Chapter 31

For better or worse, we have a Constitution. Most of the provisions I thought important have been included, and I believe we can live with the rest. Only time will tell for sure. Some of the important provisions that I and others fought for are:

• Rather than political parties, we have four sociopolitical interest groups, which elect their own representatives to the House of Representatives. These groups are: Social Dependents, Wage Earners, Corporate Executives grouped with Individually Wealthy, and one that I didn't think of: Small Business Owners. An individual's membership in one of these groups is determined by his or her wealth and employment status. Government employees that are not elected are Wage Earners, while elected office holders retain membership in the group that elected them. Unlike the US House of Representatives a district doesn't elect just one representative. Each group within a district elects its own representatives which vary in number depending on relative populations.

• Our Congress is bi-cameral (two houses), but in the Senate, each district elects one representative from each of the four Sociopolitical groups. This should help to balance any inequities introduced in the House by the population based representation.

• Our President and Vice President can, in theory, be elected from any of the groups. In practice, I expect that most often they will be Wage Earners, simply because the vast majority of voters should fall in this group, and we have no electoral college. The popular vote elects the President. The runner-up from the same group is Vice President. Members of each group vote for the candidates from within that group during the primary elections to select their group's candidates for the final election. During the final election, however, they are free to vote for whomever they please

• Justices on our Supreme Court are appointed by the House, with ten year terms, but must be approved by both the senate and the President. Instead of making Law Enforcement a department of the Executive Branch, we have placed it under the Judicial Branch.

• The Constitution explicitly prohibits any branch of Government from having 'privileged' information that is not available to other branches. The structuring of this provision to ensure our national security is still being worked out, even as we head into our first elections.

• A bill of rights, similar to those added as amendments to the US Constitution, is an integral part of ours, and has been updated to allow for technologies about which our ancestors could not even dream, such as electronics and the Internet, which is well on its way to being resurrected.

• There is no such thing as a Stock Market. Corporations are allowed, but under much different rules than before the Sickness. Individuals may invest in corporations if they so choose, but those transactions may be made only between the corporations and the individual or another corporation. The insanity of an open stock market wherein hordes of people gamble enormous sums on companies about which they know little or nothing, overvaluing some and undervaluing others, while brokers get rich off their ignorance should never occur again.

• The Central Bank is a government entity and cannot be privatized.

Thanks to the input of The People, and lessons learned from our own past, conservation and the health of our planetary ecology are also built into our constitution and legal systems in numerous places, and there are automatic provisions for changing the incentives for having children as the population increases. Education and its funding are also built into this constitution. In addition, campaigns are financed by the government and the Department of Elections is the only entity allowed to publish information about candidates. That information is limited to: Stated positions of the candidate, records of public actions while in office, and the candidate's sociopolitical group membership. These two provisions alone should go a long way toward seeing that qualified candidates have a fair chance being elected without the waters being muddied by personal attacks.

There are still legal issues to be finalized surrounding the constitution. For example: How does marriage across sociopolitical boundaries affect the group membership of the parties involved?

When it came time to select candidates for President, there was a great deal of pressure from the people for me to run, but I am too old for such a young nation, and I declined, so they drafted Gav, instead. When I left, it looked as though he would win the election handily. He will make a good President.

Perhaps it is better that things have worked out the way they have. If I were there, I would be tempted to look over my son's shoulder and try to tell him how things should be done. This way, he will make his own mark without my interference.

Yes, after the Constitution was ratified, I decided, or rather Sophie insisted, that I needed a vacation. After twenty-three years of making decisions for what amounts to the entire human race, I suppose it was due. Ruth and Sophie conspired to have Ruth look after my daughter and send me off on my little walkabout - or perhaps I should say 'rideabout.'

Sophie, at twelve, is far more mature than twelve-year-olds from the world in which I grew up, but then, so was Gav at that age. Amanda would be proud of them both.

Anyway, I suppose Sophie noticed how tired I was looking in the latter days of the rush to get the Constitution in place, and insisted I take some time off.

"Go hunting, Dad," she told me. "Go find a mountain lake and fish, or just sit and enjoy the scenery. For once in your life, take a little time for you. You have done all you can for Phoenicia. Now it's up to us."

"She's right, Dad," Gav agreed. "General Lee can hold the fort until the elections are over. You have done more than could be expected of one man. Now you deserve some time to rest, but if you stay here, you won't get it. You're too well known in Phoenix. Why don't you take that Appaloosa you're so fond of, and go for a ride? Take a pack horse, or, if that's too much trouble, just take one of the Hummers."

Actually, I had a couple of vehicles to choose from, and a number of horses. One of the first things that was done after the constitution was ratified and they began setting up the new government, was to allocate the stuff that had been owned by my government to the citizenry. In practice, there was not that much to distribute. The Central Bank remained a government entity, but central stores was privatized. Anything that people already had in their possession became their property. The government retained the military vehicles and weapons that were too large or destructive for personal use. Livestock was allocated to those who had been caring for it on behalf of the Government, so Matt and Heather became the proud owners of a large herd of horses.

I stayed out of the allocation of goods discussion, so it came as a little bit of a surprise for me to discover that I was, by Phoenician standards, quite wealthy. Besides a small herd of horses, I was given a Hummvee and one of the new Solar hybrids, as well as the house and land that had been allocated for our use when we first came to Phoenix. In addition, the Allocation Committee awarded me a fairly large sum of money, that included what they thought was owed to Amanda, as well.

Thinking of these things, of course, reminded me that some parts of our world were still dangerous, so before taking my vacation, I went down to the bank and made out a will. I left the house and land to Gav and his lovely wife, because they would need it for the twins, and Susan was again pregnant.

To Sophie, I left most of the rest. Between Gav and Susan, there was more than enough money to support them and their kids, but if anything happened to me, I didn't want Sophie lacking for anything. I had General Lee and Ruth witness the document, then left it in my safety deposit box.

The appaloosa was young and strong, but had been raised as a pet and was eager to please, so unlike Humphrey, who had felt it his duty to make sure his rider was qualified to ride him, Spot, as Sophie had named him, was impatient to get me in the saddle. The presence of the pack horse meant only one thing to him - road trip! And he was ready to start.

"Take good care of her, Ruth," I said as I reluctantly released Sophie from my embrace. "If I'm not back in three months, you know what to do."

I had left the safe deposit key with her, and we had already gone over contingency plans. I wasn't worried. Ruth was good people, and so was Jamaal. We had been through too much together for me to have any worries about leaving Sophie with them.

"I'll be glad to have the help around the place, Gavin," Ruth answered. "You just go have a good time and don't worry about us."

Gav shook my hand, reminding me once again of what an upstanding young man he had become, and we embraced briefly, without words.

Sophie, my angel, and constant companion since her mother's death, said nothing, but volumes were communicated through her embrace - a long and vigorous one that I returned with equal fervor.

"I shouldn't be gone more than a month or two," I whispered into her hair, "but it's still a dangerous world, sweetheart, so if for any reason I don't make it back, remember I love you, okay?"

She only nodded, swiping at the tears on her face.

"Just have fun, and come back to us, dad," she said.

Since it was early summer, I decided to head northeast, camping that first night in the Sequoia National Monument. That had been one of my final acts before stepping down. I had decreed that all lands that had been preserved by the US Government would also be preserved by the Phoenician government. I hoped the provision would last when the new Government came into office. My guess was that they would have so many things to deal with in setting up the Government and figuring out how to make it work, that they would simply continue such provisions, rather than dealing with making new laws about such things on their own for a while.

I took my time, meandering through the mountains, killing what I needed for meat, finding fruits and berries, and sleeping under the stars. There was a certain ironic wonder in the very fact that this sort of thing could once again be considered relaxation, but city life had begun wearing on me in the last few years, so in a way, it was an affirmation that I had accomplished what I set out to do after the Sickness.

Traveling northward, I wandered through the Sequoia and Sierra National forests, traversed the majesty of the Yosemite valley, then headed up through the Stanislaus National forest.

A couple of weeks after I left Phoenix, I wound up at Lake Tahoe, and found, to my surprise, a small, thriving community of Phoenicians. Our expansion over the last few years had been so rapid that I could not remember all of the groups who had joined us, but they remembered me, and insisted on providing food and lodging for me. It was nice to be able to be among people who knew me but didn't want anything from me, and I stayed a couple of days, then bade them farewell. Before I left, though, they told me that the election results were in, and Gav had won by a landslide. Camille's daughter, Rebecca Lee, was his Vice President.

I continued eastward into what had been Nevada, and descended into the valley that, further south, would become the Mohave desert. The old skills came slowly back, as I wandered south, seeing fewer and fewer people. I followed the course of old US 95 southward, being cautious with my water supply, and with people I met. Out here, there was no assurance that they would be friendly. There were, in fact, few people in this barren part of the country. There had not been many before the sickness, and now, there was nothing to attract them to live in the area. The few I did see were, themselves, travelers, mostly Phoenicians, but I ran across the occasional group of independent traders. I wasn't feeling very sociable, so I avoided those few that I saw...

Eventually, I found myself in more familiar territory. Las Vegas, primarily by virtue of its proximity to the dams that still supplied most of our electricity, had power, but most found little attraction in the city that had once epitomized 'fun.' There was a thriving community along the shores of Lake Mead, but I wasn't looking for company, so I turned southwest without visiting the lake.

There was one other place I wanted to visit before I headed back to Phoenix. It is now about five years since we abandoned the Citadel, but I thought it would be nice, once more, to visit the place that had given us our rebirth, and see if I could find some good books to read in the archives that we had left in the mine.

The Appaloosa had never been to the desert, and was not fond of the heat, but he was a trooper. I made sure to keep him watered, and traveled at night. Moon- and starlight were enough to show the way, and as we got closer, familiar landmarks became more and more frequent. Finally, in the early morning hours of a day that promised to be a scorcher, I urged the Appaloosa up the pathway to the valley that had been our home for so many years. The berms had been softened by blowing sand, but someone had decided to leave the waterfall 'running, ' and the vegetation around the small lake at its base was green and inviting.

There was sand piled against the side of the house we had built to replace Archie's, but I wasn't interested in the house. There was something else I wanted to check on. The plumbing still worked, and I ran water into the trough by the stables. I guess they hadn't thought it worth the trouble to truck the hay out, because the loft was still piled high with it, and I broke a bale for Spot's lunch, hung the saddle and blanket over a stall rail, and groomed him. By the time I had done the same for the pack horse, I was pretty tired, but managed to drag the pack the short distance to the mine entrance.

There was nothing left of mine or Amanda's in the apartment that had been ours, but it still seemed familiar. There was a mattress rolled up on the end of the bed, and I guessed that some of the trainee couples had used the apartment after Amanda and I moved to Phoenix.

I shook out the mattress and shooed the scorpion that fell on the floor out into the mine before spreading my sleeping bag on top of the mattress. Some jerky, an apple, and water were my breakfast. I slept for a few hours, waking in the afternoon.

This time, I built a small fire in the old cook pit and heated some of the ham I had brought with me, and boiled rice to go with it. Supplies were running a little low, but I should be back over the mountains in a couple of days, and it wouldn't matter.

I lit a lantern and went down into the mine. The old control room was empty, but the wiring we had rigged to power the equipment was still there, and the light switch worked, but that wasn't what I had come for. I turned off the lights and headed further into the mine. As I thought, the archives were still there. Stack after stack of books, neatly categorized and labeled. The lights worked here, too, and I wandered down the rows until I came to the fiction section. I selected some of the old classics to take back to Phoenix with me, and headed back up the mine.

I dropped most of the stack near my pack in the apartment, then caught up on my journal entries.

As the evening came on, I went out to care for the horses, taking the top book with me. I guess I had grown civilized again, living in Phoenix, because I should have remembered that, in the desert, inattention can kill you. I was so engrossed in the first pages of my book, that I never noticed the sidewinder sunning himself in the last rays of the westering sun on the ledge next to the opening of the mine where we habitually left lanterns for later use.

The bite was bad - high on the back of my left arm and shoulder. The snake struck at least three times. I couldn't reach the spot to make the necessary cuts, or apply the suction cups. I knew what that meant. I went to the stable and released the horses, then knocked as many of the hay bales as I could out of the loft. Eventually, I figured they would find their way to the upper pasture, but I didn't want them going hungry in the meantime.

My arm was in a great deal of pain by the time I got back to my sleeping bag. I don't know how much longer I can continue to write. My vision is blurring, and I need water but I can't get up to get it.

I'm sorry, Amanda. It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to fulfill my promise.

If anyone finds this, please tell Sophie and Gav that I love th