T. Reeder - The Free Republic of Texas 2015 AD

Jody said good morning to the room and settled down, when he was thru eating he looked over at me and sorta moved his head in invite so I took my coffee over and settled down, He quietly asked a lot of questions, about the area, the weather, the crops, the traffic thru the area, a lot of things that while not being strange were a bit out of the normal type questions a person asks.

I answered his questions as best I could and all in all we had a pleasant talk, as he prepared to leave he said he would see me in a few days. And sure nuff 3 days later he came in at 7:00 am said Howdy to the room and settled down to the waiting cup of coffee and smiled at Miss Ellie who was placing his plate before him, he looked over at me and inclined his head for me to join him which I did about 10 seconds before Miss Ellie sat my plate in front of me, and me not having ordered yet. Ever hear that Twilight zone tune? Ever have it just start playing in your head? Well sir mine was playing real loud!

Jody and I ate quietly and finished and was sipping the hot coffee, when he said sorta quietly, Sam (OH… by the by that’s me, Sam Travis sorry I never said so yet) I’d like for you to come out to my place this late afternoon if you would so we can have a nice quiet talk, are you game? Well I was a bit taken aback but said sure I will, about 5 or so? That was fine and he took his leave.

Well the day was a long one for sure waiting for 5:00 pm to arrive but it did and I headed out there, when I got there the first thing I saw was a new gate, the kind you have to have a number coded into but there was a button so I pushed it and the gate slowly opened, looking around I saw the camera back a ways up on a pole. So I drove on in and after getting thru the shield of timber and brush I passed thru the hay fields and shortly arrived at the house which still looked like it had for almost 100 years, and still as sound, It was of course built on the dog trot styling, I had not been out here for several years but was still in love with the place, it just had / has that something that makes you want to just sit on the porch and rock with a smile on your mug.

Well Jody came out on the wrap around porch which was screened against the bugs and said welcome and come in, after we were settled on the porch in some real nice comfortable chairs the door opened and a small lady in her 20’s or maybe early 30’s came out with a tray of ice tea and glass’s.

I tried to not stare but it’s seldom you see a 5 ft tall Asian woman with tribal tattoos on her face and dressed in a long skirt and a simple top wrapped around her chest and no shoe’s. At least in East Texas! I started to stand up but Jody motioned me to remain sitting, he said something to her in a strange singsong language that made her laugh, he then said her name was, well to me it sounded like “Sing” which Jody said was close enough because it was hard to say if you weren’t raised speaking it.

She smiled a very nice smile at me and with not a whisper of noise was gone, even the screened door didn’t squeak.

I was bound and determined that I would not speak first so the silence drifted on for several minutes, when at last Jody kinda settled into his chair and looking me in the eye said, Sam you more then anybody around here know that some very bad times are coming to America, a lot from our enemies from the middle east and a lot from our country’s enemies in Washington DC.

I mean just like that, boom right on the table! It was the first but not the last time I was surprised by this man who flat had no bullshit in him, he didn’t say it if it wasn’t true, and he never hedged on saying it right out loud for the world to hear and either accept or not.

I sat there and just stared at him for a bunch of heart beats, and he just looked at me right in the eyes with those bright green cat eyes of his and he waited until I finely got my wits about me and not knowing what else to do just nodded yes.

And with that he began talking about things most folks never heard of in their lives, life after some very bad event, how would folks survive? How would they be able to keep from starving? Live without gas to keep warm, to run their farm equipment with, how would it be if there was no lights, no electricity? No freezers? In other words what if here in 2009 it just was suddenly 1809 or 99? How would today’s people survive? More importantly how many would make it?

He talked about the lost skills folks used to have, farming with a mule, a team pulling a wagon, who even knew how to harness such? Who could even make a set of harness? How many women today could sew? Without an electric machine? How many old treadle machines were there around? What if tomorrow you woke up and your car wouldn’t run, nobody’s car would run? The lights were out, and weren’t coming back on?

Well sir, we sat there and he talked and I listened, then he asked me to try to answer the questions, all I could do was shake my head and shrug, and ask why me?

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.