Chapter 13 Samuel’s Objections
As Samuel pulled into his driveway, Pooh and Moo came barking from the shade of the rear veranda and stood tails wagging at the side gate. Before he could get out of the cab SJ had come out of their front door, down the steps into the hot afternoon sun and was walking towards him with a piece of paper in one hand and a deep frown across her face.
“What’s that in your hand SJ?”
Enquired Samuel as SJ approached.
“Read it Samuel, just read it.”
She replied as she offered him the white piece of paper through his open window. Samuel sat and read the piece of paper. It was a copy of a commercial and residential zoning permit application notice to develop land on the opposite side of the bayou mouth to where their house was. It was for an alligator farm, breeding sheds, house and accommodation for employees. The commercial development was to be accessed by the narrow windy track that ran past their house from Lokchapi center, north out of the village to the eastern shore of Lake Cavelier and the northern side of the Lokchapi Bayou. Samuel sat quietly reading the notice again.
“SJ , where did this come from?”
He enquired when he had finished reading.
“It was posted up on the notice board outside the store.”
SJ replied. The village store in the center of Lockchapi was the local hub of formal information and informal gossip.
Out the front of the store there was a large notice board, it had three sections, one for items for sale, general and also a Village and Parish matters section. It was here that any zoning permit applications would be posted for a period of 28 days. SJ had been casually looking at the notice board that morning after buying some fresh milk from the store, when she happened to glance at the Parish Section. This section was not what she would normally bother to look at, but for a change her morning at work was not as busy as normal and she was taking her time. To her dismay her eyes settled upon the zoning notice and her heart sank. She read it slowly, re-read it then went back into the store to ask for a copy to take home to show Samuel.
SJ leaned back against the wing of the pickup, raked her hand through her hair and let out an exasperated sigh.
“Here we go again.”
Samuel muttered half to himself and half to SJ as he finished reading the piece of paper for the second time.
It had only been six months since they had finished fighting against the development of a piece of land next-door to their home, a fight that had gone on for some fourteen months or so.
It was as if the peace, quiet, beauty and undeveloped nature of Lockchapi, in particular this area at the mouth of the bayou, next to the church was of no consequence to anyone. It was the peaceful undeveloped nature of this part of Lokchapi that had drawn them both to settle there, such a change from the urban environment ofBaton Rouge. In their long campaign against the proposed development over the last fourteen months or so they had had to gain an in-depth understanding of zoning law and policy, battle against the local zoning department and deliver a consistent argument of objection to try and stop the development proceeding, by way of letters and personal presentations.
It was a fight that they had won, the burden of which Samuel had borne mainly on his shoulders andthis had brought them into contact for the first time with the local Mr Clarke and zoning department at Spicebridge and Mr. Meekand highways department. It was during this long drawn out process that Samuel had carried out extensive research regarding the history of zoning and local highways issues in Lokchapi and he had unearthed some extremely interesting and pertinent information. He had found out that the track that ran past their home had been documented as dangerous, inadequate and substandard by an official highways safety audit carried out by the highways department from Ville Platte some ten years earlier. There had been development refused upon other land accessed by the track on road safety grounds and also environmental grounds. He had found that the part of Lokchapi in which he lived had national and state conservation protections both for the layout and age of buildings and also for he beauty of the mouth of the bayou and lakeshore to the east running north for about two miles. Additionally Lake Cavelier was designated as a state park with all of these associated protections such a designation delivers.
After a couple of minutes of silent thought, Samuel got out of his pickup put his arm around SJ and together they walked across their side lawn to their garden gate. Pooh and Moo were oblivious to the thoughts running through their masters’ minds and stood by the gate tails wagging feverishly from side to side. Moo reared up on his hind legs putting his front paws on the top of the wooden picket fence and sang a howly and slightly growly song of excitement and pleasure. Samuel patted Moo on the head, opened the gate and walked with SJ into their garden. Despite the heat Pooh and Moo kept up their excited welcome for some minutes, both darting off in different directions to find toys, bringing them back in their mouths as welcome gifts. Pooh found his trusted old shoe and Moo a found his new toy, a bright yellow squeaky plastic banana.
“Samuel, do you fancy a drink?”
SJ said over her shoulder as she headed for the house,
“Yep,a nice cold beer will do me fine.”
Replied Samuel, as he played on the grass with both the dogs. After a couple of minutes of having their toys thrown for them to fetch, both Pooh and Moo tired of the game and the heat and retreated into the cool shade of the veranda. Samuel lay back on the grass and stared into the dark blue late afternoon sky. A couple of large brown Pelicans crossed his gaze, flying low and lazily over his head. ‘Not a care in the world’ Samuel thought to himself as they passed out of his view. They were probably the same happy couple that he saw flying overhead at least three or four times a week, maybe out on an early evening fishing trip along the eastern shore of the lake. No worries about money, no stresses about work or deadened by the utter boredom caused by the tedious nature of a days work just completed or the dread of the next days work yet to commence, and no new zoning applications to fight. Samuel wiped the sweat out of his eyes and off of his brow with the back of his forearm and hand, sat up and turned to look back at his home. It was such a beautiful setting, the house, its gardens, its location and its views out across the mouth of the bayou and the lake beyond. It was quiet and peaceful and that would all be destroyed if the proposed alligator farm gained zoning approval.
“Here we go Samuel.”
SJ said handing him his cold beer and as she seating herself next to him on the grass. She took a sip of her gin and tonic, the ice jangling in the glass.
” Well what do you reckon about all this then.”
She continued, pointing to the zoning application lying next to Samuel. There was silence for a minute or so before Samuel sat up and spoke.
“I’ll write a letter of opposition and send it in, I’ve done all the research for the last zoning application, so I’ll just copy and paste relevant parts and send it off and wait and see.”
With that he smiled at SJ and lay back on the grass gazing up into the clear blue skies overhead.
Later with dinner finished, SJ called out to Pooh and Moo, rattling their leads in her hand
“Walkies.”
She called as both the excided dogs came bounding into the kitchen. They both wagged themselves into frenzy, Moo as ever accompanying his excited dance with howls and barks of anticipation, Pooh sitting ears back tail wagging awaiting the lead to be put around his neck. Samuel got up from the table, yawned, stretched then followed SJ out the door and said sarcastically,
“Looks like I’ll be doing the clearing up then.”
SJ didn’t reply as she was pulled out through kitchen door into the still hot evening sun by two dogs on a ‘Walkies mission’.
Samuel cleared the table; he scrapped some leftover food into the dogs bowls ready for their return and placed the dishes in the sink. As he stood at the sink staring out over his garden to the sparkling waters beyond, his mind started to wander and his mood darkened.
A voice within him started, a dark angry voice that was half thought and half spoken,
”Fuckin aresholes…why the fuck can’t they just fuck off and leave us alone here………Fuckin zoning application……., fuckin zoning officials…… ,why the fuck…………”
He slammed the cutlery down on the draining board before continuing his rant with himself. “Aaaaarrrgh those fuckin useless, spineless cunts the lot of them ….fuck off pricks!.”
He exploded, flinging the metal meat tray to the floor and storming out into the sticky evening air. The atmosphere in the garden matched his mood, oppressive, stifling and foreboding. He walked down across the lawn and slumped down with a grunt, leaning back against the lone Cypress with his legs stretched out in front of him crossed at his tatty old boots. He slowly took a pouch from his pocket and opened it, gazing out across the rippling orange waters he rolled himself a cigarette, lit it, blowing out a huge plume in the direction of a swarm of that were dancing around at the waters edge. They dispersed under the onslaught of the tobacco smoke and Samuel watched as they re assembled their mad, frenetic swarm some ten feet further way. The heat of the day was still intense even though the sun was nearing the horizon and in the distance Samuel watched the dark storm heads bubble and surge ever higher and nearer. From far away he heard a faint rumble; a storm was certainly building, on its way north west across the humid steaming wetlands. A storm was also brewing in Samuel’s mind, for the last few weeks he had been completely fine, work was shit but work always was to him, apart from that everything seemed relatively rosy. SJ seemed happy, Jason was happy, the dogs were fine and life seemed reasonably peaceful, but now a trigger had been pulled. His head popped and fizzed, darkness drifted across his consciousness like an early morning mist, agitation, fear, hate and foreboding all intertwined and these feelings were interspersed with lighter patches of constructive and brighter thought. He flicked his cigarette butt into the darkening waters and stared as small ripples radiated out from the sizzling point of demise of the burning weed. Blankness enveloped his mind in an avalanche of nothingness and there he sat, silent and unmoving. It was just turning from twilight to darkness when a wet tongue slopped up across his cheek and ear in an upward swipe, followed by multiple small and fast wet licks aimed at his ear, this jolted Samuel back into the present and he momentarily recoiled away from the wet attention before realizing it was Moo with Pooh in close support wagging himself in circles around and over his prone legs.
As he was adjusting to the present, a finger tapped on his head.
”Come on Samuel its time to come in.”
SJ said softly from above him.
“Oh yes.”
Samuel said slowly as he pulled himself up onto his feet. The pair of them wandered back towards the house with a storm rumbling and flashing, ever closer behind them in the gloom of dusk.
As the four of them climbed the small wooden staircase onto the veranda the first super large drops of storm rain began to fall. As Pooh and Moo went on ahead and sat on their beds in the kitchen, a brilliant white purple flash illuminated the scene followed immediately by a booming, cracking explosion of noise directly overhead. Both SJ and Samuel flinched noticeably.
“Oh my god, that made me jump.”
SJ said half laughing,
“Me too SJ, that was a close one.”
Replied Samuel closing the door behind them, he walked over to the kitchen table and sat down, he rubbed his eyes trying to adjust to the light of the kitchen. SJ stood at the kitchen sink peering into the descending darkness of their garden, her face illuminated by the lightning flashes that lit up the looming storm clouds from within. The dusk was streaked by dazzling forks and cracks of white-blue-mauve colour that raced through the clouds, making them glow from within in a cascade of vivid glowing bright whites, purples, and bluish greens flashes. Both Pooh and Moo lay in their beds with their ears pulled back as each explosion of thunder detonated around and above them, they were not scared of the thunder but it did unsettle them somewhat.
Samuel sat silently, watching the storm from behind SJ, his mind mirroring the storm outside with its flashes and rumbles within an all enveloping cloud of darkness.
The flashes of the storm outside became more frequent and the booming crashes of thunder grew more intense as the storm rolled slowly over head. Samuel stayed sitting there unblinking, unthinking for a time, a time that he was unaware of but enough time for the storm to have continued its slow progress north west towards Ville Platte. When he returned to the present the storm was but a faint rumble in the distance. SJ was gone and the kitchen windows and back door were all closed for the night. A wet nose nuzzled his right arm that hung down by his side; he instinctively patted the head of the owner of the wet nose and was rewarded by slow and steady licks of his arm. Pooh had been lying next to his master’s chair with Moo the other side. On sensing his masters conscious mind returning either by some unknown dog sense or by picking up on some subtle changes in breathing or the slightest body movement, Pooh had nuzzled Samuel’s arm to encourage his return to the present. This is something that he had learned over the years. Years of lying on guard, initially on his own, then as a pair, when his son Moo had arrived, guarding their master while his mind was turned off, keeping him company over the long hours of inactivity when he sat or lay immobile, unthinking.; Sometimes half conscious, mostly completely unconscious in a deep sleep of depressed darkness and pain.
“Oh boys…., boys.”
Samuel said to his two faithful guardians.
“Come on time for bed.”
He stood up from the table and shuffled around the kitchen to the back door.
“Go on boys out you go for your last pee.”
He said as he opened the back door and turned on the outside light for the two dogs. The storm had cooled the air and as the door opened the three of them were met by a cool, fresh breeze. Samuel stood at the door while Pooh and Moo patrolled their borders for the last time that day, serenaded by a grand chorus of Green Tree frogs, locally known as ‘Cowbell frogs’ after the ‘quenk ‘or ‘quank’ sounds that they make, these sounds were interspersed by the ‘jug-o-rum’ call of the bullfrog over a back ground of intense cricket chirping. A large moth droned around the new light source on the veranda, soon being joined by a whole circus of varying sized moths and insects that rolled and cartwheeled around the bulb, performing intricate aerobatics as they fluttered around, all drawn to the light. In the darkness Moo barked an alarm bark into the night, a noise or smell had alerted him to something out in the blackness beyond the fence line. He was soon joined by a couple of slow deep barks and the low rumble of a protective growl as Pooh arrived alongside Moo as support.
“Shhhh quiet, come on boy’s time for bed.”
Samuel called is a half whisper into the night, Samuel was aware that it was late and had not wanted to wake up SJ, Jason or any of his neighbors. Obediently both dogs fell silent and turned and padded back up across the damp grass to the house. Moo emerged first from the darkness and leaped up the stairs past Samuel and into the house in a four large bounds, not far behind Pooh emerged and continued his slower return, with a final sniff of the night air Pooh climbed the wooden stairs and followed Moo into the kitchen. Samuel closed the back door and locked it, he then followed both the dogs upstairs to bed making sure to be right behind Pooh who was just starting to find the stairs difficult at times to climb in one go. If required Samuel would stop with Pooh and gently encourage him from behind to continue to the top. Once at the top Samuel quietly opened Jason’s door and whispered into the darkness.
“Night Jason.”
He then walked along the corridor and opened SJ’s door.
“Night SJ, sleep well.”
Silently closing the door behind him Samuel crossed the corridor to his room; he turned on the light and looked in his mirror. ‘What a mess’, he thought to himself. Staring back at him from the mirror was a tired looking man standing blankly before him, a hollow looking person with distant eyes and still dirty from the work of the day. He sat on his bed, pulled off his stained t-shirt, unbuttoned his muddy combat trousers and took them off. He lay back on the bed with a sigh, Pooh ‘rooed’ quietly in his ear, a gentle questioning sound, Samuel pointed to the bottom of the bed and clicked his fingers, Pooh obliged and with a single well measured bound was up onto the bed, curling himself up at his masters feet. Moo circled around and around on his own bed on the floor, pawing at the cushion, patting it into place, around and around he went puffing and grunting until finally he lay down with a muffled thump and sigh.
Samuel reached for the TV remote, he turned the TV on then set his alarm clock for the morning; setting the clock fifteen minutes fast so that when the alarm sounded at six forty five in the morning he would still have half a hour of sleep until it was time to get up at seven. This was a small psychological trick that he had used since his days in the military, days when he was young, fit and healthy but even then he found it difficult to get up, he seemed to enjoy his sleep more than his waking hours.
That extra thirty minutes of sleep, interrupted by a five or ten minute snooze button would give him short periods of intense dreamy sleep, normally the most vivid dreaming period of his night and ones that were quite enjoyable although they would fade away faster than he could normally remember them.
The TV lit up the room with a multi colored flickering glow as Samuel channel surfed, The Late Show, Jay Leno was talking with a British soccer player, a Mr. David Beckham who sat there looking more like a movie star than a sports man, it was quite an amusing interview. Next the Simpsons, Samuel smiled inwardly at Homer’s taunting of Ned Flanders, next KATC flashed up on the screen, Dating In The Dark, boring , then CW Vampire Diaries, again boring, then CBS Travels In Europe, this held Samuel’s attention for a while before his finger clicked down on the button again. The Discovery channel appeared, The Universe, at last something interesting. Samuel turned onto his side and settled his head into his pillow. His mind took in the facts as they came forth, the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang up until the present. Images and thoughts flooded across his consciousness as the narrator took the viewers from the initial super heated plasma of the infant universe through the creation of the first stars and galaxies on a journey into differing realities of multiple dimensions, mirror symmetries and quantum fluctuations. His mind made its own connections and postulated its own theories on the nature of the universe, space, time and reality as he slipped into unconscious dreams.
With a shrill ringing, the alarm announced the morning, both Pooh and Moo were lying sprawled out on Samuel’s bed, they lifted their heads at the sound and settled back down as soon as Samuel’s hand tapped upon the snooze button to stop the noise. Samuels’s body ached; his mind struggled for consciousness before slipping back into the vivid dream that he had been enjoying. The dream continued in full colored strangeness until the alarm sounded again. Like an automaton, Samuel’s lifted his hand and turned the alarm off, his mind would not engage, it was switched to the off position, he snuggled back into his pillow and drifted off again, there would be no work today.
It was noon before Samuel awoke, both Pooh and Moo were as usual on guard, both lying either side of their master, Moo’s tail wagged vigorously as Samuel roused, Pooh lifted his head, his tail thumped slowly onto the mattress as he cleaned his eyes with the sides of his front paws, he then settled his head back down, eyes firmly fixed on Samuel. SJ was in her salon as usual working hard, customers in and out every hour or so, chattering away continually, putting the world to rights, all unburdening themselves with their problems, using SJ as an informal counselor.
Jason was off at college, he hung out with a group of guys who he had met when he joined the college, they had all become good friends. He also occasionally hung out with a group of girls who all appeared to like him and this caused tensions between the group of girls who all vied for his attention. Jason was dark blonde with blue eyes, a handsome young man with a charm and confidence which had definitely grown over the last couple of years. He had a certain way with young women, a radiant smile and a naturally caring nature, something that he had inherited from SJ. Jason was currently attending the Acadiana Technical College, Charles B. Coreil Campus in Ville Platte, studying three, two year courses, Information communications technology, Business Administration and Drama and Acting.
Samuel had left his bedroom window shutters open and the dazzling noon sun shone in through the curtains from both ends of the bedroom, it was hotter than yesterday, the overhead fan whirred slowly round, its wooden blades simply moving around hot air, a breeze of sorts but not a refreshing one. Samuel was oblivious to the brilliant sunlight outside that was illuminating his bedroom through the curtains, the room through his eyes was dark and gloomy with little colour or contrast. He squinted his eyes as he peered into the perceived gloom, sitting up slowly he ushered the two loyal dogs to get off of the bed. He then swung his legs slowly over the side of the letting his bare feet rest on the polished wooden floor boards. He sat there motionless for an unknown time, finally his eyes focused on a crumpled piece of paper by his feet and his mind clicked back into action. He bent down, picked up the paper and opened up the scrunched up ball. It had typed writing on it so he strained to read it before finally reaching over to his bedside table for his reading glasses on.
‘Zoning Application Number 257……..’, It all came flooding back to him and as it did his mind exploded in a fit of fury,
“Fuckin arsehlole mother Fuckers.”
He blurted out between clenched jaws.
“Fuck them all.”
He continued, stamping his right foot hard on the floor boards sending both Pooh and Moo scurrying out of the bedroom with their ears back and their tails between their legs. Screwing up his eyes he leaned forward and held his face in his hands, dark foreboding thoughts sprang into being, anger, frustration, rage and hate all vied for position as the tornado of gloom raged. He scratched at his stubble covered chin with his fingers before sitting bolt upright and opening his eyes wide.
“Letter … Letter…..Letter.”
He whispered to himself, in the process initiating an internal battle within the depths of his mind to get moving and write a letter of objection to the zoning application or give in to the powers of gloom. If that happened he knew that he would curl up in a ball on his bed and let the darkness overtake him, draging him away to another world of spasms of anguish, pain and lonely detachment. Taking a deep breath and focusing all of his mental energies he got unsteadily to his feet and dressed, the bed was still trying to pull him back as he walked out of the bedroom and went down stairs.
“What was that loud thump I just heard?.”
Enquired SJ as Samuel entered the kitchen.
“Nothing.”
Samuel snapped back, still clutching the crumpled paper he walked over to the kettle and turned it on.
“Want a drink?”
He asked in a blank monotone voice.
“No thanks Samuel.”
SJ replied curtly as she left the kitchen holding a tray of refreshments for the two clients currently in her salon.
“Only asking.”
Samuel mumbled as he poured himself a large strong coffee, he then opened the refrigerator to return the milk and grabbed three large chocolate doughnuts, picking up his coffee on the way out the room he shuffled through the imagined gloom to his desk in his study.
Placing his unhealthy breakfast down of his desk, he pulled out the wooden chair and sat down. With a push of a button the computer whirred into life. It was an old Dell desktop that seemed to be driven by steam rather than the super fast leading edge current laptops, IPads, notebooks and mobile technology that was currently available. It had been a high spec home computer system when Samuel brought it some eight years before, Pentium 2, 3 GHz, 512 MB RAM with a 145 GB hard drive. But now it was old, its system performance was slow and its registry was clogged and in the computing world it was ancient. Jason often teased his Dad about the age and speed of his computer.
“That thing is crap Dad; it’s so slow it’s like a slug.”
Jason would say and he categorically refused to use the Dell as it was so incredibly slow in loading up and then once finally loaded it would often freeze or go on a ‘go slow’ for no apparent reason.
Jason much preferred his own computer, a super fast laptop, as did SJ who owned a top of the range Apple laptop. Samuel was just being frugal, he would have loved to constantly renew and keep up with the latest technologies but he had been brought up to make things last. Financially it was in his interest to make things of his own last so that both SJ and Jason could afford some of the nicer things in life and as a family they could save a little each year.
Samuel always put SJ’s and Jason’s wants before that of his own, the majority of clothing he owned was ten years old at least, his pick up was older and his car older than that. Even the desk that he now sat at was salvaged. It was a beautiful old antique writing desk that he had salvaged from construction dumpster years ago and brought home. SJ had initially not liked this new addition to the home but it was a nice well built piece of furniture. Samuel had replaced the leather inlay top of the desk and kept it polished but in was now in need of a bit of care as it had lost two brass drawer handles and one more continually fell off.
While waiting patiently for his old system to come to life and settle down ready for him to use Samuel ate his large chocolate doughnuts, slowly, quietly relishing their dark flavour, licking the sugary chocolate icing off of his lips between each bite. Both Pooh and Moo positioned themselves either side of Samuel, wearing their best begging faces, but to no avail this time. Chocolate was strictly off limits to both dogs as it was poisonous to them.
They would readily receive all sorts of food castoffs from Samuel, meet, fish, fowl, vegetables and even salad but chocolate was a ‘no, no’ in their house. Both dogs protested at being left out, with grumbles and whines but to no effect.
As he ate, Samuel planned out the letter in his head, he referred to the zoning notice a couple of times to pick up on the salient points, he then thought through the construction of the letter, his main points of objection and how to write them to have maximum effect. As soon as his computer was ready Samuel set to work writing his letter, he used his last zoning application objection letter containing the majority of his research as his basis, changing it here and there and adding paragraphs appropriate to his detailed objection to this new zoning application for the alligator farm.
His main concerns and reason for objection were the safety of his family and others who used the track outside his home that would form the access to the new proposed commercial development. It was already dangerous, narrow and the level of traffic had increased considerably since they had moved to Lokchapi. This proposal would more than double its current daily use. It would also have a negative effect upon the beauty of the mouth of the bayou and lake shore and ruin the views from the center of the village to the northern side of the bayou where it opened out into Lake Cavelier. Samuel was also aware that the area had certain local, state and national protections and added this to his letter.
The time passed quickly as Samuel bashed out his letter on his keyboard, saving his work continually onto his system and also onto a USB key drive for safety, he didn’t trust the stability of his computer, and often lost things so any work he did was saved to a plug in storage device as well. At least if the system crashed and had to be reinstalled he would have all his important data safe. Once completed he read the letter back to himself a couple of times, it was polite, identified the facts and put forward his arguments of objection strongly, reasonably satisfied with this first draft he saved it for the last time then compiled an e-mail to the name at the bottom of the Zoning Application Notice, a Mr. J.Clarke at the zoning department in Spicebridge.
The high intensive functioning of his synapses that had popped, sparkled, fizzed and bubbled with ideas, wording and the formulation and construction of his letter began to decline in their functioning and slow. His bright, electrified thoughts evaporated quickly and the ever-present darkness descended once again. It was now gone mid afternoon and not long before Jason would return home full of adolescent energy and a new sarcasms that had recently entered his vocabulary.
Samuel fought the darkness and energy sapping collapse as it pushed down on him. Gathering all his remaining mental and physical strength he turned off his computer, stood up from his desk and moved on auto pilot from the study into the kitchen. He fought the want to retreat to the warm, darkness of his bed and unconsciousness; he had a dinner to prepare for the three of them. SJ would not be to happy at his staying at home and not working and Jason most certainly would have some digging, sarcastic comment to make about his dad not having been at work. At least if he could prepare a nice meal for them all it would allow SJ to relax straight after her work finished and it would also take some of the bite out of Jason’s comments.
Blackened chicken with side dishes of a salad of wilted spinach, crisp and butterhead lettuce leaves, baked potatoes and a potato salad with crisp fried bacon, bell peppers, diced celery, green onions, sour crème and mayonnaise came into his mind. Samuel always liked to liven the main dish up with Cayenne pepper and Thyme. Being a good cook Samuel set about the preparation and cooking of this meal with ease. He had cooked since he was sixteen and found it easy, if anything the temporary distraction of food preparation eased his mood for a while. He enjoyed building salads. His salads contained lettuce, sometimes wilted spinach if they had any, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, onion and again if they had it sliced avocado. Cheese was also something that would often be on the menu with a salad, as would hard boiled eggs. Salads prepared and chicken seasoned for the oven, Samuel put everything away in the refrigerator ready for later.
His mental and physical strength was waning again so he poured himself a cold fruit squash, went out into the shade of the veranda and sat down on their old wicker sofa. Pooh and Moo followed him out and lay at his feet panting in the afternoon heat. By the time Jason arrived home Samuel had sat in the same position motionless for just over an hour, nothing had crossed his conscious mind, not thought, emotion or reaction. However in his subconscious his mind was racing, dissecting the zoning application again, reviewing what he had written, considering all of the local and state zoning laws that he had researched, making new connections analyzing the points he had made and formulating a more detailed and focused response to the zoning application. The barking of the dogs at Jason’s arrival home brought him around. He jumped in his seat, his mind returning to the present.
“Hey Dad, no work today?”
Jason asked as he climbed the steps onto the veranda with both dogs vying for his attention, Pooh tail wagging holding his trusted shoe in his mouth and Moo barging in between them , banana in mouth, tail wagging at full speed.
“No Jason not today….. I’m not in the greatest of moods at the moment and anyway I had an important letter to write…………. We’ve got a nice dinner tonight that I’ve prepared, blackened chicken and side dishes.”
Jason grunted a reply as he walked into the kitchen kicking of his sneakers as he went.
Exhausted by the heat of the day and continual workload, hour after hour all day non stop, SJ had finally finished. She spent fifteen minutes sweeping up the hair cuttings, sterilizing all of her equipment, collecting towels for the wash, in general clearing up for the night to be all ready for an eight thirty start again in the morning before closing and locking her salon door.
As she walked into the kitchen she was greeted by the sight of their table set for dinner, a cold glass of wine on the table for her, Samuel cursed under his breath as he sliced open a steaming baked potato slightly burning his fingers. Pooh and Moo bounded into the kitchen toys in their mouths, tails wagging, they were always happy and full of energy, nothing seem to be able to dampen their zest for life. SJ put her bundle of towels on the sideboard and patted the dogs as they weaved and wagged their way around her knees.
“Good boys, good boys, have you had a good day?”
She inquired of them as they continued their welcome. Samuel was still engrossed with the preparation of the three large, hot, steaming baked potatoes. He had sliced two of them in half and put them on plates awaiting a generous portion of butter and was currently juggling with the last one, moving it from hand to hand quickly before its heat could burn him again.
“Hey Samuel, had a good day?”
SJ inquired of the cursing cook. There was a brief silence as Samuel’s mind registered the presence of SJ, her question and then delivered a response.
“Oh hello SJ …finished at last… Have you had a good day?…. I’ve made us blackened chicken baked potatoes and salad for dinner……….. There’s a cold wine on the table for you.”
He replied in a monotonous monotone without turning or lifting his head from his task in hand.
“Busy and long.”
SJ replied followed by a long sigh.
“I’ll give Jason a call for his dinner if it’s ready.”
She continued before walking out into the hallway and calling up the stairs for Jason to come down. Three calls later and with no reply SJ wearily climbed the stairs, and knocked on Jason door.
“Come on you its dinner.”
She said as she entered his room, Jason was at his desk, tapping away at his laptop keyboard, earphones on, head bobbing and nodding to the beat. She gently trapped him on the shoulder, making him jump.
”Oh my god mom, you frightened the life out of me.”
“Come on you its dinner, dads got it all laid out on the table.”
Jason leaped up from his desk and joined his mom. By the time they got back down stairs, Samuel was sitting at the table, all of their plates were piled high with food; he had poured a cold fruit drink for Jason and had a tall cold glass of beer for himself in his hand.
SJ chatted mainly to Jason as they ate, Samuel was quiet, he listened and added a comment here or there when his mind was in the moment, when it was not he just ate mechanically with the surrounding conversation not even registering. On each side of him as usual were his two dogs each a master of the art of begging, positioned a foot to each side, they waiting patiently, expectantly and hopefully for the inevitable scraps that would come their way. Jason talked about his day, a girl he had his eye on and how he couldn’t wait to have his driving license and a car. SJ chatted about her day, a couple of funny stories she had been told by her clients earlier in the day and moaned a bit about the humidity. And so the meal continued, Pooh and Moo gave the occasional low rumbling whine or quiet soft bark to gently remind Samuel that they were there and would like some of his dinner. They would both be told by SJ or Jason to be quiet and to stop begging or they would be rewarded by Samuel with some small offering from his plate. This usually brought a disapproving look from SJ or an annoyed comment from Jason, but Samuel ignored this.
As they were nearing the end of their meal SJ asked Samuel how he had got on with his letter of objection to the zoning application. Samuel looked up from his plate; the cogs in his mind whirred and clunked. The switch turned firmly to on, a surge of electrical impulses coursed through his mind. He became animated, his pupils widened and his slightly vacant, distant expression disappeared.
“Oh great, I went through their application in detail, made a couple of notes, looked up all of the current zoning laws, did a bit more research on Google…..I then confirmed that my arguments were based on law, the majority of stuff I needed I had already researched, then I just wrote the letter……. It’s currently in draft so I want to finesse it but the majority of it is done, so once it’s finished I will e-mail it in the all will be done and dusted , I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see from then on.”
“Well done, Samuel, you’re right, we’ll just have to wait and see once you’ve sent it in…….. I do hope they don’t get it though …can you imagine all that extra traffic going past us along that little dusty track and what the hell will it look like? ……..it’s such beautiful country, such a beautiful unspoiled shore line.”
SJ spoke half out aloud and half to herself as she contemplated the outcome.
”It’ll soon be all done, all done, we’ll just have to wait and see then.”
Samuel slowly repeated as his thoughts began to evaporate and his brain functioning stalled. Jason finished his meal, gulped down the remainder of his juice and sprang up from the table, full of good healthy food and tiring of his parents conversation he returned to his room, dived on his bed, picked up his cell phone and checked for texts then rolled over onto his stomach and started tapping away at his laptop furiously.
SJ and Samuel sat together watching TV for a couple of hours before an exhausted SJ stood wearily up.
“I’m off for a nice cool shower then an early night Samuel, I’m shattered”.
She said as she picked her empty wine glass up from the low coffee table and headed out of the room.
Samuel had been gazing at the TV all evening but not really taking anything in, her movement across his view of the TV roused him from where ever his mind had taken him
Urrgh… what….what was that SJ?
“I’m getting an early night Samuel….goodnight.”
She repeated as she walked out the door.
“Oh… uugh… yes good night SJ sleep well”.
Samuel replied as his mind returned to the present, he stretched, yawned and got slowly up and walked over and turned the TV off at the wall, then walked out of the lounge across the hallway and into the kitchen followed by Pooh and Moo.
“Go on boys out you both go….go on its time for a pee”
He sad as he opened the back door and let the two dogs out into the stifling darkness of the night. Moo bounded across the verandah and down the steps onto the lawn followed by a more sedate Pooh and together they went on their final patrol of their garden for that day. Samuel followed them out onto the verandah, closing the kitchen door behind him and stood in the darkness waiting for their return. He could hear their progress along the boundary fences of the back garden, bushes rustling with the two dogs sniffing and snorting as they went. As Samuel stood looking out across the lake at the sparkling starlit sky his mind sparked and all of his subconscious thoughts about the zoning application came flooding into his consciousness in an avalanche of insight. He suddenly became energized and focused as his conscious mind made sense of this eruption of thought, it registered each piece of information, categorizing and prioritizing it , identifying connections focusing in on the specific relevance that each differing argument that he had made in his draft letter. He didn’t know how long he had stood there but a barking Pooh brought his mind back and he found his two dogs sitting by the back door of his house patiently waiting to be let back in so they could go to bed.
Samuel obliged and let the two dogs in and escorted them both up to his bedroom . As soon as they has settled themselves comfortably on his bed he closed the bedroom door and ran downstairs and into his study. He turned his computer on and while it loaded went into the kitchen and fixed himself a sandwich and grabbed a beer from the refrigerator.
Samuel sat with his face illuminated by the glow of his computer screen in the darkness of his study and reworked his letter of objection. He sat completely focused as he typed away, re analyzing the specific wording of the zoning application and carrying out more research into the wording of all relevant local and state zoning laws He then went on to identified every instance where the zoning application would be in non compliance with a local or state zoning law and related these pieces of information together in his letter to further support his arguments of objection. By five am he had completely re-written his letter and identified some questions the he needed to ask Mr. Clarke before he could send his letter in. With a satisfied smile he saved his work and as usual that included saving it to his pen drive for a back up. He then compiled an e-mail to Mr. Clarke at the zoning department asking him a list of specific questions about local zoning policy and to confirm some information about the zoning application itself. He then pressed send and sent his e-mail off then closed down his computer for the night.
He was shattered, he had completely re-worked the content and format of his letter taking into account his newly found insight and now that task was achieved his brain slowed and his synapses stopped firing at such an accelerated rate.
Over the course of the next couple of days Samuel was absorbed almost to the point of obsession with perfecting his letter and the consequences of this were being felt by the entire household. He only managed a few hours work digging ditches, he was hyper energized and talked to both SJ and Jason at what seemed like one hundred miles per hour and was quite irritable and erratic in his behavior, being a pain to be around. For Samuel it was a time of energized thought and consciousness, heightened feelings of well being and a zest for life that just flowed from within.
He had unsuccessfully tried to speak by phone with Mr. Clarke on three occasions, only managing to speak to an office junior who couldn’t really answer his questions and couldn’t tell Samuel how or when he could speak to Mr. Clarke in person. Samuel had also sent three e-mails requesting some answers to his questions and all of them had gone unanswered. It was obvious to Samuel that the people in the zoning department were trying to avoid his questions, they didn’t even acknowledge receipt of his e-mailed requests. This infuriated him and drove him on with an almost zealous endeavor to perfect and complete his letter then send it in.
Finally Samuel finished his letter, it ran to fourteen pages of well organised critique of the zoning application and clearly stated every instance of its non compliance with a whole host of zoning laws. It was eloquently worded, very focused, completely based on fact and it included Samuel’s interpretation and analysis of the relevant local and state zoning laws. With his task completed Samuel wrote another e-mail to Mr Clarke and copied in his boss a Mr H. Mouton, he then attached his letter and pressed send, at last it was done, Samuel was content with his efforts, his letter was well thought out and his reasons for objection where based on views and concerns that both he and SJ held and truly believed in, they were factually based, concise and based upon non compliance with zoning laws.
Samuel’s elevated mood carried on for another day or so, he went to work, was happy and full of the joys of life then the energy ran out completely and he nosedived for a day or so into his dark abyss before resurfacing as his usual self. He got up for work every day, worked hard and when he arrived home from a hot exhausting day’s work he was was happy, chatty and fun to be around. He bathed, shaved, changed his clothes, walked the dogs, cooked food and was himself again and this was such a relief for both SJ and Jason.
I hope you enjoy your reading. It is available on Kindle and a free copy can be borrowed for download at https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Blue-Heron-Howard-Moore-ebook/dp/B00KK6BWLK..
Howard Moore
