Dear Diary, It’s Me, Jessica: Chapter 20 (Book 2)

By the Author of Dear Diary: It’s Me, Jessica

Find the previous chapter here.

Dear Diary,

It is me, Jessica.

Well, it happened.  

Mom, Dad, Rae, Joan, Kathy, Allison, HAM guy, Sam, Joanna, Jack, and a few others from the community went.  I was torn whether I should even go or not.  But I did not want to offend the Millers.  

Or Billy on his big day. 

His wedding day.  

As we stood and watched Billy’s bride walk out of the barn, dressed in a simple white gown with a bouquet of flowers, down the makeshift aisle and to the old oak tree where Bill waited with his father as his best man, I could almost feel Mom, Rae, and maybe Jack looking at me with a side glance out of concern.

It was not needed.  I was fine.  I was even smiling as her father gave her away.  After the ceremony at the reception, Billy walked up to me and thanked me for coming.  I simply said, “I would not miss it for the world,” and gave him a quick hug.  

Later when we were walking home, Rae quietly asked if I was ‘okay.’

“Yes.  I am okay,” I put emphasis on ‘okay.’  “I like Billy, but Jack was right.  Right now, I am not ready to be someone’s wife.  And she seems a lot more like what Billy is looking for than “The Hero of Four Corners.”  I’m happy for them.”

“Sure?”

“Yes, Rae.  I am.”

“That is a very grown-up way to look at it.”

I paused for a moment, considering what she said. “I never thought of it that way.  It is just what it is.  Ever since the power went out, I have not really thought about getting married.  I would have been a Junior in High school right now!  Getting married?  Now?  At my age?  The idea would have been crazy.”

“Well, Jessica, since I have met you, you most certainly done a lot of growing up.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“No, really.  Think on it for a second.”

“Okay,” I paused, “Thinking about it, life before the power went out seemed like a totally different life.  No.  Not a different life.  More like a book or movie about someone who has my name and looks like me.  But right now, she would be concerned with her social media posts, her friends, clothes, and who would ask her to the homecoming dance.  After everything that has happened, that seems so childish. The gang and Battle of Four Corners, the cult, the tornado, heat domes, arctic vortexes, growing our own food, hauling water, gathering firewood, humping it to the city, and the firefight. And that does not even compare to what you went through when those people took you and the others as slaves.”

Rae gave a half smile. “We are tougher than we look.”

“If it was not for you, Mom and Dad, Jack, even Samson, I think I would have lost it after the power went out.”

Rae gave a short laugh, put her arm around my shoulders, and said, “I come to think of us as not just friends but a big, crazy family.”

“Yeah!  A family that sometimes gets into firefights!”

“Who is getting into firefights?” Jack asked from behind us.

Rae and I laughed.

“Nothing, Jack,” Rae glanced back at him with a grin.

“Right.  If you say so,” Jack looked confused.

We laughed harder.

Entry two

Dad and Nate have come up with a new design for the water wheel.  The old design that collapsed when the river flooded over its banks was what they called a ‘vertical’ design.  It was upright like a Ferris wheel.  The river water flowing past would drive the lower part of the wheel, causing it to rotate.  Unfortunately, without heavy concrete pylons to ground the water wheel in the water, it collapsed.  

Dad took what he did at the Miller’s farm to make a ‘horizontal’ water wheel.  The wheel would be based on the edge of the shore to the river, with the one edge of the wheel in the water being driven by the flow of water.  Using the leverage of the wheel’s edge, drive gears from old truck transmissions, located in the wheel’s edge, would drive the gears in an axle, turning the axle to power the sawmill or grain mill on higher ground. 

Dad and Nate thought the mechanical leverage of the ‘horizontal’ wheel might be even greater than a ‘vertical’ wheel.  And it would be easier to switch from the sawmill to a grain mill.  

Only Dad and Nate could get excited over something like this.  

Dad and Nate talked with some of the more experienced carpenters about how to use steam to ‘bend’ wood into a wheel.  I asked Dad how that was possible.  

“Before the Industrial Revolution, shipwrights would steam massive timbers of wood to the point that the wood became flexible to make the main stays of the hulls of sailing ships.  Then they secured the bent stays into a hull configuration and when the wood cooled it would stay fixed in that position.  We are doing the same, but with the water wheel.  We will steam the wood to the point it becomes flexible, put it into a jig to get the same curvature of each section of the wheel.  We will make the wheel in three offset layers to ensure strength and secure the joints with one-foot-wide wooden dowels, driven through holes through all three layers, securing the wheel.”

Diary, Dad is smart.  So is Nate.  But I had no idea what they were talking about.

Anyways, there were some things they would need for the water wheel that we and Four Corners did not have.  That would require a trip to the city.  After our last encounter in the city, I am not sure how I feel about that.

Entry three

The sun was just breaking the horizon when we broke camp at Four Corners.  We arrived the previous afternoon to get an early start for the trip to the city in the morning.  

Our HAM Guy talked with City HAM guy about what we needed for the water wheel.  The City HAM guy got Jamal on the radio net with our HAM Guy, Dad, and Nate.  They talked and haggled over what we needed with what Jamal needed and what they needed.  

We were bringing some small, medium, and even a few large livestock, root vegetables, and Jack’s booze!  With those kinds of valuables, for security, Jack wanted “a sizable force.  Straight-legged infantry and mounted cavalry.”  

Mr. Miller drove the team of Percherons pulling the flatbed.  Jack, Nate, and five others rode on the flatbed.  Rae, Janet, Justin, Katie, and half a dozen of her men and me all on horseback.    Everyone was armed in full combat load.  Katie’s horses were accustomed to gunfire from when they had to take shots at coyotes or game.  So were Janet and Justin’s. 

The Percherons were not. “They might be a problem if we get into trouble.  They are not used to gunfire,” Mr. Miller said with a look of concern.  

Billy was staying back home with his new bride.  Mr. Miller said Billy wanted to come, but Mr. Miller said no.  

“If something bad were to happen, I would not want my new daughter-in-law to be a widow shortly after their wedding,” Mr. Miller said sternly.  

I thought that was a good idea.  

We had a hearty breakfast at Four Corners before setting out, as we wanted to arrive in the city as quickly as possible.  Lunch would be a snack on the move.  We would water the horses once on the trip and then water and feed them once in the city.  Jamal promised to set up a secure area for us, and their militia would provide additional security to our own.  

Pulling the flatbed, it was a slow but easy walk for the Percherons and the rest of us on horseback.  It was late afternoon when we arrived at the city and Jamal’s community.  

Jack did the introductions of the new faces.  As Jamal shook hands, he got to me and said, “Good to see you again, Rambo,” with a smile and took my hand in his.  I rolled my eyes.  “Hey!  After I saw you in action during your last visit, you earned the name!”  

Jamal set us up in a different park to the West of where we were during our last visit and the firefight.  

“Everything you asked for is here,” he pointed to the piles of equipment Dad and Nate asked for.  Nate looked everything over and said,

“It is all here.  You are a man of your word,” and offered his hand to Jamal.  They shook hands.

“And Four Corners are a people of their word,” Nate nodded over his shoulder to the livestock, root vegetables, and booze.  “You know how to slaughter and process livestock?”

“Through more than a few trial and error, we have learned,” Jamal chuckled.

“Good to hear.  We were fortunate to have had a few farmers and homesteaders who taught several of us the most efficient methods.  Now, just about everyone can process at least small and medium livestock, and we have at least a dozen who can process cattle and deer.  A team of four can process a whole beef, from slaughter, gutting, skinning, and processing into final cuts in just over an hour.”

Jamal whistled.  

“Sharp knives and a good whet stone help,”  Mr. Miller added.

“We found a few butchery knife sets, bone saws, and some manual knife sharpeners at a restaurant supply store that was not damaged on the South side.”

One of our militia men gave an alert whistle, pointing down the street as a group of people approached.  We all turned as we unslung our weapons.  

“Easy,” Jamal said with one hand up.  “Those are the people who got you your supplies.  They are just here to collect on the trade.  But just to keep things civil,” Jamal gave a order and his militia men formed up a security posture, weapons cradled in their arms but could be brought to bear at a moments notice.  Jack told us to do the same.  Between Jamal’s men and us, someone would have to be either crazy or stupid to try something.  

Jamal must have a mind as sharp as a steel trap.  Among the dozen people in the group, he knew exactly who had provided what supplies and what they wanted in return, as well as the quantities.  Everyone was happy with their trade.

Until another group showed up carrying lengths of metal pipe, wood, and a few baseball bats.  

Diary, they did not look happy at all.

About 1stMarineJarHead

1^stMarineJarHead is not only a former Marine, but also a former EMT-B, Wilderness EMT (courtesy of NOLS), and volunteer firefighter.

He currently resides in the great white (i.e. snowy) Northeast with his wife and dogs. He raises chickens, rabbits, goats, occasionally hogs, cows and sometimes ducks. He grows various veggies and has a weird fondness for rutabagas. He enjoys reading, writing, cooking from scratch, making charcuterie, target shooting, and is currently expanding his woodworking skills.