They were waiting for
him when he finally did arrive back home. James couldn't believe how much the kids
had grown. Sarah and the kids couldn't believe that he was home and off duty
for the next few weeks. Sarah had taken two weeks leave too, so they could have
some real time together. The kids were almost out of school. They should get to
spend some of the summer together as a family again. James had enjoyed being
home at first, but only for a few days. Then he started to see just how bad it
was getting. Even around the base things had changed dramatically. It was no
longer safe for someone in uniform to leave the base alone. In fact it wasn't
safe for anyone to be alone even without a uniform when off base now. James had
thought that fuel and food shortages were only a major problem in other
nations, but it seemed like they were almost as bad in America now.
At first James
thought it was just him, he had lived with this in Europe. Maybe he saw it
happening at home, because of that. After the first few days James knew it was
more than that. When he asked Sarah about it she had sat down and talked with him
about things. It was much worse than it had been when he had left. It was
getting worse every day too. She had explained that the news media was no
longer reporting how bad it really was. Things were much worse than people
would ever see the news reporting. The military was now viewed by many people
as their enemy. There was almost no large city that didn't have at least one
military unit stationed there permanently now in order to help maintain
security. Most of the large cities now rationed fuel too and many rural areas
received only limited amounts that they had to stretch even further. Food
always seemed to be in short supply in the cities now. The rural areas were
dependant on growing their own and what the government allotted them from the
different agencies. Even that was seldom enough. James parents were now running
a rather large 'community' farm. The government had left them alone; mostly
because the people involved weren't causing problems and weren't using as many
government resources as others did.
James wasn't sure
about anything now. How could it have possibly gotten this bad? He had just
come from Europe where protests and riots had been a daily part of life for
many nations. He had seen the military taking control of the situations by using
deadly force far too often in some of those nations. The people were constantly
changing governments and demanding that the new government make life better and
easier for them. It was a terrible cycle that seemed to have no end. How could
the people expect any government to provide food and shelter for them when the
people were doing major damage to property almost daily and doing little themselves
to help improve things? It made no sense to burn down a store just because that
store had no food available. Farmers in Europe were even refusing to grow food
too, because the people couldn't or wouldn't pay enough to cover the cost of
growing it. Now it seemed to be much the same thing had started to happen inside
America. It would be an election year next year. The president was in his
second term and was asking people to help him by electing more people from his
party to both houses of Congress.
Sarah's dad was
running for Governor of Texas and was expected to win easily. Texas was one of
the few states where the protests hadn't become riots. That was mostly due to
the fact that Texas still had a majority of its people employed. That wasn't
true in many other states. Manufacturing had slowed or stopped on many things
in many states. The last reports James had seen showed the unemployment rate
nationwide was over 30%. That report was nearly a year old. The government had
simply stopped giving reports out. It had been decided that those reports were
causing too much discontent among the people. Only the government agencies and certain
select politicians were actually allowed to see those reports now. In fact very
little real news was being reported at all. Most news broadcasts were just a
brief look at world news and a little more coverage of national political news.
The rest of the news broadcasts was mostly some kind of 'be happy, life is
good' sort of story or a weather related story. Even the weather stories were
focused on global warming being the cause for any weather problems more than on
the actual weather itself. There was almost no place for people to find out
what was really going on except on the internet. The world-wide web was filled
with news and stories, but most of those couldn't be trusted or verified
either. There were dozens of versions of any major event available. James knew
from personal experience with some of those events, that almost none of those
versions told the real story in full detail. Most were twisted to say what
those who put them out there wanted them to say.
James spent his well
deserved leave trying to make up for lost time with his kids and his family. He
had been lucky to have access to internet, to be able to see and talk with
family when deployed, but it just wasn't like being home. He spent several
weeks at home with his family. Sarah was close enough to drive up to see him on
weekends and the kids were happy to spend time on the farm during the summer.
The farm was a lot different now. There were over two dozen families who
depended on the farm for food and shelter now. They didn't all stay there all
of the time. Most of them had their own homes where they stayed during a lot of
the year. In the winter though, all of them now lived on the farm. They had
built several more houses with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms on the farm.
They had also built a central kitchen and laundry that all of them used. It was
the only way they could survive and pay the bills during the cold winter. The town itself was almost dead. There was
only one 'general' store. It sold all sorts of merchandise and was the only gas
station left in town too. There were no fast food restaurants left or many of
the other things James remembered. They still had a few farms and even a couple
of small factories that were still operating, but it was nothing like it had
been. The school was much smaller and the students had to take most classes
online after the sixth grade. The hospital was closed and they had no doctor or
pharmacy left in town. It was a two hour trip to the closest major medical
center and over an hour to the nearest doctor or pharmacy.
In spite of all that
the people who were still there were happy and fairly content with their lives.
There was only one church building still operating in town. It was the old
Baptist church that James had grown up in. It still had a sign naming it First
Baptist Church, but it wasn't only a Baptist church now. Several ministers from
other denominations used the building now. There were now services almost all
day Sunday. There were even a few other days of the week when they held
services there. It was now simply known as 'The Church'. It was the only place
left where people could meet together and worship outside their homes. There
were simply too few Christian people left in town to keep the doors open to all
of the churches. The only reason they had ministers left was that ministers
weren't very welcome in the cities now. Religion of any sort was no longer
readily accepted in most of the larger cities. What religion was left in the
big cities was contained within specific neighborhoods. The major religion
inside large cities was now Islam. Most Christians had moved out of the city or
become silent in order to live there. Christian churches could still be found
in suburbs located around large cities, especially in what had once been called
the 'Bible Belt'. Only a few churches of any real size remained though and
those few were mostly in the suburbs of the largest cities. The small rural
towns, where it was still alright to be openly religious, simply didn't have
the population or income left to pay ministers or keep the doors open. The
result was older ministers had banded together using all available resources to
keep one local church open. Many of the younger ministers had simply given up
and gone into the cities to find other work. It was the only way they could
provide for their families. Many of those had completely given up their
profession to avoid the issues that religion brought them in those cities. It
was all very discouraging to James.
James was also very
disappointed by the number of young people he saw at church services now or
rather the lack of them. His kids were among only a few children who attended
services and most of those were older than his. There were almost no teenagers
to be seen at any of the church services. Things had truly gotten a lot worse
in many ways inside America. That was very hard for James to accept. Pastor
David rarely did sermons anymore, but he was always around the church. He was
one of the people who spent the winter months at the farm now. James talked
with him and was still amazed at how positive Pastor David was about the
future. It wasn't a show either. Pastor David was positive that the future
would be better and that God was at work even now to make it better. It was
that rock solid faith and trust in God that helped James and Sarah to make
their final decisions about their own futures. They hadn't been sure of what to
do. They knew they couldn't stay separated indefinitely because of their
careers; not and have any kind of family life. The kids needed them both and
they needed each other. Something had to give; either careers or family had to
take first place. James and Sarah had talked and prayed almost continuously
about that since his return from Europe. They had spent a lot of time
discussing what the future might be if one or both of them left the Air Force.
Either of them could still support the family if only one stayed in the Air
Force. They could probably both find work outside the military too, but not near
home and family. It was a difficult choice to make, but they finally chose
their family over their careers.
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