Re: Deeper Than a Mud Puddle pt. 5

The phrase quickly spread to describe several aspects of society that might once have been considered safe and reliable but had grown questionable, dangerous, or nonexistent. Roads, bridges, air travel, law enforcement, food, water supplies; if these had earned the infamous "deeper than a muddle" reputation in an area, you could bet that people were trying to get out.


We are finishing up for the day and unhitching the girls when an older model motorcycle comes up the drive. It is pulling a small trailer loaded down with camping gear and gasoline containers. A man is driving and seated behind him is a woman. There is a small girl sandwiched between them. He seems in a hurry to get here and raises a big cloud of dust as they come up the dirt road leading to the barn. The young mare has never been approached by a motor vehicle traveling this fast. She tenses up in preparation to bolt so I reassure her with a calm but firm "Eaassssy".

The motorcycle stops several yards short of us. The man turns to the woman and says something in a low voice before walking over to us. He could not be more than forty years-old but a chronic look of concern has wrinkled his face prematurely.

He politely introduces himself and his family and proceeds to give an animated account of his life. He describes how he was a teacher in an urban school district that had fallen victim to the RISE. After some anxious months looking for work he tells me how lucky he felt to find work as a contract educator for the work camp system. He traveled from place to place for a few years in this position, teaching whatever the system needed. Then the work camps began consolidating and he was informed that the contract program was being terminated and that he would have to become fulltime staff at one of the larger facilities if he wanted to stay in the system. So he reluctantly moved to a site a few hours from here about a year ago.

Several weeks ago he hears a rumor from a friend in the work camp's security department. More consolidations are coming and this time unneeded staff will be unceremoniously absorbed into the work camp population. He doesn't believe it at first, but then his friend shows him a message from the camp headquarters to the security office instructing them to begin suspending gate passes for selected staff. His friend tells him that his name is not on the first round of suspensions, but that he is a likely candidate for future rounds. Tweet