Chapter 40
While the British were busy publicly hauling in and arresting 'council' members, the US conducted similar activities, but more quietly. I only stumbled over it because I was plugged in to most of the computer and "in-house" surveillance, that the Fed was so loves.
Most of the members of the elected portion of the federal government that had been 'council' members, had resigned their positions. There were a few still hanging on, but the press was crucifying everyone connected with the 'council'.
It was interesting. From my perspective, I KNEW that the 'council' and its members had an agenda, but the press was just labeling and painting everyone with the same brush. They had even accused, by innuendo, several non-members. It seemed more and more that 'the press' was willing to sacrifice the innocent in order to create a story.
Ok, I understood the need for a 'free press', but sometimes that 'press' did irresponsible things in the name of a story. The visual media would spend an entire segment belittling or ridiculing someone, and if they discovered new information showing that the press was in the wrong, they made a 10 second apology (or a single paragraph at the bottom of the editorial page). A definite inequity.
I started going to work on a regular basis after returning from my trip to England. We were doing good things. We helped people and gave a bit to established programs to help them along. There were so many programs needing help, that it would have been easy to break my budget.
Fall came, and Boston was taking on that wonderful time when the leaves change into myriad colors. The countryside was magnificent! I was walking to a hotel where I had started having lunches, recently. They had a chef that knew what he was doing most times, and the bar stocked that particular Sherry lord Avery-Smythe had introduced to me.
I was thinking about my place in Alaska. It would be a beautiful place when it snowed. I just knew it. I also wanted to put in a small barn, for my mules. They would come in handy for when I wanted to go exploring. As the saying used to go, "There's gold in them thar hills!"
I started thinking about how much it would cost to build a small barn. It would need heat for the mules during the winters, and would need enough space to store feed until the grass came back in the spring.
I was sitting at the bar sipping from my glass of Sherry, when a large group of people entered. Several made their way to the bar, and others waited to be seated. Eavesdropping on conversations seemed to be a habit with me. Apparently, this group was psychologists having some sort of convention.
Why was it these people thought they had the answers? I was sure that a lot of our problems stemmed from their psychobabble. The two sitting close to me were discussing the problems of people who were "enablers".
This dovetailed into the tough-love solution that these two raved about. I shook my head, and of course, this motion caught their attention.
"You disagree?" one of them asked me.
"I think that attitude is one of the reasons why there are problems with the young in our country today," I responded.
One man shook his head 'no' at me.
"Do you have a degree in psychology or psychiatry?" he asked me.
I rolled my eyes. It was always the same. If you disagreed with someone, unless you had a ton of letter abbreviations after your name, then you automatically didn't know what you were talking about. It was the way the system kept people in check and made sure they could ram an agenda through. Governments had gotten very adept at this over the years.
"No. No degree. Just a bit of experience at observing my fellow man. Simple experiments, such as 'cause and effect', can be applied to society. Your professions, while helping in some cases, are causing problems in others," I told them.
"How do you figure that?" one asked me curiously.
"Ok, let us do a simple 'cause and effect' look at society. Parents used to be able to discipline their children without too many problems. Then someone somewhere said, 'Wait a minute, this has to be abuse!' Particularly if it was effective, 'learned doctors of the mind' said it was abuse.
"So the local governments started mandating, saying this, that, or the other was considered abuse. A lot of states won't let you so much as spank a child, insisting that this is a form of abuse. Public schools used to be able to give swats to students who stepped out of line. Teachers now fear those same children they are supposed to educate. The statistics for student misbehavior have all gone up. It didn't decline at all with the implementation of the non-spanking policy.
"Why? Because effective punishment had been changed or had been removed entirely. Children are not intimidated by someone saying 'naughty, naughty, mustn't do that' to them. While I admit that some parents took the spankings to extremes, I wasn't harmed when my dad spanked me. I think I am a better person for it. I learned a couple lessons from those spankings," I told them.
"Physical punishment is an act of an irrational mind. Most of the time it is administered when the parent was angry, which is what led to the abuse in the first place," one of the guys answered me.
"That's another thing. What is considered abuse today, was not abuse twenty years ago, or a hundred years ago. As more and more items are placed on the, "this is abuse," list, children are noticing that they can get away with more misbehavior, and not be inconvenienced," I replied sarcastically.
The discussion went on for another twenty minutes or so, then I got up to leave. That was the problem with society today. Parents were being restricted in what they could do to effectively punish their children, while that same government was telling them they were still responsible for their child's actions. Go figure.
Autumn finally gave way to winter. I checked on my Alaska home a couple of times, and everything was fine. I had hired a couple to watch over the property in my absence, and they were doing a fine job.
I had yet to do a job for the government in my capacity as 'reluctant voyeur'. I found that very interesting in itself. I had thought they would be all over me, trying to convince me to exceed the limitations I had managed to get into the contract. Yet, months had gone by. I'd heard nothing from them, except the weekly contact with my controller.
I checked in with Theodore Whisper, my controller, and told him I was going to be out of town for a few days. He said no problem, and thanked me for informing him. I was still wondering when they would use me, and what the government would feel was important enough for that usage. It was a bit annoying to be left 'twisting in the wind', so to speak.
After making sure everything at the office was covered; I transferred an extra hundred thousand dollars to my office account, to cover additional expenses. I drove my car to the long-term parking garage. I grabbed my suitcase, and looked around carefully. I double-checked to make sure I had the correct identifying wallet and ID.
I teleported to the place I had left my car in Alaska, and assumed my Ben Porter persona. The storage garage was an enclosed building that was heated; to make sure engines didn't freeze and crack in the vehicles stored there. It took me a while to drive the eighteen miles out to my house. I stopped at a grocery store on the way, and loaded up on groceries.
Snow had already fallen, but my four-wheel drive Jeep made it with no problems. The state had cleared the main and secondary roads already, and the road to my home had been cleared by my hired hands.
I was right. My home in the winter was a picture indeed! There was about nine inches of snow on the ground, and it made the surrounding countryside eerily quiet. I pulled up to the front of my home, and got out. Smoke rose lazily from the chimney. I had called ahead and asked that they build a fire in the fireplace for me.
Otam Whaler, and his wife Niki, came out of their cabin to greet me. They were the native couple I had hired to watch the place through the winter. So far, it looked like they were doing a good job.
I invited them in, and put my suitcase down as soon as I entered. I looked at the room. The outer door led straight into the great room, or 'living room'. At the far end of the room, a fire blazed and roared merrily in the fireplace. Kindling and logs were in two holders on each side of the fireplace, waiting for use.
I said I had groceries to bring in, and asked if they would help. We made short work of my supplies, and everything was soon put away. I noticed a chill in the air, and asked about it. Otam responded that he had kept the heat at fifty degrees while I was gone. I nodded. It sort of made sense, when you thought about it.
I made coffee, and we talked over some of the problems that they'd had to deal with since I had hired them. I had set up a general account for them to draw on. Otam went out and came back shortly with his list of expenditures.
We went over them, and I was pleased. He was a very frugal man, and had not gone overboard with purchases. While I had bought the land and fifty acres immediately surrounding the house, I was still making payments on the remaining nine hundred and fifty acres. My house and those adjacent fifty acres were 'paid in full'.
I had some prime old growth timber on my land, and I was unable to cut down more than a certain percentage of trees until I had paid off the land. Seemed fair to me. Besides, there was no way I was going to cut down more trees than I needed for personal use, anyway.
I explained that I had two mules that I was going to have shipped up here, next spring. I was planning to have a barn built next year, and wanted it up and operational by mid-summer. Otam said this was doable, and that the company that built everything on my property to date, had several good barn designs.
He then asked what I was going to do with mules. I grinned and told him I was a closet explorer, and there was no better way than to load the mules, and go out. He nodded and agreed.
We discussed the best place to put it, and decided on a location about a hundred feet to the north of the main building. I was going to build a pond for water for the mules, and enclose a large area in a fence for them to wander in during good weather.
An hour later, they left me alone. I wandered through my home, admiring it anew. There was the living room, with its view of the south; a kitchen, dining room, three bedrooms, a den, and two-and-a-half baths.
A large walk in pantry off the kitchen cached enough staples for months, in case we got snowed in. I am talking flour, sugar, salt, coffee, baking soda and powder, a host of canned goods. That was the emergency stash, though. What I had brought with me, was for immediate consumption.
I was surprised to get a call from John Avery-Smythe. It came via a forwarding service.
"Tom? I need to ask a favor of you," John asked me.
"What's the favor, and I will see if it is doable," I responded cautiously.
"As you may know, my government has been taking action on the 'council' problem. Well, it seems certain of the 'council' has targeted me, and my family for retribution. While I am fairly safe, Courtney just escaped a car bomb by seconds, and my wife had a sniper take a shot at her," John responded tensely.
"I'm sorry!" I exclaimed, shocked.
"I expect this from those scum, but they are including my family. Could you take my wife and niece to a safe place, until this blows over?" he asked.
"You got it. I have the perfect 'safe house' for them," I responded.
"Courtney will be here in about an hour. My wife is packed, already. I really want to thank you for this," he said in a grateful tone of voice.
"Not at all, John. It's the least I can do," I responded.
I had given Otam and his wife the next few days off. They had driven to town, so I was not worried about teleporting in or out with Evelyn and Courtney. I was willing to let them stay for as long as they wanted, and would pass them off as close friends... which they were.
That is exactly what happened. I teleported to my room in the Avery-Smythe home, and announced myself. Everyone was there. We visited briefly, but then I said that we should really get going. The woman gave John hugs and kisses, and I got a handshake.
The ladies picked up one suitcase, and held it in the opposite hand from the one that was grasping me. I had two ladies on my arms, and I said at the count of three, we would step forward, and be where we wanted to be.
"One... two... three!"
We all stepped forward into the living room of my home in Alaska.
Edited by TeNderLoin