and the right hand, clenched as well, drew back to his side; it was his standard fighting stance.
Caroline, who was standing there with a towel wrapped around her cooed, “Want me to wash your back, Sailor?”
He instantly relaxed his stance as her towel dropped to the floor and she stepped in.
Later, Mike contemplated the incident and decided if he had to rate it, it was up there as just about the best shower he ever had.
Chapter 9 Societal Decay
Mike owned a Grundig Satellite 6001 Transistor radio that he inherited. His uncle had used it years past to get time checks from the Greenwich Mean Time Observatory while he was sailing his Ketch in the South Pacific. An old school sailor, he used the HO 214 Navigation System, which required “to the second” accuracy of time when taking a series of noon sights. He always reset his watches at Greenwich Noon, wherever he was sailing.
Mike liked it because, with the copper wire connected to the antenna jacks and having strung it to a tall pole he had planted for the antenna wire, the reception was fantastic up here in the mountains. He was able to listen to stations all over the world with it.
Dan, on the other hand, boasted a Zenith Transoceanic and the two of them tried at times to brag the other into admitting theirs was the best. It was late evening but the solar panels were charged, so he listened to music as Caroline snuggled close. Her long blond hair kept tickling his nose and he found himself blowing it away from his face only to have it return and tickle again.
The sentimental melody was abruptly interrupted with an urgent news report…
The President just announced that Iran was bombed a few hours ago with several Nuclear Warheads launched by an OHIO class, ballistic missile submarine patrolling south of the Persian Gulf. Satellite imagery tells an alarming story of mass destruction all over that country. Other reports say that another U.S. nuclear submarine launched a separate strike on North Korea. Little more is known at this time. We do know, however, that fires are burning all over the country and can even be seen from space… one moment please.
A pause ensued and with a crackling of static, the man spoke again,
Ladies and gentleman, I am saddened to tell you that a fuel storage facility located in Long Beach, California has been ignited by an as-yet-to-be-determined powerful explosion. Deaths are incredibly high from the secondary blast of the natural gas tanks nearby.
It is not known who set off this explosion or how its safety features were overridden, but the flames are remarkable. Firefighters are doing what they can to contain the fires, but the recent drought has limited the water available. Firefighting helicopters are being rushed to the scene, and it is hoped the same fire retardants used in forest fires will be useful in bringing this inferno under control.
In other news, swarms of Texans wielding assault rifles have averted a hostage situation at a small University located in Fort Worth. All of the homegrown terrorists involved, apparently of Iranian descent, were cut down without mercy. Similarly, an attempt to detonate a highly explosive device in Miami was thwarted by a group of armed citizens who happened upon the scene. One eye witness who saw what happened said,
“
They all appeared to be from the Middle East, and, during the confrontation, several men and one woman tried to run from the scene but were mowed down with an incredible volley of gunfire. There were no survivors from the terrorist group.”
Nancy Jones, the Democratic Senator from New York State, is deploring the violence and said at a Town Meeting of her constituents, “No matter what these people have done to us, they feel justified and once again, I will ask the Senate, when we are back in session, to back me in an all-out ban of all weapons of this kind. These guns should not be available to the American people and this violence must end forthwith.”
After the
Alan Lightman
Nathaniel R. Helms
Shirley Marr
Amos Oz
Gideon Defoe
Sudhir Venkatesh
Matthew Gallagher
Joan Lowery Nixon
John Birmingham
Sofia Velardi