Earth Vote

By Frank Lingo

"Earth Vote" is a fictional story about everyone in the world getting a chance to vote for peace. People with supernatural powers from another planet, the Lumans, telepathically address all people on Earth at once. Accompanying the message is a bright comforting light. The Lumans say there will be a yes or no vote in one week and that a 2/3 super-majority is necessary to implement their plan. Everyone in the world, including children, can vote yes or no telepathically and no one can interfere with anyone else's vote. The Lumans stipulate that voting yes means all guns and bombs will be banned worldwide - and they have the powers to detect and disarm anyone attempting to defy the ban.
Also arriving are evil aliens called Ranks, who smell bad and want to colonize the Earth for its perfume production. The Ranks become allies with Earth's tyrants in an effort to defeat the Lumans' vote.
The Lumans and Ranks fan out to campaign for and against the vote with political and spiritual leaders, the media and regular folks around the world.
Before all this happens, we meet three American window washers amid the turmoil of their everyday lives. Fairly is a white divorced recovering alcoholic who is trying to re-unite his family. Fred is a black ex-basketball star whose girlfriend's daughter witnesses a murder. And Camilla is a young Latina whose kid brother gets in trouble with a gang. We follow how these people and their families respond to the Lumans' offer to make world peace.
The story shifts among the window washers, the Lumans and the Ranks until the week ends with the climactic vote.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frank Lingo
• Release date: Feb 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370576180

Book preview

Chapter 1

The two window washers, Fairly Middlin and Fred Brack, leaned over the edge of the building and grinned down at their partner, Camilla Piquanto. Fairly, a white man about 40 of average build with premature gray hair, and Fred, almost 40 but black, tall and slim with a mustache, each grabbed a support rope of the scaffold Camilla stood on a story below. The short, young Latina with reddish dark hair in a ponytail, looked up in a panic.

DON’T! she screamed as they shook the ropes causing the scaffold to tremble under her feet. QUIT IT, QUIT IT, she yelled as the boards banged back and forth against the building. The guys cackled as Camilla desperately held the safety strap that was fastened to her waist and tried to keep her balance. When she started to cry, they finally let up.

Hoisting the platform up top, the guys giggled at Camilla, who stepped onto the roof and quickly landed a hard kick to Fairly’s balls. Fred dodged her swing at him as a look of surprise came over his face. Fairly fell back in pain while Fred kept his distance from the furious young woman.

We were just havin’ some fun s’all, Fred tried to explain.

It’s not funny, asshole! shouted Camilla, still swinging at Fred as he danced like a boxer to avoid her.

Soon she tired of the chase and stomped toward the elevator. Fred walked over to Fairly, who still lay in a heap moaning.

You alright, man?

Fairly slowly got up as Fred lent a hand to boost him. After a few minutes of recovery, the men packed up their equipment and rode down to the service bay where Camilla sat, still fuming, in the van.

You didn’t have to get so vicious, said Fairly, delicately seating himself behind the wheel.

YOU don’t have to bully people, shithead! she spat back, as she faked a punch from the seat beside him.

Fred finished loading and hopped in the back seat. They drove off in silence.

The heat of the late afternoon didn’t help the mood. The van had no air conditioning and the wind blew waves of heat on them as they drove slowly in the freeway traffic jam.

Fairly turned off at Fred’s street, an older well-kept neighborhood of small closely-spaced houses. See y’all Monday, Fred said as he got out and started walking across his short lawn. As they started to drive away, Camilla looked where Fred had sat, then called back Fred, your cooler. Fred stepped back off his porch just to see Camilla throw the styrofoam cooler down, smashing it on the curb.

You’ve got problems, you know that? said Fairly.

Yeah, I know and they’re called men, Camilla answered. They continued on their way, driving into the poorer part of town. Fairly stopped in front of an old run-down apartment house and Camilla got out. Monday at 7:30, he called after her.

Not if I win the damn lottery, she muttered.

Camilla sidestepped the dogcrap and broken glass as she prepared herself for the haul up to her fourth floor walk-up.

Fairly swung the van into traffic, glad to be getting out of the area quickly. Back on the freeway, heading home, he was moving a little better in the fast lane when a beat-up tank of a car cut across two lanes and pulled just in front, causing him to slam on his brakes. Fairly pressed on the horn and the two young guys in the tank gave him the finger.

Leaning forward, he reached under his seat and felt the handgun there. The pressure of leaning caused a twinge in his sore balls, and he snarled as he pulled the pistol out and straightened up again.

Fairly swerved into the middle lane and pulled along the right side of the big car. He stuck his arm out the window and aimed the gun at the guys who had cut him off.

Oh, shit! yelled the passenger as Fairly fired a shot into the car’s front tire. The car careened wildly, went off the road and crashed into a signpost. Fairly just drove on, sniggering.

When Fred Brack got inside his house, he turned on the air conditioning, grabbed a beer and sprawled on the couch. Jazzpurr the cat jumped on his tummy and curled up. Before Fred finished the bottle, he was asleep.

In his dream, the river water was cool on Fred’s feet as he dangled them off the old dock and cast his line into the glistening deep. Fred was back on his Grandpa’s little farm where he had spent summer vacations as a kid. The bugs were humming like nature’s jazz orchestra. There was no one else around and the skinny little boy breathed easy as he fished…

Waking up Fred heard, Oooh, it’s cool in here. LaVon Parker, his live-in girlfriend, bent down to give the sleepy Fred a kiss. He grabbed her and pulled her down on the couch.

Baby, I’m tired. I had to work late and go grocery shopping. She tried to stand up but he held her to him.

Just a little sugar for your man,’ said Fred. Maybe later, if you behave."

LaVon broke free and went to the kitchen. She glanced at herself in the hall mirror as she passed. The light-skinned black woman wasn’t as slim as she’d like, but she still cut a sexy figure. Ever since having Shazelle 8 years ago, she’d done her best to keep looking good but it was tough to do. LaVon knew that her sexiness helped get her the job as receptionist at that white law firm, and she wanted to keep her job.

You could help with the groceries, she called to Fred.

He sauntered into the kitchen. Whadja get?

LaVon picked up the phone. "You’ll see as you put them away. Mom? Howya doin’? I’m tired, long day. How’s my girl?

Uh huh, uh huh. She what? Oh Lord, it’s starting already. Okay, she can stay for supper but send her home before dark. I’ll see ya tomorrow ‘bout noontime. Bye.

After supper Shazelle Parker left her Grandma with a big kiss and hug, then started down the street to her Mom’s house 3 blocks away. It was starting to get dark and and the sky was deep purple like a grape popsicle, as Shazelle walked along singing softly to herself. Tall and thin for her age, she looked darker, more like Radney Sweet, her Dad, than like her Mom. But it was getting hard to remember her Dad. She hadn’t seen him in more than 2 years. Still, she hoped to see him soon. That’s what she always hoped.

Like now. She wished her Dad could walk her to Mom’s house. He wouldn’t even have to come in, just go along with her, maybe carry her piggyback a little ways, even though she was getting kinda big for that. That’s what he’d probly tell her, then he’d tickle her and carry her anyway. And then when they got to Mom’s house, he’d give her a kiss and say he’d see her again soon. And he would, too!

The little girl was so deep in her duskdream that she didn’t notice the two men arguing by a car until she was almost next to them. But then she saw one of the men reach behind his back and pull out a gun. Then he shot the other man who fell down screaming in pain. Then the one with the gun shot him again.

Shazelle froze where she stood. The man with the gun looked at her and shook his head, then got in the car and drove off. Shazelle looked down at the shot man who was lying on the sidewalk just a few feet in front of her. The blood was flowing fast out of his chest. Suddenly Shazelle ran. She ran around the shot man and all the way home.

She burst thru the door, on to the kitchen and into her mother’s arms. She held her mom very tight, tight enough that her life wouldn’t slip away, so that she wouldn’t be like that man on the sidewalk with the blood coming out of him.

LaVon looked down at her daughter, first in surprise then with concern. Baby, what’s wrong, what’s wrong?

Shazelle shook her head and held on. Her mom kept asking and finally after a few minutes Shazelle pointed to the street. That’s when they heard the sirens. Fred went out to see what was going on.

A little later, he came back looking very serious. Man got shot on the next block. Shot dead.

LaVon held her daughter’s face in her hands. Honey, is that what you saw? The little girl looked up into her Mom’s big eyes and nodded. Then she started to cry. LaVon held her very close and tried to be strong. Then she started to cry, too.

Fred felt awkward at that moment. His relationship with Shazelle had not become as close as he’d hoped yet, but he felt bad for the girl.

He went over and put his arms around them both.

That night, LaVon rocked her child to sleep in the little girl’s bed. It was midnight before she joined Fred in their room.

I thought we got away from all that killin’ when we moved here, she said.

Could happen anywhere, said Fred.

Well, It shouldn’t happen before my little girl’s eyes. She could have been killed!

If she saw the shooter, she could still be in danger.

Oh my God, oh my God, cried LaVon. She hardly slept a wink that night.

Earlier, over in the poorest part of the city, Camilla had slowly dragged herself up to her fourth floor flat. In the un-air- conditioned apartment, she took a cool shower. Afterward, she sat in her towels in front of the fan. She got warm again very soon.

Sitting there, Camilla thought about her parents’ homeland, Puerto Rico. She’d never been there but she pictured the lush tropical forest and the white sand beaches melding into the sparkly blue sea. She saw herself sunning on the shore and swimming in the cool foaming waves. Camilla wondered why she was stuck in this miserable city instead of living on an island paradise.

There was a knock at the door. Who is it? she called.

Fernando. Open up!

She went and opened the door a crack.

You’re late with the rent. You owe for two months. Fernando was her landlord. He was fat and greasy, always giving her the eye.

She wasn’t in the mood for this. Hey, if you got rid of the roaches and kept the crackheads off the stairs, maybe I’d pay for this dump.

Oh, I’m here to spray, too, he said and held up the spray can for her to see.

Well, I’m not dressed. Just a minute. She closed the door on him and locked it, then went in the bathroom to hang up the towels. As she stepped into her bedroom to get dressed, he grabbed her.

Good thing I got my master key, he smirked as she fought to get away.

Let go, you pig! she screamed, flailing to free herself from his groping hands.

I could forget the rent you owe if you be nice, he said. No, no, you’re gross! Leave me alone! she yelled.

I’ll kick your pretty ass out on the street, ‘less you gimme some.

Camilla paused. She’d gotten her paycheck today but she had to give some money to her Mama, and she had to keep some for food and the electric bill. The fight went out of her.

Fernando felt his victory. He got on top of her and did his business. Camilla kept her eyes closed so she didn’t have to see the creep violating her. Thankfully he was quick, and rolled off. You a hot tamale, chickie. he grinned evilly at her.

She spat in his face. His grin turned down and he punched her in the mouth. She started crying and shouting for him to get out.

Fernando wiped his face and got up to go. At the door he turned to say Remember, bitch, next month it’s your cash or your ass.

After he left, Camilla took another shower, this time a very long one, to try and clean any trace of that greasy pig off her.

She prayed that he hadn’t given her a baby or some disease.

It wasn’t the first time a guy had forced himself on her. That had started back in junior high. But she vowed to herself not to lose hope for finding a decent guy. Still, her hope was fading a little.

There was a bottle of wine in the fridge. The radio played some Latin music she liked and over the evening she drank the bottle in front of the fan and passed out on the living room floor.

After Fairly had shot the car tire, he drove on to the far west suburbs, took his exit and turned into Bare Woods Manor. The houses all looked the same. There were no trees to speak of but an occasional sapling amid the manicured sod.

Winding his way around Sterile Circle (the developers expected the doctor crowd to invest here since it was on the golf course), Fairly clicked his garage door opener and drove the van inside.

Entering the house was like stepping into a cooler. The temperature was 35 degrees less than the 100 outside.

That was one thing he used to fight with his wife about. He’d kept it so cold that she had to wear sweaters around the house in the middle of summer.

Well, no matter now. Donna had left him the year before last, taken the kids and gone back to her family. He couldn’t really blame her, but… he still did. Sure, things had gotten difficult when he’d lost his job managing Cyber Shack. And yes, he drank too much. But a good wife, an old-fashioned loyal wife, would have stuck with him thru the hard times, would have comforted him and together they’d have made it.

But no, Donna said it was too hard. Back even further, when he’d lost his engineering job, his real job in the field of his master’s degree, she had helped by going back to teaching grade school. She knew it wasn’t Fairly’s fault when he’d lost that job, the company laid off hundreds of people.

Fairly poured himself some lemonade and sat back on his recliner (one of the few pieces of furniture he’d managed to keep) and mulled it over in his mind as he’d done so many times before. He pressed the remote and the TV snapped on, but he paid it no mind.

Yeah, they’d been just squeaking by after he’d had to take the store manager job. It paid a lot less than engineering but with Donna’s income they were able to make their payments. But he hated that damn store, the whole hokey operation. Always having to take every customer’s address so the chain could mail out their catalogs. And they couldn’t keep any decent help, so he had to work late hours.

Of course, there was his drinking, he admitted that. It had started back when he was between jobs. He’d have a couple beers in the afternoon, it was so damn boring. Then a scotch or three in the evening. In bed, Donna acted like he had the plague.

She was stressed, too. She hadn’t wanted to go back to work while the kids were still little, but she didn’t have much choice. They’d bought their brand new house on the golf course, and they still had the car payment even tho she’d sold her own car. Also, Fairly had started dipping into his modest inheritance to make his house payments.

From his chair now, Fairly looked at the kids’ pictures set on top of the television. He missed them so much. Donna was driving them here tomorrow for his 2 weeks of summer visitation. That was the main reason he’d quit drinking since the divorce – it was written into the custody agreement that he’d have to stay sober if he was going to get his meager visits with the kids.

Kristen was 7 now and Harrison was 4. It was Christmas break the last time he’d seen them, and his arms ached for their hugs. He wondered how they were handling the break- up now. Kristy had seemed to cope with the divorce pretty well but it had been rough on Hairly.

Fairly and Hairly. The boy had been named Harrison after Fairly’s father but Kristy called him Hairly when he was a baby and the goofy nickname stuck.

The little guy was only 2 when Donna had taken them away, out of state but not out of mind. Now Fairly missed his kids. His own mother and father, both heavy smokers, had passed away years ago from lung cancer so he felt all alone. He’d never really been close with his kid brother Tad, who lived a long ways from him.

But it was more than miles between Tad and Fairly. They had grown up in a typical white middle-class family, one that seldom engaged in much affection with each other. His mother used to hug him sometimes but he never felt real comfortable with it. That’s why he surprised himself with how much he enjoyed being a father. The playfulness of the kids had brought that out in him. He missed the bedtime stories. the cuddling, the kiss goodnight.

Unfortunately, there was also some nasty yelling that he had done when the kids got on his nerves. He had discovered a power in his voice that was missing in his life. His powerlessness at losing his job in his chosen field had sometimes put him into a blind rage. He hadn’t really abused the kids except for spanking too hard a couple of times, but it was that hateful tone of voice they feared. Yet, being kids, they were forgiving and still missed him.

Donna feared him, too. He had yelled at her often in those last few months. He even slapped her one night when he was drunk and raving on about some dumb thing he blamed on her. She’d given him a look after he slapped her. He could never forget that look – the hurt and betrayal she felt showed in her eyes even tho she’d tried to act tough.

After that, they’d tried counseling but Fairly was still drinking and Donna’s heart just wasn’t in it any more. For a while they carried on in a perfunctory way, but then one day the district manager came in the store and saw Fairly giving a customer some nasty treatment. The district manager confronted him then and smelled liquor on Fairly’s breath, so he got canned.

That did it, as far as Donna was concerned. As soon as she could, Donna quit her job and took the kids, moving away into a small apartment in another state, near her parents’ home.

Fairly missed Donna, the only woman he’d ever loved. He schemed up ways to try to win her back, but she didn’t seem interested. In that couple of years, he’d almost gotten used to being by himself, as miserable as that was. They had little contact now, except to make arrangements about the kids, and he didn’t even know if she was seeing anyone. Donna was still an attractive woman so he knew that men would take an interest in her. The thought gave him a pang of jealousy.

After a while he went to the kitchen and nuked a TV dinner. Then he returned to his chair and continued ruminating. He looked forward to seeing his kids and his ex tomorrow as he leaned back and went to sleep while the television droned on.

Chapter 2

Far removed from the daily squabbles in the world, out in dark cold space, there were some huge ships making their way toward the little blue dot of Earth.

The Lumans came from their planet, Lumaria, on a mission to offer Earth a solution to its turmoil. Their plan would be presented in the form of a vote, a fair and free referendum that would give Earthlings a choice of whether to accept the Lumans’ guidance, with some accompanying conditions.

Lumans are like Earth humans except they have a glow about them. That’s their aura. Earthlings also have auras but they’ve become so focused on the physical level that most Earth people don’t see the colors surrounding one another.

However, Lumans weren’t the only ones on their way here. The Ranks, from the planet Rankor, had their own plans for Earth.

Ranks and Lumans live on neighboring worlds way catty-corner across the galaxy from Earth. Both are members of the Galactic Government (G.G.). Since Earthlings were developing inter-planetary travel capability, the G.G. had sent the delegation from Lumaria to offer a different path the war-like Earthlings could take in their moral life upon entering the galactic realm.

But the Ranks had come for their own motives. Ranks didn’t have a glow about them. In fact, their odor was the thing you noticed in their presence. Unless they applied copious doses of fragrance to themselves, they stank real bad, like rotten eggs, even after bathing.

Earth, with its abundance of flowers, would be an attractive colony for the Ranks. Their own planet was deficient in flowers.

Some species had been imported to Rankor, but they had not flourished there. The Lumans said the flowers refused to live as slaves to the Ranks with their mean attitudes.

In many ways, life on Rankor was similar to Earth. There was war and mistreatment of the planet, which had once been a lovely world. The main difference was that the Ranks had more developed space technology and had joined the Galactic Government, which now regretted admitting the stinkers.

Wherever humans cropped up in the universe such as Rankor and Lumaria, they diversified into the five races: black, white, brown, red and yellow. And there were similar variations of ethnic groups. What varied over time and from planet to planet was the power that any one race exerted over others.

On Lumaria, social conditions had advanced much better.

The Lumans sustained themselves on the land by a friendly kinship with their world and all its plants and creatures. It was not always so. A couple generations ago their world, then known as Extravaganza, had been in chaos. That was when they received a goodwill visit from some extra-extravaganzians and learned a peaceful spirituality thru guidance from the visitors.

One thing Lumans, Ranks and Earthlings all had in common as humans was a tendency to get fouled up unless taught like children to live a better way.

Lumans loved to put on huge social festivities, which is where the planet’s original name came from. They changed their name to denote the light and power they’d developed. The Lumans weren’t perfect but they’d achieved a healthy balance between their bodies and spirits.

On the Lumans’ Leader Ship, President Raven Wandering sat at his desk and prepared the words he would say to the Earthlings. A lanky red man of stately demeanor and silver hair, it was his role to convey the message that would present Earthlings with the choice to determine their future.

President Wandering thought back to his boyhood when the mysterious space people arrived and changed the way of life on his planet. He knew that some had resisted the new arrangement, but eventually most people saw the guidance as improving their lives without inhibiting freedom.

Accompanying the folks from Lumaria on the mission were two jesters from pixilania, nicknack and eggnog. The pixies were so humble they didn’t even capitalize their names. Their function was to help maintain joy and humor in the project, but they also held intercessionary power from the Galactic Government if the jesters found any actions of the Earthlings, Ranks or Lumans to be anti-democratic. This was their job in the G.G. and their joyful humor was regarded as an indispensable component of sane government.

On the Rankor ship, Queen Severa Van Rankor, matronly plump with blonde hair pulled in a tight bun, called Baron Byron to her throne room, where she was taking a dump. The Baron, tall and pale with black hair and sharp angular features, entered the adjoining room, noseplugs in place, and called out, At your service, Highness.

There was really no need for such formality since the Queen and Baron were longtime lovers, but these were people used to putting it on for show. Darling, would you be a prince and bring me some air freshener? (Rankorpoop stunk even worse than Earthpoop and that of the ranking Ranks was the rankest.)

The Baron