Following Darjeeling

Bernardo and Linda made their way along the stepping stones following about ten stones or so behind the elderly Chinese caretaker. As they walked the path, they would notice certain things around them. Fireflies in daytime flickered around a bush with red flowers, honeybees drank from a scented birdbath and lit on the limbs and leaves of a cherry tree, humming in unison until the sound was near deafening. At another step the stone lit up and struck a C chord, sounding like a muffled piano. The next one played a D chord and the third a G. They were compelled to return and play the different stones until the old one came and hurried them along, lest they spend the rest of their time in one place. The path meandered through fields of flowers, poppies and daisies and black-eyed susans, Queen Ann’s lace, and Echinacea. Another twist in the road and they were in a rose garden where the path was like a maze that finally led them into an herb garden. In this garden was a park bench and the two of them decided to sit down and rest. As they did so, a melodious chant could be heard coming from all around them. It made them feel drowsy. The old caretaker came back up the path and admonished them to get up as soon as possible or they would spend eternity on that bench. It didn’t sound too bad to them and they sat there until the old man grabbed Bernardo by the elbow and helped him back onto the path and then did Linda the same way. They looked at each other sleepily and continued down the stone walkway. As they came to a heavy thicket of plum trees, they could hear chanting and smell beautiful incense. There was a hole cut in the thicket and the stone path went through it into a clearing. The clearing was bathed in golden sunlight and above was a beautiful blue sky. In the distance was a beautiful clear lake with a small island in the middle. Bernardo and Linda sat down on the grassy hillside overlooking the lake. It was so peaceful and calm. They noticed the old caretaker sitting on a stone nearby with legs crossed and eyes slightly closed. He raised his hand and pointed toward the island. Out of the middle of an island a single tree rose toward the sky. It was a beautiful tree with green, leafy branches and beautiful chestnut brown trunk and limbs. On the green boughs were brightly colored fruits that turned into multicolored, multifaceted jewels as Linda and Bernard looked at them. Their eyes and their minds were transfixed on the tree and its fruit. As they looked up further in the tree the tree continued to grow taller and taller with more and more jewels on the branches. The blue sky background took on a golden glow and thousands of small, abstract, puffy, pure white clouds formed on the golden surface. Now they could see the top of the tree and at the very top of the tree there appeared to be a person who was perched there. On looking closer they realized it was the old caretaker, but when they looked, he was still in his same place on the stone seat near them. A thin wisp of smoke or cloud emanated from the top of his head and wound down the verdant, grassy slope to the lake where it floated out to the island and spiraled around and around the tree, seemingly caressing all the jewels clear up to the top where the cloudy wisp spread out into a lotus flower cushion on which his other image sat. They were suddenly filled with compassion and lovingkindness for all beings on the earth. They looked at each other. They looked back at the tree and the old man told them, “This is the tree of wish-fulfilling jewels which brings compassion and lovingkindness to all sentient beings in the universe.” The wispy clouds in the background had now changed to thousands of Buddhas that surrounded the tree. Their chanting filled the air around them with the smell of beautiful incense. Linda and Bernardo looked on in amazement, having never experienced anything anywhere on this level. The old man approached and offering his two hands, one to each of them, directed them to let the image of the tree go and to concentrate on the compassion that they had experienced; to take with them and remember from this day on. They looked at him and smiled and he smiled back and they realized that their clothing had changed into white, gold-trimmed robes and leather flip-flop sandals.
The path now headed back toward the plum thicket in the same fashion as before. At the edge of the thicket another hole presented itself and they made their way through, this time into another clearing where an old two story farmhouse and barn stood. The point at which they came out of the thicket was at the backyard area of the farmhouse. Near them were several beehives and further away, grapevines in neatly trellised rows spilled off of the top of the hill and into the lower field below. A couple of old pickups and an old John Deere 420 with a brush mower were parked in the circle drive in front and a few dogs lay under the trucks in the coolness of the shade they offered. In back of the house was a concrete patio and a wooden deck. The patio and deck were connected by another patio of red bricks. The deck was octagonal in design about thirty feet across and about two feet off the ground. There was a group of people sitting around the perimeter of the deck in the old style metal lawn chairs, the kind with tubular rocking bases and fan back metal seats, all painted in different pastel colors. As the three of them approached the old one rang a small dingsha bell and the people turned to look. Upon seeing him they all got up and proceeded to stand behind the deck so they were in the background as the trio came toward them. All of them were dressed in white robes and leather flip-flop sandals just like Linda and Bernardo. As they got closer they could see three figures sitting on brightly colored lotus-shaped cushions near the middle of the deck. Two of the people on the deck were facing them and were offset to the left and right and behind the third one who was sitting inside a smaller octagonal area at the center of the deck. The old caretaker smiled at them. “This is as far as I can take you, the rest you will have to do for yourself,” he told them.
Linda was the first to speak. “You have shown us beautiful and unimaginable things, but where are we and what exactly are we doing here?” He looked at her and shrugged, holding his arms out with palms up.
Bernardo butted in. “What are we supposed to do now that you are leaving?”
“Accept what you see and reject what you don’t.” And with that statement the old man walked away from them around the corner of the house not to be seen by them again.

Live At Rocket City 

This Is The End, Beautiful Friend

Laughing, Sunny Day took up a seat at the end of the bar furthest from the front door in Jayne’s Korner Tavern on the Northeast corner of the intersection of Merriam Lane and Johnson Drive in Shawnee. There was Jayne, replete in her faux leopard skin mini-skirt, black top, and just-below-the-knee black go-go boots. She had just punched up the jukebox, an old 60’s model. The money for the tunes came from passing around a Coors pitcher with the combined look of “You can have me if you want me” and “If you don’t you can get your ass out of here.” It worked every time. The thing about Jayne was that she was more eclectic in her taste in music than most bar owners. Where most would stock the juke with current top sellers, Jayne preferred the classics. “Jayne, don’t you know that nobody listens to Jefferson Airplane any more?” Sunny whiffed the beer glass in front of him to get the hops aroma before putting about half of it away. It had been a hot, fast ride from Topeka and he already knew it was going to get hotter.
“Oh yeah, Sunny, sure, that’s right, uh-huh in case you didn’t know it, you are listening to Jefferson Airplane and so am I and so is everybody else in this place, so does that mean we all are nobody?” She had a way of inadvertently philosophizing commonplace occurrences into heady argument. It kept the customers on their toes. “Where have you been, my blue-eyed friend?” Sunny looked twice to see who it was he was talking to. Jayne smiled at him. It wasn’t Voice he was looking at but Jayne’s lyrical sound sure made him wonder what was taking place. It was the way she almost sang the question to him. He let the thought go and finished his beer, pushing the glass to the edge of the bar for another. His “Lone Wolf, No Club” black leather jacket smelled musty to him and he wondered if others noticed. He reached for the fresh beer and knocked it over. Jayne scowled. “Sunny, what the …..?”
“Sorry, Jayne, it was a hot ride and I’m a little out of sorts right now, here let me clean that up.” Sunny reached for the bar rag. Jayne pulled it back between her circled thumb and forefinger and flipped it, giving it a pop at the end and catching Sunny on the sleeve of the dirty black jacket.
“My place, my mess, Sunny, drink your beer.” As The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil played out over their heads, they looked at each other and sang together, “No man is an island, he’s a peninsula,” and high-fived each other, laughing. Sunny gave Jayne the “Can I have you if I want you?" look and she flipped him with the towel again and went off to wash glasses. He followed her footsteps until she turned around, catching him watching her walk. She reached in a bowl and hurled some peanuts at him. He hunkered down to his beer grabbing it with both hands.
“Well look what the cat drugged in.” Sunny turned in his chair to see who was talking but he wasn’t able to see too well in the low ambient light. He saw a form moving from the back room where the fooseball table was. As the shape came toward him he recognized Reggie.
“Reggie, my man, what’s happenin’?” Sunny raised his right hand and caught Reggie’s giving him the Viet Nam soul brother handshake.
“Sunny, don’t be tryin’ to sound like no brother,” Reggie laughed, “You never were good at givin’ it up either, seems like you forgot the handshake.”
“Been too long, man, been way too long.” The two of them had been together in Viet Nam in 1969 and 1970 at Tay Ninh, the base camp that was known as Rocket City. They had run across each other a couple of times since then but it had been years this time since they had seen each other. “Let me buy you a beer, Reg,” Sunny said reaching for his wallet.
“Naw, man, me and Nate back there are trippin’ on some purple flat and beer just ain’t gettin’ it, if you know what I mean.” Reggie looked out over his sunglasses directly into Sunny’s eyes so Sunny could see his dilated pupils to prove he was doing just what he just said he was doing. “Come on back for a while.” Reggie turned and headed back to the fooseball room. Sunny picked up his beer and followed, thinking about when he and Reggie lived in an underground bunker in Rocket City and played in a rhythm and blues band called the Economy Studs. Reggie was an accomplished, classically trained violinist and they played jigs and reels as well as blues numbers. It was a blast as Sunny recalled. He high-fived Nate as he walked through the bead curtain into the fooseball parlor. Sunny drank his beer and watched as Nate and Reggie cranked the handles on the fooseball table. To Sunny it was just a game, but to the other two it was a constant blur of light and sound. Reggie finally lost when he looked up at Nate and saw Nate’s eyeballs drop down on the playing field and roll around, Nate laughing and smacking them through for a final two goals sealing the win. He picked up his eyes and popped them back in, freaking Reggie out and leaving Sunny wondering what the excitement was all about. All he saw was Nate making a goal. Reggie fell back against the wall laughing and Nate reached in his coat pocket for the pint of gin he always carried. Taking a pull he handed it to Reggie who took one and passed it on to Sunny.
“No man, I don’t indulge,” Sunny said pushing the bottle back toward Reggie. Reggie looked at him like “Yeah, you don’t indulge, not after some brother drank from the bottle.” Reggie’s arm rotated toward Nate, handing him the bottle and not taking his eyes off of Sunny.
“Come on, Nate, let’s slide on up to my crib and mellow out.” Sunny made note of Reggie’s use of the word “crib” and made a mental note to add it to his repertoire. He punched Reggie on the shoulder and looked him in the eyes. Reggie smiled and punched him back. “Later on down the line, my man, later on.” Reggie and Nate walked out the back door past the Shawnee patrol car and the two cops, waving to them as they went by. The cop on the driver’s side rolled down his window.
“Hey Nate, what’s happenin’ man, long time no see.”
“Nothin’ brother, we’re bookin’ over to Reggie’s crib, why don’t you two slide on by.” Nate opened the door to his red Mercedes 450 SLC and slid in.
“Hey, we just might do that if it won’t upset the neighborhood too much.”
“Naw, you guys are all right,” Nate laughed and pulled out onto Merriam Lane and squealed the tires. “It’s good to have connections with the Man,” Nate high fived Reggie as they headed on down the road to Reggie’s place.
Sunny heard the commotion up front and parted the bead curtain to see what was up. He couldn’t really make out who or how many people were involved so he made his way past the pool table and juke box to get a better view. His eyes adjusted to the brighter light and he saw four people in a heated discussion with Jayne. Sunny thought he recognized the big guy in the coveralls and black silver-studded hat. The others he wasn’t sure of until he got closer and verified that it was Rafe and it was Slim, two old acquaintances from Western Kansas. It had been over a year since he had seen them back in Jetmore where he had hidden out on the old farm place next to theirs. The other two, a man and a woman, looked familiar but he couldn’t tell for sure because they were behind the big man who was gesticulating wildly and doing some sort of poetry rap. As he got closer, he realized that Rafe was reciting his favorite Lord Byron much to the amazement of Jayne who was now leaning back on the beer cooler with her arms crossed waiting for him to finish. “Rafe, Rafe,” Sunny said as he put his hand on Rafe’s shoulder. Rafe spun around raising his left fist high in the air, ready to bring it crashing down on whoever it was that had touched him. When he saw it was Sunny Day he stopped in mid-verse and relaxed.
“Sunny, man we’ve been trying to find you forever.” He gave Sunny a bear hug that squeezed the breath out of him, then Rafe put him down. “Hey, man you know Slim here, he was trying to get a cold Mickey’s and the lady insulted him and we didn’t take kindly to that insult.” The other two sheepishly peeked around Rafe to get a look at Sunny. Jenny’s face lit up with the realization that she knew him, but the preacher with her had no clue who he was even though Sunny now recognized him as the preacher from Jetmore that he had seen in the tavern.
“Slim, you still drinkin’ that green shit?” Sunny clapped Rafe on the back and stuck out his hand to shake hands with Slim. Sunny looked over and smiled at Jayne who lifted both arms palm up as if to say she didn’t have a clue what the guy was talking about.
“Yeah, I guess Kansas City is behind times, even Jetmore has Mickey’s,” Slim grabbed Sunny’s hand and shook.
“Only because you drink all of it,” This time it was Jenny who spoke up. “Say didn’t you used to play guitar for the Economy Studs?” She asked Sunny.
“That was a long time ago, little lady, but I remember you singing at Coyas Castle years ago. You were hooked up with the Fat Man. Are you singing now?”
“No, I’m on some kind of weird trip with these yayhoos and it’s getting really strange now, you see, we’ve been visited by the Star People and . . .” Slim gave her the sign to stop talking about it and looked at the preacher who, so far, had not said a word. All of them stopped talking and looked at Sunny who motioned them back to a back table. Jayne got the sign from Sunny to bring a round of beer and she and Slim seemed to have come to an understanding about the availability of Mickey’s Big Mouth. Starting with the preacher, each one told their story to Sunny, and then Sunny told them his. Right on cue, the front door opened and they all looked up as the daylight streaked into the bar, illuminating their table. They held their hands up to shade their eyes to see who it was. Two people walked in. Sunny immediately recognized Nuke but couldn’t make out the woman behind him. Then he gasped. It was Voice. Nuke had this sheepish grin on his face as they walked back to the table and pulled up two chairs. Everyone there knew this was a cosmic meeting. Even Jayne had some sixth sense knowledge about what was going on. She looked at Voice and stuck the Coors pitcher for the jukebox offering out toward her. Voice looked at the money that was already in the pitcher. She gazed at it and a dollar bill floated up and out toward the jukebox. It glowed as it went in the slot and the jukebox lit up. Buttons rapidly pushed themselves and a record cued up. Voice looked at them all as she sang along with Jim Morrison.
“This is the end, beautiful friend the end. Of our elaborate plans, the end.” And when she had finished, the green glow of her eyes illuminated them all. Jayne dropped the pitcher as she looked at the empty table and chairs. The jukebox turned itself off and they were gone.

Nobody listens to Jefferson Airplane any more. 

The Old Man

“What do we do now, Limpy?” Linda had this acerbic way of asking questions and she knew it. She also knew that Bernardo hated nicknames. The other aspect of her personality was that she really didn’t care. They were sitting there in the hovercar that seemed to be experiencing some mechanical problems. This was unusual for the magnetic dynamo that propelled it. Normally the only thing that affected the L20 Hover was an anomaly in the magnetic field. All the gauges read normal but the thing just wasn’t running right. Linda switched from the magnetic propulsion system over to hydrogen cell which straightened the hovering problem out but left them with less power to accelerate away if they needed to. At this moment they were hovering about six feet off the ground just above the old roadbed. Linda took the car up about twenty feet to get a better view of the area and a white tailed deer jumped from the brush. It ran straight toward the crystal wall and when it got there ran through it and disappeared. “Bernardo, did you see that?” Linda asked.
“Yes, it was a white tail.”
“Did you see what happened to it?”
“Yeah, it ran into the brush over there.”
“It disappeared, Bernardo,” Linda was serious now. “It didn’t go into the brush, it disappeared into the crystal wall. I want to look over there where it went in.”
Bernardo unfastened his seat belt and prepared for descent. “No time like the present,” he said as the car slowly descended to ground level. He and Linda got out. They walked through the thicket toward the wall. The weather was a cool seventy degrees and the sunlight felt good. As they got closer, they could see the glass like structure of the wall and could feel a low level vibration in the ground around them. Linda walked right up to the wall and reached out. Her hand really didn’t touch the wall it just stopped a little short and she couldn’t get it to go any further forward. Bernardo did the same thing. “How do you suppose that happened that the deer can go right through and we can’t even touch the wall?” Bernardo asked, looking at the wall in front of him that shimmered in the Kansas sunlight. The vibration around his feet increased and he stepped back a little.
“I don’t know but I’m going to find out. Remote viewing will give us the configuration of the energy level of the wall and any gaps where something may penetrate it. We can also find out what is on the other side.” Linda went into remote viewing, the trance-like state of awareness that she was so good at. After a couple of minutes she came back. “It’s really interesting, Bernardo, it’s like there aren’t any gaps in the field but there seems to be the outline of a gate right here. You try. Better yet, hook up with me and we will view it together.” Linda stepped next to him and Bernardo felt weak in the knees. To link with Linda Marble had been one of his goals if not fantasies and now it was going to happen. She looked at him and laughed. “Bernie, we are Kansa and we are viewers, nothing more, nothing less. Let’s do this in the spirit of adventure and fun and not be so serious about the meaning behind what we are doing together.”
“Sure, Linda, but you know I have been interested in seeing you outside of our profession. I think we have lots in common besides our ability to view.” Bernardo regained his stature and composure.
“Maybe so, Bernie, but let’s just concentrate on the task at hand right now.” Linda grabbed his hand and they both concentrated on the remote viewing of the wall and what lay behind it. There was indeed a gate in front of them. It resembled an old ornamental iron gate that was used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beyond it was an old man who was looking at them and pointing with a bony finger. He had on an old straw hat the top of which was torn out. An old owl feather protruded from one side. He wore some blue jeans and a black tee shirt. His work boots were tattered and worn out on the sides. As they looked, he beckoned to them and smiled as he made his way to the gate to let them in. As he reached for the old iron latch, Linda and Bernardo broke off the remote viewing and found themselves once again standing in front of the shimmering crystal wall. There was no gate or old man. “Who was that?” Linda asked. Bernard reached for his cell phone and punched on the QWERTY keypad.
“Not Darjeeling,” Bernardo said, “Even if he has aged that much since the KIDA he still would not look like the old man we saw.”
“Maybe he’s the caretaker of the place. Let’s view again.”
Bernardo was all for that. He liked the linked viewing sensation he got from Linda. They joined hands and tranced again. The old man appeared again the same as before except for the sign he held in front of him. Scrawled on the sign in black calligraphic style was one word, “Caretaker”. He was laughing at them and beckoning for them to come in. He reached for the gate latch and they broke off again only to find themselves once more outside of the wall just as before. “He looked oriental,” Bernardo offered, “Let’s try it again.” They linked as before and the old man appeared again, this time holding a similar sign with two words on it. “Oriental Caretaker”. This time the old man was laughing so hard he was about to double over. Bernardo looked at Linda and they linked. He communicated to her that they were to first enter into remote viewing and then proceed directly to dreamwalking and actually enter into the remote viewing vision. Linda had never done this before and was not technically qualified to even attempt it but she was all ready to try. She nervously grasped Bernardo’s hand. There again in front of them was the old man, laughing and seemingly drawing them in with his bony finger. As he reached the gate and took hold of the latch they could see his penetrating emerald green eyes. Rays of green light came from them and covered the two agents. He hesitated a bit, then pushed down the latch, turning his back to them and motioning with his hand to follow. Linda let go of Bernardo’s hand and pushed the gate open wide enough for both of them to enter. They both felt a twinge of vibration as they stepped through, following the hunched over figure in front of them. Linda looked at Bernardo and communicated.
“Did you see those eyes?” Just as she finished, Bernardo acknowledge by moving his head. The old man suddenly turned around and abruptly appeared face to face with the two of them, not more than a foot away. His piercing emerald eyes captivated them, nearly hypnotizing them even in the dreamwalking trance. He put his bony finger to his lips as a sign for keeping quiet. Then he turned around and continued down the rock path, stepping slowly on each stone that had seemingly been placed ages ago. All they could do was follow.

Finding Darjeeling

Agent Linda Marble set off no less than six security alarms as she made her way to the helipad to meet Agent Limpio. Each time though, her K-Tag flashed and radioed her identity through the system and she passed by the security officers without so much as slowing down. She took her status at the agency seriously and relied on her Kansa background to get her anywhere she wanted to go. As she walked briskly on the moving sidewalk she scanned for Bernardo Limpio and saw him at the final security checkpoint. She felt the return RV probe and blocked him from her reception. It was a trick she had learned and was surprised that he wasn’t able to counteract. He was, after all, the best remote viewer in the agency. She turned the corner and saw him standing there, arms akimbo, pulling back the jacket of his grey suit and revealing not only his athletic physique, but also the Stun that he carried under his left armpit. Linda was not impressed. She couldn’t understand why he still relied on such an outmoded way of dealing with violent situations. Her advanced remote viewing techniques allowed her to avoid all contact with violence and violent persons. The Kansa were the only people left in the United States who were still allowed to carry firearms of any type, all other states had outlawed them. But since Kansas was no longer a state and the Kansa were no longer law abiding citizens, these laws, or any law for that matter, simply did not apply to Limpio or any other Kansa, good or bad. In fact, the Republique of Kansas, as it was now known, had become a storehouse for all of the firearms that were left and a haven for all of the vigilantes, desperadoes, and leftover lawmen that still believed in using them.
“Bernie,” (she knew he hated the name) “you are so deck.” She meant it as a complement, but she knew that decadent was not how Agent Limpio viewed himself. “You look like you just stepped out of a ‘90’s cop show on ‘vision.” She walked right past him but he caught her by the arm and pulled her back in front of him.
“Not so fast, Agent Marble, you’ve got to go through the security scrutinizer before we board the heli’.” Limpio looked her in the eyes sternly but still smiling and began his RV probe. She fought back and her strength nearly overwhelmed him. He spoke out loud. “If you persist with this little game you’re playing, I will be forced to use extreme remote viewing measures for security purposes. Yes, we are Kansa, but there are areas where we must police each other. You’d do it for me, I’m sure. This will allow us to roam freely without interruption to where Darjeeling is.” He completed the scan and found no Risk of Discovery violations that would jeopardize their trip. “OK, Linda, we can board now, do you want to pilot or shall I?”
“Screw the scrutiny, and yes, I will pilot. I only trust myself in those dad-blamed helicars.”
“Dad-blamed? Wow, I haven’t heard that since Gunsmoke! You’re so antebellum these days.” Limpio repaid her comment about him in kind. At least he was happy that she didn’t curse. They headed for the heliopad and boarded, Linda taking the helm of the magnetic gyro powered vehicle and Bernardo strapping himself in for what he knew would be a bumpy ride. Not because she was a woman, but because she was Kansa and would throw out the flight plan rule book as soon as they cleared airspace. He remembered the last time he flew with her in control and how she had managed to fly their entire route backwards.
Agent Marble slipped the mem-chip into the flight panel, logging their destination. The digital screen flipped up and gave her the flight path to clear airspace: “Flight Hilo-1369 you are cleared for flight to the Western Border of the Republique of Kansas. Once you clear that border there are no flight patterns required. You must, however exit at the same coordinates you entered in order to file a return flight plan.” Linda Marble hit the forward thrust and they left Denver airspace on a direct line to Kansas. She hadn’t been back to Kansas for some time and was actually looking forward to seeing some of the “relief” of the Kansas countryside where she was born. “ I can’t believe we have to file any flight plan,” she said to Bernardo.
“Yes it is hard to live in both worlds,” he replied indicating his disdain for laws and regulation, “but we made the choice to be agents and we have to abide by some form of governance.” He grabbed the strap as the helicar made an abrupt ninety degree turn followed by two more which put them back on the same bearing.
“Gotta keep them air control boys on their toes,” Linda laughed. She actually felt pretty good up in the sky. Bernardo laughed, too and settled down a bit as she smoothed out the flight. Soon they were at the border and Bernardo mentally gave Linda the coordinates of their destination. “It was called Louisburg before the KIDA and was in Miami County,” he told her after she input the coordinates into the heli. She could have flown there without coordinates. She zig-zagged through the western portion of the state that was now devoid of the once prevalent wheat fields. It made her sad. Some of her relatives had been wheat farmers. As she approached her own home town of Lawrence she was shocked to see the drained area where Clinton Lake used to be. With no laws to protect it, it had become someone’s drainage fantasy to see all of the water behind the dam go crashing out leaving the lakebed dry. She took the heli in low, low enough to read a sign on the breached dam: “This is the price of our iniquity.” She took the heli back up, not wanting to see any of the devastation of Lawrence that had made Quantrill’s raid in the 1800’s look like a cake walk. She veered Southeast and locked the heli on the coordinates, disabling the radio beam that tracked them from Denver. Bernardo looked at her and laughed out loud, wondering how she had managed to pull that off. But he, too, did not want Darjeeling’s whereabouts to be found out. There were still those in Kansas who would really like to have that information.
The gravel road was overgrown with no vestige visible from the land or the sky. The native Osage Orange, or Bois d’Arc trees had completely taken over roads, fences, old farmhouses and barns to the point that the land itself was indistinguishable from what it once was. Here and there was an outpost or settlement with small huts made from scavenged wood. This was the legacy of the KIDA legislation for those who had chosen to stay in Kansas. No roads, no bridges, no waterlines or any type of service. It reminded many people of the Navajo settlements in Arizona where a one-car track led to a remote house or two. Most of the towns had been abandoned. Some had been burned to the ground after they were ransacked. Only a few survived: Fort Scott, Pittsburg and Garnett were still intact, watched over by vigilantes who scrutinized anyone violating their personal and precious Kansas space. The entire area of Johnson County was the first to be completely devastated; destroyed by pick-up hordes from Western Kansas, the stronghold of the Conservative Right. But that was the past and this was now.
Agent Marble held the heli in place above the coordinates. “There’s nothing here,” she beamed to Bernardo.
“Oh, yes there is, you just can’t see it yet.” Agent Limpio handed her a pair of sunglasses. “Here, put these on and look to the south.”
Linda Marble sucked in her breath as she gazed toward what looked to be more of the same hedge overgrowth. At first she noticed an outline of sorts that rose up out of the treeline and up into the space above for some fifty feet or so. Then she noticed the green spike-like luminosity near the middle of the property and the minaret towers that demarcated right angle corners around a space about a quarter mile square. The minarets looked like they were made of crystal and she noticed a connecting net that covered the entire tract. The net, too, looked crystalline.
“Welcome to Stephen Darjeeling’s place,” Bernardo beamed to her and looked for her reaction. He nearly fell out of the heli as she began the ascent directly over the green spire. “Linda, you will not be able to approach closer than about a hundred feet from the spire, so don’t even try it.” The words fell on deaf ears and the heli bounced back to the hover position it had occupied. Linda looked perplexed. “You can’t penetrate the field, you can only enter in one location so set us down over by that old grapevine in that clearing over there.” Linda obeyed this time and set the heli down.

Dinosaurs > Birds>?

Birds from dinosaurs?
What songs did dinosaurs sing?
Evolution blues.