Apologies again. I died a little, including a trip to the local county hospital ER. Got better; some kind of seizure. Doc who looked all of thirteen wanted to give me valium. I told him to stick it. He was pissed and my wife laughed once he left. “You’re so charming,” she smiled. “I’ve no reason to be.”

So, in reparations for being silent for a week, here’s 1200 words of Graf and Pai’s encounter with Human Supremicists. They seem nice enough but have ideas which just won’t work in a Changed world, and they cannot understand that. Reading over it, it’s a bit confusing as to when Graf is recalling the encounter and when Pai is seeing to him after; it will make more sense when properly formatted into a book.

My dear family, he wrote two days later, aware Pai would have to closely check this for classified material, what with the painkillers in his bloodstream, it has been a busy forty-eight hours here in central Ohio Province.  Through an unlocked roof hatch, Pai paused to listen before going first down a rusting ladder.  Back when they first met, Graf always thought as the man, he should go first.  Learning more and more about what his wife could do, now he took such matters in stride.

On the ground floor, she was a half-pace ahead of him.  No power, but the broken and intact skylights let him see where to and not to step.  The main door was open.  Stepping into the central courtyard of the four buildings, he froze.  A pile of at least five bodies.  One female.  Unburned, he was thankful his mask was up and the wind was from behind him.

“Who were they?” was his quiet question.

“I told you the early history of this place,” Pai replied, looking this way and that. “When the Canadians came south, they were a bit surprised to find this tiny community and its reactor, but they left it alone.  With their implosion, it was natural this area became an autonomous zone as Aurelia pushed her control north.  Look, there.”

Graf turned to where she nodded.  Over a low hill to their west was a thin line of white smoke.

“Let’s go see,” he said, nominally in command.  “Maybe survivors?”

They weren’t, he wrote.  We got to the top of the hill without incident, lousy security on their part, and were making our way down to an encampment of at least two dozen men, that we saw.  Horses only, no motorized transport.  It was only when we were within a hundred meters did a guy leaning against a tree, looking in our direction, sudden shout to the others.

“Sling your rifle,” Pai said, already smiling.  “You know I can get to mine in time.  Let’s play nice.  While we can.”

Told to stop about thirty meters away, a group of four walked out to them.  They extended the same courtesy:  rifles slung.  Stopping two meters away, the tallest, with a russet beard flecked with white, stared for a moment then stepped forward with his hand out.

“Jack Vance,” he said, taking Graf’s hand.  “Always good to see not just humans, but non-imperials.”

“Graf Winstead, originally from way up north, former Wisconsin, if you’ve heard of it.  This is my wife, Pai, from even further:  central former Canada.”

“Really?” Vance let go his hand and turned to Pai with a nod of his head.  “Does that make you a Russian, now?”

“They’ve chosen to give us home rule so long as the gas and oil gets pumped,” she said with a charming smile.  “One of my brothers didn’t want that life so we went wandering.  Ran in hubby here a few months later.”

“And your brother?” With that quick question, Graf realized this guy was sharp.

“He died.  Accident.” She took Graf’s arm and pulled him close.  “I gave my wanderlust to my new man.  We’ve been everywhere these last few years.”

“Well, now,” Vance said, rubbing his beard, “you two must have some amazing stories.  Can I convince you to spend the rest of the day and evening with us?”

“That depends,” Graf said, “on who y’all are?”

He paused to sharpen his pencil, noticing his left hand shook a little.

“Okay?” his beloved wife asked from the dark past the single candle.

“Pain med wearing off…and, no, I don’t want more.  I want to finish my letter.”

“I didn’t say a word!” She’s laughing at me.

Who they were was what we expected: Separatist/ Supremacists.  And we need to come up with a shorthand for that as I’m not writing it longhand over and over.  Let’s call them S-holes.  And tell the kids to stop laughing.  Anyway, back to their tiny camp and intros all around, we faced questions about our travels.  Any place in the Midwest I’d been, I fielded – can’t have a woman talk too much (you’re going to hit me for that, aren’t you, Alix?) – and Pai made up a story about Pittsburgh.

A sip of water.

Dinner was chunks of venison mixed in a barley gruel.  Needed salt, but not bad, really.  It was a bother, but Pai had to eat, too, or else our cover would be blown.  They were pleased to hear Fort Wayne considered themselves Canadians, possible allies, and that western Appalachia was not claimed by the imperium.  Yet. 

“So after all this wanderin’, you and the missus are finally lookin’ to settle down?” Vance had asked.

“Yeah.  With no other place in mind, we’re making our way back to my land in former Wisconsin.  Our family place is now my sister’s and her husband’s, but there were still plenty of other plots to farm.”

“This place is pretty empty,” another, Smith, spoke up.  “Why not here?”

“Wouldn’t we have to pay taxes to the empire?” Graf lied.

“Would that bother you?” Vance countered.

“We just want to be left alone.”

He watched them all exchange a look, knowing his wife had to perceive more than he just did.

“We think the same, then,” Vance said.

“We?”

Graf watched him stand, rummage around in his pack, and come back with a bit of cloth.  A black triangle, point down.  A red H in the middle.

“Humans First,” Vance said.  All the rest nodded.  “We don’t want no empire, least of all when it’s run and overrun by freaks.  And, no slight to you, ma’am, we don’t want no Russians, either, run by a bot.  God gave Earth to humans, not freaks.”

Graf watch Vance squat down and sigh.  “When my Pa first told me the truth about how we’re all slaves, he thought maybe the Texans might help us.  Then they crawled into bed with that inhuman filth.  Shit, at this point, we’d take Fort Wayne or the Mexican Army.  At least they’re human.”

“The candle will be out in five minutes,” Pai said from the dark.  “Shall I light another?”

“I’ll try to wrap this up.”

Kids?  You know your Auntie can ‘play pretend’ better than anyone.  And she was doing it right then.  Even if they called on her to speak, she would have denounced the Hartmanns and her mother with the best of them.  Yes, lying is bad.  Being a grownup is hard, sometimes.  Vance point-blank asked me and Pai to be a part of their movement.  I acted tired and re-said that we just wanted to go back to my old home.  That seemed to satisfy them, so everyone got ready for sleep.  Not knowing what might happen, I leaned against a tree rather than putting my head down.  Your Auntie lowered her eyelids, but heard every sound.

“Hey, I said…” as Pai lit a stubby candle for him.

“When you get on one of your storytelling jags, it’s best you get it all out!” A quick kiss and she was back in the dark.

For once, he kept on, what happened in the morning was not your dad’s fault.