Story Ava (Complete)
- Thread starter Kathy in FL
- Start date
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
Look for an old copy of Visio -- it's pretty easy to learn although my wife, a TRUE nerd (computer programmer) prefers MS Project. I do concur though -- a scorecard is required. Just part of the fun though.
Thank you Kathy.
G
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Chapter 68
You know what they say about assuming anything. The story that Martin told me is full of assumptions. Basically he met the boy – Reazin Edgar – once when he was about five years old and because the boy was angry and bitter and acted angry and bitter … and kinda crazy like most angry and bitter five year old boys would act, and because he’d heard that the boy (now a man) was diagnosed with some kind of something or other that traumatized kids are he figures the boy simply must have turned into a rotten man. And once he’d decided what “must be true” there wasn’t any changing his mind, not even cracking it open a little to other possibilities. I don’t think even Miss Yula Mae could do it despite the fact he practically worships the ground she walks on.
“Ava, promise me that if something happens to me you’ll continue to take care of her. There is no one else I can trust to do it.”
“Uh … Martin? Not to be insensitive but don’t you think between the two of you Miss Yula Mae will probably go …”
“Don’t say that!”
“Geez, settle down Martin before she hears you. We’re supposed to be out here picking blackberries for her. She’s already trading us smoked fish for the fresh we had and I don’t want to short her in the bargain.” Against my better judgment I told him, “Yes, I’ll do what I can for her but she’s an adult and if she takes a dislike to it for some reason, or wants something besides this gilded cage you have her in, I’m going to give her what she wants.”
He sighed and boy had I had enough of that. “You don’t understand Ava. She’s … she’s special.”
“Yeah. But as I recall you nearly chewed me out for using those exact words when you introduced me to her the first time.”
“That was different. I didn’t think you could be trusted.”
“Then why in the Sam Hill did you bring me out here?!”
“Because … you’re Henley’s niece and I needed someone. If I’d been killed back when …” He shut up tight.
“When someone beat on your for looking into Uncle Henley’s death? Or were you treasure hunting?” At the look on his face another piece fell into place. “So you are still treasure hunting.”
With more than a tinge of righteousness he said, “I’m trying to complete Henley’s legacy.”
“Sure. And you keep telling yourself that.”
I dropped the subject which surprised and confused him. He kept expecting me to say something but if I’ve learned nothing else in this life, to survive you can’t always give them what they expect.
I came home from that day with almost three gallons of blackberries, a sack of smoked fish, and a lot to think about.
Given all the gardening I’ve been up to this month you wouldn’t think I’d have time, but the yardwork has actually helped me to keep things in perspective. Nothing like turning compost and raking chicken poop for perspective. While I thought about pirates, treasure, and treasure hunts all the rest of it kept me tuned into real life and grounded so the thoughts didn’t get out of control. And when I started to do my own independent verification of Uncle Henley’s version of the story as well as the things that Martin told me I started to wonder if those two men hadn’t needed some perspective and grounding of their own. And I don’t know if it is my generation or not but it was easy to find where they’d made some big mistakes simply because they were so determined to believe in their own versions of the story. They would have found their own mistakes if they had just bothered to do a little research online.
First off, the easiest bit of information to find was that Reazin Edgar wasn’t around here. Matter of fact he wasn’t anywhere anymore. He’d joined the military straight out of high school and been one of the first casualties of the war. His body was returned stateside, identified with dental records and DNA. They hadn’t needed to contact his father’s family because they had the mitochondrial DNA from his mother’s family who had raised him. So, strike one.
Next, I was doing some research on the Delavoye family. Yeah, there was a pirate that went by that name but he lived in the late 1700s not the late 1800s. And none of his kids were priests and none of them were daughters either. I started building the man’s family tree with facts and real documents. Kinda crazy how out of sync the story that Uncle Henley told from what historical facts revealed. I mean sure, Delavoye supposedly hid a good-sized treasure but at least a good pile of it was found because Spain laid claim to it and was granted it in a court case that was notorious at the time. So, strike two.
I haven’t found strike three. I suspect it is out there, but I haven’t got time to look for it right now. I can’t completely discount the entire treasure thing because of what Pa-pere hid in the bottom of his own treasure box. I’m thinking that it is probably something like the old Telephone Game we played as kids. You write down something on a piece of paper and tell it to the first person in a whisper in their ear. The first person tells it to a second person. Second to a third and so on and so forth. By the time it gets to the last person it doesn’t always resemble what was on the piece of paper. Family stories are like that to from what I’m reading in the books on genealogy from the library.
One of the things that is keeping me busy is that there has been a buildup of enemy shipping that keeps making incursions into the Gulf of Mexico. It isn’t something I want to dwell on but there is no getting away from thinking about it. Even if I wanted to no one has forgotten about what happened when Breaux Bridge was attacked. People are walking around as nervous as the proverbial long tailed cat in a room full of rockers.
“You need to take this seriously Ava.”
I looked at Em, or at least looked in his general direction as we were both sitting in the dark after lights out because it was so hot there was enough heat lightning playing in the sky that even the local weatherman was impressed. “I’m taking it serious, I’m just not sure there is anything I can do about it. Yes Breaux Bridge was attacked. That doesn’t mean they’ll attack in the same place twice.”
“They wouldn’t have to. All they need to do is to attack near here or destroy enough infrastructure to create chaos.”
“And what am I supposed to do about that? You want me to join the militia?”
“Hell no,” he growled. Then he sighed and I nearly tossed a pillow at him. I got enough of that mess listening to Martin.
“Then what in the heck do you want me to do? You must have something or you wouldn’t be pecking at me over this. I’ve already told you I’m taking this serious. And you know – or you better know – that I respect your opinions and experience. So, if you have something you think I should be doing just spit it out already.”
“Well you’re in a fine mood.”
“No. I’m sour as an over-limed pickle.”
“Er …”
I told him, “I’m just tired of all the blasted defeatism. It is like everyone is bound and determined that we’re gonna lose. I’m sick and tired of it. Sick and tired of the sighing and moaning and fear and everything else. The fact we beat ‘em back once should tell people what we’re capable of it if we stay sharp and have some freakin’ courage. But nooooo. I’ve had about all I’m …”
I jumped a mile when a hand came over my mouth. “Don’t know why I forget how little back up you have in you.”
I pulled Em’s hand away. “Don’t do that. And back up out of my personal space. Neither one of us can be trusted not to give into temptation.”
There was a surprised silence and then a chuckle as I heard him return to the camp chair he had been sitting in. “Oh be that way,” I heard him sounding like he was in a better mood. Geez guys are weird. “How’s this, we need to be thinking of back up plans.”
“Back up plans.”
“Yeah. Fall back positions. We got too many people to simply stuff ‘em in that crawl space we built for Auntie and Fabrice. And too many people now know about it that now so it isn’t secure.”
“Fine back up plans and fall back positions. Have you heard about something in particular or is this just military planning playing pin ball in your head?”
“I’m not privy to any more information that you are Ava.”
“That don’t tell me a thing. I’m not privy to any extra information either except you know I just so happened to hear that another serious attack on the coast line is going to cause the mandatory evacuation lines to expand from Dallas to Shreveport in Louisiana, to Vicksburg, Jackson, and Meridian in Mississippi. Everything south of I20 is going to be shut down the same way they shut all services and such in Florida. That follows that they are going to expect every one to evacuate those areas.”
“You heard that did you? From Zeb?”
“No. He’s tight as a clam. He might give me a few minutes warning that something was coming but he’s not going to tell me any plans in the making.”
“Did you hear it from Mark Piccolo? Or you upset that the Captain has moved his family to Lafayette and isn’t around much these days?”
I warned, “Em that song was old before you started singing it. Pick something else if you just gotta play the harp.”
I could almost hear him grinding his teeth. “I don’t mean to do it, just falls out of my damn mouth.”
“You said we needed to wait. That there were reasons.”
“We do. There are.”
“Then find a way to trust me otherwise turn me loose and stop torturing yourself and me. I’m not going to live like that. Having my morals and integrity questioned. Do I bug you about the fact you’ve got a lot of ex’s and that more than one or two of them wouldn’t mind making another go of it with you?”
“Ava …”
“I mean it Em.”
He snorted in irritation. “I know it. You ever thought that I wish things were different?”
“I know you do. You think you need to do all those things you did with them old girlfriends of yours and until you can you think we should hold off otherwise one of these days you think I’ll have regrets or something.”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact I do,” he said sounding a little testy.
"Well how about thinking on this, what if this world never goes back to the way things used to be, or it takes so long to get there that our time passes because we didn’t take a chance.”
“Ava …”
“This doesn’t have a thing to do with teasing, at least not on my side of things. It’s a serious question. And no, I don’t know what the timeline is either. But I do think it is something that needs considering. The same way you’re asking me to think about contingency plans. Or don’t you think that life has taught me that lesson a few times already.”
A little gruffly he said, “I suppose it has.”
“So tell me what you been thinking already because it’s obvious you have been thinking on this.”
“Julius says we can use his old fish camp as a backup, at least it will give us time to regroup and figure out our next move.”
“Julius huh?”
“Don’t get bent out of shape. Julius, Hubert, and I have been talking.”
“Just tell me what you need me to do.”
“Er …”
“Em, I’m tired. It’s been a long day and tomorrow isn’t going to be any shorter. You’ve already started making decisions so just tell me how I can help.”
He was silent for a moment then asked, “You told me about how you fed yourself on the trip from your old home to here. If we’re forced out on the road I want us to be as independent as possible.”
“How many people are we talking about?”
“Anywhere from ten to fifteen.”
“Ten I can come up with easy. Fifteen means that Mr. Hubert wants to bring Serafine and the two jackasses.”
“Possibly. If she’s over in Lafayette when things go down …”
“Whatever you do, you need to keep the plans away from her, Franc, Fontaine and Auntie.”
“Why you say keep it from Auntie?”
“Because she won’t mean to but you know she’ll have people that she thinks she should tell. Maurice and his family. She might blurt it out in Confession. For all I know she’ll say something to the Trust Lawyers. Or worse she’ll simply refuse to budge when we need her to if we give her too much time to come up with objections.”
“I’ll think on it.” He snorted. “We’d already come to the conclusion we’d keep it from ourselves. Not even tell Tib but we’d plan on him bringing Vadie and the little girl.”
“Smart, though she may have some independent ideas of her own,” I told him. “The biggest problem is going to be water and sanitation for a group that size. After that is going to be food. And that’s assuming we have a way to transport everyone that won’t get bogged down on the road, won’t run out of gas before we’ve gone very far, and a bunch of other crap that doesn’t take that much imagination to come up with. First thing is going to make sure that everyone gets and keeps their important papers handy. You do not want to be out on the road without them papers. Second thing is that everyone makes a Go-Bag and in it needs to be some basic camping gear. I’ve already started something like that for Fabrice. I got tired of him emptying mine every time I took him fishing and stuff. I’ve still got mine from before I came here, I’ll just freshen it up. After water comes food. I’ll pull out my old camp journal and look for group recipes that are light and don’t take much room. Gonna be a challenge but not impossible long as everyone pulls their weight.”
“Well … hell …”
“What?”
“Shoulda had you in on this from the beginning.”
“Nope.” Then using an accent I’d heard on the streets I said, “You mens need to do yous talkin’. A wimmens being part o’ that ud just make yous nervous.”
“Smart ass.” When he heard me yawn he said, “You are tired.”
“Told you I was.”
“You did. You aren’t going to stay up reading?”
Refusing to do my own bit of sighing I answered, “Not tonight. Thinking time is over for a while. I need to get back to doing.”
“Any closer to solving the family mysteries?”
“All it does is get twistier. Why Uncle Henley was into this family tree stuff I don’t know,” I told him using the excuse I’d come up with when I hadn’t had any choice but to reveal some of what I was doing.
“Family. The only thing guaranteed to make you crazy.”
As I was climbing into my hammock I asked something I’d been wondering. “You and your brother have a falling out?”
He was quiet long enough that I thought he wouldn’t answer. Then he said, “Not really. Just he has his life and I’ve got mine here.”
“And your mom?”
“Ava … as much as I wish I could say otherwise she may never come around. She’s …”
“Particular and I don’t exactly fit the mold of what any mother would want for her son.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true and you know it. And that’s something that I worry about. Not because I care what she thinks for me, but I don’t want it to be a problem for you.”
Obviously not up for the kind of talk we needed to have on that subject he said, “Let’s table that. It is not a subject I want to talk about right before bed.”
I agreed but his words only confirmed that there was going to come a time that I was going to have to make some changes to the way I moved through life. I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. What I do know is if I choose to change I want it to be my choice and not one forced on me.”
You know what they say about assuming anything. The story that Martin told me is full of assumptions. Basically he met the boy – Reazin Edgar – once when he was about five years old and because the boy was angry and bitter and acted angry and bitter … and kinda crazy like most angry and bitter five year old boys would act, and because he’d heard that the boy (now a man) was diagnosed with some kind of something or other that traumatized kids are he figures the boy simply must have turned into a rotten man. And once he’d decided what “must be true” there wasn’t any changing his mind, not even cracking it open a little to other possibilities. I don’t think even Miss Yula Mae could do it despite the fact he practically worships the ground she walks on.
“Ava, promise me that if something happens to me you’ll continue to take care of her. There is no one else I can trust to do it.”
“Uh … Martin? Not to be insensitive but don’t you think between the two of you Miss Yula Mae will probably go …”
“Don’t say that!”
“Geez, settle down Martin before she hears you. We’re supposed to be out here picking blackberries for her. She’s already trading us smoked fish for the fresh we had and I don’t want to short her in the bargain.” Against my better judgment I told him, “Yes, I’ll do what I can for her but she’s an adult and if she takes a dislike to it for some reason, or wants something besides this gilded cage you have her in, I’m going to give her what she wants.”
He sighed and boy had I had enough of that. “You don’t understand Ava. She’s … she’s special.”
“Yeah. But as I recall you nearly chewed me out for using those exact words when you introduced me to her the first time.”
“That was different. I didn’t think you could be trusted.”
“Then why in the Sam Hill did you bring me out here?!”
“Because … you’re Henley’s niece and I needed someone. If I’d been killed back when …” He shut up tight.
“When someone beat on your for looking into Uncle Henley’s death? Or were you treasure hunting?” At the look on his face another piece fell into place. “So you are still treasure hunting.”
With more than a tinge of righteousness he said, “I’m trying to complete Henley’s legacy.”
“Sure. And you keep telling yourself that.”
I dropped the subject which surprised and confused him. He kept expecting me to say something but if I’ve learned nothing else in this life, to survive you can’t always give them what they expect.
I came home from that day with almost three gallons of blackberries, a sack of smoked fish, and a lot to think about.
Given all the gardening I’ve been up to this month you wouldn’t think I’d have time, but the yardwork has actually helped me to keep things in perspective. Nothing like turning compost and raking chicken poop for perspective. While I thought about pirates, treasure, and treasure hunts all the rest of it kept me tuned into real life and grounded so the thoughts didn’t get out of control. And when I started to do my own independent verification of Uncle Henley’s version of the story as well as the things that Martin told me I started to wonder if those two men hadn’t needed some perspective and grounding of their own. And I don’t know if it is my generation or not but it was easy to find where they’d made some big mistakes simply because they were so determined to believe in their own versions of the story. They would have found their own mistakes if they had just bothered to do a little research online.
First off, the easiest bit of information to find was that Reazin Edgar wasn’t around here. Matter of fact he wasn’t anywhere anymore. He’d joined the military straight out of high school and been one of the first casualties of the war. His body was returned stateside, identified with dental records and DNA. They hadn’t needed to contact his father’s family because they had the mitochondrial DNA from his mother’s family who had raised him. So, strike one.
Next, I was doing some research on the Delavoye family. Yeah, there was a pirate that went by that name but he lived in the late 1700s not the late 1800s. And none of his kids were priests and none of them were daughters either. I started building the man’s family tree with facts and real documents. Kinda crazy how out of sync the story that Uncle Henley told from what historical facts revealed. I mean sure, Delavoye supposedly hid a good-sized treasure but at least a good pile of it was found because Spain laid claim to it and was granted it in a court case that was notorious at the time. So, strike two.
I haven’t found strike three. I suspect it is out there, but I haven’t got time to look for it right now. I can’t completely discount the entire treasure thing because of what Pa-pere hid in the bottom of his own treasure box. I’m thinking that it is probably something like the old Telephone Game we played as kids. You write down something on a piece of paper and tell it to the first person in a whisper in their ear. The first person tells it to a second person. Second to a third and so on and so forth. By the time it gets to the last person it doesn’t always resemble what was on the piece of paper. Family stories are like that to from what I’m reading in the books on genealogy from the library.
One of the things that is keeping me busy is that there has been a buildup of enemy shipping that keeps making incursions into the Gulf of Mexico. It isn’t something I want to dwell on but there is no getting away from thinking about it. Even if I wanted to no one has forgotten about what happened when Breaux Bridge was attacked. People are walking around as nervous as the proverbial long tailed cat in a room full of rockers.
“You need to take this seriously Ava.”
I looked at Em, or at least looked in his general direction as we were both sitting in the dark after lights out because it was so hot there was enough heat lightning playing in the sky that even the local weatherman was impressed. “I’m taking it serious, I’m just not sure there is anything I can do about it. Yes Breaux Bridge was attacked. That doesn’t mean they’ll attack in the same place twice.”
“They wouldn’t have to. All they need to do is to attack near here or destroy enough infrastructure to create chaos.”
“And what am I supposed to do about that? You want me to join the militia?”
“Hell no,” he growled. Then he sighed and I nearly tossed a pillow at him. I got enough of that mess listening to Martin.
“Then what in the heck do you want me to do? You must have something or you wouldn’t be pecking at me over this. I’ve already told you I’m taking this serious. And you know – or you better know – that I respect your opinions and experience. So, if you have something you think I should be doing just spit it out already.”
“Well you’re in a fine mood.”
“No. I’m sour as an over-limed pickle.”
“Er …”
I told him, “I’m just tired of all the blasted defeatism. It is like everyone is bound and determined that we’re gonna lose. I’m sick and tired of it. Sick and tired of the sighing and moaning and fear and everything else. The fact we beat ‘em back once should tell people what we’re capable of it if we stay sharp and have some freakin’ courage. But nooooo. I’ve had about all I’m …”
I jumped a mile when a hand came over my mouth. “Don’t know why I forget how little back up you have in you.”
I pulled Em’s hand away. “Don’t do that. And back up out of my personal space. Neither one of us can be trusted not to give into temptation.”
There was a surprised silence and then a chuckle as I heard him return to the camp chair he had been sitting in. “Oh be that way,” I heard him sounding like he was in a better mood. Geez guys are weird. “How’s this, we need to be thinking of back up plans.”
“Back up plans.”
“Yeah. Fall back positions. We got too many people to simply stuff ‘em in that crawl space we built for Auntie and Fabrice. And too many people now know about it that now so it isn’t secure.”
“Fine back up plans and fall back positions. Have you heard about something in particular or is this just military planning playing pin ball in your head?”
“I’m not privy to any more information that you are Ava.”
“That don’t tell me a thing. I’m not privy to any extra information either except you know I just so happened to hear that another serious attack on the coast line is going to cause the mandatory evacuation lines to expand from Dallas to Shreveport in Louisiana, to Vicksburg, Jackson, and Meridian in Mississippi. Everything south of I20 is going to be shut down the same way they shut all services and such in Florida. That follows that they are going to expect every one to evacuate those areas.”
“You heard that did you? From Zeb?”
“No. He’s tight as a clam. He might give me a few minutes warning that something was coming but he’s not going to tell me any plans in the making.”
“Did you hear it from Mark Piccolo? Or you upset that the Captain has moved his family to Lafayette and isn’t around much these days?”
I warned, “Em that song was old before you started singing it. Pick something else if you just gotta play the harp.”
I could almost hear him grinding his teeth. “I don’t mean to do it, just falls out of my damn mouth.”
“You said we needed to wait. That there were reasons.”
“We do. There are.”
“Then find a way to trust me otherwise turn me loose and stop torturing yourself and me. I’m not going to live like that. Having my morals and integrity questioned. Do I bug you about the fact you’ve got a lot of ex’s and that more than one or two of them wouldn’t mind making another go of it with you?”
“Ava …”
“I mean it Em.”
He snorted in irritation. “I know it. You ever thought that I wish things were different?”
“I know you do. You think you need to do all those things you did with them old girlfriends of yours and until you can you think we should hold off otherwise one of these days you think I’ll have regrets or something.”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact I do,” he said sounding a little testy.
"Well how about thinking on this, what if this world never goes back to the way things used to be, or it takes so long to get there that our time passes because we didn’t take a chance.”
“Ava …”
“This doesn’t have a thing to do with teasing, at least not on my side of things. It’s a serious question. And no, I don’t know what the timeline is either. But I do think it is something that needs considering. The same way you’re asking me to think about contingency plans. Or don’t you think that life has taught me that lesson a few times already.”
A little gruffly he said, “I suppose it has.”
“So tell me what you been thinking already because it’s obvious you have been thinking on this.”
“Julius says we can use his old fish camp as a backup, at least it will give us time to regroup and figure out our next move.”
“Julius huh?”
“Don’t get bent out of shape. Julius, Hubert, and I have been talking.”
“Just tell me what you need me to do.”
“Er …”
“Em, I’m tired. It’s been a long day and tomorrow isn’t going to be any shorter. You’ve already started making decisions so just tell me how I can help.”
He was silent for a moment then asked, “You told me about how you fed yourself on the trip from your old home to here. If we’re forced out on the road I want us to be as independent as possible.”
“How many people are we talking about?”
“Anywhere from ten to fifteen.”
“Ten I can come up with easy. Fifteen means that Mr. Hubert wants to bring Serafine and the two jackasses.”
“Possibly. If she’s over in Lafayette when things go down …”
“Whatever you do, you need to keep the plans away from her, Franc, Fontaine and Auntie.”
“Why you say keep it from Auntie?”
“Because she won’t mean to but you know she’ll have people that she thinks she should tell. Maurice and his family. She might blurt it out in Confession. For all I know she’ll say something to the Trust Lawyers. Or worse she’ll simply refuse to budge when we need her to if we give her too much time to come up with objections.”
“I’ll think on it.” He snorted. “We’d already come to the conclusion we’d keep it from ourselves. Not even tell Tib but we’d plan on him bringing Vadie and the little girl.”
“Smart, though she may have some independent ideas of her own,” I told him. “The biggest problem is going to be water and sanitation for a group that size. After that is going to be food. And that’s assuming we have a way to transport everyone that won’t get bogged down on the road, won’t run out of gas before we’ve gone very far, and a bunch of other crap that doesn’t take that much imagination to come up with. First thing is going to make sure that everyone gets and keeps their important papers handy. You do not want to be out on the road without them papers. Second thing is that everyone makes a Go-Bag and in it needs to be some basic camping gear. I’ve already started something like that for Fabrice. I got tired of him emptying mine every time I took him fishing and stuff. I’ve still got mine from before I came here, I’ll just freshen it up. After water comes food. I’ll pull out my old camp journal and look for group recipes that are light and don’t take much room. Gonna be a challenge but not impossible long as everyone pulls their weight.”
“Well … hell …”
“What?”
“Shoulda had you in on this from the beginning.”
“Nope.” Then using an accent I’d heard on the streets I said, “You mens need to do yous talkin’. A wimmens being part o’ that ud just make yous nervous.”
“Smart ass.” When he heard me yawn he said, “You are tired.”
“Told you I was.”
“You did. You aren’t going to stay up reading?”
Refusing to do my own bit of sighing I answered, “Not tonight. Thinking time is over for a while. I need to get back to doing.”
“Any closer to solving the family mysteries?”
“All it does is get twistier. Why Uncle Henley was into this family tree stuff I don’t know,” I told him using the excuse I’d come up with when I hadn’t had any choice but to reveal some of what I was doing.
“Family. The only thing guaranteed to make you crazy.”
As I was climbing into my hammock I asked something I’d been wondering. “You and your brother have a falling out?”
He was quiet long enough that I thought he wouldn’t answer. Then he said, “Not really. Just he has his life and I’ve got mine here.”
“And your mom?”
“Ava … as much as I wish I could say otherwise she may never come around. She’s …”
“Particular and I don’t exactly fit the mold of what any mother would want for her son.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true and you know it. And that’s something that I worry about. Not because I care what she thinks for me, but I don’t want it to be a problem for you.”
Obviously not up for the kind of talk we needed to have on that subject he said, “Let’s table that. It is not a subject I want to talk about right before bed.”
I agreed but his words only confirmed that there was going to come a time that I was going to have to make some changes to the way I moved through life. I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. What I do know is if I choose to change I want it to be my choice and not one forced on me.”
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
More Twists and turns, how do you keep them straight!
Thank you for the new chapter Kathy.
Thank you for the new chapter Kathy.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
A very big thank you.
Sorry for the delay in posting. First part of the month is always a bear for me. I might have rushed the editing so excuse any stupid errors.
--------------------------
Chapter 69
Close but no cigar. Evacuation orders that is. There was a big naval bruhaha out in the Gulf but it stayed closer to Florida and Cuba than it did along the Gulf Coast. I admit hearing all the place names and hearing of the damage that was done made me heartsick but I knew when I left Bradenton that it was likely for good and even if I did go back a lot would never look like I remembered it looking. I was talking to Zeb about it and someone thought they were being helpful by saying after a certain point you can’t go home again. Might have thought they were being helpful, definitely weren’t. As bad as I felt the Crew felt worse and it was morale shaking. They’d all left thinking the evacuation was temporary. My reason had been different. What got to me is the idea that maybe, one of these days, evacuation is going to sound and I’m going to lose this new home that I’ve tried to create for myself. I’m starting to see people different. Not temporary so much as … fragile I guess. And I’m starting to see around me that more than the war, my circumstances are fragile. Thank goodness I don’t have that much time to think those kind of thoughts or I might just think myself into a depressed funk.
I’ve been breaking up a lot of fights and trying not to break heads while I’m at it, they don’t always let that be an easy thing to avoid. Some of these soldier boys and girls don’t get along all that well. I mean some of them fight at the lamest excuse. Take what you call things. Seriously, what you call things. Ranks are different between services, so trying to determine where people fall on the rank scale can be a little weird if you don’t have a score card. What they call their tools and spots they claim aren’t necessarily the same either. It hasn’t been helpful that sometimes Senior Officers get along like static electricity. Colonel Hyland is who called the naval battle in the Gulf a “bruhaha” and let me tell you she lit some of the naval personnel’s tails on fire. She’d been making headway in her climb to the top until she did that, and lucky for us she wasn’t just sent back to New Orleans, she got recalled to Atlanta. She’s now under some general that is in charge of protecting the CDC among other assets in that area who has a reputation for being what Mr. Julius might call rough as an old corncob. I wasn’t sad to see her go but now the navy has taken over New Orleans and Mobile, AL and they have a different way of running things and it is causing some SNAFUs for the more inland areas.
One example of the problems being caused is that the Navy … or at least those in our part of the Gulf of Mexico … seem to think they have authority over all of the waterways whether they go out to the Gulf or not. I heard that they’d even bent the nose of the Coast Guard bigwigs with the rules they are trying to lay down. Now I get it. They’ve got a job to do. It is called “command of the sea” or something like that. But I think some of them are getting PO’d at the enemies we have as they leave “the seas” and start going in rivers and lakes to get into the interior of the continental US.
I know the Coast Guard is used to patrol the territorial waters which is the water between coast and the continental shelf. I also know they are patrolling up rivers like the Mississippi River, the Great Lakes, and Columbia River, and all of the Intercoastal Channels like we have in Florida. You’ve got even more overlap with the US Army Corps of Engineers that work with so many different civilian and military departments that it is a wonder they don’t rule the world … Homeland Security, FEMA, etc etc and yada yada.
It really isn’t such an awful thing to have a bunch of people want to protect the same piece of land. The more the merrier in that respect in my opinion. The problem comes when everyone wants to be the boss and no one wants to be the grunt. And when the bigwigs in DC that haven’t run anything but computer simulations in so long they forget what it is like to operate in the real world. Just ‘cause you are good at video games doesn’t mean you are good at doing the same thing in real life. And the military being what it is, an order comes down and other people are just supposed to figure out how to obey it which only adds more trouble and confusion.
In Breaux Bridge this has meant us having military boats on the bayou and in the swamp. I heard one ol’ guy say that was going to work as well as it did on the Mekong during Vietnam. I had to go look that one up but I gotta say the boats look a lot the same as do the men running them. And I’m sure no one is surprised to find out that not everyone took to the idea of the military sticking their noses into private civilian matters. And I’m sure no one is further surprised to find out that Cajuns were some of the ones that took to that idea the least, especially when it was getting in the way of putting food on the family table.
Thank goodness for Colonel Morgan and his staff. First off they’ve learned to work with civilians and don’t just treat us like fresh out of basic cannon fodder. They know we have sense and are inclined to let us use it without telling us how to take care of our own business 24/7/365. Colonel Morgan has been a kind of liaison between us and them jacked up navy guys and gals. I’m not say that the navy shouldn’t have some say in the defenses against the enemies coming from the waterside of things, ‘cause their equal to enlised and junior officers seem to be all right, but some of their senior officers on up kinda need to get back in touch with the land that surrounds the waters they want to have some say over and the people that live here.
Em tried to explain it to me one time. He said that they train everyone in the military to be the sheep dog I regularly accuse him of being. They have something that they are supposed to protect and they do it, as a job and as a calling. Most of them are good at it with good motivations, and not just because they’ve been ordered to do the job either. But things is one thing and people another. Once you throw civilians into the mix you usually wind up with indigestion. I wanted to say, “How noble and romantic.” On the other hand that might have been straying into one of them areas that would give me and Em indigestion.
I can relate even if saying so would make most people laugh like I was making a joke. How the heck did I somehow inherit Fabrice? I can’t turn around without that boy being right there. It’s like he’s attached to my butt by a slinky toy. And where he goes Dot wants to follow. Now when I’m working I gotta make sure that it isn’t just something safe for me but whether it is safe for my two mini-shadows to do because there is no telling them not to try. If I’m fishing, hunting, gardening, don’t matter. And if they are around, I also have to watch my mouth because those two parrots will repeat everything they hear, not just what I say but how I say it. I can’t even slide a cajun curse in there. Talk about massive frustration. And all anyone does is laugh. Except Vadie. She gets it.
Momma L is watching Dot because the rules changed and Vadie can’t take her to work anymore. There’s no day care either – not that Vadie can afford it – and all the playgrounds and what not have been closed because there was an outbreak of measles when they found out a lot of parents had just lied about their kids being vaccinated. Been a lot worse than people expected. One or two sick kids and you’ve got a gazillion doctors and nurses to take care of them every second and all the drugs in the world for the all the symptoms and side effects. When that one or two jumps to dozens it becomes a different story and math being what it is, you start seeing more and more of those complications cause worse problems. Diarrhea with measles is common … but when you’ve got a bunch of kids needing to be treated for it in a health care setting ‘cause their fevers are out of control, you start seeing kids suffering brain damage and even dying from it. Pneumonia and encephalitis are also being reported in the news as CODs for kids.
Scared the crap out of us for a little bit because Dot came down with spots. I kept her in the work shed since I’ve got every vaccine known to man and then some because that’s the way things roll in foster care. You don’t have a say, you just get lined up and shot up with whatever the latest is, or the yearly vaccines for the seasonal stuff. Turns out Dot is allergic to bedbugs. I keep everything treated around here so that meant she got them someplace else. Vadie was in freaking tears … some was relief of course though poor little Dot was miserable until Momma L’s special treatment started taking effect, but some was life being too much for her to handle alone.
Vadie isn’t living in that craphole closet she was living in anymore. Instead of taking care of what needed taking care of her landlady said she either moved or she’d evict Vadie. Insinuated lots of nasty things as incentive to make it quick … or else. When Momma L found out she nearly brought down the Wrath of God and told the Ol’ Rougarou that she’d better stay on her side of town because she wasn’t welcome on hers anymore. That would be funny expect it really isn’t. Momma L don’t play about that stuff and can be danged scary. The landady isn’t much better. She thinks she is some kind of Mambo Sallie Ann and that should be funny too but it isn’t. Momma L says she’s dangerous because she believes her own lies and has a few too many believing right along with her. The Landlady claims that Vadie brought bad Juju to her own place and that it isn’t bedbugs but dark spirits that have come to pay back Vadie for something she’s done to someone else … like karma only voodoo-style … and that it must be bad for them to attack her child like they did.
I’m telling you I about had it myself at one point. Vadie was a nervous wreck and scared Dot was really sick and then when that was over, scared that someone was going to take Dot away from her. In this heat Vadie passed out from heat exhaustion and if I hadn’t already had a tub ready to put Dot into I’m not sure what would have happened. For once the navy folks were useful on a civilian level and let me tell you, they got more traction out of the one kind act of that doctor than they had out of all the other things they’d tried … least they did once the story grew legs and got around. And who is to say how that happened.
Anywho I told Vadie to stay with Dot, that Tib and I were going to take care of things.
On the way over in Tib’s truck he said, “I know what I’d like to do to take care of things.”
“No,” I told him. “You just be Vadie’s knight in shining armor and get her and the baby’s things. You let me handle things with that crazy woman should she be stupid on top of her crazy and start running her mouth.”
For once Tib seemed to be using sense because he said, “I’m … I’m asking you don’t cause no problems for Vadie. A lawyer called about Dot this morning.”
“I heard. Don’t worry about the lawyer. I’m not saying they might not take another swipe at some point but for right now they’re thinking about what will come out and whether they’re willing to take the heat.”
“Whut the hail is that supposed to mean?!” Tib asked giving me a confused and irritated look.
“Means that in the process of finding stuff out about my family tree I’ve found a few things out about other family trees. The rest you don’t need or want to know so you can’t be questioned about what you know and what you don’t and when you found it out and from who.”
Tib is not as dumb as he sometimes pretends for the sake of blending in. I’m not saying he isn’t a hot head with a mouth that can run on. That’s why I wasn’t telling him that I found out who occasionally acts as middleman for certain unauthorized, non-ration book purchases. And takes a larger than normal profit for doing it. I mean I’m not against people making a living but I don’t like hypocrisy either and if they are going to try and say crap about Vadie then their own “suitability” is gonna get called into question.
“Okay. I don’t want to know,” he told me. “Just …”
“Relax. Just focus on getting their stuff as fast as possible. One, it looks like rain and two … I’m even less fond of that sort of public drama than most.”
Well, I shoulda knocked on wood. That landlady got all up in my face, saying something about my aura and that my body housed a dark spirit and a lot of mumbo jumbo.
“Lady, if anyone has a dark spirit it is you. And while I don’t know all there is to know about your religion, I do know that if you make bad juju then it is going to come around and bite you in the butt. So back the frick off.”
“You seek to make me fear you.”
“Drop the accent. I understand you are originally from New Jersey. And trust me, you are no Bela Lagosi. May look like him under all that make up, but you aren’t up to his talent. And those all black eyes of yours are probably just contact lenses. Either/or, I could care less.”
She made some stupid sign against evil, or so I was later told, and I’d had it. “You know, you are just stupid. Plain out and out stupid. You took a girl’s money to provide a room for her and her kid. You keep your place trashy. Somehow you get bedbugs, you deny any responsibility, and you’re trying to call them bad spirits that some poor little girl brought on?! If you really do believe in that religion you are trying to peddle you gotta know that there is no ritual or sacrifice that is going to get you out of the karma hole you just shoved your head into.”
Oh she started gobbling and clucking and doing these air drawings of voodoo signs, or I assume that is what she was doing. For some reason she struck me as hilarious. I started snickering and the more she spazzed out the harder I laughed. Boy was she mad. Then she picked up something like she was going to throw it at me and it wasn’t funny anymore.
“You throw that at me and there is going to be trouble.”
“Hah! You admit you are afraid!”
“Afraid?! No. But you should be. You throw any of your weird crap on me and by the time I’ve finished reporting you to everyone I can find you’ll be investigated six ways from Sunday and if you have anything in your past you can bet it will be laid out in the light for everyone to see. So back … the frick … off … now.”
I guess she finally figured out I wasn't bluffing and said, “Get off my property! Get off my property now! I deny you entrance!”
“We’ll be leaving as soon as we load the last box. Oh … and before you get anymore bright ideas? That little utility room closet isn’t licensed for being a rental property.”
“Louisiana doesn’t require it," she informed me with a superior smugness that made me want to spit if I hadn't already had her checkmated.
I gave her a shark’s smile. “But Beaux Bridge does ever since the Army, Navy and the City Council came to a compromise over the governing rules of this area during war time. All rental units must be reported, inspected, and licensed.”
“You lying.”
“You think? See the license and inspection don’t cost anything. But you gotta have a safe and secure unit. I don’t guess they’ll think too much of the fact that space is all sorts of fire hazard … window nailed shut, exposed wires in the ceiling, hot water tank doesn't have a pressure release valve, not even a smoke alarm. Tell you what. Why don’t you just call and find out for yourself just how truthful I am being.”
“Doesn’t matter whether you are lying outright or not. You’re friends with them military. You’ll tell them to hassle me.”
“Nope. I’m gonna let your karma bite you in the butt. And then I guess everyone will see just how much juice you got with the spirits and haunts.”
I heard a snort of derision and then Tib said, “This is fun and all but last box is out. I wanna take move out pictures and then get out of here before it starts raining. After I drop this boxes off I gotta get to work.”
The story got back to Mr. Julius somehow and then to Momma L. Trust me, you don’t want her cackling at your expense.”
“Ava, you gonna need to go to Confession for that one.”
“Why confess something God already knows about. It isn’t like I was hiding anything. Let someone else turn the poor priest’s hair white. I got enough to be sorry for as it is.” She cackled some more and then sent me out to the garden for some watermelons as that’s what “the boys” were gonna have for dessert that night.
--------------------------
Chapter 69
Close but no cigar. Evacuation orders that is. There was a big naval bruhaha out in the Gulf but it stayed closer to Florida and Cuba than it did along the Gulf Coast. I admit hearing all the place names and hearing of the damage that was done made me heartsick but I knew when I left Bradenton that it was likely for good and even if I did go back a lot would never look like I remembered it looking. I was talking to Zeb about it and someone thought they were being helpful by saying after a certain point you can’t go home again. Might have thought they were being helpful, definitely weren’t. As bad as I felt the Crew felt worse and it was morale shaking. They’d all left thinking the evacuation was temporary. My reason had been different. What got to me is the idea that maybe, one of these days, evacuation is going to sound and I’m going to lose this new home that I’ve tried to create for myself. I’m starting to see people different. Not temporary so much as … fragile I guess. And I’m starting to see around me that more than the war, my circumstances are fragile. Thank goodness I don’t have that much time to think those kind of thoughts or I might just think myself into a depressed funk.
I’ve been breaking up a lot of fights and trying not to break heads while I’m at it, they don’t always let that be an easy thing to avoid. Some of these soldier boys and girls don’t get along all that well. I mean some of them fight at the lamest excuse. Take what you call things. Seriously, what you call things. Ranks are different between services, so trying to determine where people fall on the rank scale can be a little weird if you don’t have a score card. What they call their tools and spots they claim aren’t necessarily the same either. It hasn’t been helpful that sometimes Senior Officers get along like static electricity. Colonel Hyland is who called the naval battle in the Gulf a “bruhaha” and let me tell you she lit some of the naval personnel’s tails on fire. She’d been making headway in her climb to the top until she did that, and lucky for us she wasn’t just sent back to New Orleans, she got recalled to Atlanta. She’s now under some general that is in charge of protecting the CDC among other assets in that area who has a reputation for being what Mr. Julius might call rough as an old corncob. I wasn’t sad to see her go but now the navy has taken over New Orleans and Mobile, AL and they have a different way of running things and it is causing some SNAFUs for the more inland areas.
One example of the problems being caused is that the Navy … or at least those in our part of the Gulf of Mexico … seem to think they have authority over all of the waterways whether they go out to the Gulf or not. I heard that they’d even bent the nose of the Coast Guard bigwigs with the rules they are trying to lay down. Now I get it. They’ve got a job to do. It is called “command of the sea” or something like that. But I think some of them are getting PO’d at the enemies we have as they leave “the seas” and start going in rivers and lakes to get into the interior of the continental US.
I know the Coast Guard is used to patrol the territorial waters which is the water between coast and the continental shelf. I also know they are patrolling up rivers like the Mississippi River, the Great Lakes, and Columbia River, and all of the Intercoastal Channels like we have in Florida. You’ve got even more overlap with the US Army Corps of Engineers that work with so many different civilian and military departments that it is a wonder they don’t rule the world … Homeland Security, FEMA, etc etc and yada yada.
It really isn’t such an awful thing to have a bunch of people want to protect the same piece of land. The more the merrier in that respect in my opinion. The problem comes when everyone wants to be the boss and no one wants to be the grunt. And when the bigwigs in DC that haven’t run anything but computer simulations in so long they forget what it is like to operate in the real world. Just ‘cause you are good at video games doesn’t mean you are good at doing the same thing in real life. And the military being what it is, an order comes down and other people are just supposed to figure out how to obey it which only adds more trouble and confusion.
In Breaux Bridge this has meant us having military boats on the bayou and in the swamp. I heard one ol’ guy say that was going to work as well as it did on the Mekong during Vietnam. I had to go look that one up but I gotta say the boats look a lot the same as do the men running them. And I’m sure no one is surprised to find out that not everyone took to the idea of the military sticking their noses into private civilian matters. And I’m sure no one is further surprised to find out that Cajuns were some of the ones that took to that idea the least, especially when it was getting in the way of putting food on the family table.
Thank goodness for Colonel Morgan and his staff. First off they’ve learned to work with civilians and don’t just treat us like fresh out of basic cannon fodder. They know we have sense and are inclined to let us use it without telling us how to take care of our own business 24/7/365. Colonel Morgan has been a kind of liaison between us and them jacked up navy guys and gals. I’m not say that the navy shouldn’t have some say in the defenses against the enemies coming from the waterside of things, ‘cause their equal to enlised and junior officers seem to be all right, but some of their senior officers on up kinda need to get back in touch with the land that surrounds the waters they want to have some say over and the people that live here.
Em tried to explain it to me one time. He said that they train everyone in the military to be the sheep dog I regularly accuse him of being. They have something that they are supposed to protect and they do it, as a job and as a calling. Most of them are good at it with good motivations, and not just because they’ve been ordered to do the job either. But things is one thing and people another. Once you throw civilians into the mix you usually wind up with indigestion. I wanted to say, “How noble and romantic.” On the other hand that might have been straying into one of them areas that would give me and Em indigestion.
I can relate even if saying so would make most people laugh like I was making a joke. How the heck did I somehow inherit Fabrice? I can’t turn around without that boy being right there. It’s like he’s attached to my butt by a slinky toy. And where he goes Dot wants to follow. Now when I’m working I gotta make sure that it isn’t just something safe for me but whether it is safe for my two mini-shadows to do because there is no telling them not to try. If I’m fishing, hunting, gardening, don’t matter. And if they are around, I also have to watch my mouth because those two parrots will repeat everything they hear, not just what I say but how I say it. I can’t even slide a cajun curse in there. Talk about massive frustration. And all anyone does is laugh. Except Vadie. She gets it.
Momma L is watching Dot because the rules changed and Vadie can’t take her to work anymore. There’s no day care either – not that Vadie can afford it – and all the playgrounds and what not have been closed because there was an outbreak of measles when they found out a lot of parents had just lied about their kids being vaccinated. Been a lot worse than people expected. One or two sick kids and you’ve got a gazillion doctors and nurses to take care of them every second and all the drugs in the world for the all the symptoms and side effects. When that one or two jumps to dozens it becomes a different story and math being what it is, you start seeing more and more of those complications cause worse problems. Diarrhea with measles is common … but when you’ve got a bunch of kids needing to be treated for it in a health care setting ‘cause their fevers are out of control, you start seeing kids suffering brain damage and even dying from it. Pneumonia and encephalitis are also being reported in the news as CODs for kids.
Scared the crap out of us for a little bit because Dot came down with spots. I kept her in the work shed since I’ve got every vaccine known to man and then some because that’s the way things roll in foster care. You don’t have a say, you just get lined up and shot up with whatever the latest is, or the yearly vaccines for the seasonal stuff. Turns out Dot is allergic to bedbugs. I keep everything treated around here so that meant she got them someplace else. Vadie was in freaking tears … some was relief of course though poor little Dot was miserable until Momma L’s special treatment started taking effect, but some was life being too much for her to handle alone.
Vadie isn’t living in that craphole closet she was living in anymore. Instead of taking care of what needed taking care of her landlady said she either moved or she’d evict Vadie. Insinuated lots of nasty things as incentive to make it quick … or else. When Momma L found out she nearly brought down the Wrath of God and told the Ol’ Rougarou that she’d better stay on her side of town because she wasn’t welcome on hers anymore. That would be funny expect it really isn’t. Momma L don’t play about that stuff and can be danged scary. The landady isn’t much better. She thinks she is some kind of Mambo Sallie Ann and that should be funny too but it isn’t. Momma L says she’s dangerous because she believes her own lies and has a few too many believing right along with her. The Landlady claims that Vadie brought bad Juju to her own place and that it isn’t bedbugs but dark spirits that have come to pay back Vadie for something she’s done to someone else … like karma only voodoo-style … and that it must be bad for them to attack her child like they did.
I’m telling you I about had it myself at one point. Vadie was a nervous wreck and scared Dot was really sick and then when that was over, scared that someone was going to take Dot away from her. In this heat Vadie passed out from heat exhaustion and if I hadn’t already had a tub ready to put Dot into I’m not sure what would have happened. For once the navy folks were useful on a civilian level and let me tell you, they got more traction out of the one kind act of that doctor than they had out of all the other things they’d tried … least they did once the story grew legs and got around. And who is to say how that happened.
Anywho I told Vadie to stay with Dot, that Tib and I were going to take care of things.
On the way over in Tib’s truck he said, “I know what I’d like to do to take care of things.”
“No,” I told him. “You just be Vadie’s knight in shining armor and get her and the baby’s things. You let me handle things with that crazy woman should she be stupid on top of her crazy and start running her mouth.”
For once Tib seemed to be using sense because he said, “I’m … I’m asking you don’t cause no problems for Vadie. A lawyer called about Dot this morning.”
“I heard. Don’t worry about the lawyer. I’m not saying they might not take another swipe at some point but for right now they’re thinking about what will come out and whether they’re willing to take the heat.”
“Whut the hail is that supposed to mean?!” Tib asked giving me a confused and irritated look.
“Means that in the process of finding stuff out about my family tree I’ve found a few things out about other family trees. The rest you don’t need or want to know so you can’t be questioned about what you know and what you don’t and when you found it out and from who.”
Tib is not as dumb as he sometimes pretends for the sake of blending in. I’m not saying he isn’t a hot head with a mouth that can run on. That’s why I wasn’t telling him that I found out who occasionally acts as middleman for certain unauthorized, non-ration book purchases. And takes a larger than normal profit for doing it. I mean I’m not against people making a living but I don’t like hypocrisy either and if they are going to try and say crap about Vadie then their own “suitability” is gonna get called into question.
“Okay. I don’t want to know,” he told me. “Just …”
“Relax. Just focus on getting their stuff as fast as possible. One, it looks like rain and two … I’m even less fond of that sort of public drama than most.”
Well, I shoulda knocked on wood. That landlady got all up in my face, saying something about my aura and that my body housed a dark spirit and a lot of mumbo jumbo.
“Lady, if anyone has a dark spirit it is you. And while I don’t know all there is to know about your religion, I do know that if you make bad juju then it is going to come around and bite you in the butt. So back the frick off.”
“You seek to make me fear you.”
“Drop the accent. I understand you are originally from New Jersey. And trust me, you are no Bela Lagosi. May look like him under all that make up, but you aren’t up to his talent. And those all black eyes of yours are probably just contact lenses. Either/or, I could care less.”
She made some stupid sign against evil, or so I was later told, and I’d had it. “You know, you are just stupid. Plain out and out stupid. You took a girl’s money to provide a room for her and her kid. You keep your place trashy. Somehow you get bedbugs, you deny any responsibility, and you’re trying to call them bad spirits that some poor little girl brought on?! If you really do believe in that religion you are trying to peddle you gotta know that there is no ritual or sacrifice that is going to get you out of the karma hole you just shoved your head into.”
Oh she started gobbling and clucking and doing these air drawings of voodoo signs, or I assume that is what she was doing. For some reason she struck me as hilarious. I started snickering and the more she spazzed out the harder I laughed. Boy was she mad. Then she picked up something like she was going to throw it at me and it wasn’t funny anymore.
“You throw that at me and there is going to be trouble.”
“Hah! You admit you are afraid!”
“Afraid?! No. But you should be. You throw any of your weird crap on me and by the time I’ve finished reporting you to everyone I can find you’ll be investigated six ways from Sunday and if you have anything in your past you can bet it will be laid out in the light for everyone to see. So back … the frick … off … now.”
I guess she finally figured out I wasn't bluffing and said, “Get off my property! Get off my property now! I deny you entrance!”
“We’ll be leaving as soon as we load the last box. Oh … and before you get anymore bright ideas? That little utility room closet isn’t licensed for being a rental property.”
“Louisiana doesn’t require it," she informed me with a superior smugness that made me want to spit if I hadn't already had her checkmated.
I gave her a shark’s smile. “But Beaux Bridge does ever since the Army, Navy and the City Council came to a compromise over the governing rules of this area during war time. All rental units must be reported, inspected, and licensed.”
“You lying.”
“You think? See the license and inspection don’t cost anything. But you gotta have a safe and secure unit. I don’t guess they’ll think too much of the fact that space is all sorts of fire hazard … window nailed shut, exposed wires in the ceiling, hot water tank doesn't have a pressure release valve, not even a smoke alarm. Tell you what. Why don’t you just call and find out for yourself just how truthful I am being.”
“Doesn’t matter whether you are lying outright or not. You’re friends with them military. You’ll tell them to hassle me.”
“Nope. I’m gonna let your karma bite you in the butt. And then I guess everyone will see just how much juice you got with the spirits and haunts.”
I heard a snort of derision and then Tib said, “This is fun and all but last box is out. I wanna take move out pictures and then get out of here before it starts raining. After I drop this boxes off I gotta get to work.”
The story got back to Mr. Julius somehow and then to Momma L. Trust me, you don’t want her cackling at your expense.”
“Ava, you gonna need to go to Confession for that one.”
“Why confess something God already knows about. It isn’t like I was hiding anything. Let someone else turn the poor priest’s hair white. I got enough to be sorry for as it is.” She cackled some more and then sent me out to the garden for some watermelons as that’s what “the boys” were gonna have for dessert that night.
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sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you Pac, Always good. I finally got dh to go to bed where he should have gone when we got him home from the hospital.
Hey Sara, don't want to steal Pac's thunder. LOL. You are probably incredibly exhausted but I just wanted to share the giggle with you.
Griz3752
Retired, practising Curmudgeon
Candidly Kathy, I started reading this because I was bored. The self quarantine blues I guess, but every time you post, there's more and more to digest. At first, I wasn't sure it was up to your previous work, which I think I've read most of, if not all.
I was wrong; this piece gets more engrossing as it goes.
I'm just going to wait here for the next bit.
Thank you, Ma'am.
G
I was wrong; this piece gets more engrossing as it goes.
I'm just going to wait here for the next bit.
Thank you, Ma'am.
G
The every day stress of what is going on has me jumping around on stories. When I can settle down postings will get back to daily for Ava. But here is the next bit. A couple of days ago I posted some on Veta 2 and on another one. I've got one or two new chapters on several stories but they need serious editing to make sure the "voices" sound correct. Ugh. Sorry again for the speed slowing on this one. I'm not going to stop until it is finished but right now I'm writing staccato rather than legato and even I'm irritated with it.
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Chapter 70
I was making sure everything was locked down and had just said goodnight to the patrol team to let them know I was heading inside after I locked up the work shed when there was a scream of pain and, “Ava!” I knew the voice, it belonged to Tyrell Johnson, one of the guys on perimeter patrol. I also know the difference between someone trying to punk me and real pain.
I’d already put away my rifle, which won’t be happening again rule or no stupid rule. I grabbed a machete off the magnetic strip I keep them on in the work shed. There was another scream of pain and I ran towards it, blowing the whistle I keep around my neck to make sure that Fabrice carries his. I slid to a stop at the sight that my brain didn’t want to compute. Tyrell was barely fending off a pig … a big dang pig of the pot belly variety. The other guy, name was Joey Langston, was down and bleeding out. Both guys had been so surprised they lost their rifles or couldn’t get them up in time to take a shot without being attacked.
“Pig’s CRAZY!!” Tyrell screamed.
It sure was because even though I had run up on it and slit its throat it took me knocking it away two more time and taking off half its snout before the monster would lay down and die. And it only did that because Zeb came in behind me and shot him in the butt at point blank range, knocking it over.
I hadn’t heard it as I was in the moment, but Zeb had been calling for help and adding emergency medical help when he got a look at the two guys. I was trying to stop all the bleeding that Langston was doing and then yelled at Zeb and Tyrell to stay away from the pig as even in the dark I saw foam around its mouth.
“What?!”
“I said stay away from the damn pig! It’s a black pig with a mouthful of white foam! Use your eyes and some brains y’all!”
When the medics came on the scene I told them, “Might be rabies.” They gave me a weird look and said something into their com I thought a little strange. “Might have found another one.”
Em cussed from behind me and started pulling me backwards. “Did it hit you? Bite you? Did you touch it at all?”
“No. And stop yanking my arm out of its socket. I’m fine.” I still had to go to the Big House and get checked out but it didn’t take long.
When Major Broadstreet came in by herself the strange I was experiencing got a little stranger and my anger that had started to live just beneath the surface of my skin started to boil over.
“Ava …”
“Um, not to be rude but I’ve seen that look before Major. You might as well just spit it out, I’m not going to break.”
The Major looked at me and then nodded. “You need to stop rushing in. You are a civilian. I know you identify with some of the junior enlisted, but you are not one of them.”
“Excuse me?”
With a nasty bite to her voice I’d never heard she said, “Don’t play stupid young lady. It doesn’t become you. I understand Johnson called out for you. He should have been calling for back up.”
Since I knew the woman in front of me could make life hell not just for me but for other people I cared about I tried to control my temper as I explained, “Private Johnson called my name because he knew I was close – I’d just let him know that I was heading inside per regs. And unless someone is going to try and tell me that pig is somehow enlisted, it was just as much a civilian problem as it was military.”
“It isn’t helping you to be a smart ass,” she warned me with her face hardening more than I’m used to in my direction.
Call me crazy but I wasn’t backing down. “I’m not being what I’m accused of. I am neither sassing you or inserting myself into military secrets or whatever this might be. There was an emergency situation. Johnson called me because I was closest and a known entity … in other words I wouldn’t stop if something needed putting down. In a non-emergency situation he would have had time to key his mic or whatever way they say send back up. And it is the duty of all citizens of this country to aide their fellow man if called on to do so. This is wartime. So, was the pig a terrorist plot or something? ‘Cause if it is I need to get the word out. If more of them get into the warm there’s going to be a big problem.”
Her lips thinned and asked, “Has someone been talking?”
“Intentionally? No. But I can add and when a medic says they think they found another one and then you come in and think about dumping both barrels at me? Kinda turns me suspicious.”
She cussed and said, “This would be easier if you were stupid.”
“Well I’m not. And this won’t go any further if I’m wrong and you can convince me of that.”
She gave me a look like she couldn’t believe that I had not just all but blackmailed her. “And you would do it wouldn’t you you little …”
“No need for names Major. I’m not sure how I got on your shit list but apparently I am. But the God’s honest truth is yes, if you military types are withholding information that will endanger free citizens … like there is a sounder of rabies-infected swine running around … I will tell who I have to that with my own eyes I saw a rabies infected pot-belly pig attack someone so people will need to watch their animals and their kids because where there is one rabies-infected animal there are likely to be more.”
“I could have you arrested right here and now.”
“You could,” I agreed. “But you see what happens when people start asking what happened. And when I get a lawyer and give them what, who, where, and why you’ll be dealing with some painful 20/20 hindsight. I’m not an important person around here but I do enough for enough people that if you take me out, others are going to want to share the pain ‘cause their made work isn’t happening.”
“Don’t threaten me girl.”
“I’m not. I’m serious as a heart attack. Like I said, something before this night has put me on your shit list. I don’t know what it is but I’m not going to let it stop me from doing what is right. Try me and see.”
“Just because you’ve got …”
When she stopped I asked her confused, “Got? Got what?”
“You’re sleeping with your roommate.”
“Says who? And it isn’t Em because I trust him. He may be an oversized sheep dog but he normally keeps it under control. So whoever is running their mouth and lying while they’re at it needs to be confronted on it.”
Like she didn’t believe me she said, “You’re claiming you aren’t.”
“I’m saying I’m not bumping boots, dancing in the sheets, batter-dipping the corn dog, burping the worm in the mole hole, etc etc etc. or anything else crude you want to call it. Not with anyone. And certainly not with Em who constantly reminds me I’m too young for a lot of the things I am doing … like the night I kicked the ass of the guy who was about to rape you. By the way, if you were so concerned then why didn’t you just come ask me instead of believing whoever it was that said such? I think I’ve at least earned that much.”
When she just continued to stare at me I asked, “I’m gonna throw out some names and you don’t have to say a word.” First was the charm. “Wylene Boudreaux.” Body language is a skill you have to learn when you are as far down the totem pole as I am.
“Ha! I knew she’d try something else when all her previous tricks hadn’t worked.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” the Major growled.
“Means you got taken in and used Major. Wylene Boudreaux is a hot mess in a uniform. I don’t know what her grief is. She’s bed buddy with Daniel Edgar and both of them have had their flight feathers clipped by the military committee or whatever you all are calling it lately. Feds have come in and taken over law enforcement and turned most of it over to the military tribunals due to and I quote irregularities. That means Edgar and his posse don’t have the power and control they once did. And the blackmarket gang or whatever they are that are operating out in the swamps …”
“Enough,” she said roughly. But there was a good deal of thought going into that word as well. “Sit down.”
I wanted to throw some attitude but I also wanted to hear what she had to say, so I sat.
“You know way too much about certain subjects.”
Since I’d put myself into the situation I decided just to go with it. “In case the story didn’t make it across your desk my uncle …”
When I was through retelling the story (I left out the treasure craziness) she sat in the other chair with steepled fingers staring at me. “You found this out while looking for your uncle’s killers.” Again there was a whole lot of doubt and suspicion in that statement.
I surprised her by saying, “Uncle Henley died of his own stubbornness if what I have put together is true. He could have and should have gotten medical attention sooner. Why he didn’t? Don’t know and don’t know if it matters beyond saying that stubbornness runs in the family. As for how I found out? It is all circumstantial and put together from so many miniscule bits I’ve heard and seen over the months that I doubt it would stand up in court. They … whoever they really is … knows it. But for whatever reason Wylene does her part to get me in trouble when she can, and now it looks like she is trying to wreck my reputation. Now I’m gonna have to figure out how to keep Em from blowing a gasket when he finds out.”
“You plan on telling him?” she asked with a knowing look, like she was still on the fence.
“Won’t have to. If you’ve heard enough to take a disgust of me then others have been watching you which explains a few problems I’ve been having. And it will get back to Em just because that is the way people are. Now to keep him from being pulled in the same way you let yourself get used …”
“Now …”
“Seriously Major, what proof did she give you or did you just take her word as gospel just because she was a woman in uniform the same as you?”
Her mouth twitched and I knew I’d been correct. “Whatever,” I told her trying not to let my hurt feelings show. “Just don’t get taken in like that again. It’s bad for business. Are we done here? More than likely I’m going to have to go put someone’s hair out and …”
That’s when I hear a bellow like something had gotten stung on the rump by a murder hornet. “What?!!!”
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Chapter 70
I was making sure everything was locked down and had just said goodnight to the patrol team to let them know I was heading inside after I locked up the work shed when there was a scream of pain and, “Ava!” I knew the voice, it belonged to Tyrell Johnson, one of the guys on perimeter patrol. I also know the difference between someone trying to punk me and real pain.
I’d already put away my rifle, which won’t be happening again rule or no stupid rule. I grabbed a machete off the magnetic strip I keep them on in the work shed. There was another scream of pain and I ran towards it, blowing the whistle I keep around my neck to make sure that Fabrice carries his. I slid to a stop at the sight that my brain didn’t want to compute. Tyrell was barely fending off a pig … a big dang pig of the pot belly variety. The other guy, name was Joey Langston, was down and bleeding out. Both guys had been so surprised they lost their rifles or couldn’t get them up in time to take a shot without being attacked.
“Pig’s CRAZY!!” Tyrell screamed.
It sure was because even though I had run up on it and slit its throat it took me knocking it away two more time and taking off half its snout before the monster would lay down and die. And it only did that because Zeb came in behind me and shot him in the butt at point blank range, knocking it over.
I hadn’t heard it as I was in the moment, but Zeb had been calling for help and adding emergency medical help when he got a look at the two guys. I was trying to stop all the bleeding that Langston was doing and then yelled at Zeb and Tyrell to stay away from the pig as even in the dark I saw foam around its mouth.
“What?!”
“I said stay away from the damn pig! It’s a black pig with a mouthful of white foam! Use your eyes and some brains y’all!”
When the medics came on the scene I told them, “Might be rabies.” They gave me a weird look and said something into their com I thought a little strange. “Might have found another one.”
Em cussed from behind me and started pulling me backwards. “Did it hit you? Bite you? Did you touch it at all?”
“No. And stop yanking my arm out of its socket. I’m fine.” I still had to go to the Big House and get checked out but it didn’t take long.
When Major Broadstreet came in by herself the strange I was experiencing got a little stranger and my anger that had started to live just beneath the surface of my skin started to boil over.
“Ava …”
“Um, not to be rude but I’ve seen that look before Major. You might as well just spit it out, I’m not going to break.”
The Major looked at me and then nodded. “You need to stop rushing in. You are a civilian. I know you identify with some of the junior enlisted, but you are not one of them.”
“Excuse me?”
With a nasty bite to her voice I’d never heard she said, “Don’t play stupid young lady. It doesn’t become you. I understand Johnson called out for you. He should have been calling for back up.”
Since I knew the woman in front of me could make life hell not just for me but for other people I cared about I tried to control my temper as I explained, “Private Johnson called my name because he knew I was close – I’d just let him know that I was heading inside per regs. And unless someone is going to try and tell me that pig is somehow enlisted, it was just as much a civilian problem as it was military.”
“It isn’t helping you to be a smart ass,” she warned me with her face hardening more than I’m used to in my direction.
Call me crazy but I wasn’t backing down. “I’m not being what I’m accused of. I am neither sassing you or inserting myself into military secrets or whatever this might be. There was an emergency situation. Johnson called me because I was closest and a known entity … in other words I wouldn’t stop if something needed putting down. In a non-emergency situation he would have had time to key his mic or whatever way they say send back up. And it is the duty of all citizens of this country to aide their fellow man if called on to do so. This is wartime. So, was the pig a terrorist plot or something? ‘Cause if it is I need to get the word out. If more of them get into the warm there’s going to be a big problem.”
Her lips thinned and asked, “Has someone been talking?”
“Intentionally? No. But I can add and when a medic says they think they found another one and then you come in and think about dumping both barrels at me? Kinda turns me suspicious.”
She cussed and said, “This would be easier if you were stupid.”
“Well I’m not. And this won’t go any further if I’m wrong and you can convince me of that.”
She gave me a look like she couldn’t believe that I had not just all but blackmailed her. “And you would do it wouldn’t you you little …”
“No need for names Major. I’m not sure how I got on your shit list but apparently I am. But the God’s honest truth is yes, if you military types are withholding information that will endanger free citizens … like there is a sounder of rabies-infected swine running around … I will tell who I have to that with my own eyes I saw a rabies infected pot-belly pig attack someone so people will need to watch their animals and their kids because where there is one rabies-infected animal there are likely to be more.”
“I could have you arrested right here and now.”
“You could,” I agreed. “But you see what happens when people start asking what happened. And when I get a lawyer and give them what, who, where, and why you’ll be dealing with some painful 20/20 hindsight. I’m not an important person around here but I do enough for enough people that if you take me out, others are going to want to share the pain ‘cause their made work isn’t happening.”
“Don’t threaten me girl.”
“I’m not. I’m serious as a heart attack. Like I said, something before this night has put me on your shit list. I don’t know what it is but I’m not going to let it stop me from doing what is right. Try me and see.”
“Just because you’ve got …”
When she stopped I asked her confused, “Got? Got what?”
“You’re sleeping with your roommate.”
“Says who? And it isn’t Em because I trust him. He may be an oversized sheep dog but he normally keeps it under control. So whoever is running their mouth and lying while they’re at it needs to be confronted on it.”
Like she didn’t believe me she said, “You’re claiming you aren’t.”
“I’m saying I’m not bumping boots, dancing in the sheets, batter-dipping the corn dog, burping the worm in the mole hole, etc etc etc. or anything else crude you want to call it. Not with anyone. And certainly not with Em who constantly reminds me I’m too young for a lot of the things I am doing … like the night I kicked the ass of the guy who was about to rape you. By the way, if you were so concerned then why didn’t you just come ask me instead of believing whoever it was that said such? I think I’ve at least earned that much.”
When she just continued to stare at me I asked, “I’m gonna throw out some names and you don’t have to say a word.” First was the charm. “Wylene Boudreaux.” Body language is a skill you have to learn when you are as far down the totem pole as I am.
“Ha! I knew she’d try something else when all her previous tricks hadn’t worked.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” the Major growled.
“Means you got taken in and used Major. Wylene Boudreaux is a hot mess in a uniform. I don’t know what her grief is. She’s bed buddy with Daniel Edgar and both of them have had their flight feathers clipped by the military committee or whatever you all are calling it lately. Feds have come in and taken over law enforcement and turned most of it over to the military tribunals due to and I quote irregularities. That means Edgar and his posse don’t have the power and control they once did. And the blackmarket gang or whatever they are that are operating out in the swamps …”
“Enough,” she said roughly. But there was a good deal of thought going into that word as well. “Sit down.”
I wanted to throw some attitude but I also wanted to hear what she had to say, so I sat.
“You know way too much about certain subjects.”
Since I’d put myself into the situation I decided just to go with it. “In case the story didn’t make it across your desk my uncle …”
When I was through retelling the story (I left out the treasure craziness) she sat in the other chair with steepled fingers staring at me. “You found this out while looking for your uncle’s killers.” Again there was a whole lot of doubt and suspicion in that statement.
I surprised her by saying, “Uncle Henley died of his own stubbornness if what I have put together is true. He could have and should have gotten medical attention sooner. Why he didn’t? Don’t know and don’t know if it matters beyond saying that stubbornness runs in the family. As for how I found out? It is all circumstantial and put together from so many miniscule bits I’ve heard and seen over the months that I doubt it would stand up in court. They … whoever they really is … knows it. But for whatever reason Wylene does her part to get me in trouble when she can, and now it looks like she is trying to wreck my reputation. Now I’m gonna have to figure out how to keep Em from blowing a gasket when he finds out.”
“You plan on telling him?” she asked with a knowing look, like she was still on the fence.
“Won’t have to. If you’ve heard enough to take a disgust of me then others have been watching you which explains a few problems I’ve been having. And it will get back to Em just because that is the way people are. Now to keep him from being pulled in the same way you let yourself get used …”
“Now …”
“Seriously Major, what proof did she give you or did you just take her word as gospel just because she was a woman in uniform the same as you?”
Her mouth twitched and I knew I’d been correct. “Whatever,” I told her trying not to let my hurt feelings show. “Just don’t get taken in like that again. It’s bad for business. Are we done here? More than likely I’m going to have to go put someone’s hair out and …”
That’s when I hear a bellow like something had gotten stung on the rump by a murder hornet. “What?!!!”
Jeepcats27
Senior Member
Wow, pigs get rabies, who knew, only Kathy! thank you for the new chapter.
Thank you Kathy. Just a side note, I have been married to Katherine for 17 years she hates to be called Kathy when we first met my nephew started calling her Kat works for all of us except her brothers who still call her Kathy. As many have said over the years you can't pick family.
sssarawolf
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Great chapter, thank you.
I grew up being called Sissy or Sis or Sister. Suppose that tells you where my people are from. LOL My dad still calls his oldest sister "Sister" and he is 77 and she has 10 years on him. Different strokes for different folks. My maternal grandfather called his granddaughters "Sister" or "Baby Doll" and sometimes I wonder if the old folks did it so they wouldn't have to remember the names of all the kids. ROFL!!