Free Renewal 3 - Your Basic Swiss Family by Jf Perkins

that. It didn’t take long to learn that it was drawing bad people in like flies. Those tarps are easy to spot. We ended up covering them with branches, and we learned to put larger branches around the outside of the railings to break up the lines. Eventually, it looked like part of the tree, and we carried that trick with us. Almost everything we build in a tree uses the same kind of camouflage. The other thing we had to do was to take down Lucy’s flag and nail it flat to the trunk of the tree. The noise of it flapping on the post drove us crazy at night. She didn’t mind.”
    “You folks picked things up quickly.”
    “I like to think that we still do, but I can feel myself slowing down these days.”
    “I doubt it. I saw how well your plan worked today.”
    “Yeah, it did, but can you imagine what might have happened without Kirk? I’ve relied on his spooky quickness so long, I’m not sure I could have avoided being shot.”
    Terry was disturbed by Bill’s tone. In a few short days, Bill had become larger than life, and the young engineer did not like to think that Bill, himself, did not believe as Terry did. “Well, the important thing is that you didn’t get shot. I’m sure you planned for it.”
    Bill offered up a tired smile and said, “Thanks... Let’s head down to Sam’s and see if we can’t get some early supper. We have room at our place. You need to get your rest tonight.”
    “For training?”
    “Not exactly. I’ve got some special training in mind for you,” Bill said, holding quote fingers around the words. “You’re going to help me deal with our Jerry Doan Jenkins problem. Tomorrow, we’re going to the State Capitol.”
     
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    Author’s Note:
    It’s an interesting exercise, trying to imagine what a typical middle class American family might do in the event of a total breakdown of society. Like most writers, I make the assumption that this family is a little bit smarter and more capable than average, probably smarter than I would be in the same situation. I imagine that each of them would have many private moments of anger, fear and doubt that never show in front of the others, but the important point is that even though the rules have changed radically, in a very short time, they try hard to hold onto their values. David is a builder, a generous man, and that’s how he tackles the problem. Bill grows up to be the purest reflection of his father’s ideals, and continues to try to operate in a giving and broadminded way, even as the rest of his world has reduced itself to a selfish scramble for survival. For me, there is an ideal of how society should work buried in here, and I hope that if we are ever faced with radical change, we will pick ourselves up and proceed on the basis of that sort of ideal.
     
    About the author:
    Creative people tend to be lousy at self-promotion, and I fit the cliché almost perfectly. After many years of asking myself why I have anything to say that is worth writing, the answer can only be that I have finally, in middle age, managed to make enough mistakes to say something solid about how not to live life. If I hold up a mirror to my own life, I get a backwards reflection that may actually contain some value. More importantly, I have been fortunate enough to know many people who may have suffered, but did so with far more skill and grace than I have, and set a solid example for a realistic method of how to live well.
    In the meantime, I live in Washington with my wonderful wife, who happens to be one of those good examples, and our five rescue dogs, who manage to encompass an entire school bus full of joyous, childlike personalities. And to add to the rapidly mounting collection of loose fur and allergens, I also share the house with two cats; one with no social boundaries, and one who is nothing but social boundaries.
    In a difficult denial of the self-promotion bit, I must suggest that you stop by my semi-neglected blog and leave me a note.