The Colonel sat astride his mare at the hill’s crest, his spyglass winking in the morning sun.

“That rooftop, there,” he said to his adjutant. “The colorful one. You know about that?”

“Ah yes,” said the young man. “It is a very old tradition in this valley. It is said that the colors serve as a reminder to the villagers.”

“A reminder of what?”

“In winter, that spring will come. In summer, that we should appreciate God’s gifts as they are given. It gives solace to all who look upon it. ”

“Makes a splendid target, anyway. Bring up the artillery.”

 

I made the run from Tucson to Tucumcari in six hours, pushing my gauges to make up for lost time. Least that’s what I told myself. Truth is I just like going. I live for the run of it. You set me down, I’m nothing but itch, like a greyhound you hold by the collar. I don’t answer to nobody, not even the dispatch. Oh, I get along with them. You got to, you want to work. But I know when I sign off that they are sitting chained to a chair somehwere and I am out here, rolling on.

 

Life was hard then. Winters came just after Halloween and stayed until almost Easter. Summertime there was more work than ten men could do, but winters were filled with nothing but empty hours. The men could get away to the woodshed where they kept their whiskey, but a woman was just plain stuck. Nothing to eat but root vegetables and salt meat, children always on your nerves.

It’s no wonder she went crazy, you ask me. They came and locked her up in the county farm for the rest of her life.  After the funerals, they tore the house down.

 

 

As deserve all such who dare flaunt their personal evils in the sight of God, this Woman was brought before us to give account for herself. The charge is Witchcraft, and other Consortations with Devils and Sprits Most Foul. This Woman has been thrice witnessed by Neighbours of the Community thus engaging in these Acts with no Regard for Propriety or Decency, bringing to all of us in Selim Township the Danger of Divine Retribution. It is the Demand of this Court, then,  to administer to the Woman a just Punishment that will Please God and set an Example both.

 

Them TVA men did their best, I will grant them that, but old Cranks wasn’t having none of it. He chased them off with a scatter gun, and I don’t mean just pointed it neither. Word was one of them had to see a doctor in Charles City to get the pellets  plucked from his hindquarters with a tweezer. See, Cranks was doing just fine without any ‘lectricity power. He had his stove and his still. Down at the general store,  Hall would trade him cornmeal, coffee, and bacon for mason jars of his whisky.

Lectricity was just a bother.

 

I get them cats locked in a room. Some people think it’s hard to tell males from females, but you do something long enough you get good at it.

I try for one female and three males, all toms. There’s a window so I can watch em go at it. That part used to make me feel sort of warm, but it don’t do nothing for me now. The next part’s my second favorite, taking care of the pregnant female. Bringing her milk and meat.

The best part comes after. The kittens. The pond. I never get tired of it.

 

The first thing you must do is accept that this is your new life.

This is your only life.

Dwelling in the past, even a little, will not serve you here.

All of that is gone now.

What you see here, with us, is your life.

It will doubtless take you some time to understand this, and more time to accept it.

You will, however, accept it at some point.

We know this because many others before you have been in the same situation and almost all of them eventually accepted it.

We know this because your species is adaptable.

 

Why did I agree to the experiment? Easy.

Money.

Not every day somebody offers me twenty thousand for a month of work.

What we call a no-brainer.

Were they honest up front? Hell no they weren’t. Look at my head. No way would I have agreed if they had been, obviously. You must think I’m an idiot.

Lawsuit? I’ve been approached, believe me. But it’s always the same.

Lawyer gets one look at the contract I signed and that’s it.

Ironclad is the word they use. That’s ironic, isn’t it?

What now? There’s a question for you.

Ha.

The  question.

 

Friday Fictioneers

 

So you boys want me to tell you a story of the Old Days?

Very well.

Before all this you see out here now, the roads and the houses and all the white man’s bullshit, this country was wide open.

There were a few of the whites brave enough to come and try to make a life scratching at the soil, but they didn’t last long.

Sooner or later one of the boys about your age would get insulted by a little square house on the prairie.

Get a couple others with him.

I won’t say what they did after.

 

She said she’d like to go crazy with nothing to do. This was after she figured out I’m gonna keep her locked up in there, maybe forever. She tried to suicide, but I tied her down for a week and she cut it out. Still, she wasn’t so pretty with all that moping, so I looked around. One house I went in had a sewing machine. It didn’t need no electricity and was too heavy for her to lift, so it was about perfect. I hauled it up there and bolted it down tight. Now she’s sewing all the time.