In the grey over cast sky, that barely allowed light, the horse plodded the edge of the river.
It is a keen eye and ear that kept you safe from harm, the thought rolled through his
brain as he rode. He watched the horses ears for any sign trouble, it had saved him before.
Evan was thinking of the start up of the radio station and getting a network of electricity
to a few of the locals. A couple with children in an old "Preppers" bunker 6 miles west.
A few others in a rock quarry to the south, kind of a man made box canyon with a narrow
entrance fortified with a wall of war vehicles. And his cousin Mike in the buried airstream trailer
miles east. He was the sort of guy that could pet your dog, then pick up a rock and crush it's skull,
so it wouldn't give him away. A product of the Chinese hordes. A good cook though he once made
a very tender roast from a very old horse.
He approached the river bridge marked with 3 crosses in black paint, his directions, were to
head 2 clicks east on the road, but to stay in the south tree line. An old county highway sign
said H-34, as he rose out of the river bed, the horse's ears twitched and turned back behind them,
he knew he was being followed, but could see no one.
Riding at a gait he turned into a row of cedar trees and stopped, dismounted quickly and unsheathed his sword. Evan held the reigns tight and pulled the mare close to the tree.
Crisp leaves gave away the following spy, he walked into the tree line, and was affronted by
a thick forearm and the butt of a sword.
"Geezus!, My Da said you were coming , but I didn't know I would be killed!"
Evan pulled the boy to his feet, and held him fast with his sword.
"Your father got the radio?", "Take me there, and no fast moves."
"You come with medicine for my sister?", the young boy asked.
" What's wrong with her? She got the Pox?", Evan quizzed.
"No the fever from dirty water", the boy stated.
The boy was forced to walk ahead of the horse a few paces,
and Evan sheathed the sword.
"Your Pa, he fought the Hordes?"
"Ya, who didn't?", the boy said.
" You're too young to remember the Hordes."
" My Da told me about 'em and I'd a killed as many as I coulda'"
" Well we're here", The young boy removed a few tree branches and a camo
tarp, to reveal an old Preppers steel entrance.
" God bless those old Preppers", Evan said, "Saved half the nation in the
Hordes wars."
Evan carried his kit down a steel ladder along with an old 9mm, He didn't want
to be someone's last supper.
Instead he was greeted by a lanky man with sunken chest, worn face, and brown eyes
that at one time were trusting, but now jumped about.
" Are you the man I radioed?" Evan took his hand shook it and said "Yes. Where's the
girl?"
"Down here, she cant shake the fever."
" I don't have much for meds, some anti- diarrheal and Tylenol and 10 tabs of antibiotics",
" Oh and my wife sent chicken soup."
"You have chickens?"
"Well not really, but I have trapped a few prairie chickens."
The conversation continued late into the night and it was good to laugh and
take stock in another.
They spoke of the radio and Evans plan for a broadcast and to get the electricity
to others.
"Hell, maybe one day we could string wire down here to you all.", Evan bragged.
"You sleep here by the stove and ride out tomorrow. I can never repay you enough
for your help, and the meds for my daughter."
He slept under an old blanket on the floor, his 9mm, under his pack next to him.
Lost is the soul of a boatless man
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Sunday, November 17, 2013
She Never Touched The Ground
The morning rose without consequence. It began with the breakfast mess and the smell of strong of coffee on the stove.
Lily's father appeared from the lower decks with a box marked shortwave radio.
Atop the box was a manual marked Seimens SWT-2.3-101 tattered as it was it was a manual
for our homes inner workings.
Lily quizzed,"Whatcha' got Daddy?"
"It's a box for the future", her father replied.
The time that morning was spent digging through the box of stuff and the diagrams
of the manual. Lily, small as she was fell upon something in the box that she exclaimed,
"It's a picture of Grandpa, What's he got?" Her Grandfather held strange antenna it was
circular with a hoop shape on top. The base held a black box about the size of a car battery.
"I don't know", her father said. " Maybe it's something important maybe not"?
Lily went back to Betty Ruth and said," He doesn't know a good thing when we see
it.
Lily's father continued with the shortwave, plugged it in to the household electric,
waited for it to warm up, put his ear to the speaker, just as a voice broke through.
"Pon-Pon does anyone have survival medical kit ", "I am located 40 miles north of
Ames Ia.", " please respond".
Lily looked as though he had opened Pandora's box, " Daddy we have to save them"!
" Lily that's 20 mi. from here!", what would you and mom do?"
"What is that daddy going to do", Lily looked at him, knowingly.
The day hadn't started the way he planned but, he knew he had to ride if he would
make it by nightfall if he was to help whomever had come across the air.
He also knew that anyone out there with a 2 way was worth meeting.
Stringing a quick split wire antenna he responded to the pon with a
request for location.
They responded with a location and a warning of "Stay away from the roadways,
and stick to the river bed.", And who ever you are God bless you."
He told mom he had to go and kissed them both and dropped down the tower on the
service crane onto the top of the barn platform at the bottom. It was a small wire cage reserved
for the crane on the outside of the tower. Depending on the wind it dropped to the
front, side, or back of the barn roof.
Lily's father saddled the horse, and loaded his med bag, and a rifle, with his trusted sword
slid in the sheath just under his saddle bag.
He said a prayer, and kicked his horse alive and headed south.
The thought was , what am I doing, but, his heart was telling him this is good.
Lily told Betty Ruth that her dad was brave and on a mission from God,
"besides the world depends on us."
Lily's father appeared from the lower decks with a box marked shortwave radio.
Atop the box was a manual marked Seimens SWT-2.3-101 tattered as it was it was a manual
for our homes inner workings.
Lily quizzed,"Whatcha' got Daddy?"
"It's a box for the future", her father replied.
The time that morning was spent digging through the box of stuff and the diagrams
of the manual. Lily, small as she was fell upon something in the box that she exclaimed,
"It's a picture of Grandpa, What's he got?" Her Grandfather held strange antenna it was
circular with a hoop shape on top. The base held a black box about the size of a car battery.
"I don't know", her father said. " Maybe it's something important maybe not"?
Lily went back to Betty Ruth and said," He doesn't know a good thing when we see
it.
Lily's father continued with the shortwave, plugged it in to the household electric,
waited for it to warm up, put his ear to the speaker, just as a voice broke through.
"Pon-Pon does anyone have survival medical kit ", "I am located 40 miles north of
Ames Ia.", " please respond".
Lily looked as though he had opened Pandora's box, " Daddy we have to save them"!
" Lily that's 20 mi. from here!", what would you and mom do?"
"What is that daddy going to do", Lily looked at him, knowingly.
The day hadn't started the way he planned but, he knew he had to ride if he would
make it by nightfall if he was to help whomever had come across the air.
He also knew that anyone out there with a 2 way was worth meeting.
Stringing a quick split wire antenna he responded to the pon with a
request for location.
They responded with a location and a warning of "Stay away from the roadways,
and stick to the river bed.", And who ever you are God bless you."
He told mom he had to go and kissed them both and dropped down the tower on the
service crane onto the top of the barn platform at the bottom. It was a small wire cage reserved
for the crane on the outside of the tower. Depending on the wind it dropped to the
front, side, or back of the barn roof.
Lily's father saddled the horse, and loaded his med bag, and a rifle, with his trusted sword
slid in the sheath just under his saddle bag.
He said a prayer, and kicked his horse alive and headed south.
The thought was , what am I doing, but, his heart was telling him this is good.
Lily told Betty Ruth that her dad was brave and on a mission from God,
"besides the world depends on us."
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
She Never Touched the Ground
The gray sky behind his broad shoulders with the whoosh, whoosh,
are the earliest memories, I have of my father.
I was born high atop a Siemens wind turbine on what used to be my Great Grandfathers
farm. I was given tasks at a young age, but was never allowed below the 30 meter deck.
It was said that the rats below that would carry you into the bottoms and devour you.
I grew to know that the stores below were grains and other sustenance for us but the other
dangers where not for little girls.
Father busied himself daily with "things", dealing with others, and the threat of the nomads.
He was a wide eyed, bearded man with blue eyes and thick eyebrows. He was not tall,
but broad at the shoulder, and forearms as round as a piece of fire wood. It was told he once
picked up a heavy piece of iron off his father, that fell on him during the Hordes of China.
I gave myself to the winds of the aviary at the top of the 88 meter tower. My father had
constructed a wire bird trap at the top baited with grain and mice in order to trap birds.
I loved the peaceful feel of the 'top' as Dad put it. I could sit forever waiting for a turtle dove,
or pigeon to come take bait, and become a temporary pet until eaten.
My father had a few raptors red hawks, bald eagles, and once a golden eagle.
He told me that raptors were the only birds worth saving as the had lived through the
End of Times War between all nations. Although I knew the other birds that we ate were
survivors too, He favored the big raptors as supreme.
The End of Times War occurred when the worlds finances had run it's course, kind of like
when someone wins all the hotels at Monopoly, It's great until the other countries without food
or a source of means, encouraged the war.
It had come to a boiling when China in 2025 had become a superpower and called it's
loan on the US. The US bristled and began a war on another blank check.
It would consume both countries to the brink of starvation, along with the allies that sided with
both.
In a last defiant effort the US was about to launch a nuclear bomb, when the Pacific rim
near China erupted in the most spectacular earthquake ever recorded. A Tsunami went so
far up the Yellow river that the Himalayas were waterfront property. 3 million were killed
the first day, tens of thousands followed after from aftershocks, and disease.
Perhaps Divine intervention, maybe dumb luck, it was the saving the earth needed even though it
plummeted the earth into an ice age that would last a century and take 80% of the population.
The Hordes of China continued for another 25 years, Two generations of revenge and pillage
of the North Americas. More a rebellion, than a war. but never ending.
The stories of Great grandfather fighting that war are an echo of my childhood.
I can hardly remember my grandfather, the man who would recite the tales, over and over.
Even in his final days he was heard to say " Chinese, Slant eyed bastards."
I only remember father saying how we must somehow put this back together again.
"What, can we do", I would ask. " How can we make sense of a broken world", Her soft voice
said.
"Lily, I want to make a radio station, and sell our electricity.", daddy said.
" I want people to be happy and love again", " and tomorrow is the day...."
Lily, looked up at him, "A radio station, what's that"?
"It's something that people will listen to like they used to", He said
Off her father went down into the bottoms to find something, something that would change
the world.
Lily looked at her cloth doll and said;" A radio station, he's really lost it now!"
" Last time it was a hawk trap, what next Betty Ruth?"
The doll offered it's same mute response.
" Well it's bed time anyhow."..
are the earliest memories, I have of my father.
I was born high atop a Siemens wind turbine on what used to be my Great Grandfathers
farm. I was given tasks at a young age, but was never allowed below the 30 meter deck.
It was said that the rats below that would carry you into the bottoms and devour you.
I grew to know that the stores below were grains and other sustenance for us but the other
dangers where not for little girls.
Father busied himself daily with "things", dealing with others, and the threat of the nomads.
He was a wide eyed, bearded man with blue eyes and thick eyebrows. He was not tall,
but broad at the shoulder, and forearms as round as a piece of fire wood. It was told he once
picked up a heavy piece of iron off his father, that fell on him during the Hordes of China.
I gave myself to the winds of the aviary at the top of the 88 meter tower. My father had
constructed a wire bird trap at the top baited with grain and mice in order to trap birds.
I loved the peaceful feel of the 'top' as Dad put it. I could sit forever waiting for a turtle dove,
or pigeon to come take bait, and become a temporary pet until eaten.
My father had a few raptors red hawks, bald eagles, and once a golden eagle.
He told me that raptors were the only birds worth saving as the had lived through the
End of Times War between all nations. Although I knew the other birds that we ate were
survivors too, He favored the big raptors as supreme.
The End of Times War occurred when the worlds finances had run it's course, kind of like
when someone wins all the hotels at Monopoly, It's great until the other countries without food
or a source of means, encouraged the war.
It had come to a boiling when China in 2025 had become a superpower and called it's
loan on the US. The US bristled and began a war on another blank check.
It would consume both countries to the brink of starvation, along with the allies that sided with
both.
In a last defiant effort the US was about to launch a nuclear bomb, when the Pacific rim
near China erupted in the most spectacular earthquake ever recorded. A Tsunami went so
far up the Yellow river that the Himalayas were waterfront property. 3 million were killed
the first day, tens of thousands followed after from aftershocks, and disease.
Perhaps Divine intervention, maybe dumb luck, it was the saving the earth needed even though it
plummeted the earth into an ice age that would last a century and take 80% of the population.
The Hordes of China continued for another 25 years, Two generations of revenge and pillage
of the North Americas. More a rebellion, than a war. but never ending.
The stories of Great grandfather fighting that war are an echo of my childhood.
I can hardly remember my grandfather, the man who would recite the tales, over and over.
Even in his final days he was heard to say " Chinese, Slant eyed bastards."
I only remember father saying how we must somehow put this back together again.
"What, can we do", I would ask. " How can we make sense of a broken world", Her soft voice
said.
"Lily, I want to make a radio station, and sell our electricity.", daddy said.
" I want people to be happy and love again", " and tomorrow is the day...."
Lily, looked up at him, "A radio station, what's that"?
"It's something that people will listen to like they used to", He said
Off her father went down into the bottoms to find something, something that would change
the world.
Lily looked at her cloth doll and said;" A radio station, he's really lost it now!"
" Last time it was a hawk trap, what next Betty Ruth?"
The doll offered it's same mute response.
" Well it's bed time anyhow."..
Monday, November 4, 2013
Soda Bottle Kid
Tank was sitting on the edge of the creek with most of the other gang,
When Rodney rattled up in Lenny's International.
"Hey guys", Rodney hollered.
" I know you been waiting, I been waiting too." Rodney announced.
"Today we win, we win our money and our bikes and something more,
We, I mean I, know we win something more, that's friendship."
" You guys are my friends. more than that you are my brothers."
At that Rodney started to tear, "you are the best friends, a guy could ask for"!
Travis and Josh came over to throw their arms around him, then Tank boosted
him on his shoulder, Rodney felt ten ft tall.
Rodney broke open the 2 coffee cans and started counting, All tolled each of the
boys got 63 dollars, Dooley's money still held by Sheriff Tom.
I want to tell you all the boys got new bikes,
Travis bought a used dirt bike.....
Josh got a ten speed and it got stolen at a football game....
Ton and Tank got some cruiser bikes and actually rode to school
and lost weight for wrestling freshmen year.
Brian put some more money and bought a killer Stingray 5 speed.
Rodney returned home that day, to find his mom, and a dilapidated old house.
"So this is us", Rodney posed.
" Yes the rent is paid, the car has gas, and you and I are free almost,
I still owe the court 60 dollars for the divorce.'
Rodney handed his Mom 60 dollars ....... She started to ask.....but there was no answer.
That Christmas there was this new blue bike, a 10 speed, Rodney knew it came full circle.
He saw Lenny kiss his mom again, but it wouldn't last another year.
She had grown so much in the last few years Lenny would have faded
more than her blue jeans.
They see each other at the Hinky Dinky every now and then, smile but withdraw,
maybe someday.....
Rodney rode that bike 'til the wheels fell off his Senior year.
He dated his Jr., and Sr. year Roxanne for awhile then a Sophomore
girl Theresa, the rest of High School.
He would drive the Turnpike cruiser til it blew it's head gasket
one night his freshman year at college.
Tho' we work so hard to "make it", I still feel we are that kid,
collecting bottles, making friends, planning great things.
But don't tell them no, don't ever tell them they cant,
never ever tell a child that they can't. For as we learn it is the youth
that has ever changed anything. Our future relies on them.
The Soda Bottle Kids....
When Rodney rattled up in Lenny's International.
"Hey guys", Rodney hollered.
" I know you been waiting, I been waiting too." Rodney announced.
"Today we win, we win our money and our bikes and something more,
We, I mean I, know we win something more, that's friendship."
" You guys are my friends. more than that you are my brothers."
At that Rodney started to tear, "you are the best friends, a guy could ask for"!
Travis and Josh came over to throw their arms around him, then Tank boosted
him on his shoulder, Rodney felt ten ft tall.
Rodney broke open the 2 coffee cans and started counting, All tolled each of the
boys got 63 dollars, Dooley's money still held by Sheriff Tom.
I want to tell you all the boys got new bikes,
Travis bought a used dirt bike.....
Josh got a ten speed and it got stolen at a football game....
Ton and Tank got some cruiser bikes and actually rode to school
and lost weight for wrestling freshmen year.
Brian put some more money and bought a killer Stingray 5 speed.
Rodney returned home that day, to find his mom, and a dilapidated old house.
"So this is us", Rodney posed.
" Yes the rent is paid, the car has gas, and you and I are free almost,
I still owe the court 60 dollars for the divorce.'
Rodney handed his Mom 60 dollars ....... She started to ask.....but there was no answer.
That Christmas there was this new blue bike, a 10 speed, Rodney knew it came full circle.
He saw Lenny kiss his mom again, but it wouldn't last another year.
She had grown so much in the last few years Lenny would have faded
more than her blue jeans.
They see each other at the Hinky Dinky every now and then, smile but withdraw,
maybe someday.....
Rodney rode that bike 'til the wheels fell off his Senior year.
He dated his Jr., and Sr. year Roxanne for awhile then a Sophomore
girl Theresa, the rest of High School.
He would drive the Turnpike cruiser til it blew it's head gasket
one night his freshman year at college.
Tho' we work so hard to "make it", I still feel we are that kid,
collecting bottles, making friends, planning great things.
But don't tell them no, don't ever tell them they cant,
never ever tell a child that they can't. For as we learn it is the youth
that has ever changed anything. Our future relies on them.
The Soda Bottle Kids....
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Soda Bottle Kid
Rodney emerged from the haymow an hour later.
Clipper was milling around the stalls of the barn hoping to
find a mouse or other varmint.
It started to sink in about being a jerk, and struggling with
his feelings of being somewhere new.
"Clipper, We got a new place with Mom, we have to make the best of it."
Rodney headed for the house to find his Mom and Lenny moving boxes to
the rooms they belonged in and laughing about something silly.
He smiled to see his mother happy, and took a new look on his surroundings.
Sure the old house needed paint, but the inside was as grand as the day it was built.
All the natural woodwork was in tact and the rooms with wallpaper,
spoke of a day long ago. Cherubs, and ivy and something, that looked like trophy
cups and olive branches. Rodney especially liked the old carriages with footmen
and the dogs chasing them. "Look, Clipper he looks like you!"
" Mom, where are you?", Rodney asked as he climbed to the top of the grand staircase.
Around the corner he saw his mom kissing Lenny.
"Oh hey Rodney" , Lenny said. " How was the barn Lil Brother?"
"Okay, So which room is mine?", Rodney asked, as if he hadn't seen anything.
"Sunrise or Sunset?" Lenny said.
"What?", Rodney quizzed.
"Do you want to see the morning sun or sunset?", Lenny responded.
" You can have the east room or the west room.", his Mom smiled,
"I'm taking the bedroom downstairs."
" I used to watch the sunrise before, I think I will watch it set for a while now."
"The west room it is,"Lenny laughed.
" Mom can I ride back with Lenny?"
" I got to talk with Tank and the boys later", Rodney said.
He needed to set up the meeting on the money and tell them where he moved.
He needed to tell someone that he saw Lenny kissing his Mom!
Tune in next week........
Clipper was milling around the stalls of the barn hoping to
find a mouse or other varmint.
It started to sink in about being a jerk, and struggling with
his feelings of being somewhere new.
"Clipper, We got a new place with Mom, we have to make the best of it."
Rodney headed for the house to find his Mom and Lenny moving boxes to
the rooms they belonged in and laughing about something silly.
He smiled to see his mother happy, and took a new look on his surroundings.
Sure the old house needed paint, but the inside was as grand as the day it was built.
All the natural woodwork was in tact and the rooms with wallpaper,
spoke of a day long ago. Cherubs, and ivy and something, that looked like trophy
cups and olive branches. Rodney especially liked the old carriages with footmen
and the dogs chasing them. "Look, Clipper he looks like you!"
" Mom, where are you?", Rodney asked as he climbed to the top of the grand staircase.
Around the corner he saw his mom kissing Lenny.
"Oh hey Rodney" , Lenny said. " How was the barn Lil Brother?"
"Okay, So which room is mine?", Rodney asked, as if he hadn't seen anything.
"Sunrise or Sunset?" Lenny said.
"What?", Rodney quizzed.
"Do you want to see the morning sun or sunset?", Lenny responded.
" You can have the east room or the west room.", his Mom smiled,
"I'm taking the bedroom downstairs."
" I used to watch the sunrise before, I think I will watch it set for a while now."
"The west room it is,"Lenny laughed.
" Mom can I ride back with Lenny?"
" I got to talk with Tank and the boys later", Rodney said.
He needed to set up the meeting on the money and tell them where he moved.
He needed to tell someone that he saw Lenny kissing his Mom!
Tune in next week........
Friday, October 18, 2013
Soda Bottle Kid
Authors note., It has been sometime since I have written.
I have allowed life to consume a part of me lately,
perhaps the last few years have elapsed.
So I return timidly to a story of a brave young man.
Rodney awoke to Lenny's horn on the International, coming up the drive.
"Mom, Lenny's here!,
"I know, Kate's voice lilted with some excitement.
"Where are we going to move to?", Rodney quizzed.
" It's a big house south of town."
Rodney looked at Clipper, "I hope it has a barn."
"I hope it has a creek and pond and a lot of timber to hunt squirrels."
"Howdy", Lenny poked his head around the corner , his blue eyes
and bearded face beaming. "Ready to go Lil brother?"
Rodney, turned and threw a big smile and hug at Lenny.
"I'm so glad to see you" But before he could finish Lenny turned to Kate
"Are you ready?" He looked deep into her eyes. "I think we should get the
beds and big stuff first", "Then we can spend the day getting the boxes
into the car and truck". Lenny had a sense of calm purpose amidst the
chaos.
The truck roared to life with the first load, and they rolled down the gravel.
Rodney and Lenny with Kate behind in the car.
At the stop sign they turned south on the pavement each of them smiling from
the sunshine and the promise of a new start.
"Lenny, I'm worried about Mom", Rodney confided after a few miles.
"You can't change things, Lil Brother", Lenny spoke in a serious tone.
" You need to know that, now matter how you try, You can never change
what happens between other people."
" I want to make everything okay," Rodney replied, "I want to take care of her."
"I know, I do too." Lenny confided.
With the jolt of the truck they turned into a drive with the most run down house
Rodney had ever seen.
" Is this it?" " Yep, It's a little rough. Lil Brother but it's home, for now.",
Lenny smiled and added," It has a barn!"
The Turnpike cruiser followed into the drive, Kate emerged and said," home sweet home".
"Mom, It's a dump, how will I get to town to see my friends?"
The words fell out of Rodney's mouth before he thought.
Lenny shot a glance at Rodney, but it was too late.
His mom started to tear. Rodney knew he had messed up, "I'm sorry"
sputtered out of his mouth but, his apology was mute as his mom started to cry
into Lenny's shoulder.
He ran to a foreign rundown barn and hid in the haymow.
His own tears starting to sting his eyes....I'm such an idiot he thought...
Authors note, I will try to stay at it.
Feedback welcome.
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