Oakton

by B. Chen

  Chapter 10. Conclusion.

  Monday 5:30pm.

  The Brown's served burgers, brats, fries, Pepsi, chips, dip, potato salads, coleslaw, veggie trays, and lots of beers for the men folk.

  It was a gathering I never thought I'd live to see, six former enemies having supper together in someone's backyard in the cool late afternoon as the sun went down.

  Food was flying fast. We had some help. There were a few of the Nebraska State Police investigators with us sharing in the meal. Since about ten people died here some investigations were in order, we had no problem proving our innocence.

  That's when it hit the fan.

  Bethany Meek, the most beautiful girl at Falls City High School, mediocre volleyball team member, lover of animals and cutting edge technology stood to speak like I have never heard from her before. By the time she was done everyone (including me) had tears in their eyes. Nobody could say a thing because they all knew she was right.

  5:51pm.

  Without warning Bethany stood to speak to the group while everyone was eating:

  "I wanted to speak to all of you, the residents of the wonderful town of Oakton, or New Oakton as our ancestors called it after the flood of 1910 destroyed what was left of the old town. And now we all know where the Pawnee are buried putting to rest the whole question that's lingered over this town for over one hundred years.”

  “First, I want to thank Paramedic Adam for risking his life crossing the flooded street to come to our aid during the battle.” She gestured to him. Adam stood as the crowd softly applauded him and he sat back down as Beth continued her unexpected speech.

  “I want you to know that several humans died here today because of us. I shot two of them myself and I'm just a nineteen year old farm girl.”

  “And you know why I had to kill people today?” She said pointing at her parents, Ben's parents, and my parents. Inside my head I was like 'go-Beth, go-Beth’ because I knew where this was heading.

  “It's because your childish feud has kept five generations of good people from speaking to each other, from listening to each other, from working together as a community, and from listening to your kids when they tried to tell you that something was wrong in our town!” Tears were dripping from her eyes, her chin was quivering as she fought hard to squeak out every last word. I never heard her scream, red faced angry, furious at anyone or anything before, ever! Inside I was still all like 'go-Beth, go-Beth! Meek my ass, this girl was on-fire pissed off!

  She continued, "Your selfish feud caused the carnage here today. And today it must stop, its pure childish crap and nothing more than that. I would expect this on the grade school playground but not here, not in my town!" She continued screaming, slowly rotating to make eye contact with to all six parents on the patio behind Brown's house.

  Ben’s father got to his feet and started to speak in his defense but she quickly interrupted him, moving to stand only a few feet away from him. She raised her hand pointing her finger at him and continued yelling.

  "Silence!” she said slowly pointing at him then the rest of the parents,“All of you should be ashamed! What if that spear got Ben just a couple inches over and cut an artery? Daisy nearly died protecting your town while each of you hid in your homes because you didn’t want to face the neighbors!" She continued yelling around the patio.

  "End it! End it today or so help me I will! All of you are guilty, every one!" She paused briefly staring around the patio making eye contact with each parent. The area was mostly silent except for sniffling and crying.

  “Today is when it stops, the feud is hereby over! I demand it! You grown-ups owe each of us kids and my dog an apology!”

  Her fists were clenched tightly; pale-white the normal color disappeared long ago! Her face and shirt were wet with tears. Beth’s entire body was visibly trembling. Not a single person had dry eyes. My mom had her face in her hands over her lap.

  Beth turned and stormed off, running out of the yard towards her house. I jumped to my feet and followed. Everyone else stayed at Brown's as they should have.

  I caught up with Beth in the paddock next to Bullet, they seemed happy to be together. I let myself in the gate; she turned to see me walking up to her.

  Beth turned stepping quickly into me, buried her face into my shoulder and cried and cried. I held her tight, one hand on her back and the other on her head. After what seemed like three minutes she quieted down to just sniffling, she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe her eyes and blow her nose, just like a farmer's daughter.

  It clicked in my head right then, what I always suspected, one hundred percent sure now.

  She wiped her hand on her overalls and walked back to me, leaning in laying a gentle kiss on the side of my face, I hugged her to me tightly. I'd been wanting to do this for about four years now.

  We stood there for a moment smiling and staring into each other’s eyes. It was hard to believe all we'd been through today.

  "I love you John." Then she looked down as if afraid I might reject her advance.

  "Funny you should say that because I just figured out I feel the same about you." We both held our hands slightly forward taking each others with a warm grip and smiled then kissed for the first time. We slow danced together, mouths pressed, lips touching, hands joined, only the sounds of the horse breathing and the wind in the giant elderly dormant Oak trees overhead.

  After a while we pulled apart. I heard a click and a buzz from her house as Daisy let herself out the back door to use the grass. We watched as the wounded but recovering dog went about her business after limping slowly across the back yard.

  "What a fantastic beastie she is!" I whispered to Beth. She reached down to hold my right hand with her left hand.

  All on her own Daisy returned to the sofa and her favorite TV shows on the DVR. I laughed thinking about how much dogs have changed from when Oakton was founded. What perfect love she has for Beth. What a great role model. Then I asked her, "So what prompted you guys to get such a big dog?"

  Beth answered, "It was my mom's idea. She said she longed for the pitter-patter of little feet, so she got a puppy." She says it's cheaper and you get more feet." I looked at her for a moment before she grew a huge grin on her face. We grasped hands laughing softly and headed back towards the street.

  We walked back to Brown's party and were met with standing applause from the townspeople. We kissed briefly in front of them which drew verbal cheers.

  I actually did see each family get around to a brief face to face meeting with the others and verbally apologize for perpetuating the feud and ignoring their reports of disappearing animals in town. There was lots of hand shaking and hugs exchanged, as the time went by the overall sound of party turned more festive.

  Slowly, the party ended as the Archers and Meeks walked home. Beth and I were happy to see the adults all hugging and shaking hands again when it came time to leave. Email addresses and phone numbers were exchanged freely everyone promising to stay in touch from now on.

  Epilogue:

  The flood receded much slower than it arrived. It took three days until roads to the north, west, and south were above water again, then another two days for them to dry out enough to drive on. The Flood of 2029 wasn't totally gone from Richardson County for a week or more as the crest of the water slowly moved down the Missouri River towards the Mississippi River north of St Louis.

  The county highway department later proposed raising one of the roads so we could have access to emergency services the next time we get big floods. They said it would cost about thirty thousand dollars to place steel tubes and raise the road bed. That's a big expenditure for a once every fifty to one hundred year flooding event.

  On the first day the road to the west was above water the county highway department came in with large dump trucks and unloaded tons of large crushed rocks to build it up and make it usable a couple days earlier.

  Once the county roads were safe to drive on, more police and for
ensics investigators arrived. One of them discovered the skeletal remains of numerous cats and dogs in Patton's old basement. When their place burned down a few years ago they left the house foundation intact, a full size concrete basement, in their yard. It appeared the Indian scouts used those as food until the rest of their group was re-born from their sacred cemetery. The remains of animals we lost were buried in one mass grave in the ground near the Fricke Cemetery with a marker Harvey made on his 3D printer.

  For most of 2029 there were always at least three office trailers, one large tent, and two chemical toilets along the street where the old Oakton town once stood. Using ground penetrating radar in addition to locating the buried Pawnee they also mapped and marked the locations of over half of the original buildings from the original site of Oakton.

  That fall the University of Nebraska excavated the entire field, almost two acres uncovering thirty three boats and skeletal remains, along with other non-combatants in ceremonial dress. The entire collection is housed now in a museum in Falls City in the old Ford dealership building downtown.

  Five years later Ben, Beth, and I graduated from University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL). Beth and I were married, Ben to a girl he met at school. Beth went on in school to get her Masters and now teaches CAD-AI and advanced materials engineering working towards her PhD. I opened my own consulting business in Falls City specializing in agri-tech. The unfortunate side effect of autonomous technology and remote control-sensing means not only can my father run his tractor from home, but someone in Nebraska can now run a farm in Africa or India and visa versa. Our company sells and services that.

  Beth and I purchased a used modular home placing it behind their barn on Meek's property where we now live planning to raise a family and keep up both farms some day. Beth still works for the university from home on the net. She uses two of those new laser cameras to create a 3D image which is 3D projected in the lecture hall at UN-Lincoln. At home we converted one of our rooms for green screen use. The entire room; ceiling, floors, walls, all video-effects green, with studio lighting and sound too.

  This room allowed her to appear with any superimposed background, in her case it was usually the front of the lecture hall she was being shown teaching in.

  We extended the paddock so Beth can spoil Bullet with treats from the kitchen window. That animal is so totally spoiled.

  My sister Mel grew-up and moved to town where she manages a pet and farm animal supply store. It was the first store in the state of Nebraska to offer fresh hot foods to go for cats from a drive-up window. She says they're the only customers that would never complain about finding a hair in their food.

  Most of us kids stayed in Oakton to someday raise another generation of Meeks, Browns, and Archers, this time the stories of the feud will never be passed along and we made the parents swear to never tell the story.

  Each year on the anniversary of the storm and war we celebrate with a big party in Brown's barn, it gets bigger every year. Last year we invited the university archaeology team to join the festivities since they spent over a year as our neighbors in large tents on Brown's farm while they removed some of the Pawnee remains destined for the museum.

  After graduation I had that darn network repeater on Highway 73 raised by fifty feet on a galvanized utility pole, now we have four bars everywhere inside and can even make calls from our best fishing spots along the Missouri River.

  We named Bullet as chairperson of keeping the grass trimmed in the Fricke Cemetery, she insists it tastes better. It must be the rich Nebraska soil here.

  Daisy passed away at eight years of age while we were away at college, her ashes are buried in the Fricke, only dog to make it in there. Someday Bullet will be in there too, just like me and Beth. The headstone for Daisy clearly states how she risked her life to help save many humans and animals from death. It boldly proclaimed ‘Hero Dog’ right near the top.

  In 2035 all three families split the cost of having fiber run from Highway 73 to Oakton, now we run about 90mbps over the wifi. Ben and his wife bought the old Patton residential cut-out and are going to have a new house built on their old foundation which raises the population of Oakton to eleven, with more coming.

  By the old Pawnee grave site, along the road, almost across the street from the Fricke is a small park, a monument, and a place for the existing Pawnee to come and pray. The site is being added to the national historic register due to its connection with the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806.

  Bethany is still the hottest looking woman I've ever seen. It still drives me crazy when she dresses in her old overalls and lets down her long blond hair, then shakes her head with a sultry grin for me. We are very much in love to this day.

  The end.

  Please note: all of the events, places, and people in this story are fictional.

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