Transitions

Angel looked around the room from where she sat on the edge of the braided rug where the teacher told stories. She didn't understand much of it yet, but she was increasingly comfortable with being there, especially as long as she could see Cathy or one of the others she knew well. She still didn't relate much with strangers and, if pushed, would simply begin to scream. Her coping mechanisms were still very immature.

Thirty toddlers were a challenge for the four adults, and those worthy ladies were glad to see the parents begin to come in, picking up their little ones. Cathy watched Angel from across the room, glad to see that she stayed on the rug this time instead of running toward the door the moment she saw Jeff. Today she stood up just in time for Jeff to grab her in a big hug, and he went out with her snuggled in his arms wearing a big grin.

Squeals and giggles soon filled the room, and then as quickly all was still again as the last parents and children left. Cathy joined the other three ladies and they sat down to do their post class evaluation. It was brief and informal, but they had discovered they could solve many problems early, or head them off completely, by doing this each day.

One of the teen age helpers began to straighten the books and put toys and supplies away. Another one carefully watered the plants on a window sill and checked on two classroom pets in their roomy cages.

Gratefully lifting a mug of tea, Cathy remarked to the others that they would soon need to begin building a separate school if the ranch population continued to grow. The big community building finished last fall, seemingly large enough for all the intended purposes, was already crowded and scheduling things was becoming ever more difficult. Some of the classes were meeting in the covered picnic area at the park that had been built this summer, but cold weather would soon put a stop to that.

They discussed the possibility of remodeling the old barn for this purpose, but everyone eventually agreed that it would be far more practical just to build something new. The old barn would be used to house equipment and might eventually be converted into a workshop to repair equipment and engines - all of which was now being done more or less out in the open. Indeed, the new barn had been constructed with that in mind, every bit as much for the fact that there were now far more animals to be housed and crowded conditions in the old barn were not healthy for man or beast.

Georgia, the youngest teacher, suggested that the toddlers' class might move to the common room in the old ranch HQ building, and Cathy said it certainly wouldn't hurt to ask the Bradshaws if they would mind. That would give the rapidly growing combined first and second grade classes a chance to spread out from their cramped single room. This led to a lively debate over the relative merits of separating children into yearly grades, or the old method of leaving different ages to work together with the older helping the younger.

Janice, one of only three professionally trained teachers in the community, pointed out that the mixed age class worked fairly well when there were only a few students overall, but since the Ranch school now had more than 100 children -including the toddlers - enrolled, it was more efficient to give each teacher a more or less matched group of students. She went on to say that age as the arbitrary division had never been useful, and she was glad that they were able to form the separate "grades" based on readiness to learn and past performance instead. "Not to mention the fact that we provide a great many opportunities for different grades to work together and utilize the older students frequently to assist the younger ones. I think we've got a great system here," she said with a big smile.

Betty poked her head into the doorway just then to say hello. Janice took the opportunity to ask her if they could move the toddlers to the old common room, and Betty joined them to discuss the logistics. They realized that the "kindergarten" class, which included four and five year olds, used many of the same materials as the toddlers and that it might be useful to move them to the old building as well. This would open up even more space for the older children who did not need the toys or nap mats and other things used for the younger ones. This, of course, led to talk about a whole new school building, but everyone realized that such a project would take time and, since not everyone in the community utilized the school, might not find enough support right away. But they agreed it was well worth proposing.

Betty promised to make sure it was on the agenda for the next council meeting and, having hugged everyone, went out to see how the new ceramics class was coming along. They had built a big kiln that spring, and she was anxious to see what they were creating. Some large stoneware crocks had become a priority project when the ladies in the preserve kitchen concluded  the coming harvest would exceed the capacity of those they already had.  Nobody wanted to do without sauerkraut or pickles.

She looked into other doors as she went along, delighted to see so many people engaged in learning and doing... her vision in the unfinished building the year before had certainly come true. She knew that almost everyone now wished they had dreamed larger and built larger because they all could see they would soon be bursting at the seams.

Passing John and Bert with some students in the hall, she remembered how the two men had come in last fall, hungry and ragged from their adventures in Denver. Bert had stashed his vehicle north of town in an abandoned barn, and they had found it unmolested. Their journey back to the ranch had been mostly uneventful, except for the problem of finding fuel.

They had never freely shared the details of their time in Denver. Bert had been very withdrawn and moody all winter, with John as his only real companion, but Roger had managed to draw him out by prevailing on him to teach the high school chemistry class. Then John had agreed to teach electronics. She was glad to see Bert engaged in a lively discussion with John and two others about some point of science that had been diagrammed extensively on one of the conference room chalk slates. She made a mental note to ask about getting slates like that for more of the classrooms.

A strong, disagreeable smell drew her around a corner and into an outside porch where a big pot of something bubbled gently over a small fire. She remembered that this was an experiment in paper making and, despite the smell, hoped that they would be successful. There was almost no clean, new paper left anywhere in the community, and so far they had not been successful finding any.

None of the traders who had begun to make a circuit of the communities had so far considered it worthy of their time and effort, though she hoped they would change their minds by next year. They had carried only guns, ammunition and such things at first, but had soon been prevailed on to include such small and valued things as needles, thread and other once common household goods that were very difficult to produce without modern machinery.

Slowly, and little by little, the ham radio stations were coming back in many parts of the country and what had formerly been Canada. Communities were forming and growing rapidly, as well as a few manufacturing centers. The latter were mostly making use of industrial sites that had long been abandoned, of course, since starting such things from scratch would have been difficult even where possible. They had a long way to go before anyone would be ready to build automobiles or airplanes again. But they had certainly made a good start.

Roger watched as the last of the new interior walls of the barn went up and noted that the timbers were ready to build the hay loft above as soon as the wall was secured. The ladders were all finished as well, and he thought the main doors would be complete and ready to install by the end of the week. He shook his head and grinned, reminding himself that he was just an observer now, lending a hand at times but no longer in charge. Don was the builder here, and extremely competent. Roger was very happy to know that he didn't have to do or manage or plan everything, but the transition had been a little rough in the beginning. Letting go had not been easy, but he could see very clearly that it had been absolutely necessary for both the community and his own peace of mind. He knew that "control" was potentially deadly, even in someone who sincerely wanted only good for others - and he knew that he had not always been immune to that siren call.

He walked down the long line of stalls in the old barn, scratching and petting those horses with their heads out, appreciating the fact that the new barn design would much reduce the problems they'd had the last few years. They could now keep the stalls much cleaner and the stone foundations would not rot like the wooden ones had.

On a whim, he saddled his big gelding and rode out to watch the harvest start. Water gurgled in the ditches beside the road, now going eventually into a new large pond in the middle of the pasture land. It was no longer being diverted into the fields since they had been allowed to dry some for the harvest. The pond contained fish and provided an excellent water source for the cattle and horses. They'd have to keep a portion of it ice free for the winter, of course, but it would certainly beat hauling water from the well head. That had become impossible a year ago with the sudden increase of livestock brought by new settlers from the East Valley split.

The East Valley folk had decided not to adopt the Bradshaw charter and opted instead for a much narrower system based on the predominate religious group's tenets.  A number of those who had wanted to adopt the charter chose to leave East Valley and join the Bradshaw Ranch community. They had brought considerable talents and resources with them, of course, but the sudden increase in population - human and animal - had certainly stretched things a bit last winter. Roger could see that the birthrate alone was going to make that an ongoing challenge.

He was very glad that relationships with the remaining East Valley folk continued to be friendly and that they would be able to use the grasslands there for summer cattle range, but he knew they'd all have to work to prevent misunderstandings and problems. The core Valley people would probably continue to drive folks away with their rigid religious requirements, and Roger could see how easy it would be for them to blame his community for the consequences.

Even now they did not have the manpower to protect their own flocks and herds from predators, and Roger had negotiated a deal to provide security for their stock as well as for the animals his town pastured there. It had worked out this year, but anything could happen. He was determined to explore the land to the north, remembering that he'd found a remote pass to some high meadows just before he went to join the Marines. He had never ridden much up there since. A new summer range would solve many problems in the future, he thought.

The sun was low in the west as the weary gelding was being rubbed down in the main paddock. Roger led him to his stall and made sure he had plenty of feed and clean water. He loved to care for his own horse, but hurried a little as he left the barn, knowing he had only a little time to get clean and ready for the big meeting that night. It didn't seem possible that the first anniversary of the signing of the charter was only three weeks away. This meeting would be the first to evaluate the problems from the past year and consider any proposed amendments.
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The gavel had sounded and the usual brief period of silence had been observed. The meeting had been called for early evening in the new park so everyone who wished to could attend. A small rough "stage" had been thrown up earlier, and rigged with the microphone and speakers. The council was seated at a pair of tables from the old dining room, and everyone else either sat on the grass or had brought chairs from home. Most of the children had been put to bed already, but a considerable number of them were being entertained with watermelon and games in the old courtyard.

The first order of business was a continuation of a discussion from the previous month about the security plan for the community. The guard posts had been left un-tended since last fall, leaving only the electronic trip alarms and booby traps in place. Since there had been no attack from outside, and no indication of roaming bands of goblins since the East Valley incident, there had been less and less urgency about perimeter security, but some people remained concerned. They believed that some form of dedicated security team, such as an old fashioned sheriff and deputies, was necessary for internal problems and frictions, even if the chance of invasion from outside was remote. They worried that, even though most people still went armed and were well trained in personal defense, eventually there would be nobody ready to respond if a real emergency came up.

Others, of course, were very skeptical and worried that any sort of police force could become a problem in and of itself. They remembered vividly the abuses perpetrated by the police before the crash, all in the name of safety and security.

Richard, Don, Jake and many of those now operating industries and businesses within the community were just as adamant that they needed a sheriff to help keep the peace as the steady growth of the town brought in strangers and potential trouble makers.  Speaking through Richard, they reminded everyone that there had already been an increase in petty crime and contract disputes, with more than a few resulting in people being required to leave the valley. He talked about a fist fight over a woman that had escalated into gun play last winter, resulting in the death of one man and serious injury to the other, as well as danger to innocent bystanders who had tried to break up the fight. Since it had been mutual combat, resulting in a death, the injured man had been required to leave as soon as he was able to travel. Richard finished by saying that such things were bound to happen, and that as of now nobody really knew what to do about it.

Mutt, Jeff, John and most of the other former Marines proposed a colonial style militia, complete with officers, required drill time and all the rest. They were much more concerned about the remaining danger of attack from outside. Over the summer, there had been reports from some communities in the far south of new outlaw gangs coming from the west coast and the old southern border. These raider/bandit gangs were said to be well organized and well led - unlike many of those in the past. Many small communities that had started to recover had been overwhelmed and many people killed. There was no telling if the new gangs would come north so far, but Mutt and his group didn't think it was a good time to lower their level of preparedness in any case.

The discussions had gone on all summer and two distinct groups had emerged. Only one real candidate for sheriff had come from the "pro" group, and Richard, a former sheriff's deputy, was willing to take on the job. Mutt had spent countless hours talking with people about it, and had found very little opposition to a militia, even among those who insisted they needed a sheriff.

Now the proposals had been made and a voice vote was called for on the first one, since they didn't have paper for a ballot. The roar of the "YES" was very loud and the waving arms indicated almost complete agreement. Only a handful answered the call for "NO" votes. Josh Cramer, the council leader for the year tried to estimate the percentage, but finally gave up and asked for the vote on  the second proposal. Many people were very surprised that the response was almost identical!

Bradshaw stood up signaling his desire to speak, and a hush soon descended over the crowd. He advanced to the stage and took the microphone, clearing his throat before he spoke. "I think we may have overlooked something in this debate, but it seems obvious to me now that we need both an internal and external security set up! I move that we form both a regular militia and a sheriff's department."

A dozen voices called out a second to this motion and many others began loud discussions. Josh banged the gavel to call them to order, then asked if there was any need for further discussion. Silence and negative nods greeted that request, and Bradshaw called for the question. Once again, Josh requested a voice vote and the positive response was obviously unanimous from the roar and the lack of response to a call for objections.

Roger returned to his seat, glad that the community had once again come together in harmony. He scratched his head, however, wondering what new problems this would bring. He knew that every action and choice had both intended, and unintended consequences.