On Beyond Bullock’s

Dave Dumas

The farm was all I'd ever known. Not until a few years ago did I even question what lay beyond our place. All I'd ever known was the joy and wonder of growing up at the Bullock’s, living off the land and making do with what we had. I had been sort of adopted by Lazerus and Vera Bullock after my folks passed away. It wasn’t until the "Bug" was born that I began thinking outwardly about life and other folks. Vera gave birth to her right there in their bedroom and although her name was just June, ever since Laz first laid eyes on her, she has always been called "June Bug". She became just "Bug" to me because she was so small and cute. I was almost eleven when she came along and I had been the only child around the Bullock’s farm up until then. That was last summer and ever since I've found myself completely consumed with keeping up with my chores and lessons, so there'd be plenty of time left over to help Vera with June Bug.

I never knew my mom and dad. I was only six when they died in the Global Crash of '99. Both of them worked and Vera says she cared for me during the week ever since I was three years old. It wasn't anything I've ever given much thought to...I mean missing them. The Bullock’s didn't really explain what had happened to them until I was ‘round eight years old. As I look back on it, It seemed like it was just another episode of the explanations Laz gave me of my world, how I came to live with them and why we lived the solitary life we did.

Evidently a series of disasters befell the world late in the year of 1999. Laz said that the people of this land had gotten too big for their britches and had lost all value for common sense living. They'd come to rely on their system of business and government as if it could never fail them. Eventually a rumor begin to get around that there would be a big economic crash and that there wouldn't be enough food and basic provisions for everyday living for everyone. So there was a race for all the food and supplies at all the stores and people became fearful of being able to get enough for their families. Most people lived close together in cities and towns, Laz explained, and there just wasn't enough to go around. Soon people were beating and killing one another to get whatever share they could to eat. One disaster led to another and soon most businesses closed due to the fear and affects of the mob mentality. Many people were killed trying to get food and water or died of hunger and disease that followed the mass rioting and looting.

In those days water, electricity and gas flowed right into peoples houses so that they had all the heat, light and water they wanted. According to Laz, after the crash the machinery and power that supplied these things could not be started up again or the demand for them was so great that desperate people destroyed the machinery in rebellion against those that tried to control it. At any rate, he said that the entire world went crazy and millions of people died due to the disease and destruction.

My folks had lived just a quarter of a mile down the road from the Bullock’s farm. My father was a teacher and my mother a secretary at the Danville High School about fifteen miles away. In the days and weeks following the crash, the few families in our valley, resisted venturing out toward town for food and supplies for fear of their lives due to all the looting and hijacking. Our neighbors all did the best they could by sharing or joining forces with the other families to make ends meet.

Uncle Laz said that a good number of farm type people could see the handwriting on the wall and had started preparing for shortages of provisions long before the crash hit. He had put a thousand-gallon propane tank between the woodshed and garage and had backed up or converted most of our appliances to propane. Along with that, he had installed four photovoltaic electricity generators with batteries and an inverter that powered our lights, music player and computer.

I remember in those early days we had two cows, four pigs and a bunch of chickens. One of the cows was a Guernsey named Honey and it was my chore to milk her twice a day. I don't know what the other cow was for and the pigs just seemed to disappear one day. I think Laz traded them for a bunch of fifty-five gallon drums of corn and wheat. There were lots of chickens and most everyday Laz and I would take turns grinding corn into chicken feed with the old hand crank mill he had in the grain room of the barn. The chickens were our main supply of meat and eggs. A good part of Laz's day was spent with the chickens and tending to the vegetable garden.

Anyway, the Bullock’s told me that two weeks after the crash my folks heard an appeal over the Bullock’s CB radio that the Danville Police had the rioting and looting under control in town and that city service employees should return to their jobs for the welfare of the community. They believed that everything was returning to normal and they were anxious to get back to their jobs and making a living. The following day they decided to drive to town to check in at the school and see when classes would begin again. Evidently there were still mobs and gangs living on the outskirts of town and Laz says that probably when they tried to drive through that area, gangs of hungry and desperate people mobbed and looted them and took their car, killing them both in the process.

So here in our little valley our lives go on, milking the cow, feeding the chickens tending the garden with Laz and playing with the Bug, eagerly waiting for the day to come that all will return to normal and I will be able to venture on beyond Bullock’s to a new and exciting world.