The Mayhews still followed American politics somewhat, but with waning interest —“haha! Pussy-Grabber built his wall to keep us out!” they laughed. Escaping the country’s fracturing, and the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” that the Biblical were always warning the heathens about, but who always seemed to ignore the caveat themselves, was a part of the reason they made the decision to relocate to Mexico in the first place—it was the perfect antidote for “idiot fatigue” brought on by local and national Christians for Trump. They were sadly amused about what had become of the Republican party--at the 2020 national convention it was all Saint Donald; they issued no platforms, no solutions. The GOP stood for nothing!
Still, Jack and Julia lamented over their country of their birth because of the repeated claims of a stolen election and an America that was inching closer and closer to becoming a banana republic, if it remained a republic at all.
As far as the gossip in Dallas City went, they ignored most of it (privacy--another reason for their move) except that “they heard” that COVID was taking its toll on their former home town because the red-cappers were becoming more and more obstinate about Biden’s “tyranny” of a mask and that these patriots were becoming more and more of a gold mine for the funeral director. When effective vaccines were rushed out, many refused the jab. In the two block radius where Julia’s parents used to live, three men of various ages had succumbed to the virus in separate incidents only a couple months apart. Jack and Julia were not surprised.
Nor were they much surprised when “they heard” the fate of the Cumberlands.
In Illinois, neglect of a dependent resulting in death is a level 1 felony, and it carries a prison sentence of 20 to 40 years. Legal experts say that’s a “more appropriate” charge in these types of cases rather than a charge such as involuntary manslaughter, which is a lower level felony with a lower prison sentence.
When a child dies, a prosecutor decides between filing a murder charge or neglect of a dependent resulting in death. The determining factor is the intent.For a neglect charge resulting in death, you do not have to prove ’“intent to kill” which is a necessary element for murder. In most neglect cases, you don’t really have the direct intent to kill, even though you may be reckless and negligent in what you’re doing with that child.
The Cumberlands’ sentences of 30 years each, with no chance for early release, was cut short by twenty-nine years.
Debbie, serving her time at Logan Correctional Center, was found swaying naked in her cell, hanging by a pant leg of her orange jumpsuit. During the investigation, authorities interviewed her next-door cellmate who told them that she was awakened early in the pre-dawn hours by whimpering that “mommy is ready for her rocket ride, too, Eddie. Emmy, save me a seat” and then heard some gasping going on before she dozed back off.
Keith was taken to Dixon Correctional Center, a medium security prison, where he got a taste of his own medicine as a high school athlete. As a senior, he enjoyed leading the varsity boys in the hazing of the freshmen on the football team and seemed to get sadistic pleasure by squeezing muscle pain relieving cream in the rookies’ jockstraps before practice making for a very warm workout, forcing them to dress in their street clothes while shoved in their lockers, and bare-assed welting them with snapping towels as the mostly pubeless 9th graders were herded into the showers.
Now at Dixon, it was his turn as a born-again freshman. Keith Cumberland was beaten to death in the showers by some of his fellow prisoners who considered the criminal death of any child cause enough for revenge. Go, team, go!
A neighbor who had attended Jack’s 40th birthday party also told them of the strange goings-on at Blackstone. She texted them that Ian Noonan was rarely seen out and about anymore, and when he was he was spotted, it was either on the front sidewalk playing a game of hopscotch, obviously not by himself as a friend of a friend of hers saw him bend his knees to shout encouragement to his ghostly charges.
Another had seen him in the driveway, looping a rope in wide arcs with the other end tied to a tree and sing-songing the little ditty children say that is synchronized with jumping. Others had seen him trawling the aisles of Wal*Mart loading up his shopping cart with dolls, children’s books, clothes and make-up kits designed for little girls.
The Mayhews were beginning to feel safe, normal, and right at home in Mexico, ole!
2
Back in the Zany States of America, Trump’s drumbeat tweets kept pounding. January 1: “The BIG Protest Rally in Washington D.C., will take place at 11:00 on January 6th. Locational details to follow. “StoptheSteal!”.
January 4: at a rally in Georgia the day before the Senate runoffs, (the state that tipped the election balance in favor of the Democrats) Trump repeated his grievances about his own election. He spoke about a continued fight, for both himself and the Senate.
“If the liberal Democrats take the Senate and the White House--and they’re taking the White House--we’re going to fight like hell, I’ll tell you right now,” Trump said. “We’re going to take it back.”
Trump’s final direction to supporters came during his “Save America” rally around noon January 6, when he repeated his “Big Lie” that he won.
“Our country has had enough,” Trump told his supporters. “We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”
“The crowd later chanted: “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!” Their despot thanked them.
“We’re gathered together in the heart of our nation’s capital for one very, very basic and simple reason: to save our democracy.” He continued firing up his fans. “We’re going to have to fight much harder, and Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution. Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy.”
Trump then instructed his frenzied fans to head to the United States Capitol building. “And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you. We are going to walk down. . . . We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You show strength, and you have to be strong.”
Trump never joined them, of course. His final tweet of the night of the Insurrection ended with these infamous words: “Remember this day forever!”
3
Jack and Julia cut their morning snorkel short that day to watch the coup unfold. They, like viewers around the world, recoiled in horror, disgust, disgrace, and sadness as the United States Capitol was breached for only the second time in history, the first by foreign invaders, the British in 1812; this time by an onrush of brainwashed and brain-dead domestic invaders storming the hallowed hallways looking to hang Vice-President Mike Pence and searching for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to kidnap or kill. They learned, embarrassed but not surprised, that their old hometown was represented in the “Stop the Steal” rally by Dallas City’s own septic tank guy. Huck Finn-meets-Hitler.
Donald Trump had succeeded where even the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, had failed—traitors waving the stars-and-bars inside the seat of the American government underneath the dome in front of the grand murals depicting tableaus from our infant days of democracy.
He had succeeded where even Osama bin Laden had failed--creating terror in our corridors of power. Jack began calling the Insurrectionist ex-president Donald bin Laden (only when his name came up: Jack, with his fifth sense restored, didn’t want his hearing corroded, so he avoided the subject mostly or took his ear off if the discussion came up) to and was grateful they now lived sur of the border.
With an unpatriotic nod to patriotism, the rioters, fighting for a lie, were spurred on by the rhetoric of other Republicans since the election, with Texas senator Ted Cruz kindling the fire with his promise to the faithful that: “We won’t go quietly into the night. We will defend liberty.”
“So many hyped up this day as this day of reckoning, this big win would happen,” Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston told Fox News on the night of the riot. “So many people said, ‘This would be the last stand.’... ‘It’s our 1776.’ When you use that kind of language, you should not be surprised when people tend to believe it.”
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton spoke at the pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C. the morning of the insurrection, telling the crowd, tricked out in flags, military gear and tactical weapons: “What we have in President Trump is a fighter. And I think that’s why we’re all here. We will not quit fighting. We’re Texans, we’re Americans, and the fight will go on.”
4
On a frigid January 7, 2021 morning, Quashquame prepped his canoe behind Blackstone, feeling smug.
How did you, the heirs of those who slaughtered us, stole our land, our livelihood, our humanity, and who grew rich poisoning our earth and sky, succeed with your Manifest Destiny? How about you who dupe yourself and others with powders? How did you like being devastated from a disease brought from distant shores? (The death toll from COVID-19 and its mutations there was still on the rise taking those not suckered by Bill Gate’s scary nanobots-injected serum—ignorant white small-towners suffering the same slow and painful death inflicted on the Taino after Columbus’ landing; the Mayans at Tulum after the Spanish occupation; the Nipmuc in 17th century Massachusetts.
How did you like me returning to my earthly vessel?
His next stop will be the village of Lomax, six miles upriver. Once there, he might visit one of the taverns in town, the one painted the color of dogwood blossoms, and enjoy a little sku-ti-apo. What’s it going to hurt? Are they going to steal our land, again? Then maybe I’ll hole up in the barkeep’s attic for a while and have some fun. Then head up to Gladstone, Oquawka, and Keithsburg. Break bread with my old friend Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak at Rock River, perhaps. Ha! Maybe even stop and gawk at my own bones in the Rock Island museum! There is no hurry, for I have all eternity to reach “wisconsin.”
He would bring not only his revenge, but also his benevolence to every town and city that watersnaked the once ancestral homeland of his people: bringing down hail on destroyers and desecrators; materializing spirit guides into nature’s messengers like yellow butterflies to give hope, endurance, and good fortune to the broken—to lead them from their darkest winters to their brightest summer. But that was the reach of his spectral influence.
Then Quashquame began to think about the state of their “United States.” Ha! Most likely its future is in the hands of the people themselves, he thought. Methihkwiwi, hahahahahahahahaha!
The old Sac chief bared a chilly smile as he silently, stealthily, pushed off from shore, phasing in and out, chopping through the ice and paddling, chopping and paddling, chopping and paddling, chopping and paddling towards the streaks of orange, pink, and saffron that were just waking up the eastern sky.
109Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVsWLClRHn7
Foreword
A broad push for reconciliation and racial reckoning has occurred across America following the 8 and-a-half minute asphyxiation death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis, Minnesota police in the summer of 2020, including efforts to remove Confederate monuments and statues of slave traders, colonizers, conquerors and others.
On October 11, 2021, President Joe Biden issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a significant move to refocus the holiday away from celebrating Christopher Columbus towards an appreciation of peoples. The proclamation states, in part:
“For generations, Federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures. Today, we recognize Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society.
“Today, we also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigeneous communities. It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past -- that we face them honestly, we bring them to light, and we do all we can to address them.”
The single biggest thing I learned from an indigenous elder of Cherokee descent, Stan Rushworth, who reminded me of the difference between a Western settler mindset of “I have rights” and an indigenous mindset of “I have obligations.” Instead of thinking that I am born with rights, I choose to think that I am born with obligations to serve past, present, and future generations, and the planet herself.
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