T. Reeder - The Free Republic of Texas 2015 AD

I think we were both just starting to see the size of the task before us when Sing clanged to old triangle calling us to dinner, Jody laughed and said she had just been dying to use it for It’s original purpose, and it still worked as well as it had when it was first hung long ago.

Dinner was once more outstanding, I was looking at a big weight problem if I hung around here much, which was the next subject after dinner, over a pair of tall Beam ditch’s Jody brought up the subject of my moving out to the ranch, an involuntary glance at Sing showed she was waiting for my reply as well, after stuttering a bit I said well it would be handy and all but the old house was pretty small, Sing spoke up and said no, in fact there is a very solid well built basement under this place, which surprised the hell outta me! But Jody nodded and said because of the rise in the land ground water wasn’t the problem it usually was around these parts and that Sing had staked out one of the bedrooms down there so I had my choice of taking one up stairs or the second basement bedroom, well this caused some really wild thoughts to pop up in my head and I took a quick drink and choked on it, if you have never had the pleasure of squirting Jim Beam thru your nose, please let me say….DON”T!!!!! After both of them pounding on my back and laughing so hard they had tears we all settled down again… I was trapped on the back of a run away dilemma, being that close to Sing was a wonderful thought but I sure didn’t want to screw things up, Sing spoke up and said “Dad“? Well! That surprised me to no end, but Jody looked at her and smiled and then looked at me and said, when she wants to get her way she uses the “Dad” thing, the rest of the time I’m just Jody. Sing rolled her eyes and said that is not only so untrue it’s also unkind, then burst out laughing. She then reminded him that the idea was to set up the second upstairs bedroom as a computer/communications room with a bed for Song (Who still had not made an appearance) Jody nodded and said well that is settled, your bunking down stairs. I wasn’t sure if I had slid into Heaven or fell into Hell, but whichever I was pleased.

After talking about it we decided that using my town house as a sort of bunk house for the out of town hired help was a very useful idea, mainly because other then the area where they were working they wouldn’t have a reason to see any more of the place, that settled we decided tomorrow we would start the tongues wagging by moving me out of there and onto the Ranch.

We agreed to meet at the usual time for breakfast and get the job done, Jody would bring his truck and a trailer, Sing would bring the ranch Suburban with luck we would get it done In one day, with that I headed out the door with Sing walking with me, at the truck she hugged me and said she would see me for breakfast and then she was gone.

After a night of tossing and turning and fitful dreams which I won’t go into here I did sleep some, after a long hot shower and then a dash of cold water I was awake and while not trotting off to breakfast I was able to walk to the café.

Jody and Sing were already there and Miss Ellie started bringing the food as soon as I sat down after giving a howdy and a nod to all. Me and Jody had our usual, but I sat there completely astounded watching little Sing destroy a small steak, 3 eggs, hash browns and 3 hot cakes and a large glass of milk and hot tea that Miss Ellie made from some tea Sing gave her.

Then the next surprise of the day if not year, Miss Ellie sat down with us and had a cup of coffee and watched that tiny little gal eat a breakfast that most men couldn’t handle, I can’t remember how many times I ever saw Miss Ellie sit down and have coffee with her customers, or as she called us, her “guests“, anyway it was a treat and a sign to the whole country side that Miss Ellie really liked Sing and everybody who wanted to be welcome in the Early Bird ever again had best note it.

I won’t go into the day of moving because moving sucks, big time, but I became embarrassed that after 10 years I really had nothing much to move, the furniture was staying, so out side of my few cloths and such there just wasn’t much, Sing looked sad but Jody said, Sam, time for mourning is over, today you start living again and stuck his hand out for a shake, Sing did better with a hug that beat all the others she had given me.

All loaded and ready to roll in less then 3 hours, and Sing announced she was hungry and the café wasn’t crowded, I just shook my head, she usually ate like a bird, so lunch it was, with Miss Ellie joining us as the place was empty in the hours between breakfast and lunch, after we got our food Jody filled her in on what was going on and had happened so far and what we had planned up to that point, She just sat and listened and then said well you just do your thing and I’ll keep my ear to the ground to see what word gets out and who’s talking out of turn amongst the people you hire, as we were leaving she came over and hugged me and said “Sam, I’m so happy for you, you’ve been sad far too long and it pleases me to see you smiling again, Now what that was all about I had no idea but as all were smiling I figured it was a good thing whatever it was.

Moving in took even less time then moving out had which was good, moving was a big PITA. After I was settled in we sat on the porch and had ice tea and talked about getting started on the plans we had so far.

Sing said the Nursery people would be here this afternoon to look at the job we had for them and to give us a bid, she had left them with the impression that they were bidding against several other nursery’s even though they weren’t, Sing had done her home work and said this was by far the best outfit in a hundred miles of here so they were getting the job regardless but they had to at least work at getting it.

Jody and I decided that Sing didn’t need us and we were going to drive into Tyler to get set up to start interviewing what we hoped would be the permanent ranch team, also we could look over the equipment dealers for farm equipment for the place, even though we were planning to use animals

For the farming someday we needed equipment to get started.

As we drove in we talked about all the things that could cause a national collapse, from economic melt down to nukes, we talked about it all, we both felt a collapse of the Market and the dollar was more eminent at this moment then a nuclear war.

But we both agreed that whatever might start the breaking of the dam so to speak it was going to be really bad for the people who survived.

We are a nation of free people who live in a society of plenty, anything that cut off the food deliveries to the super markets could cause mass panic, riots and ultimately complete break down of law and order.

The police would be helpless as would the National Guard, all of whom would after seeing it was a lost cause pull out for their own homes and families who needed protecting also.

People would be on their own and as things spiraled out of control many thousands if not millions would die, the elderly and sick, the young, all would fall victim.

Gangs or just people banding together would turn on the weak and take what they wanted, killing any who objected or just because they could, man would revert very fast and as the element that has always remained hidden came out into the light more and more would fall in behind them and become a human plague, feeding on the survivors until they too fell victim to somebody stronger and more vicious or maybe just hungrier.

Our plan was to save as many as we could while storing and guarding the information and works of the ages so that man would not have to fight for hundreds of years of darkness to make his comeback.