Exodus Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven
Winter Arrives

Have you gone back and read the story at the beginning of the book again? If not, do it now. We’re at the point in the story where Mildred told us that story, she told it to us as a way of trying to explain what was happening to our town and our parents.

So, now that you’ve read the story again, you’re ready to continue.

* * *

Mildred finished the story.

“This did not happen exactly as I told it of course. It likely didn’t happen at all as told it. But the elements are things that teach you. A fairy tale is a metaphor. It represents something else. The characters are not real. The events are contrived for the sake of the story. But the lesson relates to actual history. The lesson tells you something important.”

“Important like what?” Owl asked.

“Oh no, that is something you will not drag from me. There is no value in the story if I cut it up and serve it to you dead on a plate. Wrestle with it, and think about it. That’s where the value lies.”

“So how does that help us now?”

"I was born during the Second French Indochina war, so I suppose I was never really innocent. By the time I was fifteen years old that war was being called the Vietnam War. I had watched the biggest baddest nation on the block look foolish fighting one of the smallest. Being born when I was born left a lasting mark on me, and my perceptions of the world."

Mildred Sanger sat down quietly into a purple armchair so old that it was bleeding stuffing all over the floor.

"Every band of heroes needs a mentor to walk them through the gates of adventure and into the greater world beyond. I am old enough to know heroes when the show up at my door, even if they don't know it yet. So, if you are willing, I will be your Obi-Won Kenobi."

"So, if you're our Obi-won Kenobi, then what do we need to learn? It's not like we're going to learn how to be Jedi Knights."

Mildred Sanger smiled gently.

"No, but you do need to learn how to be adults. Because I suspect that true adults are both in short supply now, and about to become much rarer shortly. And in order to become adults, you need to learn how to be warriors."

"Warriors?"

"That's how it was done in the old days. A vision quest, and ordeal, and a child was transformed into an adult and a warrior. The village or the tribe had a new protector of both its members and its stories."

"Okay, so how is that different from being Jedi Knights. It still sounds kind of crazy. We came here asking for answers about what was going on, and now you're talking about making us warriors. That doesn't strike you as just a little bit nuts?" I asked.

"Look around at the adults, your parents included. How many of them seem to have a firm grasp of the situation and able to manage their lives in spite of the current challenges."

"Not a lot of them. My mom maybe." Owl said.

"And where does that leave you?"

Silence.

"By the time children were your age in times past, they were nearly adults. They had learned nearly everything they needed to know to make a life for themselves, even if that life was separate from their people. Can you say the same?"

"No... I mean Owl maybe." Wolf said, “But not the rest of us.”

“I don't feel like I could. A bunch of stuff, but not everything.” Owl said.

"And if your parents do not have a handle on the current crisis, and if you are not able to make a life from yourselves, which problem do you think that you have a better chance solving? Would you rather attempt to convince your parents to do something different? Or would you rather do something different yourselves?"

“I don’t want anything different. That’s why Owl and I have been fighting so much. I want what you get when you grow up. I want a house and kids and a white picket fence and a dog and cat and flower shop and a really big library and a husband and pictures on the walls and a pretty wedding. I want what everyone promised. Is that so bad? Why does everyone seem to think less of me for wanting that?” Viper was speaking so quickly that she started to stumble and her eyes got glossy. Owl immediately stepped over and put an arm around her. She leaned in and let him hug her without complaining.

“When my father fled the draft by moving here, we came with very little. We rented a room in a basement, because that was all we had. I do not have a room in a basement now. But I started where I was with what was available. In times of plenty, parents promise their children the moon. There is nothing wrong with what you want. But the world is changing and now you may have to build it yourself, because it may not be available from any stores tomorrow.”

“Build it myself? I don’t know how to build a house. I don’t know how to build any of it.”

“Indeed. An adult would know, a real adult. A warrior would know. And this is my offer. I watch and I listen. And I retract my previous warning to stay out of the way. Very few people are handling this well. I see that now. And you children may end up. like the boys I went to school down south with, having to grow up and fight wars you did not cause because the people who came before you made mistakes that you will have to answer.”

“I just want a normal life.” Viper’s voice cracked.

“Good, fight for it. I will teach you how. I will teach you all how. Tomorrow is never certain. When the sun is shining, it feels like it will always shine. But winter will always come, and the days will turn dark and cold. This does not mean the world has ended. But it does mean you must be ready in order to last until spring.”

“But fight who?” Raven asked, “These are our parents, our family.”

Viper whispered,  "Sometimes you have to fight your family. Like Bellatrix fighting Sirius Black in the Harry Potter books."

"Wasn't she a bad guy?"
Mildred chuckled, "There are so few good guys and bad guys outside of fairy tales. Instead you find people, just normal people. Generally so-called bad guys are scared, and they are driven to do the things they do to quiet their fears. Most of them disguise their fear as anger. Moral outrage is a very popular way of hiding fear. When I first moved to town, I  became the town's flower child hippie, Safehope's very own lovechild. People became morally outraged at my actions. Parking in cars with boys at night above Fallen Angel lake- it was scandalous. Even other kids joined the moral outrage. Our dear principal has been getting offended and clamping down on things for a very long time now, at least since she was class president as a teenager. Really it's a miracle we haven't killed each other over the years, given all of the fights we've been in."

I didn't know what to say to that, and don't think anyone else did either, because we were all quiet. Mildred didn't seem to be bothered by the quiet like other people were, but after a moment she seemed to remember something.

"I'm sorry. I promised you tea. I'll be right back." And with that, she hurried into the other room and began clattering around in the kitchen.

A few minutes later, she hurried back in with a plate filled with cookies and teacups.

"Do we have to drink tea?"

"I've included milk and sugar, it won't kill you. And you won't have anything to dip your cookies into if you don't. But first, I want to give thanks."

"You mean like saying 'grace' or something?"

"More like something.” She said with a smile, and then more formally said, “We have wasted much and cheated you of much of your deserved share. We apologize and savour this meal, and seek to rebuild the share we took from you.”

"When you say that. Who are you talking to"

"To Gaia.” She said.

“You mean like the Greek earth goddess?” Raven asked.

“That is the origin of the term. But as I am using it, Gaia is the idea that whole earth and everything alive on it is like one big creature, and we're all part of it. It may or may not be true, but as per our previous discussion, it is useful. I serves as reminder that everything we do affects everything else."

"Like the spiderwebs, I mean the supply lines."

"Yes, and that's the problem. We keep forgetting the interconnectedness of the world we live on. We pretend that we are immune to the rules that apply to everything on this planet."

"Like the Brave Young Man in the story?"

Mildred smiled, "That's certainly an interesting thought."

"So what do we do? What do we need to fix this?"

"What we need right now is the Could-have-been King." Mildred said, "The crown prince that saw the empire that they were to inherit and said, 'No! This is not a good place, and I will not support it.' We need somebody like the American Founding fathers, educated men wealthy landowners and people who - like George Washington- had served with British Military officers and knew power, yet rejected the offer to become King of America. We need people like Buddha, who began life as a prince before seeking wisdom. We need the privileged elite to step away from their toys before its too late."

"What do you mean? Who's the privileged elite here?"

"We all are. You kids talk about the spider webs that connect you to shirt factories and food shipments and computer manufacturers and mining companies and so on. You notice that those factories and mines and manufacturing centers aren't normally around our nice pretty big cities? They tend to be in poor countries. And as poor as the people in Sumpter's Ridge are, they are rich compared to people in some other countries in the world."

"So why does that matter?"

"Don't you get it? If we're running out, and some people are using way more stuff than everybody else, then its more important for those people to stop being greedy than it is for everyone else to try and get by with even less."

Mildred smiled a little sadly.

"I don't trust the people of Safehope to do the right thing in a situation so fragile. I'm not sure there is a right thing, but I also don't trust the people here to not do the most absolute wrong thing either. I know them too well. This is a small town, both in mind and in body. That's why my father moved here when he dodged the draft. The people here think from a position of fear and reaction. And that's a losing strategy. People trying not to lose always lose more and worse and for longer than others. Better to try and win. Or, if the situation is unwinnable, try to change the game. Change the rules, change the board, question assumptions, cheat if necessary- but don't accept a game that can't be won."

"So how do we change the game.?"

"A game is nothing but a set of rules. Basketball is only basketball because people agree to do things like bounce the ball as the run, and not tackle their opponents. There is nothing preventing basketball from being very similar to football outside the rules everyone agrees to follow."

"Bart said something about that. He said my dad wasn't playing by the same rules as Mayor Tailor was."

"And to a certain degree Bartholomew is correct. But looking at a broader perspective, both your father and the mayor are playing the role of the Brave Young Man and his locusts. They they are playing slightly different versions of that game only matters to them. This is less the difference between two different games and more the difference between differing local house rules. How the National League and the American League in Major league baseball disagree on the designated hitter rule, but are perfectly able to play against each other in the World Series. I am talking about playing by an entirely different game and an entirely different set of rules."

"So what kind of game do you think we should be playing?"

"You have to decide that yourself. If I called the current game: Empire, then the game that I would recommend that you counter with would be called: Warrior. And if you are going to play the game of Warrior, then there are four things that you must always remember: four drum beats that must echo in your mind. No kings. No wars. No one right way. Look to the future."

"And what are those?" Viper asked.

"Those are core rules, laws for avoiding the hole that your parents have fallen into. These are laws for avoiding the Brave Young Man's trap."

"So what do they mean?" Owl said.

"No Kings means, have no rulers and no masters and no bosses."

"What does that do? Doesn't somebody need to be in charge?" Wolf said.

"In most tribal societies and small groups, leaders emerge organically and have no formal power."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"And anyway, so what?" Viper asked.

"We know it from the archeological records and sociological studies. And the importance here, is power over each other. We see Kings develop at the same time as oppression. Once we accept somebody with power over us, they can use that power against us."

"Why?" Owl asked.

"Their power is power that you and their other followers give them. If you try to leave, or take you ball and stop playing, they lose a portion of their power. So people with borrowed power, tend to use it to restrict the freedom of the people who gave them that power. Otherwise those people might take their power back when the King tries to take more than his fair share."

We digested this information as we drank our tea. Mildred let us sip in silence as we thought about what she had said. After a few minutes, she seemed to have decided we'd had enough time and she continued.

"Secondly, no wars. This one is trickier. I am not talking about the pacifist nonsense of my youth, or telling you not to protect yourself or you loved ones. I am telling you not to wage war."

"What's the difference?" Raven asked.

"When two animals fight, they fight over girlfriends and boyfriends, over access to food and shelter. A wolf doesn't say 'Those mountains lions are taking some of the deer that could be mine, I will wipe them out and then I will have all the deer.' This is war. A wolf pack may occupy a territory and drive out the old pack, but a wolf pack that is not infected with rabies will never set about wiping out all rival predators in the area. Modern humans do this every day."

"What does that have to do with us?" Owl asked.

"Tuttle's spider webs across the world, the world has its own spider webs. These webs are the webs of life, the wolf is connected to the deer is connect to the raspberry bush is connected to the beetle is connected to the weasel is connected to the fish is connected to the bear is connected to the wolf. Every time, your parents and their world view goes to war with another culture, or another species; they cut another strand in both Tuttle's web and the web of life. What do you think will happen if they keep cutting threads?"

"What already is happening maybe." Wolf said.

Mildred nodded and let us think about this for a moment before continuing.

"And the third rule: no one right way. This one flows from the first two. If you have no kings to to make everyone act the same way, and no wars to destroy different groups, how can you stop other ways of life? Now I want to be clear here as well. There are ways that are wrong, there are many ways to live that are wrong for many different reasons. But there is not a single perfect way."

"So those are the rules that are going to help us fix things?" Viper asked.

"Perhaps in the long term. I suspect that right now, your goal should not be fixing things, but surviving things."

“That's not a comforting thought.” Viper said.

“It wasn't meant to be comforting,” Mildred said, “It was meant to be useful.”

Mildred talked to us a little longer, but it was pretty much just small talk. She asked about Raven's parents, and Owl's mom. She asked about Russell and we told her the short version. And eventually, we ran out of small talk and began to say our good-byes. We were filing out as Mildred touched Raven on the arm to stop her briefly. I hung in the doorway and waited. I don't think they noticed, and the others had all exited as the spoke. Sometimes I think I'm a ghost. People don't pay much attention to me alot of the time. They talk in front of me as though they are alone. That’s what happened next.

Mildred said to Raven, "Remember child, being the one who cares is important. But never let your desire to help and to make people happy work against the truth. People hold happiness together with lies every day, and then when things go wrong, the lies break and the truth comes out. And if your happiness is based on a lie and not the truth, your happiness will break along with all the lies. So defend your happiness with truth."

Raven nodded as though this made sense to her. I didn't understand it though. I mean, I understood what she said, but I didn't understand why Mildred said it. And I didn't understand why she only said it to Raven.

As we left Mildred house and began to walk through town, I noticed more flyers. The looked like the ones that we had put up last time. I walked over to get a better look and the others followed me.

The flyer read: 'Times are Tight. People Must pull together and share with their community. Do YOU know somebody who is hiding excess food from their neighbours? None of use need go hungry, if everyone is willing to share.'

"Well that's completely creepy." Raven said.

"This basically calls my mom a bad person because she planned ahead." Owl commented.

"I think my dad is planning to start confiscating food or something."

"Do you really think people would stand for that?" Viper asked.

"It depends how many people planned ahead and how many are hungry." Owl said.

"Okay Freak, You're going to come clean this time!"

We turned to see Hawk and her group marching towards us.

"Of course," Owl said, "Because there weren't enough things going wrong right now."

"Mouse saw you out sneaking around last night." Hawk said as she stormed up and stopped inches from Owl's face. "And your little stooge Russell is grounded after being caught spying. The Mr. Pickle Diner is closed. And everyone is freaking out about having enough food. And you freaks know more than you've been telling!"

“You know pretty much exactly what we know. Because we’ve told you. The world is getting crazy. Adults are freaking out and fighting for power, because they all think the other people can’t handle being in control. And we’re all stuck in the middle. You want to get mad, get mad at the adults, they’re the ones causing all the stress.”

“And it’s not helping.” Wolf added.

“Adults are useless.” I added in frustration.

“Then why are you meeting with adults left and right? You just talked to Mildred Sanger again. What’s the deal?” Hawk said.

“She’s different. Mildred’s our mentor. Like Obi-Won Kenobi.” I said.

“Nice, more like Mr. Miyagi. How come you get your own mentor? The rest of us are sitting around in the dark?” Lion added.

“Because we’re trying to do something. You just keep hassling us. Why don’t you go find something out for yourself?” Owl said.

“Maybe we will.” Hawk said, “Come  guys. Let's leave the freaks to their secrets.” She marched off. I noticed Sparrow giving us an apologetic look as we left.

“It's funny. We're trying to find out the secrets people are keeping, and know everyone thinks we're the secret keepers.” Owl said.

“Well, we're kind of in deep on all sides.” Wolf said.

“It feels awful.” Raven said. And then suddenly she snapped her head upwards, “Did you see that?"

"See what?" Viper said trying to see where she was looking.

Raven pointed up at the third floor of the red brick Chamber of Commerce building. We looked. At first, I couldn't see anything, but then I noticed movement from the corner window, and then I saw a man hold something that looked like a hand held satellite dish out the window. He looked around and pointed the dish at different people. Occasionally he put his off hand to his ear and held it as though listening to something. And from time to time, he looked back into the building and I could see his mouth move as he spoke to somebody else in the room.

"What's that guy doing?" Owl asked.

"Bud, that's a line of sight listening device. My dad has one. It amplifies what you can hear when you point it at things. It's like a real spy tool, but anyone can buy one." Wolf said.

"So they're spying on people?" Raven asked.

"Looks like it. We should tell somebody." Viper said.

"Let's tell Bart, he can pass the information on without getting us in trouble." Owl said.

I grabbed the flyer about the people hiding food, "We should show him this as well."

We headed off to Bart's office, but when we got there Frisk began whining. We looked to where Frisk was looking, and  I noticed another man with a listening device sitting up on the roof of a nearby warehouse. He was pointing his microphone right at Bart's office window.

"Does anyone have a pen or pencil or something? We could write down ta warning about the listening devices, and then tell him something else."

Nobody did.

"Okay, well we can get a pen from him and write it down then."

"And hope he doesn't give the game away and get us in worse trouble."

We hustled through the empty bottom floor and were about to head up to the top floor, when Viper stopped us.

“What?” Owl asked.

“I have an idea. Bart has cameras in here. Right?”

“Yup,” Wolf pointed.

“Good, let’s give him warning.” Viper said. And with that, she turned and looked into a camera and waved her hands frantically, then mimed a ‘shushing’ motion by putting her finger to her lips. Viper put a hand to ear and pointed back out towards the street.

“Let’s hope he understood that.” Viper said.

“It’s a good idea either way.” Owl commented.

Viper smiled at Owl’s compliment, but didn’t say anything.

We got to the top of the stairs and into Bart’s office. He was waiting for us, as always. He looked at us quizzically.

“So how can I help you kids?” He said.

Raven took the flyer from me, “We wanted to show you this. “

As she spoke, Raven stayed well back from the window and mimed writing and pointed to a pencil on Bart’s desk. He nodded and threw the pencil to her. Raven quickly put the flyer against the nearest wall and began writing. I looked, and saw that she was giving a pretty good outline of what we had seen, from the flyers and where they had been posted to the audio spying around town and outside his office. She even drew a pretty good picture of the guy on the nearby building with the listening device. Finishing quickly, she handed Bart the flyer.

“What do they mean when they say excess food?” Owl asked as Bart looked at first the flyer's message and then Raven's note on the back.

“I don’t know.” Bart said carefully. His head kept bobbing, and I could tell he was catching himself, stopping himself from reflexively looking out the window, “Honestly it sounds vague on purpose. I mean excess food when? Today, or more than you need to make it through the season, the year? It seems more like propaganda than an actual safety notice.”

“Could it be because not everyone has food stored to make it through the winter?”

“I’m sure that’s how they want it to be read. Ever store that sells food of some sort has pretty much been told they’ll have to wait weeks or possibly more than a month for a new shipment. Supply is tight and distributors are sending food to the biggest markets first. And so little towns like us are tightening our belts. But I don’t see a city council approval stamp on this flyer. I know it didn’t get approved at any council meeting. The people who put this up, did it without permission of the local government. There isn’t anything to identify who put it.”

Wolf snorted. And then when we all looked at him, he pointed at himself and mimed to indicate somebody much taller than himself. I understood what he meant.

“Whoever put this up, wants plausible deniability. They want to be able to pretend that they didn’t put it up, but still get the benefit of having it up. Clearly whoever put this message up thinks that it is important.”

As Bart spoke he pulled out a pen from his desk and began write quickly on the back of the flyer. As he finished speaking he handed the flyer back to Raven.

“Thanks guys. I need to think about this. We’ll talk again later.”

We headed back out towards the Mr. Pickle Diner, I think mostly out of habit. Once we were sure there were no listeners around, we found a spot under a tree and looked at Bart’s note.

Raven read it aloud, ”I’ve been getting a lot of hints of something big. Somebody has been spreading rumours that Mayor Tailor is using his authority to hide all the ‘good food’ from everyone else in town. The allegations are that he has a secret stockpile. This flyer looks like they plan to make a move on that rumour pretty quick. There’s been another council meeting called, and think that this is when they’ll act. I’ve warned my tribe, you too now, so be ready.”

We wandered through town, and gradually I noticed that there were more of the ‘excess food’ flyers up than when we came this way before going to see Bart. It didn’t take long to see why. As we wandered we started to see children, mostly our age, putting up the flyers. Eventually we stumbled on a large group working to plaster an area with flyers.

We watched as the group put up more of the ‘excess food’ flyers. Taping them to trees and building with packing tape. There were a few boys, but mostly girls, including Hawk.

Seeing Hawk was a surprise. I looked around and saw Sparrow and Mouse working not too far away. I could see Maize helping Lion. Lion seemed more interested in flirting with Maize, which was creepy because Maize and Sparrow were practically the only official couple in school. They had been together forever, and were in no danger of breaking up. Sparrow seemed not to care, maybe he was used to Lion flirting with everything, hopefully he trusted Maize.

Hawk saw us and put her hands on hips and turned to face us.

She gave us a superior look and said, “You see. We have a mentor too now. Mouse was able to convince Mrs. Winter and Wolf's Dad to be our mentors. He already talks with your dad lots, and tells him what he sees. So you see. If you want to play it all secret and have your own mentor. We can play that too.”

Raven shook her head.

And Owl just sighed, “Good luck with that.”

Once we were out of earshot of the kids with their flyers, Owl looked at me, “So you still get to go to town council meetings, right?”
“Mom always drags me along.” I said, “Apparently it's a character building experience to watch adults argue about everything.”

“Well,” Owl said, “Tell us what happens then. You're our eyes on this.”

I'll say one thing for town council meetings: they had become a lot let boring to attend. Terrifying, yes. Boring, no. The council room was jam packed full, and everyone was talking and muttering. I didn't even get a chair things were packed so tight. The meeting hadn't even been called to order, when Mr. Pinchen strode to the front the room, shouldering people aside and wiping his nose like a tough guy.

"Everyone here has heard rumours. Am I right?"

Murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

"We've got a world wide crisis. A food supply crisis. And we all know the big cities are leaving the small towns to starve."

The murmurs started to increase to full throated agreement, like a churning river of angry comments.

"We haven't been getting the shipments we need to keep everyone's fridges stocked and the way I hear it, Mister Mayor up there is using his authority to earmark the best of what's left and stockpile it for his own personal protection."
Mrs. Giller stood up. She looked odd without her cats.

"Mayor Tailor is good man. He's managed our town's business for years. This is unneighbourly. Why is everyone going mad all of a sudden?"

"We aren't going mad." Pinchen countered, "We're waking up. We've been asleep for too long, and it's time to take action!"

"This is a town council meeting. It isn't the place address wild and unsupported accusations.” Raven's father said from his council seat.

"Where else are we going to answers from a corrupt public official?" Mr. Pinchen said.

"You have made accusations, but offered no proof of either your accusation of hoarding food or of his corruption. How do you know the things that you claim to know?"

Pinchen seemed a lot less certain all of sudden.

"Well? Do you have evidence? Or just bald faced accusations?" Raven's dad crossed his arms.

"We hear things." Pinchen said finally.

"And what do you mean when you say that?" Raven's dad countered.

"He means that Pulp and Paper Union is spying on people!" Bart said standing up. "It's like something out a spy thriller. We see union members everywhere like some sort of secret police." Bart said, staring at Mrs. Winter, "And now we get to see people with parabolic microphones listening in our conversations like we're criminals. Is these East Germany? Is this Iran?"

The crowd quieted a little a that, uncertain. But Wolf's dad waved his hand as though brushing away a kitten that was trying to play. "Many police and governmental groups use parabolic microphones in their operations."

"Which might be okay and might not, but you are not the government, and the Pulp and Paper Worker's Union is not a police force. You have no right to spy on us." Bart countered.

"These are both perfectly legal for anyone to purchase and no law prevents the use of these on anyone out in public. You may find these distasteful. But they are entirely within the bounds of the law."

"And furthermore," Mrs. Winter said, "These measures are what brought to light the possibility of individuals hoarding food away from their neighbours. Which, although not illegal if done only as a private citizen, is certainly distasteful for a community that obviously needs to pull together."

This generated a rumble of muttering from the crowd. And suddenly Bart looked like a swimmer in the ocean who has just realized that he's in the movie 'Jaws'.

"We should search his house, and find what he's hiding!" Somebody in the crowd shouted. The comment was echoed by angry agreement and cheers.

"That is not going to happen." My mother said firmly, "There are laws and they will be obeyed."

"He broke them first!"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"According to a rumour. Since when does the law operate like gossiping old women?" My mother said.

"We have a right to feed our families too! Make the Mayor come clean!"

"Yeah!"

"What he said!"

"Yeah!"

"This meeting will come to order, or I will start issuing citations and you will have to explain to your children why you have a scheduled appointment to sleep in my holding cells." My mother said, arms crossed.

"You can't hold all of us Rose!"

"That's right, the will of the people!"

"United! Stop the mayor's corruption!"

"Re- sign! Re- sign! Re- sign!"

The yelling increased, and I could see my mother running the numbers in her mind. Her tiny police force couldn't stop this many people. Even if they used force, I suddenly realized. A mob this angry could trample the whole town. The chanted call to resign got louder and louder.

Finally Mayor Tailor stood up.

"This is ridiculous. But that doesn't change anything. An election is a long time away, but regardless, it is clear that I am not wanted as mayor. Therefore, I resign- effective immediately. If you don't trust me, I won't act on your behalf- it wouldn't be honourable of me. The council can organize a by-election, I'm sure."

My mother turned her head and stared at him.

The crowd cheered, and somebody yelled "The king is dead. Throw him out!"

The people surged towards Mr. Tailor, who took a shocked step back and almost fell backwards over his chair. Wolf's dad stood up and stepped between Mr. Tailor and the mob. He brought his thumb and index finger to his lips and whistled sharply. And then he stood with his arms crossed as the doors leading out of the council room opened revealing a contingent of union men wearing orange and yellow reflect vests and dark sunglasses.

"The matter is settled." Wolf's dad said loudly. And as the people in the room looked at the force of large men in dark glasses confronting them, the room quieted back down.

And in the silence Mrs. Winter said, "Order will be maintained. The rule of law is all we have. This meeting is adjourned. Go back to your homes."

And just like that everything was over.

The next morning, when I looked in the mailbox, I saw a copy of the Bluff. I pulled it out and flipped it open. Written in the margins was a handwritten note.

"The Mayor is going to cut and run. Leave town and go live with family in another city. He's giving up. He won't listen to me. You'd better say good bye to your friend Russell."

I texted everyone and we quickly met in front of the Mr. Pickle Diner. I guess we had become predictable in our meeting places, because pretty quickly after the group assembled, I saw Skunk trotting towards up with a big band-aid across his nose and smug expression. He was walking funny as he approached, keeping his right arm out of sight.

“He's hiding something.” Wolf said.

“We can see.” Viper agreed.

"I figured you'd try to go see them." Skunk grinned, "You like the little wimp, don't you?"

Owl clenched his fists, "Do I have to teach you a lesson again?"

Skunk pulled his hand from behind his back to reveal an aluminium baseball bat. "Maybe I can teach you something."

"That's your big plan, bring a bigger stick?" Owl asked.

"Isn't that what you did?" Skunk shot back.

"He did something better. he brought his buds. And I don't need a baseball bat to deal with you." Wolf said Stepping forward, "You guys get going, catch the Tailors before they leave. We need adults around who aren't crazy."

"I'm going to tell them what you're doing!" Skunk said.

"Right. You're going to tell my dad how much of a big man you are after I've beaten the teeth out of your face? Do you think he'll be impressed by your limp? That he'll think it's manly?  All my dad cares about is order and strength. And you aren't going to come out of this looking strong. And besides, who do you think he'll believe: his son or the town bully?" Wolf raised his fists. “You aren't going to enjoy this.”

Raised his baseball bat, but looked less certain now.

"Get moving! Can't you see I'm being all dramatic here!"

And I mean, seriously, how do argue with that? We couldn't, so we ran and left Wolf to deal with Skunk. My only worry was that Wolf might hurt Skunk so badly that he'd get in trouble.

We ran across town to Russell's house, but stopped abruptly about a block away. Men in reflective jackets were wandering the streets. And even from where we were, I could see two men in orange reflective vests standing directly in front of the front door to Russell's house.

"Are they actually guarding his house? What are they trying to do, make sure he leaves?" Viper said.

"Maybe they don't want anyone talking to the Mayor to convince them to stay?" I asked.

"Skunk sure seemed to be eager to stop us. He must have got that idea somewhere." Owl said.

"Well either way, what do we do?" I asked

"Viper and I play the pretty little girl card." Raven said.

"The what?" Viper gave Raven a withering look.

"Grown ups, especially men, tend to think all little girls and sweet and delicate. And if you're polite and smile a lot, you can get them to explain all kinds of things and give you all kinds of things. We can keep them distracted while you knock on the back door."

Viper looked like she wanted to vomit.

"Oh come on, Viper," Raven admonished, "You always talk about being a girly girl."

"When I say that, I mean that I dress well and have awesome make-up skills. I don't mean that smile like I'm brain dead or talk like a bubble head."

"You can do it for five minutes to distract these guys. I don't want to don't his alone."

"So Wolf gets to fight and we get to simper?"

"I could fight if I have to. You don't know how. If you feel that strongly about it, ask Wolf to teach you how to fight, and then next time you can beat up Skunk."

Viper stuck her tongue out at Raven.

"I will do this, because you are my best friend. But only because you are my best friend."

"Good enough. Okay boys, you get to be the big heroes. We'll play supporting role this time." Raven grinned.

We snuck around through the back yards and knocked on the door to the kitchen. Nobody answered right away, so I texted Russell. A few minutes later, he opened the door.

“Hey guys.” He said, “Come to see the condemned man?”

“You aren't condemned, you getting screwed over.” Owl said,

"No, this is just another sign of the world's hatred of Russell Tailor. When I was born, the world looked down and said, 'Let's torment this kid as much as possible. Let's find out what can kill him and back it off a little.' And they've been doing that ever since."

“Russell, your dad is one of the only leaders in town who isn't acting crazy all of a sudden. We really think that he should stay.” I said.

“So do I, but he won't listen.”

“Can we talk to him? Maybe we can convince him.” Owl said.

“You can try, but I don't think it will help.” Russell said, “I'll go get him.”

Russell closed the door and a few minutes later, reopened the door with his father beside him. He nodded to us. I though about the meeting, and about Raven's father arguing with Wolf father.

"Mr. Tailor, you have to stay.” I said, “Raven's Dad and My mom need back up. You're leaving them to fend for themselves."

"And I regret that. But I don't feel as though my family is going to be safe here after that display in the Town Council meeting."

It's going to get worse." Owl said, "We snuck into Mrs. Winter's office at the school. They're okay with letting people starve so that they can gain power. Are you really willing to let everyone else go through that."

"Its not my job anymore Owl. The town made it clear that they do not want me. So I am going to take them at their word and leave so as to protect my family. But you are right. Things are very rotten in our little Safehope Bluff. I have to share some of that blame. But I did try. Now I will try to protect my family by leaving. I suggest you try to convince your families to leave as well, before things get really bad. Mark my words, this will get worse before it gets better. Run now, while you can."

"But this is your town, won't you fight for it?"

"No, this is not my town, because this town doesn't want me. Boys, I need to go. I wore out my welcome long ago and now I have to leave before people decide a lynch mob is still acceptable as a form of justice. The crowd was this close last night. So no, I'm not staying. I'm not fighting. I'm running. You should run too. Russell, say goodbye to your friends."

“I'll call you guys once we get to my Uncle's house.” Russell said, “Be safe you guys.”

We nodded, and with that Mr. Tailor closed the door. With no other plans we texted th group to meet by Owl's house. One by one everyone showed up. Wolf arrived last.

"So, how'd we do?" Wolf asked as he walked up.

"We failed. They're still leaving."

"What happened to your hand?" I asked, looking at Wolf. His right hand was red and swollen. And both hands were spattered with a little bit of blood.

Wolf grinned, "I ruined Skunk's baseball bat. And his nose, again."

"Is your hand okay?" Raven asked.

"Yeah, my hand’s just red."

That was we left things. The Tailor's left about an hour later. Everything they could fit, piled into one car and a utility trailer. Five men in orange and yellow reflective vests watched them go. We milled around a little before heading for our lesson with Professor Tuttle. However as we reached the school playground where Professor Tuttle normally held his lectures, we noticed more children than usual. Not just Professor Tuttle's class, but most of the school. There were a bunch of adults too, most of the teachers, and even Mr. Nottingham- the Vice Principal. Mildred Sanger arrived just after us and stood beside us.

And instead of seeing Professor Tuttle, we saw Mrs. Winter standing at the front of the crowd. She waited as we all milled around and got settled. Then she waited as we quieted down. Then she waited until we were all uneasy. And then Mrs. Winter spoke.

"Children, there has been a landslide on the highway to the north of town. The government does not have enough trucks free to clean up the rocks right now, and so the road is closed for the moment. We are all going to have to work together and share for a little while until the trucks are able to clear the road. Every thing will be fine as long as everyone works together."

I raised my hand. Mrs. Winter didn't look at me right away. After waiting long enough to realize that I wasn't going to lower my hand, she nodded to me.

“What about the Tailors?” I asked.

“We have no word on Mr. Tailor or his family. Everyone should pray that they made it through before the avalanche. I have every confidence that they are fine.”

I didn’t.

As Mrs. Winter spoke we whispered to each other.

“There is no way that anyone could have seen something like this avalanche coming.” I said.

“No, but if times are tight, then I bet watching the snow levels on highways nowhere big the big cities didn’t take a high priority.” Viper said.

“Yeah, there’s no way your dad or Mrs. Winter could have seen this exact set of things coming. But they were definitely counting on something happening. That’s obviously why they’ve been setting things up.” Owl said.

“What if they did know about this? What if it wasn’t an accident? It’s not like its hard to cause an avalanche if the snow levels are bad.” Wolf asked.

“I don’t believe they would do this on purpose.” I said.

“Let’s hope you’re right, because if they were willing to do… that, then they’d be willing to do pretty much anything.” Wolf said.

Mildred stood beside us quietly. She was listening to us whispering. And then, without looking at us, she said, “Remember, everything that you are seeing is still the same game. This is the game of cities and empires stripped down. When you tear away all the pretence and all the politeness, this is the underlying game we all play. And if you want to play that game, you need to get used to how it’s played. If you want another game, you need to change the rules.”

Mrs. Winter spoke, “ The avalanche has damaged a number of power lines and we will need to curtail electricity use quite heavily to keep essential buildings running. Furthermore, the nearest cell phone towers were damaged by the avalanche. You will likely find that cell phone reception will be hit and miss at best going forward. ”

“When did she get elected Mayor?” Owl asked.

“She didn’t. There would have to be a by-election, and they haven't done that yet. It just sort of happened.” I said.

“Wonderful.” Owl said. But he said it as one of the weird silences hit the crowd when everyone stops talking at once, and his comment echoed across the playground. Mrs. Winter looked sharply across the crowd.

“Was there a story behind that comment?” She asked, as the kids ahead of Owl shuffled away to give Mrs. Winter a better view.

“It just seems like nobody trusts anybody to be good anymore. Mayor Tailor got accused of hiding food and nobody even checked to see if it was true. We just ran him out of town. And now we don't know what happened. When did we stop trusting people to be good?” I couldn't help but notice that Owl had referred to Mr. Tailor as Mayor Tailor.

Mrs. Winter squinted down at Owl, “People don't behave because they are good. They behave because they are kept in line by rules. Rulers are the things that let people draw straight lines. Rules are the things that let people live straight lives.”

“I can't draw a deer with straight lines. I can't even draw a tree with straight lines.”

“Fortunately, we are drawing warm houses and supply boxes filled with food, not trees or deer. And those can be draw very well with straight lines.”

 * * *

I should warn you here, before you go any further, things get bad from here on out. This is happiest that you’re going to see us for a long time in the future. And not everyone who started this story is going to be here at the end.

If you aren’t one of us, if you are an adult living some place where life is still safe and nice, if you have problems with the idea that kids like us don’t always get happy endings, if you have problems with parents who let down their kids... then you need to stop reading right now.

Look, I’ll help you do it. Just pretend that we were blowing everything out of proportion. Pretend that everyone comes to their senses. Pretend that Russell and Mr. Tailor are safe on the other side of the avalanche. I’m sure we were just being kids and thinking everything was so much bigger than it was.

Kids do that right?

Nothing’s going to go horribly wrong so long as stop reading right here.

On the other hand. If you’re one of us, then you need to keep reading. You know how this ends in the long term, but you need to know how long it took to get there. You need to know the sacrifices made and losses suffered and lessons learned.

Warriors don’t look away, and if you’re one of us, that’s your job: not looking away.

All of our hands are red, and you need to understand why.