D I V O R C E by cmsix

Chapter 19

We made it all the way to where Woodville wasn't and instead of taking a left and heading south, like I'd planned at first, I turned right, sorta. What I actually did was a near U-turn heading back east basically but on the path that would be US-190 someday, maybe.

I know it's probably hard for modern day people to understand what things were like for Louise, Nancy, Helen, and me back then. The road we were on was completely unnatural even though every attempt seemed to have been made to make it appear normal. Natural pine forests do not have roads through them.

Piney woods aren't quite as dense as Bilbo Baggins claimed Mirkwood was but they aren't far from it. There are small clearings occasionally, but they aren't large and they aren't numerous. Take a good look at a pine tree sometime and notice the cones. Those cones are what make the seeds and only a cursory look will tell you that they make plenty. After they scatter every one of those seeds tries to become a new pine tree. If they're left to their own devices a hell of a lot of them will get the job done.

This really was the forest primeval. Evangeline might have wound up in Philadelphia but the Cajuns were scheduled for a date with south Louisiana and it wasn't sixty miles from where we were right now. We were here ahead of them.

We made our circuit and I turned back south on my path that ran where State Highway 92 might someday. After the drive today when I was calm enough to enjoy the fantastic beauty of the Big Thicket as it had been, I hoped that I'd be dead long before the highway got here.

I'm not saying that I think the old ways were the best ways. In my mind there was no comparison between flint tipped spears and even my Marlin. I did realize that inventions like firearms caused the natural beauty of the world to be depleted and war wasn't even the major problem in my view.

People were the problem. The inventions and discoveries helped keep more and more people alive and they kept more people coming. This ever increasing horde consumed the earth and most of what was on it. Humans conquered the earth and by my time they were using it completely up.

I'd never been a tree hugger while I was where I belonged and now it was easy to know why I hadn't been. The little bit of the natural world that was left by the time I arrived wasn't all that beautiful. Now that I was plopped right back into it though, I could see what mankind had lost, what it had used up.

Of course there was no fixing it. Times changed and people multiplied. After they multiplied enough some of them had to move on and spread out. The trouble was they devoured everything in their path, like army ants. They ate it, or cut it down, or paved it over, as if the concrete construction they were so fond of could ever be as wonderful as what they'd replaced with it.

It couldn't be though, but it didn't matter any more for the people I'd left, because it was gone. Forever. Sure, occasionally people, in the United States anyway, would make a noble gesture and set aside something to try and preserve it. It was a pitiful gesture though.

After taking a look at the Big Thicket National Preserve before my little detour, and now having the chance to see what it had really been like I could understand that man's works truly were filthy rags compared to the natural beauty he had found when he arrived.

These thoughts led me to others, about the space program at that. Was the space race just another attempt by man to spread the disease of his presence to another planet somewhere, so he could use it up too? What an odd thought for an East Texas redneck to have. And how did I get where I am now, and what for?

Was it just to show me what had happened before? For what purpose? I couldn't change a damned bit of it. Or was it to show me that there had been men at one time that understood how to live without using up the world. I didn't think that was it either, mostly because I didn't believe that crap at all.

The noble red savages hadn't preserved nature out of a moral imperative to save it for future generations. They just hadn't known about more efficient ways to kill. They turned to killing, raiding, raping, and drinking as soon as they got their hands on the tools.

I didn't have any more idea today than I had yesterday, or any day since I got here, why I was here, and I was beginning not to even care. I'd have pissed and moaned forever if I'd had any warning at all about what would happen on my camping trip. If I'd been given a choice I would have never chosen this for my life.

Now that I was here though, I would wail even louder if I thought I had to leave and stay gone. Of course I would jump at the chance to go back for another day, or even more, of shopping. Things would be that much better if I got a little warning ahead of time and could make some preparations.

Was I a hypocrite? Bemoaning the destruction of nature on one hand and hoping for a trip back to the retail horn of plenty on the other. Hell, I was worse than that. I wanted a shot at the wholesale horn of plenty. By now I didn't want to go back for a few shovels and ditch bank blades, I wanted a fucking backhoe with a front-end loader on the other end.

Ah, it's always nice to dream of what could be, especially when you're trying to improve on things that are already nearly perfect. I'd had a pretty damned good life where I was, even though my plans didn't always work out. There was that little divorce thing we probably shouldn't mention.

Not much fucking chance of that here and now though. Louise wasn't stingy with my dick, and if some other brave came sniffing around Louise, Helen, or Nancy - I could just shoot their red asses, leaving them dead noble red savages.

Yes siree, bob tailed mule. I'd fallen into a bucket of forest and come out with three beautiful young wives. Fuck a bunch a roses.

It was coming on sunset when we made it back to the trailer. Louise, Nancy, and Helen couldn't wait to get inside and fix their new man a meal. Hell, I couldn't wait to eat it. Just the same I had some plans for after supper, and no you dirty minded thing, they didn't involve ravishing my beautiful young women, not right away anyhow.

After I'd been stuffed full and the dishes had been done I led my three beauties back to the bedroom and introduced them to the magic of videotape. I idly wondered how they would take "Rocky" but didn't worry after I saw that they were spellbound by the opening credits. I left them watching and wished I had a few packages of microwave popcorn to really give them a treat.

At the kitchen table, I took out a spiral notebook, and started my wish list. I didn't really have any hopes that I'd ever get another chance at my old world and my remaining bank account balances, but a little fantasizing wouldn't hurt me, and there was always the chance that my benefactors would try to liven things up again.

I worked steadily at my list until the movie was over and the girls came to find me. They had millions of questions I'm sure but they knew they couldn't ask them yet. They had a plan though, and I didn't get any pussy or any sleep until I'd spent an hour helping them with their quest to learn English.

Brick duty was the first thing on the agenda the next morning. I don't know what caused this and it wasn't my decision. I'd have gladly stayed in for a little oatmeal if I'd had the choice. I didn't. Helen and Nancy pulled me outside as soon as we'd all taken our turn in the pisser.

Right off the bat I put a spray nozzle on the long garden hose, one of those that lets you squeeze the handle to spray water and then release it to quit. I showed all three girls how to turn on the water faucet and then how to work the spray handle. This was fairly amazing to them and they spent a few minutes enjoying the novelty.

They didn't waste much time though. Louise added water to the hole and a barefoot Nancy hopped in to start the mixing dance. She had the dregs from yesterday in shape in seconds and then Helen took to the shovel and started adding dirt, while Louise chivvied me over to remove the moulds and place them for a refilling.

Soon enough, Nancy declared the mixture ready and they began filling the moulds that Louise had already stuffed with the dried grass she kept stocked for the process.

The girls then spent about twenty minutes fucking around in the smokehouse with the outcome being we didn't need to keep the fire going any longer. This clued me in that we would soon need another small building. We had to have someplace to store the meat that was ready now. I'd have to think about that. It would be fine where it was until we needed to smoke something else, or at least I thought it would.

With the chores over the girls were up for some more traveling. I was fine with it but this time I put the Barrett's hard case in the truck bed so I could get it out faster if I needed it. The case would take good care of the rifle if we bounced it around some, and with the low speeds I stayed to it was plenty safe as long as the tailgate was up and latched.

Just for luck I fished my map out of the glove box and took a look at it before we left. The girls were confused by it but I could probably help them figure it out later. For now I was trying to see if I could remember passing any more roads leaving what would someday be Farm Road 92. I had an inkling that I'd seen some heading west from it on my first circuit but by now I wasn't sure. There was a good way to find out though.

We headed south again this morning but I pulled a fast one on my sweeties and kept going south, bypassing the turn to Woodville on what might be Farm Road 1746 someday. Sure enough, nearly forty minutes and seven miles down the road we came to an intersection of sorts and another quick look at the map showed me this had all the signs of being Farm Road 1013 at sometime in the future. I took the right.

The girls didn't know one path from the next down here and I assumed that they'd never been this far from George's camp. That didn't mean they weren't looking around as best they could, at everything. Suddenly Helen nearly shouted tanaha' tanaha' and I stopped, to see where she was pointing.

We were passing a rather large clearing at the time; probably the site of a long ago fire, but any evidence of a fire was long gone. It was maybe fifty to seventy-five acres of mostly tall grass with a few small pines already starting to reclaim it. Nearly at the edge of the clearing, farthest from us, were several buffalo. I know they are technically bison but what the hell; a bison is a buffalo to a redneck.

They were probably more than eight hundred yards from us and I was sorely tempted to unlimber the Barrett and start blasting. There was no point in it though. Winch or no winch I'd have hell loading even two of those monsters with just the girls and I. I knew how to get it done, how to kill and bring all of them back, but I'd have to do some serious clearing out first.

"Later," I said.

They all gave me such a look, but they didn't say anything. I turned around and headed directly home, hoping the buffalo would still be nearby tomorrow. It was a small group of them and they didn't seem to be doing anything but taking advantage of the free food, so I thought there was a chance they might hang around. If they didn't, surely there were others around somewhere.

This wasn't prime buffalo landscape but these were here and no doubt others were too. It wasn't the great southern herd by any stretch, but there were plenty for now. I even pushed the pace a little to get back home.

We spent the rest of the day unloading the U-Haul and the girls were excited the whole time. It hadn't been hard to make them understand why we were doing it, and they were very happy when they realized that I intended to kill several buffalo.

They were also surprised when they saw how many cans of beans and chili I had. I guess they'd assumed that the few I had in the camper were the extent of it. By the time we got done unloading all the damned cases they knew better.

We stacked all the canned goods up right near the camper's door and actually most of the stuff, even the beer, we left outside. Of course they were amazed when they saw my two compound bows and all the fucking arrows and shit I hadn't gotten around to telling them about yet, but we didn't have time for show and tell today. That stuff went into the trailer so it could be in the way.

No doubt about it, I had to build a damned storage building soon, and I could tell that I wasn't the only one that knew about it. Louise, Helen, and Nancy didn't complain about all the shit stacked around in our house now but I could tell that they'd like it better when it was gone.

We were actually done about three hours before sunset and the girls didn't let me rest. They had something on their mind and I was pretty sure it included a trip to George's camp. It was ok with me, but I wondered what we were going for. Louise finally spilled it on the way.

"Sky help." she said and I understood at once.

They wanted me to get some help and it was a damned good idea. I didn't need help killing the buffalo but I'd need some help getting them into the trailer, or at least it would make things a lot easier.

Actually I was pretty sure I could do it by myself if I had to. Any proficient redneck knows that he needs a trailer hitch on the front bumper of his pickup too, and when you do need one you need it worse than you need the one on the back. Just try backing a hay wagon with the hitch on the back of your truck once and you'll see what I mean.

Of course I had a hitch for the front bumper. To accommodate my winch I'd built a custom, super-duty, bumper. I'd made sure to include a receiver hitch while I was at it. I even had a two-foot extension for it so I'd be sure it would clear the winch if it got to be a problem.

Loading the buffalo into the U-Haul was going to be simple. I'd back the trailer near them, open the doors, extend the handy-dandy ramp that U-Haul provided, and then hitch the trailer to the pickup's front hitch.

The only modification I needed to make to the trailer was a small hole in the front wall to let the winch's cable come through. Then I'd use the winch line to pull the buffalo up the ramp and into the trailer, repeating as needed.

Unloading would be simple too. I'd have a bunch of George's people help, or I could use a chain tied to secure them to a tree and pull out from under each one. Nothing to it.

It would still be handy as hell to have a few strong guys around to help out, and that's what my own little tribe had already figured out and were busily providing.