by B. D. Lutz
“They’re dredging the lake and river of the dead, pulling thousands of them from the water,” Stone challenged.
“Don’t forget who’s guarding and operating the water treatment plants,” Jackson said.
“We never ran out of natural gas, even when they thought we would. They kept it flowing,” Tesha added.
“Nah, we could’ve done all that in time. We don’t need them… well, maybe a little. But we’re doing it, people, we’re rebuilding this damn country.”
They met my rally cry with stunned silence. So I limped to my Yukon. “I blame Dillan for my behavior; he told me they wanted to tax us. You know how I feel about taxes.”
Dillan started to reply, but I cut him off. “You’ve missed me; you know you have.”
I powered up my window, shifted the Yukon into gear, and headed home.
Chapter 43 – That’s The Story
Luna was waiting for me when I arrived to pick her up from school. Her sour expression told me I was in for a long ride home.
She slammed her body into the plush leather seat, buckled in, and crossed her arms.
“You need to shut your door, Luna.”
“Oh, whatever!” she snapped and, mustering all the strength in her tiny frame, slammed it shut. Then she returned to her original position and glared out the windshield.
“Long day?”
“You got me in trouble again. I told the teacher that my name is Luna-tic, not Luna. And she should call me by my real name. She didn’t believe me, and that made me angry, so I yelled at her. I had to stand in the corner during recess… again.”
“You should have asked your mom, not your teacher, Luna. Ask your mom tonight; she’ll tell you the truth.”
“UNCLE OTTO, Miss Willis told me what lunatic means.”
Huh, that didn’t go as planned.
She went quiet for a minute, then looked at me as a smile creased her tiny face. “But I got a gold star today.”
“Really, did you steal it from Sammy?”
“Ohhhh. You. Make. Me. So. MAD.”
“I know, but that’s why you love me. So, tell me about your gold star?”
Shaking off her anger, the smile returned to her face. “I turned in my history essay today. Miss Willis told me it was the best she’d ever read.”
I became irrationally annoyed by her news. “History, you say. What version of history was your paper about? The authentic version or the one in your books?”
Unfazed, Luna smiled. “The one in my books.”
“Oh, for God’s sake. That’s not accurate at all. Have you been listening to the stories I’ve told you?” I got so aggravated I had to cut myself off. It’s a rare event, but that’s how peeved I was.
A tiny giggle pulled my attention to her. I found her holding the paper up, proudly displaying the gold star. “Read it, Uncle Otto.”
“I’m driving; I can’t read and drive at the same time. Read it to me; I’ll tell you where they got it wrong.”
Still smiling, Luna said, “Okay, but I’m only going to read the note from my teacher. “Dear Luna, Your essay on the history of our community is the best I’ve ever read.”
“That’s the same thing you told me a second ago. I’m going to arrange a meeting with your teacher about her lesson plan. She should teach the actual history of your home and how we fought for it.”
Hysterical laughter was Luna’s response, and it pulled my attention back to her. She held her paper high above her head, waving it back and forth.
I yanked the wheel to the right, steered the Yukon to the berm, and slammed it into Park while snatching the paper from her grubby little hand.
My breath hitched when I read the title: The History of my Uncle Otto and the Members of FST1. Kids were reading about me. I mean, us!
Luna leaned in close, and just above a whisper, said, “Thank you, Uncle Otto.”
* * * * *
Next From B.D. Lutz
Silenced: Book One of The Consent Of The Governed Series
A political, alternate reality, dystopian thriller
I can’t believe it; the series has come to an end! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’ll be hard saying goodbye to some of the characters, especially Otto. And, believe it or not, Lisa. I really enjoyed writing her and Otto’s interactions. But I owed it to all of you to keep the story fresh. My fear was that if I kept it going too long, it would become just another zombie book to you, and I really didn’t want that to happen.
Thank you for taking this ride with me. I’m eternally grateful to each of you. If you didn’t know it, I’ll tell you now: You helped me keep a promise I made to myself. Thank you for doing that.
I’d like to thank all of my friends and family for their support. And a special thanks to Heidi, Darline, Charley, Russ, Aundre, and Sean. A quick word about Russ: He is my cousin and the inspiration for the character of the same name in the book. I did, in fact, hit him with a rock. He claims it was in the face, I remember it being his leg. Either way, I hit him with the rock and he deserved it. Love ya, cuz!
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With all of the strife in our world today, much of it pointed at those of us that still believe in the American Dream, holding on to our ideals is more challenging than we ever imagined, or than it should be. To that I say, remain eternally vigilant to your beliefs, your faith, and yourself!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hello! I'm supposed to tell you a little about myself, so here we go. I bet you can't wait! I was born in Cleveland Ohio. I now live in NEO (North East Ohio) with my wonderful wife (she told me to say that). Our beautiful daughter lives in California with her extraordinary husband, and we miss them every day.
In my early adult life I spent time as a Repo-Man for a rent to own furniture company, a bill collector and heavy drinker. Then, I pulled myself together and spent twenty-seven years working my way through sales management in corporate America. However, one day, I was sitting in a meeting and the right person said the right thing at the right time and I realized enough was truly enough. I've always wanted to do this, write a book, and I realized that we, you and me, have about fifteen minutes on the face of this planet and I needed to do one of the things I had always wanted to do. And, well, this is it.
If you're wondering, yes, I'm a conservative, I own guns, and I hate paying taxes.
My hope is that one day you're sitting in a meeting, delivering a package, serving someone dinner, or doing whatever it is you do for a living and decide that enough is enough. It's the scariest thing you'll ever do. But I promise at no point in your life will you feel more alive than the day you take control of the life you're living!