Jack Coulter

By Jack Coulter

Science Fiction Adventure novel about the life of an Oklahoma farm boy set three hundred years into the future after mankind has already made its first tentative steps out into the Galaxy. Jack Coulter must grow up, get educated and establish his life in a future society that has concentrated all political, financial and police power in the hands of a minority that consider themselves an elite. Greed and Avarice are the Elitist guiding beacons with a religious zeal for stiking together to keep the rest of the world in thrall. Jack Coulter precariously wends his way through this quagmire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 24, 2004
• ISBN: 9781462830213

Jack Coulter

Frank Hibbs was born and raised in Sevier County in southwestern Arkansas, the son of a lumberjack. Drafted in 1944 he served with the Army in WWII as an infantryman with 3rd Army in the ETO. Reenlisting he became a B-29 Flight Engineer in the Air Force and few 21 combat missions in the Korean War. He ended his 21-year service in the military with the Strategic Air Command flying b-36's and C-124's. Married with two children he worked thirty years as an electronic technician in industry and retired in 1992. After retirement he began painting and writing all types of fiction.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

By Frank Hibbs

Spring was long gone from the Oklahoma landscape where two young boys were slowly walking across a green meadow. The meadow had begun to develop brown spots where a dozen young bull calves had grazed it bare. In the clear blue sky a hot summer sun glinted on a round, colorfully painted antigrav airliner approaching the county airport for landing. The two lads paused to watch the round airliner hover then descend vertically until it disappeared below the trees to land at the airport. High in the blue vault of the sky another round airliner painted a white vapor trail pointing northwest on its regular run from Shreveport to Denver.

The two young boys dressed in short sleeved shirts, long pants and rugged athletic shoes, fit into the early summer scene perfectly. Each youth wore a blue, wide billed cap that insulated their heads from the hot sun, was waterproof and had their school emblem emblazoned above the visor. The colorful, short sleeve shirts the boys wore were arranged with the shirttail outside the trousers in the coolest possible outdoor summer time fashion. Around the boys ankles was strapped a narrow yellow plastic band impregnated with an insecticide that fended off ticks, chiggers and other blood sucking or biting insects.

A dozen young bull calves dotted the pasture grazing on the grass and several of the animals began to follow the boys as they wended their way toward the meadow fence. Each boy carried a long stick they used to hit at the curious young calves if they pressed too close with their wet sniffing noses. The fence followed the base of a low, gradual sloped hill with a grove of pine trees covering its summit that was the two youth’s destination.

once through the pasture fence the pair climbed up the gentle slope into the tall slender pine trees that towered some fifteen meters tall over them. They reached an outcrop of weathered gray boulders shaded by towering pine trees they immediately climbed upon. A huge mossy boulder set in the top of the hill, half covered with lichens and moss became the seating the two lads selected. Perched on the shaded top of the smooth rounded boulder talking softly they sat watching the scene spread below them.

The two boys had a good view of the fifty-hectare farm shimmering in the sunshine and spreading away from the base of the hill. A white residence house, barn, large storage sheds and five large chicken brooder houses made up the structures on the farm. The brooder houses contained fifty thousand chickens each that were harvested every ten weeks and sent to the processing plant. The large red hay and stock barn with animal pens clustered behind its rear walls stood out prominently to the rear of the residence house. The farmstead viewed by the two boys was the home of Andrew Jackson, Jack, Coulter. When he was a very small child his mother tried hard to coach the family to call him Andrew but Jack became the name universally used to refer to young Coulter.

Jack Coulter was the auburn hared youth sitting on the boulder doing most of the talking to his companion who quietly listened. Jack’s skin was tanned summer brown, his height just reached over seventeen and a half decimeters tall and he was beginning to slim up enough to be called lanky. Below his thick slightly waved hair his face had fine balanced features with a straight nose between piercing bluish gray eyes. When he smiled a mouthful of white even teeth was revealed in a wide generous mouth. Jack was very mild tempered lad, hard to bring to anger but became a cold hard adversary when riled up, a fact that some of his schoolmates had discovered too late.

The boy sitting beside Jack, named Henry Hilliard, also never looked for trouble because his brother Joe gave him enough of that at home. Henry Hilliard was about the same height as Jack with tightly kinked black hair trimmed close to his scalp for summer time comfort. His eyes were midnight black, wide spaced above a pug nose that set over a broad lipped mouth filled with even white teeth. Henry’s skin was a very dark brown but closer to his mothers white skin as opposed to his father’s dusky black coloring. Jack and Henry had attended school together since kindergarten and always backed each other up in the rough scuffles that sometimes occurred on the school grounds.

Henry and his father were much darker than most of the African descent Americans living in the three county area dominated by the small city of Keller Oklahoma. Most African Americans in the area were light brown with kinky hair and black eyes the only features that stood out and indicated they were African Americans. His father often complained that if the blacks continued to interbreed with whites the African race would soon disappear. Henry’s white skinned mother would smile back and remind his father that he had contributed his part by marrying a white woman.

It was a Sunday afternoon and Henry had come home with Jack on the antigrav school bus Friday evening after school to spend the next to last weekend with him before school vacation started in July. The thirty-passenger antigrav school bus had become noisy as usual the minute it left the campus of the school on Friday triggering an instant scolding from the harried driver. Jack and Henry had talked quietly after the scolding until Sandra Howell hit Henry with a thrown candy wrapper and the bedlam had erupted again.

Both boys were Keller low school students who would graduate to the high school after the present school term ended in two weeks. Once enrolled in the high school they would have four years to qualify for and win an appointment to the state university or go to trade school. Both boys were ‘A’ students and several of their teachers were urging both boys to try for the university instead of the trade school. A low school math teacher named Mrs. Butts had urged both boys to seek an appointment to the university when they graduated from high school.

Neither of the boys anticipated attending a university once they completed high school and Jack planned to take a trade school agriculture course. Henry’s plans to go through the electronics repair and maintenance course at the trade school would prepare him for a job in a local manufacturing plant.

Henry and Jack both excelled in beginning computer science and between them had devised ways to avoid the many access blocks recent laws had placed on state libraries to restrict access to many computer information banks. The information banks most restricted by the computer blocks was political and historical data the CPP party was sensitive about. The boy’s efforts to bypass the restrictive blocks had been entirely successful allowing them access to all information on record in the library. Henry laughed and told Jack about a recent excursion through a strange database he found in the state library that mentioned an Elitist association.

Jack what the heck is the Elitist Association anyway? I keep hearing my dad cuss about the CPP in one breath then the Elitist next. Henry threw another rock down the slope and waited for the reaction he knew such a question usually generated in his buddy.

Jack thought a moment then answered, My daddy told me this much, Henry, when I asked him what the Elitist Association was all about. Two hundred years ago a bunch of rich people got together and formed this Elitist association during the loose goose ‘Gone age’, you remember, the stuff Mrs. Early taught last year. They were people who could afford the long life drugs and organ transplants to live healthy for over a hundred and fifty years and then some.

Jack paused to throw a rock at a passing bird then continued, The idea behind the organization was to help them gain and hold onto political power and control the U.S. government and the United Nations organization. Now they control most all the world or least all the world that has any measurable wealth to control. Jack threw another rock down hill and added, There isn’t any elitist dictators or anything like that, not even a bunch of rulers, just the Elitist Association people that cooperates closely with each other. Jack laughed, Henry you asked that to get me going again like in history class didn’t you?

A beeping sound came from the palm size radio receiver and transmitter Jack carried attached to the waist belt of his trousers with a range of slightly over ten kilometers. He could tune in with a touch of one finger music or simply receive calls from the main house. Jack unsnapped the device from his belt and answered the call from his mother in the house.

Yea mom, what’s up? Jack asked.

Where are you two at Jack? his mother countered, You’ve been gone a long time and haven’t eaten any lunch yet.

We’re ok mom, just sitting in the pine grove, give us another hour, Jack requested. What’s for lunch Mom

I should make you come to the house and find out, Jacks mother Denise retorted, Roast beef sandwiches and Iced tea.

Be there in a few minutes mom, don’t worry, Jack advised and replaced the communicator on his belt after his mother acknowledged.

The house computer could track and locate the standard communication device as long as the communicator’s stored power supply was not completely depleted. When he and Henry had set out to tour the farm his mother had cautioned him to be alert for the Diamond Back rattlesnakes that sometimes slithered out of the National Forest and hunted prey among the pine trees, rocks and low brush on the hillside. The communicator call had probably been meant to caution Jack again about the rattlesnakes but Denise had forgot. Henry grinned, threw a rock down the hillside and continued the discussion he and Jack had been bouncing back and forth when the communicator buzzed.

Mebby so Jack but I am serious, things have happened to my family lately that doesn’t seem fair and made me wonder. You like to argue about history and I wanted to find out what you think about the Elitist.

Looking into the distance dreamily Jack began again, Uncle Tor told me the elitist were composed of people who believe alike. Uncle Tor said they firmly believe that they are the only humans intelligent enough to be the bosses, control the wealth and political power of the USA or any other country. How was it dad put it? They perpetuate themselves and their families in power by making sure no one else gains enough wealth or political power to oppose them. Uncle Tor also said they were like a dedicated religious sect that lets nothing stand in front of their blind belief in their superiority. Jack paused then added for a summary; They control the CPP political party that in turn runs the United States for them.

Jack was silent for a moment and when Henry said nothing went on, The only new members they allow into their society are those people that suck up to them long enough until they become elitist themselves. Elitist are not smarter or anything like the name implies, most times they act dumber. Uncle Tor says they control the news media that in turn excuses any mistakes they make with lies and intimidation. Anticipating a question Jack added, They are not of one race because whites, blacks Asians and mid east people are all powerful in their clique.

Jack chuckled then disclosed, My dad says they are real smart in one way because when they have a bad problem they manage to get some dummy like him to solve it for them then dump him. According to Uncle Tor they are deathly afraid of people who they label malcontents or rebels and will go to any length to keep people who disagree with them from having any wealth or power. Father told me the last man in the congress that was not an Elitist was forced from office twenty years ago a broken man.

Henry reflected, So that’s why papa called the high school principal Mr. Damon a suck up when he went from teacher to principal ahead of Mr. Phillips after old man Jensen retired. Joanie said Mr. Phillips is a good guy and a lot better teacher than Damon and would have made a better principal. Henry laughed, That’s my cousin Jonie, the one you think is so good looking and I can’t stand. She also thinks Mr. High School Principal Joel Damon is so very smooth because I heard her talking to Julie one day and she said she thought he was very sexy. Incidentally when I asked Jonie if she would go out on a double date with you like you asked me to she said you were too young. Smiling wryly Henry observed, Jonie likes the older boys that are smooth talkers and hot to get in her pants.

Boy Henry, your cousin Jonie is one good-looking, sexy girl and hell, she is only a year or so older than me, Jack griped. You got it right Henry about Damon because Damon’s wife was a Hailey, old man Haileys niece, before she married Damon. The sheriff is kin to old man Hailey, the county judge is his kin and all the city and county lawmen is his kin in some way. The ruling elitist family in this county is the Hailey’s or elatives of the financier and banker old man Hailey. Jack thoughtfully added, Another Elitist family in the county that is intermarried to the Haley’s is that of Mr. John Simpson chief elder of the Baptist Church. The only church not controlled by the elitist is the tiny Church Of Christ my family attends and it doesn’t try to get any bigger anyway.

Jack, I wonder if anyone will ever do anything to cool the Elitist? Henry fretted.

I heard mom and dad talking about it one day and dad said not for at least a hundred years would anything be changed. Jack continued. Dad says that back in history the tyrants eventually screw up and some redneck will kick their ass but not right now. Dead serious now Jack went on, Uncle Tor said one day while talking to dad that for the first time in recorded history the world had been completely conquered by Elitism. Then he said kicking them out might never happen because he doesn’t know of any rednecks in the country smart enough to get a revolution going.

Jack waved his hand casually, You see its like this everywhere, someone like Mr. Hailey picks the people who run for office or is appointed to an office because he is chairman of the local Conservative Political Party. No new political parties are allowed to organize so only one party chooses who runs for office. They always choose two candidates but they are both of the same party. One candidate always drops out the day before an election allowing the man selected by Mr. Haley to be elected. Dad says the party should be called the Elitist Party instead of the Conservative Political Party.

Makes my head hurt to think about it right now, then Henry changed the subject, Is that the National Forest Preserve behind that high fence back of us? They went to a lot of trouble to cut into the hill just for a antigrav car road around the place.

The cut is an old railroad right of way that was abandoned about two hundred years ago. The National Forest boundary follows it all the way across the mountain this hill branches away from. When they built the fence they just followed the old railroad right of way and then kept the brush cleared out of it for the ranger patrol antigrav cars to travel. Jack pointed, See that notch in the high ridgeline? That’s where the old railroad went over the mountain.

Have you ever been into the National Forest? Henry asked. The Quaids tried to get a permit to go camping and were turned down. Then he answered his own question, Nobody ever gets a permit to go in there I guess. Can we climb the fence somewhere and explore in there a little ways?

Jack’s answer came quick and serious, Not ever, dad would tear me up if I went in there. Besides the forest rangers would arrest us if they caught us. About two years ago I was sitting here one day when they went by checking the fence and they stopped and asked me what I was doing. When I told them I was just watching the squirrels they laughed, called me a redneck hick and then drove on.

Sounds like a bunch of assholes to me, about like Sheriff Haley’s deputies or that bunch of city cops in town. Henry observed.

See that orange colored sign placed on the fence about every ten meters? Jack pointed out. It says that behind this fence is a federal virgin lands forest and wild life refuge and trespassing is strictly forbidden under federal law.

The two boys interest turned back to the scene around them and the farm spread out below the hill. From their perch on the boulder they had a clear view of most of the sixty-hectare farm

Jack lived on with his mother and father. Jack gestured toward the farm buildings down slope and began to point out the recent changes that had been made since his friends last visit.

Jack pointed to a group of silo shaped structures, Henry see there by the large hay racks we have a new offal processing tank that we just finished filling when we cleaned the last chicken brooder house. Dad seeded it with worms and bacteria Friday and sealed the odor control cover over the top. As you can see that makes five tanks there but we had to have another one after we built the fifth growing house. The farms pollution catch pond and filter machine was deemed by the state pollution control inspectors to be adequate to handle the added new growing house. Jack paused then thoughtfully added, Mr. Hines the loan officer in the Hailey bank finally gave in to dad’s argument that he could handle the new bird shelter and make the farm more profitable.

Jack indicated the meadow with a nod, When we came through the pasture you saw all the new weaned bull calves in the upper pasture dad will sell off soon. Mom wanted to buy a new antigrav car with the money they will bring but dad talked her out of it by reasoning that an antigrav pickup was in greater need than a passenger gravcar was.

Jack waited for Henry to comment and when he didn’t, continued. Not much else has changed since you spent a weekend with me. What great news were you trying to tell me on the school bus before Sandra hit you with that sticky candy wrapper?

Not so great news Jack, my family will be moving to Tulsa next month after school vacation ends the thirty first of July. Henry answered. Papa had to sell the repair shop to pay for Joe’s fine and the damages on that gravcar he and Julie stole and wrecked. Serious faced he went on, There will be just enough left from the sale of the shop to get us settled in Tulsa so papa can go to work in the Oklahoma Sooner metal fabrication plant. Joe is out of jail now but he is finished in Keller County from now on.

Henry cupped his chin in his hands and added, He’s going to work at a minimum wage public works job in a recycling center in Tulsa to support him and Julie. Before the judge would agree to probation Joe had to agree to either criminal conscription into the army or take the recycle job. Joe chose the army but mom went bananas until Joe agreed to take the recycle job.

Henry frowned and continued, I don’t like the idea of moving away from Keller County Jack but it’s going to happen whether I like it or not. Papa almost balked and left Joe in jail but mom wailed and cried until papa went to the money man and agreed to go Joe’s fine and pay the damages. No one was killed when they crashed or Joe would be in McCallister State Prison right now for almost forever. He looked at Jack quizzly and added, I like my brother a lot but he thinks everyone should overlook his crazy ways and let him do as he pleases. Mom says Julie is too wild for any man to handle and will be in trouble all of her life. Henry laughed, Papa says time in bed with Joe will soon slow her hot ass down.

Heck Henry why don’t you move in with your grandfather Wilson and stay with him? Jack asked. You have always spent more time with him than at home to stay out of Joe’s reach anyway. That would beat hell out of living in the big city and I bet Mr. Wilson would go for you staying with him.

Already asked and mom turned thumbs down because she wants to keep the family together, Henry replied. Come hell or high water I move to Tulsa with them in July, mom says. Might not be too bad, Joe will probably move out with Julia because mom said that whore was not moving into the same house with her.

Boy sounds like your mom is mad as hell at Julie, Jack observed.

Yea she sure is that, Henry replied, And she isn’t likely to change her mind. Henry excitedly pointed into the gravroadway, Gawd Jack! Look at that big snake crawling across the road, what kind is he?

That’s a Black Snake that dad calls a Chicken Snake. One got into a new batch of little chickens one night and ate so many he couldn’t escape through the crack in the wall of the house where he got in and dad killed it the next morning. When we start a new batch of chicks now one of my jobs is to check the houses for holes they can crawl through, Jack said. Black snakes will run from us if we chase them so lets chase that bugger back through the fence.

The two boys leaped off the rock they sat on and charged down the road embankment toward the crawling snake whooping and yelling at the top of their lung capacity. The snake instantly picked up speed and streaked down hill in the middle of the grass-covered gravroad with the two boys following in hot pursuit. They were just in time to see the end of the snakes tail disappear down a hole on the side of the road across from the National Forest fence. They stopped, examined the hole closely then jammed a large stick down the hole that swallowed up its entire two-meter length. They spent half an hour jamming sticks into the hole trying to get the snake to emerge.

They gave up on the black snake when the communicator on Jacks belt buzzed with a call from his mother who insisted they return to the house for lunch. The rest of Sunday the two boys played computer games until ten PM when they retired to bed. Henry and Jack boarded the school bus on Monday morning sleepy eyed and dreading the always-hard Monday school day.

The summer school break of one month duration come and went and the Keller county landscape took on the smoky look of late August Indian summer. Jack had bid his friend Henry goodbye the week before he started his first year of High School and was still blue about Henry’s move to Tulsa. The last week of August saw the weather turn violet with tornadoes sweeping the Oklahoma Panhandle and violent thunderstorms pounding Keller County.

After a night of violet thunderstorms Jack checked the hillside and pine grove it contained for trees damaged by the windstorm. The creek that drained the farm ran bank full from a downpour of rain out of the late August storms. One of Jacks regular farm chores was to cut up and clear away any downed timber or tree limbs he found among the grove of pines after such violent windstorms. If an entire tree had blown down the lumber company would come and buy any usable saw logs after Jack or his dad cleared the remaining branches away from the trunk of the tree. Jack found one pine tree down on the farm property and one treetop of a very large pine tree snapped off and straddling the National Forest fence.

The tree on the farm property had crashed into the road cut and was partially blocking the right of way. Knowing the forest service patrol would be along soon Jack carried a power saw to the site and cut the top limbs from the fallen pine tree to clear the roadway first. He piled the severed limbs back on the treetop and left the roadway clear. Jack had just finished his task when the forest service patrol approached and slowed to pass the fallen tree.

The ranger driving the vehicle named Dan Hanson and his assistant stopped and greeted Jack as they eyed his work and complemented him on his efforts. Jack acknowledged their comment and pointed out the tree resting on the high fence some thirty meters down the road. Hanson began talking into a hand communicator and soon a round hover craft called a fly ball appeared over the tree on the fence and surveyed the damage then sped away. The ranger told Jack he would have to keep the farm stock away from the fence until it was repaired and Jack told the ranger that would be no problem.

The anti gravcar hummed, raised a foot off the ground then continued on its patrol up the gravcar road. Jack turned back to the loose pile of tree branches in the old railroad cut and began planning for their removal later. Jack noticed that the pile of branches was atop the hole the black snake had zipped down to escape him and Henry last June. Curious, Jack parted the thick green branches of the downed treetop and looked down into a gaping concrete lined hole at least two meters deep. Jack realized he was looking at the opening of an old concrete drainage culvert that ran under the old railroad right of way.

The treetop had blocked normal drainage down the gravcar road and caused water to collect and back up above it during the downpour from the thunderstorm. When the storm water grew into large enough pool the water had been forced to take the path of least resistance and drained down the hole the snake had used. The large pool of dammed up water had flowed through the old railroad culvert with enough force to wash the soft soil away that filled its concrete length. The soft earth that had been used for fill in the old culvert had offered little resistance to the flood of storm water that had flowed unchecked all night through the old drainage culvert. Jack dropped into the concrete lined pit and stared into the one and a half meter square drainage culvert that ran under the old railroad trace and emerged somewhere well inside the National Forest fence.

Jack picked up a long stick and crawled into the old culvert brushing spider webs out of his way with the stick. He crawled over twenty meters into the dark concrete tunnel and reached a brush-choked exit inside the restricted forest area. The soil that had washed out of the culvert was strewn down a hillside half covered by leaves and pine needles. A small creek flowed at the base of the hill and was very full of run off floodwater from the nights rain.

Jack had always wanted to explore beyond the fence but his dad had told him that if he climbed over the fence the climb would trip alarms that would bring armed rangers searching for an intruder. Looking past the screening bushes he knew he had a way to enter the area without being detected by rangers. Jack carefully pulled the limbs of the brush he had parted back in place and retraced his crawl back to the other end of the culvert. He carefully piled the cut limbs back over the culvert entrance and went home.

A day later the lumber company representative came, inspected the tree and marked the tree trunk with the length of logs his company would buy. The agent requested that jack and his father cut and place the three logs he measured along the road in front of the farmhouse for easy pick up. Jacks father assured him it would be done as he requested.

The following day Jack drove the farm antigrav truck to the site with it’s attached backhoe hoist and used an electric chain saw to cut the logs. He used the service trucks attached backhoe to fill the hole left by the uprooted tree once the logs were free of the stump. He carefully left the brush pile covering the culvert entrance in place but well clear of the roadway the patrolling rangers would travel on patrol. He had the three logs loaded on the antigrav farm truck when Hanson the forest ranger and his sidekick came by on their regular inspection run.

Hansen the wiseacre official as usual stopped the antigrav patrol car then pointed to the brush pile and growled that the pile had to be removed before he came by on patrol the following week. Jack nodded to the immaculately uniformed Hanson and assured him that the brush would be gone in two days and run through the farms brush shredder. The patrol moved on and Jack heard Hanson mutter to his companion something about redneck hicks.

A day later Jack drove the farm truck back to the site with the avowed purpose of removing the brush pile. Resting on the truck’s bed was a piece of flat, two-inch thick plastic building material left over from new building construction on the farm. Jack cut an opening in the middle of the cover big enough for him to easily slide through before he left the shop near the barn. He fashioned a hinged door for the opening that would also stop water from flowing through the door and down into the culvert. The piece was large enough to fit over the culvert opening and provide a rigid cover for the drain opening.

Parking the truck to screen his activities he cleared enough of the brush to expose the opening to the culvert. An hours shovel work later the entire door arrangement was fitted over the opening and covered with dirt. Jack loaded the rest of the brush onto the truck and returned to the barn area to shred the limbs then add the resulting chips to a compost heap. Worried that the ranger patrol might notice something Jack watched from a distance when they passed again and was relieved when the patrolling rangers ignored the site.

At school the following month Jack searched the schools library computer data bank for any reference to the National Forest and found very little information. The school computer files seemed to be filled with the readout Entry Denied for all information about the National Forest Wild Life area. Using a code he and Henry had devised to break through the barriers in the state library’s computer at the state capitol, Jack accessed all data pertaining to the National Forest. He down loaded all the information he could find on the National Forest into a recorder disc, secreted the disc inside his coat and went to his next class. Remembering that his great grandfather on his mothers side had left a large library of compact disc computer files stored in the attic before he died he decided the first weekend he had free he would search through them also.

Jack turned fifteen in the middle of November and the weather turned cold about the same time. The colder weather restricted outdoor activity reducing his interest in his National Forest project a great deal. Jack grew taller, more filled out and muscular and girls at school began to take more interest in standing very close to him when they talked, even Henry’s cousin Jonie. Jack also became more interested in the girls he knew and he began to eye them as possible girlfriends but Jonie, although friendlier, continued to refuse him a date.

To tease him Jonie would often pull Jack close, nuzzle into his neck, peck his cheek then push him away. The exciting girl smell of the lush figured Jonie caused Jacks nerve endings to tingle long after she had pushed him away. Jack and his male friends began to speculate on the possibilities of sex that some girls seemed to offer when they became close and intimate. The braggarts avowed they had already seduced certain girls but Jack knew they were lying through their teeth.

After watching him at church one Sunday among a group of mostly girls his mother sat him down for a talk she had long delayed. She cautioned and explained the troubles caused by young men who caused a girl to have an unwanted pregnancy. She also warned that some young women and their mothers encouraged illicit love and the resulting pregnancy as a means to snare a young man into an early marriage. I love grandchildren, Jacks mother said, But it is so much better if they are conceived after the wedding rather than before.

Jack finally got around to checking the concealing cover over the culvert and found it still well concealed and not washed clean by water from the fall rains. The runoff from the rain was putting more soil on the door rather than washing it away. Jack felt sure when spring came weeds and grass would grow in the soil and further conceal the door. He reasoned that water seepage in the roadway cut should keep the weeds and grass alive and growing on the door even in dry weather.

During the month long winter school break in December and January Jack began going through the old computer disc records in the attic. He became sidetracked for a few days from his pursuit of data on the National forest by his discovery of many old movies and TV productions in the old stash of computer discs. He soon tired of the ancient trove of old movies and returned to his search for data on the National Forest. He was sidetracked again by a collection of computer discs that recorded a history of the last three hundred years. The collection of discs covered the invention of the cold fusion power generator and the resulting emergence of the anti gravity coil.

The history discs heightened his interest in the invention of the Cold Fusion Generator, a device Jack had always taken for granted. The discs revealed the device was invented by a team of enterprising researchers that freed humanity from dependence on fossil fuels. The story of the invention of the antigravity coil kept Jack enthralled for many hours because it told the story of a single scientist who invented the device.

The record of the first perilous interplanetary flights using the antigravity coil and the eventual visit to the nearest stars was completely fascinating to Jack that had never been exposed to such history before. The data that covered the first discovery of habitable planets orbiting ‘G’ type stars held his attention for an entire day. His interest in the history disc’s set began to wane until the history reached a period covering the last two hundred years the historian called the ‘Gone Age’ that Mrs. Early had mentioned briefly in a history class. The narrator noted at the beginning of the study that The Gone Age was a traumatic era in American history.

The monitor screen depicted the Gone Age as the climax and end of a long period of peace on the earth and great scientific advancement by humanity. In this period that was compared to the dark ages, humanity slipped its moral anchor and let it all hang out quote the historian using a popular adage of the time. Scientific advancement stalled as morality became looser than it had ever been in recorded history. The Gone Age was brought on, in the historian’s opinion, by the unrestricted, widespread use of mind-altering drugs.

Two events recorded in the data typified the era for Jack as examples of this weird period that seemed to last over fifty years. A Video story told with visual examples how a young Hollywood starlet was welcomed at a White House reception wearing nothing at all and was toasted as the bell of the ball. She copulated later at the reception in a white house bedroom with a male idol of the time in front of an audience that included the then president and first lady witnessing the act. The second Video visual item was a mass murder scene in Los Angeles at a nude bash featuring narcotics as the stimulant of choice. The revelers simply stood and watched dazedly as the murders were committed by psychotics and made no effort to defend themselves when it came their turn to face the killers. In another fifty years the Gone Age was all gone, never to recur again. Jack put the history series away and restarted his search for the data on the National Forest.

Jack was amazed to find a complete disc file on the National Forest put together a hundred and fifty years before when it was expanded into its present size and form as a federal wilderness preserve. In the beginning the area was less restricted and the Forest Service less of a military police organization. Jack was puzzled at the present need by the Forest Service to keep the general public from visiting and enjoying the wilderness area.

As he completed his examination of the file’s contents comprised of oral lectures, maps and pictorial displays the determination to explore the area beyond the fence grew in his mind. The old data disc’s reference to a cavern in the area discovered by spelunkers when the preserve was first mandated by the government also intrigued Jack.

A disc file titled U.S. Army Infantry tactics caught his eye and he spent an entire morning and half an afternoon examining its contents. The section titled Camouflage Use in the Field interested Jack the most when he reached that section. He concluded that if he was going to explore the National Forest area and avoid detection he must know how to camouflage himself. Detection and arrest by wiseacre rangers like the two that usually patrolled the fence line was out of the question. Jack believed their attitude indicated both men had a very mean streak. Jack knew he must use the techniques on camouflage as put forth by this infantry manual to escape detection by the likes of Ranger Hanson.

A very old disc file on the Constitution and government of the U.S. was also very interesting and after he scanned it he realized that present government officials completely ignored the document. Jack marked for later perusal a very old disc file titled Constitutional Law put together by a Supreme Court Justice. He discovered in another file that three hundred years before an ancestor had practiced law in the capitol of the nation, Washington DC. Jack was a much more knowledgeable young man history wise when school resumed in January, which may have been the reason he began to argue and dispute with his new history teacher Donna Damon.

When spring began to turn the trees green again Jack finished a sprint test in PE class under the eyes of the PE instructors required by state government student physical fitness rules. After he finished his sprint Coach Wiley of the organized sports department of the school accosted him holding a stopwatch in his hand. The burly coach looked him up and down and asked why he hadn’t went out for football in his freshman year and did he plan to try out for the team the next year. When Jack answered him in the negative the coach informed him that he would enroll for football at the beginning of the next school year without fail. Jack did not respond and the coach turned away and walked toward the gym where his office was located. When Jack checked with his friends they informed him that once the coach selected you for the team there was no way in hell getting out of playing football short of death. His mother had no comment but his father grinned and said, Give em hell Jack.

When the trees were completely leafed out Jack thoughts turned back to entering the National forest and exploring. Unknown to his mother he took possession of a pair of his older brother Kenneth’s gray work coveralls he had left at home when he married and moved to Dallas. In the barn loft, using the shade of colors specified by the old infantry manual, he dyed the coveralls in the pattern laid out by the camouflage instructions in the manual. A good pair of his brother’s shoes suffered the same fate, a cloth hat was modified and also a spare pair of gloves. Jack settled on using a three hundred year old set of glass binoculars he found in the attic for a scouting aid. The modern hand held, battery powered and video enhanced long-range visual scanners were too expensive for Jack to own.

The old army manual recommended the primary weapon for the infiltrating scout be a bullet firing carbine and a very large and business like knife called a Bowie. A bullet-firing carbine was nonexistent except in museums and bullets for one would have to be hand made even if he had one of the old weapons. Jack finally gave up trying to adapt anything on the farm to fill the need for the knife and shaped one from fine scrap steel and hardened it further in the farm shop’s heat-treating oven. The wooden handle he shaped in the same shop and the finished knife he honed into a keen edged fighting knife as described in the manual. A scabbard was easy to make and once mounted on a flexible camouflaged painted belt, along with an already attached binocular case, completed the accessories to the camouflage suit.

With the scouting equipment made and tested all Jack needed was determination to carry out his plan. That motivation soon came while he was cleaning up some fallen limbs after a spring storm near the National Forest fence. The gravcar fence patrol came by and when Jack waved to the two men as they passed a new driver with a sour face shouted back that Jack was a red neck dummy. Jack wondered at the absence of the regular patrol driver, Dan Hansen and then returned to his task. He mused over the remark the ranger had shouted and decided that it would not be a crime to foil the efforts of these crumbs to keep him out of the National Forest. He casually trod over the dirt concealed door to the culvert to see if it made a hollow sound, heard nothing then decided to risk a peek at the area on the other side of the fence as soon as possible.

The next Saturday morning Jacks mother and father scheduled a Saturday trip to visit relatives and he begged off and remained at home. He waited until the middle of the morning then donned his camouflage equipment and prepared to enter the restricted area. The sod-covered hatch yielded to Jacks efforts to open it and hinged up easily without disturbing its concealing sod covering too much. He carefully eased the sod covered door back in place after he dropped into the hole it concealed and felt sure it would be unnoticed except for a very close inspection.

Jack was soon crawling down the culvert shining a pencil sized flashlight beam ahead of his path. Once again a stick cleared the spider webs ahead of his travel and he was soon through the damp culvert and crouched in the thick bushes that concealed its outlet on the hillside. He quietly listened for ten minutes then carefully parted the bushes and scanned with his binoculars the creek bottom below his position and the terrain across the small valley the creek ran through. A natural meadow across the creek contained six buffalo and several small deer grazing on the lush spring grass. The scene took his breath away and for many minutes he remained crouched on the hillside enjoying and setting the beautiful scene into his mind.

Moving along the hillside well above the creek and hugging the cover provided by trees and small bushes Jack moved in a northwesterly direction. He came to a point where the creek ran into a small shallow river with clear water flowing between large rocks in the streambed. Jack continued to keep his track well above the river on the hillside and moved in the same northerly direction. He cautioned himself that on this first effort he must not go too deep into the wilderness area and allow himself enough time to return to the farm before his parents arrived back home.

Wild game was everywhere Jack looked, in the treetops, among the trees on the ground and grazing in the small meadows lying spread along the riverbanks. Deer he encountered along the hillside simply moved out of his way and if he stopped to listen and search the terrain ahead with the binoculars they simply ignored him. Rabbits, squirrels of all kinds and other small game filled the woods around him. Large fowl that he later identified as wild turkeys would flee as he approached. Birds of all kinds filled the trees and the air with the sounds of their calls. He spied an eagle circling high in the sky and fascinated by the sight watched the large bird swoop down to capture a rabbit in its talons and fly away with it. Vultures squabbled over the dead carcass of some unknown animal under the trees near the creek. Jack wandered onward mesmerized by the unfamiliar scenes unfolding around him

Beaver dams dotted the creek bottom with ponds and the beavers themselves could be seen busily working at their chosen tasks. Like the buffalo it was the first beaver Jack had ever saw in his life and recognized them only because they looked like animals he had seen in TV wild life programs. Across the creek he saw a pair of wolves guarding three pups and they never grew alarmed when they noticed him sliding silently from shadow to shadow as he traversed along the hillside. A skunk barred his way once and Jack simply waited on the smelly animal to go on his way before going forward again. Upon hearing some animal grunt he froze and turned the binoculars up slope and saw a small black bear busily digging beneath an old rotten tree stump. He eased down toward the river to give the bear a wide berth.

The time passed swiftly for Jack as he carefully worked himself deeper into the forest. He was at the point of turning back toward the culvert and exit the National Forest when he stopped among the trees on the hillside he was traversing and rested in their shade. He peered through the old fashioned field glasses with a wide view of a broad expanse of meadow cupped in a bend of the river at a large bull buffalo grazing leisurely on the open grassland. The bull was a magnificent beast attended by a few cow buffalo also grazing in the now afternoon sun. Jack was about to move back the way he came when he caught a movement across the meadow out of the corner of his eye and swung the glasses to examine the activity.

A man dressed in fashionable hunting attire rose up from behind a low mound across the meadow and took careful aim at the big bull with an old fashioned projectile rifle. A puff of thin smoke issued from the muzzle of the rifle and the sharp cracking sound of the rifle fire echoed across the river. Jack swung the glasses to the bull buffalo in time to see him slump to the ground, kick a few times and then remain motionless. The cows whirled and thundered across the river to disappear into the trees.

Heart pounding Jack turned the glasses back to the hunter and found that several other men in hunting clothing and some in ranger uniform had joined him. Jack focused the glasses on the shooter and recognized him as Joe Fenny the governor of the state from the many TV news views he had seen of the man. The group began walking across the meadow toward the downed buffalo with the governor in the lead. Beside the chief executive of the state walked Mr. John Haley owner of the bank in Keller, the county seat.

The party reached the bull and a ranger produced a long knife, rolled up a sleeve and cut the bull’s throat to bleed him. Through the glasses Jack recognized the knife welder as the smart mouthed ranger named Hanson that often drove the antigrav patrol car past the farm and called him a redneck hick. The governor examined his kill from all sides then stepped back when an all terrain antigrav truck with a hoist approached and four men loaded the dead bull buffalo into its cargo space and drove away. The party of hunters returned to the mound and boarded a small antigrav bus that had appeared in the meadow. Jack realized the hunting party had traveled on a dim road back of where the shooter had stood. Jack remained hidden, waiting patiently until he was sure there was no one left nearby to see him move away from the area.

Taking extra care to remain unseen on his return journey Jack moved swiftly as possible in the direction of the culvert. After pausing and scanning the area closely he carefully entered the thicket that concealed the culvert entrance. He made sure he left no sign such as tracks or broken foliage to mark his approach or entry into the thicket. After passing through the culvert he carefully raised the door until he could see the entire roadway cut. He decided the roadway cut was free of humans and slid through and carefully lowered the door back in place. Jack straightened the weeds and grass growing atop the door that concealed the outline of the opening.

Jack walked to the barn by the shortest possible route where he removed the camouflage clothing and donned his regular clothing. He concealed the camouflage gear again in the old storage chest in the barn loft then walked leisurely to the house in deep thought. As he passed through the kitchen the hungry fifteen year old put together a sandwich and ate it while drinking a glass of milk. On his way to the living room he passed a mirror in a hallway and realized he had not washed off the camouflage black soot he had smeared on his face as recommended by the camouflage manual. In the bathroom a liquid cleanser removed the soot handily and a rinse of cold water on his face was refreshing.

He sat in the living room before the two-meter TV screen attached to one wall and fingered the remote control but did not turn it on. His thoughts turned back to the scene he had witnessed in the meadow where Governor Feeney killed the buffalo. When he had scanned the computer file covering the establishment of the wilderness area he learned the wild life was to be allowed to reach it’s own balance, unmanaged by man. The penalties for poaching in the National forest were severe, calling for a minimum of long prison sentences for the crime. In reality he had observed the governor of Oklahoma commit a major federal crime with apparent impunity from prosecution. Mr. Haley and the accompanying rangers were guilty accomplices to the crime by doing nothing to stop it and apparently approving of the governors action.

Jack’s conclusion was that the Elitist politicians could do anything they wanted to without fear of reprisal. Realizing he had no proof of the crime Jack resolved to take his palm sized mini TV camera with him next time he entered the national forest. With this Christmas gift of three years ago he could record six solid hours of visual and voice data on a two-centimeter computer disc. The disc could be easily stored and hidden in the old chest in the barn. It might be surmised that at that moment Jack Coulter raised the rebel flag of rebellion against the Elitist injustice and never struck his colors the rest of his turbulent life. His basic plan of action decided on he picked up the remote control and brought the thin two-meter square wall mounted TV screen to life.

Of course his first question to his mother and father when they arrived home was When do we eat and his mother kissed his cheek and retorted, When it’s ready.

Jacks freshman school year in the Keller school system ended the last day in June, a day which Jack always looked forward to eagerly until it was over then felt depressed about it’s ending. His grades for the school year were recorded as excellent and his math teacher Mr. Phillips noted that he had great potential as a math student. English and literature for Jack was easy and always high mark subjects and science his next high accomplishments. Modern history and political studies he did very well in but Mrs. Damon the history teacher gave him a mediocre grade and made a strange note on his permanent record. The note read, This students tendency to argue with the instructor may mark the beginning of a bent toward being a rebellious and overly questioning personality.

Jack had missed Henry Hilliard all through his freshman school year but to survive the petty wars that were inevitable on any schoolyard he had formed a loose alliance with twin brothers named Shawn and Patrick Patton. These two were townies whose parents were technocrats employed as managers and engineers in the local sprawling industrial park. The twin brothers were fierce fighters but lacked Jacks developing brawn so the three formed a united front that caused the bullies in the school to avoided combat with them. Even the older boys in the upper three grades were reluctant to pick on the trio when they presented their united front.

Jack had received only two communications from Henry after his friend moved to Tulsa. In his first call Henry had related all the news of his family in glowing terms informing Jack that things were going fine and becoming a townie might not be so bad after all. His brother and Julie had indeed married but still lived with them much to his mother’s disgust. His sister Mildred had met a guy she liked and might get married. Jack tried to call back several times but never managed to connect with his friend.

Late in the spring he had talked to Henry for the second and last time. Jack had became worried and secured his mothers permission to make a call to Henry on his meager allowance. Jack found his friend was very upset and reluctant to talk much about anything but Henry finally revealed that his brother Joe was in trouble again and how bad he wouldn’t say. His father was being forced to transfer to another job in Ohio or face losing his job all together. Jack’s father upon hearing the news that Henrys dad was being transferred noted that once the bastards got their hooks into a good fabricator they shifted him all over the map to keep him poor. Jack guessed that he might never hear from his friend Henry again.

With time on his hands and very little to do when the school term ended Jack thought of sneaking into the national forest again but decided not to when other things intruded on his mind. Many activities were organized throughout the community to urge the youth of the various church congregations to meet each other socially and get better acquainted. It was expected that the youth of marriageable age would reap the most benefit from these functions but there was some fallout to the younger ones that were considered too young to marry.

His fifteenth birthday had occurred in the preceding November and all the girls he knew were becoming more and more interesting. One particular girl named Delsie May Scroggins