Chapter 11

Day 144 - October 12

Damn! What a week! Things never work out the way you plan, but this turned into a real cluster fuck. Everyone made it in, but it was three days later when the first family moved into one of the houses. We had set Bill up in one of the houses before we left for our trip. Two of the bedrooms in each of the houses were big enough to take a king-sized bed. The other bedroom would handle a queen.

We put Rob's family and Glen's family into the house with Bill and that worked out fine. The problem was, we had to get furniture for each and every house. We tried to let everyone decide who their housemates were going to be, but of course there were problems with that as well.

As each family moved into a house, we moved their RVs to a farm about a mile down the road.

Today we finally got to the point where we are ready to start pouring the floor for the pole barn and the foundations for the next ten houses. We also started preparations today for our trip to Ironton, Ohio to see if we get any hits from our eastern signs.

After much discussion, we decided that Glen and his family would accompany my family to Ironton. Since Glen was an ex-navy seal, we figured he'd be the best at providing security.

Rob found a nice little Bell Jet Ranger helicopter at the Blue Grass Airport in Lexington. It used a lot less fuel than the Sikorsky and could be landed in much smaller areas. He said he'd check in with us every couple of days while we were away.

Day 152 - October 20

Work seems to be going a lot quicker now that we have so many people to assign chores to. It also helps that the fence is in place and we don't have to worry about dogs. I'm still a little worried about outsiders though, so we do keep a guard detail. Eventually, we want to include the mill and the power plant inside our fence as well.

The pole barn went up easily. The hardest part of the whole thing was pouring the floor. Jim taught several people how to finish concrete. The floor of the pole barn, being their first attempt was a little rough, but it wasn't all that bad. We ended up making the building 50' by 30'. This allowed us to put in four 10' square freezers with room for six more if we needed them. This gave us a little over 2200 cubic feet of freezer space immediately and almost 3400 cubic feet we could add later in the same building.

John was proving to be a real asset to us. It seemed like he could do anything if he set his mind to it. He took over as construction boss for building the pole barn while Jim went ahead with pouring the foundations for ten new homes.

We now have 123 people in our community. There is no way we can get that many people together in any one place for a town meeting, so we decided to put together another pole barn as a meeting hall. We wanted to be sure we had enough room to last a couple of years, so we decided to make it 60' by 40'. We figured this would be big enough to handle at least 300 people. Building something this size proved to be a real pain in the ass, but after we figured out how to do the roof, the rest was a piece of cake. This project was put on hold until after we got the new houses in place.

We now had four children under the age of ten in our village, three girls and one boy. Missy Anderson and Tommy Jenkins were with the Canadians that Bill had rescued from the motorcycle gang. They made us feel like there was definitely hope for the future.

Day 153 - October 21

Kammie decided she wanted to stay with the other kids this time instead of being bored to death for a couple of weeks in the RV. Rob's wife, Charise, agreed to look after all of the kids while we were away.

The rest of us, who were going on the trip, loaded into our RVs and headed out. It only took us a little over three hours to get to the Ironton Wal-Mart. We were pleasantly surprised to see half a dozen RVs already there.

We were not so pleasantly surprised when we saw what some of the people looked like. Then again, wasn't that being a little prejudiced in itself? It shouldn't matter what someone looks like and looks can definitely be deceiving. This was quickly proved to us by one of the first people who approached our RV when we pulled in.

To say this guy was huge would have been a gross understatement. He was around 6' 6" tall with reddish hair and freckles. He must have weighed close to 300 pounds and not an ounce of it was fat. His bib-overalls looked to be about four inches short for him and his flannel shirt wasn't much better. The only thing he was wearing that looked like they actually belonged to him were his highly polished army boots.

"Howdy, y'all. Ahm Homer Renfrow," he said as he stuck out a hand that was as big as a small ham.

"Hi, Homer. I'm Ed James. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice ta meet ya too," he said as he gently shook my hand.

"Homer, we're the ones who put up the signs. These are my wives, Tina, Syl, Sandy, Tiffany, Evie and Chris."

Homer blushed as he said hello to each of them. Syl had already made up signs about our laws and had made up sign-up sheets for interviews, so she and Tina started putting them up.

Several other people had come up by now and I shook hands with all of them. Some had very pronounced accents and others sounded like Midwesterners. I told everyone we were going to be grilling steaks for dinner later and they were all welcome to join us. Homer hung around after I told everyone we'd talk with everyone at dinner time and start our interviews tomorrow. Everyone else started drifting off to see what they could add to our meal.

"So, what did you do before all this happened, Homer?" I asked.

"Ah was in the air force, sir. Ah was right near the end of my enlistment and ah was tryin' ta figure out if'n ah wanted ta re-up. Ah had come home on leave ta talk ta my ma and pa about it."

"We've got several service people in our group," I told him. "Glen, here, was a navy seal, and Rob, who isn't with us was an army helicopter pilot. What did you do in the air force?"

"Ah was an aircraft mechanic. Both fixed and rotary wing aircraft."

"That's fantastic, Homer. We've been hoping to find a good aircraft mechanic. Rob has picked up two helicopters for us, but we didn't know what we were going to do when one of them developed problems."

"Ahm yer man," Homer said with a big smile. "Ah also have a pilots license for fixed wing and ahm certified to ferry aircraft up to four engine jets."

"Homer, you're amazing. You be sure you and your wives come over for dinner this evening. Okay?"

"Ah'l be here, but ah ain't got no wives. Ahm a little shy when it comes to women folks."

I watched Homer leave, smiling to myself. When Evie came over I asked her, "Well, what did you think of him?"

Evie smiled and said, "I think he's going to make some woman or women a very good husband. When he shook my hand a while ago it was so gentle I felt like my hand was being brushed with a bird feather."

"Yeah, he does seem like a gentle giant, doesn't he. I think we have our first recruit from this area."

"I agree. We'll have to go through the interview procedure though so we don't ruffle anyone else's feathers."

"Yep. I see he signed up for an interview before he left. At first glance I thought he might be trouble. I'm glad I was mistaken."

We spent the afternoon talking with people as they came by. Syl had taped my speech that I had given in Missouri and sometime in the last couple of weeks she and Tina had written it out on poster board. It was displayed on the front of the Wal-Mart, and we were asked several questions about it.

Homer must have come by half a dozen times during the afternoon. I think he was lonely. When I was busy talking with someone else, one of my wives would talk with him. Every time one of them would talk to him, he'd blush, but I could tell he was enjoying it.

We met another family that afternoon that caused us a little concern. Wilson Fouts was a skinny little guy with long hair and an unkempt look about him that made you wonder how often he bathed or washed his clothes. To make it even worse, he had a chew of tobacco tucked in his jaw that would have choked a horse. He had one woman/wife with him, Belinda Ferguson.

Belinda didn't seem to be battered or anything, but she was definitely cowed by Fouts, who ordered her around like she was his personal servant. The worst thing though was that he started flirting with my wives. I guess you could call it flirting anyway, in a ham handed kind of way. He sat with me and talked for a while. All of my wives came around at one time or another and when he spoke to any of them he had a big smile and called them 'darlin'.

I let it go without saying anything, but I was a little angry about it. After they had gone, I asked Evie what she thought about him.

"Ed, I don't know if he's into physical abuse or not, but he definitely mentally abuses Belinda. He also has a very high opinion of himself. I'm afraid he'd be trouble if we asked him to join us."

"What do you think of Belinda?"

"Honey, she is so beaten down by that man that I don't think she even has a thought of her own. If we offered right now for her to join us but refused to let him, she'd probably go with him. She wouldn't think she had any other choice."

"Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking too. We can't force her to stay. Is there anything we can do about it?"

"Just leave it to your wives, love. We'll talk to her. I'm not sure it'll do any good, but we can be pretty persuasive."

"That you can," I said as I pulled her in for a kiss."

Homer walked around the end of the RV while mine and Evie's lips were locked together. I've never seen anyone turn any redder. He started to mumble something then take off, but I stopped him.

"What did you need, Homer?" I asked.

"Ah... Ah... wuz just gonna ask if'n there wuz anythin' Ah could bring tonight," he managed to get out.

"Consider yourself our special guest tonight, Homer. We've all talked it over and decided you're the first one from here that we'd like to ask to join us. We can't say anything in front of anyone yet, because we don't want anyone to get jealous, but if you'll join us, we'd sure like to have you."

"Oh, Ah'll join ya alright. Ah'd be honored."

"Good. Why don't you pull up a seat and sit a spell? I'd really like to get to know you better."

Homer grinned from ear to ear and grabbed a chair. After he was settled in I asked, "So, I take it you mother and father didn't make it?"

"No. Pa died right away. Ma lived long enough I didn't think she wuz gonna come down with it, then she passed too. Then Ah thought Ah'd be next. Ah just kinda waited but nothin' happened."

I told him how I had survived IT and how I had met Tina and Syl. "You're a lucky man, Ed," he told me. "All of your wives are beautiful."

"So, you like women? You're just shy around them?"

"Oh my gawd yes, Ah like 'em. Ah just never know whut ta say around 'em. Ah get all tongue tied."

I laughed. "I was a little way like that myself, before I met Tina. I take it you didn't grow up around girls. You didn't have any sisters did you?"

"Naw, only woman I wuz around wuz Ma. Ah had two brothers but no sisters."

"I was the same way. You just need to meet the right woman, Homer. I think any unattached woman out there would grab you in a heartbeat. I know my wives would if they weren't already married to me."

"Ur funnin' me, right," Homer said.

"No way, Homer. All of them are calling you the gentle giant. They all think very highly of you."

"Well, Ah'll be."

"For a change of subject, Rob is going to be flying over tomorrow to see how things are going. I'd like for you to meet him right away."

"Good. Whut's he flyin'?"

"He'll probably be flying the Bell Jet Ranger. It's easier to find a place to land it than the big Sikorsky."

"That's a good little machine. Very reliable."

"Have you ever worked on the Sikorskys?"

"Yup. They're good machines too. It's just the bigger ones have three engines and that takes a lot more work."

"You know, Homer, while we've been sitting her talking, your accent seems to be disappearing. Any idea why?"

"Ah'm not sure what causes it, Ed. While I was in the air force, I started losing it. Then, when I'd come home for a visit, it'd be right back. I guess I tend to talk like the people I'm around."

"That's interesting, Homer, and the change is awesome."

"Well, I guess I started trying to change how I spoke when I went in the air force. Everyone seemed to think that because I talked like a hillbilly that I was dumb. I'm not dumb and it was frustrating. I wanted to be an aircraft mechanic and I qualified for the school, but the instructors in the school acted like they had to explain something to me three or four times. Finally I got tired of it and asked them if they'd please move on. I told them I was bored at the slow rate they were going and that I could usually pick up on something the first time it was explained to me."

"Did that shake them up?"

"Some. One of them evidently got mad because he tried to make it as hard on me as possible. It didn't work though."

"Why not?"

"Some of the other guys started complaining that he was going too fast."

We both got a big laugh out of that.

"Would I offend you if I asked a personal question?" I asked.

"No, go right ahead."

"Why do your clothes look like they belong to your little brother?"

Homer's laugh almost rocked our RV. "I went into the air force when I was eighteen. Right after that I put on a growth spurt. I grew about four inches over the next couple of years. While I was on base, I wore mostly fatigues. I didn't buy many civilian clothes. All of my new civvies are dirty, so I put on some things I'd left at home before I enlisted. I guess they do look kind of funny."

"More than kinda," I laughed. "We'll have to find you a big and tall man's store when we get home."

"That would be nice. I have all of my air force clothes with me. I guess I could wear those."

"It's not a problem with any of us. If you want to catch a woman though, you should look your best."

"I'll think about that."

"Have you met Wilson Fouts?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've met him. He's a real piece of work, isn't he? He orders his wife around like she was some kind of slave or something. She shouldn't have to take that kind of treatment."

"That's what I thought too. Then he started flirting with my wives. They set him straight, but I thought it took a lot of balls to hit on them right in front of me."

"He thinks he's bad," Homer said. "He was bragging yesterday about all the fights he's been in."

"We don't need that in our new community," I said, then stopped myself before I said anything else.

Homer must have noticed because he said, "I know when to keep my mouth shut, Ed. Anything you say to me will stay with me."

"I figured that was the case, Homer, and I appreciate it. What I started to say is that we'll invite Belinda to join us, but not Wilson. We had a situation like that over in Missouri last month and the guy went nuts when his wives decided to go with us. Tina ended up having to kill him."