The Free Republic of Texas 2015 (2 page)

Jody smiled and said Sam, I checked you out, no offence now, but when I decided this was going to be where I made my stand I needed to know something about the local folks, and out side of a few who went off to the service few of these folks have been more then 200 miles from here in their life. Where as you Sam have been out in the world right? And he smiled, well sir he had me there, I didn’t know what he knew but he knew a lot more about me then I knew about him!

I had moved to Dog trot because it was lost in a time warp kind of, I had worked as a police officer after getting out of the Army and one day while driving with my wife and 9 month old baby , a drunk driver ran a red light and when I came out of the coma my wife and son were buried and I was alone, also I now had a leg that would prevent me from staying on as a cop, the drunk was a CEO of a large company driving a company car coming from a company dinner party , Other then getting a lawyer to look over their settlement offer and him making some changes I was now very rich, but also very alone, with no family left at all I just tossed some clothing into a rental car and started driving, after logging about 5 thousand miles on their car the rental company said they thought it was time to turn it as there was no charge for mileage.

So I turned it in caught a cab to town and being rich I bought a used pickup truck, and then kept driving, staying in motels and sometimes camping out, I did this for 2 years then one day I stopped for breakfast in Dog trot at the early Bird and was stared at a bit by the locals because of the long beard and the longer ponytail, but I was clean, and my boots were shined so I guess they thought I might have something going for me, well I stayed in the area for a few months and then made my first attempt to buy the Harmond place, me and half the state!

And I never left, I bought a small house in town and never did much for years, oh every 6 months or so I wonder off for a couple of weeks, sometimes to Vegas, I think most folks have that figured out, and nobody knows a thing bout me except I showed up one day and was polite and quiet and the town dogs didn’t wanna bite me.

So I was accepted, none knew about my family, nor the money just sitting and making more money then I can spend or have any desire to spend. Nobody knew that a good bit of the money collected for the emergency equipment was from me in small donations that went unnoticed.

I had found a place to just live out my life and not be bothered, I liked it, But now I was sitting looking at Jody Brown and hearing him tell me about my life, I should have been mad, or felt something, but I didn’t, in some ways it was nice to have somebody to be open with and not have to hide my wealth or my past.

Jody sat looking at me a bit and looked like he was about to say something but the door opened and Sing said something to Jody who said come on Sam lets put on the feed bag .

Sing jabbered at Jody, he said something back and she fired right back and stomped her bare foot and stormed out of the room, only to return with a plate and some chop sticks and sat down, she smiled at me and threw dagger looks at Jody who was smiling a huge smile while she fumed.

He explained that she was from a tribe of folks who live in the central highlands of an area of South East Asia that everybody wants to claim but none wants to go into the Mountains and try to do it, her people are wild and free and live as they wish and are left alone, but they are not ignorant of the world, Sing and her brother (whom I later found out was called Song, yes I know, but I didn’t name them) were orphans and when Jody

Operated out of their area he came to know them and several years before had sponsored them for immigrating to America. About this time I really got my first good look at Sing who really wasn’t as old as I had thought, must have been the tattoos which really were very beautiful if not a bit distracting at first , fine lined and in an rich emerald green color.

I was also bothered that I suddenly found her to be very beautiful, I forced my eyes away from hers which were still snapping fire at Jody while he talked and she at last laid down her chop sticks and looking me right in the eyes said in perfect private school English, as in England English… I’m sorry Sam that you have to be caught in this little family fight but this Olf has a way of really pissing me off!!!! Well I was floored, and then burst out laughing and then she started laughing while her eyes dared Jody to just try laughing…

Seems that Sing didn’t think she should eat with us because she didn’t wish to intrude in the first dinner with a guest since they had arrived, Jody had insisted and the fight was on, she may have been only 5 ft tall and weighed maybe 90 lbs soaking wet but she was a fire brand.

Jody had not ordered her as one would a hired person, he did so as the elder head of their tribe, which she could no more ignore then she could wash off the tattoos, but she could fight back and she did, I don’t know if it’s possible to cuss in her native language but I’d bet she got it across!

Soon , maybe too soon we were finished and we carried our dish’s to the kitchen against Sings wish’s but the Lord of the Manor had spoken but she wasn’t about to leave it be, I was sure after I left the real fight would start.

After the dishes were done we retreated to the porch again where Sing brought out 3 ice cold beers and sat down with us.

Jody then begins talking about why he had wanted me to come out.

After he informed me of all he knew about me including my money and where it came from, he told me about his and where it came from, 20 years of putting half his pay in the credit union, then he found out his grand father left him a trust fund, he wasn’t even close to where I was but he wasn’t gonna be in the soup lines either, I should have been really pissed again at all this but I wasn’t for some reason, Jody somehow made it seem normal for a stranger to be so aware of my business, but he was so open about his that it just seemed some how…ok.

He cleared up one thing tho, his name was spelled Joe D, seems his dad was Joe D also so everybody took to referring to him as JoeD or…Jody, anyway it worked out the same so no problem and he had gotten tired of correcting folks

When he asked what questions I had it took me a moment to remember what he had said earlier and then to think about it for a moment, I then said well I would say you’re a survivalist? To which he said no I’m not, I am a survivor and a planner and a prepper, meaning I foresee events coming that I can not stop and can not change, all I can do is to prepare for them and at the same time do all I can to help my community to survive thru it all.

He then started talking about things like dirty bombs, EMP events, mass terrorist attacks all over the nation, one really kinda hit home on the former cop in me, what ? He asked would happen , if say two terrorist armed to the teeth and wearing bomb vests were to invade a shopping center say a week before Christmas, on a Sat.? say they have full Auto Ak 47’s and plenty of ammo, what would be the results he asked, all I could do was sit with the thoughts running thru my mind in living color…and when the cops move in they drop the weapons and raise their hands and refuse to lay down and when the cops rush them…BOOM!…it made my supper turn over in there, it was not a good image, then he said now, lets say this happens in every state and every large city in every mall…all on the same day and same hour… many thousands would die and the enemy would lose maybe 500 people.. It was mind boggling.

So many what ifs, so many things that could be done so easy and so damn many enemies, willing to die to hurt us.

After allowing me to think about what he had said Jody asked what I would do in a case of as he put it the Shit hit the fan so to speak.

I thought about it for a bit and said well I guess if I were to be worried about it I’d start making plans to have a place to be safe and the things to live with after it was over.

He then asked me why I had wanted to buy the Harmond place if I were content to sit in town and drink coffee and watch the days go by.

Well he had me there, I had to think about it a bit and Jody just sat and waited quietly along with Sing who had the smallest of smiles on her face .

At last I said something out loud that I had never said, I told them that I had found Dog Trot and had fallen into the way of life I had because after my wife and baby were killed I guess I just wanted to die to be with them but I wasn’t the type to pull my own plug, and so I found a quiet place to sit till I died.

Sing’s face now had a sad cast to it, her smile was gone and her eyes were looking right thru my eyes into my mind or so it felt, Jody was looking at me with the look of a man who had pushed a friend too far, and at that moment I knew that no matter where or what happened I wanted this man to be my friend for the rest of my life, but I wasn’t ready to admit to myself what I felt when I looked at Sing, going to Vegas for a few days to dispel the loneliness and needs was one thing, this was another Pandora’s box that I wasn’t ready to open.

After a bit Jody’s body language changed and he sat forward and said Sam my plan is to build a place of safety here, a place for as many people as can be housed, fed, cared for, people who have skills, in some cases lost skills, people who have the ability to not only do , but to teach others to do, people who can live and work together to stop the slide back into the times of ignorance, back when folks didn’t know to wash their hands before eating, If a man or Woman for that matter can not only shoe a horse but can make the shoe and the nails to hold it on then I want that person to be here, I don’t want a veterinarian to be close, I want the vet to have his home and clinic here, I want this area to not only have an Ambulance, I want it to have a Doctor but I want him to have his clinic right here. The same with all the skills and trades.

These things are going to cost money, a lot of money, more then I have and I’m not poor by any means.

Well I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and when it did it hit with a thud.

Jody said , I know you wanted to buy what I now call River Bend Ranch, I want you to go home and spend a few days thinking about what I said and what I envision for this place and this area, and if your willing to be involved I will sell you half interest in the Ranch where you can live and work and rebuild your life instead of waiting to die, I doubt your Wife would want that, your young and have your whole life ahead of you so damn it man start living it ! do some good for others with all your money. Dying with a big bank account and not having used it for good would truly piss off  your wife…I sat there and asked myself why I wasn’t mad or even a bit put off, but I also knew he was right.

With that Jody and Sing stood up and he put out his hand and I took it and said I’ll see you for breakfast tomorrow morning, and please Sing, join us? She got a scared look for a second and Jody laughed and said she hasn’t left the place since we got here, she thinks people will stare because of her markings, looking at her I said without thought, they would look regardless because she’s beautiful…and we both blushed… On that note I made my escape running like a beaten dog and never looked back, if I had I would have seen Jody laughing his butt off and Sing with her mouth open.

Back in my hide out I call home I sat and thought and thought some more, then I decided to think about it all over again, and somewhere along about 3 AM I came to the conclusion that Jody was right, I had let several years pass me by and hid from the world and waited to die, and my wife God rest her would have beaten me with the Ugly stick for it, on that note I went to bed.

Morning came too soon but at 7 am I was at what had become Jody’s table I sat with my back to the door which I almost never did, I sat so I could watch the faces of the crowd, and right on time the door opened with all the usual noise of a cat fight and about 20 pair of eye balls popped out and you could have heard smoke hit the floor If anybody had ever had the guts to even think about smoking In Miss Ellie’s domain, I knew right then that Sing had come along, last night she was lovely, when I stood I found myself falling in love! She had on a wrap around shirt that ties in front,  it was the Emerald green as her markings ,with her long shiny black hair down to her waist and tight black jeans and cowboy boots she looked like somebody’s idea of a dream come to life!

It was quiet in the Early Bird, so quiet you could almost hear the old clock ticking and it hadn’t worked for 40 years.

Well sir, Miss Sing walked right up to me and raising up on her toes kissed me gently right on the mouth and I died a little , her smile was so white against the copper color of her skin that it lit up the room.

After seating Sing and shaking hands with Jody we both sat down, me? I was just along for the ride and didn’t care where we were going!

The rest of the room all nodded when Jody said good morning but still nobody seemed to be breathing,

Jody stood and held his hand out where as Sing took it and she stood and turned to the room, Jody said ,this is my adopted daughter Sing, that’s easier then trying to say her birth name which translates to Sings in the morning, She was born high in the mountains of South East Asia where she and her Brother whom we call Song were orphaned by Communist forces because her village worked with us during and after the war ….( My mind screamed AFTER? !!! but I said nothing and I think it slid past the local crowd ) I found them while passing thru the area and brought them out with me, he looked at Sing and smiled, She smiled at the room and then spoke in that upper crust English Accent of hers and said good morning and that she was happy to be here and hoped to make many new friends , then she sat down and here came Miss Ellie with breakfast for 3, mine and Jody’s usual and a smaller serving for Sing who rewarded Miss Ellie with that radiant smile and got one in return!!