Free The Solitary Man’s Refuge by Ron Foster

in a stick of furniture. Had a woman with him too
that was sweet as sunshine to his wife. Said she was a
nurse of different sorts and that was something he felt
blessed by moving in next to them until he found out she
was some used to be girlfriend and not a wife or a lover.
He’d get to the bottom of that relationship later, but they
were close he could see that. This boy wasn’t any
greenhorn city boy in regards to knowing country ways...
Oh yes, the Man had asked a flurry of questions about
what grows here and or don’t just like most slickers do, but
he also had plenty of personal stories of growing crops on
other land in different counties. Max decided to just wait
and see what the new neighbor would do and was
rewarded with watching a one-man anthill getting things
done. Seems this new guy would pick a task, ask if
anybody knew anyone that could do it, and when the
answer came back a ‘No,’ he found the best available help
on his own and finished the rest with his own two hands.
Don might have been a bit slow on the uptake of chasing
that wheelbarrow of his around he thought, but the sucker
was tenacious and after a sip of coffee and a few drags off
a cigarette was a non-stop machine moving the mountains
of dirt and mulch he had ordered.
    Pretty good ol’ boy too, gave Max some extra
tomato plants he had bought and mulch he had, like he
had known him fifty years as a regular neighbor. Donald
said, they was free and no charge to boot. ‘Might even
decide to like that guy,’ Max had been overheard to say.
    Max waved at Donald as he pulled out of his drive
way headed for Florida. Max then reached over to readjust
his radio for the umpteenth time today.
“Sure is a lot of static on the radio today” Max told
his wife Betsy.
    “News said the sun was acting up again” Betsy
replied looking up at it like she might be able to see
something wrong with it.
“Never did really understand that space weather
crap.” Max said looking in the same direction.

7
Florida Bound
    Don was glad to be away from the daily grind of
working on his place but couldn’t help himself feeling a bit
guilty about the exorbitant trip expense and leaving several
things undone around the house.
    “Ah, get over it, you got a lot accomplished so far
and three days one way or another wouldn’t hurt too
much” he mused.
    He all of the sudden then perked up, applied his
brakes and pulled into an old country store/gas station he
had a habit of stopping at on his way to Florida. He
stopped in here 7 years ago for coffee with Janice who he
had just started to get into prepping. He bought them both
one of those little wooden single line complete fishing kits
you can find all over the south. You know, the kind that
has the line wrapped around a very thin piece of wood and
has hook, bobber and sinker already attached for you.
They were great for doing some impromptu dock fishing or
tying onto the end of a cane pole. He could count the
number of trips he had been to Florida since in his glove
box as the things accumulated after a visit. He was going
to get another one of those for 99 cents, as was his
customary addition to his Florida prepper thing; he didn’t
really even ask himself why he saw the need to do it
anymore. Just a personal good luck quirk he had gotten
into the habit of doing.
    Today he had other possible items on the list and
gravitated towards the cheap tool table that was
prominently featured up against one wall of the store and
began to happily root around in the pile looking for
magnifying glasses. He had been dying to bump into one
of these big box jumble of Taiwan tools displays for a
month after he came up with what he thought was a great
prepper barter item to specialize in storing. He figured if
the SHTF did happen, the need for reading glasses and
magnifying lenses might increase. People’s vision gets
affected if you don’t have a good diet and vitamin count for
your body. The need to try to repair small things or get