TEOTWAWKI (An Original Novel - Episode 122)
BreakFast and Scoota
Joshua followed the directions that he had been given in the infodump. He arrived on Flint Island at the appointed time. He found it to be a magical place. Dragons and Children flew through the AIR! He’d thought that his mono-wheel was the latest thing but compared to what even the children were doing on Flint Island it was old news.
He seated himself at the table and chatted with those around him until the I stood up and tapped a glass with my spoon. I said “May I have everyone’s attention please? Does everyone know Joshua? Josh is the third Mage.”
Josh was sitting at the head of the table with Shelby and Chad. He waved his hand.
“Hiya Josh, good to see you again.”
“Where you been hiding?”
And similar greetings rang out. Everyone seemed to be glad to see him, most for the first time.
“Thank you for coming Josh,” the Ryujin said, “we have breakfast like this every morning about this time. You’re welcome to join us anytime you like.”
We had a good meal with pleasant company and a general good time. Unknown to us though, one who would one day join us was having a bad time.
Reggie! I’m talking about YOU. You and Mary were having problems about then. Tell us all about it. Tell us YOUR story.
Reggie looked surprised. He hadn’t seen THAT coming though he supposed that he should have. His wife Mary gently elbowed him and said “Go ahead. Tell them what happened. “
So he did.
I woke up that day at the crack of noon. This was early for me as I worked the night shift and normally slept much later. I hadn’t slept well at all and finally I just gave up and crawled out of bed. I supposed it was the stress from losing my job. My boss and given me a pink slip as I was walking out the door this morning, completely out of the blue.
It wasn’t my fault. The company I worked for could no longer afford to continue operating under the new mandatory Federal Health Insurance Regulations, the new EPA regulations, the new OSHA regulations and the new Living Wage regulations. It had been hemorrhaging money for months. New and very expensive, mandates were due to go in effect Monday. What can not continue, doesn’t and it had not. The company had closed it’s doors. The owners were downsizing, automating and moving the operation offshore.
I noticed that Mary was gone. I went into the kitchen to make coffee and saw the note on the coffee maker.
Gone to pay rent
back soon
love u
So that’s where she’d gone. When the coffee was done I poured myself a cup then sat down at my computer and scanned my news feed. The same old crap. The only thing different was the date. I was reading it when Mary walked in. She did not look happy at all.
“I have bad news,” she said
“So do I,” I told her. “You first”
“They raised the rent a bunch. The current lease expires Monday. The new lease is triple what the current one is. We don’t have enough money in the checking account to pay three months rent so I told the manager I’d check with you first,” she told me.
“Oh. Well. I don’t have a job any more. It went away. The company closed the doors this morning,” I said. “Want some coffee?”
“Oh, hell,” she sat down. She asked,“ So now what?”
“We have three days to vacate, counting today,” I said. “This is Friday. It’s a little past noon. Nothing much we can do before dark. I say we get some liquor, a pizza and have wild and crazy sex until we pass out drunk.”
“Sound like a plan to me.” she grinned. “One thing though.”
“What?” I asked.
“I get to be on top.” she replied. “You’re gaining weight. You’re heavy”.
I squinted at the harsh morning sun peeking in through the window. Holding my throbbing head, I grumbled, “Oooh, I have a headache. We haven’t done that kind of drinking in years.”
“Or had that kind of sex either,” Mary handed me a cup of coffee. She’d been awake for hours, surfing the net. “I kinda liked it. You were, shall we say, uninhibited.”
“Coffee!” I gasped “Oh thank you thank you.”
“Ignoring what I said about inhibitions?” she knew me well.
“Certainly,” I replied, taking a sip of the nectar of the gods. ”What have you been doing? You got up way early.”
“Thinking mostly,” she replied.
“About?” I inquired
“TEOTWAWKI,” she said
“And what might that be?” I asked, “do I really want to know?”
“No you don’t want to know, not really,” she replied. “It means ‘The End Of The World As We Know It.”
“No I didn’t,” I said, “that pretty much describes our present situation.”
“Yes it does,” she agreed, “I have a crazy idea.”
“Can’t hurt.” I said, “lay it on me.”
“The Scoota,” she told me, “it’s time to go sailing.”
We’d had a dream before we were married while we were dating. We were going to sail away. Unfortunately we didn’t have boat. We also hadn't had enough money, being young, to buy a boat. The dream had languished. Time had passed, we had married, found employment and earned money.
Two years ago the dream had been reborn. We had rented a boat house at the local marina and built a boat from plans that Mary had ordered over the internet. It was a _ Power Cat_ from a boat designer in the UK. They called it ‘The Scoota’. When the time was right they were going to scoot away. At least for a weekend.
“Hmmm. Good plan,” I said. The time was right. “I like it,”
“Sort, sell, pack and scram,” she said.
“That makes sense,” I agreed
To Be Continued
Yarn
.
Perhaps you might also enjoy
Other Books
that I have written.
.
AND
.
Follow me @everittdmickey
.
That's my Blog
in which I pontificate on Technology,
Philosophy, Religion,Politics, Economics
and occasionally
ShantyBoats
.
In my Blog I write about,
and hopefully engage my readers in discussions about,
the possible lifestyles that we will encounter after
TEOTWAWKI happens.
.
It WILL happen, one way or another,
probably something in between.
One thing is for sure and for certain though,
the world will NOT remain the same.
.
So Come on Down!
Sit a spell.
I got the Coffee on.
The Hobo Picture is a Public Domain image from
Samantha at the Worlds Fair
by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
Illustrated by
Baron C. De Grimm published by
Funk and Wagnall's Company 1893
Unless noted
All other Illustrations are from
Pixabay
Good post. Thanks for the read.
You're welcome
there will be more.