Tom Ridley is marching towards the outer doors with a terrible expression on his face. George Wolf-man Ridley had seen that face before, upon the death of their father many years before. The machine follows, its unearthly gait a mimicry of a woman walking. The huge glass doors remains closed until the machine is level with Tom and then slides open in silence.
'What's wrong, Tom?'
The machine answers for him in its sing-song voice…
'There is nothing wrong, only opportunity for all of you. We will save you from your earthly state and…'
Tom says 'Now Jo.'
Gnarly Jo Pepper said, 'about damn time,' and his big gun cracks the air as the machine's head vanishes. The machine clatters to the floor. The remains of the head lie in a wide fan of wet glittering shards on the immaculate floor.
'Been wanting to do that for too damn long.' Jo said.
They follow Tom Ridley as he sets a strong pace back along the wide pavement of the city towards the spiral river. Sam tries to ask the Sheriff what was going on but Tom waves him away. They march in silence breathing hard because of the pace until they reach the woodland on the bank of the spiral river and then Tom Ridley stops. He waits until his breathing returns to normal and then says.
'We need to get out of this tomb. We need to get out and then bury it.' They are used to a Tom Ridley that never loses control, never loses his temper. But this Sheriff looked feral with hate.
"This place is hell. And I have no wish to remain in hell. It's full of evil, it was from the beginning, and some of that is coming home with us. I wish I had called it different, but at least we can stop this place from harming others.'
'What do you mean 'bring some evil with us, Tom?''
So Tom tells them.
The posse start to climb the spiral ramp after a full day's march through the open cemetery of this world. The sun sets in glory and the impossible sky full of cities in flight appears as the light fades, but nobody wants to stop, and nothing tries to stop them. Tom lets Jo Pepper set the pace on the ramp as Jo is the eldest. Doesn't tell him that. Tells him he needs Jo's gun up front. Jo tells the Sheriff he is out of shot but takes the lead anyway, understanding the real reason.
Jo says, 'Thank you Tom. Try to keep up.'
They settle into Jo's pace and the dark and the ringing echoes of the ramp engulf them, the concrete wall their only guide. Jo's pace slows as they climb, breathing hard, but the old farmer doesn't stop. The climb becomes harder, as if it is growing steeper. When someone stumbles and falls the posse wait in silence until they get back to their feet to carry on. Time dissolves in the dark, not even the echoes of their footfall making sense anymore.
It became brutal. Then it became impossible, Jo falling hard onto the concrete and not moving. Tom Ridley helped the old man turn over and sit up. They all gathered close and sat resting with their backs to the curving wall. The echoes of their set had died away and throat breathing became a new background noise distorted by the walls of the ramp into something not quite human.
'You leave me to rest up.'
'Not going to happen, Jo.'
'I'll be OK after a time.' Jo insisted.
'I can stay with Mr. Pepper, Boss.'
'Nobody is staying behind. We rest up for a while then head on. Nobody is left behind. Nobody gets separated.'
Jo starts to argue again and then
'Damn it Jo Pepper why is it always an argument with you. You will shut the fuck up and do as I tell you.'
The silence lasts a good while.
'Sorry, Jo.'
'You are one disrespectful and stubborn bastard Tom Ridley and if I were a younger man I would teach you some manners, but you are probably right.'
'Hell Jo, that was a full sentence. You'll be writing novels next.'
'George, you shut the fuck up.'
When they start out again Deputy Sam has an arm around Jo 'just in case' and the old farmer doesn't protest. George Wolf-man Ridley carries the old farmer's gun. The climb drops back into darkness and echoes, the hoarse breathing of exhausted men reflected back twisted by the curved walls. It goes on.
In some unmeasurable time later the wolf-hound suddenly races ahead. Gone, as if shot from some invisible gun. They hear it scrambling ahead and then, after a time, a distant howl.
'I can smell it too.' George Wolf-man Ridley's voice has a new warmth in it, a hopeful warmth.
'What?' Snaps Tom Ridley.
'Prairie grass!'
'Thank God.' Jo's voice has a hitch in it that the others ignore.
They almost walk into the blast doors. It's night outside and the dark they have grown used to extends out of the gap in the blast doors and over the world, but it is a different quality of dark, a darkness free of the damp dirt smell of concrete and opening out to take in a natural sky full of familiar stars.
Sam helped Jo out of the back seat of the Cruiser as George Ridley hammers on the door of the Lazy Rustler. A light grows slowly in a window above and brightens as the lamp is moved closer. The window slides up and a head with long grey hair escaping from a cotton nightcap pokes out.
'Stop your damn noise you fool the bar is closed. It's three o'clock in the godforsaken…Tommy? Is that you? Oh, thank the Lord.'
It was the earliest the Lazy had opened. That didn't stop folk turning up to see if the news was true. The Sheriff was back. Some folk helped carry Jo upstairs and May-Ellen, Dino Diner's short order cook, took over from a flustered Sue-Anne at the skillet.
Sue-Anne set out beers and a full bottle of Haven Gold for the three men and sent another bottle of beer up for Jo. She didn't even complain about George's huge hound lying on the floor and organised a bowl of water for the wolf. In Sue-Anne's mind Chewie was a prairie wolf and she didn't tolerate any objections. Other than that, she sat quiet and listened to the men talk.
Tom looked down at the wolf-hound.
'What are you going to do about Chewie, George?'
George Wolf-man Ridley ran his hand through the great beast's fur and it looked up at him.
'How long do you think we've got?'
'I have no idea Bro, just less than we should.'
'Tommy? Tommy is something wrong?'
'Not now, Sue. I guess we'll know when it's the right time.'
'Maybe, maybe we won't. I'll give him some days, so he knows he is home and safe.'
Tom looked at the hurt in his brother's face and something died inside.
'I should have turned back earlier George, I'm truly sorry.'
'You didn't know.'
'But all those skulls.'
'Skulls? Where the hell have you been?'
'Not now Sue.'
'You answered your own question Sue-Anne.' George replied and regretted the angry edge to his voice that left Sue-Anne fearful and confused. She got up, wiped her hands on her night gown automatically.
'I'll leave you to talk.' and left the men alone.
'I didn't mean that.'
'I feel the same way. She'll forgive you.'
'Is there any chance? I mean, maybe Coot was just messing with you.'
'That wasn't Coot, Sammy. Coot died down there.'
'So we are going to…' Sam's voice failed.
'Yes Son, but we have work to do first. The way I see it is we have eight of those blast doors, and they open outwards…'
Jo is lying on a bed with his clothes on and his eyes closed. To Sam he looks half dead already but he closes the door to the bedroom and crosses the room to sit beside the bed.
'Jo?'
'Did you bring a pencil son, something to write on?' Jo didn't open his eyes.
'Yes Sir.'
'Then write this down, carefully mind, you don't want to make any mistakes. You are going to need charcoal, saltpetre and sulphur. Saltpetre you can buy as fertiliser and so you need to talk to the Mayor about how much Qota we have to trade with the farmers' merchants, or we need to make our own, but you are going to need a lot. You make saltpetre from cow and horse shit, mixed with piss. You need to add in some wood ash and then you are going to boil it up. Evil damn smell. You getting this son?'
Sam is scribbling furiously on a roll of yellow paper. He looks up. "Yes, sir."
'I'll go a little slower. Now your charcoal you will need to break up and grind so you got big grain, big grain burns fast, fine grain burns slow, you follow?…'
Later that morning Jo's family arrive and Sam left them all together. He finds there is a large group gathered around the Sheriff and his brother. The group part to make way for him and the Haven citizens nod or smile at him or touch his arm or his back as he passes. Guess the news is out.
The Sheriff looks up, 'got it Sammy?'
"Yessir. We are going to need a couple of tons of dung and a town-full of piss, but yeah, I got it down. Charcoal and sulphur's the easy bit.'
The Sheriff pulls out a chair. 'Take a load off Sammy. We'll assign people to help you, right?'
At this Tom Ridley looks up at the assembled ring of men. There is a ragged chorus of assent. 'We are just working on the timing Sammy, we need the charges to go off at the same time….'
In the weeks of work that followed Gnarly Jo Pepper passed. Everyone in Haven attended the funeral at his farm including representatives from the other communes involved. It was a send-off that Jo would have appreciated, although he had told Sam he regretted he would not be there at the end.
It was another week before the teams from the communes could set out with their carefully built charges and another two days to dig the holes in the banks of the ramps.
Two days later Tom Ridley stands at a distance from the ramp to the Haven 7 blast doors with a small crowd of onlookers. It’s a fine day. The Prairie grass golden and stirred by a light breeze, the sky high and clear but for the pale translucent mists of stratospheric cloud.
'How do you feel Tom?' Sue-Anne asks him holding onto his arm.
'I guess I have made my peace with it. It's not as if we have a choice. It's Sammy I feel bad about. I always thought he would take over at the barn and the office. He had more years ahead of him than anyone.'
'We will look after him Tom. Until it's time.'
'Thank you Sue-Anne. I hope the whole town looks after him.'
'I'll make damn sure they do. Now hush, here he comes.'
Sam is in his deputy uniform which is clean and neat. He looks fresh faced and strong limbed. A fine young man thinks Sue-Anne.
'About five minutes to go Boss.'
'Thank you Sammy.' Tom Ridley reaches into his trousers pocket and pulls out something he hides in his hand. ‘Sammy?’
‘Sir?’
'This is yours now Sheriff." said Tom Ridley pinning the Haven Sheriff star on Sam's shirt. 'It's your job now to keep the town safe. As long as you can. You earned it Sammy.'
Sam looks down at the star, his mouth open. Then he recovers himself, 'But I thought that old coyote Chow Down Dan had your star.'
'He gave it back when he heard. Said it was bad luck, but I think you've had your share of that already so I guess it's OK.'
Sam smiles shyly at first, then it grows into his trademark wide grin.
'Guess I have.'
There is a cry. 'Fire in the hold!'
The banks of the ramp erupt with a sound of thunder underground, the dirt swelling up and out in slow motion and then rolling into the void of the ramp like the flow of some huge river. The roar of the gunpowder echoes out across the Prairie, or perhaps it was the answering explosions burying gates 6 and 8.
'Hell YES!' yells Sammy and he throws his deputy hat into the air. Sue-Anne looks up at Tom, grabs his hat and it joins the others arching against the deep blue sky. There are ragged cheers and applause and Sue-Anne knows Haven is going to be the centre of a celebration that night.
'Thank you Sue.' Sheriff Tom Ridley says. 'Can you now go and find my damn hat?'
CODA
On the first warm Sunday every year when there is the promise of spring in the air, his mother takes the hand of little Tommy and they walk to the cemetery behind the church. She gives him the posy she has carried and the young boy places the flowers on his father's grave.
He asks the question he asks every year.
'Why did Pa have to die young?'
Gnarly Jo Pepper's daughter was expecting it, so she is prepared.
'Sometimes people go before their time, Tommy. But Sammy was a good man.'
'He killed all the evil Oli.'
'That he did Tommy. He saved the town.'
'I’m sad he's not here.'
His mother looks up at the sky. Her 'I know. So am I Tommy.' sounds wrong, as if his mother has caught her throat. Tommy knows enough not to ask any more just now.
After they have stayed a while his mother leads him to another white cross. It ‘s the same size as all the rest. Although there are more flowers on it than his Pa's grave they are old and dry, not like the fresh ones he has given to his Pa.
Tommy knew they had to visit this grave as well.
'Can you read what it says, Ma?'
Tommy asks this every year too. Young boys are a mix of chaos and habit.
'It says, Tom Ridley rests here. First Sheriff of Greenfield. Rest in Peace.'
They spend some time with the old Sheriff. Young Tommy can hear the distant sounds of Greenfield folk one their way home for Sunday lunch. Then his Ma takes his hand and they walk back home, talking about the days and years to come.
In Tom Ridley’s Greenfield.
So thats a wrap!
I shall miss Tom and his people but there is always a time to leave a story, and this is it. I may find another Trauma Tales in time, but for now lets, leave the good people of Greenfield in peace
Thank you for reading along.
Great story! Really enjoyed this one. Thanks for sharing your writings with us. I, for one, appreciate it immensely.
Really enjoyed this, such a great story Steve. Thank you for writing it.