Dead Land Journal November 5th 2027

Got our first real snow yesterday. At least a foot. we have been gathering food and hunting. Fresh kills go under an ultrasound by Katherine before they are butchered. Anything too small to be detected by the ultrasound, Katherine assures us will be destroyed by cooking and if not the digestion process will kill it. Not a particularly appetizing thought but it is one less thing to worry about.

Pastor Tom has been a great boon to our group. While there are really too few of us to have areal church service, he has made himself available for prayer and counseling for any that want or need it. So far Katherine is the only one to have not taken him up on his offer. I don't know what Katherine's religious beliefs are. I remember a sermon my pastor back in Independence gave on sheep and goats. I am pretty sure that Kathy is what my old pastor meant when he was talking about goats. Stubborn, ornery and utterly convinced of their own superiority and independence. Tom just laughed when I shared my assessment. For those who don't really understand the sheep/goat analogy, a sheep is the "Good Christian" in that it does not stray from the flock but the goat is always going off on it own, doing its own thing. I think I probably straddle the fence but lean too frequently on the goat side. Beverly is often with Tom in prayer. She was raised Catholic but Tom says no one is perfect.

Scratch. I have a hard time calling an adult man by that name. Sounds like something I would call a mangy old cat. He is eager to help, but the meth and who knows what else, has done a number on his health. He gets the shakes frequently and seems very frail, more like an 80 year old man than the 21 he claims. But thanks to him we have running water in the church. He rigged an electric pump to the hand pump out back and ran a hose from that to one of the outside spigots. He confessed that he got the idea when the water got shut off at his old place and he "borrowed" water from his next door neighbor. It really doesn't matter where the water comes in as long as there are no check valves blocking it and all the pipes are good. We did have to close the main shut off at the meter.

This church has a big dunk tank for full immersion baptisms. Public health laws had recently changed to mandate that all participants must shower before entering a full immersion pool. There were small plaques stating this screwed to the panelling around the sides of the pool. Typical government over reaction to an imagined problem. There are two showers in the downstairs bathrooms so for the first time in months we are able to take hot showers. You have no idea what a cause for celebration that was.

Billy is rigging up a system to keep the water from freezing before it gets inside from the pump.

I have noticed that Billy is behaving in a much more responsible manner now that Tom is here. Just the little reminder that God is watching Pastor Tom presence represents is enough to somewhat bring him back in line. That, and Tom took Billy aside last night while he was completely baked and told him that if he died while burning a fat one in church that the ground would just open up and swallow him and he would be taken straight to Hell. Billy asked in a quiet and fearful voice if God would really do that and Tom handed him a Bible and told him to read Numbers chapter sixteen. Out of curiosity I looked it up myself. I shall not quote the full passage here, if my imaginary readers want to, they can go and open up the book themselves.

© 2009 R. Keith McBride