Bill scratched his chin and looked up to the sky as Julie continued ranting from behind the barn. “I think Wart may have told me,” Bill finally said. “But for the life of me, I can’t remember it. I’ll keep trying, sometimes these things just pop in my head.”
Jimmy nodded his head and looked over Bill’s shoulder at Julie. She was now sitting with her back to the barn, holding her head in her hands. He wondered if Bill was right about her; he certainly hoped so.
“So, what is the plan?” Bill asked, slapping Jimmy uncomfortably on the thigh.
Jimmy got to his feet. “Pops said he’d take care of it, whatever that means. I think he knows a lot of people; at least I hope he does. I agree with him, I think we’ve got to get moving and find them as soon as possible. I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that Mars would let Ken walk away after the election. He hates Ken.”
“Yeah, he sure does,” agreed Bill. “Ken’s lucky if he isn’t dead already.”
Jimmy rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth. “We can’t think like that. Do you understand me? All of our people are alive, including Ken.”
“Oh, I know Cindy’s alive. She’s just laying low somewhere. She may have met a boy. That’s what I think. You know how kids are at her age.”
Jimmy nodded, but he wasn’t listening to Bill. Julie was on her way back, walking slowly with her head down and her shoulders slumped. Even from fifty yards away, Jimmy could tell that she was still sobbing.
Bill turned and spotted Julie. “Oh, great. Here she comes, and I’ll bet she doesn’t even apologize to you. Why is it that women think that they can get away with anything if they cry? Like that’s supposed to make everything all better. Look, this is what I’d say to her. You say: you owe me an apology or you can talk to the hand. Then you hold your hand out, like this.”
Jimmy fought the urge to sock him in the jaw as Bill held his hand out in front of him. “Look, why don’t you head on up to the house and get something to eat? I need a few minutes alone with her, okay?”
“Don’t put up with any more of her bullshit, Jimmy. I’m warning you…”
At the zenith of his anger as the very last thread of Jimmy’s sanity began to fray, Bill stood up from the table and rubbed his stomach, then quickly held out his left hand and pointed to it. He turned and walked up to the house. Jimmy took a deep breath and tried to shake off the overwhelming urge to kill Bill. He took another breath and prayed for a little help. That didn’t seem like too much to ask for; at least he hoped it wasn’t. Thankfully, Julie had slowed her walk to almost a crawl. He took that as a good sign.
“I’m sorry,” Julie said, still staring straight down, watching her teardrops fall. “I’m so sorry, Jimmy. Can you please forgive me?”
Jimmy took her into his arms and held her as she nearly collapsed into him. She cried as if she had lost her own father, and Jimmy finally let go and cried himself. They stood there together for a long time, holding each other, lost in a mutual sea of sorrow.
Finally, Julie tossed her hair back over her shoulders. Her face suddenly became full of rage. “I’m going to kill that son-of-a-bitch,” she hissed. “I’m going to do it slow, and I’m going to make him beg me to do it. Don’t you dare forget that, Jimmy. His ass is mine!”
Jimmy rubbed the tears from his eyes, and oddly enough began to smile. “You’ve got it, baby,” he said, taking her hands into his own. “Let’s go see what Pops has in mind. I don’t want the trail to get cold.”
“Right,” agreed Julie. “We’ve got to get moving. I’ve got a score to settle.”
Chapter 32
“Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.” ~ Jimmy Carter
Sonya pulled the Camry to the curb, and she and Patty got out. The sidewalk was filled with people heading toward downtown. They joined them, unsure what they were heading into. They walked at a slow, but steady clip as Sonya knew that Patty was still weak from her treatments. Still, Patty surprised her by showing an incredible amount of stamina for a woman her age who had just fought the battle of her life.
Up ahead was a scene of pure anarchy. Hundreds of people were out in the street, throwing stones at a line of shield-wielding police officers. A young, scruffy-looking man with a bullhorn was urging the protesters on as a television news crew captured the scene on camera. Patty suddenly broke into a run, and much to Sonya’s shock went straight for the man with the bullhorn. It was all Sonya could do to keep up.
“Stop that, right now!” demanded Patty, sticking a finger in the young man’s chest.
Sonya growled as he watched the man swat Patty’s hand away. She held her hands to her mouth as Patty reared back and slugged the young man with a haymaker that connected straight to his scrubby chin.
“You bitch!” roared the young man, holding his hand to his bloody mouth. He held his hand out as if he was about to slap her, but Sonya was suddenly standing between them.
“Don’t you dare,” spat Sonya. “Do you know who this is? This is Patty Dahlgren. Have you heard of her, the woman that’s been in the news, the one that everyone has been looking for? Does that ring a bell? This is Ken Dahlgren’s wife!”
The young man stared at Patty for a long moment with hatred in his eyes, but the hatred quickly faded away as it seemed everything suddenly clicked into place. “No way,” he said in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”
The television crew caught the exchange and herded around Patty as she tore the bullhorn from the young man’s hand. ”Do I look like I’m kidding?” she asked, her eyes wild with anger. She studied the white bullhorn and found the trigger. She held it to her mouth and paused, gathering her thoughts.
“All right, Patty!” shouted Sonya. “You go, girl!”
“Everyone listen to me!” Patty roared into the bullhorn. “Stop what you’re doing and listen to me. My name is Patty Dahlgren, and if that means anything to you, you’ll stop this nonsense and listen to what I have to say!”
Sonya looked around and saw that Patty had caught the attention of those people within fifty feet of her. Slowly, others stopped their rioting as Patty continued to plead with them.
“Please, stop all of this! I know you’re angry; we are all angry. But throwing rocks and burning things isn’t going to solve anything! Can’t you see that? Please, for the love of God, you have to stop!”
Sonya gasped as word spread throughout the crowd that Ken Dahlgren’s wife, the woman he’d been pleading for information about, suddenly appeared before them. A crowd began to form around her, and it seemed to double in size with each passing minute.
Chapter 33
“The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.” ~ Leon Trotsky
Eventually, Pops joined Jimmy and Julie down at the picnic table. “We’ve got a bit of a situation,” he said, “a minor setback.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Julie.
Pops smiled thoughtfully and hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “Dunn’s Suburban’s got four flat tires and a mushed windshield.”
“Don’t you have a car or a truck or something?”
“I do, but they did a number on my Ford, too. That’s the bad news. The good news is that a friend of mine will be here in about an hour and will take us anywhere we want to go. He’s a good man, and I know you’ll like him. And don’t you two go worrying about money. Thrill left me more than I could ever spend. So, all we got to figure out is where to start. Either one of you got any ideas?”
Jimmy scratched his head and turned to Julie. She scowled and shook her head. “Mars never said a thing about his life outside of Utopia, except that he’d been in the service.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” said Pops, looking at Julie out of the corner of his eye. “What kind of name is Mars? Is that first or last?”
Jimmy chuckled, despite himself and the seriousness of the situation. He quickly explained how the leaders of Utopia had taken the names of planets and how one
day they had been there, and the next day the entire commune, lock, stock and barrel, had vanished.
“Let me see if I got this straight,” said Pops. “This Mars fella, he’s ex-military, huh? Could be that he’s CIA now, or he could be working on his own as a contractor. That’d be my guess. That way if anything happens, Uncle Sam can deny ever knowing the guy. Well, we know he’s not working alone. I don’t think Ken gave up his finger without a fight. So, where does that leave us?”
“We can go to the news,” said Julie. “We can tell them what’s happened and ask people to look for them. I can give them a good description of Mars. Maybe we can find a sketch artist and have a drawing done? I don’t know.”
“Nah,” Pops said, dismissively. He sat down on top of the picnic table and rested his chin in his hands. “That’s too risky. I think they want to keep Ken alive, at least for now. But I think if we start raising holy hell, they’ll grease him. We don’t want that.”
“No,” agreed Julie. “We don’t want that.”
“I wish Burt were still alive,” said Jimmy. “He’d know what to do.”
“He would be,” grunted Julie, “if that bastard hadn’t shot him in the back. I’m going to kill him. I don’t care how long it takes or how far I have to go. I’m going to fry his ass.”
“You hang onto that thought,” said Pops, brushing a mosquito off his arm. “Thing is, we really need a place to start our search. I suppose we could head into town and start asking around. I got a few friends I can call, see if anyone’s heard anything…”
Jimmy suddenly saw the hopelessness of their situation. They had no leads, and the trail was growing colder by the minute. They didn’t even know the real name of the man they were searching for. They needed a miracle, and they needed one now.
“Well, why don’t you two follow me up to the house? Sheldon ought to be here soon, and he’s gonna want to get movin’ on this. He’s a good man, a little different, but aren’t we all?”
“Roanoke,” Jimmy whispered.
“What?” Pops asked.
“Roanoke,” he repeated, slapping himself on the forehead.
“Virginia? Well, I suppose he could’ve gone there. I don’t know if Sheldon’s up for a trip like that, but I’m sure we could get him to take us to the airport.”
“No,” said Julie. “I don’t think that’s what he means.”
“I don’t,” said Jimmy. “Look, this is a longshot, but I think we need to go back to Utopia and see if we can find any clues. For all we know, Pluto could still be up there, somewhere. He might know where Mars is hiding.”
“Hold on, son, you’re losing me here. Who is Pluto and which Roanoke are you talking about?”
“Utopia is gone,” said Julie. “You said so, yourself. You said it burned to the ground and that there was nothing left.”
“The buildings are gone, but we never found any of the people. For all we know, they’re all still up there somewhere.”
“All right, you lost me. Will somebody explain to me what the Sam Hill you’re talking about?”
Jimmy did explain, and with Julie’s help they retold the story of how the entire village of Utopia had simply vanished overnight in the dead of winter. Pops sat where he was and listened, scratching his chin from time to time. Jimmy told about how Ken had used the name Roanoke to describe Utopia, and how it had stuck in his head. When they finished, the old man got to his feet and stretched. He had yet to comment, and Jimmy was nervous that he’d brush the idea aside.
“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Pops. “Sure, I’ve heard of that Roanoke. Disappeared, huh? That was mighty convenient, wasn’t it? This Mars kills two of your people and is allowed to walk away, and the very next day the whole camp has vanished? Burned up, the whole place?”
“That’s right,” said Jimmy.
“No bodies?”
Jimmy shook his head. “Not even a single footprint, and it had just snowed.”
“That sure is odd. You might be onto something.”
“You know,” said Julie. “You might be right. They could still be up there. And if they are, it’d be the perfect hiding place for Mars.”
“I’d say it’s worth a shot,” agreed Jimmy.
“What the hell is that?” Julie asked, looking past Pops.
A dust cloud, half a mile long was speeding their way. Jimmy instinctively reached for the Browning, but Pops held out his hand. “Shit,” he said. “That’s gonna be Sheldon, and he’s gonna be pissed off that we ain’t ready to roll. Come on, we might as well go meet him.”
Jimmy gasped as an early 1970’s model Dodge window van rounded the corner into the driveway. Whoever Sheldon was, he had just taken the corner on two wheels.
“I’m not riding with him,” said Julie. “He drives like a maniac.”
“Don’t go worrying yourself over nothin’. I told Sheldon that this was an emergency and to hustle his buns on over here. You’ll like him; he’s old school, just like me.”
Chapter 34
“Believe you can and you're halfway there.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
Patty stared out into a sea of people and suddenly felt very small. Sonya and the young man she had punched led her up a set of concrete stairs to an abandoned restaurant patio. She quickly found that there were three distinct camps among the crowd; there were Ken’s supporters, and then there were the conservatives and liberals who were still at each others’ throats. They began to pepper her with questions, and after hedging on a few, Patty began to get angry again and gave the crowd a piece of her mind.
“What about those people who refuse to work and want to live off the system?” a well-dressed man barked from below.
“Those days are over!” shouted Patty. “Look at this city; look at the mess we’ve made. There is enough work here to last for generations. Every able-bodied man and woman will be expected to contribute if they want to collect. We’ll set up free daycare sites and staff them with single mothers. Those who choose not to work will have to fend for themselves!”
“Yeah?” shouted a young woman from the front. “What about corporate welfare? What about those bastards on Wall Street who caused all of this? What about all of the jobs that are still getting shipped overseas?”
Patty paused as the crowd of roared in support of the woman’s questions. “First, we need to find out if any laws were broken. We have to start there. We’ll prosecute white collar criminals along with the rest of the trash; there will be no more favoritism! Second, we’ll take a look at all of the loopholes that have been created by the cronies that are currently holding office. They have to go if we ever hope to get back on track. We need to step in and regulate the banking industry, and they are damn sure going to pay their fair share of taxes! We have to quit handing out tax breaks like aspirin. And to combat companies looking for cheap labor, we need to slap a fat tariff on anything they want to sell in our country. That will make them think twice about pulling up stakes and taking our jobs! For over thirty years, workers’ wages in this country have stagnated while the elite have sucked the life out of the middle class. Those days are over. The same goes for companies that have been deemed too big to fail. They most certainly can fail, and they must fail in order to allow other companies the chance to compete. We have to look at this country as a business, and we all need to sacrifice something to get our business back on track!”
Sonya beamed with pride as the crowd cheered wildly. Patty began to blush. She hadn’t known her patient was so well informed on the issues, and she certainly hadn’t seen this coming. Patty continued to answer questions, landing squarely in the middle on all of the hottest issues without favoring either side. She had logical answers, and she spoke in plain English, explaining her thoughts as she went. This went on for nearly an hour, and Sonya could see that Patty was beginning to wear out; she stepped next to Patty. “You need to wrap it up,” she whispered into her ear.
Patty nodded and paused as she gathered her thoughts.
“Can’t you see that we’ve been pitted against each other while our country is being stolen out from underneath us? If we have any chance at all of preserving this beautiful country of ours, we need to work together and settle our differences. I know it isn’t going to be easy. We’re all going to have to swallow our pride and find some common ground. We need good men and women to step forward and take the fight to a local level. Together, we will restore our Constitutional rights, eliminate these golden parachutes and pass laws to ensure term limits. We need to kick career politicians to the curb! Will you help us do that? Are you ready to take our country back from big business?”
The crowd roared with approval, and Patty covered her mouth to conceal her smile. She was completely out of her element, but she was only speaking freely about the things that she and Ken had discussed for untold hours. She hadn’t known she had it in her, but deep down in her heart, she knew she needed to step forward to help Ken any way she could.
As Patty prepared to step off the patio she was stopped by a final question. “Hey, Patty,” a reporter shouted. “What do you and Ken plan to call your party? You’re going to need a name!”
There was a murmur of agreement among the crowd, and Patty scratched her cheek. She hadn’t even considered a name and she looked out into the crowd for an answer. And suddenly it came to her. “The People’s Party!” she shouted into the bullhorn. “We’ll call it the People’s Party. Now, if you’ll excuse me? I have to track down my husband.”
With Sonya at her side, Patty descended the stairs, and the crowd parted before her. She had no idea where they were heading, but Sonya took her arm and led her back in the direction they’d come from. Her arm became tired from shaking so many hands, and it seemed that her name was being shouted from all around her. They plunged ahead to where the crowd thinned and gradually, thankfully, they began to walk in relative obscurity.
Desperate Times Three - Revolution Page 20