The Heirs of Tomorrow

by Billy Roper

  “By truck, it’s a forty-five minute drive each way to the dam. If we send in a security team of deputies to guard the, uh, electric experts, it’ll take four trucks. But I’m damned if I know that some linemen will know what they’re looking at when they get inside the damn thing, no pun intended. Can they get it up and running? And if they can, can they route the power along the proper lines so it comes to us? And then can we turn off power where it’s not needed, and restrict it to secure areas only in our county? These are questions I need the answers to before we do this and put lives at risk”.

  Danny couldn’t find anything to disagree with in that. Going on a wild goose chase seemed like a stupid chance to take if it wouldn’t get the lights back on. Both County Judges nodded, too. The Mayor frowned.

  “Well, what do you suggest, Je- Sheriff Mitchell?” he grumbled. Everyone held their breath. The two of them had butted heads before.

  “Winter’s over, Spring has sprung, so we have a few months to do this right.” The Sheriff answered with a smile. “I say you let me get ahold of Sheriff Grant down there, and first off get his approval for crossing into their jurisdiction like good neighbors should. Then, we can find out what they know about the hydroelectric plant and if they know the whereabouts of any of the folks who ran it.”

  That sounded like good sense, again. It must have to the others, too, because it didn’t even need a vote. Nothing much did, these days. But after that there was a report on the increased school attendance due to the refugees, which sparked a bitter debate on whether they should be allowed a free education like other county residents. That DID lead to a vote, and not surprisingly most of the elected officials were against letting the non-natives into classes. Who would pay the teachers’ salaries, and with what? The district was issuing I.O.U.s in lieu of U.S. dollars, which nobody took any more. The I.O.U.s were pretty much transferrable at the market and in the few restaurants still open, but it was an imperfect system.

  To make his new public workers happy, the Sheriff had promised them that their kids could go to school for free. Because a half dozen of the city and county politicos were going to vote against him, Mitchell overturned precedent by asking his deputies to vote on the issue. The Mayor looked like he was about to bust over that, but kept quiet. With each vote came a chance to speak. For some reason, Danny took his. Maybe it was because of Allie and her little sisters. Maybe it was just to see if the Mayor would go ahead and pop, and to impress the Sheriff. He didn’t really think about it until later. He just did it. That surprised them all, himself included.

  “Now, Gentlemen…and Lady, I know I’m the youngest person here, but I am a taxpayer and was born here and also am the most recent graduate of our school here, so I reckon my say matters. I say the Sheriff is right, but that don’t matter none because ya’ll done knew I’d vote that way, and anyway even if I was fool enough not to there’s three more deputies aside from me who done did it and six more who will when it gets to be their shot. That makes it what the Romans used to call a fate accomplish. That’s something I learned in that there school under discussion.” He paused to catch his breath as the rest of the room stared at him intently, then rushed on.

  “Another thing I learned in that school is that fiat currency is worth something if folks are told, and believe, that is, and not if they don’t believe in it. Now those of us here represent the only muscle to tell folks what to believe in around. Pastor, err, Mr. Mayor, the local preachers telling them from the pulpit, and us, us secular powers telling them so on the street, will have folks using U.S. dollars just like before, until we come up with something better for them.” He sat back down, winded. His buddy Mark next to him, who’d been his trainer, was grinning like he’d told the best joke ever. Nobody else was.

  The room erupted in several arguments at once. “But without silver or gold backing…” “What about the separation of church and state?” “Our own currency, he means?” “Is that treason, or patriotic?” “I don’t know, but it might work!” “What about inflation?”

  Sheriff Mitchell was looking at Danny like he’d never quite noticed him before. So were the other deputies. He studied his boots carefully. After a couple of minutes things quieted down to a dull roar, then a murmur. The Mayor looked around him at the other bureaucrats, then nodded at them and spoke.

  “There’s no need for a continued vote. We agree to withdraw and reverse our votes, and approve the education of newcomer’s children so long as their families pass the requirement of one gainfully employed per household, AND, we adopt the, uhm, suggestion of enforcing U.S. currency usage as a means of uniform exchange, uh, pending adoption of a different currency officially in the future.”

  “Agreed”, the Sheriff said, finally taking his eyes off of Danny. “Instead of being backed up by silver or gold, our dollars will be backed up by lead.” They all shared relieved nervous laughter, and the matter was closed.

  The rest of the meeting was a dazed blur for him after that, and anticlimactic. When it was adjourned Danny wanted nothing more than to leave quickly and slink off home, but his fellow deputies weren’t about to let that happen. Not after the stunt he’d pulled.

  “Hey, since they don’t really have City Councilmen any more, you can’t run for office, Danny!” one joked, slapping him on the back good-naturedly. Mark tried to shush them until the Mayor and his crew were out of earshot, with no luck.

  “Maybe he should, he made more sense than they did!” another deputy, Jimmy, stated, laughing.

  “I bet he found a bunch of cash out there looting and figures to buy himself a woman”, a fourth guessed, as they crowded around him with mixed pride and awe.

  “Hell, he don’t need to buy himself a woman, do you Danny?” the booming voice of the Sheriff made them all shut up and step away as the Sheriff loomed in front of them, face to face.

  “No, Sir.” Danny replied, drawing himself to full attention. The others did the same, even Mark.

  “No, Danny don’t care too much for money, ‘cause money can’t buy him love, just like the boys from the new King’s home town said once upon a time, right? Because he has a pretty new blonde refugee girl staked out for hisself. Tell us, is that why you ‘re on so much about the people from off, all of a sudden, maybe?”

  “Maybe so, Sir.” He answered, truthfully. They were all quiet.

  The Sheriff straightened up, out of Danny’s face and laughed. “Well, he’s honest and outspoken, too, and smart enough to show the Mayor that even the lowest on our team’s totem pole is higher than his whole cabal. What do you think I should do about that, boys?”

  None of them knew what to say. They were afraid to speak up for Danny in the face of the Sheriff’s potential wrath, a lesson he took note of. None of them wanted to go out on a limb for him, and take a risk. Mark studied Danny out of the corner of his eye and did all but step sideways away from him. Jimmy and the rest did take a step back. He’d remember that.

  “I tell you what I think I ought to do about it. I think I ought to keep an eye on this young’un, number one, and number two, I think he ought not to be the lowest on the totem pole any more. What do you say, Danny, are you tired of patrolling the roadgate circuit?”

  “Yes, Sir. Stuff’s about picked over, anyway, out there”, he daringly offered.

  This time the other deputies joined the Sheriff in laughing out loud. This they felt safe in dong after watching for his reaction, which was to grab Danny’s hand and shake it. “Okay, then, boy. You come back from the fact-finding mission with the information we need, and I’ll give you a promotion and bonus…in U.S. dollars, even!” Jimmy laughed at that, too, then quickly stopped when he saw the Sheriff was serious.

  “Fact-finding mission, Sir?” Danny asked, apprehensively.

  The Sheriff put a beefy arm around his shoulder and led him away from the other men, who took their cues to linger behind. “Sure, Private, I mean, soon to be Corporal McCleary. You heard them in there. We need to find the men who c
an get that electric dam up and going again. How would you like to be the hero who helped turn the lights back on?”

  “That…that would be great, Sir. But, you mean, by myself, Sir?”

  “Oh, you’re right, son, absolutely, it would be too dangerous a mission to send one lone deputy out on, wouldn’t it?”

  “I’m afraid so, Sir.”

  “Yes, yes, so, you’d better go in plain clothes, out of uniform, incognito, Danny, it’s the safest way.”

  “You mean, like as a spy, Sir?”

  “Those are just semantics, son. Did they teach you that word in school, too?” They sure had.

  After the Sheriff left to meet up with his wife and kids for supper, Mark and Jimmy and the other guys tried to get Danny to go out to confiscate a load from the bootlegger and party, but he was worn out and headed home, thinking about everything that had happened. Sometimes he wished he had the good sense to just shut up and keep his head down. Every single time.

  The next day he was given another talking to by the Sheriff, in the head man’s dusty office. He also walked over and talked with the local power company people in the cafe to pick their brains on the subject as best he could. He was to leave in two weeks, during which time he studied as much as he could about hydroelectric power production and distribution, from every book on the subject in the county library or his own stash he could find. That occupied most of the first week, except for two dates he had with Allie. On the first one she kissed him full on the lips as soon as he got off Blue and tied him to their truck.

  “Well, thanks, but what was that for?” he asked, looking to see if her family was watching. They were.

  “We heard about what you did at the meeting. How you stood up for us. All of us. My sisters thank you, and so do my mom and dad, but if you think I’m going to school again, you’re wrong, officer!”

  “It wasn’t much, Allie, just speaking my mind, but what do you mean you aren’t going?”

  “I think I’m through with school. I think I’m ready for the real world. You think you’re ready for that?” she challenged. Danny thought he was. He went and shook her dad’s hand, who met him halfway, thanking him. Then her mom gave him a hug, wiping away tears, and her little sisters began cheering “we’re staying, we’re staying!”.

  All of these recent memories passed through Danny’s thoughts as he rode his patrol duty for the last time, if everything went right. He wouldn’t be taking any new loot properties today. There were no bandits or refugees on the road to scare off or herd in for processing today, either, like there had been a few times. Once, a couple months back, he’d fired a warning shot at a couple of men hiding in the bushes next to a creek where he was watering Blue to give them a caution, and they took off. There’d been one family in an old Amish carriage seeking entry who looked less Amish than he did, and a couple of lone, wary stragglers he’d given water to and paced as they made their way to the roadgate. That was getting to be a rare occurrence these days, though. He hadn’t seen any in a few weeks. There wasn’t time to make the circuit and do any trading this trip, either.

  One of the first duties the stragglers and refugees had been put on was the graves. They called them that, “the graves”, but it was really one big ditch out behind the hospital between it and the school that had kept getting longer and longer as the winter had taken its toll. It was easier for strangers to cover the dead in black trash bags, one over their head and one over their feet, tie them off together in the middle, and dig into the rocky frozen ground by shovel and pick deep enough to put them under, than it was for their own families and loved ones to have to do it. Now that there were fewer new people coming in, they’d all be burying their own, come next winter, he reckoned. Least ways, unless they got the power on and a lot more food stored up before it turned cold again. They’d run out of trash bags around Christmas.

  After a week of reading about and studying and talking about hydroelectric power, he was checking out the road one last time on patrol before he headed down it himself, in the opposite direction. Like most of the deputies the roadgate guards knew a little of what was going on, but not all of it. They would let him out and let him back in, no questions asked, but that was about it. The gate Captain, Mike, would make sure they unlocked it for him, no matter what, he’d swore. Danny’d given him another salvaged bottle he’d been saving just to make sure.

  At the end of their first date after the City Council meeting, Danny had told Allie about the mission, even though he knew he shouldn’t. He was riding so high in her eyes after the whole school thing that he wanted to impress her even more. He was surprised by the effect it had, though. Maybe burgers had been a bad choice to take her out for, not that there were than many choices left in town open? It had been either that or the café, where today’s special was soup and cornbread. He’d thought burgers grilled behind the old McDonald’s were better, personally. Mark always took girls there to show off. It usually worked for him.

  “No, you’re not going to do that, not by yourself.” She seemed adamant.

  “But, Allie, I have to, I was ordered to…”

  “You were ordered to go, but not ordered to go alone, am I right?”

  “Uhm, yeah, but none of the guys would volunteer, and I couldn’t ask…” After the meeting, he didn’t know which of them he could really trust, but he wasn’t about to admit that about his brother deputies, not even to her.

  “None of the guys are going. I am. And you’re not asking. I am. Or, I’m saying. I’m going.” The look in her eyes dared him to stop her.

  “But it’s a dangerous mission, and something could happen. Besides, wouldn’t it be better if you stayed here to give me a plenty good reason to get back home in one piece for?” he attempted.

  The air was smoky from the cookfires, but her expression was clear. She was one determined young lady.

  “That’s good, but here’s better. A young couple looks like less of a threat than a dude alone. You haven’t seen what it’s like down there, I have, we were there last month, in the town, and passed right by the dam. That’ll help. And besides, there’s nobody better to watch your back than…” she trailed off, blushing.

  There were a few other camouflaged uniforms packed into the booths, most of them he knew. Danny wondered how many of them were trying to listen in to their conversation. He never would have had that thought before. There wasn’t much to do off duty but listen to one of the jam groups playing music at the park or hang out here. Music must be slow tonight, it looked like.

  He took another sip of his water. Even McDonalds was out of coffee, these days. It would be a while before they got more, too. Unless they got electric power, then stuff would start coming in from all over. That was something worth taking a risk for, all right. But risking her?

  “Besides, I’ll be safer with you than here. Who knows what might happen while you’re gone?” she teased. He looked over at the other deputies eating, and thought that she was more right than she knew. He’d seen how they acted at the dances people went to when they weren’t too tired from working or weak from hunger.

  Danny sighed. “Okay, IF we do this, you have to do what I say, when I say. No arguments, no fussing, no complaining. And, we have to get your parents’ permission first.” She smiled back at him.

  “In order to do that, there’s something you have to talk to my daddy about, first.”

  He walked into that one, too: “What?”

  “Me moving in. With you. If we’re going to be acting like a couple, we need some practice.”

  The rest of his burger was too dry to eat, even with all the water in the world. He nodded goodnight to the clerk as he put down a rumpled twenty dollar bill, following the new law, and they walked past the open door to escape the generator’s roar. A chilly rain had beaten the new grass down peeking up through cracks in the drive-through lane where the public latrine had been built, cutting down on the smell. People stood in line, waiting their turn, patient as always.
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  That night upon arriving back at the fairgrounds, Danny learned something else about women. Allie had already talked it over with her mom, who after a bit of tears had talked it over with her dad, who after some bluster and grumbling was waiting up for them to get home.

  Before Danny could climb down, he was there waiting with a lantern, waving him inside. Allie squeezed his hand for good luck as he went under the canopy. They’d talked about it on the way back. Both of them were scared, but it felt right and life was too uncertain these days to wait around and waste time dithering. Her pep talk had strengthened him. He was ready to stand up tall and look her father in the eye, until the man asked him to take a seat on the camp stool to his right. He sat down in another one, facing Danny, and was silent for a minute. Both of them studied each other silently for a moment. The greasy and soot-covered overalls gave a grim feeling to the man, but his face was animated by something else.

  “Son, you have your own place, and some money, and a position, and a future. But if you want that future to be with my daughter, you’d better tell me about your family”, he finally spoke. The older man leaned back in his creaking perch, pulling his shoes up under him, and waited.

  Danny told Mr. Dupree everything he knew of his ancestry. His dad was Scotch-Irish, his mom English and German, with maybe a little French thrown in on his dad’s side somewhere, he had heard. He felt like he was under interrogation. Under the silent scrutiny he talked about his dad’s arrest and imprisonment, his brother’s disability, and his grandparents, as far as he remembered them.

  When he wound down, the next question was more blunt. “So, nothing from THAT far “off”?” They both grinned together, lightening the mood.