybe not that, out of fear they would take over the lake.

    Several days later May said she wanted to go see her people at the Dam. I wanted to check up on the new leadership so we loaded the chopper including the guns, Willy wanted to go, Joe was busy herding cats or pigs or maybe chasing Mrs. Joe trying to keep her out of trouble what with being “with child” (I love that old fashion phrase) anyway, he stayed home.

              We didn’t call ahead, just appeared and landed in the town square so to speak.

    The town was bustling along; folks were waving and smiling so I figured things were better then before. Joe and Ralph wandered off while the girls and I went into the city hall building, first thing we hit was a guard who asked if we were armed, I laughed and said, “Be fools not to be eh?” He didn’t have a sense of humor and put his hand on his pistol butt and learned what a fast draw looked like times three!

              About that time the man who had been appointed Marshall came out of his office and said, “OH Shit!!” And yelled at his man to freeze. He trotted over to us and told the fool to remove his hand from the gun which he did really fast. It took me a moment to remember the man’s name, James, I asked if there had been some problems and he nodded at his office. He told the guard to lighten up before he got his ass killed.

              After we were all seated he said that yes there had been some trouble, nothing really bad but the town was still divided into two factions, friends of the former leaders and the supporters of the new crew, I believed that was to be expected.

     James said it was getting out of control because after investigating the disappearance of the people who had opposed the bosses it was determined that they had been killed and disposed of, most likely in the lake weighted down with chains, but no proof so instead of hanging them they banished them and their families and sent them packing with an escort for a good ways.

              He said there had been fights and even some gun play but nobody had been killed. I asked what he had done about it all, which was not much. I was beginning to wonder if he was the man for the job. And I asked him right out if he felt he was over his head, and to his credit he said “Yes and no.”

              He said the problem was folks here couldn’t seem to understand that times had changed and while they had power to run the town it was never gonna be like it had been.

              While I talked with him May went to see her people at the dam, Beth and Sandy stayed with me. Sandy asked if the people here understood that a Plague of unknown proportions was heading right at us and would arrive one day soon. James said he had tried to tell them that but wasn’t getting thru to the one faction and the others weren’t willing to bust their asses to support the ones who were sulking.

    Beth asked if there was somebody agitating the hold outs? James said he knew there was but what could he do?

              This shouldn’t be our problem but in a way it was so I asked James to sound the alarm to summon the folks for a meeting.

              It took the better part of an hour for all the stragglers to get there and I could see what James was up against, It dawned on me that James was the only member of the town council we had seen, I asked him about the Mayor and the rest and was shocked when he said they had quit due to threats! Well this shit wasn’t gonna wash so best handle it right up front.

    We went outside where the crowd was gathered, I looked them over and it was for sure two factions split in two, one bunch to the left and one to the right. I looked at the chopper and saw Willy and Ralph were on the guns, good men!

              I was at a loss what to do or say to these folks, after all I’m an outsider to them and to some I was a good guy and to the rest I was the asshole who caused their friends to lose power.

    Standing on the top steps of the small town hall looking out I saw a town divided in the worse way. And to a degree it was my fault.

    Finally I had to say something so I asked how many knew anything about the influenza outbreak of 1918? A few raised their hands, most just looked confused at the subject since they were ready for a fight of some kind. I started with. “In March of 1918 the so called Spanish flu epidemic started in what is now Fort Riley Kansas, when it was done 18 months later 650 thousand Americans were dead. Worldwide between 25 and 50 Million died, in 18 months.” I now had their attention.

              “At the time of the Black Plague the population of all of Europe was about 40 million people, in just 2 to 3 years 25 million of them died. Now the reason I’m bringing this up is that in the bigger cities in this country the very causes of the Black Plague have returned as has the Disease itself.”

              “Our country was hit with an EMP, it wiped out the better part of the greatest nation on earth. In a matter of hours people were killing each other over bottles of booze, then food and soon no young girl was safe, my people and I have rescued many women and girls from slavery. And now with the remains of our country teetering on the edge of the abyss, about to be swallowed by another horror that will kill most of the remaining people of this country as well as the rest of the world (and I paused) you ignorant, selfish, stupid, spoiled, worthless assholes are sniveling over who’s sorry assed crooked friends got run out of town? Are you people really this fucking stupid?!”  They were shocked into silence! Hell I was too!

    “Really people? Really? With death heading right for you right fkn now do you want to tell your kids you let them die because you’re upset over the fact a friend of yours who may well have been responsible for murdering your neighbors and raping their young daughters were run out of town?”

              “They should have been hanged! And if it had been me here instead of a nice decent man like James here they would still be swinging from the trees!”

    “People, understand this, the only way you’re gonna live is to work together, stop this petty bullshit! The whatever it is that’s coming don’t care about any of you or your friends who were banished, it’s coming to kill you and your children and we can’t fight it with guns!”

    “You need to decide right now if your wives, husbands, kids will live or die, because there is no FEMA coming to pass out debit cards and buy you a trailer, this thing is gonna kill you unless you all start working together right now to defeat this enemy before it gets here.

              “The choice is yours. Me and mine will be working our asses off to seal off our area and to guard against infected people from entering. There is a great deal you need to be doing right now before it gets any closer. But first you need to bury the hatchet, right now, right here. I’m going back into the town hall and you people need to settle your petty-assed issues right now because when we leave if you haven’t we will not be back.”

   We went inside where I dropped into a chair and felt like I was exhausted. I don’t like crowds nor do I like public speaking and I just wanted to go home and leave these petty people to their own fates. Sandy and Beth sat on each side of me. Beth said if that didn’t work then fk em!

              I laughed and said “Stop cussing! The baby can hear you!” Sandy laughed and said, “That’s about the only word you haven’t taught him!” James was looking at us like we had lost it. We didn’t explain it, who could?

    He asked what I thought was gonna happen. I said, “Well James since you are the only member of the city council I would think you would want to be out there helping your people come together,” he got a deer in the headlights look and took off.

              Sandy said, “Not the sharpest tack in the box is he?” Beth said, “No, but he stuck it out, he didn’t quit and run so he’s well ahead of the other shit heads who did.”

              My sweetest, kindest wife is talking like a Marine?? She laughed and said I was rubbing off on her, Sandy said, “Uh I think it was more then just rubbing,” and we all laughed.

              While the talking was going on outside May came in with a few of her people. She said they wanted to come home because they weren’t getting anywhere what with the infighting and backstabbing going on among the townies and also among the Dam folks who resented the newcomers.

              I asked if they thought there was a chance to overcome the issues. None did, they also said that if this town couldn’t pull together none might survive the possible plague that may or may not be coming. If it did somebody should survive that might be able to get things going again after the worst has come and gone.

              I couldn’t argue with that logic and told them to get their gear together and prepare to head out on the chopper right now, they took off, the girls were explaining to May what happened while she was gone, she just shook her head and said, “Fuck Em!” I said, “Stop cussing! The baby can hear you!” She smiled and flipped me off and mouthed, “Fuck you too!” They all laughed like it was funny to abuse the old man. Shame on them!

    I could hear loud voices from outside and decided this shit had gone on too long so I headed out the door to find James flat out on the ground and out cold, I pulled my pistol and fired five fast shots in the air and it got damn quiet damn quick.

              Looking at them I could see they were doomed, there wasn’t one face among the men that didn’t have hate smeared all over it. But I for sure had their attention.

    Beth headed down to where James lay and was attempting to help him to his feet when a big man stepped forward and slapped Beth across the face. And died. Very quickly. I think all three of us shot him.

    Sandy, maybe three times but he was dead before his hand was down from the slap.

              I think we were as shocked as the crowd, it was simply reflex on our part, attack one of us and doom was gonna fall on your head. The girls were helping Beth up, she said she was fine but she hit the ground hard and I was mad, very mad, deep down inside ice cold mad.

              The crowd had gotten so quiet I could hear them breathing, and they all looked scared to death, then I realized my 45 was still in my hand and was tracking the crowd as it followed my eyes.

              I holstered my weapon and immediately a man yelled out that we had murdered Frank, another man shouted that Frank hit a woman and deserved whatever happened, the two of them went to swinging and the whole crowd was about to blow when the gun in the door of the chopper opened up and fired a 50 round burst about a foot over their heads and then it was really quiet, of course most of them were on the ground afraid to move.

              James was able to stand up on his own and Beth looked ok but had a red hand print on her face, I was tempted to shoot the bastard again but refrained.

    When they all got to their feet and were still quiet I said, “Ok! We are done with you, here’s the new rules, you don’t come any more then half the distance between here and where we live. I will put a string of buoys across the area, come past there and you will die, you have half the lake to do as you wish. Stay on your side of the line.

              On the other hand we will cross as we want, screw with us and you die.

              Don’t come anywhere within fifty miles of us on land or you die.

    In other words we want nothing to do with you under any conditions.

              I hope, but doubt you will work out your differences. I don’t think you will survive even if the plague don’t come to this land. Those of you who wanted change, who wanted to build and have a better life, I suggest you leave here today. If you stay you will all die and this place isn’t worth it. There is a whole countryside out there where you can make a life but you’ll have to work for it.

    I asked James if he wanted to move his family to the upper end of the lake but he declined saying he was heading home and loading up and moving to his brothers place near Flagstaff, and with a hand shake and a word of thanks to Beth and the girls he left, still a bit shaky but moving on.

              May’s people showed up, followed by the entire bunch who had decided to head home too.

              I headed over to Ralph and asked how and what it would take to move everybody in the Chopper so we wouldn’t be stuck here waiting for trucks. He looked at the bunch and said, “Ok lets unload the guns and leave them here with Willy which will help keep these assholes off you, and I’ll haul all I can each trip until everybody is moved.” I gave him a thumbs up and Willy handed me a gun with a long belt attached while he grabbed the other one.

    We headed to the steps of the town hall where I told May’s people to head over and Ralph would load them up the way he wanted them.

              After they were all at the chopper it left me and the girls and Willy on the steps with two M-60’s plus the personal long guns we all carry when we leave the home place.

              I told the townsfolk to go home and stay there until we were gone and there had best not be one shot fired at us or I would flame the entire place.

              They left much quieter then they came, leaving the dead man laying. I told Sandy that either she or May could stay but one was going with Beth on the next chopper load. I won’t repeat their words, including Beth’s, suffice to say I don’t run nothing, I’m just a passenger on the ship of fools. But I love them just the same. Beth hugged me and said, “We are family John, where one goes we all go.” What could I say to that?

              We moved everybody inside the town hall building to await the choppers return which seemed to take forever but return it did with Joe and two more hard assed shooters. The rest of May’s folks loaded up and headed out with their belongings leaving seven of us on the ground.

              Sandy said she would be right back and trotted off thru the building and returned about five minutes later to say there was a parking lot in back that Ralph could land in and the building would give us cover while loading.

              I hugged her close and promised her a full body massage when we got home! I love this little giant, fast on the trigger? Yes, but just as fast at accessing the situation and looking for a way to make things work for us.

              I had not given a thought to the possibility of some of the townies firing at us as we pulled out. So much for the great leader shit.

    We waited until we heard the bird coming back and hit the back parking lot and waved for Ralph’s attention, he circled around like before but at the last minute dumped it right next to us, we were aboard and had the guns hooked in place in seconds and shot straight up like an elevator. Sandy was on one gun and Willy on the other, May slugged Willy but got the finger and a laugh in return, the ladies are very proprietary about “Their Chopper and Guns.”

    I was still trying to get the fkn belt hooked when we took fire from a roof top a block away! A miracle prevented anybody from getting hit but the shooters weren’t so lucky. Willy opened up and using the tracers as a guide swept the roof top like a fiery broom taking down all three of the shooters, Ralph turned the bird and Sandy hosed them again.

              She was still pissed about Beth getting slapped, I was glad she hadn’t put a minigun on the bird, 5000 a minute is a bit over doing it.

    We headed home, sad but wiser, can’t help them as won’t help themselves.

    I also had no doubt we would be “tried” by some of those asshats, oh well, it’s a deep lake.

              I held Beth close on the way home with her leaning her head on my chest, I hurt for her, she’s the most gentle loving person in our community and to have that happen makes me feel there is no help for mankind.

              She raised her head and spoke in my ear “It’s not your fault John, and he paid a heavy price but also he will never do that again so maybe it was worth it, think?”

              No I didn’t think, but I know where she’s coming from.

              I also noticed both Sandy and May were a full second ahead of me in getting into action, either I’m slowing down a lot or they have been getting in range time while I nap. Sandy turned from the door and winked at me with a devilish smile, I looked at her and thought “Massage” and she gave a butt wiggle, I busted out laughing which nobody heard in the wind howling thru the doors.

    I love these three fiery women and none is so much as an inch ahead of another in my heart. Now all three are smiling at me, how do they do that? And right then while my hand lay on Beth’s tummy I felt a small movement!

              It almost scared me and I started to move my hand as a reflex but Beth held it in place and smiled at me with tears in her eyes.

              We are going home and no more wandering off to fight wars, at least for a while, like several months.

    That evening after we were all settled in from dinner and showers, laying in our bed I told Sandy and May about feeling the baby move, that started a stampede to get next to Beth and both laid hands on her tummy.

     Sandy laid her head on it and said she could hear a tiny voice saying,

“ shit.. shit.. shit..”

    I slapped her on the ass which resulted in a dog fight that I lost.

              Beth was the referee and never called one foul on those two for hair pulling and finger bending while I got 10 points deducted for biting May on the butt which was all I could do since I was wrapped up like a mummy, it was worth the 10 points. Nice ass!

    We went to sleep with all of us having a hand on Beth’s tummy. I think he kicked again in the night but it was probably Sandy getting in a cheap shot.

    Morning brought a wonderful storm! We sat on the stump in our birthday suits and watched it rolling across the lake, but then the lightning came so we moved inside and watched a most beautiful display of fire bolts dancing across the lake. One thing we had taught the youngsters was to stay out of any of the run off canyons when it did rain as flash floods can ruin your day!

              After the storm blew thru the sun came out so we headed to the cooking area where the ladies were ready to prepare breakfast. And of course “they” were in charge of the pancakes, while Mable and Walter made their wonderful veggie omelets with homemade cheese. I often wonder if others have pulled together to build a life better then the one they lost.

    Life settled down pretty good, winter was starting to raise its head which isn’t all that bad but not a picnic either. We spent time cutting wood and hauling it in from the mountains.

              The Hobbit homes are very easy to heat, very little wood used for that. Up on the ridge where the winds hit hard we did need a lot of wood, but the thick walls of stone soaked up heat and released it in the night so we were comfy. We were all kind of staying home and cooking for ourselves except for the warm days of which there are plenty.

              Beth was showing a lot! And was getting more beautiful by the day, the girls and I took turns rubbing a creamy lotion on her tummy made by our resident witch V which she said would stop stretch marks?? It became our nightly entertainment, we called it Mommy time.

              I was becoming a bit worried as the time came close, I guess all men do. This is something out of our hands and control. One thing I settled real fast, I fully intend to be there when my son is born and that’s that.

              Doc wants to do it in the Medical Van, Beth and the girls and V said, “No, the baby needs to be born in its home surrounded by the people who love him.” I agreed simply because what the fk do I know about it! I just want to see ten toes and fingers and all the plumbing where it belongs.

              We had another storm in what I guess is December, nobody watches the calendar anymore so nobody is really sure. It was a really wild storm, lots of booming and the lightning lit up the entire area for miles like day light. It was awesome. Right in the middle of it May jumped up and yelled, “Yes!! Storm!! Yes Yes!!” We all looked at her like she was crazy and Sandy said, “Uh yeah it’s a storm. Duh!” And we laughed, May was dancing around the room yelling, “Storm!! The name is Storm!!” Finally she stopped and said, “His name is Storm!!! 

              I asked, “Whose name?” She finally got it out “My Horse!! His name is Storm!!”

   Beth and Sandy were up and dancing around with her, I was worried about Beth but that never stops them so I danced around with them.. right behind Beth.. just in case.

              We were all thrilled for May as well as Storm who was no longer “The Horse With No Name”

    With the coming of morning the sky was bright blue, the sun was shining so after breakfast we trooped down the ridge to see Storm, as we went the word spread so by the time we arrived the entire community was there or coming.

              Storm was standing at the gate to the horse canyon looking all proud. May hugged him and they did the nose/air thing and everybody agreed it was a wonderful thing. I shook my head and said, “I’m still hungry,” and got glared at. I guess I don’t understand the whole name mystery. Buck came over to see me and I swear stopped off and nuzzled Storms ear as if to say “Good Job!”

              After a while we all headed back to the cooking area where a second breakfast was being cooked so I got fed again. Storm found his lost name, Beth looks beautiful, Sandy and May look like two prowling Panthers guarding their cubs. I swear if a sparrow were to fly within 20 feet of Beth those two would open fire. Beth turned to me and said, “It’s ok John, it’s their baby too.” Well yeah, I knew that, I wondered if I would be allowed to hold him.. or her?

              Sandy looked at me and said, “Maybe, if you wash your hands and mouth.” Then May said, “Yeah what she said garbage mouth.” I decided to go see the Old Farts and get some ammo and go shoot, I need to get back my speed, can’t have these broads beating me. I could feel the eyes on my back as I went so I held up a one finger salute and heard (heard?) “Keep it up buddy” and “you better not go to sleep.” (giggles).

    The Old Farts were holding court with their young apprentices on the finer art of loading precession rifle ammo, so I grabbed a few boxes of 45’s and headed for the range where I used a timer to check my speed and yes I had lost a bunch of speed so I spent an hour drawing and firing two rounds against the timer shooting at a steel target that was cut like a human silhouette. At the end of the hour I had gotten my times back up to a second from draw to the second shot and both center mass. I was pleased but I used to know several folks who did it in half my time. I got done and turned around and found my wives standing back watching me, all were smiling.

     I was worried about Beth being so close to the loud noises but she said the baby didn’t seem to mind and considering who its daddy was it figured. I was still worried but shut up. We trooped home and I cleaned my gun while they read or napped. Winter in the high desert can be a wonderful time of the year.

    I kept checking in with Charley and so far none of his scouts had seen any signs of people moving fast like the devil was on their ass. So between the plague and the baby coming I was pacing a trail in the stone floor of the living room, the girls were almost as bad. Beth was the only calm one of the bunch, we took to calling her Buddha because she would sit on the bed with her legs crossed and her big tummy and with her calm look it just seemed like the thing to call her, she laughed at us all.

    I started going to the range every day for an hour and just shooting, strong hand, weak hand, both hands, behind cover, moving, sitting at a table and drawing when the timer beeped and I could see it was really paying off, I thought I was faster and more accurate then I ever had been.

              I took to doing rifle drills, shooting on the move, shooting while falling down behind cover. CQB (Close Quarter Battle) drills, running up the gully shooting real close targets on the run. With the help of some of the others we built a doorway that opened to what would be a room in a house, somebody would change the targets around, and there were innocent “people” scattered among the bad guys. Beep, kick door open and start shooting, it takes time to build up the reaction times and I killed a lot of innocent folks before I was getting it right.

    One byproduct of it was more and more people were coming out and training, this became a daily event, I found a couple of young guys with recent Military combat time in the Stan and had them teach fire and maneuver drills, slow at first since we didn’t want anybody killed or wounded. As the days passed we were doing it at a run up the draws, run forward with covering fire snapping past you, hit the ground, roll behind cover and start using suppression fore while others leap frogged forward to cover.

    We set up some cables to use for moving targets that rolled down on pulleys. We were burning up a lot of ammo but I seemed driven for some reason, I mean it was a blast pun intended, but it was training too, more then we ever did before. I wondered, but said fk it, it is what it is.

    The crowning achievement was the zip line! We used steel cable from a high spot and strung it across a long gully to another spot lower down; we used some of the parachute harness we got with the sky diving gear. We set up targets in the gully and took turns leaping off the cliff and rocketing down the line blasting all the targets we could get.

              (Note..this is an actual part of a course of fire at the MGM Iron Man three gun match held in Parma Idaho every year, sponsored by the good folks from MGM Targets of Boise ID. I’ve shot this shoot four times and it kicked my ass every time, but running a zip line shooting at targets as you speed past is awesome! Look on You Tube for videos of the match)

    The girls loved that part but used their squirt guns to really hose the targets. Beth watched and begged to ride the zip line. Finally Doc said, “Hell go for it.” We got her all cinched in and gave her the 300 Black out and turned her loose, I was scared shitless, even Sandy was chewing her nails, V was right behind the low spot where the end of the cable was anchored and as soon as the shooting stopped she leaped out and grabbed onto Beth and slowed her down. She stood on the hill below holding the 300 up in her right hand the left was a fist and she let out a war cry that sounded like it belonged back a few hundred years ago. She looked wild and beautiful, long hair blowing in the wind, rifle in the air. I was madly in love with this Spartan Warrior!

    I will always say and believe the Zip line did it. That night Beth’s water broke, Sandy went out and fired the signal shots to let Doc and V know and we spent the night holding our darling thru the worst of it.

              And as the sun broke over the lake my son was born, I couldn’t breathe for the lump in my throat. I heard his first cry and tears rolled down, I had to step out for a moment to get some air and as I stood there looking at the dawn I heard another sound that I didn’t understand, it sounded like my son was having trouble, I burst thru the door to be greeted by my daughter.

    I was rooted to the floor, Sandy and May were dancing around one second and hugging Beth the next, I went to her and held her close and whispered two? She nodded and I felt her smile against my neck.

    Doc and V came to us and handed the babies at me, I was backing up like a crawdad, saying, “No no no,, shit I’ll break them! I might hurt them, I might drop them!”

              It did no good because I soon had a small living breathing human, tiny yes but still human in each arm for about 30 seconds before they were taken away by “Them.” I was going to object but Beth squeezed my hand and whispered, “It’s ok, look at them.” She was right, both girls had a look like I’d not seen on their faces before. We sat there in the middle of our bed the five of us, a big bed made smaller by the arrival of two more people.

    Doc and V sat with us and we all just watched the two babies, then Beth took them and guided them both to their first meal.

              I will say my son took to the nipple like a champ while my daughter fussed a bit but got the hang of it and man they went to town.

              It was the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen and one that will be with me when I close my eyes for the last time.. this go around.

              With the morning under way the entire community came to see the babies, a few at a time and they all said it was good they took after Beth and not me which I thought was a cheap shot but then again, she is beautiful while me, well I’m old and tired and worn out and my ear is half shot off and I have a bullet hole in my ass so maybe it’s best they take after mommy.

    On the fourth day of their birth we took them down the hill to our little village, where Charley and Old Woman and the entire Navajo nation were gathered as well as what looked like folks from everywhere, the Fort was represented, as was Texas by way of Harry and Bear and their ladies who were making the move as we speak.

              And then I saw her, my other true love, Mis. Sheri came walking up and hugged me for a long time and whispered, “Thank you!” “For what?” I whispered back, “For bringing me babies to love you big jerk!”

              I couldn’t believe it, all the people who make up our giant family were here. I couldn’t understand what the big deal was, women have babies all the time. V looked at me and said, “Well yeah, that’s true John, but mostly they just wanna see what an old man can accomplish if he has a beautiful young wife to do the work!” And of course all the fools laughed, I know I never said anything out loud and now V was doing it. Old Woman came to me and took my face between her hands and said, “John, everybody is here because they love you, respect you and care for you, and of course out of disbelief that an old fart like you could do this good of a job but especially do two at once!!”

              And that brought the house down. I went to the cold room and carried out several cases of beer for the naming toast.

    Beth and I had talked about it and she took our son from Sandy and held him up and said, “This is our son, “John Charles Walker named for his father and our dear friend and Brother.”

              The crowd raised a beer and yelled,” Howdy John Charles!”

              Beth took our Daughter and held her up and said, “This is our daughter (and here she diverted from the script) “Sandra May Walker!”

              The crowd went wild, both babies started crying until somebody took them, I just stood there watching Sandy and May both crying and hugging Beth.

              I looked around for my babies and saw Mis Sheri sitting in a folding camp chair, a baby in each arm and a soft beautiful smile on her face gently rocking them. 

              I knew right then that come wars, plagues or whatever, we would make it.

              Both as a clan or tribe and as a race, we would make it.

              So I went to sit beside Mis Sheri and tried to take a baby but she growled at me, really, growled…

              I left her alone, went and got more beer and we built a huge fire to ward off the chill and the party started!

Again I think this one is a tiny bit short but once again it ends where it wants to. Really, honest.

Special addition! My friend and editor Vanessa who has really tried hard to make my stuff readable wrote this funny little thing and after I read it I wanted to add it, so here it is.

Boy, “Damn right I was screamin. (stop cussin) I’ve never heard so much loud stuff, I think daddy, buddy, bud, John would say shit, and then my mommies would fuss at him. It started a long time ago. I was all warm and wet in a dark place cuddled with my sister. Sometimes she would try to take up too much of the room but we worked it out.

Girl, “Brother, if you are going to tell this story, tell it right.”

Boy, “Well sometimes you did.”

Girl, “Did not, but go ahead.”

Boy, “Then everything changed, our whole world ended. We were squished and squeezed and pushed and a man giant grabbed me by my head and pulled me out. Then a woman giant did the same to sis. It was cold and full of giants and all of them were showing their fangs.”

Girl, “We were afraid they were going to eat us because all of them had fangs showing every time they looked at us.”

Boy, “One of our mommies put clothes on us, I didn’t like them but then she wrapped me in a warm thing and held me.”

Girl, “After that they took us to the mommy we knew, the one who’s tummy we had been in. We knew her sounds from before.”

Boy, “Then all the loud stuff stopped and everybody gathered around. Somebody had tried to get the one called daddy, bud, buddy, John, he has lotsa names, but they tried to get him to hold us but he had this look on his face that was goin to make us cry again but our other mommies got us and that’s when they took us to the mommy called Bets.”

Girl, “The big one called Daddy, Bud, Buddy, John was beside mommy Bets, this time he had wet stuff dripping down.”

Boy, “We know his sounds too, he calls me his little man cos we have the same kind of plumbing. I can squirt water all the way over my head.”

Girl, “I’m like our mommies, we don’t do stuff like that. Mommy Sany said now they have two little boys.”

Boy, “Then our mommy put something, we later heard was called a boobie, tit, tittie, to my lips. It was soft and warm and tasted sweet and good. I just started sucking on it and good stuff came out. Sis didn’t want to try it but finally she did. I was surprised because before we came out I sucked on what my mommies call fingers and piggies, nothing ever came out, and I tried sis’ ones too.”

Girl, “They must think that you ate some of them cos they keep counting them like there should be more of them.”

Boy, “Shit. (Stop cussin). Whatever, but we can count to ten already. Now to go on with my story….”

Girl, “It’s my story too, brother.”

Boy, I know sis, but I started it. So, over the next few, what are called days, more giants came and showed us their fangs, we showed them that we didn’t have any and couldn’t hurt them, so they went away.”

Girl, “And we learned about our mommies.”

Boy, “The one with the good boobies is mommy Bets, it was her tummy we were in, but I don’t know how we got there. She nuzzles on our faces and necks and it makes us feel nice. When she looks at us it’s like…I don’t know the right words for it but it’s nice. 

Girl, “She doesn’t scare us when she shows her fangs. She always has this soft beautiful look on her face and she makes nice sounds and says how much she loves us. I’m not sure what that is, but I’m sure it is good.

Boy, “All of our mommies and daddy bud buddy John say that, so I think it is a good thing too.”

Girl, “Then there is mommy Sany, she carries me around and tells me she will always take care of us and keep us safe. I don’t really understand safe but since I know her sounds from before I like it. She says I have to get a horse and learn to ride. I try to say I will but she can’t understand.”

Boy, “Mommy Sany makes fart sounds on my tummy and I pull on her hair. She carries me too, and rocks me, I like that. Then I try to get her boobie and she takes me to mommy Bets and tells her to feed this ‘bottomless pit’. I don’t understand why I can’t have some of hers she has plenty. She showed me a room with what she calls ‘kick ass weapons’ and tells me how she will have me shooting them by the time I’m three, whatever that means.”

Girl, “Then we have mommy Mae, she has beautiful blue eyes, I think that is the right word. She carries us too and talks about keeping us safe. I don’t really understand but I listen. She is so careful when she holds us like we will break. Since we didn’t break getting squished out of mommy Bets tummy, I don’t think she will.”

Boy, “Mommy Mae gets wet stuff in her eyes when she looks at us and talks about all she will do to keep us safe. I don’t really know safe, same as sis, but ok. She won’t let me have her boobie either. I try real hard, but she just takes me to mommy Bets. Mommy Bets only has two, one for me and one for sis, I think the other mommies should let me drink theirs but they just say theirs don’t work. But they feel like mommy  Bets do so…….”

Boy, “Then there is daddy, buddy bub John. I don’t know why he has so many names but we heard them all since we were in mommy Bets’ tummy. He just looks at us with a funny look on his face and shakes his head side to side. It’s like we ain’t right but we can’t do anything about it. When he picks me up he shows his fangs and calls me his little man. I showed him how my plumbing could reach all the way to his head. He made a loud sound and scared me and I cried. All the mommies fussed at him, then they started making loud sounds, then acted like I had done the funniest thing ever!”

Girl, “Mommy Mae says boys will be boys and all the giants made noise again. She said we are something called ladies and don’t do stuff like that.”

Boy, “Just because you can’t.”

Girl, “Could too if I wanted to, mommy Sany said girls are better than boys.”

Boy, “Are not, daddy, buddy bud John calls me his little man, anyhow I was tellin this story.”

Girl, “Go ahead, if you get something wrong I’ll let you know. You have never been quiet; remember when mommy Sany listened to mommy Bets tummy when you were saying daddy buddy bud Johns word?”

Boy, “You mean when I was saying shit, shit, shit?”

Girl, ”Yep, It’s good they didn’t hear what you were saying when you were getting squished out of mommy Bets tummy, fk, fk, fk, fk!”

Boy, “You didn’t want to come out either.”

Girl, “I know, I was scared but it’s ok now.”

Boy, “I was telling about daddy, buddy, bud, John. When he looks at us or holds us, he looks scared shitless (stop cussin). That scares us and we cry. Mommy Bets talks to us and tells us not to do that cos it makes daddy sad, she just calls him daddy so I will too. So we try to not do it and he don’t look so scared most of the time. He just shows his fangs real big but it don’t scare us like it did at first. He talks to us a lot. He tells me about guns, I think those make the loud sounds that we heard when we were in mommys tummy. It scared sis.”

Boy, “So then we were brought out of the new place to one with even more giants and different smells and it was real scary. Then mommy Bets took me and held me up and told everyone that my name is John Charles Walker. Walker is the dogs name.  Then she took sis and held her up and said her name is Sandra May Walker. Everything got loud, we were both crying.”

Girl, “Yes I was crying, someone calls mommy Sany, it’s my name. Someone calls mommy Mae, it’s my name. Someone calls Walker it’s my name. How am I gonna know when someone is talking to me?”

Boy, “Sis was really crying and all the people were loud and yelling. I guess they were mad cos sis don’t have a name of her own. So, I started crying too. Maybe there aren’t many names. Then we were with a different girl person that for some reason me and sis calmed down. Sis was still jerking from crying so bad about her name but she stopped and went to sleep. This girl was rockin a little and she was comfortable. I kept tryin to drink some of her boobie but she wouldn’t let me, shit. (Stop cussin). Daddy came and tried to take one of us from, I think he called her Sher, but she wouldn’t him. I’m glad cos Sher is more comfortable than daddy. Well all this is makin me sleepy, now if I could just get to that boobie….”

TJ

I don’t really know why people seem to like these little books, I mean, I like em, I read them and laugh and feel good, but I wonder when it will stop, I love the folks in these books, and to end them would be like losing family.

    But one day they will come to an end, not now, not soon, but they will when it’s time. Like the horse with no name, I didn’t name him, he really did it as I wrote it, I won’t blame you for thinking “Oh bullshit, but it’s true.

    The desert is a strange place, shadows move for no reason, a wind comes from nowhere and goes the same way.

    A sound will be heard where there is no reason, you may hear a laugh where no person is.

    I’ve been there and lived it, I can’t explain it and wouldn’t if I could, some things are best left alone.

    If you listen in the night you will swear you hear the sound of distant drums and see the faint glow of a distant fire. Don’t worry it’s just the way of the desert.

    I love the desert.