Chapter 16

Being a shunned member of an unnamed religion and of uncertain antecedents, I didn’t know who my dad was, there being a summer switch.

A Summer switch ... to combat incest and interbreeding, our unmarried colony men spent the summer at a colony in Canada, and a colony in Canada sent their unmarried men to spend the summer with us. There are 462 of those colonies and the colony our unmarried men were sent to might not be the colony that sent us their men.

This practice started because members of my unnamed religion are severely pacifist ... religiously conscientious objectors.

During the war, Americans, from those colonies, draft age men went to Canada to escape the draft and Canadian members the same religion, draft age men were sent to the US. Over 400 men went to prison rather than serve. At least two colony men were martyred for their beliefs.

I learned a lot more than a ‘normal’ girl ... besides everything mentioned previously, I was a pretty good mechanic. I am mechanical. I like it.

So ... I spent quite a bit of the winter in the General Steel garage working on my hoists. I found a market for water tumbled boulders as lawn ornaments and water washed ornamental stones are valuable. Architects were just entering into a decorative stage. Waterfalls, Koi ponds, indoor streams and other attempts to pacify mother nature were replacing Stark Commercial. The ‘burbs were beginning to demand Big Box stores put a quarter of their parking lots into Landscaping. Quartzite rocks, head sized and larger, in yellows, reds, oranges and multi colors are worth big bucks ... some as much as a thousand dollars for a two hundred pound stone.

Some people have more money than sense ... and I was willing to help them out.

The winter of 1978/79 was miserable. December 1978 through March 1979 set record lows daily. Heavy snows and power outages isolated ranches and communities throughout the central plains for days at a time. Pipes burst, properly antifreezed engines cracked, water wells and pumps in heated basements froze. Cattle froze to death standing. Cars had to be started hourly or they didn’t start until March. My Dodge was so tall off the ground that I could sit up under it ... the snows covered it over completely. The Vega and jeep were sheltered in the garage and wouldn’t start until I started a fire the cast iron furnace ... not that it mattered, the snowplows didn’t plow Wolf Creek for ten days. Sheets hung on the line froze instantly. It was so cold that the thermometer froze.

And I, like an idiot, forced my way to the Avocado garage day after day and spent hours trying to start the diesel engines in the Patton and the recovery crawler ... I didn’t know that diesel fuel gels in extreme cold and wouldn’t pass the injectors. This was cold like I’d never felt before. My snow pac boots froze to my feet and had to have water poured on the felts to get them off.

On the morning I couldn’t see my truck, the drift was covering the north end of the house to just inches below the header. I had to tunnel to the coal shed to refill my Warm Morning stokers. Did I mention the cold? Local thermometers dropped below minus 55 F (-48 c). After the thaw, the stories people told were unbelievable ... and everyone had a story of worse. Birds freezing in the eaves, husbands losing toes, engines replaced or new cars and trucks bought.

So ... the morning when I woke up, rolled out of bed and rolled right back in didn’t really surprise me. I called Connie. The phones were out ... again so I contacted her on the CB. I staggered out of bed to do it.

“Breaker, breaker, 19.”

“Come back, Breaker,”

“Connie, got your ears on?”

“Read you, Karebear. What’s up?”

“I’ze sick.”

“How sick?”

“I’d have to die to get better ... you got a chicken?”

“Yes ... NO!” she said. “I will not make you chicken soup.”

“Don’t you love me anymore?”

“I love you as much as any wetback ever loved her Patrón, but I’m not coming over. If I made soup it would freeze before I got there ... remember the sheets? Freeze dried?”

“I guess I’ll suffer then.”

“You have to get out ... sick or not, you have to feed your stokers.” Connie said. “Karebear ... I’m, worried about Edgar. I haven’t heard.”

“He went up top to check the stock?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s probably romancing the cook at Bear Lodge.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

“You haven’t seen the cook.” I said over channel 19.

“Barker?”

“400 pounds 0n a five foot frame,” I said.

I heard gagging from a trucker. The trouble with CB ... no privacy.