Arks of America Read online

  Now here she was preparing for some other damn event. She was ready to smile for the cameras and say all the right things. Carol, her assistant, and her hair and makeup person Kim were helping her get made up to perfection. They both helped prepare her to talk to the press and the people by reminding her about the event and the latest gossip she might get questioned on. The studio sent over an array of extravagantly expensive dresses from well-known designers for her to choose from.

  “Well, this life does have its perks,” she mumbled to herself.

  She pondered the security people her agent insisted on for this event. With terrorism, demonstrations, and gang violence on the rise, and police shootings happening almost weekly, the world was definitely more chaotic than a few years ago.

  Carol poked her head back into Liz’s dressing room. “Liz, I’m sorry to rush you, but the driver says we need to leave early to take a different route. He said something about a workplace shooting that we should avoid. It’s all over the news.”

  Liz reached for the remote to the TV near her dressing area and turned it on:

  “…heavily armed man and woman dressed for battle opened fire today on a holiday banquet, killing over a dozen and wounding ten. Both attackers were killed in a standoff with police while chanting pro-Islamic state slogans. A local police spokesman says it’s too early in the investigation to come to any conclusions about the two shooters and their motives. However, interviews with neighbors of the shooters indicate terrorism as a prime motive. One neighbor tells us she has called the FBI on numerous occasions to complain about the large number of people and guns going in and out of the couple’s residence. FBI officials have yet to comment. We turn to our terrorism expert for her observations related to a possible motive.”

  The camera switched to a different person.

  “Obviously, it’s way too early to make any concrete assessment about who these two were and why they did what they did. Nevertheless, I can speak in generalities based on the information at hand and what we do know about these two. Terrorism has spread into America over the last ten to twenty years. With the help of mainstream media sources, most Americans have been able to pretend it doesn’t exist. I expect that with these two, we will find some ties to extremism. It’s important people understand that most extremists have been indoctrinated since a very young age, and the ideology is reinforced with family, friends, and in the mosques. That level of fanaticism is so foreign to most Americans, they have a hard time fully comprehending it and therefore cannot act or plan appropriately. Add to that the fact that these more fanatical Islamic state organizations have developed a very effective combination of high and low-tech communications for these types of missions. It’s likely that although we will find links to fanatical beliefs or organizations, we will not find any direct links to terrorist organizations directing this couple in their plan. The reason I say that is this attack appears to be more of a fervent ideological ‘lone wolf’ type attack than a concerted effort.

  “The Islamic state has chosen to take a different route in these cases. They just publish ‘how-to’ type plans for terrorist attacks. From there, they leave it up to the teachings of some mosques and organizations to inflame people to the level that they want to carry out an attack. In this day and age, there are always people who are primed to give their life for an attack like this. Then they just choose when and where to carry it out based on their access and motives.

  “The scary thing about these types of attacks are they could happen anywhere at any time. They are very hard to stop without giving up some of our civil liberties that we as Americans care so deeply for.”

  The camera switched back to the reporter.

  “Scary thoughts indeed. We will continue to follow this story as it evolves…”

  << Vince >>

  Just as he started to let his thoughts wander, the stillness of the morning was interrupted by the frantic barking of the beagle hounds and the sandy blur of a rabbit. Vince started to raise the Benelli Vinci to take the shot, then changed his mind and lowered it to let the comfort pistol grip hook on his arm while he watched the race. Even though the dogs deserved the reward for their work, this morning was too relaxing and serene to interrupt with a shot. Maybe later.

  The Vinci was new, a gift to himself to replace his trusty old Stoegger 2500 12-gauge. While some people didn’t like the Stoegger as a cheaper imitation of the Benelli, it had never let him down. With the cost of the Stoegger being so low, he never worried about scratches and falls. The Benelli was in a whole ‘nother class. The only two modifications that Vince allowed to the gun were the comfort grip that set the shotgun up to have an AR configuration and a special order external-vented choke from a company down in Georgia that patterned perfectly and further reduced the recoil.

  A few yards away stood Vince’s friend and hunting buddy Greg, who had been his stepfather’s friend before Dan died of cancer. Greg also passed on the shot as the rabbit raced by him about thirty yards further down. Both men were enjoying the cold morning.

  Greg and Vince sat down in the crisp grass of a cool winter field in Kentucky, each immersed in their own thoughts. Vince took in the beauty of the Kentucky countryside. He’d spent much of his life in Kentucky, and the beauty of it had yet to be lost on him. It was common for people to begin to take for granted beautiful people and places after a while. Vince still experienced a sense of peace and contentment at the beauty and complexity of nature God had created here.

  This farm belonged to a good friend that both men had known for years. They sat on the edge of a grass runway for small airplanes that hadn’t been used in years. The owner still kept it mowed, and it was bordered by woods and a small lake. The entire area was teeming with wildlife. Vince could see a Jon boat on the edge of the lake turned upside down and a standalone deer stand at the other end of the field. Most of the crispness of the dawn burned away the frost where the sun struck the grass. While the woods and fields were never truly quiet, it was serene at this time of morning since the animals seemed to rest from the cacophony they created earlier as the sun rose. This put his mind at ease.

  The dogs were happy and excited. This was their time of year, and they knew it. It was what they were bred for. Sam, a darker-colored beagle about medium build, was leading the hunt. Right behind him was an active female a little smaller named Ruthie who was colored much like Sam. Greg’s dog Tony, who was taller than Sam with more white in his coloring, was right there with them. Occasionally, they did a random bark that said: “I can smell a rabbit here somewhere.” It was the frantic fast bark that said, “There he is!” that Vince and Greg were waiting for.

  Vince and Greg stood and spread out with thirty yards or so between them and were kicking at brush and bushes. They needed to help get the rabbits moving again so they could leave a trail for the dogs to follow. It was important to keep in a skirmish type line and keep the guns pointed in a safe direction. They both knew to only take a safe shot, knowing for sure what was beyond the rabbit and that no dogs or people were in range.

  Vince was in an introspective mood. For a true outdoorsman, making the kill was only a part of the experience. This was about communing with nature and getting his mind away from work and other stresses. The time outdoors was partially to put his mind in a Zen-like state and partially to practice a skill that made him feel more connected to God and nature. It made him feel more useful and self-reliant as a man, both in body and soul. It was this musing while hunting that prompted Vince to remark to his friend, “Greg, I’m not the man Dan was.” He said this without remorse or complaint, merely as a simple observation.

  “What do ya mean?” Greg responded, perplexed. “Dan was so proud of you and what you did in the military and for the fine man you’ve become.”

  “I appreciate that. Dan was a great man. I learned a lot from him but—”

  “But nothing. You’re too hard on yourself, and you think too much,” Greg said earnestly.

  “What
I mean is that Dan had all these old world skills that I have no chance to learn now. He knew so much he could have written much of the Foxfire books himself.”

  “You’ve got more of those skills than you know. And you’ve got some of your own that Dan didn’t have. That’s what happens from generation to generation. Some things are lost and others gained.”

  “Maybe that’s true. More than anything Dan was a good man through and through, and I don’t think I am.” Vince chuckled. “At least I know for a fact I’m not near as good as he was.”

  “Well, that’s a high bar to measure up to. You beat yourself up too much. You’re a good man.”

  “Thanks, that means a lot. I guess what I mean to say is that the older I get and the more I see, I’m convinced that what most people think of as godliness is more about people working together and helping each other and being kind for no reason other than it’s right. That’s the root of our religion and what Dan lived.” Vince spoke more insistently now. “The flip side of that belief is that chaos and activities that drive people apart are evil. Things that make people separate into social groups and stay in their homes or distrust each other are evil in a way that convinces me the devil has a hand in it.”

  “You’re right, there does seem to be a whole lot of that going around,” Greg replied thoughtfully.

  “Yeah, and that’s why I feel the way I do.” Vince shook his head. “I want to do good things. I do care about people, but I prefer to be alone a lot or in the woods more. Doing things for people in the community doesn’t come as second nature for me as it did for Dan. He was community minded; he had a loving nature that was closer to God. My nature and some of the things I did in the war and after I got home tear things apart more than bind them together. What kind of legacy is that?”

  “Life and God have a way of making us the tool we need to be and not the tool we want to be. Relax and enjoy the hunt. You’ll do what’s right. While you may not be the man Dan was, you’re still a better man than you know. Trust in the life and the plan God has for you.”

  The sporadic barking of the beagles became frantic and was rapidly coming closer. The rabbit was up and running their way fast. Both Greg and Vince stood and spread out, facing the way they knew the rabbit would come. Usually the rabbit would be fifty to a hundred yards ahead of the dogs.

  “You shoot him,” Greg said. “I don’t want to.”

  “Me either. I’m not in the mood for rabbit meat tonight. Being out here and letting the dogs run is good enough.”

  “Good.” Greg sat back down on the cold ground.

  Vince sat beside him and pulled out some beef jerky, offered some to Greg, and they let the dogs run. “I had a call a couple weeks ago from my uncle Dave asking me to join him in a business venture.”

  “Uh huh,” Greg said non-committedly.

  “I told him no when he asked me a while back because I thought it was more like a charity thing for family. I was going through the divorce with Ellie too at that time, so I didn’t want to take on a project like what he was talking about. I didn’t think I’d do a good job.”

  “I thought you and your uncle Dave got on well?” Greg inquired.

  “Oh sure, I think the world of him. We don’t see each other often or talk all the time, but that’s never bothered us. You know how it is sometimes. He’s a heck of a man. Uncle Dave has always been the greatest uncle a kid could have. He worked on airplanes, both in the Coast Guard and in his own business. He would come to our house in Denver and play in the yard with us kids. Sometimes he would take us to dinner when his own brother, my dad, was too drunk or shacking up somewhere and didn’t make it home.”

  “That must have been a hard time for you all.”

  “I guess it could have been.” Vince nodded. “I never thought of it like that. Just…some people had things to deal with. As a kid, I always supposed other people just had different things to deal with is all.”

  Greg chuckled. “You were probably smarter than you knew, even at a young age.”

  “Sometimes, for days at a time, we didn’t know if we would see our dad or not. We always knew Uncle Dave would be there for us, though. I lost touch with him through the years I was in the Army and after moving back to Kentucky. Even so, he would still stop by out of the blue to have dinner or catch up.”

  “He sounds like a good man.”

  “He is. That’s what I was getting to. I did help him out on some things he asked me to do.”

  “What was that?” Greg asked, his curiosity rising.

  “He wanted me to try to find a certain type of land to purchase for his company. He had all sorts of requirements, like how close to the city or how far from it. It had to be on high ground, have fields to grow food and support homes. The list was long. When he asked for my help, I knew I couldn’t turn him down. The challenge was exciting, and I like looking at farms anyways.”

  “Me too.”

  “I should have asked you to come with me,” Vince said. “I didn’t want to bother you, and I knew you were busy.”

  “You can call anytime you want, you know that.”

  “I will next time. Anyway, I worked at it and was lucky to find a large parcel of land that was exactly what Uncle Dave said he was looking to buy.”

  “Where is it?” Greg asked.

  “It’s over close to Carrollton where the Little Kentucky River empties into the Ohio. You might remember it from when we hunted there a few weeks back?”

  “I sure do! It’s a nice place. It was cold hunting that morning with the frosty air rolling up off the river and dusting us with snow. It was good up there for a December morning,” Greg said. “I thought the Bradford family had an orchard and farm there, and even a diner?”

  “It’s always a diner with you.” Vince chuckled. “They did. We promised to keep the orchard and farm running and even expand the diner. That’s what the family wanted, so it was a perfect fit. You know how it is with a lot of farming families. The younger generation has no interest in continuing the family tradition. The older folks were heartbroken about losing the family farm as a legacy.”

  Greg nodded. “That’s hard.”

  “Much of the property you can’t see has a large family-owned ‘pick your own’ type farm. They used to produce a lot of what you old timers call ‘truck,’ or vegetables and fruits that people pay to come and pick.”

  Greg snickered. “Be careful there, Vince. You’re not getting any younger yourself.”

  “I don’t think it would be hard to get that stuff up and running again. They raised some cows and hogs, too. I don’t know if you remember, but most of the meals they serve in the family diner contain meat and produce from the farm.”

  “I know that restaurant. We’ve eaten there before and liked it. I even ate there a couple weeks back. You say your uncle bought it?”

  “You only saw the part of the farm we hunted a couple times. There is a lot more to that property. It has several hundred acres close to the conjunction of the rivers. Uncle Dave’s people wanted something about thirty to forty miles out from the city. So it was perfect from a location perspective as well. It was exactly what he was looking for.

  “Mmmhmm.”

  “The Bradfords were still reluctant to sell and see their family farm and business torn down. They didn’t want to have all the fruit trees and fields cut down, tilled over, and replaced by buildings and subdivisions. When I told Uncle Dave their concern and reticence to sell, I expected him to ask me to keep trying. I know he doesn’t want to hurt people. I expected he would want to make changes to whatever he bought.”

  “Makes sense. He has to develop the property to make money. He had to get rich somehow.”

  “That’s what I expected, too. However, he was able to secure the deal by promising, and putting it in the contract, that he would only develop a portion of the land. He promised he would keep the farm running much as is. That’s along with expanding the diner and keeping it open.”

  “T
hat’s pretty generous.”

  “Even with all that, the couple that owned the property was still hesitant. They hoped it would be a legacy their children would continue the same way it had been passed on to them.” Vince sighed. “I have to give Uncle Dave credit, he didn’t pressure them. Yet with one of their kids living in Europe, another in New York, and the last one down in Atlanta, it was unlikely they would come home to run the farm. Each one of them is married and happy in their own careers that have nothing to do with farming. It was unlikely they would return or do anything other than sell their inheritance to a developer later themselves.”

  “That’s sad. Just because that’s the way of the family farm nowadays doesn’t make it any easier.”

  “Yes,” Vince answered. “It was sad, but Uncle Dave made it a good deal for everyone involved. It met our needs perfectly. We promised to keep it much the same where we could and expand and improve it where it made sense.”

  “It’s a good deal when everyone is satisfied.”

  “That’s true. So once the deal was agreed to verbally, Dave got his lawyers involved, and those guys are sharp. I’m glad they don’t work for someone with fewer scruples. Dave had them go through all their paperwork to buy that farm and a few surrounding pieces of property. He even included a payment to me to spend time on the property to familiarize myself with it. He wanted me to help keep people off who shouldn’t be there and get to know it like the back of my hand. He said he’ll be sending some people out to do some work and I can earn some of the money directing them around.”

  “Sounds like a good deal. We should ride the property lines on horseback.”

  “That sounds perfect. They set up a line of credit for the foreman and some of the farm and restaurant workers to keep it all going. Heck, I would have paid him for the privilege of having free run of the place.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “Uncle Dave didn’t want me telling people yet he bought it, so I didn’t say much. I was worried that the spot we liked hunting was going to be developed soon. I wanted to enjoy it as much as I could before that happens. I know there are other good hunting spots on that property; I always liked that spot best, though.”