Rivers
By Kitty Riley
Silver ribbons tie the land together
Rushing, roaming, wandering,
Always traveling
To another place
Passing fields and animals,
People and mountains
Carrying life and sustenance
Along the way
Sometimes raging,
Sometimes trickling,
Sometimes harming,
Sometimes curing
But always traveling
To another place
These silver ribbons
That tie the land together
Scene Eight
By Don Marlin
I didn’t miss the cat as much as Mary did. Old Romeo had some out-of-the-box experiences before, but this one probably was on the frontal lobe of his brain. The special dinners, medicines for arthritis, re-emergence of the pill out of his mouth for better movement out of his other end, and constant bellowing for attention in his old age were temporarily a problem for New England.
Richard and Sally made it a habit to place a towel over their George II’s front over the next few weeks for privacy and they moved out of their bedroom to keep the noise down. The two cats got along pretty well, and their bedroom became their new domicile. Mary occasionally called Romeo’s name and Sally told her that his ears perked up.
We launched several patent ideas over the days and weeks. Considered confidentiality agreements to talk to other people, scientists and government agencies about the portal, but always corrected it instead of finishing it. We were astir about the new page in history, mankind, global communication, transportation and animal transfer development that would enrich our lives in the coming future.
It was almost Christmas and the latest Reader’s Digest came out with the same stale list of new presents on a scaled-down budget that could be purchased. I lay in bed under the faint glow of the cobalt blue and finished the article. Boring read, but what a great monthly value of articles.
About three in the morning, I woke up in bed. I couldn’t figure out what raised my alert level, so I stared at the ceiling and tried to figure it out. No noise. Mary had her earplugs in so it wasn’t her nightly kicks that stopped my snores so she could race me back to sleep, but something different. I couldn’t hear any noise from Somers either. The cats were probably asleep, old or worn out, but not making any noise.
The LED numerals on the clock and the humidifier were blue but we normally cover them up with a hand towel to keep it dark and the security panel is a dull orange. We put these in the house now, after the George II incident in August, to keep track of time and secure the house and portal, so all appeared normal.
Mary didn’t wake up as I rotated my legs out of bed, or when I exhaled loudly to stand and walk across the floor to the bathroom from too much zinfandel, but the muffled scream that I made as I saw my face in the mirror of the George II made her fall right out of bed.
I called Richard and Sally’s house immediately even though it was French horn scales day in class and more dangling participles had to be corrected in a few hours. They were already awake, and I could hear the TV in the background. Richard didn’t say a word but held the phone up to the local news channel. I could hear Sally crying softly in the background.
It was the voice of a female television reporter from Plymouth, Connecticut. She said the ground began to tremble. A subsurface fault zone shifted at the same epicenter as it did back in 1755. Framed pictures fell off bookshelves. Driverless cars rolled down slopes. A 6.0 earthquake centered below Cape Ann caused the ground to crack in Scituate and Pembroke.
Their half of George II Giltwood Oval mirrors, made in the 18th century that Stella Spencer brought to Colorado from New England in the back of a wagon and never left the pine crate that we uncovered in the collapsed woodshed on the back of our property, was on the floor and the mirror was shattered into a thousand pieces.
Epilogue
The Homestead Act that existed from 1862 to 1976 allowed a peaceful citizen to claim 160 acres of federal land if one was 21 years of age, would live there five years and show evidence of improving the land. Stella Spencer, a schoolteacher in1872, first found this property and filed for a deed of title from the government on the property we just bought. She brought all of her clothing, furniture, tools, books and materials from Connecticut by covered wagon and raised five children on our homestead. This was an extreme hardship at the time they were migrating west. Some of the iron skillets, stove pipes, and wooden beams that she carved with help from other pioneers still bear the markings of their handiwork on the fences, walls, roof and floors of our home.