Helen sat in an office just beyond the warehouse. She had washed her hair and cleaned up, finally finding time to sit and relax behind a large desk. She instinctively reached to her shirt pocket to find the picture of Barry. It was gone. She remembered the photo was in the shirt left at Quincy Market in the struggle. Helen had an uncontrollable urge to return to the site. She would be without a picture of her son until she returned home. If she made it home. Helen got up from her chair to see Chaos. As she opened the door, she was surprised to find someone opening it at the same time. It was Captain Thomas. A rebel had told him Helen's son was at Dixville.
He fumbled, trying to find the words, finally telling her about his part in the massacre. Captain Thomas' pathetic apology wasn't the way she envisioned her first meeting with the murderer of her son. Oh, she knew it was an automated ambush, but some soulless son-of-a-bitch set it up. Helen couldn't look at him; she was uncertain how to feel and still numbed from her ordeal with Tumult.
"I just wanted to give you this." Captain Thomas handed her a memory disk. "I copied the imaging off the AutoMan. Do as you wish with it; it's about time everyone knew what really happened that day." His hand shook as he held it out to her.
"What is it?"
"Compressed imaging of the Dixville Massacre."
"Compressed imaging?"
"It shows what happened that day."
Helen held it with both hands and just looked at it. She didn't know if she wanted to see it.
"How are the boys who survived?" Thomas asked.
The question jolted Helen from her trance. "What boys?" She didn't know what to tell him; that had been secret.
"There were two kids in the roots of a fallen tree. I didn't see a blood trail so I presumed they were not hit."
"Ah--"
"You don't have to say anything. I understand." Captain Thomas lowered his head and backed out of the room, "I'm truly sorry. I just wish it could all be undone."
Helen looked up from the disk, "So do I." The Captain closed the door, wiping his eyes with the heel of his hand as he exited. "So do I," she repeated. Helen hadn't noticed it earlier but her eyes had teared too. She saw Wolfenstein's backpack on the edge of the desk. She opened it and pulled out his pocket computer. After loading the disk, she viewed scenes through the Toshiba graphic interface. The entire display couldn't have lasted more than two minutes from start to finish: The first Scout that triggered the device stuck his face in death's mouth, the constant strafing from side to side, then the pin-point single shots that either finished children off or targeted kids hiding behind trees and rocks. "Jesus, God!" She saw Barry. She didn't see her son actually but recognized his shoes extending out from a boulder. Helen put a hand to her mouth and stared at the screen as AutoMan pummeled away at the legs that extended beyond the stone. Her eyes winced with every flinch of her son's legs. Butch could be seen on the edge of the screen trying to go after him but an overpowering hand yanked him down. And then came Mr. Ronolou's heroic act that allowed the Rousells' escape. She replayed it over and over.
"What's that?"
Helen raised back upon hearing the words, and nearly hit Steve Morrison in the face with the back of her head. She hadn't heard him come in. "That's Dixville Notch, isn't it?" he queried, incredulous. His chewing gum fell out of his open mouth as he looked down.
The question stirred her from the nightmare. Helen nodded yes. Steve walked around her and saw the tear paths that marked her face. "I'm sorry. But you see, this can end it. This disc would hang the President. He had to know. It was at least a cover-up on the part of the White House. They knew it wasn't smugglers."
Tater woke from her anesthesia and began to stir. The new surroundings confused her. She recalled the same overwhelming stench of disinfectant at Barry's death, and in her own limited capacity, wondered why she was there. There could be no transfusion for her. On the floor beside her, Butch reached over, "Shhh, it's okay. Stay," he whispered and began stroking her head. Thad nudged a bowl of water closer to her. They appreciated the companionship of their mascot beside them. Tater accepted the solace but roamed the room with her eyes to see if Helen was somewhere among the shadows.
Mr Smith
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Middle School E-Learning
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Kindle Novels for Android
Open Ground: After bullies harass William, he moves to Wyoming to live with his father. Open Ground explores the drama of human relationships through a boy's struggle to maintain family.
Later that summer, his father is falsely accused of a crime and jailed. William mountain-bikes across Wyoming to stay with his aunt -- applying the knowledge his father had imparted -- defying the perils of nature.
Topics in this middle school novel relate to math, science and technology with social themes applicable to grades 5 and 6 core curriculum. Free E-Learning kernels, available at Site3e.Com, are effective self-contained units. Forsaken Rock, a Kindle novel available at SmithLiterary.Com is applicable to grades 7 and 8 studies.(Kindle $0.99 at Amazon.Com.
Forsaken Rock: NASA Leadership decide to send criminals to their Mars colony for long-term incarceration. Rather than allow their world to be corrupted, settlers on the planet break ties with Earth to become an independent world. Mirrid Wolf inadvertently kills a young security man to protect her child.Eleven years later, the people of Earth invite Marian colonists to the Olympic Games. Mirrid oversees the Marian Team as recently elected Chief Council of the Red Planet. Toemoe Sol, head of Sol Corporation, contracts an assassin to disrupt the competition by shooting Mirrid's daughter, Daara. Marians are then blamed for a terrorist attack that kills over 300 spectators. Conflicts challenge Mirrid's untried leadership. (Kindle $2.99 at Amazon.Com.
Indivisible: The United States' economy has tumbled after two decades of fighting terrorism worldwide. An Army helicopter lands on a remote New Hampshire mountain. Troops witness an unbearable sight: sixty Cub Scouts slain by an unmanned automatic weapon intended to catch smugglers. The President orders the soldiers to depart immediately -- and maintain absolute secrecy. Cover-up of the Dixville massacre begins. The brutality to New Hampshire's children ignites national support for a rebellion to instate government reform. (Kindle $2.99 at Amazon.Com.
Alienable Rights: This novel champions the American family through the main character Traften Brown. He flees Boston with his baby after a confrontation with a gang leader. Traften finds a place in Vermont as a member of the Island Pond Covenant, a local organization formed to supply the community with food and medicine. As a former electrical engineering student at MIT, Traften designs a communication system for the Vermont group. They accept him in the community as their own. Leaving his daughter with a family in Island Pond, Traften returns to Boston and rescues Ruth. While in Boston, he rediscovers his heritage. A descendant of William Carney, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, Traften carries the medallion throughout the conflict. The heirloom haunts him, a reminder of forebears who had fought for him. Rather than abandon the city for an easier life in the North Country, he stays to confront his enemy. (Kindle $2.99 at Amazon.Com.
Blair Smith was born at home in the heart of Amish country in Holmes County, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio Northern University majoring in Technology and Education, later obtaining a Masters in Technology Education from the University of Vermont. A writer for ten years, the author has completed six novels that range from Science Fiction, to Thrillers, to a Middle School Reader.NEWS 3E
