Chapter 27 Bluster, Lies and Deceit
It had been almost a week since Samuel had e-mailed off his objections to the zoning application, and he had been hoping he would have had a reply by now or at least an acknowledgement of his letter but as yet nothing.
The heat and humidity had risen to almost unbearable levels, sapping the energy and scrambling the brain of all who endured its clammy embrace. The days were tortuous and the nights gave little rest bite. Samuel spent the day working at the Israel Fonts’ smallholding just east of Malase where the swamplands gave way to the slightly higher and drier grasslands that were divided up into small farms.
Israel Fonts was born in the house that he still lived in with his family and it was a homestead that was founded in 1811 by his great, great, great, grandfather Caesar Fontenot. Caesar was a charge hand at the former Fontenot Cotton plantation, he had been second only in seniority to the white overseer and had had certain privileges. Caesar had been given this plot of land by the Fontenot family in 1811 for his help in managing the transition in working practices at the plantation after the emancipation of all of its owned slaves in the dying months of 1810. Over the course of three years Caesar helped change the plantation to a place of work were there was respect, a wage, better working and living conditions and a family life. With this change came an increase in productivity, an increase in the tonnage of cotton produced and an increase in the wealth of the Fontenot family. Caesar was given twenty five acres which his descendants had built up to two hundred and thirty acres over the years.
Israel farmed cotton, rice, some maize and kept pigs, cattle and chickens, he had a loving wife called Moma F and seven children who had all grown up working the land with him. Moma F was known as Moma F to everybody, family, the post man, the bank clerk, even the sheriff knew Moma F who was renowned locally for her love of singing and her warm and generous heart. Moma F worked part time in Ville Platte, on the farmstead with Israel and also contributed four evenings and one day per weekend to her charity work.
The day had stated well for Samuel, he had risen early, eaten his breakfast, walked the dogs and was out of the house before either SJ or Jason had come down for breakfast at seven am. His mood was average to good and he had energy in his body, which was unusual.
Samuel arrived at Israel’s at seven forty and by eight o’clock had started his first ‘pull’. The Ditchboard was still performing as well as it had on its first outing years earlier when Maurice, SJ and Jason had watched Samuel slowly pilot it along its first ditch, it had had some additions to it over the years and a couple of different paint jobs. Samuel had added a small seat, a holder for an umbrella or similar sort of sun shade and a nine volt battery and a CD radio to help ease the boredom.
As Samuel neared the middle of this first ‘pull’ Israel came wandering over to say hello to him.Israel walked slowly alongside Samuel at the top of the ditch and they talked for a while. They talked about their families, work and inevitably the weather and the heat and humidity that was on everyone’s mind. Samuel told Israel about his efforts to have a zoning application close to his house refused and made clear how frustrated he had become with the zoning department and almost everybody who had provided consultative advice or reports about the application.
“It’s just bullshit Israel…., everything I read from them is full of out and out lies, they distort the truth, they don’t seem to pay any attention to any of their own policies and where they do they just discount them as irrelevant…..as I said Israel bullshit pure bullshit……..”
“Muthafuckers.”
Israel said as he shook his head slowly from side to side.
“Just what I thought …………,and it seems as if they are trying to deceive the powers that be into having the application approved with all of their deceit………., I don’t know, I really don’t…, they seem a law unto themselves”.
“Auh agree with thad Samuel, Auh view most of them in town hall as arrogant autocrats.., whad is the sayin?..‘Power corrupts, an absolute power corrupts absolutely’, well give them folk a little bid of power an id goes to they-ar heads an fore yuh know id they is doing just whad they wand to whoever they wand”.
“You’re right Israel, your right”.
“They is all bushwa them people.., all bushwa.”
Israel said as he looked up into the clear blue skies overhead.
“Sure wish idda rain again.”
He said as he continued walking along the top of the ditch besides Samuel who down in the ditch maintained his slow forward movement, cutting a clear channel as he went. Israel changed the subject fearing they were veering into discussing politics and that was a subject he hated, discussing politics always seemed to end in an argument of some kind or other. Samuel looked up and scanned the skies, there was not a cloud in sight and the air shimmered and rippled in the heat between where they were and Samuels’s pickup further along the ditch.
“Not today Israel…., not today.”
Samuel replied wishing like Israel that the end of summer’s cooling rain and winds would arrive early.
By four thirty Samuel had completed all of his work for Israel, he loaded the Ditchboard onto the back of his pickup climbed wearily into the cab and slowly drove around to the house to say hi to Momma F, say goodbye to Israel and collect his money. As he walked up the front steps of the house onto Israel’s front porch Momma F came out of the house, she squealed with delight when she saw him.
“Heya Samuel come give Moma F a big hug.”
She said as she flung open her arms and enveloped Samuel in her ample embrace.
She invited him in and sat him at her table under a slowly rotating ceiling fan and then she made them both a long tall cold sweet tea. It was made with ice, lemon, sugar and a sprig of mint, the glasses clinked with ice as she brought them over and sat down along side him. They chatted away for ten minutes or so about both of their families, the farm, SJ’s work and inevitably the unbelievable heat and humidity, with Momma F delivering as much local gossip as she could fit into the time. A rich, sweet smell of molasses wafted over from the stove in the corner of the kitchen and Moma F jumped up and rushed to attend to it. She opened the door of the oven and the whole room was engulfed in a much deeper and sweeter smell of freshly baked cakes.
“Heya Samuel look whad Moma F’s cooked for yuh tuh take on home wid yuh”.
She said as she took a tray out of the oven with two cake tins on it.
“Something smells good.”
Samuel said as Momma F fussed around with her cakes, she put them on the table and expertly turned both cakes out onto a large board. She then spent a minute or so wrapping two huge cakes with grease proof paper, chuckling to herself as she prepared her gifts for Samuel.
“Now Samuel Auh’ve made you, SJ and that lovely boy of yours Jason a King cake an a large rich fruit cake, thought thad Auh’d pud some meat on them skinny ol’bones of yours.”
Momma F said with a wide, beaming smile. As she was placing the second of the wrapped cakes in front of Samuel,Israel walked in through the back door of the kitchen.
“Hey thanks Samuel, great job.”
He said as he held out a wad of notes for Samuel.
Samuel accepted his cash without counting it and tucked it into the front pocket of his combat trousers, the Fonts were all good honest people that could be trusted and he knew that he did not need to count his money. With a final slurp of his ice cold sweet tea Samuel stood up, said his goodbyes, then with his two warm packages sitting besides him on his front seat he drove off down the Font’s front drive, turned left onto the highway and headed for home.
It was just coming up for five thirty when Samuel pulled up onto his drive, ‘home at last’, he thought as he jumped down from his cab then reached back in to pick up his lunchbox and empty bottle of fruit juice and the two warm cakes. With a bounce in his step and smile on his lips he walked over to his side gate where his two best friends waited for his arrival. Moo stood up on his hind legs with his front paws on the top of the picket fence, he craned his head over and to the left to catch the first glimpse of his master and friend approaching. Pooh stood head down, listening intently with his tail wagging slowly from side to side. As Samuel came into sight and approached his side gate the frequency of the dogs tail rotations increased, Moo made an excited ‘woooooughh’, noise and Pooh lifted his head and joined in with a lower and more gentle welcoming ‘woo,…woooh,…woooh’,
“Hey boys.”
Samuel shouted as he saw them waiting for him as usual, he walked through the gate closing it carefully behind him and was encircled by two happy, tail wagging dogs who vied with each other for their master’s attention. They followed him closely across the lawn, up the steps, across the veranda and into the cool of the kitchen.
To his surprise SJ had finished work, changed, poured herself a glass of wine and was busily preparing some salad.
“Hi Samuel, had a good day?”
She asked as he walked in.
“Yes SJ, I have today, really hot, but good, everything went well and look what Momma F has baked for us.”
He said as he placed the two neatly wrapped packages on the kitchen table.
“I smell food.”
Came a voice from a hungry Jason as he loped into the kitchen with Jenny-Ray in tow.
“Hiyya.”
Jenny –Ray said as she took up a seat at the table next to where Jason had just sat down.
“Mmmm what this?”
Jason said as he hurriedly unwrapped the first parcel, there was a brief crackling of paper before he shouted,
“Great, King cake, Jenny d’yuh want some King cake?…Mom can we have some cake?”
“Yes ok, dinner’s not till seven so go on then…, but don’t make too much mess and don’t spoil your dinner……., Jenny are you eating with us this evening?”
SJ asked over her shoulder as she shredded some lettuce.
“Yes SJ if that’s ok”’
“Of course honey just don’t spoil it by eating too much cake.”
While Jason and Jenny tucked into the King cake Samuel removed his snake gaiters and boots then grabbed himself a cold beer from the refrigerator, walked out of the kitchen, sat himself down at his desk in the study and turned on his computer.
He chuckled to himself as some sarcastic comment floated through from the kitchen, it was Jason’s voice and it was something to do with the age and slowness of his dad’s computer, and yes if Samuel was honest with himself Jason was right. His computer was old, its files were cluttered and it was extremely slow, but he knew that he could squeeze a couple or three more years out of it, ‘just so long as I take a backup regularly’, he thought to himself, and then if it died on him it would not be a major catastrophe. With two slices each of cake eaten and washed down with ice cold Coke, Jason and Jenny had finished eating, cleared up their mess after themselves and then traipsed out of the kitchen past Samuel who was sat motionless at his desk still waiting for Windows to load.
Samuel sat there patiently sipping his beer as he waited. Five minutes later the hard drive stopped whirring and finally the system was ready for him to use.
Automatically he updated his daily takings book with his payment from the Fonts then went on to check his e-mail. There was never anything of much interest for Samuel in his inbox.
Samuel didn’t have any friends that would e-mail him with jokes, gossip, funny things to look at online or anything like that. He was not like SJ who had friends who would regularly e-mail, text and FaceBook her, he had cut himself off from his friends from Baton Rouge over ten years ago and did not really have any friends in Evangeline, he focused on his family, SJ, Jason Pooh and Moo were all that mattered to him. Samuel’s e-mails were all to do with their house or car insurance, Jason’s college, tax, bills, bills and more bills or spam, there was never anything of interest, anything funny or anything that mildly stimulated his mind. He would receive the occasional e-mail from his family but not that often.
As his e-mail window opened he selected his inbox and quickly scanned its contents.
Gas bill, Wal-Mart advertising, spam, spam, MacAfee, lottery ticket receipt and the last one, Zoning department.
‘Ahh a reply at last’, he thought to himself as he selected the e-mail from the , Zoning department and waited for it to open. He scan read the introduction, blah, blah, blah, then moved down into the meat of the e-mail. As he read on through the e-mail his teeth started to grind and his toes scrunch up in his socks. Halfway down the page a couple of “Fucks,” slipped past his lips in a whisper, the frequency and volume of the swearing increased as his eyes ran along each line in turn, it did however stop as he read then re-read the last sentence.
‘The zoning application will now be decided by the Zoning Committee after a site visit, both dates to be confirmed by letter and you will be invited to attend’.
‘Regards Mr. J. Clarke’, were the last three words that his mind processed before Samuel jumped violently up from his desk, knocking his chair backwards and sending both Pooh and Moo scurrying away with their tails between their legs.
“Yes, Yes.”
Samuel shouted as he punched the air and stormed away from his desk and back into the kitchen. His mind was in turmoil, he was pleased that he would be given the chance to present his objections to a committee and they would be the final arbiters but extremely annoyed that his main points and objections had been ignored by Clarke.
“I can’t Fuckin believe it , those mother fuckin dickheads have replied to my objection document but ignored a third of what I had written completely and discounting the rest of what I had written as out of date, stating that my points raised referenced old policies and guidelines and irrelevant laws….Cunts, fuckin cunts!……..It’s all lies…., fuckin lies and deceit.”
Came streaming out of an agitated Samuel as he sat down at the kitchen table still spitting venom.
“At least it is going to a zoning committee to make a decision.”
He continued with a weak smile.
“Samuel, Samuel what’s up.”
SJ enquired, putting down her kitchen knife and sitting down opposite Samuel at the table.
“Pricks, pricks, …. I’ve just received an e-mail from that dickhead Clarke in the zoning department and its all a load of crap,……… everything that I had identified that the application was not complying with has been either completely ignored or shrugged off as of no significance,……his response is all bluster lies and deceit….. He has fuckin ignored my main points and the ones he has acknowledged he has identified as being irrelevant………… Fuckin prick!”
He screamed as he thumped the table with both fists making SJ, Pooh and Moo all jump.
Silence descended on the kitchen for thirty seconds or so before Samuel spoke.
”The application is going in front of a committee to be decided now.”
Samuel said halfheartedly and with a bang Samuel’s right fist slammed down onto the table for the second time. The two dogs who were laying quietly in their beds with their heads down and ears back both slowly got up and slunk slow and low out of the kitchen. They could read their master well and sensed his mood was changing rapidly and it would be best to keep out of his way until he was happier. Not that Samuel ever did or said anything nasty to his two best friends it was just that they did not like his raised voice, his aggressive manner, his shouting and the horrible atmosphere that descended on the house when he fell into this kind of mood.
SJ held her chin in her hands as she looked across at the table at the agitated, animated and angry man that sat opposite. As he ranted and raged he spat as he swore, his face twisted and contorted its muscles into unrecognizable features as the wave of temper rode through Samuel’s body. He talked at a hundred miles an hour as he reanalyzed all of the relevant parts of the zoning application in detail. Every area of non compliance was identified and associated with the appropriate policy, guideline or law that was relevant and the reasoning of each objection was worked through. After almost five minutes of continuous babbling, SJ had had enough.
“Samuel, Samuel!”
She shouted before banging her left palm down on the table in front of them both.
Samuel stopped mid flow; he froze for a few seconds, before slowly looking up into SJ’s face with a blank expression and deep distant eyes, eyes that looked straight through SJ, eyes that were empty.
“You’ve managed to get it in front of a committee to decide it and that’s fantastic.”
She continued in a more soothing voice.
It was true that this achievement was significant but Samuel’s mind had read into the subtext of the letter and that said to him that they were not listening to him and the committee would just be going through the motions, ‘if they didn’t listen now what would be different in a few of weeks time’, he thought.
As much as SJ tried to congratulate Samuel on this initial success and sooth his raging mind nothing she said seemed to be getting through.
He stood up slowly from the table, turned and walked towards the kitchen door.
“Leave my dinner on the side please.”
Samuel said in a low monotone voice as he disappeared from the room like a slow motion robot.
SJ’s heart sank, she knew the signs, she knew that this e-mail response that Samuel had received from the local zoning department was a perfect trigger, tears ran down her cheeks as she got up from the table and returned to preparing their evening meal. In her mind she visualized the coming days and weeks where the atmosphere in the house would be continually on a knife edge and Samuel would get swallowed up into his black void.
A minute later Samuel was back, he entered the kitchen as if walking knee deep through treacle and made his way listlessly to the back door. He opened it slowly and continued outside back into the heat of late afternoon closely followed by both Pooh and Moo. SJ watched as Samuel trudged down their steps with the two dogs in tow, slinking along behind him with their ears held well back, tails drooped and heads down. The sorrowful trio made their way lethargically down the garden, when they had arrived at the waters edge Samuel sat himself down under his magnificent Cypress, leant his back against the trunk and gazed out over the golden rippling waters. As usual Pooh seated himself on one side and followed his master’s gaze out across the water while Moo curled himself up on the other side tight against his masters’ right thigh.
SJ called Jason and Jenny down for their meal,
“Where’s dad.”
Jason enquired as SJ laid the table for only the three of them.
“Oh he’s got some things on his mind and has gone and sat down by the water’s edge for some quiet time,… you know so that he can think.”
SJ replied in as cheerful and positive a voice as she could muster.
Jason quickly cottoned on that something was up, mom sounded tense and dad was not eating with them, he knew that dad was probably ‘feeling unwell’ so he made light of it.
“What is it?.. work stuff?.. Or that zoning application, we heard him shouting earlier about it, is that what has annoyed dad?”
“Yes it’s the zoning application.”
SJ said.
“Everything that your dad researched and found out about the application has either been ignored by town hall or dismissed as irrelevant,……….and yes dad is to say the least a little annoyed,… I just hope he calms down and doesn’t let this get at him otherwise we’ll be in for a week or so of dad in bed I’m afraid.”
“Is Samuel I’ll?”
Jenny asked innocently, she knew Samuel had times where he didn’t work and knew how frustrated Jason got whenever his dad was in what Jason called ‘A dark n’lazy’ but didn’t really know why.
“Mental more like.”
Jason said as he looked up from his plate, circling his right index finger around his temple, Jenny giggled an almost embarrassed giggle and concentrated on eating her dinner
“Hey, c’mon Jason you know you dad has got problems that he battles with,……. don’t be so cruel, he’s not mental, or at least not completely mental.”
She said with a wink towards Jenny, Jenny smiled back, released from the embarrassment of discussing her best friend’s dad’s health problems she changed the subject quickly to ask SJ about her day.
The atmosphere in the kitchen lightened and the three of them spent the next twenty minutes talking about Jason and Jenny’s college courses, laughing at the latest gossip and stories SJ told them about some of her clients and what they got up to in their lives.
Jason and Jenny finished off their meal with ice cream and offered to clear the kitchen up while SJ had a bath and tried to relax herself. When she came back downstairs Jason and Jenny were sitting in the kitchen doing ’stuff’ on their IPhones or Blackberry’s or whatever they owned, she had lost touch with who of Jason’s friends had what, IPhone, Blackberry, Android, IPod, Netbook, Tablet, the list went on and on, all SJ knew is that they seemed to spend half of their lives on these gadgets talking, surfing the net or messaging each other with the latest gossip.
“Has dad come back in yet?.”
SJ asked of the two internet addicts.
“Hello Jason…… Mom to Jason anybody at home…. Has Dad come back in yet?”
“Uugh,…..Um…no. “
He said without looking up or even bothering to stop tapping out some message or other that he accomplished in a blur of fingers and thumbs. SJ poured herself a glass of cold white wine then opened the back door and walked out into the evening’s heat.
A full moon illuminated the garden and trees with a bright silver glow. As she walked down across the lawn, a dark moon shadow followed her to her left and slightly behind, the intense heat of the day had waned slightly to be replaced with a stifling, still, oppressive air that hung heavy with a damp heat . The air was so saturated with moisture that it rendered clothing soaked in no time at all. Moo’s tail wagged furiously as SJ approached and Pooh lifted his head from his master’s lap and slowly swiped his tail from side to side in the dust. She sat silently down next to the three of them and looked at them, Moo was snuggling himself deeper against his master thigh, Pooh returned his head into his masters lap and Samuel continued gazing out across the ghostly silvery waters, eyes open, and unblinking he stared into the distance. SJ stated to talk to Samuel, just small talk, nothing of significance but there was no response, not even a flicker, or twitch of an eye that would indicate that Samuel was aware of SJ’s presence. She continued talking as if she was chatting away on the phone with one of her best friends but nothing, no response, no acknowledgement or any sign at all that Samuel was aware of her. She stopped talking and followed Samuels gaze our across the waters.
‘What was going on inside that head of his’, she thought to herself. It was difficult for SJ to truly understand the peaks and troughs of Samuels mind. She couldn’t even begin to fathom what went on inside his mind when the dark shroud surrounded him from time to time and took him away from her. She was sad, angry, confused and starting to get irritated by Samuel. Nothing was ever easy or straight forward, there was always something that came up to set Samuel off and leave the whole household submerged in a tense gloom. After sitting silently for five more minutes loosing herself in the shimmering silver waters of the lake, a rustling high above her head captured her wandering mind and brought it back to the here and now. She glanced up and saw the outline of one of the Blue Herons silhouetted through the branches against the silvery grey background of the moonlight night sky. It stretching its wings and flapped a little before settling back down onto its large nest. The call of a Whip-Poor-Will echoed across the water from the opposite side of the bayou mouth, part of the Nightjar family, this bird was out on a nocturnal foraging mission, hunting insects on the wing in the bright moonlight night. SJ shivered when she heard the eerie sound repeatedly roll across the water and past her ears. She remembered a New England legend that says that ‘the Whip-Poor-Will can sense a soul departing, and can capture it as it flees’, this legend or belief related to earlier Native American and general American folk belief that the singing of the Whip-Poor-Will is a death omen. Standing up, SJ patted Samuel gently on the left shoulder.
“C’mon Samuel come inside and get showered and get yourself to bed…… C’Mon.., up you get.”
SJ shook Samuel a little harder by the shoulder.
“C’mon up you get.”
She continued saying as she shook him. Pooh slowly got to his feet and stretched and let out a long slow yawn. Moo stirred, stood up, shook himself then stuck his nose into his master’s face then shook again, ears flapping noisily from side to side. Samuel stirred, he slowly turned his head to the left and lifted it to see SJ standing next to where he was sitting and she was saying something. It was nothing that his mind could make out just, ”Blahh blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah”. He tried to focus his eyes and listen to what was being said but SJ was a ghostly like silver figure who spoke in a strange language. He shook his head and gazed around him. Slowly reality came seeping back into his mind, he was disorientated momentarily, he shook his head again and rubbed his eyes before looking around again. He was sitting at the bottom of his garden facing the lake, the moon was illuminating everything brightly, his two dogs were with him and SJ too. SJ helped Samuel to his feet, he mumbled something unintelligible to her and together they walked back up the lawn, Samuel had a shuffling motion to his gait so SJ walked slowly next to him in silence, Pooh patrolled along behind them, sniffing the warm breeze as it came up the garden from the water’s edge and Moo raced off in advance to find a toy to bring his master and mistress.
The next morning SJ awoke to hear Samuel already up and out in their back garden playing with Pooh and Moo. She wasn’t expecting this, she was expecting Samuel to retreat into his mind, curled unconscious in his darkened bedroom for days, but not this time, She got up and went over to her open window, again it was already hot and humid, not much change at all from the previous evening.
“Morning Samuel.”
She called out as Samuel chased Moo around in circles. Moo had a bone in his mouth and was teasing Pooh and Samuel with it, coming just into range before turning sharply and darting off in another direction. Pooh stamped his front paws and barked in annoyance at not being able to catch his fleet of foot son so Samuel patted him on his head and went of to search for a bone for Pooh.
On hearing SJ Samuel looked up with a big smile.
“Morning SJ, sleep well?”
“Yes I did thanks .”
She replied still mystified by Samuels’s good mood.
“I’ll just find Pooh a bone and then I’ll make us a drink….., fancy a cup of tea?”
He enquired before disappearing from SJ’s view onto their veranda.
“Yes please.”
She shouted back in reply before turning from her window and padding bare foot into the bathroom to have a shower.
Samuel found one of Pooh’s old bones hidden under Pooh’s bed on the veranda and took it down to his faithful friend who was still standing in the middle of the lawn, stamping his paws and barking as Moo galloped by, inches from his father, teasing him with the bone that he held firmly between his teeth.
“Here we go Pooh, here’s your bone.”
He said as he handed the annoyed dog his own bone. Pooh took it gently from Samuel’s hand then dropped it on the grass in front of them both and preceded to roll over onto his back on it. He then spent the next minute squirming around, scratching his back on his bone as he wriggled around. As soon as Pooh lost interest in Moo and his bone then Moo lost interest in the game and stopped running around, he dropped his bone then collapsed down in a heap of panting black fur.
Samuel left his two dogs in the garden and went back into the house to make a cup of tea for SJ and a mug of coffee for himself.
Seated at the kitchen table over their steaming drinks Samuel told SJ all about the ideas he had come up with the previous night about the zoning application and what to do about the response from Town Hall. He told her that it was probably just a letter intended to put them right off, to stop them in their tracks. He also told her that the e-mail had informed him that the zoning application was going to be decided by a committee because of the amount of local objections received and that the committee had arranged to visit the site before their committee meeting. He told her that he would attend the site visit and speak to the committee members directly and that he would attend the committee meeting itself and speak as a public objector to the application. He then disappeared out to his computer and came back seconds later with a presentation that he had only just finished writing at five am that morning.
SJ read it to herself, it was a very detailed, but long, wordy and not the short, concise and targeted presentation that she thought would be needed. It did identify everything that was wrong with the application; it criticized the input of the zoning officer, other consultees, the accuracy of the information and identified every zoning code, policy, guideline or law that the application did not comply with. It was much better than his written letter of objection because it was more detailed and focused on the salient facts, but it was too long.
“Well what do you think SJ ?”
Samuel asked as she finished reading the third sheet of paper and it down on the table in front of her.
“Really good Samuel, it’s written really well and from what I understand it would seem that the application does not comply with so many policies and laws that it doesn’t stand a chance of success.”
“Well you would hope so wouldn’t you, but I wouldn’t trust any of those zoning officials, advisors or agents as far as I could throw them… Its all back hander’s in that game I’m sure of it…, but we can only do our best can’t we?”
He said with a warm relaxed smile.
“Yes that’s true but your document… I mean it is quite long though Samuel.”
SJ added tentatively, half expecting an explosion from Samuel.
“That’s fine SJ I’ll finesse it over the coming weeks and reduce its content so that it is concise and focused.”
With that Samuel got up from the table, picked up his lunch box, drink and gaiters, said goodbye to SJ, walked out of the kitchen and across the lawn escorted by his two wagging best friends.
It was only seven forty five but already the heat of the morning was building, as Samuel loaded his pickup and made sure that the Ditchboard was secured on the back he started to plan out his day in his mind. ‘It was going to be extremely hot and sticky and today’s work was all shovel work, no taking it easy on the Ditchboard today so a steady pace was called for’, the thought. ‘At least my work will all be in the shade today’, he continued thinking, he had five days of shovel work at the Vincent family’s home ahead of him and that was going to be unbelievably tiring in the present heat so a steady pace and plenty of fluids to drink was essential. The Vincent family’s home had a beautiful manicured garden that was full of shade giving trees with narrow winding drainage ditches that snaked through the dappled shade of the gardens then through a lightly wooded area before emptying into a larger drainage ditch that bordered the local highway. He made up his mind that as soon as he finished work he would drive home and complete his presentation, eat dinner, have a shower watch some TV with SJ and get a reasonably early night.
He concluded that he had done all of the hard work composing his presentation the night before, but he knew it wasn’t quite right yet, it needed some re-work and editing down considerably. If he made a good start that evening and put in the same effort every evening for the next few days then before he knew it it would be ready.
Samuel reversed out of his driveway onto the dusty track and headed south from Lokchapi, he drove slowly for about eight miles, his mind distracted, reworking his presentation, editing it here, adding a bit there until all the changes were stored away in his mind. Before he knew it he had arrived at the Vincent family’s home, he pulled in through two fabulously large and ornamental wrought iron gates and drove for about four hundred yards up to the house along a stony and completely weed free driveway. Paul Vincent’s daughter Carly came cantering around from the back of the house and off down the driveway on a beautiful Tobiano patterned pinto horse, it was a magnificent animal of almost white crème with light brown patches and a dark mane.
She waved and shouted as she went by
“Hi Samuel,Pa’s is in the house if you wand him.”
And with that gave her beautiful horse a gentle kick with the stirrups and they accelerated away down the driveway at a gallop. Samuel went over to the house and said good morning to Paul, then picking up his shovel, stick and machete from the back of his pickup and made off across the side lawn for the shade of his first ditch of the day.
Within a couple of days a plain brown official looking envelope dropped through the letterboxes of the Johnson’s, the Kennedy’s and all other supporters or objectors who had written in about the alligator farm zoning application. It stated that the application would now be decided by the Zoning Committee after a site visit. The date and time of the site visit was to be confirmed with the committee meeting to be held between seven and fourteen days later, dates and times for these two meetings to be confirmed.
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
