A Dish Best Served Cold

by T J Reeder

  They headed in while Charley and I sat in the shade, we talked about everything, the house, the jeep, the reefer cave which I could see interested him so I went into it even more. I said if he wanted the set up I would take care of it. He said he needed to talk to Old Woman but would let me know.

  I told him we needed some big logs for shoring up the reefer room and if we could get them closer it would be good. He said no problem we could take them off the land a big rancher claimed. I asked who we needed to talk to, he said him, the big rancher was flying when the EMP happened. We both laughed because he had been a prick to the people whom his grand father has screwed out of the land. What goes around comes around.

  He said lets steal the jeep and go look for logs! Which we did. It was only about twenty miles to the gate and another five or so the ranch house where several of the people had moved in, these were some who moved back to the land ahead of the sickness that still hadn’t showed up.

  We drove on after Charley greeted them and explained what we were about. We climbed higher until we hit timber line and there we found some huge Pine trees,perfect fpor the beams. We headed back and was back sitting in the shade when Beth came out to get us to eat, they didn’t even know we had gone or so I thought. May said well will the pine trees work? Sandy laughed and Beth shook her head and said why do you try John? Caught again.

  After eating lunch we headed home to line up the logging crew, these logs were gonna be heavy because they were green, I talked to Harvey about it and his idea was to go up and fall them and buck then into the lengths we needed and leave them to dry until needed.

  It wasn’t much but it was better then nothing so the next day I headed back up with Harv and two of his boys or somebody’s boys, they all bred true so it was hard to say.

  They had a pair of chain saws and once we were there it was even easier then I hoped, these were huge trees and it only took four to bake all the beams we needed for now.

  When they were bucked up they cut the limbs into firewood lengths for Charles people to burn. We filled the truck with the fire wood and headed down to the house where we unloaded it with help from the men. They nodded as did we and we headed home.

  Harv had some of the older boys doing the drilling while he and his clansmen were up on the ridge, They had the roof on which was a surprise, they had used tongue and groove Knotty pine 2x6 and it was ready for the roofing metal, I asked Harv where this stuff came from, he said the Fort guys were bringing it over in the reefer trailers,.

  What Reefer trailers I asked? He said the ones parked at our place, with a smile, he said it was a surprise they had cooked up, he also said the Fort folks were the worlds greatest scavengers! He said they had more crap squirreled away then could be believed and were hauling in more every week since it was at least that long for them to go out and get back since they had cleaned out everything for many miles around.

  The roofing metal was colored in a shade I remembered as Sage which blended in very well and with the stone work the whole thing was hard to see except against the sky where the form stood out. It was beautiful. And I was feeling guilty again, Harv knew me well enough to know what I was thinking, he said to stop it because if it wasn’t for me most of these folks would be dead they knew it. I still felt guilty but was gonna have to live with it.

  Harv said ya know John if push ever comes to shove this place will shelter everybody here from an attack and nobody will get up here if you don’t want them to. I hadn’t thought about that aspect of it and could see where he was coming from and knowing the girls they 105’s would be here flanking their own LAV. Yea this place would be a tough nut to crack. So I felt better about it.

  By the end of the week the boys had drilled everywhere Harv had laid out and Harvs brother James laid the charges and we all cleared the area.

  All we got was a thump felt more then heard and dust blowing out the door opening, when that stopped we went in and I couldn’t believe it, the small room was a huge room! The canyon boys got into hauling out the rubble and found their “moms” waiting to show them where to put the rocks as they had plans for them. We all pitched in and before days end the room was cleared.

  Some shelving and rood supports and it was ready for the cooler unit. We headed up the next day with the trailer to load the logs which wasn’t as easy as it sounds, we had ramps to roll them up and since they were all ten footers we let them hang over on each side.

  We got it done with some scrapes and one mashed thumb nail already turning black. Harv took a bic lighter and heated his knife point red hot and set it on the nail where it melted right thru and blood shot out and almost instantly the pain was gone compared to the way it was. I’d seen it done with a paper clip and it is the best way to go with a black nail, let the blood out and relieve the pressure.

  We decided to let the logs dry more so the beams wouldn’t warp and twist which was fine with me. The girls had been very quiet and out of sight a lot lately and I was starting to worry but that evening I found out why. They told me to go shower and we would eat after I got back. Fine, so I did. After I was dressed they kept me waiting forever while they debated what to wear, being smart I kept my mouth shit and after an hour or more they were dressed and I might say looking very nice, I asked why the dress up, they said it was just a girl thing and lead me out of the trailer where I found a crowd of everybody from the area, all three canyons worth! And all yelled

  “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!!!” And proceeded to sing it, I was happy and grateful and embarrassed all at the same time.

  I looked at the girls and Beth held up my drivers lic. And said damn John I thought you were younger then this!

  All to a huge laugh, I smiled a gotcha smile and patted her tummy and said well I’m not too old I guess! The crowd went wild! We then trooped to the community cooking area for a feast! There was everything one could want, I asked how in hell they had got all this done without me seeing it. And I looked at Harv and said you fart! Getting another big laugh, he had run my ass all over the whole countryside keeping me out of the way.

  There was an entire roasted calf from the Bremmers, they had cooked it at home and brought it over while I was being delayed.

  I said there best not be a roasted hog and got more laughs. I heard the sound of vehicles and wondered, then the motors stopped and here come the Navajo Nation followed by Bear and Harry and their ladies!! I was blown away.

  After everybody settled down with drinks before eating I asked why my birthday was so important and one of the ladies said John, you brought us all here to this wonderful place, you in a sense led us to the promised land, You have fought and put your life on line more then any of us, all because you see it as a duty and that’s enough. We all love you John and we love these wild cats they are keeping you young and Beth for bringing you a child, so this is why we are honoring you and this day from now on will be John’s day and a feast day.

  Well I was humbled to sat the least and I had no words just a lump in my throat too big to swallow. So I raised my glass and said to the good people of Navajo country for allowing us to live here in their heart land!

  I had never seen Old Woman anyplace besides her kitchen yet here she was walking up to me and holding out a silver and turquoise necklace and smiling real big she said “ Thank you John for your kindness to my people and for your help in fighting our enemies, and for being a role model for our young men. All in perfect English. I was flat out blown out of my boots. Even the girls had open mouths, She finished by saying thank you for bringing these delightful wives of yours to us.

  The yelling and laughing went on for a long while, I reached for the necklace but she stopped me and said turn around and stoop down, I did and she put it on me then turned me around and smiled and said you may now hug me! And I did, gently and for a long time and I had tears running down my cheeks, she wiped them away and said

  “ What’s a lady got to do to get a drink around here??” and that brought the house down!


  I swear the party, was still going on when the sun came up, there was native drumming and a big fire that lit the canyon as it did eons ago when these people celebrated whatever they found worthy.

  Old Woman was the center of the women who were all listening to her like she was a teacher which I found out later from Charley she was! His mom was one of the first Navajo women to graduate from college with a teaching degree. I would never have guessed. What a wonderful woman. I also found out “Old Woman” was more of a title and since she was called that for so many years it just stuck, I didn’t find out her name.

  Most of us slept where we dropped and woke up to bad heads and a thirst that wouldn’t quite. I got up and walked to the waters edge and peeled off my clothes and jumped in and had a heart attack, well not really but close, I came up gasping. Fkn desert water shouldn’t be this cold! I floated for a while and watched others coming down to fall in, the best hangover cure, now for some coffee.

  The girls refused to get wet and of course Beth wasn’t drinking and the girls don’t much anyway, they had spent the evening being astounded by the Old Woman who spent the evening telling them all about her life. So the coffee was ready for us when we staggered out of the water. I wrapped up in a blanket and shivered while trying to cool the boiling coffee. In time there was breakfast made up from leftover’s heated and stuff like eggs and hot cakes too. After we ate we laid down and slept again, it was a birthday to remember.

  Most of the guests headed home the next day, The Texas crew stayed several days looking things over and asking questions. Their wives spent most of their time with the women just watching and asking questions.

  Finally one evening as we set by the water I asked Harry and Bear what they had in mind. Both sat a moment and looked at each other and shrugged, Bear made a you first gesture to Harry. He thought a moment more and said Well John, we are thinking about making a move and we all decided if we liked it here and if you’ll have us we would like to move here.

  I won’t say I was surprised, Both men were showing restless signs and being pinned down sitting on the “Border” of the New Republic of Texas had to be tiring.

  Bear added that he and his wife wanted to get their kids to move also because they too believed things were getting ready to really go into the crapper. Harry and his wife didn’t have kids but both had family that they wanted to move too but it was looking like none of them wanted to.

  I told them both they were welcome as were their families, but I added that when we shut down entry it would apply to everybody, family or not, we couldn’t and would not rish the whole area because somebody wanted to wait until the end was upon them.

  Both men said they understood that and if need be they would stand at the dead line with rifles to turn back even their own kin. Hard but good men, no bullshit with them.

  Bear smiled and said besides John you’re having way too much fun running around out here dealing with scumbags and speaking for myself I wanna get some! I laughed and said bring a note from Mrs. Bear first, he stopped smiling. Harry and I laughed.

  That night the girls and I had piled into the ever smaller camper and they told me that Harry and Bears ladies wanted to move, mostly the same story I had gotten but Sandy said Mrs Bear had said Bear was going crazy to get out and cowboy around with the other boys and if she let him go I had to promise to sit on him so he didn’t get killed. I laughed and said good luck with sitting on that big shit! Sandy said yea I know so I promised her I would control him. Now that I agreed with, if anybody could control that big bastard it was little Sandy.

  The next morning while the girls were cooking breakfast in the trailer I rounded up the refugees and brought them to eat. While eating I said we wanted them to come join us and welcome! Relatives included as long as they fit in with our life style, if not they could move on further down the lake.

  All agreed with that and Harry asked if it wouldn’t bebetter if they did as the others and moved into a close canyon of their own like Bremmers and Harv’s clan had.

  I said that would work since we were all close in case of trouble so we headed out on the Pontoon boat looking for a home for them, and we found a nice place up lake from us they wouldn’t have a creek but they had a whole lake to get water from and since the boat traffic had ended it was cleaning up really well. They could use Berkey water filtering units for drinking water as we do.

  All in all they would have maybe at the outside twenty five people counting them. They were leaving right away to get things moving. I told them to call Charles commo to give us a heads up when they were on the way.

  We needed a commo tower to get better radio service here, that was a problem that needed fixing.

  I had taken Harry aside and asked him to try to contact the Homestead and see if they might want to move too. I was worried about them but I also knew Rick and Sheri were not gonna leave their homes and all the work they had done. Plus they were pretty well set up and could defend themselves till hell freezes over.

  The work on the reefer cave was going very well, the boys were squaring up the walls and as soon as the beams were ready they would be ready to put them in.

  Harv checked the logs and said “lets make beams!” So they fired up the saw and got with it. I’m not sure Pine is the right kind of wood for support beams but these were gonna be some big beams, they were gonna average out at 12” beams, that should hold since there really wasn’t a lot of over burden on top, maybe 6 to 8 feet. But we wouldn’t want to have a cave in that crushes the beer.

  Three days later the reefer cave had not only beams it had ¾ inch plywood above the support timbers and shelving from the excess logs. This sawmill was gonna be worth it’s weight in gold! Hell more so because at the moment gold was pretty far down the list. I figured Harv was gonna be training some of their older boys in the fine art of saw milling lumber.

  After the cold cave was done on the inside the gear heads took over and started their part which was installing the cooling unit, I stayed out of the way because I know jack shit about it and they said they would charge double if I watched. It took longer to get the cooling stuff working then it did to cut the logs, haul them home, dry them, make timbers out of them and finish the inside.

  But the day came when they said ok and threw the power switch on the Propane unit and it started doing it’s thing. I won’t go into the whole thing but I guess there is a generator that fires the compressor or some such. I’m a shooter, I don’t under shit that don’t go bang or boom. All I want is cold beer!

  We put a few cases inside and shut the insulated door they built and waited two hours and went in and found exploded cans from freezing, back to the drawing board.

  They finally decided to turn the thermostat all the way up and start there, two hours later the beer was almost too cold to drink, almost being the operative wording. But we couldn’t stay in there and drink it or we would become peoplecicles, we may have to figure out a way to warm things a bit.

  One of the gear heads said maybe with more volume in the cave it would change things??? Nobody knows. But we can experiment and see what we get. Mean time anybody can wait a couple of minutes for the beer to warm up to a good drinking temp. Life’s good in the canyons!

  It suddenly dawned on me the girls had been very absent since we got up this morning so I set out looking for them and after an hour I had checked every where I could think of except the “airport” as we referred to the place Ralph parked his birds.

  I asked him if he had seen the girls and he started fidgeting which was a dead giveaway so I asked again with more statement then question. He licked his lips and his eyes twitched but he finally admitted that while he had helped them hee had also told them it wasn’t a good idea.

  I was working at not losing my temper when way off in the distance I heard a sound that once heard is never forgotten, I stared at him until he confessed they had talked him into helping mount an M-60 on the Jeep roll bar and they were out in the canyons playing “ Rat
patrol” which he admitted was his fault because he told them about the old TV show by the same name where the Army was fighting the Germans in the desert and used jeeps with machine guns mounted on steel poles and ran around flying thru the air over sand dunes spraying the area with bullets.

  I was still listening to the gun roaring away and figured they would have to come back to reload on ammo pretty soon. While I was at it I walked over to look at the chopper since I barely remember flying home in it but I sure remember seeing two guns mounted in the doors, the guns were gone but the rigging was there, not a bad set up in fact, Ralph used heavy bungie cords to hang the gun on and had rigged up a harness system for the gunner to keep them from falling out during hard banks.

  Ralph had come over to the bird with me and explained the set up, I was impressed, I also told him I wasn’t mad about the jeep gun it was just that they took every thing in life and made a toy out of it then played with it until they broke it and only pure luck so far had prevented them from breaking themselves. He agreed but said they were really hard to say no to. How well I know that.

  I asked if Beth went along with it? He sighed and said Beth was driving. I swear I’m gonna super glue their feet to the floor of the new house.

  The distant gun fore had stopped and here they come flying uo the road and the jeep leaving the ground on every little hump in the road. Beth was driving and with her long hair blowing out behind her and the huge smile on her face and the same for the main two delinquents I had to smile, they are hard to say no to and harder to be mad at.