Day 678: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: wildfires
Although wildfires were by no means as common in the mountains of Virginia as they are in, say, California, one occasionally gets big enough in the Blue Ridge to require a full-on response.
Thus, Captain Ironwood Hamilton of Tinyville VA's police force and Captain H.F. Lee of Big Loft's police force did not get to go back to their departments after their Reserve Weekend; they ended up out in support of the firefighting going on at the western edge of Lofton County, blowing up through the mountains about a mile from the edge of Fruitland Memorial Park.
The tension among the police officers was as thick as the smoke blowing up the ridge … it was not lost on the newer captains that Hamilton and Lee, combined, had put a bunch of their colleagues out of work around the Gilligan House Burning, and had denied them the opportunity to enjoy the unjust gains their predecessors had enjoyed from unjustly snapping up the Black population of Lofton County to feed to private prisons.
Captains Hamilton and Lee were thinking about that whole situation too, but in a different way...
“You would think it was still 1819, with these whole convict leasing program they have going on,” Captain Hamilton growled to his cousin as a line of makeshift firefighters arrived chained together until it was time for them to be marched into the flames.
“And we know from the FOIA that as many as half of those men may be innocent,” Captain Lee growled back. “We know this. And yet, today, a whole burnt offering of some of these men is going to be made to Virginia, and to American injustice.”
“And half of our colleagues are just mad because we shut down their kickbacks,” Captain Hamilton said. “Next job: get this kind of leasing shut down in the county until all these cases are sorted out.”
Captain Lee nodded, his eyes flashing.
“Whatever you decide to do, cousin, I will back you up to the hilt. For if those of us who know what is right do not stand up, now, then there will be more flames, and more terrible than these, upon this state, and our nation.”
Did Hamilton and Lee had real prototypes or all this is fiction?
Did Hamilton and
Lee had real prototypes or
All this is fiction?
- mgaft1
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
ahahaha...
The story is historical fiction of a current-events type ... convicts fighting wildfires are real, and so was General Robert E. Lee, into whose family and legacy I have grafted both captains inside a fictional but plausible county in Virginia. So too is Rev. Robert Wright Lee IV, a real nephew of the real general, who paid a heavy price in modern Virginia for repudiating the Confederate ideals and the idol-making of his famous uncle -- he is the spiritual elder brother of the two captains. And then, of course, Sherlock Holmes is Captain Hamilton's direct investigative antecedent, while Captain Lee borrows more heavily from Nero Wolfe, with a touch of Hercule Poirot. Captain Hamilton is better in the field, with fresh evidence, but uses modern data handling methods to sort it all out when he can't solve it on the fly -- which he often can, though. Sherlock Holmes meets Watson the computer, in essence, but with a richer home life -- Captain Hamilton has no antecedent in that he has a VERY large family and enjoys a full life with them, and that makes him gentler and more compassionate. Captain Lee IS the computer, loving his piles and piles of data and sending his lieutenants out to bring in more, and, as a widower, having all kinds of time to let his mind crunch and crunch and crunch ... but if he has to come out of his office, then you meet a modern version of his famous uncle, at his most deadly ...
The two captains are best friends, and have worked together for a long time ... here they are out of position, but they don't see themselves as just cogs in the wheel of race-tinted law enforcement. Both are 23-year veterans in Special Forces and JAG: like most of the military veterans I know, they make things happen, as you can read in chapters 9 through 11 of Black, White, and RED All Over (here are parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve, epilogue 1, and epilogue 2 in case you have time). So: in the daily freewrites, I just allow the two characters to explore the world in near-real-time, dealing with the country as we deal with it ... it IS fiction, but there is a PILE of truth behind it...
Hi @deeanndmathews!
What an interesting and complex task you took upon yourself! The difficulty of bringing historical personages to modern time would be, of course, the huge shift in society’s mentality in regards to slavery, equality and civil right. Should General Lee be born in our time he’d never be having the same backward values as he had 200 years ago.
Russia also had slavery just about at the same time starting from roughly in 16 century and abolishing it in 1961 only a year earlier than in the States. Only it didn’t import salves but used “local reserves” their own people. Although abolishment didn’t result in the civil war like it was the United States, it was a hugely debated topic and the tsar eventually did it from purely economic considerations rather than from compassion.
There was an attempt to free the slaves yet in 1926, but it was suppressed and people who wanted to do it was executed or sent to Siberia. Then it is well known what all this lead to – the communist revolution of 1917 and then to Stalin’s regime.
If I were to take a historical person from 1819 and move him or her to 2019 he or she may have the same characters and appearance but would be born in today’s reality and have today’s values.
All that to say is to underline the again the difficulty of your task. I’d like to read it from the beginning though.
I haven't QUITE done a move ...consider the history of the Civil War and several of its most memorable men as a big set of ingredients used to cook up fiction that touches on current events that wrap around the same unresolved issues...
To read it from the beginning ... Captain Hamilton is my #freewrite detective, and so that goes a long way back... this thing really starts with my introducing a new character for him to interact with, and the sizable reaction I got around that interaction from readers here. Captain Lee is more recent, starting in the big story ... so, let me do this: Captain Hamilton alone is best represented in "Death at the Pool", and this contains links to key freewrites to understand the Tinyville captain and the space he lives in. After that, enjoy Black, White, and RED All Over -- here are parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve, epilogue 1, and epilogue 2.
I will read all your episodes as time will permit. I just commented on the gravity of the load that you've understood. You are a brave person!
Why thank you, @mgaft1!
Hi @deeanndmathews,
You sure have a way with character development. And this is an interesting turn of the tale. I recommended your post for the @pifc contest this week. Fingers crossed :)
Why thank you, @fitinfunfood! How very kind of you!
I am just about to release extended content for these two again ... one tale focusing on Captain Hamilton, one on Captain Lee, but just because Black, White, and RED All Over was Hamilton-centered, I'll do the Lee-centered one next ... but this conversation about what is going on in Lofton County in terms of the convict leasing bit is going to roll up into one of those longer stories, Lord willing...
Go you! I wish I had your vision :)
But you do ... I'm out here eating my vitamins every day (and sometimes forgetting, and at least remembering to get my supplements BEFORE getting something unhealthy) and being healthier after reading your stuff... you do have it, just in a different and VERY important area!
I didn't understand all of you post but I love your writing style :)
Thank you for reading!
This is a long, continuing story... to keep you from having to read back a long way, Captain Hamilton is a character I introduced to the world as part of these five-minute freewrites, and his cousin Captain Lee showed up in the extended tale Black, White, and RED All Over that I did in response to an award I received from the @freewritehouse. That one will soon be a published book, but, so you don't have to wait, here are parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve, epilogue 1, and epilogue 2! I have kept going with the two captains and the aftermath -- in parts 2 and 11 in particular, you will read how Captains Hamilton and Lee have made enemies of their colleagues, and part 12 will give you the full why!
I have kept going with the aftermath of what in that HUGE story is called the Gilligan House Burning for both captains, sometimes focusing on one of the other of the two captains, while preparing two further longer tales for later publication here (after which my freewrites will start to wander in topic again)! If you wish, I can tag you so you can keep up!
It will take me a while to read the back story. I can keep reading on here. Thank you for your help :)
You're welcome!
I love this. Thank you for tagging me! I have to log into esteem to see those, so sorry if I have missed them before.
Great story. It's so disturbing that it is truth. We haven't changed a thing! steem included if you ask me today.
In California last year and the year before, this became a HUGE issue... the difference in the Lofton County universe is that, owing to what I wrote, the people in that universe KNOW a lot of the men involved in the chain gangs of the 21st century shouldn't be there. Still, any kind of serious research on American jurisprudence shows that innocence doesn't matter when there is profit to be made. We didn't get away with it in the 19th century. We're not going to get away with it in the future. The only thing that those that know can do is do right wherever they can...
IT baffles me how any human can do this to another human and still sleep at night, whether money is involved or not.
Your conscience is still functioning. A lot of people gave up on that a long time ago.
Nice freewrite. Wildfires are frightening wherever you are.
I found you because @fitinfunfood featured you in the Pay it Forward Contest - keep up the great work!
Thank you so much!
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Thank you!