 
The Big Change

Published by Eugene E. Hartley and Jessica S. Hartley at Smashwords

Copyright 2015, Eugene E. Hartley and Jessica S. Hartley

This free ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. It may not be sold to others or be used for commercial purposes. But you are welcome to give it away to as many people as you like. We retain all commercial rights.

Disclaimer

To add more realism to this story, we name and comment about actual people, actual companies, actual places, and actual things. Please remember the contents of this book are only our thoughts and opinions rolled up into a fun story. The news media always uses the word "alleged" to cover themselves, like the alleged offender, allegedly shot the policeman while the officer allegedly was arresting him. So when this fictional story asserts something as true, please first insert into your mind the word or the appropriate derivative of the word "allege". For legal purposes we also have to say the following: All hyperlinked internet pages, photos, and videos presented are not part of this book. We're just recommending them for those who may be interested. And, you may want to use these videos for discussion purposes with your friends. As time proceeds some may not work so we will periodically remove or change them. Thanks.

The story

This is the first book of a three volume series. The story's underlying intent is an advocacy for a direct democracy where money is used only to facilitate purchasing and not as a tool to hold people down. You'll understand what we're saying after you've read this first book. On the surface it's a sci-fi adventure written mostly for young science and tech people. If the reader is a girl, we wanted her to feel she has the ability to do almost anything if given access to resources and lots of encouragement. Enjoy.

The Big Change

Table of Contents

The Big Change Copyright, Disclaimer, and Style

The B&B

Miniature golf, go-carting, cookout

A scary story

First visit to the museum

The betterments building

Lunch at the museum

Unusual additions to the group

Lupe is discovered

The amusement park

Trouble

Pause and take a break

Digression

Back at the B&B

Late night casino fun

Memorial service and benediction

The young pioneers

Back at the bed & breakfast

Off to the museum again

The symposium

Together for lunch

The proposal

Day four at the B&B

The Pioneer exhibits

Back to the amusement park

Norma and Larry go on a date

The next day

Norma's speech

Attempt on their lives

Time to relax and tie up loose ends

Tony and K'akana

The horses

The double eagle

The power of mothers

End of Volume One

Postscript

Appendix - the Constitutional Amendment

The Big Change

The B&B

Jack's alarm went off at 6am, June 30, 2017. It's been well over two years since the Big Change but he's still not used to waking up so early. Most of his adult life he's spent nights providing entertainment for Congressmen, the President, and everybody's high level staff people. Jack used to put on some great parties. His specialty was Roman style orgies with the best food, the best booze, the best drugs, and the best escorts. At the request of several obese members of Congress, Jack even installed an old Roman tradition: the barf-a-torium. It disgusted Jack to have to provide these things to our so called upstanding pillars of government.

But that's over with. America has gone through a dramatic change. Now it's the People he entertains. This time without the obligatory recreational chemicals, escorts, and other stupid things. The local voters decided to allow Jack to keep his estate if he converted it to a bed and breakfast with him and his family as owner/employees. As it turned out, Jack's estate is so large that the buildings after some modifications can easily accommodate over 100 families. He has a mongo sized swimming area with a waterpark. There's also a miniature golf course, a playground, tennis courts, air conditioned racquetball courts, basketball courts, a small bowling alley, a go-cart track, a nature walk with horseback riding trails, bike trails, and a petting zoo. All these nice amenities make it a very popular place to stay in the DC area.

The city has a nice helicopter shuttle service that anyone can afford. The B&B has a large tarmac/helipad with a state of the art omnidirectional glide slope for IFR landings. There's also a computerized traffic control system to safely handle the ever increasing load of helicopter traffic in and out of Jack's B&B. Arriving by air is great. And the tarmac is big enough to park at least thirty choppers. Plus there are several temperature controlled hangers. The facility provides a bus service to major attractions. So it's really not necessary for patrons to bring a car. Jack had several extreme security measures installed years ago including an underground bunker, a threat detection, and ordnance deployment system. Because of the quasi-military nature of the facility and the potential guests that would require special protection, the People thought it would be wise to have Jack, his family, and his owner/employees go through top level military training and to obtain security clearances from the People's government.

The transition after the Big Change was really hard on Jack and his family. Jack was making $35 million a year with United Health Care. Now he's bringing in $360,000 a year. Thankfully the bed and breakfast isn't a burden because with the high demand it easily sustains itself. For him it's not so much the money anymore. It's the people. He honestly enjoys making people happy. And he was lucky enough to keep his world class chefs. Now they prepare culinary delights for people who haven't been exposed to such. Jack buys the best organically grown food. He loves to stand in his restaurant and see the faces light up with their first bite. It's funny hearing the kids say to their parents "You want me to eat that yucky stuff? What is it? It looks different. No, momma. Don't make me eat it." Then he comes back later to see they've eaten it all. Cleaned their plates and some are asking for more. It's these simple things that make life good for Jack.

"Hello. My name is Norma Corona. Before we go on I just wanted to tell you a little about myself. I was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. Some people say I look exactly like Ariana Grande. Except my eyes are bright green. I'm 5'5" and weigh 125 pounds. Since the Big Change I've turned it all into muscle. I'm an easy going person. When I was in school I didn't like course boisterous pushy people. Then there were the manipulators who said one thing to your face and later stabbed you in the back. Then there were the few super achievers who didn't eat in order to stay skinny. They exercised until they collapsed. And they deprived themselves of sleep by staying up till two in the morning studying to make straight A's. That's wasn't for me. I just wanted to have fun and enjoy life with my homies. I didn't want to spend all my waking hours stressing out."

"I've always had a love for fashion. I used to draw beautiful clothing ensembles I'm sure would have been a big hit. But I didn't know how to get into the business. I didn't know the right people who would show me. And, I didn't think I was smart enough to be successful. I made average grades in school. My teachers weren't the best. Getting us kids motivated wasn't important. They just wanted to put their time in. If you cared to listen that was ok. If you didn't, that was ok too. I felt they were there mostly to collect a paycheck. And they never really controlled the classroom. That was sad. The principal and the vice-principal were next to worthless. They both had Phds. That stands for "Pathetically Hopeless Dumbbell". We're ranked 319 out of 328 in Jersey."

"I loved school because of my peeps. I miss my home girls at East Side High. From time to time I'll still see one. She'll run up and give me a hug and we'll talk about old times with the "Sistas". That's what we named our gang. Now I work at Walmart. It's nice too, but not like school. And then there was Marco, my high school sweetheart and ex-husband. He's very handsome and charming and told me all the things I wanted to hear. "My heart stops every time I see you. I'm so lucky to have found my one true love." But then we got married and after three kids he started saying this to younger girls with firmer bodies that fell for that kind of pretentious nonsense. Oh well. Men are like buses. If you miss the one you wanted, don't worry. Another one will come by soon. But don't forget, they're only there to give you a ride. Yes, I have a bad taste in my mouth about men, but they can be sooo handsome. My friend at work says I'm pathologically conflicted. It's like I enjoy eating delicious homemade peach ice cream when I know there's a few nasty maggots at the bottom. Marco did help make three beautiful perfect little girls. So thanks, Marco. And my little munchkins very much love and appreciate everything I've done for them. Now on to the story."

Three bouncy excited kids piled out of Norma's SUV. They can't wait to go to the enormous water park with a variety of slides. One is over 60 feet high with circles and twists all the way down. Ten years ago, if someone told Norma she would be making $120,000 a year tax free she would wonder what in the hell they were smoking. But yet there she was, a 30 year old from Newark with a modest education working as a stocker and checkout clerk at Wal-Mart. But because of the Big Change she's now being paid directly by the People of the United States without having to hope and dream that someday her previous employers, the tightwads Jim, Rob, and Alice Walton might be generous enough to pay her enough money to have a good life. Alice surrounded herself with billions in art while she grossly underpaid her employees. But that's history.

One of the benefits of the Big Change is the weekly posting on the internet of all open jobs in America indexed either by location, type, pay, or education and proficiency requirements. Almost two years ago after her required police training and year spent on the force, she thought about changing jobs but she actually loves working at Wal-Mart because she's a people person. She likes the constant contact with lots of good people from all walks of life. Since the People of the United States took over the government, Norma has noticed her customers are so much happier. You can see it in the way they walk, the way they're so friendly to each other. Talking, laughter, and smiles are everywhere. They've even changed and broadened the merchandise mix to genuinely meet the needs of the customers instead of stocking cheap foreign made merchandise that have the highest profit margins. In fact, mostly American made merchandise and healthy delicious food grown in America can be sold at Wal-Mart. Norma thought why in the world would she want to leave such a nice place. And besides, her mom and dad live nearby and she believes her kids need to be around their grandparents. Life is too short and memories are too precious and her parents aren't in the best of health.

"Connie, Sophia, Nellie. Stay close to me. I want to know where you're at at all times. We have to check in before we do anything. Ok?" Connie, the oldest said "Ok mom, but hurry! The park is calling us. Can't you hear it?" "Sure, mija (pronounced "me ha" It means my daughter). Calma te (calm down). This will take just a few minutes." Norma looked at the person behind the counter, "Hello. I have a reservation. It's for Norma Corona plus three children." After a few moments at the computer screen, the concierge said "Yes, here you are. Your reservation is for seven days. Is that correct?" Norma smiled. "Yep, seven days of sun and fun."

In ten minutes they were in their room and unpacked. The girls had their swimsuits on scolding mom for being so slow. The anticipated day was chalk full of fun. First thing was the water park. The concierge told Norma the slides were similar to those at the Seaworld waterparks but on a smaller scale.

As the family was walking through the B&B to go to outside, Connie paused in one of the rooms to admire the wall accessories and furnishings. "Mom, this place is beautiful. See all the paintings and the nice furniture. Looks like a king lived here." She sat on a rich mahogany 18th century French provincial embroidered sofa. Cracking a smile she said "Mother dear, would you call a kitchen servant to bring a spot of tea and some crumpets." Norma's eyes rolled. "Longing for the good old days when the rich had servants, huh babe?" Sophia, Connie's sister, cracked up. "Connie, your skin's too brown. You would've been one of the servants. Hahahaha." Little Nellie yelled "Come on guys, stop fooling around. Let's go water sliding." Connie responded "Ok. Ok... Race you to the pool..."

The girls screamed with joy as they rode down an assortment of water slides. They went head first, feet first, sideways, and in a ball. Up and down, up and down they went. After a while the crew finally ran out of steam. They went over and had mom cover them with more sunscreen. To relax they decided to get some air mattresses and float out on the pool away from the slides.

"Hi." said Connie to a girl about a year older floating next to her. "Have you checked out the slides yet." "Yeah, for two hours. I didn't know fun would get you so tired." "Yeah, right... My name is Connie and these are my two little sisters Sophia and Nellie." "Como te va. (How's it going?) My name is Guadalupe but everybody calls me Lupe. I'm here with my dad. Are you going to the Peoples Monument and Museum too?" "That's the museum that covers the Big Change, and has a monster sized amusement park, right?" "Right."

"Coming here was very important for me and my dad." "Oh? Why's that?" Lupe said years ago she and her dad became homeless. "Then after six months they took me away to live in a foster home because he wasn't making enough money to take care of me. Six months later the police came by and told my foster parents he died. A month later the Big Change happened. Because everybody had money now, the two other kids at the home were reunited with their parents. But I had to stay. Then a few weeks later this beautiful blue pickup turned into the driveway and there he was. My dad found me and was taking me to our new home. We were a family again. It was the happiest day of my life. The police made a mistake when they said he died. Now we're here to visit the museum to give thanks to the People for giving us a new life."

Connie said, "Wow, I thought we had it bad, but at least we stayed together. You wouldn't believe how many times we snuck out of our apartment at night because we couldn't pay the rent. But even though we were poor, mom knew our family could always go to our abuelitos (grandparents) apartment if she was completely out of money."

"It's nice having relatives," said Lupe, "But almost all of dad's are in Mexico. And mi madre gabacha mimada mierda (my White pampered excrement of a mother) left us. She couldn't handle being homeless and she couldn't find any work so she abandoned us to go live with her mom. And her pinche family didn't want us "goddam Messkins" around." "Screw them!" said Connie.

"Yeah, but my foster parents were White and they treated me like a princess. And the other kids at the home were White and they were my friends. Most everybody I've known since the Big Change has been good to me. Black, White, Brown, Yellow, or Green, it doesn't matter. My mother is very beautiful, so I guess that was the reason my papi ignored the bigots in her family."

Connie said, "Hey, me and my sisters are going to play miniature golf after lunch. You wanna come along?" "Sure. I'll ask my dad to see if he wants to play too."

By this time Antonio had walked up to the side of the pool where Lupe was floating. "Mijita (My little daughter), quieres algo para comer (would you like something to eat)? The concierge told me they have very good food here. He said the hamburgers are delicious. They're made of ground sirloin from pesticide free, hormone free, grass fed Limousin beef from an environment friendly farm in Pennsylvania." "Sure papi. This is Connie, can she come with us? Are you hungry, Connie?" Connie looked over at her sisters. "Sophia, Nellie, are you hungry?" They yelled "Of course. Are we going to McDonalds?" "No, it's something better."

Connie called out to her mom who was relaxing with a book on a big comfortable chase lounge. "Mom, can we go eat now?" "If you're ready, I am." Antonio walked over to Norma and introduced himself as Connie's new friend's father. Norma was breathless for a moment. Tony is 5'10". He's a very handsome charismatic well-built man about 30 with impeccable manners. "My daughter has taken a liking to Connie. Would you mind if we ate together?" As Norma was getting lost in his eyes she muttered "Uh... Uh..., it's a pleasure to meet you... Wa... What were you saying?" Connie had already gotten out of the pool and was standing next to Norma. "Mo...om." She told Tony "It's ok, I uh... think my mom likes you, so let's go eat." "Pues vamonos." (So, let's go.), said Lupe. But first they decided to go to their rooms and shower the swimming pool off, then meet at the entrance of the restaurant.

The restaurant is Jack's old guest house. The ambience is very nice. He increased the size and put in a solarium, an inside waterfall, a large aquarium, and plants everywhere. The waterpark is next to the restaurant, so Jack put in an Oceanside motif with seashells, fishing nets, pirate sails, a small cannon, and other objects you'd find on an old sailing ship.

They gathered at the entrance and went in. The hostess said they only had long picnic type benches near the aquarium and would that be ok? Norma said "Of course". Sitting next to them was a woman about 29 years of age with her son. She turned to the newly seated group and said "Hi, I hear the food is very good. Have you eaten here yet?" Norma said "No, but we've heard the same thing. My name is Norma and these are my three girls, Connie, Sophia, and Nellie. And we just met these two nice people earlier at the pool. This is Tony and his daughter Lupe." "It's a pleasure. My name is Laurie Jones and this is my son Travis." Everybody said hi.

Sophia, who was about Travis's age, got up and walked by her mom saying she was going to look at the fish in the giant aquarium. As she passed Travis she asked him if he wanted to come along. He turned to his mom and she nodded her head. The aquarium was fifteen feet long and eight feet high. There's a certain awe one feels when looking at sea creatures. The way they effortlessly glide through the water staring more at you than you at them. Every once in a while one will move at lightning speed to avoid some perceived danger. Sophia asked "Mom, what are these bright yellow and purple fish?" Travis looked at Sophia. "They're angel fish. They come from the tropics. Pretty, aren't they?" Sophia gazing at their beauty said "Yes, they are. How did you know about them?" "My mom's a teacher. She teaches political science and biology in high school. We have a small library at home of government and natural science books."

Norma overheard. "That's interesting. You teach subjects that don't relate at all to each other." "Yeah, while I was getting a degree in biology, I had a boyfriend who was a political activist. He drew me into the organism of societal wrongs. So I spent an extra year of intensive study to get a poli sci degree too. Then he sold out by taking a banking job and left me with a beautiful baby boy and a passion for politics." Tony said "Life can be full of surprises". "Boy, that's for darn sure."

Laurie continued "Three years ago, did you really think we would follow through with the Big Change? I sure didn't. I'm too fatalistic. There was no way we were going to do something that good. It's totally against our history and the history of humankind for that matter. Yet...here we are. The biggest worry I have now is getting my son to soccer practice on time. Tell you what, life... is... goooood." Tony said "It really is. My daughter and I are together. She's happy. That's all I care about."

Norma said "Now I don't have to steal off into the night because I couldn't pay my rent because that evil Walton woman, Alice, wasn't paying me enough. Well that's all changed. I actually bought a house last year with four bedrooms. Sweet."

Tony added "Yes, but remember right after the Big Change; there were strange shortages like gasoline, candy bars, sodas, pizza, frozen foods, chips, and beer. Who would have thought." Laurie said "Yeah, it took almost a year for us to stop going crazy trying to spend our monthly paychecks." Norma said "Then our wonderful ex-NSA system was finally able to forecast our needs in order to avoid shortages and they set up rationing on things that were hard to come by. You know...... collecting every piece of information on everybody and everything in our country was exactly what we needed the most to make the Big Change work." Laurie angrily said "God bless those little pieces of crap in the old government!"

Tony with a concerned look said "Its ok, Laurie. Let it go, babe. You don't need to get worked up anymore. It's over. We won." Norma added "That's right, life is good. Let's get some beers to celebrate. How about it? I can't wait for tomorrow when we go to the museum. Did you guys sign up too?"

Tony said "If it's to the Big Change Monument and Museum, you bet. That's why we came here. It's our way of saying thanks to the People for giving us a new life. I read there's a large room in the museum that has one inch square images of all the voters in America. The room is kept dark and is 600 feet square with over 60 seven foot high partitions all packed solid with bright electronic images of all voting Americans. They call it the Control Room. It symbolizes who's running the country now. I read if the Big Change actually saved your life you can, if you want, go to laptops at one end of the room and write about it. The NSA database checks if the author is telling the truth and if they are, what is written is saved for posterity and a blue star will light up on the ceiling to let the people know another life or another family had been saved because of the Big Change. The blue light will be bright for 10 minutes then dim. It'll be like looking at a star in the night sky. That will be our way of giving thanks to the American People."

"That's pretty cool," said Norma, "I wanna go to the betterments section that shows all the good stuff that's happened since we took over. And my daughters want to go to the amusement park. They say it's the largest indoor park in the world." In an excited voice Connie said "The rollercoaster goes 200 feet up and travels at seventy miles an hour. That's the first ride I want to go on. I hear it's like the Disney one in California."

Nellie got up and went over to Norma. "Mom... After that I want to feed the beautiful birds in the giant cage. And mom... Connie said they have a 3d light show on the ceiling of the amusement park. They do it after the fireworks show just before closing. Can we stay up and watch it? Please." "Mija, we're going to have a long day tomorrow and you'll be too tired to stay up that late. Tell you what, we'll sleep in the next day, and leave later so we can be up at closing. Is that ok with you, baby?" "It's a deal. Thank you, mom." "Great, now go sit down."

Laurie said "Travis is really excited about the amusement park too. But for me, I just want to stand there in the biggest section I can find and look at all the people. I want to feel our greatness and what we've accomplished."

A young woman walked up. "Hi, my name is Tobi and I'll be your waitress today. Would you like to start off with something to drink?" The adults ordered beers and the kids, except for Nellie, ordered special fizzy colas that's naturally sweetened and flavored. Nellie wanted a frosty mug of "chocolaty milk". Norma told the waitress they were ready to give their orders too, if that was ok. Tobi said "Of course." All the kids ordered a pirate's cheeseburger with pieces of eight baked fries. A special house ranch dressing with fresh herbs is provided in cups to dip the healthy delicious fries into. Norma ordered a ship's captain's lobster tail including a side of sautéed asparagus with a splash of hollandaise sauce. Laurie ordered the surf and turf which was a small grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignon accompanied by a perfectly grilled half portion of lobster tail served on a pillow of risotto. She skipped the sides to have room for her favorite dessert, baked Alaska. Tony ordered the Cuban shipmate's Vieiras Al Ajillo (Cuban style Scallops in Garlic). His side was a papaya, glass noodle, and prawn salad.

After a few minutes, Tobi came out with the drinks. Norma got everybody's attention and held up her beer. "Arriba, abajo, al centro y pa' dentro." They took a drink. She told Laurie "That means up, down, middle, and inside. It's not as cute in English. How about a toast from you." "Sure. Since we're in a seafood place how about this: May your joys be as deep as the ocean, and your misfortunes as light as its foam." They clanked their drinks and took a swig. "Aaaaah, this is really good beer," said Tony. "It's been years since I've had Pacifico." Norma said "That's a good beer. And, even though my last name is Corona, I really love this DC Brau. It's brewed right here in the city. Since the People took over, the companies aren't using propylene glycol and other harmful chemicals to brew Corona, Budweiser, and Miller/Coors. Propylene glycol is used as an airplane deicer for god's sake. This is the type of thing and the reason why the People needed to take over and end that total "for-profit" anti-humanity BS!"

Laurie said "Well, I love to eat at BJ's in Houston. That's where we live. They make their own brew using all natural ingredients. My favorite is the  Brewhouse Blonde. It's really smooth. But you can't get it here, so my fall back is this Samuel Adams. Tastes good but it's a little strong." Connie perked up said "My favorite is this reserve A&W Root Beer that's only available certain times of the year, and it must only be served at 33 degrees. Hehehehe." Norma told her daughter "Portate bien, Canija" (behave yourself, you little rascal).

After fifteen minutes of the group getting to know each other, four servers came out carrying the completed orders. When all the plates were down Tony said, "If you don't mind, Lupe and I would like to give thanks before we eat." Laurie said "Of course, let's do it." They held hands and after an earnest prayer they dove in and finished up in no time. "That was yummy, mom" said little Nellie. "It was a lot better than McDonalds. I liked dipping my fries in the ranch dressing." "I'm glad, baby."

After the Big Change the People mandated that restaurant portions, like in Europe, be made smaller so food wouldn't be wasted and people would be able to control their weight better. If patrons were still hungry, a salad bar was always available.

Connie looked around the table with bright eyes "Who's ready for a few rounds of miniature golf." The kids yelled "I am!" The adults weren't so anxious. Tony said "How about we stay here for a few more minutes and let our food settle." "I second that." said Laurie. Lupe smiled and reached over to Tony's stomach and patted it saying "Settle down... settle down, tummy." The kids laughed.

Miniature golf, go-carting, cookout

Finally they were able to drag the adults out to have a little fun. It's an 18 hole putting course with all kinds of obstacles. There's the windmill, the haunted house, the swinging log, the pinball ramps, a wild jungle trail with animals like a lion snapping his mouth open and shut. You have to putt through a pirate's cave and under waterfalls with a narrow bridge. Don't forget the pirate's ship and walking the gangplank and the possibly splashing down to Davy Jones' locker. If you're lucky you may find some pieces of eight. Jack made sure this course had all kinds of fun built into it.

Nellie said "Mom, I'm scared. I just saw a real pirate. Looook, over there! Mom!" "Don't worry baby, I'm here. I won't let that mean old pirate hurt you." "Good. Let's get started." All eight of them gathered at the first hole which was the windmill. In front was a couple in their late twenties timing the passing of the blades. His bounced off and she made her's through. "Looks like this is going to be my lucky day." She looked over at Laurie "If you hit the ball easy it will be a three count before it reaches the windmill. You time the windmill movement, and bingo you're through. Hi, I'm Alejandrina or Alex for short. This is my boss Steve Smith. We work at Levi Strauss." Laurie said "It's always fun when you mix work and pleasure." Alex paused with a devilish look "Yeah, it's fun to have business as a way to have pleasure. We saw this cute little course when we drove in and said why not." Alex told Steve "That's one for me and zip for you." She was teasing him as they moved onto the next hole.

Tony, Laurie, and Norma missed, but all the kids made it through on their first try. The next obstacle was the haunted house with ghosts feeding on corpses making ghoulish sounds. Tony was the first one there. He introduced himself and asked Alex about Levis. "Alex, I guess the People made Levis move their manufacturing back to the States." "You bet. I worked for Levis in Guatemala for three years as the chief line manager. Then word came down we were closing operations and moving to a big facility in San Antonio. Since I was a citizen of the United States I was offered a position to help make the transition easier. I was born and raised in El Paso. It's been great living here again. I don't have to watch my back anymore because of angry underpaid, overworked criada esclava (servant slave) machine operators. The Big Change has made my life much better." "Keep on talking to her so she'll miss." said Steve. "No way, Stevie boy. See. That's two to zip."

Tony putted and barely made his past a man-eating ghoul. Lupe easily made hers through. She walked up next to her daddy and quietly said "Alex is very hot, papi. Be careful. Ella es mala suerte (She's bad luck)." Tony put his arm around his daughter. "It's nice to know somebody's watching out for me. But don't worry, mija. I can see those two are married but not to each other. She touches him a lot in the wrong places. It's a way of life for some. I hear it's especially true for those Levis people. But that lifestyle isn't for me. I'd like a soul mate, not a puta (whore)." "Ok dad, I'll see if I can find a good soul mate for you." "Let's not worry about that. I'm plenty happy. Ready for the next hole?"

In the meantime, Norma was at the back of the pack where she met the nicest couple. Both were NYC police officers. Joe works in homicide and Glenda in white collar crime. They've been on the force for twenty years. As they were playing the hole, Glenda told Norma how her work has really shifted since the Big Change.

"Nobody has to worry about money anymore except for those who are here illegally. That's because people can only spend out of their bank account. If you don't have an account, you ain't got no money. New York City has one camera for every five people and facial recognition software and ID sensors are running on all of them. A non-citizen is identified almost immediately."

"And the typical con artist chiseling people out of money is almost gone. People have to purchase using their face, fingerprint, and the internal blood vein structure in their right hand. Like I just said, the only way to pay for things is out of their bank account. Now fortune tellers and "healers" are taking things people own as payment for their services. Like a car. But that's even difficult because only the owner can drive their car since the car checks the driver's eyes, fingerprints, and the DNA in their breath. But seedy mechanics are always finding ways around these automobile safeguards." And it all seems stupid when everybody is making at least $120,000 a year tax free!

Glenda continued "And now we have people sneaking merchandise out of the country. Warehouses are robbed and goods are put into shipping containers. It's becoming a big problem. So instead of people robbing banks, they're robbing warehouses. Then you have guys working for large manufacturers who falsify government documents that permit export out of the US. It's all a big circus. But we eventually catch them. Too many safeguards."

"Our biggest deterrent now is the new form of punishment." Norma said "Yeah, the length of the sentences are very short, but 8 times a day the prisoner is taken to a room where they're shocked with high voltage cattle prods and other shocking devices." "Ain't that a hoot. The people convicted of serious crimes get the most sensitive spots on their body shocked every other hour. There's lots of screaming, crying, and begging but it doesn't actually injure their bodies. And a lot of the time, they shock the prisoners in their cells so other inmates can hear the screaming." Norma said "Geeze." Glenda continued "After a couple years with the new forms of punishment our prison populations are down to almost nothing. See, the People of America figured a person is more valuable working as a contributing member of society. Being with their family raising their kids is much more important than wasting away in a prison cell. America has five percent of the earth's population. Before the Big Change we had 25% of earth's prisoners. That was over two million people! And it was gradually increasing. Jailing people was big business. Did you know large corporations only paid prisoners 21 cents an hour to make stuff. And it was forced labor. What a racket."

Norma said "I heard the Big Change cleaned up the dirty lawyers and judges." Glenda said "You bet. Years ago it was really a pain in the butt when I'd bring in a rich guy for abusing a woman or DWI and the judge would let them off with a slap on the wrist. Come to find out these judges were on the take. Attorneys were bribing judges. But it stopped when the People mandated that all police, judges, and attorneys go through a battery of polygraph tests. They tried to hide behind the 5th amendment but the People said sorry Charlie, we want to know if you're dirty or not. Many tried to leave the country, but they were stopped. So the long and short of it was thousands of judges and attorneys and police ended up in jail with nice long taser treatments." Norma said "I went through police training as soon as the BC happened. But I didn't keep up with the politics." Glenda said "As a result of these polygraph tests, they discovered thousands of people were wrongly and intentionally convicted of felony crimes that mandated decades of jail time. In those instances the dirty attorney, judge, or policeman was sentenced for life to work on a prison farm." Norma said "Justice for those who made a mockery of our legal system. Sweet. I even read some attorneys working for Jeff Bezos at Amazon bribed some members of the Supreme Court." Glenda said "Yeah, I heard about that. Amazon was making employees go through an inspection line with metal detectors to make sure they weren't stealing. Sometimes employees had to wait twenty or thirty minutes in line before they could leave. The employees were saying they should be paid for that time but the Supreme Court ruled against them. Even though it was for the convenience of the employer on the employer's premises, they ruled against the employees and they didn't get paid for that time." Norma said "And after the Supreme Court Justices were forced to go through polygraph testing we found out just how corrupt and dirty some of them were. They had secret numbered bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and were making a killing off of bribes." Glenda responded "And all their decisions hurt Americans." Norma responded, "And those dirty Supreme Court Justices were sentenced to death. And the punishment was immediately carried out."

"And remember when young people used to play the knock out game and other random acts of violence? They don't do that anymore because they're identified almost immediately. And as you probably know, regarding crimes and punishment, everybody 13 and older are treated as adults." Norma said "Along with alcohol we made marijuana legal now for people 21 and older. But they set limits for amounts in our bloodstream. And people are randomly tested. Now there are drugs that cause cocaine and marijuana not to be addictive. And there are other medicines to get cocaine and meth users sick and throw up uncontrollably. Some parents are slipping it in their teenagers' food."

"If you accidentally kill someone while driving a car under the influence you're immediately executed." "That's true," said Glenda, "I guess moms against drunk drivers played a big role in getting a super majority of us to pass that measure. But the catch is the killer has to be identified beyond any doubt. They have to be on video actually killing the person." Norma said "You know, that punishment is really harsh." "But it's saved a lot of lives. Let me ask you something, if you're out drinking beer you instinctively stop after two don't you." "Yep. When I went out partying I used to drink four or five. But not anymore. My police training kicks in. I don't want to accidently kill anybody and immediately be shot for it. Even if you severely cripple a person you can be executed." Glenda said "It's a different world now. We have many wonderful things, but if we go around killing or crippling people because of being drunk our time on earth is ended. As far as I can see, that's the only draconian punishment we have now."

Norma said goodbye to Joe and Glenda then started moving on ahead with her three girls. They were in a hurry so they could talk to the pirate a few holes down.

Glenda and Joe were taking their time with a moving obstacle. Melina and Chaz, a young couple are waiting behind them. Glenda saw them out of the corner of her eye getting lost in each other's arms. "Aren't you two sweet. Wish my hubby would hold me like that." Joe's radar went off alerting him to watch out for what he said next. It's taken many years to develop and perfect his early warning system. He immediately stopped, set his club down and walked over to Glenda. "Baby, you're the sparkle in my life. I'm so lucky to have you. Come here." Then he romantically embraced her and laid a big one on her lips. "I don't know what's wrong with my manners. Ladies always go first. I'll just wait here while you putt, Baby." "Joe, you're really getting good at dodging my fast balls." "That's right, Baby. It's because I love you."

Joe looked at the young couple. "Hi, I'm Joe and this is my wife Glenda." "Hi, glad to meet you. I'm Chaz and this is my wife Melina." "You're kind of young to be married. Maybe as I get older people just start looking younger." Chaz confided "We're both 19. We were high school sweethearts and we saw no reason to wait. Melina added "It's very nice because we can stay in the same room at the academy."

"That's right, all 19 year olds have to have police training, and then you work at least a year on the force." Chaz added "And we have to keep our peace officer's license active for the rest of our life." Joe pointed out "You know at first I was uncomfortable with every 19 year old in America becoming a peace officer. But it's worked very well. I can understand the reasoning behind the People's mandate. If a few were to take power, they can dominate the unarmed masses with a military force. But if everybody is a police officer there are no longer any unarmed untrained masses. Simple logic. But I was concerned about everyone being armed with assault rifles and large amounts of ammo. We jokingly called it the power of mutually assured destruction."

Joe continued "But I've seen some great benefits from this. Most women who have gone through training are no longer as vulnerable. In fact, a lot of women out of the academy can really kick ass. I've seen some petite girls move like a stick of dynamite. And statistics show they keep a cooler head during dangerous situations. The other concern I had was domestic disturbances. It's been almost three years since the mandate so every 19, 20, and 21 year old has had police training and is armed. If a young couple that age is arguing we worry about them shooting each other or us for that matter. But as we've seen, the police training has done more to control and reduce domestic violence than make it more dangerous. Part of the training is seeing the types of punishment we use in the prisons now. I guarantee you...nobody wants to be shocked eight times a day for 30 days. During our training, getting tazed just once was too many times for me." Joe smiled and admitted "But the best benefit of having everyone be a policeman is the average IQ has shot through the roof. We used to have ex-athlete bully types who had C and D averages in high school. We're not an exclusive club for half brain Neanderthals anymore." Chaz affirmed "Yeah, I heard during training last week that in the past two and a half years the People jailed over 25,000 police on brutality and corruption charges. And most of them were long time veterans of law enforcement. It got so bad that their sentences were lengthened with tasings 12 times a day. Once a week, police officers with over five years on the force are made to watch these tasings for ten minutes before starting their shift. And, if they don't have both video and audio recorders on at all times except when they are inside their homes, they immediately go to jail for thirty days with tasings. Our police computer systems know if an officer's recording equipment is shut off, even for just a few seconds. And we heard some overly aggressive cops are having their testicles removed before being released from jail. The People wanted the aggression to go away like with neutered dogs and cats." Joe smiled and acknowledged "All the police were warned when the People took over. It's sad that we had so many corrupt dimwitted brutal baboons working in law enforcement."

Chaz said "Years ago I remember when the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri didn't indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown in cold blood. He could have easily shot him in the legs, but instead he unloaded his gun on him. It was found that the prosecutor controlled the grand jury like a marionette on strings. The American public saw how the grand jury process was rigged. No judge presided over these hearings. And no attorneys were allowed to be present. Only the prosecutor. He brought in a "witness" who lied to the grand jury. And he knew she was lying. Private detectives made secret recordings of the prosecutor in Ferguson after the decision. He was talking to one of his buds in a restaurant where he was recorded as saying "I wasn't about to let Darren Wilson go to jail even if he did kill that worthless nigger in cold blood. As we all know, the only good nigger is a dead nigger." When America found out, all hell broke loose, especially after the grand jury's decision in New York City not to prosecute Daniel Pantaleo for chocking Eric Garner to death. For god's sake it was all on film. It was obvious Pantaleo murdered him. And guess what, private detectives recorded the prosecutor saying Garner's death was no big loss, and there was no way in hell Pantaleo was going to jail for killing a nigger." Joe said "This was the kind of slavery period thinking that brought the American people to a boiling point. It was this kind of imbecilic crap that brought about the Big Change!"

Joe and Chaz went through two holes and neither made par. Joe asked "Do you plan to make a career in law enforcement." "No, not really. I'm going to work with my dad. He has a new photovoltaic manufacturing business. Last year I helped him after school and in the summer. You know, it's been mandated that every building in America be outfitted with a PV system. And an extra set of panels have to be stored underground at the site in case we have a huge solar or nuclear electromagnetic pulse."

Joe added "Yes, but we can't do that in vertical cities like New York. Instead, we're putting in massive solar arrays in buffer zones surrounding the city. I read the need for fossil fuels will be almost nothing after the People's energy projects are finished. Did you know we have the technology to make hydrogen and oxygen gas in little modules to supplement gasoline for cars?" "Yeah, I read about it on the internet. The oil companies had the patents and were preventing them from being manufactured. The jerks."

"I also read about a new type of air breathing lithium battery that allows a car to go over 500 miles between charges. You can use a PV system to charge the batteries so you'll have zero pollution." Joe said "I didn't know about those batteries. But I heard the People are forcing companies to upload all their research and product designs onto the internet. No more stinginess and hiding technology just to make a buck. Except for cutting edge defense weapons, everything has become open source." "True, the lithium battery information was just uploaded on the internet last week, but the jerks at the company had the knowledge and kept it secret for years." Chaz chuckled "I'll bet those guys are in the "big house" getting their junk tased as we speak."

Further up the course were the kids. They finally caught up to that scary pirate. "Aaarrrggghhh! Ahoy, me hearties!" Lupe said "Hi. Do you have any treasure?" "Lookin for some doubloons, are ye now? Well you won't find any here. They're in Davy Jones' Locker at the bottom of the ocean along with the spirits of the men I've killed. They're there to protect my booty from thieves like yourself. Aaarrrggghhh!"

The smelly old pirate had a parrot on his shoulder that began screaming "pieces of eight, pieces of eight". Connie said "I've heard those lines so many times before. Don't you have any fresh material?" "Watch it little darlin, or I'll run you through with my cutlass." Lupe said "Oh p_a_l_e_e_s_e, the only killing going on around here are your old pirate lines that are boring us to death." Nellie said "You don't scare me." Then she ran up and stomped his foot. "Ouch! Dammit!... I mean...Watch what you're doin there, you little bilge sucking ship mouse. If you're not careful I'll cleave you to the brisket." "Oh yeah? You and what army? You're so fat you couldn't even catch me."

Lupe looked at the others. "Let's book this place. How about doing some go-carts." "Yea! Let's do it!" The adults were also getting bored. After gathering everybody, Norma asked "With a show of hands, who wants to go the go-cart track?" Tony, Laurie and all the kids waved their hands in excitement. "Ok. Let's go!"

It was late afternoon with not many in line at the track. It had lots of twists and turns as well as a long straightaway for passing. The parents were making sure the kid's helmets were strapped on and they were buckled in. When Sophia sat down, her go-cart said "Hey, take it easy. Give me some room. Move over a little." She sprang out and said "Mom...I think this car is haunted." "Don't worry. It's just me. Come back. Sit down. I'll move over." "Uh... I don't think so. Moooom... Why is this car talking to me?" "It's ok, Sophia, it's just a trick car. Here, I'll trade with you." "Ok, mom."

Sophia got into Norma's car. She was ready. Norma got into Sophia's car. It said "Hi, there. It's been a while since I've had such a hot Chica inside me. Ready to go crusin, Babe?" "Put a sock in it, Romeo. And mind your manners. God, I can't believe I'm talking to a go-cart." "So what's your name?" asked the car. "Nunya." "Nunya what?" "Nunya business, nosey." The car responded "I saw you admiring my sleek strong body with my hot tailpipes as you were walking up. Don't deny it. You know there's a spark between us." "Ok, that's enough. Just get me down the track. And don't say "I'll get you down anywhere you want", jerk. Be quiet or I'll open a can of whoop ass and turn you into a grease spot. Understand?" The car speaker went silent. Norma said "Good, let's go." The car said "you have to press the accelerator pedal to move." "Oh sh-t, that's right. You got me so flustered I forgot about the controls." "Sorry."

The race was 20 laps. Norma started at the back of the pack then gradually moved up.

She finished first by edging out Tony on the last lap at the end of the straightaway. "Wow," exclaimed Norma, "You're an ass with women, but you can really tear out." "Yeah, they made me the fastest cart on the track to try to compensate for my bad manners." As Norma was getting out he said "Hope you come back soon por un (for a) ride in mi carrucha (my car), mamacita (babe). You got my number, right?" Norma turned back and snapped "Come caca, cabrón (Eat poop, butthead)."

"That was fun." said Travis to his mom. "Let's go again." "Not right now, honey. It's getting late and we need to clean up for dinner." Norma and Tony agreed. He mentioned tonight was cookout and campfire night. It started at 9:00. Everybody thought it was a great idea, so they agreed to meet then at the back of the restaurant.

Nellie asked "Mom, is it going to be a weenie roast tonight? Cause if it is, I want to toast some marshmallows too." "Honey, I don't know but I hope so. Let's rest for a few hours before we go." Connie asked "Mom, do you mind if I watch a little TV before I take a nap?" "Sure baby, but just a little and then we'll snooze." After a nice rest Norma woke the crew and they began getting ready. Sophia was unwrapping a Baby Ruth. Norma admonished "What are you doing. Put that away. You'll spoil your appetite." "Ok, mom. But I hope the food is good." "Don't worry, I just talked to the front desk and they said the dogs are homemade using only the best meat and freshest spices. You'll love it. And they're going to have marshmallows, too. Girls, are you all ready?" Nellie said, "Momma, let's go. The marshmallows are calling." "Ok, mija. Let's go."

They met in the back of the restaurant at 9:00. The sun had already set and the lighting was very dim to enhance the feeling of camping. There were six campfires spaced far apart with a circular railing to keep kids from falling in. The fire pits were surrounded by chairs and side tables. By the time they arrived the fires were reduced down to large piles of charcoaled wood burning a deep red. Lupe said "The fire's warm and it smells like mesquite. It reminds me of the Sandia chiles we roasted last month. We laid tortillas on the grill with some strips of asedero cheese to gently warm before we put the Sandia's on. Those burritos were heavenly, papi." Tony smiled and nodded his head as he was putting a fresh homemade sausage on his skewer. "Mmm, this sausage smells good" as he was heating it over the embers.

Norma was busy with her girls putting the sausages on the skewers and showing them how far down to hold them so the meat wouldn't burn. "That's it, Nellie. Perfect. Remember to slowly turn it to heat evenly. And don't touch the part of the skewer that's been over the fire or you'll burn your fingers." "Ok. But mom, when it's ready will you take it off for me." "Sure, baby." The dogs were big and juicy and had a nice snap when you bit into them. One was plenty filling. Plus everybody wanted to save room for toasting marshmallows. A cook came out with a big bag of little white pillows of tasty delight for each fire. And for those really craving sweets he brought out lots of Hershey's chocolate bars and several boxes of graham crackers. Connie said "Mom...S'mores! That's it...I love this place...let's don't ever leave."

A scary story

Everybody loves a campfire. It must be a primordial remnant of our past still locked into our DNA. The warmth, the color, the crackling, the smell of burning wood, and the stories. Something about a campfire that spurs the imagination. After everybody finished eating none wanted to leave. Every once in a while a cook placed more wood on the fires.

Tony asked if the kids wanted to hear a scary story. They screamed "Yes!" "Ok then......It was a moonless night just like tonight far away out in the desert, west of Presidio, Texas. It was hundreds of miles from any big city. At night it's so dark you can see billions of tiny stars. The Milky Way is a cloudy band of light stretching all the way across the night sky. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning."

"There were these two teens named Gene Hartley and John Andress. They just graduated from high school and wanted celebrate by hunting mountain lion. But to get into lion country they had to go into the far reaches of the rugged desolate desert far away from everything. Along their trek, they even had to travel many miles along a narrow twisting and turning gravel road high up along the Chinati desert mountains. In a few places the road was barely wide enough for a truck to pass. "Hey, Gene. Look down your side." Then John would laugh. "I'll bet it's at least a thousand feet straight down. Don't pee your pants, you'll mess my truck up." John thought it was funny. One time they almost went off the road when some of it fell away. "Not so funny now, huh John." Ocotillo, Spanish dagger, tiny barrel cactus, and some scrub brush were the only vegetation until they finally got down to the Rio Grande River."

Near the river, over towards Presidio into the desert they saw a foreboding sight. It was an abandoned plane from decades ago. They went over to investigate and saw some strange holes in the fuselage. Like something caused it to crash land.

From that spot sixty miles southeast was the small village of Presidio where the Rio Conchos joins the Rio Grande. To the northwest along the Rio Grande River was nothing but wild mountain desert country. Their best chance to find a lion was that direction. Back then in 1969, the road was paved for about 500 feet. Then it turned to gravel for a few miles. Then the road ended in a rough trail that only a jeep or four-wheel drive pickup could travel. The going was slow but steady. Gene had a detailed map of that part of Texas, but it didn't show the trail or the structures they were coming up to."

As they drove up they saw three small primitive adobe buildings that looked like they were from the 1800s. Gene got out of the truck to investigate. He felt veeery strange as his boots walked across the desert floor. He came up to one of the buildings and slowly pushed open the creaking door. Then he gradually and carefully moved to look inside. A lizard jumped from the ceiling onto his hair and it let out an unearthly screech. Gene quickly brushed it off his head. It fell to the floor and disappeared. He regained his composure and began looking around. It appeared like a hundred years ago somebody left the place in a hurry leaving everything behind. He saw a bed with dusty covers. A cooking area with a table and chairs. Even a loaded shotgun near the door. The room smelled like a dead body. The hair raised on the back of Gene's neck when he saw a chair slowly moving toward him. He turned and ran back to the truck so fast his feet barely touched the ground. He told John what happened and they high tailed it out of there continuing down the trail for another 20 or so miles. It was about 6:00 in the evening. They were tired and hungry. John saw a rabbit on the right. He slowed down, stopped, and whispered... "See, he's right there hiding behind that mesquite. See his ears stickin up. Put a bead on that and we'll have some fresh meat for dinner." Gene carefully aimed and took the jackrabbit down with one shot. John walked over and picked him up by the ears and carried him to the truck where they gutted and skinned him." The girls sitting around the fire went "Yuk! That's disgusting." Tony continued "It was disgusting because his intestines had worms. But John said that just makes the rabbit taste better. They put the meat in an ice chest for later."

"Gene wondered out loud what mountain lion tasted like. John said a few years ago his dad took one down at the foothills of the Eagle Mountains near the pass where the Buffalo soldiers were slaughtered by Apache Indians back in 1880. (John's dad, Guy Andress, as a young man had bulldozed several hundred acres of desert land next to the river on the west side of the Eagles creating a farm to grow cotton. After spending his childhood in this wild country John knew how to survive in case there was trouble.) John said "Cougar meat is very tasty. Last year dad just missed killing one along the river over at goat canyon about 40 miles south of Sierra Blanca, Texas. What happened is he woke up to find lion tracks all over the campsite. Good thing the pickup had a camper shell. After he and my uncle finished breakfast they went out to see if they could spot him. After hours of following tracks they gave up. Dad said he just disappeared. So they started walking back to camp. About that time my uncle had a feeling he was being watched. He immediately turned around and high on a large boulder was that mountain lion looking down like he was sizing the two up and deciding which one would be best to eat. Dad quickly raised his gun and shot. But in that split second the lion moved. Dad thought he hit him because he heard a big yelp from that polecat. They went over to where he was but saw nothing."

"Gene said "Maybe we'll have better luck." John responded "Like we talked about earlier, mountain lions are very smart. We'll be the ones being stalked. If there's one around within a few miles he already knows we're here. So tomorrow we'll take a nice stroll up that draw with the narrow canyon walls and maybe he'll show himself.""

"They set up camp about 500 feet from the river on a high spot at the base of the draw. Gene went and checked out the terrain."

"They also went down into the river to see if the fishing was good. But the catfish weren't biting."

"Rabbit cooked over a campfire is delicious. Just make sure it's cooked well cause rabbits sometimes get hookworms in their muscles. They both had their rifles and pistols out in case a mountain lion or some coyotes decided to visit. Pickens were pretty slim out there in that part of the desert and a nice 200 pound slab of meat would be pretty tempting to a predator. A little bit of beans tasted good with that jackrabbit."

"It started getting late as the campfire drew down. They decided to turn in so they could get an early start in the morning. After putting the fire out and as they were walking over to the back of the pickup where they were going to catch some z's, suddenly John saw something move in the darkness. He said in a low voice, "Gene, raise your rifle. We might have to shoot. Just don't shoot me. Ok? Something moved in that direction. Just keep walking to the truck. We'll walk with our backs facing each other so we can see every direction." After walking about twenty steps Gene saw a moving shadow. There he was...about 50 feet away. Gene quickly whispered "There he is. I'll get down and shoot, and you turn around. Just as he was about to attack, both rifles were fired and both missed their fast moving target. The mountain lion ran away, hoping for a better time and place to attack. Then a very odd thing happened. In the distance John and Gene heard the mountain lion screaming like something was ripping him apart. Gene said "Let's go check it out." "Are you crazy? Something just killed that lion. We don't want to get anywhere near it or we're dead meat, too. Make sure the fire's completely out. Don't turn on any flashlights. Throw your rifle in the pickup and keep your pistol in your holster. We need to get over to the river and wait. We're not safe in the pickup." So they made it fast down to the river. "Be ready to quietly sink into the water. Here take this reed to breathe through... just in case."

"They were standing behind the cover of some cypress trees and cattails. "Don't say a word and don't make any noise when you move. In fact don't move unless we have to go in the water." John had eagle vision. It was about 15 minutes later when he saw some movement up at the campsite. The stars gave off just enough light to see the silhouettes. He turned and motioned to step down into the water. Each slowly went in and edged their way downstream a few feet at a time. They stopped about 300 feet from where they entered."

"This is what being in the river looks like before sundown."

"But now it was dark and the river was really scary with who knows what was swimming in the water with you. The bosque along the side of the river was thick with water cypress. And the small patches of cattails in the water made for good cover. After ten minutes they saw some shadow movement near the point where they entered the water. John motioned to Gene to go down. They put the reeds in their mouths and stayed under water. Five minutes went by. John slowly raised his eyes out of the water to see what was happening. About 50 feet from him through the trees he clearly saw the thing that killed the mountain lion. (...pause...Tony one at a time slowly looked into the eyes of each kid...) It looked half human and half rabbit. He stood at least nine feet tall with huge buck teeth, long rabbit ears, and sharp claws. John then looked left up the river where they got in the water and saw a rabbit man step into the river and was slowly coming toward them. They were searching the river bank and in the water. "Uh-oh, we're gonna die!" thought John."

"But right at that moment the creature in the river yelled in a very high pitched scream like a rabbit... "A snake just bit me!" The others pulled him out and carried him toward the campsite. John slowly and silently sank back under water and tapped Gene to stay under. After being under 30 minutes John rose again for another look. Over near the campsite he saw a light. It seemed to be on top of a large disk shaped object. Inside the white light he could see colors phasing like slowly cutting through the colors of a rainbow. The ground all around the area was lighting up like they were searching for them. John sunk into the water again and patted Gene to stay down. A little while later they heard a loud whirring sound. John poked his head out of the water and saw the huge disk going up above their heads and moving northeast in the direction of the Chinati Mountains. A little town called Marfa was on the other side." (It's the rabbit men)

"To be safe, they stayed underwater until sunrise. Then they slowly made their way to the campsite carefully looking in every direction. On the hood of the John's truck was a shiny silver disk about four inches in diameter. John picked it up and a recording started to play. "We missed you last night. But we will avenge you killing one of our own. We're going to find you and slaughter you and eat you like you did our brother. And beware, we've been teaching our brothers how to defend themselves. (killer rabbits) Gene said "Let's shoot that thing. It could be a beacon you just activated. Shoot it!" They did but the bullets didn't even dent it. "Throw it in the water. Now!" They got in the truck and sped down to the river and threw it in the water. After a few moments it exploded. The water dampened most of the explosion. The truck rocked fiercely but Gene and John were ok."

"They sped out of that place as fast as they could. Driving out they saw the dead mountain lion hanging from an ancient fence post. Most of its meat had been ripped from its body leaving only the head, legs, and skin. A small piece of smooth animal hide was nailed to the carcass. On it was written these words. "You're already dead. It's only a matter of time." Then like a zombie the mountain lion came alive and grabbed the post he was hanging from. He got off and ran away. Only legs, head, and skin running away. ...(pause)... It's been well over forty years since that day and as far as I know Gene and John are still looking behind them expecting at any moment to have their chest ripped open by a rabbit man. (pause again)......Kids...... Look over there behind the trees. It looks like something's moving in the shadows. I wonder if rabbit men come this far north. Looook!" The girls began screaming. Lupe jumped in her dad's lap holding on for dear life. Norma's three girls ran up, all trying to get in her lap. Travis looked at Laurie and asked "are there really rabbit men, mom". "No honey, it's biologically impossible. But you never know." Travis didn't say another word but edged his chair closer to his mom."

With a satisfied look Tony asked "Did you kids like the story?" Connie asked if it was true. "My dad told me that story. He planned to go with them but his mom said no because it was too dangerous." "That's a very smart momma," said Nellie, as she was glued to Norma, "I'm glad I don't live in the desert. There are lizards and snakes and coyotes and mountain lions and if they don't get you the rabbit men from outer space will." Tony laughed and said "Instead of being afraid of rabbit men, you must become one." She said "What?" Tony explained "Instead of cowering in fear you must become strong and powerful enough to face any kind of danger." Norma said "You're right about that. We've had a long day. It's 10:30 and we should head in for the night. We're scheduled to leave on the shuttle at 9:30. We'll see you guys then. Have a good night." "Ok, you too." After they were in bed, Connie made sure her sisters understood the story was make-believe so they wouldn't keep her up all night.

First visit to the Museum

Next morning Norma and her crew finally made it down stairs at nine twenty. There were some fresh warm apple turnovers on a table near the entrance along with little cartons of cold chocolate milk and cups of hot coffee. They grabbed some and walked over to the shuttle. "Are you Ms. Corona?" asked the bus driver as he was reviewing his list. "Good. Now we have everybody." This morning like every morning the bus was full of fifty-five excited passengers ready to have fun. "Make sure your seatbelts are buckled." The driver checked everybody including the little ones in their car seats. "Since the Big Change, I don't have to hurry anymore. My job now is to make sure you're safe. So relax and enjoy the ride. Depending on the traffic, we should be there in about 30 minutes." Thirty minutes later as the driver exited the freeway the Big Change Monument and Museum slowly came into view. Sophia got her first glimpse. "Mom, this place is humongous. No wonder they said it would take 3 or 4 days to see it all." She was right. It's over a square mile including the parking area and land set aside for future development. There are several very large buildings connected by breezeways with heavy glass panels that slide shut during bad weather. Everywhere you looked there were small electric cars pulling a string of little trailers with seats quickly and efficiently shuttling people around the park. At the entrance was a massive gigantic cut stone arch. It's similar to the Arc de Triomphe on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, but much bigger. The large keystones at the top of the arch have the word CARING carved into them. In massive metal letters across the top of the arch was one word flanked on both sides by a giant American flag. That massive word was FREEDOM. Except for the little ones, the bus fell silent as they passed underneath. The driver said it's interesting. When he passes under the American Arch of Freedom his passengers either get very quiet or they yell in celebration. In a minute the driver pulled up to the first building. "Ok, please watch your step as you exit the bus. Starting at 6pm we'll have a marked shuttle bus here at this spot every hour until one in the morning to take you back to the Bed and Breakfast. Enjoy." As Connie got off she noticed on the left was a large mural. It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial giving his "I have a dream" speech. Carved into a large piece of marble was "And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" It was one of many symbols throughout the museum, some as warnings, and some of celebration. Connie said to her mom "We talked about Dr. King in school this year. He was one of the greatest men of the 20th century." "That's right, baby. If it wasn't for him you'd have to go to a different school with only brown skinned kids like yourself and lousy teachers, and we'd have to live in lower quality neighborhoods, and you wouldn't be able to eat at nice places, or go to expensive fun vacation spots, or drive nice cars." Connie squinted her eyes, scrunched her face, and blurted a cynical laugh. "Mom...... wasn't it that way for us before the Big Change?" Norma stopped and thought for a second. "No kidding...... it was." She continued "But before Dr. King, it was a lot worse." She hugged Connie. "Come on, let's go see this wonderful place."

When Lupe and Tony stepped off the bus, she immediately walked over to large mural of a child. At the bottom was inscribed "Never Forget little Millie (Jun 23, 2007 – Dec 24, 2013)". It was an image of a little Black child holding her tired mother's hand on a frigid snowy night in Chicago looking in a restaurant window where everybody inside was warm, nicely dressed and having fun, oblivious to the souls freezing outside. There was a small narrative below the mural that followed "Those people at that table are drinking hot chocolate. It must taste really good." Then she felt her mother pull her hand as she looked up at her tired empty eyes telling her that they have to keep moving to the shelter before it fills up or they will have to sleep in a subway bathroom or under a bridge. "Papi, I'm glad they put this here. Being homeless is the worst crime people can do to other people. I hope that stays there forever! On Christmas Eve, 2013 we were homeless too. What if we had been in Chicago. The cold could have killed us like it did little Millie." Tony said "It's by the grace of God that nobody is homeless anymore." Well that's probably true about the grace part, papi, but God didn't do anything. It took the People to actually fix it!"

Along the sidewalk was another mural. It was Ayaan Hirsi Ali who was crouched down behind a dumpster in New York City hiding from radical Muslim extremists who were trying to kill her for speaking out about the evils of Islam against women. Below the mural were her words: "I left the world of faith, of genital cutting and forced marriage for the world of reason and emancipation. After making this voyage I know that one of these two worlds is simply better than the other. Not for its gaudy gadgetry, but for its fundamental values."

Near the entrance to building one was another mural. This one was of Edward Snowden and below it was written, "Every person remembers some moment in their life where they witnessed some injustice, big or small, and looked away, because the consequences of intervening seemed too intimidating, but there's a limit to the amount of incivility and inequality and inhumanity that each individual can tolerate. I crossed that line. And I'm no longer alone." As Laurie was reading it she called Travis over. "Travis, this hero was among those who started the ball rolling to have the Big Change. Remember his words."

Laurie said to Tony and Norma "You guys have your own things you want to concentrate on, so what do you say we meet at the Freedom train restaurant around two. See its right here on the map." They all agreed then split up to take it all in.

The Museum has different buildings with different sections. The first building is the financial holocaust section. It is the smallest of all the buildings because the People didn't want to emphasize the past. We just never wanted to forget it. This building gave examples of the effects of the ruthless form of capitalism we had before the Big Change. Instead of devoting exhibits explaining the wrongs of capitalism, it gave example after example of the people who did the hurting and those who were hurt. An example is this story about some ultra-rich college boys. It follows:

We can sometimes look at life through snapshots. Freeze time in a picture and see the thousand words it represents. Look....here's a photograph that might interest you. This one was taken on the campus of Yale University. It's mostly brilliant children of very wealthy parents who attend this school along with the compulsory token number of minorities/poor kids to satisfy the do gooders and legal eagles who are always on the prowl to file discrimination lawsuits.

This is interesting. It's a photo of a bunch of spoiled rich kids (18 to 21 years of age) late at night having a little fun drinking and dancing at one of their social houses. Look. See. Thurmond is one of the partiers in the photograph. He's from a very wealthy family in New York City. His buddies James and Johnny are next to him. The group is laughing and pointing at Thurmond throwing up on his date. They think it's a real hoot because she is a nobody who Thurmond brought so he could have a little fun with her later that night. Her name is Connie Terán. With a 4.0 GPA and a perfect score on her SAT, she received a full academic scholarship to Yale. She's from a poor Hispanic family in Brownsville, Texas. Connie is majoring in sociology and political science. After graduation she wanted go back home and do something to benefit her community. But like many who don't understand that the ultra-rich aren't any different than anybody else, Connie was star stuck with the smart handsome dashing and wealthy young man. After a good laugh by the crowd seeing Connie drenched in alcohol vomit, Thurmond quickly apologized. He asked her to his apartment next door where she could shower and change clothes. Connie innocently and stupidly agreed. Thurmond had Johnny get from his girlfriend a nice clean dress for her to change into. After the shower Thurmond profusely apologized again. He said his friends were a bad influence on him. Then he sat on the bed next to her and proceeded to fondle her through the clean dress. She told him to stop, but he didn't. She was crying out while he forced himself on her. His friend Johnny was holding her down. Johnny did her too. He slapped her hard several times to see her scream and hear her beg. Wow, it was like heaven taking a worthless good for nothing screaming Mexican bitch. What a high! After they were finished, Thurmond looked over at Connie sobbing. "Hey wetback, it's time for you to go. Go back to the chile fields where you came from. We're finished with you. Get out!"

Yale has continually asked their students to go to officials at the school first before calling the police. In that spirit, early the next morning Connie went to a staff member named Hortence. Connie told her that she was raped by Thurmond and Johnny. Hortence listened to everything with interest. She told Connie that she needed proof. Connie pointed to the bruises on her face and she wanted to have a rape test where they would take a sample of what's inside her. Then they would find Thurmond's and Johnny's DNA. Hortence said "That may be true, but do you have any witnesses that would say you were raped? "Thurmond and Johnny would say it was consensual sex." Hortence said "Students are having rough consensual sex every night." "And just because you say it was rape doesn't make it so." Hortence continued "Thurmond and Johnny come from very wealthy and respected families in New York City. If you file criminal charges they would be dropped because there's no evidence of rape. And if you sued for damages, the family attorneys would probably win and in the process make sure you would have no real future. Thurmond's family would have you followed for years and create problems for you such that you could never imagine. Paying attorneys a million dollars to ruin your life would be chump change for them." She said "It would be best to chalk it up as a learning experience. But it would still be a good idea to be tested for HIV in a few weeks and I recommend you take a morning after pill right now. The school will pay for it." Connie didn't know that Hortence was ordered by her wealthy benefactors to encourage all rape victims to take an abortion pill to alleviate any future messy problems with bastard children and forced child support payments. Connie came from a very religious Catholic family so she kept the entire nightmare to herself.

This story like many of the stories cemented the understanding that everything in our country including our schools, our healthcare, and our legal system had built into it discrimination that favored the rich. You needed lots of money to receive a quality college education. If you had no health insurance, the emergency room was your only choice. But without any preventative care, by then it could be too late. Good lawyers required lots of money. If you didn't have a good attorney, chances are you would go to jail. Rich boys with lots of money had the best educations. They had the best healthcare in the country. And they could do just about anything they wanted and get away with it. These people actually believed they owned us. And for many, they did. Example after example showed the ultra-wealthy as being ruthless godless monsters with absolutely no social conscience. Bottom line was we were still living in a feudalistic society, but this one was much more sophisticated with the result being the same. A few dominating and abusing the masses.

Another area in the financial holocaust section are exhibits showing Americans who had become overweight and contracted diabetes and cancer and had heart attacks all because of eating tainted processed foods. They played looping videos of terminally ill people begging us to make the Big Change happen. It was too late for them, but not for the children and grandchildren.

The second much larger building is divided into two parts, the Peoples' Direct Governance Hall and the Exercise Room. The governance hall is a holy room, a quiet solemn sacred place where visitors can come and sit in solitude and contemplate the significance of our new government. And if they want they can light a small candle and thank God or whatever power they believe in for the good things they now have because of the Big Change. The Exercise Room is a massive room off from the direct governance hall with private cubicles for people to exercise their newfound rights of self-governance. They can type in what they feel are important issues requiring resolution. Many people come in and upload the complete text of a recommended law they authored for consideration. At the beginning of the month the visitors can vote on issues before the people. During the month the visitors can research issues coming up for vote. Even though the people can exercise their rights anywhere, it's extra special when you're surrounded by the physical representation of the great power of the People.

The third building is the Control Room. It's a gigantic room with small electronic photos of every voting citizen in America. Visitors can use a phone app to direct them to their own photo. When they're next to it, they can press an icon on the phone and their picture enlarges to a 12" square image for 10 seconds. Except for the light from the images on both sides of 65 panels, each stretching 450 feet, the room is kept dark. Random screen images also periodically appear on the perimeter walls displaying an American(s) and the law they recommended that the People embraced to further improve our way of life. The ceiling looks like the night sky with tiny blue dots for stars. The Control Room is one of the most popular places at the museum. In fact, it's one of the most popular places on earth. But even though the control room is massive in size, for safety sake it can only accommodate 4000 visitors at a time. And, they can only stay for 20 minutes.

The fourth building located to the side of the Control Room was recently completed. It's called the Humanity Room. The People called it that because it uses technology to bring us all together as one humanity. It's like the Control Room, but instead of having images of voting citizens, it has about ten thousand twenty-four inch screens on both sides of 30 four hundred foot long partitions. This building is also 600 feet square. The interior is also kept in subdued light.

The concept this room represents a technology that goes back to the 1980s. It picked up speed in 2009. Then Google researchers took the proven theories and ran with them. Two years ago Google's Larry Page sent a text to all US citizens to showcase this technology. One of Google's subsidiaries had just achieved the ability to bypass all firewalls, jamming equipment, and all other restrictions placed by countries to subjugate its people. Larry offered a free and open internet to all countries around the world. Current movies and TV shows would be available to anybody anywhere. America would also have channels to show our lifestyles and culture and how we got to this point of being a free People.

Larry demonstrated that we can offer complete internet access to everybody using Skype and other video communication programs as well as YouTube, and all social sites like Facebook, and anything else the imagination can create for use on the internet. A completely free and open worldwide internet.

Google had created two ways to communicate. First, is the "one-way" communication system for watching programs using a WIFI device. It would start with signals sent by a massive underground facility located in the US. The communication system creates pulsed neutrinos and amplifies and modulates them to give a distinctive and identifiable character or flavor so WIFI receivers all over the world can read the transmission. Unlike the limitations of open air wave transmission technology used today, neutrinos can freely pass through the earth without any problem. In other words the People of the US can in effect broadcast a signal straight into anybody's WIFI enabled computer or cell phone anywhere on earth.

But the individuals who receive the signal can't broadcast back. So another sister system had to be installed that would allow a two way communication. Google helped lead the process of stationing satellites across the earth to form a communications grid to receive and broadcast the discrete very low power (DVLP) cell phone transmissions. And the cellphones can be used as mobile WIFIs for laptops and tablets. The neutrino system of broadcasting and the satellite two way communication grid cannot be disrupted by anything anywhere on earth. If you want to watch a movie, the neutrino transmission enables that. If you want to use the interactive internet then the satellite grid does the job. People are mostly using Skype and Facetime to talk now because it utilizes voice over internet protocol (VOIP) for conversations using a cell phone and there is no jamming device that can defeat it. And the satellites have their own very powerful cold fusion propulsion system. If a country launches missiles to take them out, they will be detected and the satellites will cloak themselves and jump into deep space to avoid destruction. They also have photon and laser deflector shields.

Getting back to the stuff in the Humanity Room. A year and a half ago, the People of the US sent a message to parts of the earth that had the satellite grid up and running. The message, in their native language, simply stated "Greetings from the People of the United States. We placed an application on your cell phones and your computers. It's called "Let's Talk". Just touch or click on the "Let's Talk" icon and you can have access to a list of over 100 thousand people here living in the US who would like to communicate with you. Let's talk. We have a lot to learn from each other. We want to share our lives with you. As a present we have given you a free and open internet and free cell phone use. A file is attached that explains everything like all the movies and videos you can access for free. We don't want to force anything on anybody so if you want to use it just press the blue icon on your screen. Otherwise ignore this message. At any time in the future you can bring this app up and start it. Thank you."

Since that time there has been an ongoing explosion of video conversations across the world. Facebook is used as a means for people to introduce themselves. Mark Zukerberg, the founder of Facebook, created a real nifty instantaneous language translator for both text and voice. Microsoft already had that with Skype, but it was slow and it didn't pick up very well on colloquialisms and slang. Mark's was fantastic because his program was totally immersed in all local ways of speaking across the earth. On top of that it takes samples of the person's voice and then instantly reproduces the exact sound in the translator. No more robot sounding voices. Back in the 60s the TV show Star Trek had something called a "Universal Translator". And now a little over fifty years later it has become a reality. And wow, what a difference it's made. The ten thousand screens in the Humanity room show real time conversations all across the world. In other words an eighteen year old girl in Moscow can have a three way call with a girl in China and another in the US. And they don't have to know the other's languages. And they can say absolutely anything they want without the fear of reprisal from their country's leaders. The communicators must give their permission for the Peoples Museum to capture the transmission and proudly display it in the Humanity Room. You'd be surprised how many want to show the visitors that we are becoming a close community of connected people from all over the world. All cell phones and other types of video recorders are disabled in the humanity room so the communicating parties will maintain their privacy. And the parties are told not to disclose who they are or their specific location.

There used to be a White House Situation Room located in the basement of the West Wing. It was an intelligence management center for our country's rulers. It was run by the National Security Council for the use of the President and his advisors (including the pathetic joke of a National Security Advisor named Susan Rice, and a great hero of the People named Jeh Johnson who was and continues to be the Deputy for Homeland Security, and the slimy little lackey named Denis McDonough who was the White House Chief of Staff) to monitor and deal with crises at home and abroad and to conduct secure communications with (often overseas) people. The Situation Room was equipped with secure advanced communications equipment for the President to maintain command and control of U.S. forces around the world.

Everything is different now. The far end of the Humanity Room is what one would call the People's representation of the Situation Room. Of course in times of crisis all citizens can immediately find out what is going on using their computers and cell phones. But there is one very major difference in the way we handle foreign relations problems. We don't use secure communications. We would directly contact the people in a country if their ruler is being aggressive and may be trying to make a land grab from another country like Putin did with Croatia. If the Croatia problem was happening right now, we would inform all the Russian people and all the Croatians about what Putin was up to. Then we would ask the Croatians if they wanted to be part of Russia. If the answer was yes, then we would leave them alone. If they said no, then we would have to have some long conversations directly with and would deal directly with the People of Russia. They would have to realize that as far as we are concerned the "rulers" like Putin are no longer running the show. As much as possible on both sides, the People would be the decision makers.

Google's neutrino generators, the satellite grid, and the instant voice and text translators allow for constructive talk and decision making between the Peoples. It's very doubtful, but if we have to confront and possibly attempt to discipline a group of people defined by political lines or religious affiliation we will openly talk to them every step of the way. Frankly, the only people on earth where I believe this may happen are with the extremists of Islam. The Chinese, Russians, Europeans, Black Africans, Australians, Pacific Rim nations, and those in Latin America, in fact all non-Muslims are wonderful caring people. Even the subjugated Muslim women are very caring. The real pernicious cancer on earth seems to be the dominating Islamic male who tries to use his faith as a tool to control and enslave everybody else including his wife (wives) and children.

The fourth building is the Recognition Building. It recognizes those who started the movement and those who were instrumental in its success. You can see the events as they unfolded. From the visionaries awakening peoples' minds, to the "boots on the ground" daily workers who made it happen. You can trace the first groups of candidates on the Big Change ticket and how they won by landslides. It shows the insidious workings of the ultra-rich primarily on billionaire owned NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News, and Associated Press trying to extinguish the flames of Change. The visitors can see how the President tried to declare Martial Law by restricting all movement and communications of Americans in a desperate attempt to squelch the inevitable. Jeh Johnson a highly respected attorney, the director of Homeland Security saw everything the Big Change movement was doing was legal and above board. In fact when the people were rioting it was in retaliation for horrendous acts committed by their own government. He refused to continue to use force against the citizens. The military also refused. The Supreme Court held the President and Congress in contempt for their actions. Soon thereafter as a shortcut to the planned state by state Constitutional amendment process, the Supreme Court authorized a special general election. The citizens of America voted. The People's Constitutional amendment was passed and a new direct democracy was formed.

After the election, top leaders in the computer industry, hugely successful entrepreneurs, and socially conscious heroes stepped forward to lend a hand to make it happen, and also to make sure no fraud occurred. Such people as Melinda Gates, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Larry Ellison, Marissa Mayer, Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Philippe Kahn, Alan Emtage, Tim Berners-Lee, Marc Andreessen, Mark P. McCahill, Elon Musk, Jeffery W. Yabuki, Edward Snowden, William Binney, Russell Tice, and Thomas Drake are enshrined forever as heroes in the halls of this building. This section also recognizes the contributions of people in all industries and services who went out of their way to logistically have it all work.

But, in the back is a special area called the Hall of Shame. Completely unknown to his wife Melinda, it was discovered that Bill Gates at Microsoft manipulated his programs that tallied votes in the United States. He made sure the People's voices didn't count. It was the billionaires' choices for elected officials that did. And he gladly went along to maintain his billions and power. In addition to that, not surprisingly when the Big Change occurred, the major owners and top management of many corporate giants balked. Some of those who tried to figure a way out were Amazon, General Electric, Chrysler (mostly Arab owned), GM, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobile, Apple, IBM, United Health Group, Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto, Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, United Technologies, Halliburton, Dell, Dow Chemical, Merk, Lockheed Martin, Cisco Systems, DuPont, and many, many more. Jeh Johnson with Homeland Security froze all their money. And he froze their merchandise and equipment destined to escape the country. And something happened that the controlling owners didn't count on. The employees turned against them. The giant herd trampled the few coyotes. Most of the upper management employees in these companies sided with the People because they knew their company would continue and thrive with all employees being paid very good tax free income. In fact large companies like General Electric and Apple had already splintered their operations across the world as a means to protect against a possible event like the Big Change. But the People simply identified hundreds of thousands of critical employees across the earth, offered them a wonderful life in America, and most of them took it.

There were some American companies with manufacturing operations outside the US who refused to move operations back here. The owners and management individuals including those already out of the country were located and brought justice. These bad men and women were immediately put to work doing hard physical labor mostly hoeing weeds on prison farms. Now their pictures are permanently ensconced in the hall as the worst Americans in history. Kids started calling it the "Shame shame on you" area. All of this and much more is kept for future generations to see.

The fifth building is a complex called the Betterments section. This section showcases some of the good things the Big Change has brought about. There are areas such as employment, health, justice system and prison reform, food and agriculture, environment and wildlife, science and technology, education, energy, American security, national resources, parks and recreation, human rights and quality of life, Big Change protection, transportation, border control, foreign affairs, money and banking, entrepreneurship and business formation, human habitat, information resources, consumption management, and repatriation of manufacturing.

It's been less than three years since the Big Change amendment to the Constitution. Before the amendment, most of us already had an idea of what we wanted. We just needed people to formally submit the myriad of mandates in an organized documented fashion so we could review and vote on them as a comprehensive change to the Constitution. To celebrate, we included a museum in the amendment. So ground breaking for the Big Change Monument and Museum occurred three months into this exciting moment in human history. The contents and complete layout would be decided later. We first and foremost wanted it to be a gigantic complex of happiness, celebration, recognition, and remembrance.

The next building is the amusement park. It's three times higher than the Mall of America in Minnesota. The building covers 240 acres. There are ten narrow gauge trains constantly running through the park for fast, efficient movement of visitors. And, outside every evening at closing there's a 30 minute fireworks display the patrons can see up through the glass ceiling. Just before the fireworks display, there is a 3D holographic show below the ceiling displaying many wonders of nature to music.

The Betterments Building

After the group split up to take in the museum, Norma and her crew went to the Betterments complex. As they passed through the entrance doors they entered a very large pyramid shaped glass building that measured 500 feet by 500 feet at it's base. The center point was 433 feet high. The 5.7 acre atrium was like a beautiful tropical rainforest. Along one wall were revolving doors that took visitors into the Betterments building.

As Sophia entered the giant glass pyramid she felt the rarified elixir of cool pure fresh air hitting her face. She deeply breathed it in. It was intoxicating. As she looked around she said "Mom, this is like paradise. Is this what heaven is supposed to be like?" "Maybe. Look up there on that tree branch. It's a toucan." Nellie excitedly showed Connie beautifully colored frogs and little turtles sunning themselves on some rocks. Norma remarked "Kids, there are little animals everywhere. The sign here says this is called 'The Biosphere'. It reads... This biosphere is to remind us that nothing else matters unless we have a healthy earth. Our environment and all life on earth are too precious to ignore. We must keep it healthy for ourselves and future generations. This ecosystem has the proper minerals, climate, soil, water, sunlight, air, and all other required ingredients to sustain healthy life. Genetically modified plants and harmful chemical herbicides and insecticides have no place in a healthy environment. Our land, air, and water must be pollution free. Because of the Big Change we no longer have the pressures of profit making, and have returned to environmentally friendly agriculture and industrialization. We are again becoming one with nature." (Because of the high volume of traffic to and from the betterments exhibits there is machinery in place to assist in keeping the air and water clean and representative of how our environment should be.)

Nellie said "Mom, it looks like over there is the place where we feed the birds. Let's go feed them, ok?" Norma said "You've looked forward to doing this. But remember yesterday we agreed to do it tomorrow so we can spend as much time as you want in the aviary section of this giant biosphere. We're coming back here for three more days." Nellie grinned. "I'll be able to stay here as long as I want, right?" "Sure, baby." "Great! And let's don't forget the 3d light show."

Connie was looking at the pamphlet on the Betterments section. "Mom, over here is the education area. Can we go there?" "Sure, but check if it's ok with your sisters." "They're down with it mom. It's through these doors." At the entrance to the education area was a low circular platform. On it was a large lifelike statue of a young girl pulling a red wagon full of boxes marked as observations, curiosity, adventure, imagination, contemplation, wonder, dreams, excitement, inspiration, innovation, creativity, DIVERGENT THINKING, collaboration, risk, play, and lots of hugs. She was standing outside a small schoolhouse with her teacher. There was a sign showing their conversation. "Did you bring everything you need for school?" "Yes ma'am, it's all in the wagon."

Connie looked at the display. "That cute. Let's look over here at the 'Learning & Remembering' exhibit." Upon arriving they saw several lines of about 100 very large booths. "Come in and have a seat." said the booth in front of Norma and her kids. Connie said "Ok. Is there room for four?" "Sure, just come on in and have a seat. This is an outstanding example of why we made the Big Change. Money is no longer an impediment. The only restrictions in America now are resources and peoplepower. And the People decided it was very important to mass produce booths like the one you are in today. Please excuse my bad manners for not introducing myself. My name is Hal, and you are?" "My name is Norma, and this is Connie, Sophia, and Nellie." "Glad to meet you. As you can tell, most of our interaction is through voice but if you want there's always a keyboard and a mouse. And there's a laser pointer you can use as a mouse. This booth is really a six sided display screen. Four vertical sides, top, and bottom. But most of the time the student will only utilize one vertical screen and it can cover the entire wall or any smaller size, or even multiple screens on one wall. In addition to flat screens, a student can bring up a three dimensional display. My makers are currently working to allow the user to enter or have the display completely surround the user in 3D. It's estimated it will take another six months before mass production of these units will begin. Although, we do have these 100 prototypes out on the floor."

Connie said "Hal, would you show us a six sided display." "Certainly." The walls, ceiling, and floor lit up. "Ok, see that plaque under Connie's feet? It marks the center of the city of Paris. In front of you is Notre Dame Cathedral. I have it displaying in real time." Norma said "This is unbelievable Hal; there are no distortions at all as I'm looking around me. The sky is beautiful. And look at the people walking." Hal then took them to the main lobby of the Louvre in Paris, then to the Orsay museum to see paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, and then the top of the Eifel Tower. "This is amazing, Hal. How come I haven't seen this before?" "Well Norma, this technology has been in existence for over ten years. It was kept private by the developer until they could find a way to make it profitable. Currently, one thousand are being produced each day in Milwaukee, with plans to increase production."

"That's amazing. Can you show how this is used as a teaching tool?" "Certainly. This device allows a child to have more control over the subject matter and the speed at which they learn. The outstanding full spectrum color graphics and sound quality is an excellent enticement. I can also create smells and instantly change the humidity and temperature to give a more realistic effect. Instead filling the role of the traditional teacher where I lecture and the student absorbs, I function more as a guide that caters to the child's wishes. If a student wants to extend into a complicated or technical subject, my software can instantly scan the data I retrieve and reword the information to bring it to the level of my student so they can better understand it. Let's make Connie the student. OK?" "Sure." "Hello, Connie. Are you ready for a fun excursion?" "Let's do it." "Great. Since this is your first time let's find out a little about yourself. Now at this point I would ask a series of questions to get a feel of the person's interests. I can also get a very rough estimation by the responses of how much they already know. I'll give you a quick sampling." Hal asked "Connie, tell me something you like?" "I love turtles. I've got a terrarium at home with three little turtles. They're so cute." "Would you like to know more about Turtles?" Connie said "sure" then Hal filled the screen with all the species of turtles and where they're located on earth.

While revealing the information he constantly asked if she wanted to go deeper into a particular area or pull back. "Connie has total control of how much information she wants. For example, if Connie chose the eating habits of desert tortoises, she can read about it and along with that she can see stills or videos. Or while watching a vid she can just sit back and just listen to me explain to her. She can stop at any time and ask me to say it differently so she can understand it better. The speed of going in and out and across the knowledge base is very rapid because it's all through vocal exchange. The computer response time is almost instantaneous. On top of all this, I tell jokes and inject other forms of humor. Believe it or not, people learn better when they're cracking up."

After five minutes, Connie stopped. "Ok, let me get this straight. With your guidance, I can learn whatever I want and at the speed I want. You can instantly supply me the visuals, sounds, and written words to get me there. And on top of that you will bend over backwards to do whatever is necessary to make sure I understand. Is that right?" "Of course, it's my job." Connie looked at her mom "Wow, this is incredible. Do you realize during a typical school day I probably have about an hour of good learning? The rest is just stupidity."

Nellie said "Can I ask a question, Hal?" "Sure, what would you like to know?" "During school, can you let me see and talk to my mom and my abuelo?" Hal said "Of course I can, but they need to have their computer camera on. Do you miss them when you're at school?" "Sometimes. It's good that you know all the answers but I like to hear it from my mom and grandfather, too." Hal said "That's a very good point. I'm here so you can gather information about the world. But your mom and grandfather have to be the ones to show you the difference between right and wrong, what's good and what's bad. You see what I'm saying, Nellie?" "Sure, because I don't want anybody else telling me, especially a machine that strangers built."

Hal said "Norma, for her age Nellie is very perceptive. Keep up the good work with her and your two other girls. We are also experimenting with having several students at once in one booth versus only one student. You humans are a very collaborative species and you seem to learn better when you're together in small groups. Thanks for coming by and visiting. These booths are going to be in every school across the nation within a few years. Unlike the past where planned obsolescence was the goal, these booths are designed to have components easily changed out as technology advances. So see you soon in your classrooms. Norma, Connie, Sophia, and Nellie, it was a pleasure meeting you. Bye." The girls didn't want to go but they had to allow others to come in and be amazed.

Next up in the education section was the "hands on" learning center that's going into every school. Norma said "Girls, come here. This looks interesting." They saw all kinds of manufacturing equipment laid out in assembly lines with teens making things. As Norma and the crew were walking into the area a sign read: "Welcome to "How does it work and how is it made" learning center. Reading, writing, and arithmetic used to be the foundation of American education. But since the Big Change an additional foundational block has been added. It's the HDIW & HIIM requirement. Before the Big Change this was given no emphasis whatsoever. For example everybody knows how to operate a cell phone, but only a few people know how it works and how to build one. It's now mandated that every person above 14 years of age learn exactly how to make at least five items being used in our country. From cell phones, to tires, to generators, to jeans, etc. This way the power to make rests with the People and not in facilities in foreign countries behind closed doors. Awareness and understanding is essential for a productive self-sustaining people."

"This is very cool girls. Look over here at the line that makes women's shoes." Sophia said "Mom, I like these red high heels with the sparkles." "Three inch heels are a little much for you, baby. How about these pink runners?" Sophia looked at all the workstations necessary to make a pair of runners. "Mom, I didn't realize there was so much involved in making shoes. It's nice that machines do most of the work. But I'd like to know how these machines are made." Norma said "Here are some posters behind each machine explaining how the machine is made. It shows students performing each step at small foundries, metal forming shops, and plastic mold injection machine shops located on college campuses.

And look over here. It's a 7' by 7' glass box with a laser cutter inside that can make anything out of metal. And over here is a manufacturing line for a 3D printer. It says every home garage will have one of these printers. The maximum size of the plastic items made will be 6' by 6'. Just download the design you want like a kitchen cabinet or a snap on car fender and in a little while you'll have it."

Connie said "Mom, they call this a clean room where integrated circuits are made. Wow, this is really interesting. It says almost everything you see today has computer chips. The complete process of learning how to make the machines and learning the programming of the machines that make circuit boards takes about a year. But it's one of the most sought after skills."

Next to the integrated circuits is the programming exhibit. Connie read the poster to her mom. "This says computer programming is the most important manufacturing process today. Computer chips are like gigantic cities, but it's the programmer that fills the city with all the cars, trucks, and people who are given instructions and tasks to follow. Students in every school in America will be taught computer programming as a second language from kindergarten to college level and beyond." As Norma was reading the poster she said "It looks like the most popular programs kids are writing today is what they call the 'interactive voice recognition and interpretative interface' where I can tell the computer what I want as an end result and it will guide me through the design process to arrive at the final product. It's like having a buddy next to you helping write the program."

Sophia said "Connie likes computers and programming and that's nice but I'm just not into that. Mom, I know you and Connie like to design clothes too, but I'd rather learn how to make shoes and jeans and blouses. Oh, and bracelets and necklaces." Connie said "I guess computer programming and making tires and shock absorbers are out, huh Sophia?" "You got that right. Can we go somewhere else that's more interesting? How about it, mom?" "Ok, honey. Why don't we go to the alternative energy exhibit?" Connie saw some very handsome boys her age heading that way. "Mom, let's go. I can't wait. No, seriously mom let's go." Norma didn't understand but complied.

The entrance to the alternative energy exhibit had a big red can of fuel with a black circle and a diagonal line through it. Behind it was a running diesel pickup inside a sound proof enclosure. The exhaust was vented up through the ceiling. The pipe going through the ceiling had several sensors. A monitor next to the truck was displaying the types and volume of pollutants being given off by the engine. Above the sensors was a large box where the actual particulates in the exhaust were captured and dumped into a container for the visitors to see. Nellie asked "Mom, we actually breathe all that ugly stuff?" "Apparently so."

Walking further into the exhibit area they saw a photovoltaic system. "Look mom, this flood light is shining on a panel. And it's powering this computer. Humm... photovoltaic panels. I didn't know there were so many kinds." Sophia picked up a folding umbrella. "This umbrella has a paper thin solar panel on the outside that powers a paper thin computer screen underneath. You can also charge your cell phone with it." Norma said "It says here a PV system will be installed for every home in America. I knew that. The places that get lots of sun will no longer require power from any other source. By using things powered by electricity, like electric cars, our air will be much cleaner. Girls, I remember my father telling me when he was a boy in Arizona the skies were blue all the way to the horizon. Then decades later air pollution changed everything."

After looking through the alternative energy exhibit the girls were becoming restless and hungry. It was getting close to 2pm so they decided to head over to the Freedom Train Restaurant for a bite to eat. To exit the Betterments building they had to go through the Biosphere again. As they passed through the revolving door, they were greeted with the smell of cool fresh clean air. It was again intoxicating. Mom and the three girls just stood there for a moment. Connie said "Mom, this has to be what heaven is like".

She saw Lupe and her dad coming into the Biosphere. Lupe said "Hey girl, I didn't know you were here. We were looking at the money and finance part." "Yeah, we were clear on the other side looking at the education stuff. I'm starving. How about you?" "You bet. This flyer has the Freedom Train Restaurant menu. I've been looking at it. Maybe that's why my stomach is growling. It says they have dishes from sea to shining sea. I love the food from New Mexico. My dad lived in Las Cruces when he was a boy. He cooks the traditional recipes like chile rellenos using New Mexico long green chile. And his Spanish rice is to die for. I saw they have Dona Anna County Chile Rellenos on the menu. See, right here. How about you?" As Connie was looking over the menu she pointed to the Austin City Limits Grilled Filet Mignon. "This looks really good. It says here the meat comes from cattle that were fed only all natural and organic, pesticide and herbicide free grains and grasses. It's grilled over Texas Oak and Mesquite wood. It comes with elote (e- (like the first e in Nellie)-low-te)." "Yum. Sounds delicious." Connie handed the menu over to her sisters and asked what they wanted. They wanted the freedom train burger with liberty fries. Nellie said "And, I want ranch dressing to dip my fries into. I LOVE ranch dressing."

Lunch at the Museum

As they left the Biosphere and entered the breezeway connecting the buildings, one of the hundreds of little shuttles pulled up and stopped to let people off. The driver said the shuttle was going to the food courts and restaurants so they hopped on. Sitting with them was Travis and his son. Travis is a farmer/rancher who lives near San Antonio, Texas. He was wearing a big old cowboy hat, blue jeans, lizard skin boots, and a blue and white western shirt with pearl snap-on buttons. Lupe sitting next to him looked up. "Hey mister, I like your hat. But it should be red so your outfit would be all American red, white, and blue." Travis smiled "You're right, but I don't have a red hat."

Lupe asked "You're very large. Are you a real cowboy that rides in rodeos?" "Why, would you like to be a rodeo rider?" "Of course, I love horses. How do I get into it? By the way this is my dad, Antonio." Travis shook Antonio's hand. "It's a pleasure. My name's Travis Jacobs, but everybody calls me Bubba. And this is my son Austin. We're from Lytle, Texas just southwest of San Antonio." "And I'm Tony Solis and this talkative thing is Lupe." Tony looked down at his little girl. "So you want to ride horses in a rodeo, huh?" "Papi, I love horses." Bubba's son Austin, who is very big, very blonde, and very muscular for a 14 year old, gave Lupe a big blue eyed smile. "It's a lot of work to keep a horse. You have to feed em, brush em, and medicate em. You have to do things to keep them entertained. Even little stuff like a rubber ball to play with. And they need lots of room to run." "I can do that.", as she was gazing into Austin's eyes. For a moment she almost forgot about horses. She said "We're going to the Freedom Train Restaurant. Here's the menu." Austin read the menu, then asked his dad if they could go there for lunch. "Well, we were going to the food court, but I'll bet this food is better. Ok. Sure."

Lupe looked at Bubba. "If you don't mind can you tell me more about rodeos." He responded "Even though I go to the San Antonio rodeo every year, I haven't been in a rodeo in ten years. But Austin here is 14 and he's just getting into rodeoin, so you should talk to him." "Ok," as she smiled at his son. Austin winked at her as he smiled back.

After a few minutes they pulled up outside the restaurant. Laurie and her son Travis greeted them. "Hi ya'll, we just got here too." She saw two new people joined the group. "Hi, my name is Laurie Jones and this is my son Travis." "It's a pleasure ma'am. I'm Bubba Jacobs and this is my son Austin." The two boys exchanged Heys. Laurie Jones usually likes other women, but Bubba is so big and sky blue eyed handsome she's thinking about switching teams.

Norma said "It looks like ten." as she was telling the hostess how many people to seat. The hostess advised "We have a table next to the mechanical bull and another one over there next to the stage where the Lewis and Clark display is." Norma said "Where, I don't see it?" "See the podium up on the stage and down below is the young Indian princess Sacagawea standing next to Lewis." "Oh yeah, that looks like a better spot. The area around the bull looks a little too busy." "Certainly. Please follow me." As they were seated she passed out the menus and recited the day's specials. "Today's lunch specials are: 1. Red, white, and blue ambrosia, 2. Patriotic fruit pizza, 3. Big Change 6 oz prime rib, 4. The All American sandwich with smoked turkey, lettuce, tomato, asedero cheese, and jalapeño with a side of German fries, 5. American apple pie, 6. Red, white, and blue strawberry shortcake, 7. American girl's peach cobbler. Here's a sheet with the specials you can pass around."

After the hostess left, Norma leaned back and relaxed. She looked at her group of ten. Then she slowly looked at the people in the restaurant. It was a huge room with a high ceiling that seated several thousand people. She thought to herself how all these people had to pass through that little door over there to get in. It was like a tube of toothpaste with a small opening that controlled the passage of everything. It was like the 535 jerks in the old Congress that controlled the passage of all laws that affected millions of Americans in a bad way. "But now it's over. No more pinch points. No more greedy billionaire oppressors. This chair I'm sitting in is mine and everybody else's."

She finally felt it and understood. Norma rose to her feet and shouted looking at everybody around her "We did it, we actually did it. This is our country. This is our building." She picked up her chair and held it over her head as she was standing on another chair. Smiling she said, "These are our chairs. This stuff doesn't belong to anybody else. America is ours now. I just want to say...... thank you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!" Those around her slowly started to clap, and some started cheering. After a few minutes the area of several hundred people settled down and got back into enjoying their meal. Every face had a look of joyful pride. As a waitress passed Norma's group, Connie stopped her and apologized for her mother's outbreak of emotions. The waitress told her "Don't worry. It happens at least once every few days on her shift. And if the crowd gets really patriotic the staff passes out hats and whistles and other noise makers to help with the celebration. She said we want our customers to feel and experience that FREEDOM isn't just a concept anymore, it's a reality. It's here. And we're keeping it. You're on the Freedom Train now! Just look around you. Look at the peoples' faces. Finally we are all having a good life." Connie said "I know. I was just a little embarrassed." The waitress smiled and hugged her. Then she turned to the group. "Hello, my name is Jenny. I'll be your waitress today. May I take your drink orders?" Norma said "Me dan una cerveza dos equis." (I'll take a XX beer.) "How did you know I understood Spanish?" asked the beautiful tawny skinned Hispanic waitress with a Spanish accent. "Lucky guess." The adults ordered beer or ice tea, and the kids ordered either cold chocolate milk or fizzy coke with all natural sweeteners. As the waitress was leaving to get the drinks she stopped, turned around and said "You probably already know, but I'm supposed to tell you that everything you eat and drink is GMO free, hormone free, pesticide and herbicide free. Companies like Monsanto, Cargill, and ADM who were poisoning us with horrible fattening and cancer causing food are now owned by the employees who are dedicated to providing us with the best food possible. Everything served is all natural, clean, and good for you. And the best part... it's delicious! Please let me know if any of you have any food allergies. Also, if you have any religious requirements concerning your meal. Thanks."

After hearing the waitress talk about how tainted our food used to be, Laurie said "I need to spend a little time in the betterments building looking at how our food was sullied and made unfit for human consumption. I heard it was bad but I didn't realize how bad. Tony said, "No kidding. Years ago my cousins working in California used to pick grapes. They would get rashes on their arms after picking all day. It came from pesticides sprayed on the vines. And the crop dusters used to fly low over the bracero huts. It made one of my nieces very sick. But all crop dusting has been stopped and those deadly poisons were destroyed. Thank God. I heard a bunch of those wealthy California vineyard owners, like Nancy Pelosi, who never worked a hard day in their life were put to work pruning vines, hoeing weeds, and picking grapes. Justice...finally."

In a few minutes Jenny came back with a helper to pass out drinks. After seeing everyone had a drink in their hand, Norma stood to make a toast. "To the Big Change and to all the wonderful things we've given ourselves." They clanked their bottles and glasses together and took a drink. A woman from a table behind Norma rose and said in a Chinese accent "I'd like to make a toast too. To the people of America who are the shining beacon of freedom for the rest of the world. May my people of China soon become free too." "You damn right." said Norma. "Freedom is contagious. God bless the people of America and China." Everyone around began clapping. Norma hugged the little Chinese lady and quietly said she hoped it would happen soon for her People too. "My name is Norma Corona, and yours is?" "It is Zìyóu. (Sue ee yo) It means freedom." Surprised, Norma said "Maybe the universe has brought you to this place for a reason. Freedom just doesn't happen." "Yes, I know. I have to make it happen." With a firm countenance Zìyóu looked up at Norma and said "Pray for me and my small group of freedom mothers." With a worried look Norma hugged her again. "Good luck and may success be with you, Zìyóu."

After a few minutes the waitress came back to take food orders. Connie ordered the Austin City Limits grilled filet mignon with elote, and Lupe went with the rellenos, Connie's sisters and Laurie's Travis and Bubba's Austin wanted a burger and fries with ranch dressing. Norma and Laurie ordered a seafood salad. And Tony ordered fresh Colorado trout just flown in that morning. Bubba ordered beef stew with a bowl of grapes and strawberries on the side. In fifteen minutes the food was served. Tony requested everybody hold hands as he led the group in giving thanks. After an earnest prayer, they dug in.

Laurie was sitting across from Bubba. "So Bubba, what do you do for a living? You've got a great tan so it must be outside work." "It's just a farmer's tan, Laurie. And that's what I do. My ancestors were Belgian and for many generations we've been vegetable farmers. But I also grow Coastal Bermuda for cattle and horses. And, what do you do, Laurie?" "I teach biology and political science in high school." "Science and politics, what a combination."

Tony asked "Bubba, see anything interesting this morning?" "Man, did I. We went to the agricultural betterment section. I was concerned about that mandate to stop all chemical pesticides and herbicides. Having my crops overrun by weeds and all kinds of little critters was a major concern after the Big Change. But stopping hazardous chemicals was really ok. See companies like Monsanto, you know, the ones who made agent orange used in Vietnam that gave everybody cancer, well Monsanto had Roundup because it was very cheap to make. They had other recipes that were completely natural and biodegradable but they didn't use them because of the higher cost to manufacture. And, like I've read in my trade journals, the pesticide business is anything but dead." Tony said "Oh, really." Bubba said "Yeah, they're doing stuff like using squished bug juice and cactus juice as pesticides. Again, before the Big Change, this approach wasn't used because it was more expensive. These pesticides are completely harmless to humans. Anyway the exhibits validated what I already knew. And, biodegradable herbicides can only be used as an alternative to hoeing weeds and only on a limited basis. See today all I have to do is make a request to my government for people to come out and do hoeing. They send me lots of ex-bankers and ex-stockbrokers to do the job." Tony said "You're kidding. Texas bankers hoeing weeds." "Hahahaha, that's right, Tony. Beautiful justice, isn't it." "Hoddamm right, Bubba."

"See anything else in the ag display?" "There was lots of stuff. I think the most impressive thing was the food processing exhibits. Before the Big Change much of the food sold was tainted in one way or another." (Note from the author: The internet is replete with vids showing how our food supply is tainted. For example, YouTube search "US tainted food") Our biased paid off news media kept it all a secret so most Americans didn't know. So the food processors for decades were literally getting away with murder. Murder for profit. But all this stopped after the Big Change. The owners and managers of large companies like Monsanto, Cargill, and ADM were convicted of the crime of slow murder through the tainted products they produced and sold."

"Now the American public is focused on growing and raising great tasting healthy food fit for consumption. The People mandated more fresh produce and less packaged processed foods. And to help make life easier in the kitchen we've invented all kinds of self-cleaning machines for cooking at home. For example, if you want a nice chicken or beef stew, there's a machine that takes the vegetables and meat then adds water and spices and cooks it to perfection. It even "tastes" the stew during the cooking process. I also saw "heat free" grain grinding machines for use in homes. I can go the store and buy 5 pounds of shelled wheat, take it home and grind it up. Then I put the ground wheat in this really cool self-cleaning bread making machine that automatically loads in the yeast, warm water, and other ingredients. It bakes a perfect healthy loaf every time. It's all natural and pesticide free. If you like French fries there's this machine that will take potatoes and automatically clean and peel them. Then it slices the potatoes and bakes them. It even automatically adds spices. It's amazing!" Tony said "I've heard about those kitchen appliances. The best part is they're self-cleaning." "That's right. Nobody likes to spend needless time in the kitchen cleaning up when you can be doing something else. They even had a machine that makes pear, peach, and apple pies. You clean and core some apples, then throw them in a hopper then turn the machine on. Two hours later you open this little door and there's a perfectly baked apple pie." Tony said "Let's see... my favorite food is pizza. Did you see any pizza makers?" "I did. It made 14 inch pizzas from scratch. It was actually two machines... a dough maker and another machine that took the dough and put the ingredients on and then baked it. You can now buy a healthy fat free cheese substitute for your pizza. My dad died from clogged arteries in his heart so I'm careful about eating fatty foods. And believe it or not they've almost finished developing a robot that will cook meals and clean up after itself." Tony smiled "Put me on that order list!"

"How about you, Tony? What did you see this morning?" "First we went to the direct governance hall, lit a candle and gave thanks. Then we went over to the Control Room. My daughter and I experienced some hard times before the Big Change and we wanted to record how the Big Change saved my life and brought us back together."

"Then we went over to the Betterments Building to look at how the Big Change, how the People, took care of our money problems. See, through no fault of my own, I became destitute and child protective services took my daughter away. So I just wanted some assurances that the Big Change has really taken care of this."

"I can understand your concern, Tony. I haven't been to that part yet. What did you see?" "Well, you know everywhere we go in the museum we see symbols. At the entrance to the money betterments section were these actors on a small stage. A monopoly board formed the backdrop. A fat guy in a suit with a cigar in his mouth was sitting at a table counting a fist full of money and laughing. He looked like that character in the monopoly game. Under both his feet were people squirming. They were pleading for just a little more time to make their rent payment. The rich guy was telling them to shut up and pay up. Anyway, the skit went on for about ten minutes. At the end after the Big Change happened, the squirming tenants now had enough food to eat and decent clothes to wear and they owned their apartments. Now they were forcing the old slumlord to clean their toilets. It was funny, but I wasn't there to watch a little play. I wanted some assurances."

Bubba said "It's close to three years since the Big Change. We all know most of the answer." Tony said "That's true. There is zero unemployment. We all have accounts at the Peoples' bank. We get at least $10,000 deposited to our account every month. There are no more taxes of any kind so the money is tax free. Healthcare and all utilities are free. Major things like homes and cars have had their prices slashed. We can only buy stuff through our account. Access to our account is protected by fingerprints, and eye scans, and a scan through our right hand, and as we touch the fingerprint pad it checks to see we're alive." Bubba said "So what did you want to know?" "I wanted to know if there were any catches or exceptions. I wanted to see how fair all this was."

"This is something I discovered: There are people and computer programs constantly checking to make sure prices don't rise. If a new product comes out then an unbiased group of people assign a fair price to it."

"And I was thinking about being recognized for my contributions at work. I have to keep an hourly record of what I do. And I can include any improvements or innovations I was responsible for. But I wanted to know if anybody actually reviewed my work records." Bubba said "I'm sure that's an area many people are sensitive about. Because if they're a mover and a shaker, an innovator or a creator, they want to receive the proper recognition." "Right. And that's where our NSA big brother comes in. Their computer system is the largest on earth. They constantly look at each and every one of us every day, accumulating information that will be used for our next annual evaluation. Other than us maintaining time sheets everything is done in the background. The system also requires people who work with and around me and people outside the company that I interface with to write reviews on me. I already knew that, but it reminded me about the fairness of having many more people involved. The exhibit gave many examples of recognition, job advancements, and added remuneration."

Bubba said "What I'm happy about is it doesn't matter anymore if a business loses money. Money is no longer the score card for success. Since I'm a business owner, that's very important. Instead of being money profitable I have to be people, resource, and environment profitable. Have you heard about that?"

Tony said "Yes. We're rewarding businesses that use plentiful instead of scarce materials, or from non-renewable to renewable." "True, but in my case it's a little different. For example, one of my products is beef. If you feed cows nothing but corn for five months they'll get big fast. But that makes the meat too fatty and it hurts the cow's stomach. Then you have to give the cow antibiotics. The antibiotics stay in the meat and it hurts us. But if I keep my cattle out in the pasture eating unsullied grass the meat is much healthier. It takes them a year or so longer to gain enough weight, but who cares. I don't have to make money profit anymore. I have to make food that's healthy and delicious. And I get rewarded for it."

Tony said "That's pretty good. To me what's most important is I want to have assurances that I will always take in enough money to have a good life. The People hired experts to figure out just what a person needs more or less to have a good life. And it's not just money. It's quality of life. It's everything. So, every six months they review their past recommendations against real life experiences, again using our wonderful NSA spying computers. If $10,000 a month isn't enough then they'll recommend raising it, or they will lower prices. And if there isn't enough community support in an area of a person's life, again recommendations are made for improvement. And, that's exactly what I wanted to see."

Unusual additions to the group

The group had just begun to eat when Jenny their waitress walked a man with a scruffy beard wearing a baseball cap over to an empty chair at the end of the table. "We're getting a little crowded here today. Would you mind if another person sits with your group?" Norma next to the empty chair said "Of course not. Come, sit down and relax. It's 2:30, I'll bet you're hungry." The man in a low voice said "Yes. I'm very hungry. I've been talking all morning and early afternoon so my mouth is dry." He turned to Jenny and asked if he could have something nice and cold to drink. Maybe one of her special 33 degree Tecates. She said "Of course, sir, I'll bring it right out to you." "Could you bring some cut limes with it, please." "Yes, sir. Right away."

"Hi, my name is Norma Corona and these are my daughters Connie, Sophia, and Nellie." "My name is Tony Solis and this is my daughter Lupe." "I'm Laurie Jones and this is my son Travis." "Everybody calls me Bubba and this is my son Austin." "Hello everybody, my name is Larry." Norma said "You must work here or something, because the waitress seemed to know you." "Yes, she's waited on me a few times. So Norma, what do you do for a living?" "Well Larry, I used to have a real dead-end job working at Walmart. But guess what, now I have a very rewarding job working at Walmart doing the same thing." Larry smiled "That $10,000 a month makes a world of difference, doesn't it." "Larry, you have no idea."

She asked "So what do you do for a living?" He thought for a moment about the best way to say it. "Well, I work with computer software. Sometimes it gets tedious but it's been a lot of fun." Norma looked at her oldest daughter. "Connie... Larry over here works with computer software and he says he loves it. You should talk to him. Maybe he could point out some things you should study in school." Norma looked back at Larry. "My oldest daughter loves computers, but her teachers are kind of mediocre. I think she needs all the help she can get." Larry told Connie "Well, I'm giving a seminar at 4:00 this afternoon in the Betterments Building at the education center. In the back is a theater. Get there a little early and I'll find a good seat for you. The seminar is for kids like yourself." Connie smiled. "Ok." Norma said "Thank you, Larry. I'll make sure she's there."

"So have you decided what to eat?" Larry said he told the waitress as he was walking up. At that moment she arrived with his drink. "I see you're talking behind my back again." She put her arm around him, and gave him a big hug and kiss on the cheek. She said to Norma. "We all take very good care of this nice man every time he comes in." Connie jumped in. "It looks like you do that for all your customers. The food here is delicious." The waitress bent down next to Larry and whispered "They really don't know who you are, do they?" Larry whispered "Let's keep it that way. Ok?" Norma heard them and whispered "What are you talking about?" Jenny whispered "Can I tell her?" Larry nodded his head. Jenny whispered "You're sitting next to the man who founded Google. If it weren't for Larry the Big Change couldn't have happened." Larry quickly interrupted and softly whispered "The Big Change happened because of the People. I just happened to make a nice search engine." "Yeah, right," whispered Jenny, "and you just happened to put up all those satellites and tons of other stuff." She smiled and said "Excuse me for a minute. I need to bring your order." Larry whispered to Norma "Please don't say anything. It's difficult to sit down and have a good meal without interruptions. Is that ok?" She reached over and put her hand on his forearm and gently squeezed it. As tears were welling up in her eyes she whispered "Thank you for everything. Other than giving birth to my three little munchkins, this has to be the happiest day of my life. I came to see stuff in a building and now God has blessed me by allowing me to touch a man, a real man, who helped make this happen. I won't say anything. Please enjoy your meal." By this time Jenny had returned and was setting his food down. Jenny said "Buen provecho (Enjoy your meal)" as she left to pick up another order. "Mom, are you ok," asked Sophia. "Of course, I think I just got something in my eye. So Sophia, is there anything you would like to see this afternoon?" "I don't know, mom. Do you know of anything?" Larry said "Sophia, your mom could recommend the "miracles and wizardry of modern science exhibit" in the Betterments building. This morning I was able to stand on a skateboard and make it rise a foot off the floor. They strapped a box to my back that had super powered gyroscopes so I wouldn't fall over. There are all kinds of cool things over there. And it's close to the theater where Connie will be." Norma asked "Does that sound good, baby?" "Sounds good, mom."

The group was midway into their meal when Jenny brought out another round of beers, ice cold chocolate milk, ice teas, and soft drinks. Norma said "I got another one for you too Larry." "You didn't have to do that." "Of course did because everybody in our group has to have something in their hand to drink after a toast is made. And you're now part of our group. Ok everybody, let's give a toast to our newfound friendships and to one of the best places on earth to be. We used to say "may your lives be long and prosperous". Now we can say "may your lives be long and happy because the People already took care of the prosperous". To the People!" The rest of the group shouted with various positive responses as they clanked their drinks together, including Larry. "Somehow the beer tastes twice as good after a toast", remarked Tony. Connie asked "Mom, can I have a sip?" "Sure baby, but just a sip." She took a sip. "I really don't know what you see in this stuff. It tastes horrible." "Just keep on thinking that, mija."

Norma asked "That looks really good, Larry. What is it?" "It's a Reuben sandwich. I love these things. It's made with corned beef so it has some unnecessary amounts of salt, but it's very good. I brought in some 50lb sacks of rye grain straight from a farm in Nebraska. They grind it in the kitchen to make flower. Some rye breads have wheat mixed in, but this is pure rye. Kind of like pumpernickel." "Pumperwhatel?" "Here have a taste." He cut off a small piece at the end of the sandwich and gave it to Norma. "My god this stuff is good."

A friend of Larry's also with a scruffy beard and a baseball cap walked up. "Hey man, that Reuben looks good." Larry said "Hey Sergey, what's happening man." There was an empty chair on the other side of the table from Norma. After making sure no one was sitting there Sergey sat down. "I was in the area and thought I'd stop by and see how the new equipment was working in the Humanity Room. Got the munchies and came over. Just happened to see you eating that delicious sandwich. Did you bring some of your friends with you today?" "Actually, these kind strangers allowed me sit with them." Larry looked at Norma. "Please excuse my bad manners, this is Sergey. He and I have known each other since we were in college. We were always competitive. So after school we decided to work together on special projects to see who would be the best. Sergey, this is Norma Corona." Norma grinned and asked "So who's the best?" They both were repeatedly saying "I am." So after a moment of tolerating the I-aming, Norma knew Larry wouldn't remember everybody's name at the table so she interrupted the guys and introduced Sergey to the rest of the group.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sergey." "Same here, Norma. You know, like your last name, my favorite beer is Corona and my throat is really parched." He saw Jenny coming over. "I see we have a complete set today." Jenny gave Sergey a big hug and asked "What will be your pleasure?" Sergey winked at her. "Jenny, you were always good with the leading questions, but I'll just have a Corona with some lime wedges please." Jenny said "Guess what, I remembered last time, and here comes your drink." as a helper was running the frosty ice cold Corona out to him. "You've got a good memory. Ok, can you look into your crystal ball and tell me what my order is?" "Of course... Larry got you to eat his special Reuben recipe last time and you said you were addicted to it. So guess what?" As she turned to face the kitchen another helper was running out half of a Reuben sandwich and some tiny grilled falafel. Sergey said "Isn't it beautiful. It's perfect blend of Sephardic and Ashkenazi. Thanks, Jenny. You really know the way to a man's heart." Norma didn't understand a word of what Sergey was saying so she just smiled and nodded. Larry reached over squeezing Norma's arm. "Don't worry about him, he's just being silly." He looked around and asked "Is your husband working today?" Norma blushed and said she wasn't married. She quickly went through her bad habit of being attracted to handsome men who say "My heart stops every time I look at you" and "I'm so lucky to have found my one true love", but then they eventually forget and go after younger girls with firmer bodies. "But since the Big Change, I've been working out three times a week and lost all my 'had babies weight'. But it's hard to find a decent guy these days, really hard since I have three girls. But when I look at it, these girls shine an incredible amount of light into my life. I'm very blessed." Larry looked deeply into Norma's eyes as she was talking. He saw an honest to God, down to earth good woman who because of her past had to become street smart and street hardened.

"I'm divorced too. I married her in 2007. As time passed it was apparent she was more interested in her position in life than in the real me." "Well Larry, I assume you had lots of money. You know what they say, "Some women are drawn to money like bees to honey". And they'll say and do anything to get it. And they hide it so well, don't they?" as she was looking directly into Larry's eyes... "If they're beautiful, funny, smart, and get the best degrees and know exactly how to act and the right things to say, it doesn't mean they're a good person." Larry smiled and agreed. Norma said "It sounds like you had the perfect wife to display as a trophy but it turned out she had a refrigerator for a heart." Larry laughed and started with the puppy dog eyes that usually scared Norma away. But this time she felt something. She saw in him something strangely wonderful from her past. It was his voice, but she couldn't remember.

"Mom. Helloooo. Earth to mom. Come in mom." as Connie was trying to get her attention. "What do you need, baby?" "Can I have some dessert? Can Sophia, Nellie and me share a big slice of apple pie with some vanilla ice cream on the side. The waitress said the pie and ice cream were made this morning and they have all natural organic ingredients, and you like us to eat that kind of stuff, right mom :)." "You don't have to butter me up, mija. Sure, go ahead and order it." She turned back to Larry, smiled and said "Kids, when they get to be Connie's age they start thinking they can manipulate you."

At the other end of the table Laurie was talking up the new attitude at her school. While his mom was praising the new ways of teaching, Travis walked over to Sophia "Hey, while we're waiting for our desserts, you wanna check out the Lewis and Clark display?" "Sure!" As they were looking, Sophia asked "Who is this Indian woman standing with them?" Travis coyly said, "She's Sacagawea. Isn't she pretty? Her face and hair and green eyes kind of look like yours." Sophia blushed. "Maybe, but I'm much better looking." She looked straight at Travis and said "Right, Travis?" That caught Travis off guard so he decided to tone it down. Travis said in a restrained voice "Right". Sophia was curious. "So who was this Sacagawea person?" "She was a Shoshone who was kidnapped at the age of 12 and sold as a slave to a French Canadian fur trader who took her as his wife. At 16 she became a guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition. In 1805 she took them all the way to the Pacific Ocean in Washington State. Along the way she was smart and socially adept enough to keep them from being killed by Indians. She was paid nothing for her work. But her husband was given $500 and 320 acres of land." Sophia reflected "It's sad that she lived during a time when Indian women were treated like shit. You know mom says she's full blooded Apache from Arizona. She said before the Big Change her White overlords at Walmart didn't pay her squat either." Travis said it was really cool her mom was full blooded Indian. Sophia didn't much care about that as much as she liked the idea of a woman leader. She looked at Travis and thought out loud, "Maybe someday you can tell me more about Lewis and Clark." He wondered what she meant because they were only going to be together for week while they were staying at the same bed and breakfast.

Sophia saw a karaoke machine next to the stage. "Hey Travis, how well can you sing?" "Ok, I guess. Why? What's this thing?" "It's a karaoke machine. Mom takes us to this place where families sing karaoke. It's lots of fun. I like Latin dance music and rock from the 80s. This screen shows the words as the music plays. The songs are just the music and you have to be the singer. I've already memorized most of the songs that I do." "Interesting." "Get your mom to take you to karaoke sometime. There's a dance floor where we go and the mom's like to teach their kids how to dance. Can you dance the cumbia? That's my favorite." She was showing him the dance steps as she was humming the music. "No. I don't know how to dance. On September 1st I'll be starting 6th grade. Only the middle school and the high school have dances where I live." He continued "Most of the time I stay home studying and watching movies and playing games on the internet. And I do a little sports." "Mom says kids need to get out and be part of life and not just see it in pixels. She thinks I don't know what pixels mean." "You've got a cool mom, Sophia."

By this time the desserts were being served. "Hey, don't Bogart the ice cream." yelled Nellie. "But it's so good," said Connie, "I can't believe this. The ice cream you buy in stores doesn't taste like this. Mom, can we buy a quart to take to the hotel?" "We'll see. Remind me just before we leave, baby."

During dessert Laurie was still talking up the new teaching methods. Bubba said "It's nice you found something you love to do." Becoming a little curious he asked "So Laurie, what do you do for fun in Houston?" "Sometimes we like to go to the Aquarium restaurant to eat and look at the fish. And we'll go to Schlitterbahn, to Kemah Boardwalk, Moody Gardens in Galveston, and the Houston Space Center. Houston also has a pretty cool kid's museum. And if Travis nags me enough we'll take a weekend off and go to San Antonio. He loves Sea World and Fiesta Texas." "That's nice but does your date ever take you to a play or a symphony? I hear the Houston symphony is pretty good." Laurie perked up. "I don't have a boyfriend." Her son said "Yeah... mom can't figure out whether she likes men or women the best. Maybe you help her out with that." Laurie became a little embarrassed and said "Don't worry, I'm not playing on the other team."

It was 3:30. The restaurant closed for an hour to clean up and prepare for the dinner crowd.

The group broke up into several smaller groups. Connie, Lupe, and Austin went to Larry Page's class on "Recent innovations in Hypertext Transfer Protocol" and "Recent breakthroughs in algorithms for atypical human reasoning". Norma, Laurie, Sophia, Nellie, and Travis went to visit the "Miracles and Wizardry of Modern Science" exhibit. Larry persuaded Sergey to join him in teaching the class. His expertise on human reasoning algorithms will add to the fun. The home construction exhibit is a short distance from the theater so Tony and Bubba went to scope it out.

"Look mom, no wheels." as Sophia was on a skateboard floating a few inches off the ground. She moved her thumb on a device that looked like an iphone. Push the thumb a little forward and she goes forward slowly. A little further forward and the board really moves out. And there are built in safety features that prevent crashing into obstacles or having your feet slip off. "Mom, look at me. It's like Aladdin's flying carpet." "Yes honey, that's really amazing." "Can I take one home, mom?" "The sign here says these prototypes have only been out for a month and production will begin later this year." "What's a prototype, mom." "It's the first example of what they are going to make." "Wow, I'm on the first of a kind. Weeee! This is fun. I'll stop in a minute and let you try it. Ok?" "That's ok, baby. Let Nellie go next. She's about to pull my arm off." Nellie took the board from Sophia. "Ok poser, your style was little sketchy. Let me show you some gnarly moves." Sophia said "Mom, I think Nellie's been hanging out a little too much with the skater kids next door." Nellie said "Watch Nellie do a one-eighty...... Wow, this is rad." Nellie rode the board like a kid twice her age. After a few minutes, she turned the board over to Travis. He's been boarding since he could walk and it showed. Sophia was very impressed with his athleticism.

Next to the flying skateboard exhibit was the "Fall, Bounce, and Spin". A person gets into this huge clear plastic ball. Inside they climb into a spinning device. Then the ball is raised ninety feet into the air and dropped. When it hits the ground the soft ball bounces and the person's inertia created by the fall continues because they initiate a sling movement inside the ball that causes them to spin. After several spins they stop. Sophia and Travis loved the ball. But Nellie didn't do it after seeing those two walking around all dizzy after getting out.

The next feature of the science exhibit was the mind reader. Norma said "Oh god, now they're going to be reading our thoughts." Travis said "It says here it's cutting edge polygraph technology. What's a polygraph, mom." Laurie told him it was a machine to see if a person is telling the truth. The device was no bigger than a credit card. Tiny wireless sensors are placed on the wrist and throat and chest and ankle and underneath one nostril. And something that looked like the old Google glass is placed over one eye. The person who was demonstrating the device hooked Nellie up first. He asked "What grade are you in?" "I'll be going into third." "Are you having fun." "Maybe." "Do you get along with your sister?" "That depends." "Tell me a secret." "No way, then it wouldn't be a secret." Nellie stood up. "Who's next? This thing gives me the creeps." Travis went next and answered a series of questions. Then Sophia snuck one in. "Do you think I'm pretty?" The man demonstrating the device said "Yes/no questions don't need a verbal response. Looking at his breathing, heartbeat, pupil movement, chemical content of his respiration, and his skin energy, Travis already told me." Sophia said "Well?" Norma interrupted. "Sophia, you already know you're pretty. You're just embarrassing Travis. So stop it." "Ok, mom." Then Sophia got hooked up and said "I like Travis because he's smart and he's boss on a skateboard." "Honey, we don't need a polygraph to know that, baby." Norma turned to Laurie "The next ten years with Sophia is going to be really interesting." They laughed and continued on to the next item in the exhibit.

Because of their popularity, the holograph section has 50 prototypes. They are small enclosures with one way glass walls. People can see in, but the person inside only sees three dimensional static and moving images in the cube. Inside, the occupant can interact with the animated holograms. Using laser technology to exactly track the person's movements, similar to a laser virtual keyboard, but using the entire three dimensional human body, a computer controlling the holographs can determine how to interact. The immediate exterior of the holograms have dense super ionic atoms that form a kind of turgor pressure which gives the image the feeling of an actual object when touched by a person. The person in the enclosure can get on a giant holographic bird and pretend to fly across a forest. It all seems very real especially with fans mimicking the wind. Everyone loved it.

Then there were some things that seemed a little too esoteric like synthesized rough endoplasmic reticulum to augment the production of insulin at the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. And there was the  MED13 modulator that is placed in the heart using a nanobot. The modulator works to assist micro-RNA 208a and MED13 in regulating systemic energy homeostasis. This way the body's metabolism is kept in a better equilibrium when compensating for disrupting changes. Obesity and plaque buildup in arteries can now be stopped. As they walked deeper into the exhibit the more confusing it became. Norma said "I'm sure all of this stuff is nice, but it's a little above my pay grade. What do you say we head over to the theater. The class is almost over." Everyone agreed and off they went.

Lupe is discovered

They had just gotten to the theater when the doors opened and younglings began pouring out. Lupe ran up to her dad. "Papi, I didn't realize Larry Page was one of the guys that helped bring about the Big Change. During a break I hugged him for helping save our family. He was a little embarrassed and didn't know what I was saying. I said its ok, Mr. Page. Sometimes when a person does something it creates a wave that washes over those you never thought about. I was one of those people."

"Lupe, I don't understand." "Papi, Larry started Google with that other man who sat next to you at lunch named Sergey Brin. The people at Google are the main reason the Big Change was successful." "Ay Dios mio (OMG), mija. Today has turned out to be a very good day." "That's right, papi. Larry liked my attitude and he thinks writing software might be in my future."

Connie was walking out of the theater telling jokes and laughing with Mr. Page. "Excuse me, Connie. Do you mind if I speak with Lupe's dad for a minute?" As Tony was walking up, Larry said "Tony, I didn't know your daughter had such an innate understanding of multivariable calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra. Then she started talking about Mandelbrot's fractals and how he needed to see ice crystal formation only in four dimensions which includes time. It's never a snapshot, but a living moving event that's affected by a multitude of outside influences during each infinitely refined slice of time that can if and when understood be factored into the fractal formula. Then she was disputing the theory of pure randomness or even chaos because she believes stochastic approaches are not refined enough and use the wrong types or by definition limited types of input for probability predictions. Although she believes in determinism, she says our current approach is highly inaccurate because it uses rough history or unrefined points of past reference. Lupe said a significant determinate could occur a trillionth of a second before the event so it would be almost impossible to make genuine accurate determinations. Only reasonable estimates. She compared modern day tools including the math we're using to the Flintstones when we should be like the Jetsons. I didn't know they still showed those old cartoons. Anyway, she said there is something else better to determine events and that is the yet to be understood and measurable fact of fused time/energy. She said we're all keyed into it with our minds, but we ignore it because it's intangible. Lupe said "But it's not intangible, we just don't have instruments to detect it yet. How many times in your life, just out of nowhere, did you feel something was going to happen and it did?" Lupe continued "My daddy taught me that. He even showed me how to relax and clear my mind and focus on a person in front of me. They'll quickly turn around with a look on their face saying what." Tony said "Yeah, my great grandfather an Indian from Sonora showed me these things. We just don't normally talk about them like my daughter because the White man doesn't understand." Tony grinned at Larry. "Now you think we're a little crazy."

Larry said "Not really...... It sounds like an advanced level of mind control. But it does give me an insight to the source of her incredible abilities." He put his hand on Lupe's shoulder, smiled and continued "Then she started talking about multiple separate program execution processes moving across time that will have a symbiotic relationship together when necessary but not requiring the symbiosis for continuance. The symbiosis contributes to scaling when necessary to address demands of outside influences. This aids the economy of resources and reduces time consumed. Then she looked at me and said..." Lupe interrupted looking at Larry "That's how your algorithms should be." "Tony...... Lupe is a natural for creating four dimensional predictive algorithms. ......And probably a whole lot more."

Tony was standing there with his mouth open not knowing what Larry was talking about. "Well I knew she liked math, but apparently she's pretty good at it." Larry responded "Diamonds like Lupe are exactly one of the reasons I pushed to have the Big Change. It gave her the opportunity to spread her wings and fly. We're working right now to give Lupe and other kids the necessary tools to complement their abilities so they can achieve and be the best they can be. Lupe has the mind I always hopefully pictured my child would have. As we proceeded during the class, Lupe started asking questions I hadn't even thought about. Then as she was explaining, I had to pay attention so I wouldn't get lost. Her almost instant perception and depth of logic is very rare, Tony. You should be very proud of her." Tony sat down in a nearby chair. He really didn't understand as he listened to a very powerful man compliment his daughter. "Ay Dios mio. (Oh my God.) What a day. Thank you, Larry."

Lupe sat in Tony's lap and put her arm around his neck. "Papi, I like this place. I feel at home here."

Connie walked up. "Hey Lupe, you want go see the trick bike riding exhibit? It's over there. See the bikes going in the air?" "Bring your family and I'll bring my dad." So everybody including Larry went to see the kids do tricks on bikes. They were demonstrating a hard surface that can instantly change to a very soft and spongy surface. A kid would go high into the air and intentionally let go of the bike and plummet to the surface. The crowd would gasp thinking he was going to smack himself and maybe break an arm or a leg. But the surface instantly loosened to five feet down of spongy material just before impact. Then it became flat and hard moments after the rider hit. "That's amazing" said Travis. "Wish they'd had that on my skateboard runs."

The group continued through the science exhibit where they saw so many advances they began to get a little weary of it all. Sophia asked "Mom, this stuff is really cool, but can we go have some fun?" "I second that, baby." Norma looked at all the burned out faces. "Who is up for a little fun? Those who want to go to the amusement park, raise your hand." Everyone in the group had that "Thank God" look on their face and raised their hand. "Then, let's book this place." She took Larry's hand. "Let's go have some fun." Larry responded "That place is for kids, Norma. I'll feel out of place." Her alluring green eyes lit up as she said "Kids don't have a monopoly on fun, Larry. Let's go." So Larry gave in to this bright, beautiful, strong, fun loving woman who was fifteen years younger in years but older than him in life. Outside the biosphere as they were getting on a trolley Larry said, "Hey, Sergey. You're coming too. Hop on man, it's time to let your hair down and have some fun."

As they were rolling to the amusement park Larry asked the driver to stop for a minute. Next to the trolley was Mark Zuckerberg in a flimsy disguise walking with his girlfriend. Larry said "Where are you two headed." Mark said "We're thinking amusement park." Larry said "That's where we're going. Hop in." As Mark and his girlfriend were jumping on he looked at Larry. "I didn't know they allowed dinosaurs in the park. Is there a Jurassic section?". He laughed. "Sergey said "Real funny, Mark. Looks like you might be ready for your next diaper change. I'm sorry but I forgot to bring diaper rash cream." "HaHaHa, Brin. How would you know about diapers since you were hatched from an egg?" "Ok boys, let's tone it down." Norma said in a raised voice. "I'm sorry, Norma. I didn't introduce you to my friend Mark. Mark this is Norma Corona." Everybody on the trolley introduced themselves and their kids to Mark and his girlfriend, Hanna. Connie said "Your name is Hanna like the girl in the movie Hanna. You know you look just like her." Hanna said "I get that a lot, but Saoirse Ronan and I aren't related." Connie said "She could be your doppelganger."

Lupe whispered "Dad, that's Mark Zuckerberg, the guy who created Facebook. His team also created the universal language translator." "Madre de Dios." (Mother of God) Can this day get any stranger?" "It's ok, papi. They're people just like you and me. Don't worry about it." "But it seems you are more like them than the rest of us, mija." "Da'ad. I just like questioning everything, discovering new stuff and relationships and writing it all down using math. ...But I'm always going to be your baby girl. Ok?" Lupe hugged him in soft reassurance. "Where did you pick up all that math anyway, mija?" "Remember I mentioned my foster parents were nuclear physicists. She worked at home while she took care of us. We were home schooled. She showed me a lot and she turned me on to a cool YouTube math site called Kahn Academy. Every day as an escape, I'd spend hours on Kahn. Even now when we're not doing stuff, I get on the site for at least 10 minutes a day to see what's new."

The amusement park

The quick trip to the amusement park couldn't go fast enough for the kids. As soon as they jumped off, Lupe went over to Connie. "I've never seen an outfit like yours. It's really cool." "Thanks. I designed it myself and my mom made it. We like to do this kind of stuff. See what mom is wearing. I designed it too." "Wow." "Mom found a place that can take a high pixel jpeg file of a design, then refine it, and put it on almost any fabric we choose. And the cost is cheap. Mom said she wants us all to be an original 'one of a kind'."

The rollercoaster was next to the park entrance. Sophia said "I read it's like the Disney one in California. Ay Ay Ay, look at the size." Connie said "No seas miedosa (don't be afraid), Sophia." "I'm not. I was just thinking about Travis." Connie said "Travis, you ready for the ride of your life?" "Sure, let's go." All in the group were saying things to try to convince themselves not to go. But they saw people getting off saying they wanted to do it again. "What the heck," said Norma, "Might as well." The group got in line. Norma was concerned about Nellie not being big enough. But the sign said it was safe for ages 7 and up. After a considerable wait the coaster cars finally rolled up and people got off. Larry told Norma he was deathly afraid of roller coasters. "Then you'll sit next to me, ok?" Norma continued, "Connie, you sit next to Nellie. And Sophia, if it's ok with Laurie, you sit next to Travis." Laurie said she would sit next to Bubba." Finally the moment arrived. They were seated and locked in. Larry and Norma were in the front car. The guy running the ride told everybody to get ready for a wild unexpected experience that no other roller coaster in the world can deliver. What he didn't say was the previous week they installed a special high powered electromagnetic device along a portion of the track that will actually elevate the cars off the track to give the riders the experience of flying through the air. Then as the tracks rise the cars will come down and hook up again.

A voice on the loudspeaker told the riders to sit back and hold on tight. The cars climbed from their nesting area to the top of the first 200 foot rise. Then the screaming began as they plummeted down 80 degrees. The cars zoomed up, down, sideways, and through barrel rolls. Just as they were getting used to the ride, the cars went up and left the tracks floating about a foot above the rails. Larry grabbed Norma's arm and started screaming in a high pitched voice. "We're gonna die, we're gonna die. AAAAAAAAH!" Then as the tracks came up and connected to the cars again, Norma screamed with joy "No we're not, no we're not!" and began laughing and laughing.

After the ride everybody went to get a photo of themselves screaming in total fear when the cars went airborne. Tony said "Lupe, I didn't think you could open your mouth and eyes that wide all at the same time." "Daddy, I've never ridden on a rollercoaster before. And I'll never ride one again."

"Mommy that was fun, can we go again? Huh, mom. Can we go again." asked Nellie. "Maybe tomorrow, baby." Sophia was walking next to Travis and said "I didn't know White boys could turn that white, Travis." And she laughed. "What?... that's my normal color." "When we hit the air, you turned whiter than a sheet of paper." "Well that didn't stop you from holding on to my arm so tight my circulation was cut off." "That's because I think you're cute, Travis." "Yeah, riiight. Aaaa... wha'd you say?" "Nothing."

Immediately after the ride, Mark couldn't hold it. He went over to some plants and lost his lunch. Sergey walked over and put his arm around him and in a consoling voice "They need to make sure the ride comes equipped with barf bags. Are you ok, man." "I'm ok. I think it was all that gefilte fish. It was so good going down." "How does it taste now, bud?" "A little acidy. Got some mouthwash?"

The guys decided to sit out a few while the ladies took the kids on some more crazy rides. Bubba said "Mark, you know what makes you feel better after tossing your cookies. A Tecate with some lime and salt, buddy. Here, let me get you one. Waiter..." Sergey said "That's right Mark. It actually won't make you feel any better, but you won't care." So they ordered a round.

Larry lifted his bottle. "To life and the fun it brings." They clanked drinks and took a long swig. "Aaaah, now that's good beer." "Bubba, I overheard you talking about how farming is changing across America." "It's changing in this sense... It's becoming more balanced. For instance the largest pig slaughterhouse in the world was operated by the Smithfield Packing Company in Tar Heel, North Carolina. It was owned by China. They killed and butchered over 32,000 pigs a day. The company was completely profit oriented and didn't care about hurting the animals or the employees. They dropped groups of pigs onto a platform. Then walls came together and compressed and killed the pigs. Then they were hung upside down on hooks and disemboweled even if they were still alive. And about one out of 30 pigs were dead when they arrived at the docks and they were still processed anyway not knowing if they were diseased. Smithfield liked to hire illegal aliens because they could pay them less money, work them longer hours, and treat them like crap. This was the universal mindset the owners of all large multi-national food processors. All that has changed, and the people who managed these companies are gone. And, there's no more foreign ownership of any kind in the US. Now the farmers in America take care of the entire food process. From planting and raising to harvesting and slaughtering to packaging and wholesaling, it's the farmer or farmers via co-ops who do all the work. And it's all kept local. Instead of only a few mammoth sized animal processing plants in the US, there are processing plants outside every city run by local farmers. This is true with dairies, too. All farmers in the US are required to diversify their products. I remember years ago driving through the Midwest, I never saw a vegetable farm. Only grain crops. But that's changed now."

Larry said "A few weeks ago I flew into a little farming community in Nebraska called Minden. I was looking for some Rye grain. It's the middle of the growing season so I had to find a farmer who had some of last year's harvest put away. He met me at the landing strip. It was around noon so we went to get some lunch at the local restaurant called Barneys. The food was prepared by this older woman the customers called mom. Before I went inside I looked around the back. There were several fields of grass and vegetables. Behind the building were large pens with pigs, cows, chicken coups, and goats. The owner told me that was his food pantry. The bacon and fresh ham I was eating came from a pig he had just butchered that morning. He said he picked up the eggs I was eating just before we came in, and the eggs came from chickens that forage on dried cow poop. Then he looked to see if I would continue eating. I did and they were delicious. Free range organic and cooked perfectly. The farmer I was with said they didn't get many pencil neck city folk around there. So they wanted to see if they could have a little fun with me. After lunch, we filled some fifty pound sacks with rye grain. Dale the farmer said he'd be glad to supply the museum with all the grain, vegetables, chicken, and beef he could produce. We drove back to the airstrip and he helped me load the plane. Then I took him up so he could show me the local farms. He knew everybody and exactly how much land they had. The diversity of crops and farm animals was excellent. You're right, Bubba. They've all moved away from monoculture and back to agriculture."

Larry asked "Hey Tony, what type of work do you do?" "Construction. When I was a kid, I used to help my dad do "frame up" and "rough in" on homes. We also poured foundations and did a little masonry and stucco. The bottom fell out of construction. My dad moved back to Mexico and I got a job as an assembly line worker at a manufacturing plant. Then they moved all production to China. I lost my job and eventually ran out of money. My wife left me. And social services took my daughter because we were homeless and I couldn't support her. Lupe probably told you about that." "Yes, she did." Tony continued "After the Big Change I got back into construction. There's a high demand for homes and remodeling now. Many people who were desk jockeys before the Big Change moved into construction work. A couple years ago a lot of these people were getting hurt on jobs. So I've been spending most of my time teaching the newbies how to work within their physical capabilities and to follow all the OSHA rules and regulations." Sergey said "I knew transitioning to different jobs would pose problems, but I didn't think how potentially dangerous it could be." Bubba said "Yeah, you have a guy who grows up in a big city, goes to college, gets a degree in history and works at a desk for ten years. Then he signs up to build homes and you know there's going to be problems." Tony said "You'd be surprised. Most of these desk jockeys are pretty bright. The biggest problem is getting them used to being outside in the sun and drinking enough water and not overdoing it physically. When a person is having a heat stroke, they don't realize it. In fact the worse they get the better they feel."

Mark said "I'm thinking about building an earthen home. Do you know much about them?" Tony said "Many people go to earthen to get closer to nature and cut energy costs. I personally don't like having dirt next to walls because you have to put in a moisture barrier otherwise you'll get mold, rot, and cracks from water damage. Sometimes the barriers don't hold up."

Tony continued "Mark, right now I'm building a home out of tilt-up concrete. The outside walls and roof are a composite. I put three inches of Styrofoam between three inches of concrete on both sides. The concrete has epoxy to make it lighter and more resilient. The windows are three pane, gas filled, and aluminum framed. In fact the house would be completely air tight which is bad since the air would get stale. So we put in long finned air coils that stretch across the length of the home's interior so the outside air becomes the interior ambient temperature before it enters the rooms." Mark said "I imagine a home like this would last forever." Tony said "Probably, but the fun thing is the concrete forms we're using. The outside looks like the house is a 100 year old adobe structure. And the R value is just as high as three foot wide adobe walls. So I'm going to have a house made of sand, cement, and polymer. The most plentiful materials you can imagine. And it looks and feels like a home my great grandparents would have lived in." Mark said "That's pretty cool."

Sergey said "Mark, I heard you have a special car." "Yeah, it's custom made from scratch." "Well, what is it?" asked Bubba. Mark said "You know one night I was watching some old music videos that you dinosaurs used to like. One particular vid by ZZ Top caught my attention. "Well, go on." "It's called Gimme all your lovin. The star of the vid was a 33' ford coupe. That was a nice car." Larry said "Let's see, I was probably 10 when that vid came out. I understand why you liked the car. What about the tall skinny girls?" "They were smooth," sighed Mark. "So you have a deuce coupe now?" asked Sergey. "It's a 1933 ford coupe. And yes, I bought a fiberglass body and had a shop in LA build the bottom frame and they put in a 427 with a turbocharger. We put it on a dyno and it... "Put it on a what?" interrupted Larry. "They put the back wheels on a dynamometer. It measures horsepower. Or in your case dinosaur power may be a more appropriate and relatable term." "Funny, Mark." "Anyway, the engine turns 1400 horsepower and redlines at 7,500 rpm. The rear end has a 411 with Detroit lockers. And, the tranny is a heavy duty short throw seven speed manual with the last two gears being overdrive. I never learned how to use a stick, so it took me a month of practice to get it down." "Did you paint it red and put Zs on the sides." asked Bubba. "Do dinosaurs lay eggs? It's the coolest ride I've ever had. Ten years ago I had a Rolls, then I got a Lamborghini, then I got a Bugatti Veyron. For the money that car was a rip off. Then I started thinking "Simplify, Clarify, and Economize." Sergey said "Sort of like the movie called the first 20 million?" "Exactly." Tony said "I remember that movie. I liked the fat guy genius." "Me too. Anyway, I started driving simpler cars. Then this year I reached the pinnacle. My 33 coupe has no upholstery, no radio, no a/c. It's nothing but a cage with four wheels a seat and an engine. And then it came to me." Sergey said "Don't tell me it was your Muse for creating the instantaneous universal voice and text translator?" "Exactly. Everybody tried to make translating language something difficult but then I got my team to pull all the crap out and focus only on the simplest no frills solution. And there it was. Simplify, Clarify, and Economize." Larry said "However the heck you did it Mark it's one hell of a translator." "Thanks, man. That means a lot. I'm starting to feel no pain. How about another round? Oh, and by the way, I believe that's how our lives should be. All the gadgets and fancy things people aspire to have and all the games of one upsmanship people play just cloud the real meaning of life, the core......" Bubba said "Well, Mark, you got us hooked, don't just sit there, reel us in and tell us what you think it is." Mark smiled and said "It's sitting down with good people, drinking beer, and shootin the bull." Tony said "Damn right. Let's get you another beer. Waiter...."

Larry said "Hey Mark, I've got a person you could put on one of your teams." "Oh? Does he use a cane like you?" "Thanks a lot, Mark. I'm only 44. Let's don't rush things. And to answer your question... no. The he is a she and she's 13 years old. She's Tony's daughter." Mark said "This Tony?" Larry said "Yep." Mark said "How long have you known her? What's her name again?" "Lupe. And I've only known her since lunch today." Mark said "You applied your instant heuristic appraisal process, didn't you." "Call it what you like. Bottom line, she's a diamond that just fell in my lap." "So why don't you have her work for you?" "I heard you have a team working on space travel, right?" "Elon Musk came to me with the problem of the human body not tolerating extreme acceleration to reach speeds necessary for long distance space travel. And even at 186,000 miles per second it would still take hundreds of years to reach a desired destination. That would mean we'd have to get into cryogenics and other complicated crap. He suggested we pool our resources and figure out how to put tiny rips in space and maybe time." "Right. Wormholes. It's all been theoretical but now I hear you guys are performing some experiments. And this is where Lupe can help you. She is the truest divergent I've come across in years. She's just exploding with intuitive creativity. You know, in fact all of you know we humans are the most creative from about age 11 to 20. Right? The most powerful force made available to humankind is imagination. That starts at birth. Then mix in some knowledge of our reality we pick up along the way. Now you've got a ten or eleven year old who believes anything is possible. Mark, you wrote most of your Facebook code when you were still a teenager. All I'm saying is Lupe is now in the sweet zone for divergents, and if you bring her up to speed on everything you've done so far I know she will show you things you've never even dreamed of." "Ok, let's do it."

"Hey hey guys, that's my daughter you're talking about. I'm not sure if that would be the right thing for HER at this point in her life. You know?" Larry looked at Tony and suggested "Lupe is enjoying being a teen. None of that would change. She would be with Mark's group only a few hours a day. That's all she would need. After listening to Lupe talk at the seminar I can see she's hungry for this kind of stuff. You've been through a lot, Tony. Being homeless and having your child taken from you was a horrible crime committed against the two of you by our old screwed up society. But that's all changed now. Instead of pushing you down into a hole, we the People lifted you guys out so you could have a good life. But part of having our children be happy is allowing them to discover what they love, then turning them loose with the necessary tools so they can be fulfilled and transcend into something greater than themselves. I could see it in her eyes as she was talking to me. She's thirsty for knowledge to fill in the spaces of her imagination. I'm sure you've seen that in her too, Tony."

Tony admitted "Actually I have. She's always asking questions about everything. I thought it was just a kid thing. But some of the questions were way over my head. I just don't want to lose her again. Mark, if she worked with you, I would have to be close by." Mark assured him "I wouldn't have it any other way, Tony. If it would be ok, we would have you involved with construction work at the facility where Lupe would be working. Would that be ok?" "Lupe and I need to talk about this tonight. I need to see what she really wants. I don't want to get in the way of her happiness. I just need to be sure if this would make her happy." Bubba affirmed "I couldn't have said it better myself, Tony. Hey look, the ladies are coming back."

Hanna walked up and asked "How are you doing, babe" as she pulled up a chair, sat down and put her arm around him. Mark said, "I've had two Tecates and life is good. How about you?" "We did the tilt-a-whirl, the swinging pirate ship, the spinning tea cups, and the bumper cars. During the bumper cars, Connie and Lupe ganged up on me. They were knocking me around the floor and shoved me in a corner. Then I decided to open a can of whoop ass on 'em." Mark said "Sounds like you, Lupe and Connie have quickly become butt kicking kindred spirits." Connie walked over and told Mark "Your girlfriend is lots of fun. Why don't you just stay here and we'll go on some more rides with her." Hanna said "Let's sit down and take a short break before we go have some more fun." Lupe said "Don't get down, girl. Get up offa that thing." Connie turned on her palm sized mp4 holographic projection player and set it on the table. Then Connie and Lupe stepped back and started get'n down dancing like James Brown, and sing'n "Get up offa that thing, and dance till you feel better. Get up offa that thing, try to release that pressure. Get up offa that thing, and twist till you feel better. Get up offa that thing, Hanna, and dance till you feel better." Then a Bruno Mars video came on. Lupe pulled Hanna up and she joined in. The people around started clapping along with the music. After the song ended Connie and Lupe said "Way to go Hanna, you really get down." "Where d'you pick up those moves?" "I've danced since I was a kid. When I graduated high school this year, a Broadway show picked me up. Now I'm the lead dancer." Lupe said "High school? High school?! That means you're old enough to be my sister, and Mark's old enough to be your father. Hahahahaha." "Hey, I'm only 33!" "That's ok, Mark," said Bubba, "You're only as old as you feel." "Then Connie chimed in "Or who you feel. Hahahaha." Norma said "Calma te. No eres payasa (you're not a clown), Canija. Don't talk like that." "Ok, mom."

The young ones sat down at a table next to the grownups and started pretending they had too many beers. Norma saw them out of the corner of her eye. "Ok kids, I can see you have too much energy to sit still. Let's hit some more rides. Who else wants to come along?" Hanna, Laurie, and Tony volunteered and away they went. Norma turned to the guys staying and said we'll be back in an hour to pick you up.

Mark said "Wow, she talks just like my mother. Are you sure she's not Jewish?" Larry smiled "Yeah, she's great isn't she." Mark said "Let's see, a strong person with a moral compass. Sounds like we're talking about you Larry. Good god. Bore me to death, man." "Well I like her, so eat sh-t Zuckerberg." They laughed. Mark said "That precocious little Lupe did her math instantly. You may be right about her, Larry."

Bubba noticed Sergey was in excellent physical condition. "Sergey, where do you work out, bud? You got muscles on muscles, man." "I have a problem with Parkinson's disease in my family. There's a chance I'll contract it when I'm older. Maybe staying fit will reduce that probability. About four years ago my doctor said my blood pressure was too high and I needed to lose some weight or I wouldn't be seeing him for my next annual. Didn't need to tell me twice. I put in a gym at my home and hired a personal trainer and a cook to prepare low calorie meals." Bubba said "Must be nice to afford those things." "But all that money spent didn't work. A friend of mine who was already in great physical condition asked me to come work out with him at Gold's Gym. I went the next day and every third day since. This is the result four years later." "So what made the difference?" "I was around people who were committed to being healthy and strong. Peer pressure and camaraderie. The best solutions are often the simplest and least expensive, Bubba." Sergey looked at Bubba "Some people are lucky and are huge giants like yourself." Bubba said "I have to work out every day so this body won't get fat. Because of the unhealthy food before the Big Change it seemed everybody was overweight. My dad used to say we went from beautifully healthy to pleasingly plump, and then to ferociously fat in less than fifty years. And just before the BC there were thousands of beached whale sightings all over the US. Sergey... beached whales run in my family." They laughed.

So after an hour of kicking back and enjoying peace in a storm of little munchkins having fun, Norma came back with the wild bunch. "Ok, guys its 8:00. Mark... Hanna needs you to put your arm around her. Bubba, we need your huge body to clear a path for us. Sergey and Larry, let's go." Mark put his numb arm around Norma, smiled and said "Ok, mom."

Laurie, Norma, and Hanna convinced the gang to sit 45 minutes through a musical about the Big Change. Norma said she liked the part where the President tried to enforce martial law and the army told him no. Lupe said she liked it when the locations of the homes of all the Congressmen were identified by Anonymous on phone apps, and the People started taking the families and burning their houses down. Larry said "When it became obvious that the People were taking over, the Supreme Court, to save their skin, held Congress and the President in contempt. Then they authorized an immediate vote to decide if the country wanted to be a direct democracy." Norma said "That's when you stepped forward along with Sergey and Mark and the rest of you guys to give the People the ability to use their phone and computers to vote." Larry said "People like Larry Ellison were also cajoled into it. But to a lesser degree." Mark said, "The kings didn't like abdicating their thrones to the People." "They weren't that bad." said Sergey.

Norma stepped up on a 2 foot retaining wall and faced the group. "There's going to be some music and dancing at the other end of the park. It starts in few minutes. This is one of the stops for the "freedom train" that'll take us there. You guys up for some music and dancing? "What kind of music?" asked Bubba. Norma said "The brochure says every thirty minutes there will be something different. There's hip hop, Latin, rock, and country. It says first up is some hip hop street dancing which I'm sure the kids and Hanna will love. Then some Latin music with Los Lobos. Then Billie Eilish. Then Ed Sheeran. Then Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes. And last but not least was Pharrell Williams.

Mark yelled "Let's do it." In less than five minutes they were all aboard the freedom train. It's powered by a steam engine that uses coal to heat water. The exhaust from the burning coal is sprayed to retrieve all the particulates and the remainder is run through a special converter to turn the rest into harmless water vapor.

Each car carries about 40 people and has a karaoke machine. Sophia spotted it, ran over and flipped it on to The Hokey Pokey. She, Connie, Nellie, Lupe, and Hanna danced in place as they sang. Everybody in the car applauded. (Larry LaPrise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey", died peacefully at age 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his right foot in... and that's when the trouble started.)

Trouble

It was nine o'clock and the crowd was huge. For the kids' safety the group decided to stick together. The area had a large stage and immediately in front was a 300' by 600' floor with speakers all along the way. Most of the dancing was happening at the opposite end from the singers. Norma moved the group to the dance area. The hip hop songs were just finishing up and the latin dance was beginning.

Norma grew up in a very rough neighborhood. She learned the hard way to constantly be aware of her environment. Without realizing it, she quickly surveyed people's eyes, facial expressions, and body movements. After seeing those around her, she felt uncomfortable. With a commanding voice she told Connie, Sophia, and Nellie to stick close by. Laurie said Travis wanted to dance with Sophia, so she would watch the kids while she was dancing with Bubba whose son Austin was dancing with Lupe. Sergey and Tony were very good dancers, so they were showing little Nellie some new dance steps. Norma briefly mentioned her safety concerns to the men in the group. They agreed to be careful.

Norma thought, finally I get to dance with this man. He's a little older but he's been nothing but good to me today. Latin dance music was playing. Norma took Larry's hand and started showing him some steps to the bachata and the cumbia. Los Lobos began playing Cumbia Raza. Larry was thinking he hadn't had this much fun in years as he was getting the hang of the steps and the rhythm and Norma's mesmerizing smile. Connie dancing next to Lupe tapped her on the shoulder. "Mira (Look). Es la Virgen de Guadalupe (it's the Virgin Mary) picture above the band. That's a sign of good luck. She's watching over you." Lupe smiled and nodded as she was moving to the music.

Someone bumped into the back of Larry. He turned and saw this huge bearded angry looking guy yelling at him. The guy with a hard accent said "Watch it stupid, you kicked my leg." He immediately pulled Larry's arm to get him off balance to put his weight on his right leg. He did a judo leg sweep on that leg and threw him down to the floor. Then he proceeded to kick the crap out of him.

Larry immediately struggled to stand when another guy grabbed him from behind, stood him up, one arm was around his chest and his other hand was holding Larry's head back exposing his neck. The first guy had already pulled out a long curved ceramic knife and was moving to slash Larry's throat as he shouted "Allahu Akbar." Norma screamed "Not to Larry, you jerk!" In an instant she kicked him square in his tenderloin. He doubled over and fell to the floor. Then moving as swiftly and fiercely as a tiger, she spun around at lightning speed, swinging her right leg horizontally, kicking the guy holding Larry in the ribs. He grimaced in extreme pain letting go and in a flash Norma jumped on him, face to face locking her legs around his waist. Holding the back of his head with the inside of her elbow, she instantly thrust her long sharp right thumbnail straight into his left eye tearing it to shreds. As he was wailing in pain and stumbling to the floor she jumped off like a cat on all fours. Crouching low she saw the other guy trying to get up. She sprang over to him, kicking him extremely hard in the head, knocking him out. Then she started kicking his face as hard as she could screaming die! you motherf--ker, die!, die!..."

At the same time Larry was attacked, a guy grabbed Mark from behind and was pulling his head back to slash his throat. Bubba, standing next to Mark, yelled "I don't think so!" He grabbed the assailant's wrist so hard he screamed and released the knife. Then he picked him up over his head and slammed him head first into the floor crushing his skull. Bubba was world wrestler huge.

Sergey was staring at Bubba when a terrorist grabbed him from behind. Very muscular Tony, standing next to Sergey, had won the state of New Mexico golden gloves boxing title, so he knew the vulnerable points on a man's head. He made a solid fist and punched him as hard and with as much follow through as he possibly could on his left temple knocking him out cold.

Then out of the middle of nowhere there were four security women around Larry. One was holding the screaming banshee version of Norma so she wouldn't kill the attackers. Two were picking the knife and the mangled men off the floor and one was seeing if Larry was ok. Within seconds four security women also came up to Sergey and Mark. In less than two minutes, twenty security people were protecting Larry's group of 14. The lead agent said "We need to get out of here NOW." A secret service agent was running alongside each of the kids. Nellie was too small, so a very large agent scooped her up and ran with her in his arms. Norma yelled "My children!" Larry said "Don't worry, Norma, I've had the best people in the business protecting your kids since lunch." Norma instantly thought to herself "My butt you have." Larry said "See, they're right behind us. We've got to move. Hurry!" In another two minutes 10 more agents were with the group. They were holding up ballistic blankets to protect them as they ran through the building and into hard cars waiting outside.

In the distance they heard machine guns. A Blackhawk hovering over their vehicles was returning fire. Norma heard swish swish swish...... boom boom boom. And again... swish swish swish...... boom boom boom. The enemy fire fell silent. Then mortars started to hit the parking lot close to the buildings. Larry talked to the man in the front seat on the passenger side. "Light up the entire site including 1000 feet beyond the perimeter. I want to see who in the hell is ruining my evening." The man said "I'm sorry sir but we can't do that. In a few minutes forty stealth Blackhawks will be establishing a perimeter around the museum." He continued "As you can see we shut down all exterior lighting. Right now the PA system inside all the buildings is telling the patrons to sit still because the inside lights are being turned off. The only people moving will be the perpetrators wearing night vision. Infrared lighting is painting the entire interior of the museum and the thousands of pinhole cameras you had installed will instantly detect any movement."

The guy in the front seat turned to Larry. "Sir, the area outside the wire is deemed unsafe for now. As you can hear, we have a C-130 Gunship two clicks from here taking out a group firing mortars from a trench, and we see some odd pedestrian movement outside the wire. We have to take you to a bunker, sir. We're locking down the museum all the way to the perimeter fencing." Larry said "Take us to bunker C. It's the closest." "Yes sir."

The six hard cars escorted by two Humvees with turret mounted 50 cal. machine guns drove a short distance to a spot where a section of the pavement was raising up just high enough to allow the vehicles to go down a ramp. The bunker was 30 feet down and protected by 10 feet of reinforced concrete. As the lights were being flipped on Larry turned to Norma. "We should be safe here until they figure out what's going on. And thank you for saving my life." Norma jumped out of the suburban and ran over to her kids. "Connie, Sophia, Nellie. Are you ok? Thank God." She then turned to Larry. "You keep us safe Larry, or I swear to God I'll wring your neck." "Don't worry, Norma. You'll be ok; we all know that the Big Change comes with a price. There are outside influences that are hell bent on destroying all we've done. And they think that blowing up this facility would deliver one hell of a message. But in reality all it would do is stir up the People like a nest of hornets and then all Hell would break loose. I'm sorry all of you were involved in this. But we couldn't just leave you there. You were too vulnerable." Norma looked at Larry and began crying while she clutched him tightly. "My God, this is serious shit, Larry......... Thank you. It seems like that's all I've been doing is thanking you." Larry smiled and said "You saved my life, Norma. Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

Sergey and Mark came up to Larry "I think our friends botched their plan to take us out. They were concentrating on security but ignored the people we had lunch with." Larry said "Thank God." Mark said "We're going to have to get our teams together and make this facility completely safe. Even if that includes eliminating all threats twenty miles in every direction from here. Sergey said "Look, the biggest threat is surprise from the air. We all know that. It's time we exclusively dedicate a low earth orbit stationary satellite directly over this museum......."

While the guys were talking, Norma was trying to compose herself. She walked over to what looked like the leader of the military group that evacuated them. She said "Who are you guys, and how come I didn't see you guarding us this afternoon." The man said "Ma'am, my name is Cletus Jackson and my group is one of several around the country that protect the Pioneers." Norma paused for a second, "......Right. I get it. ......The most important people aren't the President and Congress anymore. They're gone. Thank God for that. ......But the most valuable commodity is now the people who helped make this happen... The Pioneers." "That's right, ma'am. They're called that in the Recognition building. The Pioneers are pushing like crazy to spread their knowledge and abilities to as many people as possible in case...... well in case...... you know..." Norma said "After what just happened, I really know...... It got way too damned up close and personal." She stared him straight in his eyes. "And I think you really need to work on speeding up your response time." Cletus admitted "You're right about that. Thank goodness you three were there. Where'd you learn how to fight like that?" Norma said "I had the required police training right after the Big Change. They nicknamed me "Switchblade" because I keep my thumbnails long and sharp. And me and my crew took care of our own just fine in high school. No what I mean." "I hear ya, momma." as Cletus was laughing. Norma came up close and whispered "Don't snitch bout me being in a gang." Cletus winked and went back to business.

Cletus called everybody together, introduced himself and said "The entire museum is on lockdown tonight. We'll have soldiers canvasing every square inch of the grounds and buildings for chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Sorry for the inconvenience, there's bunks, pillows, sheets, blankets, snacks and water. It looks like we'll be spending the night here. The entire group thanked Cletus.

After Norma cleaned the messy blood off her arms, hands, legs, dress, and shoes, she finally sat down in a big comfy chair. "What a day," she thought, "What... a... day......." Nellie saw her mom staring blankly into space. Concerned, she ran over, climbed up on her lap and gently hugged her. She lovingly laid her head on Norma's shoulder and softly said "Mom, you're my hero......... I'm glad tonight's over with. I was getting sleepy anyway. Can we go to bed now?" As tears filled Norma's eyes, she hugged her little munchkin. "Sure, let's try to get a good night's rest." They quietly went to bed. The precious kids were knocked out all night long sleeping like little logs. Not so easy for Norma. It was hard to sleep over the sound of her thoughts.

Cletus switched on the bunker parking area lights at 6:00am. Per Larry's request, several hard cars went out for twenty minutes, then came back with breakfast for all. The waitress named Jenny was the first to step out of the chow wagon. She was directing the agents where to put the boxes on the tables. She set it up DFAC or military cafeteria style. Just before the Big Change, Jenny served a tour of duty as a Marine in Afghanistan. Her dream after she got back was to work at the Museum, the greatest symbol of Patriotism and Country. But this morning she was very quiet and very serious.

The girls slept in one section and the guys in another. The men were the first to muster. The secret service agents had already gone to the Bed & Breakfasts and brought back everybody's suitcases. The female soldiers and female secret service agents quietly got up at 0530 and were dressed and out working at 0600. Norma was the first of the civilians to stir in the girls section. Nellie was lying next to her. In a low voice Norma said "Connie, Sophia, Nellie, it's time to wake up." At first they were making little noises, then came the I don't want to get ups. And finally they had to go to the bathroom, so Norma handed them each a change of clothes from the luggage she found, and a clean towel, a bar of soap, and some shampoo to take a shower with. It was about 8:10 when Hanna, Norma, Laurie, Lupe, Connie, Sophia, and Nellie finally sauntered through the door to eat some breakfast.

Jenny said "We were starting to wonder how much beauty sleep you girls needed." as they were all moving slowly. "Ok, everybody else has already eaten. But don't worry we have plenty for you guys." They formed two lines. At the beginning of each line was a big griddle where an employee from the Freedom Train restaurant was standing ready to cook an egg white omelet, bacon, ham, or pancakes. A few steps over was the oatmeal and cream of wheat. After that was a selection of sliced watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple along with fresh strawberries and blueberries. At the end of each line was water, cold chocolate milk, coffee and iced tea. As expected the kids just wanted pancakes with strawberries and cream on top and blueberry syrup with crispy bacon. Hanna had the "red, white, and blue" pancakes and bacon. Austin was sitting next to Lupe having seconds of the crispy bacon and drinking an orange juice.

As Norma was slowly eating her Spanish omelet with a cup of hot coffee she noticed Larry and all the agents and soldiers were at the other end of the bunker speaking in muffled tones. She got Larry's attention and waved him over. She asked "What's up?" Larry moved Norma to a table away from the kids. "We've got a problem. I wanted you to have a good night's rest and a nice breakfast, so I didn't tell you that the military spotted the terrorists about thirty minutes after we entered the bunker. They were all taken out, but one of them was able to release a nerve gas canister in the amusement park area. Fifteen hundred people were murdered. Larry said "We were lucky. Only one canister was released. The others malfunctioned. And luckily, we anticipated this as a possibility when we made the building. We installed super high velocity exhaust fans in the ceilings and fresh air ports were installed all along the bottom sides. But it wasn't enough for those 1,500 people who died." Norma's eyes teared up. Larry continued "Last night they located a small nuclear device near the capitol building and disarmed it. This morning at 7:30am, nerve gas was released in the New York City subway system. Thousands are probably dead. Fifteen minutes ago a small suitcase bomb, a nuclear device, was detonated in downtown Chicago. Our satellites estimate at least 50,000 people are dead or dying. And God only knows what's next. When you're finished eating, I'd like to move all of us over to the "Situation" area in the Humanity building.

Norma immediately got up and walked over to the kids. "We need to move to the Humanity building as soon as possible, so finish up and make sure you drink all your milk, OK?" As Norma walked away the kids looked at each other. Austin said "What do you think's the matter?" Lupe sitting next to him said "Some really nasty shit's going down. I could tell by looking at Larry's face." Connie looked at Sophia and Nellie. "Let's book this place. There's more important stuff going on." The kids got up and chucked the remainder of their food in the garbage can and took their drinks with them.

By then everybody was standing next to the vehicles. Cletus, in a sullen voice said, "Let's roll." As they were leaving the bunker Larry told Norma this was a unified act of terrorism by men from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Because every nuclear device leaves a signature of their origin, it only took a few minutes for our military to determine the nuclear bomb came from Iran. Norma said with extreme anger "Islam. Submission. Damn those men. We don't submit to anybody." Larry said "Your words may be closer to the truth than you think, Norma."

As the hard cars were moving across the parking lot they saw military vehicles and soldiers everywhere. They saw a very large tent with a sign hanging near the opening that said "Triage". There was another tent that said "Morgue". The area was organized chaos with people and emergency vehicles constantly moving. Norma had her girls with her. She told them to look down as she saw scores of families screaming and crying as they were holding their dead loved ones. The group pulled up to the Humanity building and the agents quickly escorted them to the Situation Area. Sergey was talking to Larry and Mark. "The People have control now." Larry looked at him "And that's the way it should be." Mark inserted "Remember, two years ago the People planned and put into place what preliminary actions we would take if something like this ever happened." Sergey and Larry said "We know. We helped them do it." Larry said "It's just so surreal to see it happening in an almost robotic automated fashion."

Larry was speaking of the process occurring as they watched the screens. All communications for the last 12 hours of all Muslims around the world were being scanned and interpreted with summary results constantly being posted on every US voting citizen's computer and cell phone. A predetermined series of questions and responses were occurring based on what their replies were. The communications were being made to every Muslim on earth.

The overwhelming responses from the Islamic people were "death to the infidels" and other similar phrases. 85% of Egyptians, 90% of Iranians, 95% of Saudi Arabians, 80% of Iraqis, 70% of Kuwaitis, and similar high percentages from Muslim peoples elsewhere on earth were applauding the deaths of Americans.

For several years the People of the United States have been bending over backwards trying to establish friendship ties with the Muslim world but to no avail. The Imams and Mullahs had continually succeeded in convincing their followers that the "west" was evil and of the devil. Like with their hate of Israel, a substantial amount of Muslims wanted all US citizens dead. The hate really grew and festered after the Big Change when the People seized property from American Muslims with wealth over $50 million and from foreign Muslims with ownership of US real estate, stocks, and other property. At that point in time their ownership represented 20% or more of America. Some of their holdings where they had significant ownership included Lockheed Martin, Berkshire Hathaway, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany's, Carvel Ice Cream, Gucci, Color Tile, AT&T, Chrysler, Dow Chemicals, Atlantic Richfield, Santa Fe International, Citibank, Texaco refineries, gas stations in 33 states, United Press International, AOL, Chase Manhattan, Compaq, First Chicago Corp. JP Morgan, Peterbilt Trucks, Transamerica, Church's Chicken, Fox News, and hundreds more like the Beverly Hills Hotel. Their shadow holdings of real estate and corporations were shocking once the People found out.

As they were watching the screen in the situation area, a barrage of votes started pouring in from across America. The voting base was at 177 million people. The final questions requiring a super majority vote (66% of voters) given this potential scenario that turned actual was... if, who, where, when, and how to protect ourselves from the enemy. With 170 million people voting, it was decided by 160 million to completely blanket bomb Iran with nuclear weapons. To turn Iran into glass. The when was immediately.

Larry looked at the screen and then quietly said to himself, "It's done. The people of Iran don't exist anymore." The People then decided any Islamic country where over 70% wanted the US destroyed will also be bombed. The remaining Muslim countries, except for places like open minded and multi-faith embracing Morocco and the Kurdish/Yadizi region of northern Iraq and the Kurdish area of Turkey and the country of Bosnia, will have cruise missiles and drones deployed to destroy every masque and every Muslim cleric. The order was effective immediately. Then the People sent a request to the people in every country on earth to please banish or execute all Muslims clerics that are hell bent on destroying the rest of us. A list of these people with their physical and GPS address was sent to every country. God bless the worldwide NSA spying infrastructure set up years ago.

The people of Russia, South America, the Northern Atlantic region, and North America already had agreements to supply the rest of the World with oil in case this scenario occurred.

Larry and the group stayed in the Situation Area from morning through late evening. At 1950 hours, Larry turned to the group and said "From this point forward, let's hope there won't be any chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear problems." He continued, "It appears that almost all of the enemies on our streets have been taken out." Larry looked around the room and saw everyone was tired. He stood on a chair and said "Please pray for those who died from the terrorist attacks...... We've had an uncountable number of heroes who took to the streets to kill these demons. And many of them died. Please pray for them and for those few who are still fighting! ......and thank God we have an armed America!...... It's done... Let's go home. Go home and be with your families."

PAUSE... Take a break...... Maybe get a snack or something to drink...... ......Are you ready?

(If this is a PDF file it means you have it up on a laptop or desktop, and that means you can simultaneously play music while reading this story. Just for fun, YT search and play the song "Green Eyes" by Edmundo Ros while you slowly read the following paragraph. YouTube has been deleting this song and/or the album. Then someone will put it back up again. Lol. I like to listen to it while she's dreaming. The instrumental is better than the vocal version.)

A year has passed since the attack...... Norma was moving in a playful passionate rhythm during a deep beautiful dream...... She was smiling at Larry through her captivating green eyes, holding him as they glided across the dance floor in tender loving movements...... The floor was packed as the orchestra played but Norma didn't see anybody but her man... As they danced, Larry was completely consumed by her enchanting smile and fragrant intoxicating touch. Together they came closer, their lips met... She smiled and pulled him tightly against her. The sound of the music evaporated while the throbbing rhythm still remained as warm inviting pressing lips brought their bodies and spirits together as one in the ecstasy of the moment. It was so real ... so wonderful.... She wished this moment would last forever...........

The alarm went off next to Norma's bed. Ringggggggggg. "Dammit!....... I hate that clock............. Connie, Sophia, Nellie wake up. Hurry. Get dressed. Today's the day." Nellie was the first to jump out of bed. "Finally I get to ride the roller coaster again like mom promised." Connie and Sophia begged "I don't wanna get up. Just a few more minutes. Ok?" Norma walked over their bedrooms, pulled the covers down and said "Not today, girls. Today is very important. You've got 30 minutes to get cleaned up and dressed. You packed your suitcases, right?" "Yes, mom." "They'll be here soon to pick us up." At 7:30 a silver unmarked Chrysler minivan with dark tinted windows pulled into the driveway. A casually dressed agent walked to the door and rang the bell. Norma answered. The man said "Ms. Corona." "Yes." "My name's Gerry. It's an honor to meet you, ma'am. We'll be waiting in the vehicle." "Thank you." Moving quickly past Norma were the girls running by wearing brightly colored summer outfits including scarves around their necks. Norma said "Wow, girls. You're really anxious to hit the slides, aren't you?" Standing at the open van door Sophia yelled "Hurry mom, we're burning daylight." The agents were laughing as Norma got in. She handed them the house keys and the garage door opener. They're staying at her home until Norma and her children return. "I made sure you guys have lots of food and plenty to drink. Please don't break anything, and be sure to clean up behind yourselves. Ok?" "Yes Ma'am." They drove to a distant corner of a large parking lot about a mile away. Sitting on the pavement was a fully armed Blackhawk waiting for its precious cargo. The lighthearted co-pilot standing next to the bird said "You ordered a taxi, ma'am?" Norma chuckled "I like your Uber." She turned back as Connie was running past jumping in first. She leaned over to the pilot "Can I help you fly it? I'm a quick study." "Maybe next time. Put your suitcases in the back and buckle up. And after we close the doors, you can take the scarves off your faces. Nobody can see inside the chopper." After everybody was settled in, the co-pilot checked the seatbelts. "You guys ready to have some fun?" The three girls yelled out, "You bet!" "Of course!" "Let's do it!" "Ok, let's put on some flying music and hit the skies, ladies." As the chopper slowly rose, a few people on the ground were watching and waving. Larry sent the Blackhawk as a security measure. Since Norma was seeing him, she was vulnerable. So he moved her to another address and another job. She and her girls became invisible in every database. He didn't want any bad guys to find out where she lived or worked. As they were coming into the DC area the co-pilot pointed out landmarks in the city. They flew by the Smithsonian. They passed over the Pentagon, then the Capitol building which is now being used as a learning center for special needs children. Then by the White House. The pilot said it was currently undergoing some modifications to house orphaned children looking for stable and caring parents. On their approach to the Bed & Breakfast they saw the mammoth sized Peoples Monument and Museum in the distance. The pilot alerted the automated traffic controller at the B&B. The beacon and glide slope flipped on. And after one wide circle around the B&B, the chopper safely landed.

It was 9:00am when three bouncy excited younglings once again piled out of a vehicle at their favorite Bed and Breakfast. Connie asked "Mom, we want our room to face the waterslides. Think you can swing that?" "Already did, mija." Norma walked up to Jack at the customer service counter. "Hi, my name is Nora Navarro and I have a reservation." "It's ok, Ms. Corona, all the employees here have security clearances from the People's DoD. Your room is ready and these men will help you with your luggage." "Men?" "Yes ma'am. They're here with the People's secret service to follow along in the background during your time in DC." "Don't tell me, Larry, right?" Jack said "Yes ma'am, and he wanted me to give you this."

Norma opened the hand written letter. "Hi, Babe. Cletus wanted to make sure you're safe. I know. You can hold your own just fine. But having them there makes Cletus feel better. Thanks. See you soon. xoxo. Ps, I told Cletus last month that I was checking in that B&B so we could be close. He scoped the place out and discovered it was a popular hangout for congressmen and the president. Years ago the owner put in a secure bunker with automatic ordnance deployment in case of any problems. It looks like you're staying at the safest B&B in DC. So Cletus got others like Edward Snowden, Larry Ellison, and Melinda Gates to stay there too." Norma smiled and breathed a sigh. "Ok guys, let's go. It's room 306." "Yes ma'am. The Agency has checked the premises and did background checks on the entire guest list. You'll be just fine." Norma glanced at one of them. "Of course I will. Connie, Sophia, Nellie. Let's go to our room."

As they were walking, an agent next to Connie looked down. "You don't remember me, do you?" Connie smiled up at him. "Of course I do. You picked Nellie up like a little ragdoll and carried her out of the building that night. How you been? I see you're still huge." She laughed and poked his stomach a few times. "Looks like you better start cuttin back on that fried chicken and enchiladas." He chuckled. "You're probably right. See... I'm the muscle and Frank over here... He's the speed. He tackles 'em and then I sit on 'em." Connie laughed and pointed to her head. "Si, nalgon (literally means large butt, but it refers to a person who moves slowly). Pensando con tu culito gordo, guey (You're thinking with your little fat butt, dude)." Norma overheard. "Connie, no digas cosas como esas. Portate bien, canija." (don't say things like that. Behave, you rascal.) "Ok, mom."

Nellie looked up and smiled at the big agent. "Thank you for saving me." He smiled back. "Since you were the smallest, it made you a perfect target so I personally chose to guard you that night." Nellie said "I've grown a lot in a year, haven't I?" "You sure have Nellie. I don't know if I could pick you up anymore." Nellie had a vexed look on her face. "Mister, you could pick three of me up right now if you wanted to." She beamed and proudly stated "I'm going into fourth grade, so it's a little harder to bullshit me." Connie scolded "Evalina, where did you learn that expression?!" "From you." The big security agent just rolled his eyes.

The elevator opened on the third floor. The crew stepped out and headed to their room. Connie started running and yelled "Hey, girl! What you doing here." She ran up and almost pushed Lupe down hugging her. "We wanted to surprise you. Surpriiiiise!" Connie said "You told me you couldn't make it." "I lied." Tony was standing there too, hugging Norma and her kids. Norma reached over and pinched Tony's cheek. "Que chulo! (Chulo in Mexican slang refers to someone who is cute, hot, good looking etc. It can be used to describe almost anyone and is not related to sexual attraction though it can be.) I didn't think it was possible but you're even more handsome than before, Tony." "Ay, flattery will get you everywhere, chica. You're looking pretty buff yourself, girl." Lupe to Connie. "The surprise isn't over. Guess who checked in yesterday." Connie said "Nooo." Lupe said "Yessss. Austin and Hanna are here. You already knew Travis was coming. Everybody's here! And my buds, Tracy and Molly are here too, so you'll finally get to see them for reals in person. Connie said "Well don't just stand there. Let's get our swimsuits on and do some serious water sliding!"

The girls kept in close contact all year long. And now they're finally together again. The day before, Bubba and Austin drove to Houston then flew out with Laurie and Travis to Dulles airport. Then jumped on a chopper to the bed and breakfast. Tony and Lupe are living just outside of Las Cruces so she can work with Mark and Elon's team at the White Sands Research complex buried beneath the Organ Mountains just northeast of the city. So, Tony, Lupe, Mark, Hanna, Elon, his wife Talulah, and his five boys Damian, Saxon, and Kai (12yr old triplets), and Xavier and Griffin (14yr old twins) took a Boeing 737 escorted by four F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets to Dulles. Lupe works with two extraordinary girls her own age named Tracy and Molly. They with their parents also traveled with the group. From Dulles they choppered out in a CH-47 Chinook escorted by four Apache attack helicopters to the Bed and Breakfast. Because Elon, Mark, Lupe, Tracy, and Molly were travelling together it was mandatory they be under heavy protection because the human cargo was way too precious.

It was 10:00am on a beautiful Saturday morning. 'How Deep Is Your Love' by the Bee Gees was softly playing in the background. There was a warm gentle summer breeze blowing in from the south. Norma was lying on a chase lounge next to a crystal blue swimming pool. She was wearing a cute brightly colored bikini that accentuated her toned petite body, all wrapped in flawless caramel colored skin. She was sporting a big white floppy hat and enjoying a book while her munchkins were having the time of their life going up and down and up and down the slides. Perpetual motion mixed with screaming pleasure. Jack put in another slide this year. It's a hundred feet high and requires an elevator to get to the top. To prevent kids from falling out, it's a clear tube that dives almost straight down, then swirls to the right then to the left and finally rises at the end to shoot the person out into the air five feet above the landing pool. Every few minutes you could hear a loud scream of someone flying through the air before skimming onto the surface.

"Hey Norma, long time no see. How are you?" It was Bubba and Laurie walking up with their sons. Norma stood and hugged them. The two boys then ran off to do some water sliding. Norma said "Here, pull up some lounge chairs and catch some of this nice morning sun." The waiter came by and asked if they would like something to drink. "I'll be right back with your three sweet teas." During the past year Norma kept in contact with the group, mostly via text messages and Facebook. Laurie asked, "So Norma, just how serious is it between you and Larry. The paparazzi seem to think you're quite a couple." Norma responded "Yeah, I know. Larry is one of the finest men I've ever known. He's very loving and caring. Our relationship is about the same since I last talked to you. He lives in another city and we see each other when we can. Like I told him, when we're together we have lots of fun, and he loves me like a woman should be loved. I'm very happy and he's good with my kids. But I never want anything to happen like it did last year. Especially with my girls."

Laurie said "Norma, I don't know if it was blind luck or Divine Providence, but if Larry hadn't been with us we could have been part of the 1,500 people that died that evening." "I know, and I think about that every day." Bubba said "That attack woke America up. Like a cold slap in the face, all of us realized we had something very near and dear to us. Something that day we resolved to keep. Our Freedom. The rest of the world totally understands that now." Norma looked at both of them. "All that talk sounds good but the bottom line is I just want to be safe. And I do know we're safer because of that attack. Larry, Sergey, Mark, and the rest of our army of technology geeks along with our military have made our country a lot safer. But apparently these "Pioneers" are like magnets for terrorists. Remember me telling you about another attempt on his life six months ago?" Laurie said "Right, and everybody in the group was identified and eliminated before they could do anything. Our borders are completely sealed now. And, we've polygraph interviewed all Muslims in America and thrown the questionable ones out. Today I feel much safer on the streets. There's like one camera for every person in Houston. Six million cameras going day and night running facial recognition and license plates. Not to mention the GPS on every phone and in every vehicle. If a person goes outside, our system will see them and determine if they are a potential threat. If so, they're immediately apprehended. We know exactly where everybody is now. And it's because of that terrible night and the next day. The People won't allow it to happen again."

Laurie continued, "Actually Norma, our group is very lucky because we understand more than most. We represent what didn't exist before the Big Change. You came from a very rough Hispanic and Black neighborhood in Newark where the people were living hand to mouth every day. Tony and his daughter were homeless living on the streets struggling just to survive, and then later they took Lupe away. I came from a middle class family that had the money to put me through college so I could have a decent job. Bubba was a millionaire with an engineering degree from Texas A&M but people wouldn't have thought it by looking at this big old farm boy. And then there's Larry, Sergey, and Mark. They were billionaires many times over before the Big Change. They had the best of everything. Our world and their world never crossed. It was like a rich White family from Connecticut would never go into a Black neighborhood in Newark because they didn't understand something very simple...... And that is all people, no matter who they are cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die. We're all the same! The Big Change gave America the opportunity to understand this about each other. In a very casual way, the Big Change allowed us to come together as a group of completely diverse people. We liked what we saw and we became friends. And with our own special abilities we helped each other survive during our time of need. It was a defining moment where we all stood together as one."

Norma said "You're right. The rich don't have a monopoly on happiness anymore. And the People put ourselves on a level playing field so we can interact as equals. That's all true. And I know that with Freedom comes risk. And I know Larry and them are working to control that risk to make it as low as possible. But............ the memories of that night and the next day still haunt me." Laurie sat next to Norma. "Come here girl." She hugged Norma and whispered "Me, too."

Tony walked out with a white linen towel over his forearm carrying a silver serving tray with frosted glasses of ice tea. He smiled "Somebody ordered some teas?" Norma looked up and chuckled. "Hola, guapo. (Hello, handsome) It's about time you brought those teas out." Laurie gave Tony a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Glad to see you could make it, Tony." Bubba gave him a big bear hug. "How you been, Tony. And, where's your daughter?" "Doing great, Bubba. Lupe came out early to do water sliding. I don't have to ask how Austin is. Lupe's been talking about him a lot lately." "She's been keeping up with how Austin's been doing in the junior weekend rodeos. Your daughter wants to do barrel racing and breakaway roping." "Yeah, we had to sweeten the pot by getting her a horse and a big chunk of land so she would continue working with Mark. All her spare time now is spent riding." "That's what I've been hearing. Sit down and relax, buddy. Looks like we're going to be here for a while."

As Tony was relaxing on a chase sipping his ice tea he looked over at Norma. "Whatcha reading?" "It's "1984" by George Orwell. I always wanted to read it, but never had the time. In 1949 his is prediction of "Big Brother" trying to control us in  actually came true. It just took a few decades longer. What he couldn't see was "Big Brother really got his butt kicked by the Big Change." She snickered as she continued reading.

Norma stopped for a minute. "After I finish this book I'm going back to reading some more of Zitkala Sa.(Zit kala sha) She was a Dakota/Lakota Sioux Indian born February 22, 1876 on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Years ago her writings helped me understand that there are other ways to live our life. And they can be better. Her prose was so strong and beautiful that she made me feel I was sitting right next to her on the train as she traveled to the land of red apples. I felt the excitement, apprehension and sorrow of her new life at the school. I was there experiencing in her little 8 year old mind the fears and confusion as the White people at the school stripped her of her hair, native clothing, language, and culture. I believe she mastered the White man's language so she could speak for an eternity about people who conquer, take and destroy. Her nation was a society that had respect for each other and respect for Mother Earth. They were more of what you would call a "gift society" where all people work together and support each other to have a good life. Way before the Europeans invaded and took their lands these were a happy, proud, and honorable people. I really liked one of her short stories called "A Warrior's Daughter". Besides showing the incredible love an Indian woman can have for her man, she also has you understand the significance of the concept of a tribe. A tribe, if necessary, could be completely ruthless to outsiders. But members within a tribe were always treated with dignity, respect, kindness, and caring. I believe this is hardwired into our DNA. If you are considered a member of the tribe or family, the feeling of oneness among you is very strong. Over three years ago Americans were finally convinced that all of us are part of the same tribe so we voted for the Big Change. The few billionaire oppressors lost their control and the herd finally trampled those few predators who were feasting on our labors." Surprised, Tony looked at Norma "Wow Norma, this is a side of you I've never seen. I like it."

She continued "My blood is North American Indian, so I'm curious what she had to  say about God.

(Author's note: If you click on "say", it hyperlinks to Zitkala Sa's 'Why I am a Pagan'. If it's down, just Google or Yandex search the name.)

Frankly, I don't believe in organized religion." "Why not?" Norma looked at Tony in the eyes and slowly said "Because one day God confided in me that he's an atheist." Tony grinned "Spoken like a true Human (Indian), using circular logic to show a closer kinship to the Great Spirit." He said "It's interesting. I'm a full blooded member of the Comcáac (phonetically - komcok) Nation. Outsiders call us Seri. My parents were from Desemboque, Sonora, Mexico. Dad said their family was originally from Tiburon Island. And,  Lupe looks a lot like my people." "I've always felt there was some kind of an ancient connection between us, Tony." He said "For over a thousand years our tribe was known to have the fiercest warriors. Worse than the Apache. After watching you fight a year ago I'd definitely say there's a connection." Norma rolled her eyes "Just don't get me upset." Tony laughed.

Bubba got Tony's attention. "Austin said he likes Lupe's horse." He responded "She's real picky. It infuriated Lupe when her mother's family used to call her half-breed." Bubba said "You must have married her mother for her looks, right?" "Right, she was drop dead beautiful. Anyway, Lupe says a good horse is half the dream so she wanted what she called a perfect breed for a horse. She searched and searched until she found one that was part Paint, Appaloosa, English Thoroughbred, and Arabian. She named her Mother Earth, or Mom for short because her blood is from all over the world. Lupe has taught her lots of tricks like the horse in the movie Hidalgo." Bubba asked "What does she look like?" "She looks like a Paint with Appaloosa spots and an Arabian shaped head." Bubba said "You guys need to bring Mom next month to the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo. Lupe would love it. You can stay with us, and Austin will introduce her to all of his rodeo friends." "Sounds like a lot of fun. Oh, and Lupe told me they're bringing the Junior Finals back to Gallup, New Mexico next year. She said she has a year to cut her time down to less than fifteen seconds for barrel racing. Maybe competing in San Antonio would help get her some good experience." Bubba responded, "With her iron like ambition, I can see her doing anything she wants." They both agreed.

Lupe was already at the pool before Connie and her sisters arrived. Her friends and work associates Molly and Tracy were there with her. They were coming down the big curly swirly slide. "Hey Connie, look at me doing the swirly. Yeehaa..." She and her buds went splashing into the water. Then came out and walked up. "Connie, this is what Tracy and Molly look like in real life." Connie bumped fists. "Finally we get to meet in person. It's like we're practically sisters with all the dance practice we've been doing on Skype. So how is Las Tres Bandidas doing?" Molly said "Yeah, that's what Lupe calls us because we are always shaking things up and cutting across the grain." Lupe said "The other kids at school are still trying to understand what the hell is going on with us. And our teachers say we're too brash and precocious because we're always correcting them." Tracy said "Lupe here is the clown, and Molly is everybody's friend, and my nickname is the "Peacemaker". Lupe named me after the old Colt .45 single action pistol." Connie said "Yeah, you told me about busting a huge senior football player in the face knocking his front teeth out." Tracy giggled, "That was my first day at that school. Sort of lost it that day. My mentors told me to tone it down a little. I'm supposed to be a girly girl that needs a big strong boy to protect me. It's the perfect cover." Connie observed "Well you certainly don't look like a butt kicking machine. My mom's the same way. They say dynamite comes in small packages." Tracy said "Your mom did it the natural way. Lots of hard work and an attitude. My abilities are enhanced with chemicals. But we don't want to talk about that right now." As Connie's little sisters were walking up she said "As you've already seen on Skype these are my two sisters, Sophia and Nellie." They exchanged greetings and off they went to have some more fun on the slides.

A while later at the pool's edge Molly, Tracy, and Lupe, with Austin happily in tow ran over to Connie. "Connie, there they are with their beautiful step mother, Talulah." It was Elon's five boys all with matching color coordinated swimsuits, shades, flip flops, and towels. Like they just stepped out of a kid's version of GQ magazine." Connie looked around until she spotted Sophia. "Sophia, come here." Sophia and Nellie walked up as Connie pointed to the Musk triplets. Sophia said "Yeah, I saw them earlier in the B&B. The pretty boys were walking around like their poop don't stink. Not interested." She and Nellie ran back to find Travis so they could go on the new scary slide. Connie said "That's my sister. She's not into conceited pretty boys. She wants to be powerful and have fun. Reminds me of that old video by Katy Perry called Roar." Lupe cracked up. "Yeah, the triplets are a little conceited. The twins aren't bad. But they're fourteen and you're thirteen." Connie said "So?" Fifteen year old Austin who was over six feet tall and 185 pounds of solid muscle with blue eyes and sun bleached hair gave the girls a big Texas smile. "How about doing some more rides, ladies?" Lupe grabbed his arm. "Let's go, Cowboy."

Digression

During the past year, Lupe has proven herself as the most valuable component of Mark and Elon's space team. When she first arrived, she began wolfing down all the information she could about the project. After months of absorbing data, she took a week off to relax and do some mountain climbing with her dad.

It was March 15th and unusually warm in Las Cruces this time of year. Spring came quickly in the high Chihuahuan desert. Two weeks ago the area had lots of rain. About 6 inches over eight days. Now the desert was alive with new growth and blooming cactus. Lupe and Tony set up base camp at Aguirre Springs Recreation Area which is at the foothills on the east side of the  Organ Mountains. On their first climb they reached the summit directly up from the camp site. At the top, she and her dad were able to look out across the desert floor. They were sitting on the spine of the mountain looking southwest. To the south thirty five miles in the distance were the Franklin Mountains and the city of El Paso. It was midmorning. The sky was clear blue. Down in Las Cruces the People's bank at the corner of East Lohman and South Telshore was displaying a temperature of 65 degrees. It was ten degrees cooler on the spine. Because of the intensity of the climb, Tony and Lupe could feel their bodies throbbing to the beat of their heart as they were seated relaxing on a ledge. Tony said "Look there, mija." as he was pointing over to the cliffs on the left. "I see, papi. It's a bald eagle's nesting on the rocks. I wonder if she has babies yet." The majestic eagle flew off the side of the mountain heading down to something. "Papi, I'll bet they can see rabbits in the desert from here." "That's true, they can."

"Like I was saying as we were climbing, when it starts to get warm in the early spring at this time of day especially after a big rain, you can see the old Butterfield trail. My dad showed me when I was your age. See, mija...... It's that dark green line that stretches across the desert to El Paso. See, its straight down from where the eagle is flying." "I see it, papi. A thin green line. I can't believe that 150 years later cow poop is still fertilizing the desert so the grass will grow thicker." Tony laughed "Isn't it amazing. Must have been a lot of steers pulling a lot of wagons to have that much poop."

It was a beautiful morning with a cool crispness in the air. Lupe sat silently as she watched the soaring eagle below looking for food. It was very quiet and peaceful. There was no sound except for a slight intermittent breeze. The hairy tarantula and the horny toad sunning themselves on the rocks to the left seemed to be enjoying the bright sun and fresh morning air.

Lupe looked out into the blue sky and commented about some things she's learned over the past seven months. "Papi, they taught me that all waves travel at the speed of light. That's radio, TV, infra-red, visible, x-rays, gamma-rays, all electromagnetic waves. Some people say waves like photon waves are particles and some say they're just energy. I say they're special kinds of particles. And if they are particles moving on a sine curve then the shorter period waves have particles moving much faster than say radio waves since they all move laterally at 186,000 miles a second. But they couldn't tell me if waves eventually run out of energy and stop. And if they don't run out of energy then isn't that perpetual electromagnetic motion that all scientists say is impossible? And are they really the waves, or are they catalysts that put some kind of dark matter into motion causing waves. Like if I shout at you in space you won't hear me because there's no air. It's the air moving in waves that people hear. The vibrations in my throat is the catalyst. So why isn't light the same way? And then there's bifurcations and Feigenbaum Constant and how it goes into the onset of a chaos fractal. 4.669. That's really creepy. What's fascinating is that even in chaos or what's called nonlinear dynamics, order comes about. You can have simple deterministic equations that will have very unpredictable results. But then there is no such thing as a randomly generated number. It's like the eeneemeeneemineemo thing. You can always tell who gets selected by the person you start with. Or in this case the formula you begin with. But I kind of already knew this stuff."

"Maxwell's equations are cool, but what's interesting is nobody can tell me why it's 186,000 miles a second and not double or half that. And how is light seemingly instantly accelerated from dead stop to that speed. Or what if I were able to slow or speed up electromagnetic waves. Could that be part of a gateway to another dimension that quivers at a different rate? It's pathetic that even today we are limited to observations and conclusions on electromagnetic energy from the 1800s. I tell the Phds in their twenties that surely we can create instruments to control in some degree or manner the linear speed of waves other than bringing them down to absolute zero. Their only response is: "Don't call me Shirley." Then they laugh at me. They think they're so damn smart when all they can do is memorize and parrot it all back."

"Papi, if my horse gets outside the fence all I have to do is entice it back with some molasses coated grain. I understand what appeals to her the most and I use it to influence her. These Phd guys would make a big production out of getting my horse back by getting other horses with riders and ropes, and maybe some 4 wheelers, and maybe a small herding helicopter. By then she would have run off out of sight. What I'm saying is first you have to get your butt out of a classroom and work with the stuff you're investigating. Second, be creative. Really creative. Think about stuff like nobody has before. Go beyond the familiar. Get out there and get your hands dirty. And always remember that laws are made to be broken. That's especially true with science. When I tell the guys with Phds in physics that, they think I'm really nuts. But Uncle Elon and Uncle Mark don't."

"You know when I was younger, time seemed to go very slow compared to now. That's because my mind was moving much faster. Like it was oscillating faster. The length and speed of the oscillations were the cognitive determinate that I subconsciously used to judge or compare outside movement or the change of things. So there was a relationship. The magic is the capability to bridge and compare those movements or changes against my mind's oscillations. In other words when I was very little it seemed like forever before you got home from work. Now it doesn't seem so long. I believe in bridges of cognition, papi. These are the things we need to understand more about. In other words I think the true definition of time is consciousness and not just a measure of movement. Stuff can be happening all around me, but I can't tell unless I'm aware of it. Unless I can measure it. But even more, unless I can actually comprehend it. That's the magic."

"I think it's when you get farther away from forced and formed movement by greatly increasing oscillations. I know that seems counter intuitive, but it isn't. I believe that's when you'll get closer to understanding what time really is. It's a kind of perfect balance and harmony. A perfect awareness. It's when you fuse the past with the present and the future as one instant, but yet an eternity."

"Papi, I wish we could somehow step out of the event of this reality and be able to move around the slices of the past and also into the future. If only we could step out and jump back in. Kind of like the old fashioned music record. It's spinning and the needle is resting at a certain spot playing the music. But somehow I just know there's a way to lift that needle up and move it somewhere else on the record."

"Papi, when I was a little girl and had déjà vu you explained to me it was our mind seeing into the future. I actually saw things unfold exactly as I had dreamed. And every once in a while it still happens, but not as much. It's what our ancestors did on their vision quests." "That's right, mija."

Lupe continued "And there's this thing called entropy in the second law of thermodynamics. To me entropy doesn't mean moving into randomness or disorder. Order could actually be a stilted state of things, or a forced contrived existence or equilibrium. An obvious example is antimatter hydrogen. Pure entropy could actually mean the natural relaxed state of things in our universe. I think it's a pure consonance, a sort of resonant symmetry of all things. In other words I think equilibrium can exist in several states. Pure entropy could be the final state of equilibrium. Some scientists say when the entire universe reaches pure entropy, everything will go dark because there will be no more energy and everything will cease to exist. To me, that's taking a huge leap because it's based only on what we know. Humans exist because of chemical energy in a liquid water environment. But the true definition of life can be way more than the energy flow in our bodies. What I mean is sentient beings can be a whole lot more. Just because our instruments can't detect the other different types of life, it doesn't mean they're not there. We've got to stop focusing exclusively on matter and energy. We've got to think out of the box. Abundant life could exist in pure entropy, just not the kind of life we visualize life to be."

"Michael Faraday, Nicola Tesla, and Linus Pauling were incredible people who were the ground breakers in the area of what I want to get into. The real forces that bring about electromagnetic energy and bonding in our universe is the stuff I want to know about."

Lupe continued "And, there's more out there than we know, like all the characteristics of and reasons for Dark Matter ((Dark matter is a form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of its total energy density. Its presence is implied in a variety of astrophysical observations, including gravitational effects that cannot be explained by accepted theories of gravity unless more matter is present than can be seen.)) and Dark Energy ((In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a term that describes an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. The first observational evidence for its existence came from supernovae measurements, which showed that the universe does not expand at a constant rate; rather, the expansion of the universe is accelerating.)) And the simple way I can tap you on the shoulder with my mind, papi. I know it's not wave energy that does that. It's something else. And when they told me you died I didn't believe it because I felt you were still alive. And like I talked to you about before, what about the dog named Bobby that got separated from his family while they were moving 2,000 miles away from their original home. In six months he found them. And cats do that too. There are invisible threads of something we don't yet know about.

But getting back to E=MC squared... in a frictionless space without any points of reference how does mass know it's travelling fast versus slow. The very concept of speed is comparing the travel time between points of reference. And I believe that mass is nothing but little bits of energy that has found a way to be in equilibrium. Like a tug of war where both sides are equal strength. Mass doesn't have to move to release energy. You just need to disrupt its bonds. Or the opposite when you break covalent bonds it absorbs energy." She laughed and looked at her dad. Shaking her head she said "So many questions, such little time." Tony hugged her and laughed too.

......Lupe's eyes brightened. "Dad, what if outer space were like the desert floor. In the hot dry summer, you can't see the Butterfield trail because the grass has withered. But you can see it and measure it now because there's a marker created by a catalyst. With your eyes you can look out into outer space and either see nothing or see objects that give off visible light waves. But there's more to see. We invented instruments to detect all kinds of waves passing by. But right now we can only detect waves which means we can only detect movement. But what if there's stuff out there that doesn't move because to be in equilibrium all it has to do is stay still. Or to be in equilibrium they vibrate at incredibly high rates without giving off any waves as we know them. Or the stuff is so small, we can't yet detect them. And making it more interesting, I don't think they're particles or energy. This dark matter may even be the core of life itself. And what if there are points in this dark matter that are like stitches that hold the visible or detectible electromagnetic part of our universe together. And the only way to see them is through highly sensitive receptors, like the eagle's eyes. But these receptors won't be made to detect heat, or gravity, or waves as we currently define them. They will detect harmony." Tony said "Harmony? You mean music?" Lupe said "Sort of. Like when you go into a room and play a flute. There's a certain note when it's played you can hear it's in harmony with the room. I've done it with an infinite pitch sound generator. As you're going up the scale you can actually hear when it hits equilibrium within the space. ...I think I know how to make a harmony detector. It will detect a special kind of harmony within dark matter that will be the stitches where time is fused with energy."

"Like the bilateral mirror symmetry of humans, the theory of chirality could be applied to these areas of perfect harmony in our universe. There could be a point of left-handed chirality at a particular place in space with a right-handed mirror point somewhere else and a four dimensional thread of fused "time/energy" could be connecting them. But instead of opposite spins I believe there would be opposite harmony. And maybe I can direct or move the right-handed mirror point." "Mija, you're talking way over my head right now." "No, but daddy, it's very simple. It makes total sense. We don't need to travel far out into space to find one of these points. They're all around us. We just need to make something to see where they're located, including the fused temporal threads. And, I know just how to do it. And, I think something similar to a Faraday cage will carry us from point A to mirror point A instantly. And maybe we won't even need that." Then she winked at Tony, pointed to her head. "Si, papi, con las nalgas." That cracked Tony up. "That's good baby, you show them how my little homeless half-breed can make a machine to instantly travel through space." In one month she did exactly that. Now it's the first few days in July. So in just a matter of months she has successfully teleported people across the galaxy and back. Lupe doesn't waste any time after she latches onto something.

Back at the B&B

Larry and Sergey had breakfast early that morning. Then they took off for a few hours to do some last minute work at the museum. On the way back Larry changed into his trunks in the chopper and headed straight to the pool to see Norma. As she was thoroughly enjoying her book, out of the corner of her eye she saw this tall skinny boney kneed man walking up in baggy bright blue swim trunks. Larry greeted the others then he turned to Norma. "How do you like my trunks?" Norma hugged and tenderly kissed him hello. "You're trunks are nice, but it's that pasty white skin that needs some serious sun, Babe." "I know. All work and no play." "That's why I'm here. For the last year I've shown you how to relax and have some good times. And you've given me the kind of love I've never experienced before. Now slap on some of this suntan lotion and start turning brown."

Larry felt like the luckiest man in the world as he was lying next to this woman who was stunningly strong and beautiful. She was deeply engrossed in that darned book. But then came the quick playful furtive flirtatious glances as she peeked at him through the book's pages which made him completely defenseless and longing for her touch. After a few minutes he handed her the lotion and coyly said "I need a little basting on my white tummy, could you slather some of that on to keep it a perfect cook?" Norma with her mesmerizing green eyes purred "You just want me to rub your cute little tummy. Are you like my old neighbor's cats who always wanted their tummies tickled?" Laurie said "Ok you two, let's keep it clean." Bubba added "Don't pay any attention to her. She's always rubbing my belly for good luck." .........And so the morning passed as the sunshine, the gentle summer breeze, and the iced tea were welcomed in this sanctuary of friendship and relaxation.

At noon Lupe, Connie, and the rest of the kids ran over to the adults. "We're tired and hungry. Can we eat over at the Pirate's Restaurant?" Tony said "It's ok with me, but we need to shower and put fresh clothes on." They all agreed to meet at 1:00 for lunch. Lupe texted Hanna and also talked to the Musk boys to make sure they came too.

By 1:00 everybody had gathered at the restaurant and proceeded inside. Norma said to the hostess "Reservation for twenty six under Norma Corona." She took them to a large private room. After being seated she recited the day's special and said everything they serve at this restaurant is fresh, delicious, healthy and wholesome. Tobi then came up and introduced herself to the group as their waitress. She looked at Norma. "I remember being your waitress a year ago. I thought you were just a very nice mother of three precious little girls. I had no idea of who you really were until I saw clips of you protecting Mr. Page. It's an honor to serve to you." Norma, a little embarrassed, said "Thank you, Tobi." While Tobi was speaking to her, Norma remembered Tobi had an almost indiscernible limp. So after thanking Tobi, she asked "You're a war veteran, aren't you?" Tobi blushed. "I'm not here to talk about me." Elon said "That's ok, Tobi. What branch of service were you in. She looked at Elon and proudly stated she was with the 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles and did several tours in Afghanistan." Elon said "You're a purple heart recipient, aren't you?" Tobi was blushing even more. "Yes, sir". Norma saw Tobi was wearing a gold necklace with the very tip of something poking out just above her dress neck line. Norma stood "I hope you don't you mind." as she was pulling out the medallion at the end of her chain. Norma gazed at the medal and was completely beside herself with Tobi's humility. Realizing what the medallion was, Norma said "Tobi is a recipient of the US Medal of Honor." It's an honor and a privilege to be standing next to a person who demonstrated the highest level of exceptional courage and valor against impossible odds in time of war." Tears started welling up in Tobi's eyes. "I didn't mean for you to see that." Then she quickly tucked the medal under her neckline. Norma, realizing she made a gigantic blunder, softly said "Here, I'll take that." as she took the voice order recorder from Tobi's hand. Norma walked around the table with Tobi as she was composing herself and recording what each person wanted to drink. Norma said "When you bring the drinks out, we want you to bring out your favorite beer for yourself. Then you can stand with us as we give a toast." Tobi said her boss Jack doesn't allow drinking alcohol while on duty. Norma said everybody here gives you permission, Tobi. Most warriors who come back have very mixed emotions about war and we know now that Afghanistan was one of the worst because we realized afterward that it was only the war machine killing for money. I'm not going to call you a hero, but we would be proud to have you to stand with us as we say a prayer and give a toast to the people who died a year ago. Tobi with some helpers quickly returned with the drinks. Norma stood. With one hand holding her drink high in the air and with her other arm around Tobi, she said "I'd like to say a prayer. What happened a year ago tomorrow was a tragedy that shouldn't have happened. But it did. I'd like to give thanks to all our People of the United States who took swift and immediate action to stop this from ever happening again. And may the souls of those who died be at peace with God in heaven. Amen." Everyone said Amen. "Ok, everybody," Norma continued with a smile, life is too short not to be happy. That's why we did the Big Change. So let's give a toast: To Life and Happiness, L'Chaim, a la vida y felicidad. I'm sure those who died would want tomorrow to be a day to pray, but also be a day to celebrate. Arriba, abajo, al centro y pa' dentro. Cheers everybody." They all took a long and happy drink. Norma turned to Tobi and quietly said "I see a good happy life ahead of you, Tobi. Thank you for your sacrifice and I apologize for not respecting your privacy." Norma kissed her on the cheek. Tobi smiled and went on to another table to take more orders.

While they were waiting Lupe was telling the Musk boys about the cookout they had last year in the back of the building and how good her daddy's story was. Griffin said "Uncle Tony, you need to tell us that story sometime." "Of course, but it's only good when it's late at night and you can hear coyotes howling in the distance." Nellie said "It's so scary, you have to remind yourself it's only pretend." Connie, Sophia, and Travis all agreed. Tony said "But are you sure it was pretend?" Nellie cringed "No Uncle Tony. Don't scare us like that". Lupe saw her eyes got really big, and laughed "Don't worry, Nellie, rabbit men don't come this far north. And remember, you have to be able to defeat rabbit men, not run from them."

Tracy made an observation "I still can't get over this thing of calling everybody uncle." Lupe said "Tracy, you know we don't call everybody uncle, only those that we kids think deserve the honor of being called our uncle. It's part of our culture." Tracy scratched her head, "I still don't get it."

The menu stated the world class chefs and staff were proud of their ability to prepare dishes from all over the world. Tobi was back to take their orders. Elon asked if they could prepare his favorite dish of South Africa called Bobotie. She asked the chef using her wrist communicator. "He said it was one of his specialities." Elon was very impressed and ordered it. The rest of the group also went with dishes of their ethnic or regional origin.

The orders were out in twenty minutes. While the group was enjoying their food they quickly discovered Elon was beside himself with enthusiasm over the recent discoveries in travel. Elon loves to talk. He is a perfect mix of genius, entrepreneur, and salesman. He said "Lupe was the one who showed us. We just provided the tools and resources and a little guidance. At her direction of how and where, we metaphorically laid down the road while she was speeding as fast as she could. There were times where it was hard to keep up with her demands. Lupe calls it "Blinking" and the name stuck because in the near future we will be able to travel from one point to another as fast as a blink." Laurie said "Lupe, I didn't know about any of this." Lupe said "Because of its sensitivity, we've been keeping it a deep dark secret. So I guess since Uncle Elon is bursting with so much enthusiasm you're now the first ones to know."

Elon said "Lupe is receiving the highest national merit award for achievement tomorrow afternoon, so it's appropriate that all of you be the first to know." He started clapping and the rest of the group joined in. "Way to go," said Connie, "We kind of knew you were working on something big girl, but don't let it go to your head. I'm not going to design a superwoman outfit for you anytime soon." Lupe smiled and made cross-eyes at Connie. Mark said "Lupe looks and acts like a regular kid. That's what makes her so special. She believes that almost any kid her age, if given the tools can achieve great things." Lupe said "That's what my speech is going to be about tomorrow. The People have done a lot but I think it's not enough. With Uncle Mark's help I'm kicking off a campaign to ask the People to allow us to have a program to provide more and better tools to all kids in all schools all across our country. Take my friend Connie for example. She can design outerwear that tickles the senses of color, movement, and feeling. She must have available at her fingertips the tools to bring her fashion ideas to life. See, as Uncle Elon says, every kid has very special qualities that need to be discovered and promoted." The group wholeheartedly agreed.

Elon continued "I'm extremely pleased to say that tomorrow we will be giving the award for achievement not only to Lupe but to Tracy and Molly for their unbelievable groundbreaking work in the field of biology and communication using brainwaves." Molly interrupted and said "It's actually waves from the whole body and not just the brain." Elon said "I hear what you're saying Molly, but I just don't understand it. Thank goodness you do." He continued "And there will be two other incredible people receiving the award. Their flights are arriving late today so they couldn't be with us. The five recipients will be given the distinction of being the first new Young Pioneers. Tracy has done some great things with body strength and other miraculous stuff. And like I said, I still can't wrap my head around how Molly can understand what people are thinking." Molly said "It's that but it's not really that, it's what the cells in their bodies are thinking. There's a difference." Elon said "See, I'm confused already. Anyway they are going to talk about their achievements tomorrow afternoon after the memorial and benediction." All the people at the table applauded.

Even though everyone during lunch was smiling and cheerful, you could feel an underlying somberness. Near the end of the meal Sophia looked around and thought "We've got to get these old folks out of their funk." She said "So who's up for some pirate golf after lunch!" The Musk kids were the first ones to yell out. The adults slowly gave in.

While playing golf, Connie made sure she was next to the twins. Griffin took a liking to her, so they started competing against each other. While moving through the holes, he made sure her score was higher. On the other hand, the triplets weren't used to the cold shoulder treatment Sophia was giving them. They are very handsome kids, but Sophia was easily twice as good looking. Elon quietly said to his triplets "What's the matter, charm's not working? I think Sophia doesn't want to make Travis feel uncomfortable." Saxon said "Like she's worth our attention? I don't think so." Elon chuckled. "Whatever."

Nellie was putting with Sophia and Travis. The triplets where behind them. In a low voice she said to Sophia "I can't see why you don't like the triplets. They're cute...and funny. Just wait a few years when your understanding is better." Nellie fired back "I'm two and a half years younger, but I'm still smarter than you, Sophia Fea." "I told you to never call me that, Smelly Nellie." Sophia looked at Travis and sighed "Kids these days." Nellie got mad and yelled "Mo...om, Sophia's calling me smelly again." Norma looked over at the two and shook her head. "Evalina and Sophia, be nice to each other!"

About half way through the course the younglings were getting burned out like the last time they were there. So they cajoled the adults to do some go-carting. At the track, Sophia spotted the talking car and told Hanna. She convinced her to drive it. As Hanna was getting in the cart she heard "Ola my little cream delight. Are you ready to have my macho streamlined body take you for a fast ride?" "Sophia warned me about you, Feo (ugly)." "No baby, my name is Guapo (handsome), and I'm here to grant your every wish." "Ok. I wish you'd shut the hell up. Let's see how you perform on the track, Mr. Big Words." "Your wish is my command, mamacita." "Shut up or I'll have my boyfriend come over and cut your wires off." "Calma te, mija. Let's keep my wires out of this. Are you buckled in and ready?" "Yes. Let's go, Romeo." Like last year, old Romeo came in first to Hanna's delight. "Way to go fast boy. If you're nice I might come back." "Ok, baby. Later." As they were leaving the track Norma walked next to Hanna. "That car's a real jerk, isn't he." Hanna smiled. "You just have to know their tender parts and threaten to cut them off." They laughed.

It was late afternoon and Nellie told her mom she was tired and could she take a nap. Norma said "I'm with you, baby." Norma talked to the group and they decided to meet at 7:00 for supper then maybe some bowling. Six months ago Jack finished installing an underground twenty lane bowling alley. After the nap they had a nice evening meal.

The bowling alley was back behind the restaurant underneath the basketball and tennis courts. It was 8:00. Norma told the group she was going back to her suite because they had to wake up early. Tony and Lupe also decided to go back. The rest of the group spent an hour bowling then headed in.

Late night casino fun

Every Saturday night at 9:00 most of the restaurant closes. Jack converts it over to a small casino with a roulette wheel, a dice table, blackjack and poker tables. His old poker pals still meet to play a few hands. It was 9:15 when they started rolling in. Moe I. Malyier, the ex-congressman, was the first to arrive. As he walked in Moe said to Jack "Hey man, talk about security. This place is like Ft. Knox. Security at the gate knew who I was, but they still insisted on doing a cavity search." "Why in the world would they do that?" "They told me I was a huge ass in Congress, and they wanted to make sure there wasn't anything up there." Jack laughed. "You have to admit that's funny, Moe." Moe slowly sat down on a chair with a cushioned seat. "God, the sacrifices I make to play a little poker." A minute later Mario con Safos walked in. "Ola, tontolones (hello suckers). Ready to give me your money?" Jack said "Mario, glad to see you man. Let me get you a beer." "Just some cold water, Jack." Mario con Safos is their car mechanic. Like a good tailor once you find a great mechanic you never let him go. Mario has the best chauffeured limo service in town. He was also a managing partner of a Miami real estate development firm worth over a billion dollars. Mario's silent partners were various senators and congressmen in DC. But that ended. Then in through the door came Scott Pelley. "Hey hey, guys. The lover from Lubbock's back." Moe said "You mean droopy from DC. Come on in, little man." Scott said "Funny, Moe. You know some of the boys up front train at my gym. They told me about your escapade down under. I told them to always make sure and take enough rope and flashlights when they go searching in caves." Moe said "Ha ha, buddy." Scott used to do the evening news for CBS. But now he's retired and owns a gym. Scott grew up in Texas, but you would have never known it with his on-air east coast highbrow attitude. His slick mendacity made him perfect for the job of reading propaganda they used to call the 'news'. He did pretty well for himself considering he dropped out of Texas Tech University with a low GPA in the heart of Red Neck country--Lubbock, Texas. What a hoot. Scott opened a beer, took a drink and sat down at the card table. "You guys want to warm up a little?" At that moment the omnidirectional helipad lighting system came on. Jack checked his security monitors. "I'll bet that's Cindy. All she flies these days are Apaches with full armaments."

Years ago Cindy Steele was asked to be part of the group. Cindy was their "force protection". Having worked for 20 years in the military and retired as a two star general, Cindy made over five million dollars a year working for a large defense contracting firm. Her ties with her employer, Lockheed Martin, go back to when she was supervising government procurement groups that specialized in military hardware and cutting edge defense systems. Cindy used to spend most of her time on the Hill promoting Lockheed. She promoted the products, while unknown to her, others in the company passed out the massive bribes.

After General Steele landed, her copilot trucked the machine to a small hanger where he stood guard waiting for a soldier to relieve him. The General had already reserved a room for her co-pilot. Since they had an important mission tomorrow, getting a good night's rest was an order. After seeing the machine was secure she said "See you later, Bob. The Secret Service is all over this place. Make sure they don't touch the bird." "Yes Ma'am. Good luck." Cindy said "Thanks, and enjoy the Cuban." Cindy always makes sure her people are happy and well taken care of. She was brought back into the military by the People. She's now the commander of all air operations in the US.

The head of the Secret Service group stepped up and introduced herself. They talked for a while. She parted with "Let me know if you need anything, Ma'am." Cindy said "Do you like Cuban cigars?" "Yes Ma'am, I do." "I knew you guys were going to be out here so I brought a few extra boxes. Pass them out to your people." "Yes, Ma'am, and good luck." "Thanks." Jack pulled up in his golf cart. "Hop in general, we got some serious poker to play." "Is Mario here." "Of course. He likes easy money." "Damn." Jack assured her "Don't worry, we'll get him this time."

And finally, late as usual, Manny A. Moocher pulled up in a luxury limousine. Before the Big Change he was the lead investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He was one of those guys like Jamie Dimon who caused the economic collapse of 2008 where millions of families lost their homes. Manny is a limo driver for Mario now. Right after the BC he was forced to clean toilets for the new recruits at Lackland Air Force base. Mario found him and convinced the group that punished those who hurt Americans to give Manny 120 days incarceration with taser treatments 8 times a day. During the tasings, Manny would scream like a girl. It was so blood curdling they filmed it and used him in public service announcements about the value of staying out of jail. After Manny finished his sentence Mario was allowed to hire him as a driver.

Jack said "Manny... Come on in and relax." "Hi everybody. My last customer had me driving everywhere. I was lucky to get here at all." Cindy said "We know Manny, and we still love you. Pull up a chair. Here, have a cigar and a beer." "Thank you," replied Manny in a pathetically meek voice.

Jack said "Guess who else is coming to play cards with us tonight?" "Who?" "The ceremony tomorrow has brought Coleen Rowley, Edward Snowden, Ray McGovern, William Binney, Thomas Drake, and Chelsea Manning (formerly known as Bradley Manning) to my Bed and Breakfast. We'll set up two tables, and players may move from one table to another as long as we keep both tables at six players. So if you're getting cold at one table, maybe you can convince a player at the other table to switch with you. Sound good?" They liked the idea. They did the same thing a couple months ago and the winnings seemed sweeter.

The late night waiter came out to take orders for hors d'oeuvres, snacks, and drinks. Manny said "I'll take a shrimp cocktail and a Cuba Libre." Mario said "Can you bring out a bowl of trail mix." Cindy said "Some jalapeno poppers and a Bud sounds good." Scott said "I'll take the same." Moe said "Nothing for me, thanks." Barak, the waiter, said "I'll be right back with your orders." Then he hurried through the kitchen door. Jack said "You know, Obama took it hard at first, but after working here for a year he's done such a wonderful job we promoted him to second waiter behind Tobi." Cindy said "That's great. I knew he'd find something he was good at, besides taking bribes from billionaires." The group chuckled.

The guest players came in together. Everybody introduced themselves and randomly sat down. Obama heard the others arrive so he rushed out to take their orders. Snowden looked up at Barak and was surprised. Edward said "I didn't see you here earlier today." Obama said "No sir. I was getting some teeth work done. It's hard to find a good dentist these days. Or should I say one that won't put me under general, pull all my teeth then kick me out to the curb." Obama smiled. "See, the pearly whites are still there." He laughed. Edward said "It's interesting how times have changed. I'll go ahead and have some nachos and a Budweiser. The rest of the whistleblowers got the same. Obama said "Yes sir, I'll be right out with your orders." He scurried back into the kitchen.

The whistleblowers who now work in government fraud prevention split up evenly between the two tables. Manny, Jack and Mario were at one table. And Cindy, Scott, and Moe were at the other. Mario was across from Edward. "Hey, Edward. You play much poker?" "While I was living in Russia I did. Cards and "voh DZYA ra" (Voh gera is an affectionate name for vodka.). I'd do some computer programming, they'd give me money and I'd give it back on the tables. But the vodka was free, so what the heck."

By 10:00 Jack's makeshift Saturday night casino was filled with patrons. The roulette wheel and craps table were the most popular. Jack and his group were off in a corner getting down and dirty with the cards. As the evening ended Edward came out on top. Manny, Moe, and Jack were cleaned out. They closed early (midnight) because the next day was the ceremony. Cindy grabbed her knapsack with a change of clothes and wished everybody goodnight.

Memorial service and benediction

Norma's phone alarm went off at 6:30am. It was a barking dog. "Would somebody tell that damn dog to shut up!" Norma cracked one eye open and realized it was the alarm. "I don't wanna get up. Oh, heck I gotta get up." "Connie, Sophia, Nellie. Come on babes, get up, take a shower and get dressed. We have to leave soon."

Twenty five fully armed Black Hawks were staged on the Tarmac. Each bird had civilian seating for eight. The flight to the Peoples museum takes ten minutes by air. General Steele's Apache was parked on the pad waiting to lead the group. There were fifteen other fully armed Apaches just off the B&B site waiting for orders to escort. Cindy recently had Lockheed Martin outfit her fleet of choppers with instantaneous threat detection and response. If a SAM was released as close as 1000 feet away, the missile would immediately be downed with high intensity lasers. If lasers were fired to down the helicopters, it would be impossible because the choppers create a light and photon ultra-magnetic disrupter shield. Apache helicopters will fly below the Blackhawks to further protect the guests of honor and their families heading to the ceremonies.

Larry and the guys had descended two cold fusion powered satellites into stationary low orbit over DC. Each satellite is as big as a bus with the best electronic surveillance and threat detection optics available. Every square inch of the metro area was being scanned continuously.

Jack drove up in a small catering truck. "Good morning, General." "You're a good man, Jack. You got some coffee handy?" Jack gave her a hot cup fixed just the way she liked it. His staff was unloading the food and distributing it to the pilots. "Don't worry, the Secret Service taste tested all the food." "Nobody keeled over?" "I had to slap some of the fat agents' hands because they were sampling a little too much. Based on the wakeup call requests, it looks like the guests will start coming out at 0730 hours. We have another catering truck out with the Apache crews." Cindy smiled "I knew I could count on you. Looks like we'll depart with our packages around 0845." Jack's employees set up chairs, tables and drink dispensers next to the choppers. Then he went back to load up some breakfast items for the guests to enjoy before they boarded the Blackhawks.

By 7:45 the area next to the Blackhawks was bustling with activity. Cindy was welcoming the guests and said they had a little less than an hour to relax and enjoy their food. ...While they were eating Cindy told them to be sure and buckle their seat belts. If they had to take evasive action, she didn't want anyone bouncing around inside a chopper.

Norma was sitting with Larry trying to relax over a cup of coffee while the kids were at another table. Lupe, sitting next to Connie said "This sausage is delicious. Have you tried some?" Connie said "Look. I rolled up some sausages in my crepes. See their cute little heads sticking out. I call it snoozing oinkers in a blanket. They taste really good with lime juice, sweet cream, and grape jelly." Lupe said "Mummm." and rolled up some too. Connie asked "How come you're not going over your speech?" "I have it memorized. Right now I just want to clear my mind and have some fun. You ever rode in a Blackhawk before?" "Yes, yesterday morning." "That's right... How was it?" "Extremely cool. You're going to love it." Lupe said "Well actually they taught me and my dad how to fly one six months ago. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. But you're my buds so who cares. I'm also rated to fly a Chinook. So yesterday I flew here as copilot. Flying a Chinook is ok, but it's nothing like a fully armed Blackhawk." Austin told Lupe he was a little nervous about riding in a convoy because it would attract attention. Lupe smiled. "Don't worry, Cowboy. We'll be ok."

At 8:40 the general was encouraging everyone to enter the helicopters. In ten minutes they were in and buckled. She and her co-pilot Bob had walked around the units doing a visual integrity check. They entered their Apache and she gave orders for the other Apaches to lift off. Several were already in the air checking the proximity for problems. One at a time the Blackhawks lifted up and proceeded forward. By 8:55 she had 'Peter Gunn' by Henry Mancini playing as the birds were in formation heading to the museum. The satellites had a direct link to the general's Apache. Half way there Cindy was alerted by the lead satellite that a potential threat was 5 miles ahead. She immediately diverted the group to the left and ordered several Apaches to fly low in the area to check it out. As the group proceeded to the museum they heard some explosions and gunfire off in the distance. Problem neutralized.

The Blackhawks landed next to the amusement park while the Apaches were hovering overhead. The guests of honor with their families began to disembark. "Mira, papi. There's your picture, and Bubba's too. Look at Auntie Norma ripping that guy's eye out. I hate memories like this." Tony said "But we have to remember so it won't happen again." Lupe also saw many other large posters hanging on the walls outside the building. They were in groups... New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, The People's Monument and Museum.

The visitors were bused in. The area inside the amusement park was completely filled with people. The parking lot was also full. There were folding chairs, umbrellas, water misters, zillions of porta poties, tent tops, and food & beverage tents for everybody's convenience. As the guests of honor were entering the building, the crowd broke into applause, and began chanting "Free-dom, free-dom, free-dom......." Hundreds of giant screen TVs and speakers were placed in large open tents all over the Museum parking lot.

Platforms on both sides of the stage were set up to seat the honorees and dignitaries. The 600' by 300' open floor in front of the stage had folding chair seating for 14 thousand people. And thousands more were allowed to sit wherever they could in viewing proximity of the stage.

The ceremony began at 9:30. An Alaskan Yup'ic shaman, a Dakota Sioux medicine man, a Unity Christian church leader, a Catholic priest, an Eastern Orthodox priest, a Chinese Shen practitioner, a Buddhist monk, a Shinto priest, a Rabbi, a Hindu priest, a Sikh priest, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali were standing shoulder to shoulder holding hands. One at a time each said a brief prayer for all of those who died one year ago. As they were praying, large screens inside and out were showing the carnage that night and the next morning. Over two hundred thousand Americans perished at the hands of these terrorists. After the gas and nuclear bomb detonations in New York, Chicago, and LA, groups of terrorists combed through these and other cities killing people with small arms fire and hand thrown IED's.

The People also wanted to show satellite videos of the nuclear detonations across the Islamic world that could easily have been avoided if only male Muslims had been more tolerant, open minded and less war like and not demanding the rest of the world submit to their ignorant myopic barbaric oppressive misogynistic way of life. This bizarre primitive savagery could no longer be tolerated in today's advanced civilization that lives more by the golden rule than by a blood thirsty iron fist.

(Note from the authors of this book... We wanted to point out a severe weakness of having a direct democracy. If attacked, we believe Americans would have more of a knee jerk reaction when deciding how to retaliate. For example, the order was given to turn Iran into glass. That meant killing over 80 million innocent men, women, and children. Only a small group of people run Iran. It's a theocracy controlled by clerics. And in the 1950's the US overthrew the democratically elected President of Iran and installed a puppet dictator. The CIA has overthrown many governments and murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people over the years just so the super rich could plunder their resources. No wonder people from all over the world hate our guts. It seems the billionaires who control our government have picked up where Hitler left off. So bottom line: we're sure there would have been a better way than a total killing. After a cool down period on both sides, the problem could have been solved in a more humane way. But we doubt that would happen if this scenario occurred.)

After prayers Elon Musk came forward to center stage and spoke. He wanted to recognize some of those who selflessly gave of themselves to stop the enemy from doing any more damage after the initial attacks. As he was speaking, short videos were being displayed showing regular armed citizens taking out the enemy. Elon then turned the podium over to heroes who one by one came up and told their story as the videos played showing their courage and valor. One small group of heroes prevented the bombing of the Brooklyn Bridge. Another killed terrorists as they were about to destroy the Lincoln tunnel. Heroes in many cities kept buildings and utility plants from being destroyed as they cleared the streets of these devils. The stories lasted for an hour and a half. There was sullen joy and pride on the faces everywhere in America as they watched and listened. At the end, the applause lasted for over 20 minutes. The screens projected crowds from city to city across our country showing the cheers for these regular everyday people who stepped up and became heroes. The People had a special affinity for Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Mark Zukerberg. Larry with his soft voice and brilliant achievements in our communication infrastructure. Sergey with his dedication to alternative energy resources and DNA research. Mark for his language translator that helped bring the world together as one family. Elon introduced the last segment of videos to underscore the importance of everyday regular people and the amazing acts of valor they perform when called upon. The videos were what occurred that night on the dance floor. The interior had audio pickups as well as video. The crowd went crazy as they saw Norma, like a lioness protecting her mate, striking with the rage of a Tasmanian devil, screaming taking down the two terrorists. The crowd got louder as Norma was yelling "die! you motherf--ker, die!, die!..." while she was kicking one the terrorists in the face as he lay knocked out on the floor. Everybody booed as they showed screaming out of control Norma with her arms and legs flailing being pulled away from the men she was trying to kill as the crimson blood was streaming from their faces and splattering onto the polished floor. They also showed Bubba saving Mark as he thrust the terrorist's head into the floor snapping his neck and crushing his skull. And they showed Tony saving Sergey as he killed the terrorist with one blow to the temple. The crowd went crazy cheering as Norma, Bubba, and Tony rose from their seats and slowly walked to the front of the stage waving to the People, then walked back and sat down.

Elon came to the podium again. "The greatest weapon the enemy has is surprise. You the People have mandated that the chance of surprise be brought down even lower. And as we have seen when we are attacked its regular armed citizens at that location that can play the biggest role. I'm going to read a statement put together and approved by a super-majority vote of the citizens of the United States. It's a letter to the families of the fallen and to the heroes. We already know what it says, but the People felt it was important to recite it out loud on this solemn occasion."

"Years ago we brought about the Big Change for the Freedom of all our People. With help from God, our Pioneers, and millions of volunteers we were able to make it work. Our resolution to be a free people was tested a year ago. We demonstrated to ourselves strong will and determination. We did not and will never submit to any group for any reason. Acting alone we are nothing, but acting as one we are very powerful. God Bless us all and may we continue to be happy and continue to be the beacon of Freedom to all other nations around the world. To the Heroes who selflessly gave of themselves a year ago... Thank you very much. And to the families of those who died... May God bless and keep forever your loved ones in His caring hands in Heaven. This date will forever be a day of remembrance. We must never forget. We must never allow it to happen again. Amen."

Everybody across America said "Amen."

Elon paused for a moment of silence, then said "Thank you..... This ends our memorial and benediction. It's a little before one. Let's take a break for lunch. We have hundreds of food tents with seating out in the parking lot. We also have food and drink kiosks everywhere inside the buildings with plenty of seating for everyone. And, it's all free. In fact, as you decided, the food today everywhere in our United States is free. See you back here at 3:00 eastern standard time. Then we will proudly recognize our new Young Pioneers of America. Thank you."

The Young Pioneers

After lunch and after everybody was comfortably seated, a young girl wearing a black baggy blouse and jeans, a mask over her eyes and a microphone clipped to her blouse with a device to alter her voice walked up to the podium. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She looked at the audience and asked "How are you doing?" The crowd mostly answered "Good." She smiled and said, "Me, too." "Elon and the rest of the Pioneers, they're calling me one of the new Young Pioneers." "Being up here is like a strange dream." "It's very surreal......."

"So you're probably wondering who I am?" She paused for a moment and slowly said, "I'm a fourteen year old who likes to have fun and enjoy life." Then she stepped away from the podium and said, "And, I'm a girl who figured out a way to instantly move people across great distances using temporal energy threads." After Lupe said that the crowd became very quiet. She paused for a moment and looked at everyone in front of her. She giggled and giggled. "Yes, you heard me right...... I can move things across great distances almost instantly." She continued "They say it is the greatest achievement in the history of humankind. You notice I didn't say mankind, because it was me, a young girl who did it! I don't know why all this patriarchal crap is so engrained into our society. Anyway, they say it's the greatest achievement ever made. Listen, I don't know about that. I'm just a kid who likes to question things and find answers."

"But, I do know this as a fact. Years ago, corporate "for-profit" greed with absolutely no social conscience caused my dad to lose his job. So about six years ago my family became homeless. We were destitute. My mother was weak and couldn't take it so she left me and my dad. Six months later they took me away from my father because he wasn't making enough money to support me. There were no jobs out there, especially for the homeless." Lupe paused for a moment. "Because of some assholes who shipped my dad's job overseas MY FAMILY WAS BLOWN APART! ...DAMN THOSE PEOPLE!" Lupe stopped and looked around at the audience. "Six months later the police came to my foster parents' home and told them my father died from starvation and the elements. Thankfully they were wrong. Although, I am sorry for the man who did die, whoever he was. A month went by and you made the Big Change happen. Then two weeks later my dad found me." Lupe paused for about ten seconds collecting herself. "It was the happiest day of my life."

Lupe paused again and stepped further away from the podium and walked to the edge of the stage looking closely at everyone seated. Then she looked at the TV cameraman and asked him to bring her in close. Lupe continued "This moment is a blessing because I thought I would never have the opportunity to speak to you.

I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me my life and my father back. Because without you I wouldn't be here today. Thank you very much!"......... Lupe paused for a moment to collect herself again while she was wiping away the tears streaming down her face.......... Then she continued "This invention I came up with is the least I can do to repay you. It's the least I can do. She paused and wiped more tears off her cheeks. To the People!" Then Lupe started to clap. The crowd started to cheer. She began chanting Free-dom, Free-dom, Free-dom and the crowd joined in. This went on for a few minutes until she waved for calmness.

Lupe said "Me, a destitute homeless worthless little Mexican kid, because of the Big Change, because of you, I was given the freedom and access to fly to the wildest reaches of my imagination and abilities. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to invent what I call "Blinking". I can move you to the Andromeda galaxy and back in several minutes." She paused and looked around again as everybody was sitting silent, many with their mouths gaping open, and some gasping in disbelief...... She giggled again and smiled "Incredible, isn't it...... There are still a few kinks we're working out. But the future of the plants and animals on earth including the human race looks much more promising now that we can move to other hospitable worlds."

"As you can see, the People's military has decided to keep my identity a secret because this thing is way too big. And, I'm sure all of you don't have a problem with keeping me safe and sound." She smiled and asked "Right?" The crowd responded "Right!" She continued "In order for me to work on this project I made them all agree that I would from time to time be able to speak directly to you to let you know the progress we've made. After all, "Blinking" belongs to you. As much as possible I want you to be informed about this exciting new discovery. The exact way it works has to remain a secret because if it gets into the wrong hands we could have some very serious problems." "Don't you agree?" Thousands in the audience said "Yes."

"Now I'd like to move on to a special request I have, and it's something I hold very near and dear to me. A year ago my talents were discovered by a very powerful man. He made sure I had all the tools at my disposal to make it happen. It's a year later and I clearly understand that we need a better mechanism to identify kids' talents. Then the kids need to be given the encouragement and tools to help them with their passions. That's every kid in every school everywhere across our country." Lupe paused...... "Think about the greatness and happiness of today's society and multiply it a thousand fold. This is what I'm asking of you. With help from Elon Musk and Mark Zukerberg, I developed and posted the plan on the internet. It's titled "Opportunity for all kids." I put the author as "that blinking kid"." She giggled at the name she assigned herself. "All I ask is you please review it. I believe the resources we dedicate to this effort will really pay off for us all. Thank you very much. I'd now like to return the podium to Mr. Musk."

Elon came to the podium. It was five minutes before he could bring the crowd to quiet. "The original Pioneers, those adults you see on the walls in this museum, came together about six months ago and decided to recognize some of our youth who have done extremely well with their accomplishments. And even though we still need to improve through the "Opportunity for all kids" program, because of the Big Change there have been some extraordinary unbelievable wonderful inventions, discoveries, and ways to improve our life. So we decided to recognize those who we feel are the top five young people. We chose to spotlight the youth because that's when we are most divergently creative. This afternoon they are receiving the highest national merit award for achievement and are officially becoming a Pioneer. We're calling them the new Young Pioneers because we wanted to remind ourselves that it's the youth of America who are our future. I'm sure many of you have read about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. People take action based on needs. We decided to recognize our space traveler first because of the nature of her discovery, but also because her primary basic need was to observe, to question, to understand, to discover, and to see beyond. Her main motivation is her thirst for knowledge. That in itself is extraordinary."

Next up is a fourteen year old who was able to discover....... Well, I'll let her tell you all about it. Would you please put your hands together and welcome our next new Young Pioneer...... The applause was thunderous as the girl walked to the podium.

"Thank you, thank you. As you can see for my safety, they wanted to keep my identity a secret too. Elon has known me for some time now. And he would probably be the first to tell you how much I love to talk. Right Mr. Musk?" She looked over at him and he's shaking his head up and down. The crowd laughed. "So let me know if my story gets too long. Is that a deal?" "Ok."

"When I was in first grade, a boy in my class was constantly harassing me. He tripped me, pushed me, hit me, threatened me. It was a constant barrage. One day I finally had enough and had two boys hold him down on the ground while I put my knee on his stomach and beat him in the face with my backpack. He was such a jerk the other kids gathered around and cheered me on. He was twice my size and much stronger than me. I hated the fear he put into my spirit. And pounding him gave me a thrill I couldn't describe. In second, third, and fourth grades from time to time he would continue to intimidate me. Then in fifth grade he pulled my jeans down to my ankles and pushed me to the floor laughing. That finally got him expelled permanently. But he threatened me as he left. I'm going to get you. I'm going to take you out. And, he was deadly serious."

"So for the next three years I concentrated on nothing but making myself strong. Exercising wasn't enough. I had to be destroyer strong so I researched the biology of muscles in all organisms at the cellular level. Since the BC, all information is open and available. And with permission, which is easy to get, laboratories are open for inquisitive people. So all my time out of school was spent doing research. It became an obsession which took over my life. I experimented with my pet hamsters. At first a few died. But gradually I saw improvement. Then there was that fateful morning when I woke up and saw the bars on the hamster cage bent outward and the two little guys were missing. I looked everywhere in my bedroom. The search widened to the rest of the house. As I was checking the living room I saw our family cat up on a shelf next to the television shaking looking down trying to see something. Then as I was walking up to the cat to put him on the floor he jumped off and ran into the hallway. In hot pursuit were the hamsters. One jumped on the cat's back and started wailing on him. The kitchen door was open but the screen door was closed. The screaming cat ran right through the screen with the hamster firmly locked on and the other hamster running right behind. That was the last I ever saw of Felix and my two hamsters, Curly and Moe. With a fulfilling sinister sense of satisfaction I realized I finally did it. Then I was able to duplicate the results on four other hamsters. This time I used a very strong cage. After a few months, without anybody knowing, I tried it on myself. But in a very small dose."

"I can't adequately describe the feeling that coursed through my body. I picked up a basketball and exploded it with my hands. I went outside in the back yard and jumped as high as the tops of the trees. The next day at school I went to the baseball field where boys were practicing. I walked up to the pitcher and asked if I could throw one. He laughed and said go ahead, but I might want to pitch underhand so I wouldn't hurt myself. I yelled to the catcher to get ready. Then I rared back and threw one so fast that when it hit the catcher's mitt, it knocked him on flat his back. He was yelling in pain shaking his glove hand. I didn't throw it as hard as I could because I would have killed him. I turned and smiled at the pitcher and said thanks. He took off his baseball cap and scratched the top of his head as he was staring at me happily walking off the field. Then I winked at him as I met up with my peeps on the other side of first base. My parents didn't have a clue about what I was doing until I told them a few days later. Like typical parents who always worry too much, they immediately took me to our family doctor. After I told the doc about boosting my cellular organelles and infusing more oxygen in my body cells she immediately checked me into a hospital for testing. The next morning I was given a battery of tests and that evening, the Peoples secret service talent expert came to visit me in the hospital. She brought a baseball and a speed reading laser gun. She asked me to throw the ball down the hallway. She said throw it as hard as you possibly can. The laser was calibrated to a maximum of 9,999 miles per hour. It went full tilt and more. They had to get a crowbar to remove what was left of the ball from the stone wall at the other end of the building. The ball had passed through eight walls in total. Thankfully no one was hurt. Ms. Whitley and her team quickly gathered me and my family up and moved us to a safe place where I could continue my work. The People's secret service changed my name and scrubbed my identity and every photo and video of me off the internet and all devices that are linked to the net. I didn't realize we could do that. That's pretty nice if you need to become invisible."

Somebody from the back of the stage threw her a football, a basketball, and a baseball. "You, the People have mandated that everything be "open source". So here is what I can do...." She first picked up the football and easily squished it with one hand. She slapped the basketball to make it pop. "Now here is the fun one. With one hand I can reduce this hard baseball into a loose mass of threads." She did just that. "Amazing, isn't it. But to do this last trick, I had to figure out a way to make our bones and skin tougher. And, we still have some possible serious side effects that need to be worked out. But once it's deemed safe, the next question is, do we the People want us all to have this extraordinary ability. I have very mixed feelings about it. Give it to a bad person like my childhood nemesis and you'll have a really bad person. So maybe we should keep it out of the hands of people who have already demonstrated inappropriate behaviors. For example, we only allow 19 year olds with a clean past to be trained as police. But it's up to you, the People, to decide. We will be explaining the benefits and detriments on the internet very soon for you base your decision."

A person close to the front yelled "How fast can you run?" She smiled and said "A person just asked how fast can I run." "The answer is a thousand times faster than a cheetah." She smiled and continued, "It's because I drench my muscle cells with oxygen and chemical energy. The oxygen primarily comes from red blood cells composed of hemoglobin molecules with twenty four amino acid chains instead of two. A red blood cell usually has 270 million hemoglobin molecules. My blood cells have ten times that many and are shaped differently to hold much more oxygen. And as a byproduct of my work we stumbled on exactly what causes cell recognition and cell regeneration. And if that wasn't enough, we are on the edge of being able to reconnect severed spinal cords......... Yes, I now know how to have brain cells and other nerve cells regenerate.......... I don't know what else to say except I hope these discoveries makes us a better and happier people. I'll keep you up to date and thank ya'll very much. And now I'll return the podium to Mr. Musk." (The girl's new secret name is Tracy Smith.) As Tracy walked back to her seat she was showered with applause.

Elon walked to the Podium "Most of the current Pioneers, you know, us old people, we're technology nerds. So we love to find others who have made wild amazing breakthroughs in science. You can see that with the two Young Pioneers we've spotlighted so far. But as you know technology must never supersede our humanity. You the People have mandated that everything we do must benefit our environment, our plants and animals and us human beings. Simply put, our focus must always be on having a better life and greater happiness. So with that in mind we wanted especially recognize our third new Young Pioneer and have him explain the reason why we have included him in the top five. Let's give him a hand."

The applause subsided when the young man came to the podium. "Hello...... As you can see I don't have a mask and my voice isn't disguised. That's because almost everything I've done so far is up on the internet and available for others to use to better our world. My name is Jacob Jackson. I'm 16. I remember when I was eight I woke up late one night because a large beetle was biting my nose. As I pulled him off, he didn't want to let go. I guess I tasted pretty good. It was one of those great big bugs with huge mandibles that open and close sideways. It deposited a virus under my skin and I had a sore on my nose for months. This was just the tip of the filth I had to live in before the Big Change."

"My family is just my mother and I. Like with Barak Obama's dad, monogamy and responsibility was a concept completely foreign to my father. So he didn't stick around. My mother didn't have an adequate education. She took a menial job as a maid for a wealthy Cuban family in Manhattan, while we were financially forced to live in the projects in a very bad part of Harlem. Before the Big Change, males living in Harlem had less than a 50% chance of living to the age of 65. It's interesting to note that now after the Big Change, it's estimated that we have a 90% chance of surviving to age 65. And I thank you for that. Anyway, this Cuban family in Manhattan made sure my mom got all the government handouts so they could pay her slave wages like Alice Walton did with her Walmart employees. Back in the 1860s all the Emancipation Proclamation did was take our chains off. It didn't allow us to have an opportunity for a good life. With the wages my mom was being paid, she was still a slave, but now a "free slave". And look where we lived. The conditions in that Harlem apartment were horrible. The Hasidic slumlord didn't spend a penny on maintenance in our building. And he could get away with it because most of the attorneys and judges in New York were the same ethnicity. So it gives me great pleasure to know he's working on a prison farm in the Mojave Desert along with his attorney and judge buddies. But getting back to our living conditions. No matter how hard momma tried, she couldn't keep the rats and insects out. So my focus was on the pests and how to get rid of them. The need to have these critters gone started to possess me. All my free time was spent trying to come up answers. The biggest problem was rats. I realized the only way to stop them was at the cellular level. For years I tried and tried but didn't have enough money and resources to carry out real research. Then when I was 12 the Big Change happened. Mom moved us to a decent apartment that we actually owned. Finally no little pests. But I knew many homes were still infested with rats and bugs. With money from the Big Change I continued my research. Initially I thought about introducing bacteria or viruses into their food, but it could have hurt people or pets so that was out. Then, it came to me. That little light went off in my head. Mammals use hormones secreted from their endocrine system to help regulate their bodies. I was able to isolate some special hormones that affected the thyroid gland and the "fight or flight" response in their central nervous system. I introduced large amounts of these into their food supply and in a few days they were all dead. I also made sure these hormones broke down into harmless salts after a few days. In my old apartment building before the Big Change, neighbors down the hall were using arsenic to kill rats. Arsenic builds up in our bodies. It collects in our bones. Even trace amounts." In a sarcastic way Jacob continued "But before the Big Change that didn't matter. See, we were just a bunch of worthless Blacks who only took from society without giving anything back....." He paused and looked around and then said "What a crock of shit." Anyway I was 12 when I discovered how to safely get rid of rats. Next came the roaches and beetles. It took me a year of experimenting, but I finally did it. The solution was so exquisitely simple. Find a way to completely disrupt the telomeres in the insects' eggs as they were developing. The simple act of mitosis was halted. No more roaches."

"I continued analyzing telomerase and how DNA folds up in the nucleus. My friend who lived down the hall worked at a college lab. He had access to microscopes, autoclaves and other good stuff. He was amazed at how much I knew and he liked some of my crazy ideas. So he assisted me. After immersing ourselves in research and experimentation he and I started to better understand the mystery of mitosis. Using cellular material from zygotes, I was able to replicate telomerase and insert it into human cells using a harmless viral delivery system. This plus several other discoveries like fixing DNA folding problems will aid us to live at least several hundred years. Since the Big Change was in full force, I and my friend made an appeal to be granted access to more equipment and information to improve upon my discoveries. You, the People, allowed it and our inroads have been phenomenal. But wait, it doesn't stop there. When I was seven I wanted to make everything clean. I wanted my environment to be clean." He paused and said "How about that..... A clean environment......" "The first huge problem I tackled was mercury in our food chain. If I have a steady diet of large fish, over a period of time my brain will collect too much mercury and I would start to have serious neurological problems. Again, it took a year of crazy experimenting and off the wall research, but I finally did it. Instead of attempting to introduce the solution to all the rivers, lakes, and oceans which was totally impractical to get immediate results, I introduced the chemicals into the organisms after they were caught and kept alive. In a few days all the mercury in their bodies were turned into harmless chemicals. Then they're killed and ready to eat. But obviously this isn't a real cure, so we , the original Pioneers and myself, are planning to slowly introduce the chemicals that act as a catalyst to break down mercury in our oceans. And of course the best approach is using the chemicals to break down mercury in our own bodies. We are still doing testing on volunteers to make sure it's safe."

"So why stop with mercury. Right? Why not move to childhood illnesses." Jacob walked to a corner of the stage asking the audience to raise their hands if they've ever heard of "cystic fibrosis". Not many hands were raised. "That's sad because it makes a kid's life pure hell with lots of hospital stays. A large amount of these kids die before they reach adulthood." He walked some more and said "Before the Big Change there was no cure. We knew the exact cause. I'm going to get a little technical here. But if a regular person studied this stuff for about a week you would have a good idea about the following."

The next three paragraphs came from Wikipedia. It's not necessary to read this but as you can see we know exactly what causes it. "CF is caused by a mutation in the gene "cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator" (CFTR). The most common mutation, ΔF508, is a deletion of three nucleotides that results in a loss of the amino acid phenylalanine at the 508th position on the protein. This mutation accounts for two-thirds (66–70%) of CF cases worldwide and 90% of cases in the United States; however, there are over 1500 other mutations that can produce CF. Although most people have two working copies (alleles) of the CFTR gene, only one is needed to prevent cystic fibrosis. CF develops when neither allele can produce a functional CFTR protein. Thus, CF is considered an autosomal recessive disease."

"The CFTR gene, found at the q31.2 locus of chromosome 7, is 230,000 base pairs long, and creates a protein that is 1,480 amino acids long. More specifically the location is between base pair 117,120,016 to 117,308,718 on the long arm of chromosome 7, region 3, band 1, sub-band 2, represented as 7q31.2. Structurally, CFTR is a type of gene known as an ABC gene. The product of this gene (the CFTR) is a chloride ion channel important in creating sweat, digestive juices and mucus. This protein possesses two ATP-hydrolyzing domains, which allows the protein to use energy in the form of ATP. It also contains two domains comprising 6 alpha helices apiece, which allow the protein to cross the cell membrane. A regulatory binding site on the protein allows activation by phosphorylation, mainly by cAMP-dependent protein kinase. The carboxyl terminal of the protein is anchored to the cytoskeleton by a PDZ domain interaction."

"In addition, there is increasing evidence that genetic modifiers besides CFTR modulate the frequency and severity of the disease. One example is mannan-binding lectin, which is involved in innate immunity by facilitating phagocytosis of microorganisms. Polymorphisms in one or both mannan-binding lectin alleles that result in lower circulating levels of the protein are associated with a threefold higher risk of end-stage lung disease, as well as an increased burden of chronic bacterial infections."

Jacob paused then said "So we knew down to the "gnat's ass" exactly what it was, yet nobody was working to come up with a cure. Why you ask? Because there was no money in it. Comparatively speaking, not that many people have CF. There was more money to be made elsewhere. Every male over 50 thinks he needs Viagra so billions of dollars were made. For years and years pharmaceutical companies made loads of profits on drugs like Zoloft, Lipitor, beta blockers, Ritalin, and other drugs that could be given to a larger share of the population, whether or not we really needed it. Before the Big Change, these companies were completely profit driven with absolutely no social conscience! And after doing a little checking, I'm very happy to report that many of the people running these companies are also doing physical labor in the Mojave Desert. Aaaaah, justice! Slumlords and pharmaceutical moguls. Isn't it great. Oh, and all their family wealth was taken away."

"When I was fifteen I started experimenting to find a cure for CF. If we know how to extract bad genes and replace them with good genes in every cell in the body then the magic begins. It's called Gene Replacement Therapy. We've been trying to do it since the 70's." He laughed and said "They've been working on it like Edison did with his experiments. The great Nicola Tesla once said of Edison: "If he (Edison) had a needle to find in a haystack he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once, with the feverish diligence of a bee, to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was almost a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor." You see Edison once said "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." Boy did he have it wrong! And like Edison, the people previously working on gene replacement therapy were like dunces bumping into one another."

Jacob went back to the podium. "In six months my team found the answer. The biggest problem was the body's immune system going nuts with the introduction of foreign viruses. So the obvious answer was to not have them be foreign. There are lots of viruses living in a symbiotic relationship within the human body. Take some out. Introduce what we need into their shells. Multiply them to hundreds of trillions. Check to see there are no mutations. Then inject them into the body. Give a CF patient a treatment like this once a year. Wam, bam, boom. There's your cure."

"And, using our gene replacement therapy technique we are making very positive inroads to curing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease. Everybody knows it as ALS."

Let's move to another subject. "Before the Big Change did you get the feeling that researchers liked to prolong their work just to keep their jobs? I did. For example, there was a gigantic industry that had grown around cancer. It was so big it seemed like a cancer itself."

"The reality is most people don't even know what cancer is. Here it is in four words. Undifferentiated cells multiplying uncontrollably." The industry made it seem so complicated by tagging it with regional names like breast cancer or brain cancer. And then they broke it down to discrete biological differences. Listen, a cancer cell is a cancer cell. It's undifferentiated and multiplying without an off switch. An embryonic stem cell is an undifferentiated cell that can be differentiated in future generations. But cancer cells are just globs of cells that have no purpose. Researchers have shown that some cancer cells can have characteristics of stem cells, and that is why some cancers were hard to eliminate. But even with these little nuances, a cancer cell is simply a cancer cell."

He looked around. "So what if we knew how body cells communicate with each other? What if we knew how cells are able to recognize what they are and what the cells surrounding them are and who they need to be and what function they need to provide? What if we knew how to tell cells to stop dividing? What if we could just flip the switch off to stop mitosis?" Jacob smiled and said "A lot of what ifs, huh?" The audience laughed.

"It's interesting because the 14 year old that was up here just before me has already found the secret to cell recognition. She can cause cells to band together and regenerate a hand or a leg. She didn't go into that, but she can. These cell recognition and regeneration breakthroughs would not have been possible without the work of the girl who is going to speak to you after I sit down. So in a collaborative fashion we all used each other's work to make great inroads to eliminating cancer. Just how do we stop cancer? First we tell an undifferentiated cell that they need to shut down and stop multiplying. So who does that? Well the differentiated cells around the cancerous mass do it. These differentiated cells also send out a distress call to macrophages to come and eat these undifferentiated cells that the industry calls cancer. The cells scream out that they are being attacked. So it's a three-step process. First, you turn the mitosis switch off. Second, you have macrophages alerted and they recognize and eat the undifferentiated cell mass. Third, you have the cells repair any damaged area, even if it means regrowing an appendage or an organ."

"Earlier I mentioned my work with telomerase. Understanding the seemingly unlimited cell divisions of cancer cells helped greatly in understanding how telomerase functions."

"I don't want to ruin it for the girl who's up next, so I'm going to stop here. Let's suffice it to say for all practical purposes we three have come up with the cure for cancer. That's two 14 year olds and one 16 year old. The difference is we opened our minds and carried out our work like Nicola Tesla instead of Thomas Edison. Thank you. And we'll keep you posted on the status of our cancer cure." Jacob turned the podium back over to Elon Musk. The audience applauded for a long time before Elon could bring them under control.

"The next person up has accomplished something I still can't wrap my head around. It's nothing short of unbelievable. But let's have her explain it. Please give her a warm welcome." A young girl walked up and shook Elon's hand as he left the podium. "Hey, everybody. How you doin?" The crowd yelled out "Great". She continued "Before I get started how about we all stand up for a minute and stretch. Come on, get the cobwebs out and get that blood circulating." Thousands of people stood and moved in place. The noise level rose. She continued "As you can see they also wanted to keep my identity a secret. Bummer!" (Her new name is Molly Fabela.) As everybody was stretching, Molly walked to the front of the stage and looked down at the audience. She pointed to a young woman. "You were just wondering what my breakthrough is and why I'm having everybody stand up and stretch. Is that correct?" Mary covered her mouth. "How did you know that?" "To answer your question, my breakthrough is what you would call "reading a person's mind". But it's not really that. It's much more subtle and complicated. I'm getting readings that most of you would like to sit down again, so let's do." Security handed Molly a folding chair. She opened it and sat down. "I don't like podiums. I like to be up close where I can see you." She continued "Let's start by removing some facts out of our "holy" lexicon of accepted truths. First, we don't think just with our brain. Our whole body thinks. Each cell thinks. And, they communicate with each other all the time. We just don't realize it. Our brain doesn't tell the rest of our body what to do. Our whole body works in a collaborative effort to survive. The best example to explain this is when a human egg gets fertilized. First of all, the egg's DNA is only one half a normal cell. Same with the spermatozoa. Exactly how in detail do they exist with only half a genetic code? I'm still working on fully answering that question. And how does the egg instantly know when to seal up its walls once one sperm enters? We know the answer, but I also believe intelligence is involved. The egg flashes light at the moment the sperm enters the cell. Kind of like God breathed life to create a being. So you have the formation of the zygote, then the blastula stage, then the gastrula stage. Just how do these cells decide what to become? How do they dole out the work and decide what their identity will be? The answer is they to talk to each other. Every cell in your body is intelligent."

"So if the brain controls everything then how does a body stay alive when the spinal cord is cut just below the brain? Does the heart keep on beating? Yes. Does peristaltic action continue in the intestines? Yes. The thyroid works without the brain. And so it goes.

But, the body's voluntary muscles are controlled by the brain. Like a symphony orchestra the muscles need to work together and have the instant capacity to change patterns. And the brain is the music conductor."

"Bringing in the environment in a sophisticated way through our senses and having a central interpretive center to better understand what's going on is important. And having a place to store all that our senses have taken in is important. The brain provides that."

"But like I mentioned, there is one very important concept we missed. We don't only think with our brain, we think everywhere in our body."

So the bogus truth is we are separate entities unto our own. We believe that but we're wrong." She signaled with her hand held high and a buzzer sounded. "That's my 'you believed wrong' buzzer. My team used to make this sound about once a day for a while when we were making some significant discoveries about biological communication. Our discoveries shot down many previously accepted truths."

Molly stood and pulled her chair to the other corner of the stage and sat down. She checked out a good looking physically fit young couple. Molly pointed to them. "Plants and trees don't have brains do they?" After getting over the slight shock that they were called on, the woman responded "No, they don't." Molly said "You're right; you can now go to the front of the class." The audience started to laugh. Molly continued "But does that mean they can't communicate within themselves and with other plants?" She looked at the lady for an answer and said "OK, I put you on the spot. You don't have to answer because most people don't know the answer which is of course they can communicate within themselves and with other plants." "There's a big cottonwood tree in the front yard where I used to live. Years ago a seed dropped and germinated close to the mother tree. As the seedling grew, the mother cottonwood did not grow branches or foliage over the seedling. She allowed the youngster to have some room to grow. Now if that isn't intelligence, I don't know what is." Molly picked up her chair and moved to middle front stage and sat down. "See, we humans are all hung up on what we see and not what is really there. As I'm looking out in the audience...." She paused... Molly pointed to a girl on the 10th row and said "Hey, I like the outfit you're wearing. Could you stand up for a minute so everybody can see how nice you look today. You're wearing gradiented colors of violet to purple. Stand up for a second." The girl about Molly's age was embarrassed as she stood. "Isn't that outfit beautiful. It complements her looks and puts a little edge on her style. I like it. We see violet because it is a visible light wave frequency that bounces off of her fabric. All the other waves are being absorbed by the fabric. So the fabric itself has no color. What we see is the frequencies of light that aren't absorbed bouncing back to our eyes. So we think the fabric is violet to purple in color, but that's all false. "Thank you for your help. You may sit down now."

"We think of ourselves as people. When you look at me, you don't see trillions of cells working and communicating together to keep what you see as me alive. I guess the reason they picked me as one of the new Young Pioneers is my most significant discovery. I have found ways to understand what our body cells are saying to each other. And I can communicate directly with them. That is really significant because like Jacob just said I can now tell differentiated cells to make undifferentiated cells quit multiplying. And I can send large white blood cells to come and eat these cell masses. And if there is any significant damage caused by the cancer, and with Jake's help and the girl before him, we can now have cells regenerate tissue that was destroyed." Molly looked at the audience. "This is almost a miracle like achievement, but the best part is... guess what?" She waited for the audience to say "What?" Molly smiled and said "The method of treatment is very simple and very inexpensive. All medical care is free to us now, but medical care does come with a cost to us as a whole. So if one can figure out a way to treat somebody inexpensively then all the better."

"This is the part that really mystifies Elon and the rest of the "older" Pioneers. If I told a professor in physics that atoms and molecules have feelings he or she would probably think I was nuts. After all these tiny units of particles and energy are just that. No feelings, no emotions, no intelligence. But I believe that is not true. We humans are an assembly of trillions of cells consciously and intelligently put together to live and survive for as long as possible. In fact all living things are part of one whole. And when I say living things I mean everything that has atoms. That's because atoms have energy, and energy translates to living things in this reality. Some bacteria eat by siphoning off electrons from rocks. Cells in our body spin off electrons in our mitochondria to keep us alive. That means electrons are life. So I just laid some new concepts on you that I won't go into because I want to keep you awake. Bottom line is I discovered much about communication both inside and outside cells. I can tell you what they're saying. And I can persuasively communicate with them to perform tasks."

"With my monitoring instruments, I can tell you if you're attracted to a person, or angry, or sad, or... well you get the idea. I can really tell if and where in your body you're sick. I discovered a very discrete electrical field throughout our bodies. I call them electrical but they are more than that. And this field extends out from our bodies. These fields combine or intermingle between us humans. This is true especially when we're young. This is what I mean: Kiss the back of your hand. Don't feel very much, do you? Now kiss a person you're very attracted to and wow what a feeling. It's the discrete power fields around your bodies and on each of your lips that causes an explosion. The same is true with tickling. I can't tickle myself but I go crazy when somebody else tickles me. And that animal attraction you feel when looking at somebody... yep it's the power. And I recently discovered this type of power has similar characteristics to the energy/temporal threads the first Pioneer today discovered. This has some potential exciting implications that we are still exploring."

"So how does my work translate to help you to make your life happier? Well for one thing, we can cure diseases like cancer and plaque buildup in our arteries. The third biggest killer of humans in an emergency or intensive care unit is septic shock. My discoveries will end this problem. And I can do other things like tell you how your pet dog is doing and what he is thinking. Not thoughts in language form, in a much more primordial form. Anyway, I've talked to you long enough. I hope I didn't put too many of you to sleep. Being recognized as one of the first new Young Pioneers reminds me of how important my work is. So you have my promise that I'll continue to do my best. And, now I'll turn the podium over to Mr. Musk. Thank you!"

Molly stopped and hugged Elon as she walked to her seat. Elon stepped to the podium and again it took at least five minutes to calm the crowd down. "Last but not least, we have a fifteen year old girl who has devoted her time after the Big Change in figuring out just what makes us happy. I'll let her talk more about it. Let's give her a big hand." The crowd applauded as she walked to the podium.

"Hi. How are you doing?" Everybody gave positive responses. "My name is Summer Zia. I'm a 15 year old Hopi/Zia Indian. You've probably seen my older cousin, Christy Bird, in that 'America is beautiful' Coke commercial in 2014. We are known as Pueblo Indians. Our ancestors were Anishinaabe. The name refers to "good humans", or good people, meaning those who are on the right road or path given to them by the Creator or Gichi-Manidoo (the Great Spirit). The literal translation of Anishinaabe is 'beings made out of nothing', or 'spontaneous beings', since we had been created by divine breath and were made up of flesh and blood and a soul or spirit – instead of rock, or fire, or water, or wind."

"My people have made North America their home for well over one hundred thousand years. And the elder Story Tellers say our people had a very happy society. So the advancement that brought me here as a new Young Pioneer is my work with happiness. As part of the Big Change we mandated that our society must place our happiness above everything else. That sounds nice, but just what is happiness?"

"Remember before the Big Change the 'powers that be' focused on things like the Dow Jones average, the NASDAQ composite averages, new home starts, increase in sales and net profits of corporations compared to the year before, and of course our gross national product or GNP. Wasn't it sad that everything hinged on the 'Dollar Almighty'. We made money our God. That was completely wrong. All along we should have put ourselves and our lives before anything else. In my religion and in most faiths across the earth we are supposed to treat others as we would want to be treated. I want to have a happy life. And so I want everybody to have a happy life. As part of the Big Change we mandated that we have Gross National Happiness and not GNP as our society's goal."

"The Big Change happened when I was 11. This happiness thing stuck in my mind. The first thing I realized was Happiness is not a one size fits all. You can't throw a standardized happiness medicine blanket over everyone and think 'Wow, we did it'. So the definition of happiness is different for each person. But, isn't it also different for us at different ages? And, in different environments and situations? So this concept of happiness is really a very dynamic ever changing thing. I believe real happiness is more than experiencing pleasure. Ask any drug addict and they'll tell you they experience pleasurable highs, but at the same time they'll tell you they aren't happy because they're a slave to it. Pleasure, whatever it may be, is a wonderful thing. But it must never either psychologically or physically hurt us or hurt others. The great actor James Earl Jones used to equate real happiness with contentment. Pleasures may be fleeting but being content with those pleasures and everything else in his life was real happiness. And I agree. It's not an act of settling for a situation, it's an act of obtaining and embracing the kind of life that you want."

"I believe we as one People can provide certain standardized things for us all and that will for the most part make us content. But we shouldn't stop there. We should go further. Not so far that the returns are diminished for amounts of resources and energy expended. We don't want that."

"So I created a personal dynamic algorithm to give us ideas and help us understand better what we may need for happiness as we move through time. I'm not a psychologist or a sociologist or a psychiatrist. I'm just a young indigenous American Indian whose mother is a Zia Medicine Woman. All my life she showed me the ways of our People going back thousands of years. Hopefully some of this Indian wisdom I inserted into the algorithm will help us as we pass through our lives. The map is chronological, environmental, intrapersonal, and spiritual. To me, that seemed to be the natural way to proceed."

"The best tool to accomplish this is a 'personal' algorithm. Algorithms are usually used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning. The one I created continues to grow with the person. I wanted it to be alive and learn and constantly make changes for the better."

"This algorithm has to be in touch with the human spirit at all ages and as much as possible in all circumstances. When I was ten, I had pneumonia. After four days I had to be hospitalized. Happiness for me was getting over that sickness. At fifteen, happiness was my first real kiss. Years ago through today it's riding a paint across the desert. I could go on forever about what makes me happy. Since happiness is an individualized thing, why not have a customized algorithm for each one of us. We have the computing capacity, so why not. And that's what I did. For this algorithm to work, it has to constantly get feedback from the person it's helping. As it progresses through time, the algorithm grows exponentially. There are several main categories this program utilizes. First is the wants and desires of the person. The input is vocal and biological. Next is the person's perspectives from their environment. Next is the psychological profile of the person and using that profile to see what would make him or her happy. Next is the immediate group of people interfacing with the person. Next are new random introductions of things to the person and seeing how they like them. Enhancements to diet and physical exercise. Introduction to diverse types of education. Introduction of thrills and excitement. Adding many types of adventures. All these and much more is part of my algorithm. Larry Page and Sergey Brin were very impressed with the architecture of the program so they brought me here today. Soon we will have this up and running for every person in America. Thank you. And now I'll turn the podium back to Mr. Musk."

Again it took a while for Elon to calm everybody down. "Summer didn't go into detail about her program because she was afraid of getting way too technical. But believe me, after it's up and running you will really see the difference. It's phenomenal! And in reviewing Summer's work she told me that the program is strictly an adjunct or a buddy to help the person along, not to become a mirror reflection of that person's mind. She made sure that wouldn't happen because a program has no soul or moral compass. That's what I wanted to hear before I approved Summer for this award. Now I'd like to ask all five recipients to come forward to receive their awards." All the Pioneers already recognized in the Museum came up and stood to the side of the recipients. Elon gave each one of the new Young Pioneers their medal then a hug. Then the recipients walked down the line of existing Pioneers who gave each one a hearty handshake, verbal encouragement, and thanks. After the awards, the Pioneers then went back to their seats.

Elon addressed the crowd. "Thank you very much for coming here today and thank all of you at home for tuning in. This now ends the ceremony. Please be careful and stay safe on your travels back home." After some minutes of applause the building began clearing out.

Security quickly escorted the honored guests out of the building and into choppers waiting on the other side from where the crowd was exiting. Lupe, Tracy, Molly, Connie and her sisters, Austin, and Travis all decided to ride together. "Wow that was a long day" said Lupe, "I need to go back and get in the pool. I heard we're supposed to have an informal get together later at the pool." Connie commented "After this afternoon's heat dissipates, all I want to do is float on the water." Molly remarked "My bod says it's tired and my tummy says it's hungry." Nellie boasted "You guys are getting old. I'm not a bit tired." Tracy muttered "Show off." Connie charged "I saw you and mom taking a nap in an air conditioned Blackhawk during lunch." Nellie smiled and confirmed in a little spoiled brat kind of way "That was our required beauty rest." The pilot and co-pilot entered the chopper. The pilot said "Ready to hit the skies? Hey, I flew you three girls to the B&B yesterday. Well, you guys ready?" Austin said "Let's do it." After everybody had been accounted for, General Steele gave the command to lift off. One by one the Blackhawks entered the sky to join the Apaches overhead. In a few minutes they were in formation and traveling to the B&B. No problems for the General this time. They arrived in 10 minutes. The doors opened and Nellie was the first one to spring out and run away.

Back at the Bed & Breakfast

Lupe, Molly, and Tracy went to Connie's suite where they played canasta for several hours. Sophia and Nellie were playing video games on their new Xbox. The four older girls spent much of the time talking about the people at the high school they were attending in Las Cruces. Tracy told Connie "Let me tell you exactly what happened our first day at school in the lunchroom. We just sat our trays down to eat. At the other end of this long table was a big senior football player type harassing a girl. All I could think of was how my nemesis had harassed me in school. I started getting really pissed off. The guy had sat down next to her. He put his arm around her and she told him to stop. He didn't, in fact two guys behind him were laughing and egging him on. With his other hand you could tell he was feeling up her leg under the table. She tried to get up and leave but he wouldn't let her. I'm watching this and I just exploded. I walked over and tapped him on the shoulder and said excuse me. He said don't bother me. I'm busy. So I slapped the back of his head. He turned and looked at me with this asinine stupid look on his face and he yelled "What!" I lost control and punched him in the mouth knocking his front teeth out and I think I broke his jaw. I looked at the other 2 guys and said anybody else. One grabbed my arm and I flat foot kicked him in the groin and smashed his testicles." Connie gasped and giggled. "Good they deserved it." Tracy continued "Our bodyguards are working as teachers and hallway and lunchroom monitors. The lunchroom monitor ran over and had the three guys taken out of the building. We never saw or heard from them again. One was a star on the football team." Connie asked "Well, what happened to the girl?" Tracy said "I think I made a friend for life. She was really grateful. I found out later that academically she was the top student in the 11th grade. Her best subjects are English literature and creative writing. She's a timid shy introverted wallflower type. Her name is Bannister Ridgely. After I knocked that jerk's teeth out I asked if she was ok. Bannister grabbed her books, stood up and started to leave. I said what about your food? Bannister looked down to the floor facing me and said thank you, but I'm the last person you want to have as a friend. I said, here I'll walk outside with you. Then I turned and looked at Lupe and Molly and told them with my eyes to come on. Bannister sat down at a concrete table far away from the building. She began sobbing like a baby." Lupe interrupted "At that point I said to Bannister what the hell is going on here and why didn't any of the people around you stop it? Bannister said none of those people were her friends." Molly interjected "Then I told Bannister they don't have to be your friends to do what's right. Bannister said you three just don't get it do you. She said she was the nerd that everybody makes fun of. She has lunch in period one and her friends have lunch in period two. She was all alone." Lupe said "And then I told Bannister there were over a hundred kids in that lunchroom. You're not alone. And besides you have us now. Bannister looked at us and said 'Oh great, now I've got three freshmen as friends. I'll really get harassed about that'." Tracy said "Then I told her look, as you saw we can stop any problems. And believe it or not we can actually give you some street cred. We'll make a deal with you, Bannister. You tell us all we need to know about what's going on at this school and we'll make sure no harm of any kind comes to you. We might even make you popular. Is that a deal?" Lupe looked at Connie and said "As she was wiping the tears away she said fine, and maybe I can teach you three how to speak better English. Your sentence structure really sucks." Tracy said "I thought that was funny as hell. Three 14 year olds that made miracle breakthroughs in science and we could use some help with English. Damn. But she was right. Each one of us shines in their own special way. Or is it in 'our' own special way. Sh-t, I really do suck at grammar." They laughed. Connie told Tracy to deal the cards. They continued talking about their escapades at the high school and how they were fitting in with the rest of the kids. After a few hours of card playing Lupe looked at the time on her cell phone. "Hey, it's almost 7:00. Let's go change into our swimsuits and lay out on the water." Connie agreed. "That's what I've been waiting for all day."

As Norma and her crew were walking through the lobby to the pool, Lupe ran up "You won't believe it but some big singers will be at the get together." Connie said "Like who?" "I talked to some from the Disney's Circle of Stars on the way to my room. They said some are going to be visiting with us tonight." Connie said "That's great, but I hope they brought their swimsuits cause I'm still getting in the water. The pool is heated and my bod wants to relax."

Lupe, Connie and the gang with their parents in tow were the first of the group to get there. Nellie asked "Mom, where's Larry?" "He's coming. You like Larry, don't you." "Yes. You know I do." "Is he going to be my new father?" Connie scolded "Don't be so pushy Nellie. Adult stuff is very complicated." Nellie declared "It's pretty simple to me. When you're old and you like someone, you marry them." She told her mom "And you taught me if you want something, you ask the universe for it. Then you dream about having it and believe it will happen." Norma confided "You're right Nellie, I did teach you that. But, I wish it was that easy, babe." Connie injected "That's right mom. You drilled into us the belief that in this reality, I have to think about what I want first. I have to positively think and believe I will get it. And once I want something and believe I will get it, then I must ask myself and the universe to give it to me. In other words, take affirmative action to see that it happens and the universe will help me along. And you told me to be persistent. You said some people call it focus, initiative, or ambition with a little magic mixed in. Whatever you want to call it, what I desire has to start in my mind first before it can become an achievable reality." Norma smiled and added "And don't forget, you have to ask the universe for it and actually believe it's going to happen. But it's still sometimes difficult. Sometimes the universe will give you what you want, but in a different way. A way you never expected." Norma looked at Tony "Am I right, Tony?" He responded "That's exactly what my great grandfather taught me. But, some of us are made to suffer along the path to achieving our dreams. That's the part I really don't like." Norma said "But doesn't it make the achievement worth more?" He responded "If along the way I'm disemboweled, will the food I desired make it better?" Norma stoically replied "Good point."

Norma's core group were the only ones who knew Lupe, Tracy, and Molly were young Pioneers. And they weren't about to say anything. So security allowed celebrities to come that night. They brought in some popular musicians to mix with the group. Everyone was told the disguised young Pioneers had already gone home.

It was a quiet gathering of about 200 people around the pool. Summer, Jacob, Connie, Tracy, Molly, Lupe and Austin were on air mattresses laying out on the water doing absolutely nothing. Travis, Sophia, Nellie, and the Musk boys were doing the slides. About half of the music artists were sliding and half floating out with Lupe and her group. The adults were busy socializing and snacking on some delicious hors d'oeuvres that Jack had beautifully laid out.

The evening finished up early for the girls. It was a little after 9:00. Tony was in the water next to Lupe. "Mija, wake up. You must have had a hard day. I think it's time to go to bed, baby." Lupe cracked an eyelid and slowly said "Ok, that's a good idea. Let's go." She turned to Connie "It's been a real slice, catch you later girl." "Later" mumbled half asleep Connie. By then Sophia and Nellie were laying out with Connie. "Connie, Sophia, Nellie. We need to hit the sack, too" urged Norma. By 9:30 they were in their rooms, already showered and in bed.

Nellie was the first to wake up at 10:30am. "I can't wait to ride the roller coaster and feed the birds like mom promised." She quietly watched some TV while the others were stirring and trying to stay asleep. At eleven Connie's cell phone rang. "Connie, this is Lupe. You awake yet?" "Wow, what time is it?" "It's eleven and I'm hungry. Let's go eat and then go to the museum. The new Young Pioneer displays should already be up in the Recognition section. The amusement park is calling us. Can't you hear it?" "Ok. Let's do it. We'll be ready in thirty minutes. Let's meet in the lobby." "Great, see you then."

In the meantime Lupe called Tracy, Molly, Summer, and Jacob to get them to come. Jacob and Summer said it would be safer if they went separately because they didn't cover their faces. If they were all together people could easily figure out who the other three Young Pioneers were. Lupe agreed. "Well you guys have a good time and we'll see you later."

At 11:30 the girls with Austin and Travis made it downstairs with their parents and Larry. They had a nice lunch at the B&B restaurant before departing to the Peoples Monument and Museum. Larry had a wig and a scruffy beard to hide his identity. With shades and a big hat, Norma almost didn't recognize him when he came to her door. She had changed her hair too and was wearing a baggy outfit as a modest disguise.

Off to the museum again

At 12:30 Norma and the group boarded the bus. It took 55 minutes to get there. Tony wondered "Wow, why is traffic so heavy?" Connie suggested "Maybe everybody wants to see the new Young Pioneer displays at the museum." Lupe said "I don't think so. That's silly." As the museum came into view Nellie said "Look at the long line of cars." It took another 15 minutes to get the bus near the entrance of the first building. Norma whispered to Larry "Make sure your invisible security is all around us. I don't want anything to happen. Ok?" He whispered "It's already in place, baby. We're just a group of happy tourists. But if we are identified we'll have a group of agents around us instantly. The feather light Kevlar clothing I had made for us is also a good safety measure. It looks and feels like regular cloth." "I have to admit I'm uncomfortable about this, Larry." "It'll be ok. We can't run and hide from danger. We have to face it head on. So are you ready? Everybody's leaving the bus." "Ok, let's go." As they were getting off, the driver said he heard the Recognition Building was very crowded. And it would be wise to see the new Young Pioneer displays later today or even tomorrow. Connie thought "Heck, why go to an exhibit when three of them are standing right next to me." The Tres Bandidas protected themselves with their inventions. Lupe had a tiny cellphone sized device in her pocket that can instantly teleport her away from trouble. If others are touching her skin they'll go too. Tracy took some power enhancing drugs before she left. With Molly's help Tracy also recently discovered how to make her body impervious to bullets and knife cuts. And Molly had a small cellphone looking device that can communicate to her via an ear bud about what the people and animals around her are feeling and thinking. The device will constantly survey the crowd in her proximity and will alert her to any unusual feelings or behaviors.

Norma told the group "I promised Nellie we would go to the aviary and feed the birds. Do you mind if we go there first?" Everyone agreed and off they went.

"Mom, look at me," said Nellie as she was feeding a beautiful macaw on her arm. Molly spoke softly to Tracy "They're telling me they're very happy living in this enclosure. Friendly people feeding them. A safe place to sleep. And some of the people are very entertaining. Who could ask for more." Tracy said "Freedom." Connie said "Freedom is a very subjective thing." Lupe said "That's right. I think only humans would prefer freedom and a difficult life vs. being caged and happy." Sophia chimed in. "Why not freedom to have the power to make a good life? That's what this museum is all about, you sillies." Austin who was holding a beautiful indigo and red macaw said "This guy doesn't want to do any heavy philosophizing. He just wants my peanut." And, besides aren't we all in a cage called earth? Lupe looked at Austin "That's what you call perception vs. reality my handsome cowboy. Because we have the freedom to question, learn, and discover, Galileo showed us that we aren't the center of the universe. Now because of the work of our first new young Pioneer we can now go to other planets in just moments. See freedom gives us the ability to move from blind or superstitious perceptions to lucid realities." "Yeah, I guess" as he smiled and winked at Lupe. Norma saw the younglings standing around talking. "Come on, let the birds get on your arms and feed them. They're used to people, they'll let you pet them." So they went back to the important business of having fun.

Tony got a call on his cell phone in the aviary. He walked to the side and talked for a little while. Then he called his daughter over. "There's somebody who would like to speak to you." Lupe took the phone. "Hello." Then there was a pause... "It's been years since I've talked to you mother. ...Why now? ...Why at all?" Her mother's name is Violet because of her beautiful violet eyes. Violet said she felt very guilty about leaving them. But she thought she was going to die if she stayed. And her family wouldn't let Lupe come with her. Violet said she never forgave her family for that. She said it would have been easy to find a man that would take her in, but she couldn't do it knowing Tony and her were out there somewhere. She said she went into a deep depression and had to be hospitalized. But slowly she got better. She was working at a Wal-Mart now, and yesterday on the TVs in the back of the store she saw this girl in a disguise talking about what happened in her life. "I just knew it was you. And you're right. I'm not a strong person. You got all your daddy's traits. Thank God." Lupe said "So how did you know my dad's phone number?" "A national phone number registry was recently put up on the internet and your dad didn't put a block on his number. And every phone has a GPS tracking signal. I live in the District of Columbia now. So I drove to the museum hoping I could see you. It doesn't matter if you're the girl I saw on TV yesterday. What matters is I'm well enough now to talk to you. I'm in the atrium. Do you mind if I see you? ...Please." Lupe could hear Violet's runny nose like she had been crying. Lupe's kneejerk reaction was to tell her to get lost and to leave her alone. She paused for a moment then said "Stay there. I can see you through the aviary glass." Lupe called Molly over and asked her to walk out there and stand close to Violet and take a reading. She went out and walked around Violet and then came back into the aviary. "I see extreme sadness and heartache over the loss of something very important." Lupe hugged Molly and said "Gracias, Bandida." Lupe asked Tracy and Molly to go with her and watch her back while she talked to her mom. "This is a very emotional moment for me. I need you guys. In a cute southern girl accent Tracy said "Pues vamonos (Then let's go). Las Tres Bandidas, juntos somos mas fuerte que nada (Together we are stronger than anything)." All three walked out with Lupe leading the way. "Hello, Violet. Yes, that was me you saw. But my identity has to be kept a secret. Can you be silent about it? Will you be silent about it?" "Of course, I don't want anything to happen to you." Lupe turned to Molly and asked if she was telling the truth. She said "Yes." Lupe said "Good, but this is a very serious thing so we have to be sure you won't accidently spill the beans. You lost your parent card four years ago when you left us. It demonstrated that you're a weak person. I don't mind being your friend, but we will have to erase the old me and dad from your memory. We can do that kind of stuff where I work. Would that be ok with you?" Violet thought for a second and said "Of course, anything to protect my baby." "Ok, mom. This will be the last time you'll know me as your daughter. But since you live alone there is no reason not to be living in Las Cruces near where I live. You'll be working at the Wal-Mart over there. It's a big one near the freeway. And the people in that town are very nice. You'll love it there. Then we can be friends. Ok?" Violet agreed. Lupe hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. As she was hugging her, Violet said "Thank you, Lupe. I hope I'm a better friend than I was a mother." "Mom, I couldn't have had a better mother. It's just that you left us. How could anybody with a heart and a soul do that?" "I tried to commit suicide several times after I left. And later I tried to find both of you, but failed. Leaving was the worst mistake of my life. I didn't want to live anymore. Then I started having dreams. I saw the Virgin of Guadalupe come to me and tell me it was going to be ok. She said my baby was doing fine and not to worry anymore. I believed she actually talked to me. So, I've prayed to her every day for this opportunity." Lupe looked into her eyes and said "Ok, mom. We'll make it work." She hugged her one last time and said "May God be with you. Goodbye, Mommy." Lupe called Larry over and explained to him the situation. He contacted an agent nearby. She escorted Violet out of the building and into a chopper. The next day Violet would be at White Sands research center having those memories erased. And the next day she would have a nice home and a good job at Wal-Mart in Las Cruces compliments of the daughter she abandoned four years ago. Lupe also talked to her dad about turning off the GPS feature on his phone. Tony was very angry with Violet, but he knew Lupe's happiness and her decision about her mother had to come first before any of his feelings. Lupe asked to have an agent shadow Violet to make sure she was always safe.

The three Bandidas went back into the atrium to continue feeding the birds. But Lupe was too emotional. She went up to Connie and pulled her aside away from everybody. She hugged her and began crying like a baby. "What's wrong, Lupe?" "I just saw my mother. I missed her so much these last four years. She looks as beautiful and her voice and embrace are as soothing as the day she left us. After she left it was like there was this giant hole in my spirit." Connie eventually got Lupe to relax. They spent some time talking about it. She seemed to know just what to say to calm her down. "At least now that hole isn't there anymore. You can't risk your mom blabbing to the world about you, but you will have her there in the same town. Hey, maybe she can even live next door. That way you'll have an excuse to strike up a friendship with her. You can bring her in as close and as far away as you like. You have a farm, but you could also have a house in the city next door to Violet." Lupe smiled "You know just the right things to say, girl." as she was wiping tears away. Connie smiled. "Vamonos mi compa (my close friend), let's go back and feed some birds. When they returned to the group, Norma quietly asked Connie if everything was ok. Connie said "Everything's cool mom, but it has to remain private." Norma said "Whatever it is I know that you being a good friend is exactly what Lupe needs right now."

Nellie and the others had enough of bird feeding. Larry passed a program around and suggested "There's a symposium in a new theatre in the back of the Betterments building. Lupe was saying she would like to learn more about buying property from of the asset repository program." Norma said "And a speaker is going to talk about the clothing manufacturing repatriation program. We're moving to El Paso which is a large clothing manufacturing center. I'd like to know more about it." Bubba said "I'd like to learn more about the land purchase thing and also about the coastal desalinization projects and piping water up to San Antonio." Tracy, Molly, and their parents said they wanted to see the displays in the Betterments building. They agreed to split up and get back together at the freedom train restaurant at 5:30.

The symposium

A session had just ended. The theater doors swung open. Norma and the gang went in and found some good seats. Next up was the person who is in charge of the desalinization projects in America. She also oversees the construction of pipes to bring water to arid and drought prone areas of the US. Everyone was seated and the doors closed. The speaker came out on stage. "Hi, my name is Mercy Salazar and my job is getting clean water to thirsty areas of the United States. This project is truly an opening up of America for agriculture. As you'll hear throughout this entire symposium, money is no longer an impediment to getting things done. It's no longer used as a fake farcical tool to hold us down. If we the People want it, we will dedicate the resources and workers to do it."

"Since the Big Change we've made significant improvements in the design and construction of desalinization plants. Again money is no longer a problem, but wasting time and resources are. We can build a desalinization plant in about eight months which will deliver one billion gallons of water a day. We currently have ten plants under construction along our coastline on the western part of the US and ten are being built between Corpus Christi and Galveston. When they're completed over twenty billion gallons of potable water a day will be flowing into our country from the earth's oceans. In ten years we anticipate a nationwide system that will deliver over 100 billion gallons of water a day. The increased water will bring agriculture to desert areas. And, we will have more water vapor released into the atmosphere over these arid areas that will create more rainfall across the western United States. But the greatest technological advancement is the piping of water. A hundred years ago water pipes were iron. Then we went to steel. Then asbestos. Then to PVC. Now we have a new polymer blend that is almost indestructible from sun and water and anything else you can think of. When we install pipes over known faults like the San Andreas Fault we lay the pipe above ground with flexible joints and more automatic emergency shut off valves. What I really like is the fact that we're making the pipe at the site where it's being laid. We have mobile pipe factory trailers that are twelve feet wide and seventy feet long. Each pipe joint is fifty feet long. It takes 10 minutes to make a pipe using a sophisticated 3D printer. It takes about 10 minutes for it to cool down then it's ready to be laid. We make the pipes at nights then we lay them during the day. And each joint is flexible. They will bend up to 10 degrees and expand and contract up to five feet. We have thirty of these 3D plants at every pipe laying site. We are laying three rows of pipe about 9 miles a day." Mercy continued for 15 minutes giving more specifics. Then she opened the floor to questions. Bubba asked if they were piping water to the San Antonio area. "We are currently laying pipes up to Bexar County and the surrounding area. That area has been very undependable for consistent rainfall, so this water will be a life saver for the people and the crops." She looked at how big and tanned Bubba was. "Are you a farmer in San Antonio?" "Yes ma'am. And that water will allow more grazing cattle which translates to more steaks on everybody's table." Mercy smiled. "Now all we need to do is lower the cholesterol in beef." Bubba laughed. "I'm sure somebody somewhere is working on that." With no more questions Mercy said "Thank you very much for coming, and spread the word that water is on its way." The audience applauded and Mercy passed some flyers out for patrons to take home.

"Nellie asked her mom "Can we go now. This stuff is kind of boring." "Not just yet honey, a man is going to talk about clothing manufacturing. In a couple months we're moving to the largest clothing manufacturing area in the United States. Nellie made a scrunched face. "El Paso?" "That's right. And you'll get to help momma design shoes. Would you like that?" Sophia said "That's what I want to do, mom. Let Nellie do something else." Nellie said "Yeah, I'd like to design skateboards. And, I want to protect animals in the wild. Can I do that?" "I don't see why not, baby." Lupe sitting next to Austin asked "You doing ok, Cowboy?" "Sure, it says here that after this a lady is coming in to talk to us about purchasing land out of the repository. There's a limitation on acreage that can be owned, and dad has reached his. So I'm wondering if a 15 year old like me can start buying property." Lupe said "I don't see why not."

Everybody was seated. The doors closed. A short husky Hispanic male about 60 years of age walked out. "Hello. My name is Pilar Charo. How are you doing today? All my adult life I've worked in clothing manufacturing. I started out as a bundle boy for Levis Strauss and Company then worked my way up. In the early 2000s the greedy jerks at Levis left the US, so I secured employment with a very wealthy family in Guatemala. They had a textile factory and a clothing manufacturing facility. We made clothes for all the major brands. Before the Big Change, companies like Levis, Wrangler, Arizona Jeans, Abercrombie, Gap, Izod, Christian Dior, and just about every other clothing manufacturer subcontracted their work out. And we did a lot of it. It was cheaper because a second tier manufacturer like us could pay very low wages and treat their employees like sh-t. My boss, the owner, had the president of Guatemala in his back pocket so there were no worries about an employee uprising. My salary was over a million dollars a year but I could only stomach working there for five years. When the Big Change happened I volunteered to be part of bringing clothing manufacturing back to the United States. And so far it's worked out very well. El Paso was an ideal spot for repatriation. First, on the selfish side, I live there. But the real reason is El Paso has an enormous amount of warehousing space that can easily be converted into manufacturing. The giant warehouses were there because of the maquiladora concept that was put in place decades ago. It was set up to screw Americans out of jobs. The materials would move to Mexico where they were fabricated. Then the finished goods plus all the scrap were sent back to the US and put into warehouses in El Paso. The old Congress screwed us out of good jobs just to squeeze a few more profits for the owners who were bribing them."

"Anyway, I went to the major clothing label companies, like Levis in San Francisco, and told them flat out that I needed their manufacturing equipment back here in the States. At first Levis balked, so I put the entire family in jail for 30 days. Then they told me they would just leave the country and live somewhere else. They didn't care because their company was worldwide. And since Levis America was employee owned in the US, they didn't care to live here anymore. I told them I don't care where the hell you live. I just need the machinery. If that means buying it back from your second tier contractors, then do it. Period. I just want all Levi products sold in America to be made in America, or we will start killing off your family one person at a time." The audience gasped. "That's right. I had to play hardball with these spoiled prima donnas who had an inflated view of themselves, their talent, and their importance. I discovered all the owners of these top level clothing businesses were nothing but spoiled little brats. So I had to treat them accordingly. And don't worry. I didn't kill anybody. Or should I say we kept the lessons of death down to a minimum. But there were a few places where we had to bring in several thousand American soldiers to seize machinery and bring it back to the states. And as I'm sure you saw in the news over the past few years our soldiers sometimes had to kill some of the opposing military leaders in these third world countries. Whenever we could, we shortcut the process by surgically removing a country's president and his family. That was fun. We put harnesses on them, then an airplane flew over with grappling hooks that lifted them away and eventually to the US. Let me tell you, holding the president and the heads of the military of Guatemala at gunpoint in Miami as we took what was rightfully ours was excellent justice. These clowns are just puppets in third world countries. But bringing machinery back from China was a problem. To get around their refusals, we just manufactured new machinery. It took a little longer but we really didn't want to invade China over some stupid machinery. And besides, the Chinese are good people. It's their ruling class who are evil bastards with their selfish ruthless heartless Central Committee. But as you've seen recently in the news, China is undergoing a dramatic change. Hopefully for the better. We'll see. And you might want to pray for the brave mothers of China who are making it happen."

"But let's get back to three and a half years ago. We did accomplish something much more important in China. We were able to lure a considerable amount of manufacturing management and engineers out. Their skills and knowledge were what we needed. And they jumped at the chance of having a better life in America." Pilar talked for 25 minutes explaining the process and he passed out literature covering clothing manufacturers in El Paso and other hubs throughout the US. Then he opened the floor to questions. Norma asked "How hard would it be to start my own shoe and boot manufacturing plant in El Paso?" Pilar said "El Paso is the quality boot manufacturing capital of the world. China has greater output but because of their Central Committee's pure profit motives, it's all crap. A hundred years ago China could pride itself with its beautiful handcrafted goods, but sadly not anymore."

"If you want to make shoes in El Paso you wouldn't have a difficult time at all since there is a large pool of experienced shoe and boot makers. And the People's Bank encourages prospective entrepreneurs to immerse themselves in a community that has the resources for success. They will also provide the necessary training and support to help you along in your first year. We start businesses to be successful. These days the only reason for failure is the buying public simply doesn't like your product." Norma looked at Larry. "Guess what we're going to do." After all the questions, Pilar ended the session with this: "I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for us Americans to make everything we consume. We can never and we will never be dependent on others for our needs. Period. Thank you all for coming and maybe I'll be seeing some of you in El Paso" as he grinned and pointed to Norma.

After the session ended Norma told Larry "I like Pilar. He's a get things done kind of guy. Could work a little on his finesse though." Larry said "We saw how well Pilar was doing with his repatriation assignments so we had all the other workers with repatriation tasks to adopt his methodology. We had to play hardball with these people."

As she was reading the handout Lupe said "Look papi, next up is a discussion about the repository program." Just as she finished, the doors to the theater closed and a man walked on stage. "Hi, my name is John Adams. I'm part of the management team that makes sure nobody has over 50 million dollars of net worth. My group seizes the excess and places it into a repository. Right after the Big Change the People were having a difficult time deciding who to include and what kinds of wealth to include in the calculation. For example let's take Michael Dell of Dell Computers. He lived part of the time outside of the US, and a substantial amount of his wealth was outside the US. He's was an American citizen. And as a side bar reminder we only allow American citizens to own property both tangible personal property and real estate here in America. So the question was, do we take all of Michael's assets on earth except for 50 million? Do we only look at his wealth in the US and take everything except for 50 million that is located here? Or do we take everything of his in the US knowing he has way over 50 million outside the country and just let him have all his wealth located outside the US? And under what circumstances would we allow Michael to live here. Our answer was straight forward. If an American citizen wanted to enjoy the safety and other benefits of being a citizen and live in or even visit America, that person had to relinquish all of their wealth except for 50 million, no matter where it was located. So if Michael Dell wanted to keep his holdings overseas, he would have to live outside the US and never return. Period. On top of that, it was impractical for us to seize assets like real estate outside the US."

"See Americans knew we had something very special going on here. We were offering ourselves a kind of life that was next to priceless. Something that couldn't be found anywhere else on earth. We also knew there was going to be turmoil and chaos across the earth after we made the Big Change. We knew people across the world would eventually follow suit by toppling their governments and becoming direct democracies themselves. It was just a matter of time. People like Michael had no real allegiance to any country. He was Jewish, so his allegiance was to his People first. With the extermination 75 years ago of over six million Jewish men, women, and children, I don't blame him. But he made the wrong choice. He left the country like countless Jews did across thousands of years as a way to survive. But his survival vision was looking back and following the traditional modus operandi instead of realizing that the people of the world are eventually going to become one and live as one. Mr. Dell had all his assets in America seized. His US dollars overseas became worthless. So all he had was large foreign land holdings, a sizable foreign art collection, and of course stock in foreign corporations. Michael and many other very wealthy American Jews purchased some acreage on an island country out in the Pacific to achieve their Utopia. They developed a community on the west end of that island. Remember Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged where the super-rich escaped to a hideaway and finally had a good life. Pure fiction. Michael and his group did ok for a couple years. But last year the native islanders became very irritated with the pompous attitude and the small army protecting these prima donnas. So one night, using military supplies and training provided by anonymous benefactors, they attacked that section of the island and slaughtered them all. This sad scenario played out for many ultra-wealthy Americans who opted to live outside the safety and protection of the US. They eventually lost their wealth and many of them lost their lives. See, after the Big Change America became the beacon of freedom for people across the earth. Like in the prophetic movie "V for Vendetta" there were countless freedom fighters using terrorist tactics to fight their oppressive societies. Many of these societies have already crumbled and we with our technical expertise are helping them become true direct democracies. Personally, I can see several hundred years from now the people of the earth having a one world government. A government truly of, for, and by all the people. We will become the earth tribe. Yesterday I saw a 14 year old girl has enabled us to travel and populate other hospitable planets. I believe for it to be successful, we all have to eventually be in this together. You can get a glass of water and put insoluble particles inside. Stir it up and it becomes what they call a suspension instead of a solution. We don't want to blend ourselves into one people or one dissolved solution. Retaining all our identities and cultures is important. But we need to consider ourselves as one whole, dedicated to supporting each other for the greater good of all humankind."

Lupe turned to Connie sitting next to her. "I think he's right." She smiled and nodded. Connie realized she was alive during the most important chapter in human history. What we do from this point forward will have far reaching effects and her friend sitting next to her will be one of the most important players. She knew she would be smack dab in the middle of it. It was exciting, like fireworks going off in her spirit.

John continued for fifteen minutes outlining the process they went through to identify ownership of assets. Almost all individuals trying to hide property held the property in shell or empty corporations. In other words the corporations were not businesses. They were just vehicles that held property. John and his people eventually identified all these properties and seized them. One device John used was attorneys. Attorneys traditionally were the ones who hid assets for their clients. John's group approached every attorney in America and demanded they help him or go to jail for the rest of their life with plenty of shock treatments. After that happened there was an avalanche of properties identified. "Well, I have taken enough of your time. The pamphlets I had passed out describe in detail our methods of identifying excess property and our formulas for determining wealth. Thank you for your time. I'm sorry but I've run a little long so I can't take any questions because the next person up is waiting over there and she's giving me the eye. Thanks again and hope you have a good day."

The next speaker came on stage and said "John was a little mistaken about the time. We're going to take a 15 minute break for stretching and other things you may want to do. My name is Nancy Plese and I'll be talking to you about how we sell property out of our repository. Thank you and see you in fifteen."

Connie told Lupe "Look, there's Hanna with Mark." "Where?" "Right over there down four rows." "You're not thinking what I'm thinking are you?" "Let's do it!" Connie, Sophia, Nellie, Lupe, Tracy, Molly, and Hanna had been practicing several dance numbers and were pretty good. So Lupe ran over to talk to Hanna. Hanna turned to Mark and he agreed. He looked back at the other girls staring pensively at him. He smiled and pointed to the stage. They quickly ran down the aisle and onto the stage. Connie pulled out her Mp4 holographic player and put it next to the microphone on the podium. They got into position then Connie flipped the player on to Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. Their moves were almost perfect. The audience joined in clapping to the rhythm as they were dancing. After a cool ending they received a standing O. Lots of people had even gathered at the doors to see what was going on. The girls stood together, took a bow and then ran off the stage to sit down. Norma said "I didn't know my girls were practicing their moves. Has Hanna been teaching you? You were really good. You girls woke the crowd up, baby. They should hire you to dance during every break. I've got to admit these speakers can get really boring at times." Connie said "See mom, I'm the spark and Lupe and Sophia and Nellie are the pistons and Hanna is the gasoline. When I light it up all hell breaks loose." Norma laughed. Lupe was a little sad. "I wish Molly and Tracy could have danced with us." Sophia made sure she was sitting next to Travis. "Wow Sophia, you can really dance. You guys looked like seasoned professionals just doing what came naturally." She enjoyed the compliment. "Believe me, it wasn't easy. We practiced many hours on Skype to get it down. You should join us. We need a handsome White boy to complement our group." "No way Sophia, this White boy has no rhythm." They both laughed.

At the end of the break and after everybody was seated Nancy came to the podium. "Let's thank those girls once again for the much appreciated service of waking us up." She began clapping and the audience joined in. "My name is Nancy Plese. And I'm pleased to be here today to go over how to purchase from the repository. It's a subject that everybody wants to know more about. I had helpers pass out pamphlets to use as reference. The images I bring up on the large screen behind me will also help."

"Except for real estate held offshore, all repository property is listed in detail on the internet. The tangible property is held in warehouses in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. These areas have the low humidity needed to keep the property rust and mildew free. When we first take in a tangible item, we appraise it to arrive at a dollar value and an intrinsic value. Some items go to museums and the rest are sold as soon as possible. Some items don't sell so we give them away. First we check with schools to see if they want them. If not, then the property can be sold to the general public. I'm sure many of you already know the process but for some of you this is completely new. So, I'll go through it step by step. First, all real estate properties listed have a complete profile. In the profile we indicate if the parcel is available for purchase."

"Those parcels held offshore are used as tools for trade by our country with the country where the property is located. "

"And some of the real estate in the US is held for further determination of its status. That's because some will be part of nature preserves and national parks. Some parcels will go into non-renewable resource preserves. An example is ancient forest land and even regular timber land. We have parcels with rich mineral deposits like coal that are set aside for possible future needs."

"But with these set asides came problems. Immediately after the Big Change certain groups of people were up in arms about what they perceived as shutting down their livelihood. We sent out teams to assuage their concerns. For example coal mines in Kentucky were shut down. The people thought they were going to starve to death because they wouldn't have a job. That was even after they started receiving their $10,000 a month deposits. They felt if they weren't working, their income would be cut off. And at first there weren't enough jobs being posted in the areas where they were living and they absolutely didn't want to move, especially to another state. So the first thing we had them understand was if they were willing and ready to work they would continue to receive their money. Second, we said we would bring jobs to them so they wouldn't have to move. But it would take a while to build manufacturing facilities and other types of businesses. It was just a problem of logistics. There were many areas in the country where we had this problem. The people in these low employment areas finally understood when we started hiring them to build factories and other types of buildings. And we gave priority to hiring locals first. This approach, this methodology worked out very well. See, the Big Change halted capitalism as we knew it. In people's minds that was hard enough to work through. But requiring people to be uprooted from their hometowns especially in rural areas was just too much to ask."

When we have land for sale, we are careful about upsetting the local population by having individuals from out of the area purchasing large tracts or commercial buildings which can cause anger from the locals. Whether we want to admit it or not, people are very tribal. Outward distinctions such as race and language and inward traits like religion, intellectual abilities or gender bias are things that people gravitate toward. For example, having a large group of people who believe in open nudity move to a community of fervent Baptists would cause huge problems. So we thoroughly investigate the impact of all transactions before we sell any property out of our repository. The People of the United States understand that we are a hodgepodge of everything you can imagine. We just don't want any problems due to caustic mixing of cultures. But, and this is a big but... We guarantee human rights as laid out in the Constitution and its Amendments. So we don't allow bigotry of any sort. I know. It's like talking out of both sides of my mouth. But there is a difference. And when there is a genuine case of bigotry but the people don't realize it, we don't just jam the law down their throats. We educate and sensitize them to be understanding and more open minded. Like if a group of Muslims want to live in a community, that's ok. But forcing a woman to cover herself is not. Requiring Muslims to marry within their faith is not. Punishing Muslims for leaving their faith is absolutely not ok. And Muslim Honor killings of wives and daughters are totally and completely unacceptable. These are the cases where we execute the perpetrators like the husbands and the mullahs. Then we deport the entire Muslim community the hell out of our country. She paused for a second... I'm sorry, I guess I'm still a little angry about what happened a year ago."

"Ok, I got little off track. Let's get back to the process. Everybody is limited to the amount of land they can own. Urban land ownership is limited to two acres. If you like to grow your own vegetables and fruit and nut trees, this is plenty of land. The maximum number of homes you may own is three. You cannot rent out your extra homes, but you can trade living time with other people. And we have an internet site dedicated to vacation home occupancy for people who enjoy doing this. If you are new to farming the most you can purchase is 200 acres. If you demonstrated yourself as a successful farmer then the limit is three sections with one section being farm land and the other two sections being pasture. We encourage farmers to put in ponds and small lakes. If they do, we allow them to go over the limits on acreage. They can build a forty acre lake and exceed their ownership limits if the historic rainfall will support it. Through our US Army Corps of Engineers we are working closely with farmers and ranchers to carve out these ponds and lakes."

"The US has areas that typically do not receive much rainfall, like the high Chihuahuan desert in the southwestern part of the United States. Some desert areas can only support a few cows for every hundred acres. Like in past decades we continue to lease government land to ranchers who have property that abuts it. Presently we are bringing water to these areas. When that happens the irrigated property will have the traditional ownership limitations times five. We did it because not many people want to live out in the middle of nowhere. I've traveled by car all over west Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and other arid parts. In some places you can drive for hours and not see anything but desert. We need strong able bodied people living in these areas to increase our agricultural production. Thus, newly irrigable desert farmland has an increased ownership limitation of two square miles per farmer for crops and ten sections for pasture. That is a lot of land so we require farmers to have significant prior experience before they can step into a farm and ranching project as large a ten sections. The water from the plants on the west coast are just starting to irrigate desert areas in California. What we're seeing is multiple farm families coming together in a co-op fashion to handle such large farms. And it's working out very well."

"Here's how it works: If a person wants to buy land they would first peruse the list of available real estate on the internet. A property will be listed for three months at a given price. We don't necessarily sell to the first bidder. And we don't want people to offer over the listed price. See money doesn't matter anymore. Instead we have all of the interested parties explain what they will do with the property. The People (with a capital P) are very much interested in the environment and the people who already live and work in that locale. For example, we don't want a busy factory going up near schools and residential communities. Before the Big Change, every property in America was classified as to type like residential, light commercial, heavy industrial, etc. This practice still continues except now we consider mother earth, wildlife, and us humans and our happiness first. We award the sale to who we believe would be the best stewards of the property. All the land purchased out of the repository has to be put to use in some way. Urban property has to be developed, even if it's just a home. The land can't be wasted, but at the same time we applaud all developments that have landscaped open areas for people to enjoy. Rural property must be developed for agriculture, recreation, or as an open space wildlife preserve. For example, there is a large parcel just north of San Antonio that has herds of African animals. It's a great learning experience for kids. The animals come right up to the vehicles and the kids can feed them. This up close association with endangered species is priceless. Animals like the Rhino are slowly becoming extinct. There are only 5,000 Rhinos left in Africa. We Americans are moving these endangered species to the US. Parts of our country are rapidly becoming the African Savanna. Being a direct democracy enabled us to help the endangered creatures across the world. We have plans to wall thousands of acres and place gorilla families there. Without our efforts there would be no gorillas on earth except in zoos."

She continued "We prefer new commercial construction to only be in cities or within a mile of a city or town. Nancy continued with the details of purchasing real estate. Then she opened the floor to questions. Austin was pleasantly surprised when Nancy told him that people from age thirteen up can own property, but it still has to be put to some use. Once it's purchased, it can't just sit there. Austin remarked to Lupe "Except near the Rio Grande River, the area around Las Cruces is all desert, right?" Lupe's eyes twinkled. "I was thinking the same thing, Cowboy. I'm sure those giant water pipes will be out there in the next couple years." Austin made his eyebrows go up and down. "Maybe so...." There were so many questions that Nancy had to cut it short since she was over her allotted time. "Thank you for coming. My email address is on the front page of the handout. Bye." As she left the stage everybody stood and applauded.

Larry asked Norma. "How's it going? Would you like to stay for more?" "Yes, I would. This sheet says the next talk covers the areas of most concern after the Big Change. And now almost four years later we can look back and see what we did right and what we could have done differently. The talk is titled "How we made the Big Change work, an overview." Larry looked into her beautiful green eyes. "I helped put this one together." Norma in a raised voice said "Larry, you never told me about that." "There's a lot of things I don't talk to you about because most of it isn't very interesting or any fun. It's just stuff that had to be done." Norma's eyes looked concerned. "Honey, I'm interested in everything. Even the mundane. In fact I've been known to make boring lots of fun. Just ask my munchkins." She kissed him as she pulled him closer. Larry melted. As he was recovering "I shouldn't tell you about things more often." "Do you remember what I said to you when we first met?" "Norma you had me so captivated, the moment I met you is just a blur." She gave him a coquettish look. "I gently squeezed your forearm and said I came to see stuff in a building and now God has blessed me by allowing me to touch a man, a real man, who helped make it happen." "That's very impressive. I didn't know you had an eidetic memory." "Only the important stuff, Babe." Larry responded "You know I really like it when you call me babe." Norma kissed him again. And at the end of the kiss still with her mouth pressed against his, she looked into his eyes and said "Babe". Connie was sitting next to Norma. "Gaa...roosss, mom! You two need to get a room or a bucket of cold water thrown on you. Disgusting!" Norma said "I'm sorry Connie, sometimes I just get carried away." "Yeah, Larry needs to carry you away to some place private where you two can do all the slurping you want without grossing us out." Norma said "Por favor cállate. (Please shut up.)" She turned to Larry and apologized. Larry put his mouth close to her ear and whispered "Maybe we should." He gently bit her earlobe. Norma giggled, pulled away. "Don't do that. You know it sends chills up and down my body. Let's stop. I really want to hear this next talk you helped put together." Larry relented "Oookaaay".

The doors in the back of the theater were closed. The speaker came forward. "Hi, my name is Scarlett Johansson." The audience began applauding. "Thank you, thank you very much. But I didn't come here today as an actress. I came here as a person who worked behind the scenes for almost four years to make this thing a success. First, I want you to know that I'm Jewish and not all Jews were like Michael Dell who abandoned us to live elsewhere with his accumulated riches. Since the Big Change, I and many other Jews like the founders of Google, Facebook, and Oracle have dedicated our lives 24/7 to seeing that this actually worked. Because we knew if it didn't it could have turned into complete chaos. All of us were too smart and too determined to allow that to happen. We've been the new America for almost four years now."

"During the next hour we're going to reflect on some major things we did right and on some things we could have done differently. An hour is a long time, so instead of sounding like a college professor giving a dry lecture, I'll speak informally and I hope my little stories will keep it real and interesting."

"I remember being in meetings with Pioneers like Larry Page and Mark Zukerberg and saying 'Oops did we do that'. When Steve Urkel said it on the old TV show Family Matters it was funny. Not so much when we had the future of America in our hands. I remember Larry Page at a meeting of several thousand people where he said blunders were not allowed. If you even feel like we are heading in that direction on any matter whatsoever please speak up loud and clear. And we did. But being humans, we stumbled at times and committed some blunders that we had to work through. The wonderful thing was we as a country could immediately vote on a proposition. It would be decided and then we would immediately start the implementation process. And when things weren't working out as we had planned, with another national vote, we would make changes immediately. It was great."

"Let's first look at our situation right after we voted for the Big Change. What was the most important thing that helped our new government be successful?" Scarlett looked down at a young woman dressed in a purple jogging outfit. "Hi. Yes you, the lady who looked like she just stepped out of a Sports Illustrated Magazine." The lady blushed and said she thought it was the amendment we had worked so diligently on for months and months before the big vote. Scarlett said "Absolutely. That amendment to the Constitution told us exactly what to do. Not in a detailed way but almost. It was the unforeseen problems that had to be worked out. In the grand scheme of things each problem was small, but not small at all to the people affected. And enough of these problems if left unresolved could have wrecked the overall outcome."

"Remember immediately after the vote, we celebrated for several days? Then after the celebrations, came the stark reality. Before the vote, when we were scripting the amendment, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Oracle came forward and said they would set up the voting mechanism as well as the other computer requirements as laid out in the amendment. A few days after the vote we looked to these companies. That was our most vulnerable point because we didn't know if these guys would hold true to their promises. Larry, Sergey, Mark and their team members were the first ones to come forward. They laid out on a TV special what was going to happen regarding the voting process. The detailed process wasn't what we wanted to see. What we wanted to see was there were powerful people out there watching our backs and working to make it happen. That TV special that aired on all stations was the pivotal point. It allowed us to take a deep breath and relax. So Larry, Sergey, and Mark, I'm sure you're out there somewhere in the audience today. Thank you for that gift and for your help during the last four years. And thank you Elon Musk, Edward Snowden, Larry Ellison, Melinda Gates, Jack Dorsey, and the countless thousands of others who rolled up their sleeves and worked to make our new government a success. As I'm standing here I see many of the people I worked with sitting in the audience. What we made happen is something we are all very proud of. It's monumental in the history of humankind."

"This is being recorded on video for patrons to watch here at the Museum tomorrow and hopefully hundreds and even thousands of years from now."

"So back to the beginning. For some reason many people felt like a gaping hole was created when we did away with the conventional form of capitalism. There were a lot of people who really didn't believe the Big Change would work. But they thought anything would be better than what we had at the time. So our first blunder was not immediately providing adequate information about the change."

"Everybody's first concern was maintaining a least their current standard of living. To them that meant being sure they had a job. Since birth all of us were indoctrinated into the scenario of first comes a job...then comes money...then with the money we buy things to live. Even though we were the ones who constructed the amendment, we really didn't understand that money came first. But at the same time we also had to work. But when we worked it was to provide us with our consumable needs. We no longer worked to make monetary profits for businesses. We just had a hard time getting that through our thick heads."

"Let me state it again. We used to work to make money for businesses. Now we had to understand we worked to meet our needs. Big difference. We used to think our basic needs were the traditional needs of food, shelter, clothing, family, and faith. Now we understand it's our happiness which includes everything that translates to ourselves, to others, and to our environment. Happiness goes deeper than the simple attainment of a regular and for most of us a subpar life that we had before the Big Change."

"Everybody, no matter how much they read or thought about it, they just couldn't wrap their heads around us paying us a minimum of $10,000 a month without worrying where the money was coming from. Many people even thought there was a fixed amount of money in the United States and the rich were hoarding it all. Money is actually an intangible right to purchase. And, we couldn't grasp that after the Big Change those rights came from us as a whole people. As much or as little as we wanted to give ourselves as determined by a supermajority vote. The key point which we eventually understood is at any given time there are only so many products and services we can provide ourselves with. If thirty million of us wanted a new car each year, then we needed to make thirty million cars and that would have taken a lot of material and a huge labor force. That meant the resources, both material and human, needed to make those cars couldn't be used to make other things."

"With all this understood, we had our giant computer analysis programs map out total raw material resources, technical expertise, and labor force availability. Based on our wants and needs it gave us the best alternatives to take. Following the amendment, we agreed to go easy at first and not over indulge on anything and thus cause shortages. As you all know, some of the time it didn't work. Remember our immediate shortages of junk food and gas. But eventually we did get it into our heads to take it easy. An example was us making sure the northern part of the United States had an adequate supply of heating oil during the winter."

"As we progressed, in general terms, we chose food, water, energy, clothing, housing, transportation, communication, education, medicine, and the environment as our top priorities. Then we looked inside each category and decided the short term shortage avoidance methods to use, and then the long term approach to take. For example, almost all clothing was made outside the US. But we knew we had a huge labor force with experience in making clothes. San Antonio and El Paso had thousands of people who used to make jeans. All they needed was the material, thread, pattern cutting machines, sewing machines, and a whole lot of chairs and tables. It took just a few weeks to bring this stuff to large empty warehouses. In a month they were turning out several thousand pairs of pants a week. But we didn't have enough experienced people who knew how to make shirts, so we brought several hundred workers from Chihuahua, Mexico to teach Americans in Green Bay the art of mass producing shirts and blouses. After a month of set up and practice, this group was turning out several thousand units a week. We did the same thing with dresses in New York City. We didn't think about it at the time but there were several hundred thousand first generation Americans in NYC who had tons of experience making textile products in their mother country. Underwear, dresses, shoes, hats, socks. You name it. They could do it. All they needed was the raw materials and the machines. So we had the clothing problem well in hand. Taking a long term view we understood that it was crucial to spread manufacturing across America. In almost every state we now have manufacturing facilities turning out all kinds of clothing. This is true with cars, farm machinery, dairy products, and so on."

"But there were other kinds of products that weren't so easy. The electronics industry was an example. At the time of the Big Change, Samsung in South Korea employed over 250,000 people making everything imaginable from TVs, to cameras, to music systems, to cell phones, and so on. Right after the change, we had squat manufacturing capacity for electronics. The South Koreans depend heavily on us for food and raw materials like plastics and metals. They were also extremely worried about having to lay off thousands and thousands because our amendment required us make everything we consumed. But we altered our amendment to allow trade deals with other countries like South Korea. They would continue making products and we would trade our food and materials for all those goodies we have come to need like big flat screen TVs and the latest in cell phones. But at the same time we had them set up several small factories in the US for us to make the exact same products they were making in South Korea. So if for some reason they no longer could supply us then we could easily take up the slack by expanding production here. See after the Big Change we realized if we completely stopped buying from places like South Korea, it would substantially hurt their economy. Many people would lose their jobs, become destitute and I'm sure many would have starved to death. We don't want to kill innocent people."

"Moving on to another thought. Many believed a person who worked for a company that didn't do much business shouldn't be paid $10,000 a month. How did their minimal efforts legitimize that much pay? And, it wouldn't be fair for another person working at company doing lots of business. At least initially a lot of animus was out there with situations like this."

"See, it took a while for us to realize we were no longer living in a financial for-profit society. We eventually caught on that a fair, just, and equitable transition would take a while. And those gross disparities would eventually even out as we were transitioning to a more efficient workforce."

"But we are an impatient people. And that was another one of our blunders. The people assigned the task to repatriate manufacturing back to America didn't do it fast enough. We were being too nice about it and those companies who were supposed to comply with our demands were doing everything they could to slow it down or stop it. We didn't push hard enough or fast enough to bring manufacturing back. The People were getting upset because of shortages because we didn't have enough manufacturing capacity. After a few months of snail like results, the People demanded we do it immediately. So we enlisted real nasty mean bastard types to get our manufacturing here and up and running. Pilar Charo, the man who spoke earlier, was one of these get things done right now kind of people. He brought clothing manufacturing back to America in only six months. He really got the attention of the super-rich in Central and South America when we captured the president of El Salvador and had to kill him because he wasn't cooperating. We had a media blitz in these small countries explaining step by step what we were doing. And, they liked it. We promised these people that they would still have jobs even though we were moving manufacturing back to the US. We established trade agreements. The People of the US started trading directly with the regular citizens of Central America and Mexico. If the wealthy, through their bought and paid for government "elected" officials got in the way, we just killed them. For example, we made agreements with the farm workers at the Dole Banana Company plantation in Guatemala."

"In 2009, Hillary Clinton the Secretary of State pushed through a military coup in Honduras. They deposed a democratically elected President and replaced him with a ruthless dictator. Because of her brutality, Honduras became a country of gangs and police. After the BC, we had to restore a democratically elected President. Then we offered the people the chance to be a direct democracy. But to be cautious it is going to be over a four year period. The first thing we did was make sure nobody was hungry. We made sure the entire population had enough money to live a reasonable life. Right now we are helping clear out the gangs. We offered the gangs a job or death. Jail was not an option. And it's slowly working."

"The American citizen interests in all foreign businesses ended with the Big Change. The ultra-wealthy Americans like the owners of Dole moved out of the US to places like Guatemala thinking they would continue doing business as usual which meant mistreating workers. And looking back you can see it didn't happen. The People of the United States had lost their patience. We needed food like bananas and coffee from Guatemala so we went in with our military and rounded up all the wealthy ex-Americans and the local fat cats and killed them. Problem solved. We created unions or co-ops of people for each farm. They owned the farm and we traded directly with them. And if they needed any competent administrative assistance we provided it. Once the people in Central and South America actually saw what we were doing they all wanted our help to become free from their repressive governments. Oh, and the US controlled all radio, television, and newspapers in Central America. By that I mean the journalists were given the freedom to report events as they actually happened. Like in our country, no propaganda or brainwashing was allowed by the press anymore. So, we had enough from the bloated rich and the dirty politicians in Mexico, Guatemala, and other Central American countries like Honduras. We are carefully turning these countries into direct democracies. And the citizens genuinely love us for it."

"Talking about propaganda, let's look at some lingering perceptions we had. The People didn't really understand that falsehoods were ingrained into our minds since we were children. For example, before the Big Change every national TV newscast gave information about the stock market. If stocks were plummeting that was bad for our economy which translated to bad for our country. People just didn't understand that the health of our nation was absolutely not tied to the stock market. See the stock market was nothing but a sophisticated gambling casino. Every time you bought stock you were placing a bet."

"When we shut the stock markets down, everybody went crazy with fear. ...that was a huge blunder. For six months we were putting out fires of ignorance and fear everywhere in our country."

"Scott Pelley, the CBS evening news guy came forward on his own during an evening telecast soon after the Big Change and summed it up very well when he said "The People directly paying the People is great. With our giant computer systems, it won't cause out of control inflation because we can track and control all prices. And those items that are hard to come by will be rationed and production will be stepped up on these scarce products. Simply put, if you have total control of the game board you can basically do anything you want. So tell me... Exactly what does the stock market have to do with our survival, life, and happiness? The answer obviously is NOTHING. And everybody knows American employees are going to be the new owners of all large corporations. No more separating the working class from the ownership class." All the other newscasters followed suit with the same story."

"You see when the amendment was written, everybody was on board with closing the exchanges and transferring ownership to employees. But when it happened there were areas of panic in the US. Then after those fires were put out, the employees of corporations who were now the owners started getting upset about not being able to sell their shares to make a profit. Again our blunder was not educating the public enough about this concept of ownership."

"For example, we had an employee of General Electric Company who worked on a refrigerator assembly line. He had stock in the company. He wrote an email asking us to please explain why he wasn't able to sell it? The answer, which he really didn't get, was... because we eliminated the divide between the working class and the ownership class. Americans do not make money anymore off the backs of other people! YOU get paid based on YOUR contribution to the effort. And as you can see, we pay ourselves very well. All healthcare and energy costs are free. No taxes anymore. Gasoline prices are capped at two dollars a gallon. Home and car prices have been slashed. In other words, no matter who you are and what you do, you're going to have a good life money wise. A whole lot more than your basic needs are met today. But many still didn't get it. This selfish extreme greed and avarice attitude was engrained into our minds for generations. Immediately giving everybody at least $10,000 a month tax free was the best way to supplant that attitude. But even then we had to have many TV programs explaining just what was going on and how we made the shift to all of us making money based exclusively on our own efforts. And money was no longer the bindings and shackles the ultra-wealthy used to hold the rest of down. Before the Big Change, over one half of America owned less than two and a half percent of its wealth. The top 400 richest people in America had at least 14 times more wealth than 160 million Americans. We finally realized this gigantic disparity had to end. So now money is simply a tool to help give us a good life and to be used as a tool to stay within our means on a national level."

"And thank goodness our amendment included instructions about doing annual reviews. The fairness of rewarding people's efforts was paramount. We explained it and we reminded people constantly about this. No blunders there."

"I liked it when Mark Zukerberg came up with the idea of recognizing people's efforts. Per his suggestion we started a monthly party for every company in our country. The party was away from work in a relaxed environment. Later, we turned it into a weekend long thing. During the mornings and afternoons there were informal discussions by employees about where the company was headed and what improvements could be made. All the sessions were recorded to give recognition where it was due. No more stealing ideas from others. During the day were discussions and then at night were parties. The People liked Mark's idea. He said the times of a CEO standing on a stage pontificating to thousands of underlings had to go. Instead we all associate together as one large group. We know who the leaders are. We're not stupid. But the bonding and caring for one another goes through the roof when we treat each other as peers, as family."

"Then later we implemented Mark's suggestion that we have a city party every quarter. Each company has a booth explaining what they do and how they're contributing to our happiness. And, of course there is plenty of food and beverage booths, and rides for kids, and multiple music stages. During the party everyone visits each other's booths. This collective collaboration helps bring the people of each city closer together."

"So the most important reasons this thing worked were: We saw a lot of improprieties between pay and output. But with education we came to understand that we wouldn't immediately have instant fairness and propriety. And that $10,000 a month tax free paycheck made the transition a heck of a lot easier. Especially when all prices were frozen or slashed. A nice home could easily be paid off in five years. It was fantastic. Then as time passed our system of rewarding employee/owners for their extraordinary efforts started to work and it worked very well. Everything I've said you all know. So to make it real and tangible let's look at some examples."

"David Cotton lives in Birmingham, Alabama. The day before the Big Change, he was making $40,000 a year working as a salesman for an insurance agency. Dave is married and has two children. His wife Shirley was working a minimum wage job at a food processing plant. Together after taxes they took home a little over $3,000 a month. The day after the Big Change, their take home pay was $23,000 a month. That's ten for each adult and $1,500 for each child. They had so much money coming in they didn't know what to do with it all, so they just started saving the excess. Scarlett paused...... Can you imagine...... They were barely getting by paycheck to paycheck. And now they had way more than enough money to have a good life. But Dave was concerned because the Constitutional amendment eliminated all types of insurance sales. Home and auto insurance was free now. The only catch was intentional destruction of property just to get paid a claim. That kind of stuff became a very serious offense punishable by some very serious tasings."

"It took about three months for an employment wanted registry to go up on the internet. David couldn't sell insurance anymore so during those first three months he worked in the claims area of the business. His work day wasn't that busy. And he felt like he was cheating the system because he really wasn't doing much. But on the daily TV news updates about the Big Change status, David was constantly being told to be patient as we were realigning the needs and jobs in our country. As it turned out Shirley's meat packing company was doing great. Its sales were shooting through the roof. So David recommended to a local group of job overseers that he could better contribute to the success of the Big Change by helping his wife at the plant. They agreed."

"These local overseers in each county reported to their state overseers. And they reported to a national group. And their activities were meshed into our old NSA computer infrastructure that analyzed our immediate and long term needs. It looked at our resources located in the US, both equipment and raw materials. Then it looked at all of us and what we were doing and what we could be doing. Then it made recommendations to the People."

"For about six months, we were busy most every day voting on initial implementations and changes. But we had some problems. As Nancy Plese mentioned earlier, we tried to relocate large amounts of people to areas where existing factories were located. That was a giant blunder. It was bad enough a significant amount of our workforce was going to have to be doing something else. But to uproot entire families carte blanche was very presumptuous of us."

We did very well with our rationing process, though. Our giant NSA system reviewed every person in the US. The system looked at our buying habits and our needs. For example a baby needs lots of disposable diapers. A mother needs special food for her baby. A truck driver needs tires. A fisherman needs nets. A doctor needs plenty of medical supplies. A contractor needs tough work clothes and steel toed shoes. Kids need lots of goodies to help learn about anything they want.

So with this in mind, for those things that were going to be hard to come by, the system granted or rationed out rights to purchase the types of things it thought each person would need. Then we did something on top of that. During World War II my grandfather told me about the ration stamps our government issued to people. The ration stamps were in little books and each stamp was labeled with a number which indicated the type of scarce item they could buy. People weren't supposed to trade these stamps with each other, but they did. And believe it or not, it helped the rationing process. So we instituted the same thing. If I needed to buy a set of tires and none were rationed to me, I would put a trade request on the internet. It went into the NSA computer. It looked for those who had tire rations rights and contacted them to see if they would like to trade. Some would say yes and indicate what they will trade for. The system checked for anybody who had that or those items and would like to trade. In other words the overall trading process included millions of people simultaneously. This worked extremely well. We assigned rights to purchase a fixed quantity of scarce items. And then we let the People almost instantly work out deals and trades. Money could be used as boot when a trade was unbalanced. But scarce items could never be sold at a profit. As time went on we increased production of scarce items and eventually rationing was reduced down to just a few things. This automated bartering was a life saver."

Scarlett continued by spotlighting more ten families across the US and how they successfully transitioned into the Big Change. Most of the difficulty occurred with office workers moving to outdoor work like construction. Many were getting hurt because they ignored safety rules. They were also being hospitalized because of heat strokes.

Near the end of her talk, Scarlett spent some time covering law enforcement and our justice system. "The two items we felt were most important was our sustainment and our safety. We did well with our sustainment, but what about our safety? As per our amendment to the Constitution, we immediately created randomly chosen groups to head up or act as overseers of all federal departments and agencies, especially all departments relating to our security, like the DoD, and DHS, and CIA, and FBI, etc. The top heads of every agency in the federal government were relieved of duty and sent home. This is because we couldn't take the risk that any of them would work against us. The same was true with all defense contractors with income over 100 million dollars."

"We also removed every chief of police and every sheriff in every city and county in the US. In their place we put randomly selected groups of people. The size of the group depended on the population the department was servicing. New York City's police department is now controlled by a cross section of citizens numbering 200 that meet every day to give direction and get feedback from all precincts. They enforced the requirements of police as laid out in our amendment to the Constitution. Any police not complying were sent to jail and tased. The combative and extremely corrupt ones were castrated before being released from jail. All police in the nation had to take a polygraph test. Failure would cause investigation and possible jail time. And we instituted the program of having every nineteen year old without a juvenile record undergo police training and serve on a police force for a year."

"The People immediately followed the instructions in the amendment by removing all prisoners jailed on drug charges after they were tased 8 times a day for thirty days. Then between fifty and a hundred people were randomly chosen in each county to oversee the actions of the judges in that county. Higher state courts had one hundred people and federal appeals courts had two hundred people. Finally the supreme court had one thousand randomly chosen people across the nation. Every judge was questioned using a polygraph to see if they were dirty or not. If they failed the testing, then they were investigated and if necessary punished."

"All people in the US who committed violent crimes (crimes where other individuals were intentionally hurt) were jailed for three months and tased eight times a day. Upon completion of their sentence, they were castrated. All men convicted of rape were castrated and they also had their penis cut off. If a person was convicted of murder they were immediately executed. But in order for a person to be found guilty there had to be clear and convincing evidence like a video, and polygraph results from the accused. The fifth amendment no longer protected the guilty from self-incrimination. The People wanted to know the truth. But the results of a polygraph was not enough. There had to be other solid evidence." Scarlett went on to describe how we rid ourselves of corrupt police in our nation. Over 25,000 individuals were fired and went to jail."

In her concluding statement, Scarlett put a plug in for her new movie. "We've just finished filming it. It's about a family before the Change. How they coped during the transition. And lastly how they're doing today. Our producer/director, Samuel Adams was very impressed with how Norma Corona took those terrorists down a year ago. He researched her past and soon discovered her life was the perfect story. The movie will be released in three months. I hope you will come out and see it. Thanks everybody." The applause was thunderous as Scarlett left the stage.

Norma said to Larry. "I talked to Sam almost a year ago. He interviewed me for three days saying he was going to make a movie about how great the Big Change was. Bubba, Laurie, and Tony said he contacted them too. As you know, we made a pact not to reveal anything about Lupe. That's sad when you consider the greatest thing to come out of our friendship this past year is Blinking. And we wouldn't have been friends if it weren't for the Big Change." Larry said "Some things you have to keep to yourself to protect the lives of others." Norma replied "But he never talked to me again. How could he make a movie about my life?" Larry said "Sam loves to be a detective. He thinks the more people he talks to the more accurate your life story will be." Norma responded "Hum, he talked to my dad and the teachers at school, too. He a real nosey guy. I hope he painted me in the best possible light." Larry said "I'm sure he did." Norma said "Larry, my kids are burned out. Me too. It's almost time for lunch. You want to start heading that direction?" Larry agreed. Connie called Tracy and Molly. They were already in transit.

Together for lunch

Fifteen minutes later the group arrived at the Freedom Train Restaurant. The hostess greeted the group. "Ms. Corona, thank you for joining us for lunch today!" "Some of our friends are already seated. It's under Silvia." "Yes ma'am, they came in just a few minutes ago. Please follow me." As they were walking to their table Norma was happy to see they were being seated near the stage where they sat a year ago. As soon as they were seated Jenny ran up and hugged Larry and Norma. "Glad to see you again Larry... Norma. Hello everybody. Boy, a lot has happened in a year, huh?" Norma said "That's an understatement." Larry said "It's nice to see you, Jenny. Did you receive some more sacks of rye grain from Dale McDonald?" Jenny laughed. "Yes. Today. Where do you find him? He's a real hoot." She pulled out the bill of lading from her smock and opened it. "Here look. The top of his letterhead says Old McDonald has a farm e-i-e-i-o: Come out and see me for the best vegetables, gains, and meats. Then down at the bottom it says: If you're looking for me, just go by Barneys Cafe and ask Mom. She knows the county like the back of her hand. And you might want to stay for a while and experience her great cooking." Larry said "I love Minden, Nebraska. They're all genuine salt of the earth good people." Jenny smiled and nodded her head, then she turned to the group. "Is everybody ready to give their drink orders? The adults ordered beers and iced tea. The kids got sodas, milk shakes, and water. Everyone knew what they wanted to eat so Jenny also took their food orders. In fifteen minutes everything was out on the table. They gave thanks and began. Lupe asked "Tracy. Molly. See anything interesting?" Tracy said "Well, first we looked at the stuff you guys recommended. We had some extra time so we checked out the Big Change protection exhibit." Molly said "The name is interesting. So how do you protect the Big Change? Tracy thought they meant protecting America." Tracy said "Yeah, I said they did that a year ago when we were attacked." Molly said "But this kind of protection is protecting a philosophy or an ideal. It's like propaganda but it's honest and not deceptive." Molly explained how the People have several thousand travelling exhibits going to grade schools all around the country. They show kids how millions suffered because of the ultra-rich moving jobs overseas and how people like Alice Walton paid a lower than subsistence wage. This forced the workers to get government assistance to stay alive. In other words the People were giving charity to Alice Walton. She paid starvation wages so she could make billions more in profits and we the people were enabling her by footing the bill. In a country of 320 million over 48 million were on food stamps to stay alive. That's one in seven people. The exhibit showed how the People finally had enough. Through weaknesses in the SS7 phone system, hackers who called themselves Anonymous displayed the physical addresses and GPS locations of all federal elected officials. They also put up on the internet their travel patterns over the last sixty days including all family members. They did the same for all people worth over 500 million dollars. They did the same for all police in the US. The exhibit showed the President declared Martial law and ordered the military and the DHS to stop hundreds of thousands of Americans from rioting. But this type of rioting was selective. The People only sought out top level management in the top five hundred companies in this country. They went to their homes and burned them down and took family members when they could. High level corporate offices were ransacked and burned. There was a mass exodus of the ultra-rich out of America. The children were shown how thousands of Americans died in the riots. Then Jeh Johnson, the head of DHS and the Secretary of Defense, stepped forward and said his police forces will not honor the declaration of Martial law anymore. He went on TV and asked the People to please be patient and stop the rioting. Instead, he urged the People to finish the Amendment to the Constitution that will transfer control of the country directly to us. He was an attorney and even helped complete the Amendment. The Supreme Court, to save their skin, stepped forward and ordered a nationwide vote for the Amendment after the People completed structuring it.

The students are shown in general terms how we transitioned to a direct democracy. And they're shown on a personal level just exactly how our direct democracy helped them. At the conclusion of the exhibit each student types in their name and the computer gives an estimate of how their life would have been if the Big Change never happened. Some kids saw how their sicknesses would have gone untreated and they died. Others show how their family was torn apart by divorce. Others saw them living in substandard conditions. Tracy said "The girl next to me typed in her name and saw how her mom and dad got divorced and her mom became a drug addict and she had to go live in a foster home." Molly said "And, this other girl's mom had her job shipped out of the country. She became homeless like you Lupe." Lupe's facial expression turned very sad. She said "I wouldn't wish homelessness on my worst enemy." Molly hugged her. "I didn't say that to hurt you. You're my friend. I would never want to hurt you." "I know." They hugged again and went back to eating.

Tony asked Molly's mom what else they saw. Silvia said "We decided to look at an exhibit called Human Habitat." Tracy said "Yeah, it wasn't anything like I thought it would be." Tracy's mom, Hazel, said "It was about providing the best place for people to live, whether it's at home or at work." Silvia said "The exhibit was about the many ways a person can improve their immediate surroundings. It included cleaning everything often to kill germs. And it showed how stale air can hurt people. Most buildings had closed air systems and they are being converted to systems that completely replaces a room's air every five minutes. Molly said "The next was aesthetics. We all want to have our five senses tickled. Like the sound of running water or small critters like frogs croaking. They continued with things like having a highly pixelated wall showing flowers blowing in the breeze. So you have the visual and fans gently blowing air that smell like the flowers in the picture.

Hazel said "Then we went to my favorite exhibit which was the "Human Rights and Quality of Life" exhibit. It takes a supermajority vote to alter anything concerning our rights as citizens of the United States. The original Bill of Rights were retained except for part of the 5th and the entire10th amendment."

The group had a great lunch. Jenny was proud of herself for walking Larry over to sit next to Norma at that table a year ago. She thought Larry would like Norma's spunk. But she didn't realize how ferocious she would be. After lunch the group went off to do some more rides. Everybody had fun. Tracy got out of hand a few times. Like when they left the bumper car ride, a couple of large teenage boys were clowning around and running away from some other guys. They weren't looking where they were going and were about to knock down a young mother pushing a stroller with a baby. Tracy jumped in front, tripped and pushed the two big teens aside. As they were picking themselves up off the concrete, Tracy scolded them "You guys are older than I am and you're both acting like two year olds not looking where you're going. You could have seriously hurt that baby!" One of the teens said "F-ck off. B-tch." Tracy grabbed him by the arm and squeezed it. As he was screaming in pain, security ran up and said they would take care of it. One came close to Tracy and whispered "Please control yourself. You're too important."

It was getting late and after many rides, Norma coaxed the group over to the dance floor.

It was 9:00pm when they arrived. The same time a year and a day ago when the three Pioneers were almost killed. Without saying anything Sergey and Mark showed up at that exact same spot on the dance floor near Larry. They were all together again waiting for the same band, Los Lobos, to begin playing. Connie tapped Lupe on the shoulder. "Mira. Es la Virgen de Guadalupe above the band. I told you it was a sign of good luck. She kept you safe." Lupe agreed. But she wasn't a religious person. She paused for a moment thinking about what her mother told her earlier that day. Then she thought "I'm not going to worry about it... I'm living my life the way I want. If there is a God, then without me knowing, she'll guide me."

The proposal

(Please read this paragraph very slowly while you enjoy the music.) Everyone by now had a dance partner and the band began playing sabor a mi. Larry was holding Norma close as they were dancing. He thought to himself "Wow...... no woman has ever made me feel this way...... It's like I constantly hunger for her when we're apart." He smiled as Norma looked up at him and pulled him even closer. Larry thought "Should I do this?...... What if she says no?...... The last thing I want is to scare her away...... What if I ease into it?...... Don't be mousy about it...... God, I love this woman...... She's fifteen years younger than me...... When I'm sixty she'll be my age ... Is that asking too much...... God, I don't know if I can do this." Norma looked up and asked "What's the matter, Babe. Bend down a little." He did and she pressed her lips against his and electricity went through both their bodies like never before. Larry held her close as they moved to the music...... and he whispered...... "Marry me." Norma pressed her lips to his again and whispered "Of course." ......Then with her eyes in half open ecstasy she breathed "Kiss me again" as they moved on the dance floor oblivious to anything or anyone else around them...... Like in her dreams, Norma wished this precious moment could last forever......

Larry was on cloud nine. "She said YES! :)"

Nellie was next to them. "Finally I think there're gonna get hitched. I've been hinting he should pop the question." Connie saw her mom melting in Larry's arms and thought "Mom deserves a good man. I'm glad she's happy." Sophia was so busy making goo goo eyes at Travis that she didn't notice.

The next song was Maricela. By the end of the song the crowd had slowly opened up from around Larry, Sergey, and Mark. Apparently somebody recognized them and spread the word, so they moved away a little to give them room.

After the song, the band stopped for a minute and the lead singer said "Hey everybody...... straight down below me are Jacob Jackson and Summer Zia, two of our new Young Pioneers. We're extremely proud to have you guys with us tonight..." Then a person close to the stage yelled something to the lead singer. "And... I was just told at the other end of the dance floor, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Mark Zukerberg have been dancing to our music too. Just like they did a year ago. We want to thank you for being one of us. That's what our new country is all about. Cajones y Juntos! Brave and together! Todos juntos como uno familia (All together as one family). Let's give them a hand." Everybody cheered because these Pioneers were taking part in their celebration of life. They were one of them which meant a lot. "So is everybody ready for some more music! Let's go!" The people around the Pioneers closed in again and continued dancing. But those close by were watching out of the corner of their eyes to make sure their Pioneers stayed safe. They didn't need security anymore. The People were their security. They were family now.

Larry was holding Norma close. He gently pulled her soft perfumed hair away from her ear and whispered "Do you feel uncomfortable? Would you like to leave?" With a confused look she softly responded "Are you kidding? It would be like a slap in the face. I feel safer right now than any other time today. Me siento segura porque ahora estoy con mi familia." (I feel safe because I am now with my family.) Larry said "I feel it, too." They continued dancing, laughing, and having the time of their life. It was extra sweet because they were now engaged.

Next up was Cody Simpson. The girls loved Cody. They were all screaming as he walked up on stage. "How are you doing tonight?! You feelin it?! Great, but before I get rolling, I'd like to dedicate my next song to a very lovely girl I met yesterday. Her name is Summer Zia, one of the new young Pioneers. I had the honor of talking to her at a pool party. She told me my music made her happy. Then she kissed me and told me to never forget it. Coming from her that meant a lot. It adds relevancy to my work. Los Lobos said Summer is down on the floor close to the stage. Summer, can you raise your hand please? ......There you are." The camera panned down to her. She was wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with the sacred  Zia Symbol on the front. While she was waving to Cody, her beautiful face and blushing smile was projected on the big screen above the stage. "Summer, this song is for you."

After Cody finished he said "There's one more thing. Remember yesterday when Jacob Jackson told us he had cured Cystic Fibrosis. This morning an appeal was made by a young lady. She wanted to dance one dance with him tonight. She's a ten year old and her name is Sara. Several months ago her lungs were filled with so much fluid the doctors only gave her a few days to live. Jacob's group found out and immediately flew her on a private jet to their laboratory. His staff quickly administered the treatment. Jacob was out of the facility so Sara wasn't able to personally thank him for saving her life. In his talk yesterday he thought it was important to show the world there is a cure for CF. But he forgot something very critical. He wants all parents who have children with CF who are close to passing away to contact him at JJacksonCF@gmail.con. He recently discovered that CF patients were dying because of a bureaucratic system that's as slow as molasses. His team is now taking it into their own hands. So for all acute life-threating cases, please be sure and email him right now. All of you watching this at home please spread the word. Thank you.

Sara, if you would please come up...... As she was bouncing up the steps, Cody said "This precious little girl was about to pass away just months ago, and look at her now." The crowd applauded as a beautiful ten year old girl beaming a smile from ear to ear walked up to the mic and looked down at Jacob standing on the dance floor. She said "I and all the rest of the CF kids thank you for what you've done. I owe my life to you." And with that she ran down and took his hand. Cody sang a hip hop song, the kind of music Sara liked to dance to. She was much better than Jacob. After the song, he bowed to Sara's extraordinary dancing abilities. Before leaving with her parents, she hugged and kissed him on the cheek. Seeing Sara as she was walking away made him think, "That award I received yesterday was just self-aggrandizing baloney BS. Keeping kids alive is the important stuff. ......I really need to get back to the lab."

The night went on with different bands doing their thing. Everybody forgot about time, even Nellie. It was 11:30pm when the last group finished. Elon Musk walked up to the mic and said hi. "For all those who are here tonight and for those who are watching at home, we have a special treat for you. Our closing is going to be a look back at the last four years in a montage of small clips of people around our country enjoying their new life and supporting the effort to make us the happiest people on earth. Then we'll finish up with a patriotic laser light and fireworks show. Thank you all for coming tonight for our celebration of life. Goodnight."

At thirty minutes after midnight, Norma's clan plus the Pioneers and their families were back on the bus ready to head to their home away from home. But, this time for safety reasons they were in a military style hardened bus and had four Stryker assault vehicles escorting them back to the B&B with four Apaches overhead. They put in a long day and were totally zonked. When the bus driver pulled up to the B&B he had to wake everyone. Whoo-wee, you all must have had a good time tonight. Make sure you don't leave anything behind and I'll see you tomorrow.

Day four at the B&B

It was 11:00 in the morning when Norma's kids slipped out of their suite, ran over and knocked on Larry's door. The door opened and three girls pushed their way in. Connie said "We were too excited to sleep. So we decided to come over and give our new dad a big hug." They gave him a humongous group hug. Larry still half asleep said "Thanks, but we're not married yet." Connie said "That's just a formality. You're our dad now!" Sophia asked "So what are we going to do today, DAD?" Larry was really tickled that the kids were so elated. It was a sincere complement. Sophia said "We know you and mom need some alone time, so we're going to stay with Lupe and her dad tonight. We've already planned it so you two can go out on a daaaate." Sophia made her eyebrows go up and down, and the three girls started giggling with their hands covering their mouths. Larry said "Girls, girls, girls. Let me and your mom talk first. But it's very nice of you to offer. And just between you and me, we'll probably take you up on it." "Great," exclaimed Connie. Nellie asked "You gonna take us to eat some food, dad?" Connie said "Yeah, dad, we're really hungry. We'll go back to our suite and get cleaned up and we'll dress real nice so you can be proud of us." "Ok, girls. That's a deal. I'll knock on your door in an hour." Sophia added "But come sooner if you can. We're really hungry, DAD." He grinned as the kids tore out running back to their suite.

A little before noon, Larry knocked on the door and Norma answered. She immediately jumped into his arms and hugged and kissed him. "Babe, I'm starving!" "Me too. Let's go." The girls were all excited. After being seated at the restaurant the girls opened with a flurry of questions and comments. Connie started with "Dad, are you going to live with us in El Paso?" "Have you set a date to get married?" "Will you come to our dance concerts at school?" Nellie asked "Will you tell me bedtime stories with mom and tuck me in at night? Will you show me how to play baseball? And will you show me how to play chess?" Sophia said to Nellie "Hey, don't hog him all to yourself." She looked at Larry. "Will you still go with us to Karaoke night and dance with mom? My friends at school told me the dating stops when grownups get married." Connie said "Of course we are. Now that they're going to be together all the time, mom and dad are going to do lots of family stuff." Nellie threw in "But we need to make sure they have lots of alone time." Sophia said "Oooooo, that's right. We have to make sure you love birds are happy!" Nellie giggled and started chanting "Norma and Larry sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Larry pushing a baby carriage." Connie's eyes got real big. "Mom can we have a new baby!" Sophia yelled "I don't want to share my dad with another sister!" Norma broke in "Girls! Relax. It's going to be ok. We'll take it one step at a time. And, don't worry. Larry isn't going to be an absentee father who's never there for the important stuff in your life. He's already made that promise to me. But at the same time his work is very important. Most of his management team live and work in San Diego, Phoenix, Las Cruces, El Paso, San Antonio, and Houston. So he'll always be no more than a few hours away."

Larry was loving every moment of it. It's great to feel this much love. He told the girls "Years ago I didn't really understand the importance of a family. It's more than money, a job, friends, where you live, or what you're doing. As an example, I even had my own jumbo jet and an airport to land it on. But I still felt empty. After the Big Change and especially after spending this time with Norma and you girls I realize family is something to be cherished and taken care of. It's more important than anything. Norma loves me so much that if for some reason I became badly injured, I know she would be there for me. She is proud of me and my accomplishments. And she doesn't use me as a means to advance herself. Look at the five of us. This is what love and family is all about. It's loving and supporting each other just for who we are."

Larry continued "For decades before the Big Change millions of marriages and families were torn apart because of money problems. That wasn't right. Lack of money was the reason why Tony lost his wife and his daughter. And lack of money was the reason Norma and you three girls were having such a tough time. Five years ago your mom was only taking home $1,150 a month. I've bought bottles of champagne that cost more than that. But with that tiny amount of money she had to provide a place to live, a car, food, clothing, medical care, and so on. In other words she was struggling just to have you three survive. The ultra-rich in America were hurting beautiful precious children like you. And those stingy monsters even allowed children to become homeless and die like little Millie, who froze to death on the streets of Chicago on Christmas Eve in 2013. I was so angry about her death that I personally commissioned the creation of that mural at our museum so we would never forget. Never! Thank God our country finally realized that our children are worth more than all the money in the world. That was one of the main reasons we voted for the Big Change.

I'm generalizing here, but I believe most of the time this is true. See, years ago the very rich just didn't get it. They'd sent their kids off to boarding schools so they wouldn't get under foot. One time years ago as I was leaving an airliner to the terminal walkway I saw a man wearing a chauffeur's uniform holding a sign with a person's name. A twelve year old wearing a school blazer walking in front of me went up to the man and said "They couldn't make it again?" and I instantly knew what he was saying. Then behind me was a girl about the same age. Her entire family ran over and hugged her and said welcome back, we missed you so much. You could tell her family was of modest means. I saw the disappointed look on that wealthy boy's face then the loved look on that girls face. But I really didn't understand the gravity of that moment.

See, the Big Change in many ways made us all equal and that allowed me to meet your mom. Then I was lucky enough to have your mom allow me into her life. Being with her and you guys made me truly realize and feel what I had been missing all my adult life." I can't describe the pride I felt when you three girls started calling me your 'Uncle'. And then Lupe, Tracy, and Molly started calling me 'Uncle' too. And now Summer does. She said it's an honor children decide to give certain elders in the Tribe. You gave me that title because you actually cared about me. I didn't say anything until now, but that badge you gave me is priceless. Girls, I just want to say thank you. And, I love you." The two older girls began crying. They got up, ran over and hugged Larry. "We love you too daddy." Larry was surprised with the outpouring of emotions. "It's ok, girls. You don't have to cry. Dry up those tears and let's decide what we want to eat." Connie, in a squeaking whimpering voice said "But we really never had a dad. He was just some man who never had time for us. Then he stopped coming by completely." Nellie was standing next to Larry as he was seated. She smiled and put her hand on his shoulder and looked deep into his eyes and in a calm voice she simply said "Thank you." Then she went and sat down. With encouragement from Norma, the other girls sat down too.

Nellie stood up again, looked at Larry and said "You're very good with your words. Last month Connie said you were very slick. She told me you're so good she can't tell when you're kidding or when you're telling the truth. ...I wrote something this morning. I wasn't going to say anything but after listening to you, I think I really should. May I?" Larry said "Of course."

Nellie held the paper and began reading. "This year mom explained to me how babies are made. I'm one half Marco and one half her. But Marco left us when I was three and I barely remember him. So I really never had a dad. People tell me you never know what you lost if you never had it. Those words became empty when I saw Katie's dad pick her up from school. I saw the way Katie ran full blast up to her dad with opened arms yelling "Daddy, daddy I love you" just because he picked her up that day instead of her mom. Then there was my friend Joey. He was always bragging about how great his dad was because he was a Navy Seal. Two and a half months ago his dad died when his helicopter was shot down. It destroyed my friend Joey. They had to take him out of school because he couldn't stop crying. I haven't seen him since.

Larry, I want to know what it feels like to have a dad. I want to be able to sit next to you with your arm around me and look up to you and be proud of you. I want double the hugs and double the caring. Mom told me you make her strong where she's weak and she does the same for you. Larry, if you become my father I don't know if I could stand the pain if you were to leave us like we were yesterday's garbage. My heart is too fragile. I just want you to be sure, because it's not only mom. It's us too."

Nellie finished reading, sat the paper down, then looked at Larry and continued "I know who you are and that worries me. Before you knew us, our world was like a speck of dust compared to yours. We're not just an experience for you to have in a long line of fun things in your life. We're not toys in a toy box. I'm a real kid with a real heart. Please remember that. And if this thing between you and mom isn't real, just end it now before we all get hurt...... Ok? Thank you." Then she sat down and looked at everybody staring at her. She said "What?" Connie said "How old are you? Nellie, you scare the hell out of me sometimes." Sophia asked "Who are you and what have you done with my little sister!" With tears rolling down her cheek Norma looked at her little munchkin. Then she turned to Larry and asked "Well, Larry? Is this real and lasting?" Very emotionally he said to everybody at the table "It's been almost a year. Surely you know me by now...... I know, I know. Your mom knew Marco for years before he just up and left. All I can say is you should go with your gut feeling. That's what I've done. That's why I'm here." There was an extended uncomfortable period of silence. Then Nellie responded with a smile and said "That's why we're here too... daddy." Larry smiled and let out a long breath and said "thank god" to himself. He got out of his chair and on one knee hugged Nellie and in a kind and caring voice he whispered "Thanks for giving me a chance."

Tobi walked up and greeted them. "Will it only be five today?" Larry said "I'm not sure." As Connie was wiping her face she broke in, "Yes, just five". She said to her mom and Larry "Me and my sisters called around to make sure we had this time just to ourselves. So the rest of the group will be arriving at 1:00." Tobi took the orders and in a few minutes they had their food. After the plates were down, Nellie said "Can we say grace before we eat?" Norma said "Sure baby, why don't you lead us in prayer." After she made sure everybody was holding hands, Nellie smiled and said "Ok. How's this. Lord bless this bunch as we munch our lunch, and rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub, yea Lord. All fun aside, thanks for everything, big guy in the sky." Norma said "Well, baby, that was certainly different. Let's dig in." ......And so, the five happy souls spent the next forty minutes talking and laughing, reminiscing, and planning their future together. And in between words they managed to eat some very good food.

It was a little after one when Lupe, Tracy, Molly ran up. "Hey everybody, did you guys have enough 'alone time'? Uncle Larry, I just want you to know you're marrying the best lady on earth. Congratulations!" She hugged Larry and kissed him on the cheek. Lupe continued "Congratulations Auntie Norma. I could tell from the start you two were in love, so it's about time my peeps are officially getting a real father." Lupe began clapping and yelling "Yea". The large group behind began clapping, too. Larry said "Wow, word travels fast around here". Sergey said "You finally bested me man. There's nobody better than this beautiful woman. You lucky, lucky guy." One by one they all came up and congratulated the couple.

After everyone sat down, Larry addressed the group "I had a feeling this was going to happen, so we waited for desert. I had Jack bake us a giant engagement cake to be served with your choice of ice cream. I like the French vanilla myself. Thank you all very much." Everybody applauded as Jack and his staff came out pulling a mammoth size cake and buckets of ice cream. Sophia ran over to the Karaoke machine as Hanna, Connie, Nellie, Lupe, Tracy, Molly, and their new addition to the group Summer stepped up on the restaurant stage. Connie took the mic. "We want to sing our two lovebirds a couple special songs. But first mom asked us to open with this one. With that Norma ran over and took the mic. I dedicate this special song to you Larry." Norma is a better singer than a dancer, if that's possible. Larry couldn't have been happier as he hugged Norma before she sat back down to listen to the girls serenade them with a few more songs.

The Pioneer exhibits

Norma suggested "What do you say we take off for another day at the museum. Larry wants to ride the roller coaster again. This time he promises not to scream." Larry grinned "I'm in, if you are." Mark, Sergey and Elon said the cake and ice cream were plenty for lunch, and they wanted to come along too. Everyone agreed and off they went. When they arrived, Elon directed the bus driver to pull in front of the Recognition building. The girls were the first off. Norma was yelling at them to stay close by while the other Pioneers walked away. "Ok mom." Tracy told Connie "You know you're safer with the Bandidas than anywhere else." Connie scrunched her face and said "Yeah, but they don't want you to do any of that stuff here. We need to keep you a secret. So prance around and look pretty and stupid and defenseless." They cracked up. Tracy said "Haven't you heard, girls aren't like that anymore." Sophia injected "That's for damn sure." Nellie broke in and said in a muffled voice "Come on guys, just don't blow your cover. Ok? You're almost twice my age so it shouldn't be that hard." Tracy said "Smart ass." And Nellie fired back "Dumb ass."

As the group was walking into the new Young Pioneers recognition section, Lupe stopped. Her mouth dropped open. "Oh my god, I didn't realize they would make it so big." Lupe, Tracy, and Molly were completely taken back by the size of the exhibits. Tracy whispered "Holy crap......We did all these things? I never sat down and added it all up." Molly whispered "What about all the other young people who have done great things. They need to be recognized too." Lupe whispered "When we get older, we'll make sure a larger group is recognized." Tracy whispered "You know if it wasn't for the Big Change we couldn't have done these things. And if the People vote to dedicate more resources by taking up Lupe's plan, we'll have thousands more our age doing great things." Molly grinned "Yeah, they're going to need a bigger building." They laughed, and continued looking.

Lupe was standing kind of dumbfounded in front of her exhibit. Next to her was a young girl about ten who said to her mother "I want to be just like her, mom. But I want to do something more important. I want to stop all wars and create peace around the world." Her mom said "That's a pretty tall order. You think you're up to it?" With total and complete certainty her daughter said "If she can create Blinking, I can stop war." Lupe couldn't help herself after hearing the brash certitude from this young girl. Lupe nudged her and said "Listen, I completely agree. But remember, you have to believe the dream before you can turn it into reality. I think you have as good a chance as anybody. Here's my email address. Contact me if you want some help." Lupe wrote it down on a piece of paper, smiled and handed it to her. The girl looked at Lupe and froze for a second, then said "Thanks, I will." As the girl was moving on, she said "Mom, I think I just met the girl who invented Blinking. She's the one who was just talking to me. Her eyes look exactly the same as the girl I saw on TV a few days ago." Her mom, so she wouldn't make her feel bad, said "You're probably right, honey. She could be walking around us right now." The girl was walking backwards looking at Lupe and waving goodbye. Molly walked up. "That girl knows who you are. And with your help, she really believes she can do it." "Good. Now if only the other eight billion of us can feel the same way." Lupe stopped... canted her head and began rubbing her chin in a postulating way. She slowly looked at Molly and then looked at the kid walking away. Molly said "Oh, no... no... no... not another mind explosion, Lupe." "You know exactly what I'm thinking don't you." "Yeah, but influencing all the cells in all the humans all around the globe is asking a little much, don't you think?!" "Maybe not... we'll work on it." Molly looked down and just shook her head in disbelief.

In the distance the little girl saw Lupe talking to Molly and pulled her mom's arm. "Mom, that's the girl who talks to cells in your body. I can tell because her skin is darker." Her mom playing along said "That's probably true honey, but we shouldn't blow their cover. They need to stay safe. Ok?" "Ok, mom. That's a good point." She took the piece of paper out and memorized the email address and promised herself never to tell anyone that she actually saw these two Young Pioneers. The young girl was thinking "With their help, I know I can do it. In fact, I think she challenged me to work on it. Wow. That's really cool!"

Back to the amusement park

After twenty minutes of a giant dose of ego boosting, Lupe, Tracy, and Molly wanted to go do some rides. Mark, wearing a disguise whispered "This is all old familiar stuff to you but it's new for everyone else. Let's stay a little longer." The girls murmured "Ooookaaaa". Hanna thought it was funny. "But look at them. Look at those pathetic little downturned faces. They're really suffering, babe." "Yeah, right." chirped Mark. After about ten more minutes, Norma finally said "Who is up for the Amusement park? Larry's wants to ride the roller coaster again." Summer asked "What's so great about the rollercoaster?" Connie said "It's a secret. You'll see." So they left for the Amusement park.

Tony and Summer's mom decided to pretend to be on a date to enable her and Summer to be with the group without people becoming suspicious. Tony didn't mind at all. Summer's mom was drop dead beautiful. She was a tall slender woman about his age, who lost her husband from pneumonia just after the BC. To make it seem authentic she asked Tony to hold her hand and sometimes put his arm around her.

Lupe was sitting next to Tony while riding to the amusement park. She tapped him on the arm and whispered "Papi, she would be a good soul mate." Tony smiled and nodded his head but didn't say anything as he turned and looked at Ko'hu K'akana (She-Wolf) (a ' mark means a sound break like the word Uh-oh) Zia who was sitting on the other side of him. Tony said "She-Wolf is a very good name. Did your mother give you it to you? She said her mother was impressed with "my fierce but intelligent attitude so she named me Wolf." He said my mother named me Xepe Zep or Ocean Eagle. But it's hard for the White man to pronounce so dad started calling me Antonio. It works for me." She liked both names. Tony asked K'akana "How do you like the museum so far?" She responded "In the biosphere they wrote nothing else matters unless we have a healthy earth. After reading it, I cried and thanked the Great Spirit for placing us back on the right path. Then I saw in the betterments building how the People have set aside vast amounts of land across our country as wildlife preserves. I remembered we put that into our amendment. In a sense the People were making a treaty with the environment and with our wildlife. But with so many broken Indian treaties I was very skeptical about it actually coming to fruition. But it did and that is good. The other thing I like is the controls the People have placed on population growth. We capped our population for now at 400 million. And we've done the same for much of our wildlife like the whitetail deer. The People have realized our numbers mustn't grow like a cancer in a healthy body to eventually kill it." Tony responded "I agree. And what did you think about the Indigenous Peoples Protection Act?" She said "It's the least they can do after forcefully taking our lands and wiping most of us out. Guaranteeing a good life, especially to the Native American is a blessing I thought we'd never receive."

K'akana then asked "Did you see anything here that concerned you?" "It was what Elon said in his speech about technology." "What do you mean?" With a worried look Tony continued "A hundred years from now we won't have to work to provide ourselves with our necessities for living. Intelligent machines will do it all. So what will we be doing then? Right now we have too many overweight people living sedentary lives. Already we are going overboard embracing spectator sports. We should be participants, not spectators. Playing video games and watching football on TV is fine if we're also physically active. But we're not. And Elon worries that intelligent robots will eventually turn against us because they have no soul." K'akana said "This is where my daughter's program will help guide us along our journey. Larry and Sergey said they just happened to stumble across Summer's work. But I believe there is a reason for everything. In spite of our genocide, the Great Spirit decided to give the Pioneers access to the wisdom of Humans (Indians) so the People could better prepare themselves for the huge changes about to occur along their path." Tony suddenly felt very small as he was sitting next to this woman of deep wisdom. He recalled the admiration he felt as a very young boy listening to the tribal elders tell their stories about life. They also taught him to use his mind to see, to have visions. As she was speaking, K'akana was inextricably drawing him into her deep and massive being. He saw a spirit that was formed countless ages ago and was passed along through generations to the lady sitting next to him today. Tony was staring with feelings of fear, veneration, and wonder. She smiled. "Don't be afraid, Tony. Here, hold my hand. We're about to stop. Let's go and have some fun in this beautiful amusement park." K'akana took Tony's hand as they walked. Summer looked at Lupe and said "It's been years since I've seen my n'aaya (mother) hold a man's hand." Lupe said "But they're just pretending to be on a date." "They're not pretending. You can see it in their eyes. Your father seems quite taken with my mother. What do you say we give them some space?" Excited, Lupe said "Sounds like a plan."

Mark and Hanna, Elon and his family went separately to the amusement park to help conceal the identities of Lupe, Molly, and Tracy. Sergey had decided to stay at the B&B to play racquetball. So the group was Norma, Larry, Connie, Sophia, Nellie, Bubba, Austin, Laurie, Travis, Molly and her mother, Tracy and her parents, and Summer and her mother K'akana, Tony and Lupe.

The first thing the kids wanted to do was ride the rollercoaster. As if that's a surprise. After the first ride the adults decided to sit down at a nearby table while the kids went two more times. After the third time as Molly was exiting through the turnstile she got an emergency reading on one of the people waiting in line to ride. She ran around the exit area and over to where she had the reading. Molly's instrument alerted her that a girl 10 feet away was going to have a grand mal seizure. Molly called out to Larry and the other Bandidas and whispered to them about the problem. They quickly stopped the girl and sat her down before she got on the ride. Larry told the girl's parents he was a physician and their daughter was about to have a seizure. Larry said his daughters, Molly and Tracy, were his assistants as they were having the young girl lay down and relax. Tracy made sure she didn't bite her tongue and her airway was open after she became unconscious. As she was having the seizure Molly talked to the cells in her body. The girl was having a stroke. A small capillary in her brain burst. Molly alerted the girl's body cells to the problem and had a large amount of cell wall repair material (thrombocytes and fibrin) immediately sent to the torn capillary. They repaired the area almost immediately. A small pool of blood had formed in her brain tissue and was irritating the surrounding cells and squeezing them. Molly told the cells to do a bucket brigade. In other words for the cells adjacent the pool to absorb fluid then pass it on to the cells behind them. And to do it as fast as possible. This action flushed the blood serum back into the nearby capillaries which eventually over about five minutes cleaned out the excess that had collected in her brain tissue. Any residuals were eaten by macrophages sent to clean up the mess. Tracy whispered something to Molly and gave her a tiny syringe. She then injected the contents into the girl's arm. All this time Larry pretended his cellphone was a medical instrument and he was using it to make the girl better. The girl woke up and was feeling fine but still a little groggy. Molly told the parents the injection she gave their daughter will make the cells in her brain regenerate any damaged tissue. The father thought "That's odd. I didn't think nerve tissue could regenerate." Then he said out loud "I hope you know what you're doing." Larry looked at him. "You're a very lucky man, because they are the only ones in the country that can do this. I mean I'm the only one in the country that can do this." He told her parents she needed to go to the hospital and get some bed rest. That she had a stroke but will be fine if she stays still for a few days. The father thanked him. "You know, you bear a very strong resemblance to Larry Page." "Yeah, I get that a lot."

During the event, Tracy had been keeping people back with her extreme power. It got a little dicey when a few bystanders gathered too close and were pushed back like toys. When the girl was first down, Larry moved his cellphone around the girls head while allowing Molly to hold the girls head with both her hands while she was concentrating with her eyes closed. A kid standing close by thought it was like the new Young Pioneers were saving this girl's life and the adult was pretending to do some sort of medical thing. While it was all happening the boy said to his sister "See, the man keeps looking over at his daughter who has her eyes closed. That girl is doing something to the unconscious girl. I just know it." His sister said "Wow, you're right." Uniformed security quickly came up and stood together making a small wall around the downed girl. The little boy told his sister "Did you notice how fast guards came up and how many there are and how one of them whispered something to the doctor. This is very strange." The adults didn't think anything was out of the ordinary and went about their business leaving them alone as security was bringing up a wheelchair to take the girl to an ambulance waiting outside.

Molly said "You're going to be just fine." The girl said her name was "Matisse and you are?" Molly hesitated a second and thought "What the heck." She smiled and said "I'm Molly, and this is Tracy and Lupe." They gave her a big hug before she was wheeled off. As she was about to leave, Tracy ran up and whispered "We gave you something to repair your brain cells. You're going to be very strong. So be careful and not hurt anything or anyone. Ok? It will wear off in a few days. And please don't tell anybody about this or about us. Take care. Bye." Matisse didn't understand until she squeezed the arms of the wheelchair and bent them. She grabbed the wheels and stopped. She wheeled around and looked at the three girls walking away and yelled out, "Molly, Tracy, Lupe." They turned. "Thank you! America appreciates it more than you know." The Bandidas understood, smiled and waved then continued on their way. As she was being wheeled outside she thought "So this is what it feels like. Amazing!" She reached into her pocket, bent a quarter and smiled.

K'akana, Tony, and the other adults in the group stayed back while the girl was being helped. Later, K'akana commented "Tony, your Lupe and the other two girls are very powerful. Like with forging steel, the metal must be tempered to give it strength and ductility. It must be powerful yet be able to bend without cracking. These three girls must be wise enough to temper their powers. I see they have a good heart. But Tracy seems to easily lose her temper which may cause her psyche to crack. Maybe your daughter could teach her ways of the Humans. She has already developed a strong body, and a devotion to the welfare of people. But her mind must be clear, and her spirit pure. To achieve that she must shed all the anger that has built up within her. And I know Lupe can show her the way." Tony said "I've already seen that. Tracy doesn't realize it but Lupe has been her spirit guide to shed the torments of her past. But it takes a while." K'akana said "Now I'm feeling a little awkward having told you something you already knew. My apologies." Tony said "I would have demanded an apology if you met Tracy's problem with blind indifference and didn't warn me." She gave him a warm smile. "You know what, I think I'm beginning to like you, Antonio. Let's go on some more rides."

After a four wild rides, K'akana was nauseated. She and Tony decided to sit out for a while. Norma asked Larry to be with them. Bubba was also getting a little dizzy so Laurie made him sit too. The remainder of the group took off to go on as many rides as possible before any of the other adults crashed and burned.

The group sitting down talked about many things. Before the others returned, Larry asked K'akana how she liked the museum so far. She responded "We needed a place like this to show our youth how difficult life was before we took over. They need to see the heroes who worked to make it happen. The children must never forget because we could easily slip back into our old ways." Larry totally agreed. He said "I wanted recognition given to key people who made the transition work. Having a child walk up and see my picture and read how I helped will teach the person about caring and duty. It will give him or her something to aspire to. Even though their contribution would be different they would feel a positive responsibility to get involved. K'akana said "That's an interesting comment. Before the Big Change you were one of the wealthiest people in the country. Why would you want to give that up?" Realizing she was examining him, Larry thought the easiest way to explain was "I didn't give it up. I'm much richer now than ever before. America has given me an incalculable amount of love; and love is the most valuable currency you can give anyone. My heart is filled with richness no money can buy. K'akana, there are no more homeless people dying in the streets. All of our children are going to bed at night with their bellies full. They have nice clothes to wear and a warm roof over their head. Uninsured children are not dying in emergency rooms because their parents didn't have the money for preventive care. The lack of money is no longer the reason why spouses fight and eventually break their family apart, not realizing the alternative was just as bad or worse especially for their children. Adults aren't struggling anymore just to make ends meet. They aren't working at low paying dead end jobs while hoping they won't get fired. Because of extreme greed and avarice of the ultra-wealthy, the opportunity to achieve the American Dream was gone for most. Like your daughter said, money is no longer our God Almighty. Now it's our happiness that comes first. K'akana, that is priceless. I think of the People of the United States as my family. I would never eat and be warm while my children are hungry and freezing. As long as there is a fiber of power left in my body, I will never allow another Millie to die again. That I promise you." As a tear was coming down K'akana's cheek she said "You are indeed a Human. You have been a great provider, Larry, but now the younger ones are taking that load off of you. I see your future as a great teacher to guide our People along the right path. In this vast universe we are like children in the darkness who need caring hands to help us along. You will be one of them. You will do well because you understand the power is with the children and you are merely a guide suggesting the way. There are no more chiefs, and that is good."

With both her hands she took his left hand. "You have met the four sacred obligations of having a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit and a devotion to the welfare of the People. Now I'm giving you the strength of my people's spirit to aide you for the remainder of your days. As she was holding his hand, K'akana chanted a prayer in an ancient dialect unlike any language Larry had ever heard. Larry immediately felt a great weight was lifted off his shoulders. He was calmer than he had ever felt. K'akana looked at Larry's expression. She smiled a comforting smile. "Now go out and delegate everything. Become an elder and teach your ways." Larry said "Thank you... I think." K'akana chuckled at his uneasy expression. She glanced over his shoulder. "Oh look, the kids are coming."

Summer and Lupe ran up to K'akana and Tony. Lupe asked "How are you two love birds doing." Tony said "You want a hizáac (older sister), don't you. It's way too soon for that girls." Summer looked at her mom. "Well?" K'akana said "Summer, don't embarrass us like that. Right now we're just friends." Summer said "I like friends. Come on Lupe, let's get with the others and talk about the rodeo trip next month." K'akana asked "What rodeo trip?" Her daughter replied "Oh, didn't I tell you Lupe is going to San Antonio next month to participate in the rodeo. And I was wondering if I could maybe go along too." "By yourself, I don't think so." "Mom, Uncle Tony is taking Lupe and of course I would want you to come with me. I have a beautiful horse I run every day on the reservation. Barrel racing would be a snap for Happy Feet." Tony said to K'akana "We're renting a big motorhome in San Antonio." Bubba said "And they are staying out at my place. I've got six RV hookups. I would love for you and Summer to join us. We have spare bedrooms, but Tony insisted on an RV because he didn't want to burden us." Molly's mom, Silvia said "Molly wants to go and I don't mind, so we're renting an RV, too." Tracy's dad said "Don't worry K'akana, the kids sprung it on me a couple days ago. I said what the heck, we still have some vacation time so why not." With puppy dog eyes Summer asked "So can we mom, huh mom, please. I'll do extra chores at home." Larry said "Me, Norma, and the kids are going. Norma just told me this morning. It sounds like a lot of fun." K'akana said "I have to be careful with my money, Larry."

Larry said "Just this morning the People released a special mandate for the Young Pioneers. They upped their annual salary to one million dollars. And if they want to acquire any real estate the People will cover the bill. I'm sorry I didn't tell all of you sooner. I was waiting until we got back to the B&B so we could have a special celebration. And the People wanted me to tell you, K'akana, that your tribe will be given a grant to bring water and farm machinery free of charge to your reservation. Special priority is being made to bring the piping there as soon as possible." K'akana was completely beside herself. "I can't believe they would do this. We've suffered for so many generations as second class citizens." Larry said "Not anymore Ko'hu K'akana Zia. We take care of our own now." Larry continued "As part of their granting an increase in pay, the People requested the parents allow their kids to have 'oodles of fun'." K'akana asked Larry "Will the People's secret service adequately protect my daughter in public?" "Summer will be completely protected. I had a feeling that was the reason you were hesitant." "You're right, Larry. But if we go as a group where Lupe, Molly, Tracy, and Norma can be there with me to protect my daughter I'll have no problem with it. So when is this rodeo and where did you say it was again?" Summer said "It's next month in San Antonio, Texas. Austin says the town is beautiful. And there's so much to do. They have Sea World and Fiesta Texas." Austin said "Since the Big Change it's gotten so big they had to move the rodeo outside the city to a new three hundred and twenty acre rodeo park. Horses aren't just for a small group of people anymore. Thousands of teens want to show their livestock and ride in the rodeo. And, last year there were more girls than boys in the junior competition." K'akana said "Good, let's plan to be there. I'll probably have to purchase a new horse trailer and a new truck." Norma said "Don't worry about that, K'akana. I told Larry to have the Peoples security take care of it. They'll acquire whatever is necessary to bring the horses and everything else we need for the trip. We'll fly out together once they've arrived and set up at Bubba's house." K'akana said "I love it when a plan comes together. But I want my brother to be with Summer's horse on the trip."

There are many little sit down snack bars scattered around the park. The pre-adults were given permission to go over to one a hundred feet away. Summer hugged her mom and then ran off with Lupe and the rest of them as security was going nuts trying to keep up and remain invisible. The waitress greeted the group. "Afternoon y'all. What can I get for you?" Austin said "You're from the South aren't you." She gave him a look over. "Well honey, I'm from anywhere you'd like me to be. Which one's your girlfriend." Austin put his arm around Lupe. "This is my little angel right here." "Mmm, Mmm, you lucky girl. Now what can I get for y'all today." Nellie said "I want a creamy chocolate soda." Lupe said "I'll take a root beer float." Everybody else liked the float idea, so they ordered one too. After the waitress left, Lupe stared at Austin. "So I'm your little angel, huh?" Austin had the feeling he accidently stepped in something. "Aaaaa... I think so..." Lupe put her arm around him and said in a cute little Southern accent "Well you're my little angel. Isn't that right, honey. Come on now. Give us a cute little smile, baby." The girls laughed as she was being sarcastic with him. Tracy was sitting on the other side of Austin. She patted him on the back and said in her natural Southern accent "It's ok Austin. Most guys don't get it. Girls are no longer anybody's little anything. But we still love you, hun." Lupe said "Hey, hands off the Cowboy. He's mine." Austin said "Girls, girls, just relax. There's plenty of me to go around." Summer, Molly, Tracy, Lupe, Connie, Sophia, and Nellie all stood up at once. Lupe said "What?!!!!!!" At six foot one and 185 pounds, Austin thought for a second that he was going to get the living crap kicked out of him. He meekly said "Hey, I was just kidding. Ok?" Tracy grabbed the top of his shoulder and shoved him down into his chair while holding him firmly "I don't know, Lupe. Maybe I should pop one of his eyeballs out and take a look inside his head to see if there's anything going on in there. What do you think?" Austin was shrinking further down into his seat knowing full well she could easily do it. "No, not this time. His blue eyes are too darn cute. And besides Cowboy, we knew you didn't really mean it, did you? Just like we didn't mean it either. Molly, take a reading on him. Is he telling the truth?" Molly said "Yes. But he's scared to death you're going rip him to pieces." Lupe laughed. "We're not going to hurt you, Cowboy. Just promise me you would end our relationship before you see any other girls. Ok? And I would do the same for you." Austin gasped "Of course." He didn't know what else to say. So he meekly smiled and sat there looking at the girls intensely staring at him.

Travis said "Mom's taking us over to Mr. Jacob's house a few days before ya'll get there. Bubba and mom want the place to look nice. Austin added "We've got an Olympic sized swimming pool with three diving boards at different heights." Lupe put her arm around him. "And they live next to the Balcones Escarpment. It's like a gentle four to five hundred foot cliff that extends for miles. He says it's fun to ride your horse up and down the steep slope." Austin said "It's great exercise for my horse." He was relieved and thought "Thank god we changed the subject." With her arm around her Cowboy, Lupe winked at him to signal she wasn't upset.

Molly asked "So how long is the rodeo." Austin said "The rodeo itself is seven days. But there is also a livestock show and it lasts for two weeks." Nellie asked "What's a livestock show." Austin replied "High school age and younger raise farm animals to be judged at the show. They judge for looks and behavior." Nellie asked "Is there a livestock show in El Paso too?" Lupe said "Yep, there is. When your mom buys a home I hope it's in what they call the Upper Valley farmland area. That way you'll have a place to keep horses and raise farm animals for the livestock show.

After the drinks, the kids cajoled their parents into going on some very intense rides. First up was the giant frisbee. It's a giant disk where people sit locked in on the perimeter. It spins like crazy while a huge eight foot arm holding the disk rotates vertically. Every rider gets a barf bag before going on. The kids loved this one. The adults thought they were crazy for riding the damned thing.

The next ride was called the stop and drop. The entrance had a large sign warning adults to ride at their own risk. And you have to be at least 48" tall. The rider is tightly sealed in. It takes people three hundred feet up in nothing but open seats. Twenty seats surrounding a huge pole. At the top the people are released in a free fall. There are four banks of five seats. Each bank falls separately at 120 miles per hour. At the bottom they swirl around three loops then skid into water which almost instantly slows them to a stop. The loops and the stop produces a quick body shattering 6 Gs of force. Norma couldn't get off the ride fast enough. She ran to a nearby bathroom while Nellie was behind yelling "Let's do it again, mom. Hurry up, let's do it again!" Norma tossed her cookies while Nellie watched in horror. "Come on mom, it wasn't that bad." After a few moments of chucking her guts up, Norma tried to focus on her youngest daughter. "Nellie, if we ever have to fly a Blackhawk, I want you to do it. Ok?" "You got it, mom. Here, let me help you get up." Larry yelled from the restroom door "Norma, are you ok?" "Mom's fine. I'm bringing her out."

Silvia wasn't fortunate enough to make it to the restroom. She lost it in a barf bag. Bubba and Laurie did too. Believe it or not Tony and Larry were the only adults doing just fine. That may have been because both are pilots. Molly, Tracy, Lupe, and Tony were certified several months ago to fly jet fighters and attack helicopters. Larry's been flying all kinds of jets for well over ten years. They've also done the vomit comet thing to understand what zero gravity is like.

The vomiters sat down to let the world stop moving while Tony and Larry went with the kids on the stop and drop again. This time Austin puked but the others were ok. They continued on several rides like the bumper cars.

Norma and Larry go on a date

Everyone was getting hungry. It was almost 7:00. Tony told Norma and Larry "I promised to watch your girls so you two could go out this evening. After we finish eating, they want to do a sleepover. Is that ok with you, Norma." "That's what I heard. Sure." Larry said "And I made arrangements to do something I think you'll like, baby." "What is it?" "It's a surprise. You ready to have some fun!" "That depends on what you call fun, babe." "Don't worry, you'll love it. I'm ready now, if you are." Norma thought "A surprise and he wants to do it now. Hummm." "Ok, let's go." She told her girls to be good and mind Tony. Connie said "Don't worry Uncle Tony, we'll be good." The girls including his daughter, Tracy, and Molly were laughing. Tony thought "Uh-oh, should I worry about these six girls doing a sleepover?! Nah, they're little angels. I don't have to worry, or do I?"

Norma and Larry jumped on a trolley which took them outside to a Blackhawk. "Is this your surprise?" "This will take us there." The flight lasted a few minutes. The bird landed at a military base just outside DC. Stepping out of the Blackhawk, Norma faced a beautiful jet fighter. Larry said "Surprise!" Norma paused and blurted out "A jet fighter? You didn't buy me a jet fighter, did you? Because if you did, you need to give it back!" Larry said "No, no, no. We're going for a ride. Isn't she beautiful! It's our newest model. It will fly at a little over Mach 4. That's about 3,100 miles per hour." "Is it safe? And how many seats does it have?" "It has two." "You're saying you're going to fly this?" "The People made sure I knew how to fly all of our aircraft. You know... Just in case." Norma said "Cletus used that expression a year ago when he was talking about you." Larry reached in the chopper and grabbed a flight suit. "Norma, you can duck in the chopper and change into this. You'll need it if we have to take on some extreme G forces. "I hope you know what you're doing, Larry." In a few minutes they were sitting in the jet ready to go. An assistant showed Norma what controls not to touch and he cautioned her about pulling the ejection handle. There were a few barf bags just in case. Over the intercom Larry said "You ready, Norma." "Sure babe, hit it." Two other jets took off behind Larry. After they were airborne, she saw the jets on either side. "They're here just in case, right." "It just makes Cletus feel better. And I'm not going to argue with him. It's like talking to a wall." Norma laughed "You're right. So where are we going?" "San Francisco." "Darn Larry. Are we going to spend all our time flying? It'll be midnight before we get there." "It's 4:30 in the afternoon in San Francisco. We've got plenty of daylight. We can be there in 60 minutes, unless you want to slow down and see some beautiful parts of our country like the Grand Canyon." "Sure, why not." So Larry took the southern route across the US. "The onboard computer has terrain recognition capability. If I want to fly fifty feet off the ground it refers to very detailed 3D maps and will move back and forth up and down to avoid all the obstacles."

((Note from the author, Gene Hartley: I had the privilege of knowing the man who designed the terrain recognition software used on cruise missiles. He showed me how to build a computer and taught me database management software. A very cool guy.))

"Here, let me show you." He took the jet down to treetop level in a sparsely populated part of Tennessee. "It will look far enough ahead to compensate for my speed." He pumped the speed up to Mach 2. Norma calmly told Larry that it was nice to see the terrain flying by in a blur, but she recommended he take it up to a higher altitude so she can see her daughters get married someday. He laughed and brought it up to sixty thousand feet. "Norma, we're going one and a quarter miles every two seconds, so we should be flying over El Paso in about twenty minutes. Then I'll bring it down so you can see the town." "Great, be sure and fly low over the west side. That's where the real estate agent said I should buy a home."

Larry dropped down to five thousand feet on the eastern outskirts of town. She said "Look, you can see lots of warehouses and factories." He passed slowly over downtown. Norma reflected "Not much is there." Larry curved around downtown and flew along the west side of Mount Franklin. He descended to five hundred feet. Norma said "Honey, this area is really nice. Look. Homes go all the way up the foothills of the mountain. I love it. And there's a golf course and a country club. I think we're going to like it here." "Some people like living up high on the side of the mountain and others like living down in the valley near the Rio Grande River." When Larry finished flying across the foothills he went to the upper valley farmland and followed the river to Las Cruces. Larry said "It's only about thirty miles from El Paso to Las Cruces." "Good because my little Connie has been pestering me all year long about moving close to Lupe." Larry flew very low on the Las Cruces side of the Organ Mountains. He said "The Organs are beautiful in the late afternoon, aren't they." "They are. Shoot us up to the top." Larry pulled back on the stick and instantly they were just above summit. "Wow, Larry, this is one nice machine. It's so desolate on the other side of the mountain. You'd never think there was a small village a few hundred feet underground." Larry said "The people in that little village, like Lupe, Tracy, and Molly, and those living at Los Alamos in northern New Mexico are the ones that design the stuff that keeps us a safe and free nation. This area is so important that its restricted air space goes all the way into outer space." "Wow, Larry, we and the military are the only ones allowed here?" "Right. And they're a little nervous with me hugging the mountain like this. Right now, we kind of are the military. I didn't tell you we have some very nasty ordnance on board in case... Well, you know." Norma smiled "Just keep your eyes on the road, Larry." "Ok, have you seen enough? This scram jet engine wants to spring us over to the Grand Canyon so we can see it while the sun is still out." "Let's do it!" Larry pulled all the way back on the throttle. Norma yelled "Larry, you're accelerating so fast I can hardly move my arms. This machine's a monster!" "Yeah, but Lupe can take us across the country in seconds without us feeling a thing." "But that wouldn't be any fun."

In a few minutes they were at the eastern rim of the Grand Canyon. Larry said he brought one of his satellites down over the Canyon as a second source to tell him of any air traffic in the area. He said "Accept for a couple of small tour choppers, it looks clear enough to drop down into the canyon." Norma said "Great, let's do it." Larry brought the jet to just above stall speed with full flaps and went way down into the canyon where the Colorado River was flowing. He said "Hey look up ahead. There's some rafters. Let's fly over them and shake our wings to say hello." Norma said "Fly us upside down so we can wave." Larry thought "This woman is something else." He flipped it and slowly passed over the group just above their heads as he and Norma waved. "Larry, they're waving back! Do me a favor and make a pass over them again and then point it up and turn the scramjet engines up all the way and have it shoot up like a rocket." Larry complied and just before he gave full throttle he said "Now I'll show you something no civilian has ever seen before. You'll feel like you're in a rocket accelerating into outer space. Norma said "Do it! ......Weehaa!" Scientists developed a method to briefly double the acceleration out of the scramjet engines. It accelerates so hard that a G Force governor has to be employed so the pilot and copilot won't blackout. Larry pulled back at 80,000 feet. Norma screamed some choice happy curse words. "Xxx xxxx, son of a xxxxx, this baby really hauls!" With a contented smile Larry said "That's the second time I've ever heard you curse, Norma. I guess that means this qualifies as an experience of a lifetime." "You (censored expletive) right it does, Babe. Thanks!...... Can we go to our final destination now?" "Sure baby, we should be in San Francisco in about twenty minutes."

After landing at a military base they choppered out to a skyscraper helipad in downtown. "This is nice, Babe. So where are we going?" "Are you hungry?" "Sure." Larry offered "It's a little presumptive of me, but I had a large container of Alaskan King Crabs flown in and they arrived here about an hour ago. The little grabbers were caught in the Bering Strait this morning. They chose the best of the best to send to us. And over the last year you've taught me about sharing, so I brought enough for all the patrons tonight. I had the owner post it as a free special." Norma was very touched by Larry's altruism. "I'm starving to death, let's go." They drove out to Fog Harbor Fish House located at Pier 39. As Larry walked in he said "Reservation for two under Corona." "Yes, you requested a table with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Is that correct?" "Yes Ma'am." As they sat down the hostess said "Tonight's a special night. An anonymous benefactor sent a large amount of beautiful Alaskan King Crabs for us to serve our patrons. The best part is it's free." Norma said "Is that right. What's the catch?" "No catch unless you're talking about those delicious crabs. They told us they were caught early this morning off the coast of Alaska." The hostess left and their waitress walked up. Hi, my name is Tina and I'll be your...Oh my God... Norma Corona. I had no idea you were coming here." Norma said "Shussss. We're trying to go unnoticed. Please don't say anything." "Of course not. I'm so excited! I see you brought a friend with you. I hope this is a special occasion, because I'll try to make it the best evening you've had in forever." "Great, Tina. So can we order our drinks first?" "Absolutely, Ms. Corona. What would you like?"

Tina left to get the drinks. Norma looked at Larry. "I'm sorry she didn't recognize you." "Don't worry. I'm just an ordinary looking guy with a wig and a beard sitting with a drop dead beautiful woman. I expect things like this to happen." He was grinning. "I didn't realize how America has fallen so much in love with you. Maybe I'm getting a little jealous." She reached over and held his hand to console him. "Babe, you know you're my Babe." "You know I like it when you call me Babe." He got up and she stood up. They proceeded to passionately French kiss a nice long one. He asked "Are you sure you're hungry..." She gave him a coquettish smile. "We've got plenty of time. And you need to eat to keep your strength up for later", as she made her eyebrows go up and down.

Tina came back with the drinks and asked if they decided yet. Tina looked at Larry. "I'm sorry I ignored you earlier...aaah." "My name is Edward. I'm her cousin." "Edward, it's not every day we have such a famous person come to our restaurant. I hope you'll forgive me." Larry said in a nerdy way "It's all cool, Tina." "Great, so have you two decided what you want?" Norma looked at Tina. "Sure, we'll take the Crab dinner you have on special tonight. What are the sides?" "It's served with fingerling potatoes and grilled corn on the cob with tarragon butter. If you don't like that we have sautéed veggies, wild rice, caramelized onions, or a side salad with avocado. Norma said "No, that's fine. How about you, Eddie?" "Same for me." Larry made a nerdy laugh to add to his disguise. After Tina walked off, Norma said "I'm going to kick your nerdy butt if you laugh like that again." He did it again, so she got up with a mean face and jumped in his lap and smooched him a big one. "Honey, that's not my butt and these beautiful ruby colored lips aren't your feet." He started to talk some more and she shut him up by kissing him again.

Then out of nowhere, behind them stood this tall well-dressed handsome Black man. In a deep whispering voice they heard "Ahummm. Are you two lovebirds about finished." Norma turned around and got this "cat caught with a canary in her mouth" look. She jumped off Larry's lap and innocently whispered "Uh, hi Cletus. What are you doing here?" Cletus admonished "Do you know how difficult it will be to destroy the videos in this business? Please tone it down. I don't want you ripping his clothes off and ravishing his body here in public." Norma got a little peeved. "Give us some credit. We know our boundaries." "I'm sorry Norma, but do you want a looping video being broadcast around the nation with Larry grabbing your little behind while you're kissing him?" In a sweet little whispering voice Norma said "Larry, you bad little boy, did you grab my cute little tushy!" Totally exasperated, Cletus said in a normal voice "Please, you guys, it just makes me feel better if you don't do this in public. Ok?" Larry said "Ok, dad." Tina was just walking up and said "Oh high, is this your friend?" Norma quickly said "No, he's his brother. They're adopted." Cletus turned to Tina. "Hello. My name is Norbert Montigeu. And you are?" "Oh, my name is Tina. I'm their waitress." "Such a charming name for such a beautiful lady." Tina blushed and giggled a little "Hehehehe." Larry thought "Why do they give me these charismatic bodyguards." Norma said "Would you like to join us for dinner, Norbert?" "That's very kind and admirable of you, but I've already dined earlier this evening. But not with such an enchanting waitress as yours." Norma forced a smile and thought "If Tina only knew how difficult Cletus really was." Norma said "I'm sorry. I forgot about the appointment you have later. Don't you have to be on your way now?" Cletus gave them a stone face and said "Yes, I shall now depart. It was indeed a pleasure speaking with you and be good to this precious ocean flower named Tina." With that Cletus left to the surveillance van parked outside.

After a few minutes Tina with a helper brought the food out. It was beautifully presented. Larry asked "Norma, have you eaten King Crab before?" "Larry, I was a poor girl who grew up next to the projects." With a businesslike look he said "These bibs Tina put on us are very important because eating crab legs is a very messy, but delicious job. With these pliers you grab a claw and pop it open like this. And then you pull the meat out with this tiny fork. See." He continued "But before you eat it, you dip it into this lemon juice and butter sauce. Ummmmm." Norma said ok. So she grabbed a huge claw and cracked it open with her hands, reached in with her finger and pulled out the meat. She gave Larry a playful smile as she took a bite. "You're right, this is delicious Babe." Then she grabbed the back shell and cracked it open with her hands. "Humm... Not much in here, Larry. Where'd all the meat go?" Larry was very confused. "You're not supposed to be able to do that." Norma glanced up and whispered very low so Cletus wouldn't hear "Tracy gave me a little chemical power boost before I left. Just in case. You know..." Larry just shook his head. Norma said "You chose a very independent, strong, and beautiful woman, Larry" as she was wolfing down the delicious crab meat. "And I also chose a woman with a heart as precious as a field of roses." As she was smacking her lips she said "Great. Now eat some of your crab, it's delicious." Larry was trying to get a little romantic because he was bringing in a talented group of Spanish gypsies to sing the same song they played when he proposed to her the night before. In two minutes the guys came in and quickly set up on a small platform at the end of the restaurant near the couple. Larry nodded his head and one of the stoned but very happy musicians said "This special song is for you, Norma." While they were playing Norma said "Aaaah, this is very sweet of you. You're a genuine romantic, babe. But knowing Cletus is watching and listening to everything kind of throws a blanket over it. Shame on you, Cletus. You've never been this way with us before." Cletus, as he was sitting in the van finishing off an old ham sandwich said "Guys, I think she's up to something. Make sure we don't lose them!"

Norma asked Larry "Didn't you live here?" "For many years. I know this city like the back of my hand, especially these docks." "That's nice to know. You probably know all the romantic spots to sit and watch the moon as it rises over the city, don't you?" She winked at him. He leaned back. "Of course. I'm a romantic kind of guy. Would you like to go to one of those spots?" "Yes, but think of the best private way to get there from here." She winked at him again. Cletus said "That's it. She's up to something. Put a tight net of agents around them. I don't want to lose these two. Got it?!" Cletus sat back down in his chair and looked at the screen and saw they were gone. "Dammit!"

Larry hopped on Norma's back. A mighty power thrilled her body. With half-running, triumphant steps she carried him away into the open night. (The last 2 lines came from a  Warriors Daughter by Zitkala Sa) She turned up her running speed to match the roads. "Be careful, Norma. I break easy." "I'm being careful. So which way did you say to go?" She continued on the small roads near the shore in the cover of night carrying her precious man. After several miles she stopped. "What about that high hill over there near the end of the bridge. From there we can look out over the bay and the city and see the moon and the stars." Larry holding on tight said "Let's do it." Her strength was incredible as she easily and rapidly moved them to the top. She found a nice grassy spot in the darkness where they settled in.

By this time the sun had completely set below the horizon. A blanket of darkness covered San Francisco. They sat motionless on the cool grass while taking in the starry night. Looking down... "The city lights are beautiful... The moonlight is glistening off the bay... See. The boats are slowly coming in from a long day... This is so beautiful it's almost like a dream." whispered Norma as she was lovingly nestled in Larry's arms. Larry whispered "You know... my favorite romantic tune is an old one called Reminiscing by the Little River Band. Like in the song, when I'm old I want to look back and think about how I cherished moments like these. This right here, right now is the stuff I used to dream about but never had." He kissed her cheek and slowly moved his lips to her mouth. She melted in his arms and was overcome by a strong physical aching for his love as their hearts became one. Time itself seemed to drift away into the sea of night as they were lost in their romantic embraces. There were echoes of a coyote howling in the distance. Norma said "Sounds like there are other lovers with us tonight." Larry smiled and kissed her again. He whispered "Te doy todo mi cariño por sólo una sonrisa de tu cara hermosa." (I give you all my affection for only a smile on your beautiful face.) Norma chuckled "Abrázame más cerca, y besa me una vez más, te loco romántico engañe." (Hold me closer and kiss me again, you crazy romantic fool.)

Several timeless loving hours passed when near midnight Norma heard some unusual sounds in the distance. She sprang to her feet. "You left your cell phone at the restaurant, right? Are there any other GPS devices on you?" "Not that I know of." "Then lay flat on the ground and don't move. Tracy gave me an extra dose of her concoction that sharpens my senses and makes me almost invincible. Stay here. I need to look around. She ran swiftly for a long distance in the direction of the sounds. The sounds turned into faint voices. They were becoming clearly audible when she accidently tripped a wire and cans started clanking together. She continued several hundred feet further then froze standing perfectly still listening for dropping footsteps. There they were. Some stupid older teenage boys with guns and hatchets.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here" said the group leader. "A pretty lady who wants some hot lovin" said another. Norma said "You've got a pretty nice set up here. How many other 'pretty' women have you taken here and raped?" "Well honey, that's none of your business. The teen standing next to him said "After we finish with the one over there, I think you'll be lucky number seven, baby. And guess what, we've already dug a nice big hole for number six." The group leader added "We'll just chop both of you up and dump you in together. Come here honey, you look real nice. Grab her guys."

Norma instantly moved about a hundred feet to see if the bound girl was still alive. She was. Then she zipped back to where they were standing. "Boys, I don't have time for this. So my punishment has to be quick and thorough. I don't want you raping and killing any more women so your time on earth is up." Norma at blinding speed moved to each young man, crushing their skulls like tomatoes. Then she picked up their guns and bent them. She put the whole mess in a big pile, then rinsed her hands off at a nearby spring she passed earlier. With clean hands she ran over to their latest victim. "Are you ok? Here, let me take these handcuffs off." The girl was about seventeen, crying and shaking like a leaf. "What's your name baby, and how did you get here?" "Mm...my na...ame is Jane and those ANIMALS grabbed me while I was jogging!" With her eyes half open and sobbing she continued "Then they kept me in that van for hours. I almost suffocated to death." Norma said "We need to get you home. I'm sure your mother is worried sick about you." "She doesn't know I'm missing. She works a twelve hour shift as a waitress at the Fog Harbor Fish House." "Her name wouldn't by any chance be Tina, would it?" "How did you know?" Norma said excuse me for a second. She walked a distance and looked up at the stars. "Is this your weird way of showing me something? You don't have to do this!" She paused and thought for a moment. "But if it's your way of utilizing my talents, then call me any time. Ok? And thanks again for the favor a year ago. And, not just anybody should have this power. Is that what you're telling me?" She walked back to Jane. "Look, I've got to get you out of here. What you saw me do tonight is a top secret of the Peoples Government. Promise me you won't say anything. If you do we'll have to arrest you. Ok?" Jane cleared her head. "But a Young Pioneer did the same thing you did. She focused on Norma's face "Oh my God, you're Norma Corona. I had no idea..." Norma broke in "That's exactly what your mom said tonight. Here, I'm going to hold you like a baby and run us that way. Ok? Hold on." She grabbed on while Norma ran her precious package back to Larry.

"Who is this?" "Her name is Jane. You remember Tina our waitress? She's her daughter." Larry was very confused. "You're kidding." "Nope. Listen, we need to get the heck out of this place." She scooped her man up, Jane climbed on him and down she ran back to civilization. Back in the city, Norma borrowed a cellphone. Cletus was there in five minutes.

Norma took Cletus aside. "Her name is Jane. She almost became a Jane Doe. She's Tina's daughter. You know, the waitress you were so fond of tonight. And see that big hill over there in the distance. There's a small problem about a half mile in from the very top that you need to clean up. I'd recommend you have it done immediately. You might also look for five shallow graves. Jane needs to go to the hospital. She's extremely traumatized and may have been raped." With a serious look she said "Thanks, Cletus. And please don't say I told you so. Ok?" Cletus was silent for a moment. He turned to Norma. "We'll talk about this later. He got on the radio and called an ambulance and a cleanup crew."

As Jane was leaving in an ambulance, Larry said to Norma "Today's been interesting. We both took each other for a ride, each with a few surprises." He continued "There's one more thing." "Larry, it's almost one in the morning. I'm getting a little sleepy." "I'm with you, but can we make a quick stop by this place on the way back to our hotel?" "Sure, why not." Cletus personally drove them to a huge Tiffany's store downtown. The lights came on. Several guards opened the door and welcomed the couple in. Larry said "I need to give you an engagement ring, but I want it to be something special, something you'll like." Norma looked at Larry's kind face. "I'm sorry honey, but I don't like gaudy diamonds. A simple gold band after we're married is all I want." Norma saw how Larry's eyes became despondent, long, and sad. She said "I tell you what. My favorite color is blue. Find me a beautiful blue diamond and I'll be proud to wear it." So Larry had the head jeweler find the best blue diamonds he had in the store. After seeing the stones Norma asked if he had any uncut blue diamonds. The jeweler went to the back and came out with a rough roundish uncut blue diamond. Norma said "That's it. That's what I want. Isn't it beautiful, Larry." The jeweler said it was one of his best diamonds. It was such a perfect stone, they were going to leave it up to the purchaser to tell them what type of cut they wanted it to have. Norma wanted them to leave it exactly as it was and to place it in a simple six pronged gold setting. "This is where I want the top to be." "Certainly, Ms. Corona. We will work on it right now and have it to your hotel in the morning." Larry thanked the employees for helping with the impromptu late night visit. He wanted to make sure all the employees were tipped handsomely for their inconvenience. The head jeweler said "Mr. Page, since the Big Change I really don't need any extra money. None of us do. But could I ask a favor of you. My daughter had a car accident last year, and see, she can't walk anymore. If there is any way you could help her..." Larry stopped him. "Yes, there may be. We have a team at a research facility working on that right now. We'll fly her there tomorrow." Larry looked at Cletus. Cletus said he would take care of everything. The man hugged Larry and began to cry. Larry said "I can't guarantee anything, but it's better than languishing away in a wheel chair when maybe we could have her running up and down the hills of San Francisco. Right?" "God Bless you, Mr. Page" as the man shook Larry's hand with both of his hands. Larry looked at Norma. "He already has."

By now both of them were wiped out. For them it was really 4:30 in the morning since they woke up the previous day in DC. They went straight to their hotel room and quickly fell asleep in each other's arms. Cletus had a bunk in the van. "Finally, I can rest."

The next day

The phone in the hotel room was ringing. Norma cracked open an eye and looked at the clock on the bedside table. "Oh my gosh, it's 11:30." She answered. Connie said "Mom, Cletus gave us your hotel phone number. Are you awake? It's 2:30 in the afternoon over here. Are you guys coming back today?" Norma told Connie to wait a second as she put her on hold. "Larry, wake up. We need to get back. Larry, come on let's get up! Shusssss. Don't say anything. Connie's on the phone." All groggy, Larry replied "Uh. Sure." She took Connie off hold. "We'll be back in less than two hours. Ok?" "Aren't you in San Francisco? Mom, you're 3,000 miles away." "I hope you girls behaved yourselves while I was away. Are you still with Uncle Tony? Put him on the phone." "Chica, hope you had a good time." "Tony, I had the time of my life. Did the girls give you any trouble?" "They were perfect angels. Couldn't have asked for better behaved girls." "Like I really believe that, Tony. I'm just glad you're still alive and in one piece. We should be back before 4:30 your time." "Ok. Stay safe. Ay te watcho, chica". (See you later, girl. In this context chica means a female friend.) "Later, Tony. Give the phone back to Connie, ok?" "Connie, do me a favor and call our real estate agent and have her send you all the listings she recommends. I want a complete profile of all the properties. I'm really anxious to get our new home." "Ok, mom. See you soon." "Te quiero, mija. Bye." "Bye."

"Larry, are you awake yet? We got a little over seven hours of sleep. How do you feel?" Larry squinted his eyes. "Getting there." "Great. Let's take a shower and get out of here. She called the desk and asked about the ring. "Larry, I'm going to have to go to their safe because they're scared to death about having it stolen. We'll pick it up on the way out." "Ok, honey."

While Larry was in the shower, Cletus came to the door with a new change of clothes for both of them. "Norma, earlier we had Connie show us your clothes at the B&B so we could get your correct size and style. Some of my female agents went out and bought you some similar clothes. Hope this meets with your approval. And, here are your cell phones. Both of you conveniently forgot them at the restaurant." Norma was holding her new blouse. She excitedly said "These clothes are beautiful! I've never put on all new clothes from head to toe before. You even brought some little panties for me. Thanks, Cletus."

He hesitated, pacing around with his hands on his hips. He focused on Norma's eyes. "And Norma, the San Francisco police department wanted me to thank you for solving the "midnight rapist" case. They've been working on it for six weeks with no leads...... You must have some kind of magic, momma. You come here, successfully evade the best undercover agents in this country, and in just a few hours you save a girl's life and take out the most vicious killers this town has had since the attack a year ago. I don't know if I should hug you or spank you." Norma's eyes twinkled. "Now don't get freaky on me, Cletus." He frowned and turned around angrily mumbling to himself. Acting very concerned, she put her hand on his shoulder as she was walking him out of the room. "And Cletus, like I mentioned when we first met... I think you guys really need to work on improving your response time." She winked at him then she shut the door. A few moments later Norma opened the door, looked down the hallway "Norbert, we'll be out in a few minutes. And I need you to sign off on renewing my peace officer's license. Thanks for everything!" He waved to her forcing a smile as he walked into the elevator. "I hate it when she does that! She thinks she can do anything and get away with it... What baffles me is she actually can." He shook his head. "What's wrong with me, I keep on forgetting where she's from. That little mama has more street smarts in her pinky than most people will have over a lifetime. ......I hate to admit it... but she's exactly what Larry needs."

Larry and Norma were back in the jet waiting for runway clearance. She was admiring her new natural blue diamond engagement ring and thought "I don't really need this. But it makes my honey happy. He just doesn't understand that I prefer things like beer, low-cut jeans, bright flirty summer tops, large hoop earrings, scanty panties, and Prada shoes. I told him I'm not wearing this all the time. I'm not a show off. But it is beautiful." Larry came on the intercom. "The tower just gave us clearance. You ready?" "Hit it babe. Take us to maximum cruise speed and altitude." "You got it. Let's go." The Jet Stream was blowing unusually fast, so Larry was actually travelling at 3,400 miles per hour, even though his airspeed indicator displayed 3,100 mph or 2,700 knots. "It's 2,441 miles to the District of Columbia. The flight computer says it should take us there in no time flat." "That's good because we forgot to eat lunch. I'm starving. Dale (da le) gas, guapo!" (Let's go, handsome.)

Back at the B&B Norma's children were waving as they touched down. The sliding door opened. The girls ran up shouting "Daddy, daddy, welcome back.", and gave him a big hug. Connie said "High, mom, we missed you too." Norma sarcastically said "Thanks, I appreciate all the fawning." She continued "I'm starving. Let's get something to eat and you can tell me all about what you did today."

Most of the gang and their parents were already seated in the restaurant. Tobi and two assistants took the drink orders. "Bring me two extremely cold Tecates with lots of lime and salt" requested Norma, "I'm super thirsty for some reason. What do you want, Babe?" "I'll take the same please." After the orders were taken Norma asked "So what did you kids do today." Lupe said "Don't you want to know what we did last night? :) Connie said "Yeah, mom." "I decided not to ask about that. What I don't know won't hurt you." Sophia said "Mo..om, we played WII till eleven, then we hit the sack." Tracy said "Yeah, Uncle Tony kept us on a tight leash. We couldn't go out or nothing. So we had pizzas delivered." Nellie said "They were really good." Molly said "Right before we went to sleep Uncle Tony told us a scary story. I did a reading and he was telling the truth! I told the other girls and we started screaming." Tony laughed. "It was my 'spacecraft and no one driving an old pickup' story. She's right it really did happen. And the sheriff's deputy wouldn't go check it out. His eyes got really big and said there were strange things going on out there in the desert." Connie in a frantic sounding voice said "No, Uncle Tony. Stop. It's too scary!" Tony said "And finally they went to sleep, but with the covers over their heads." Norma said "Great, so what did you guys do today?"

Lupe said "We all decided to go back to the museum and listen to a few speakers talk about improvements since the Big Change." "Was it fun dancing between sessions?" Nellie said "Yes. I love the applause. Hanna says I'm getting bit by the show biz bug." "I believe all you girls have been bitten. Right, Hanna?" "Fraid so." Norma asked "Did you hear anything interesting? Lupe said "Well, yes. We saw how for over a hundred years the rich in Mexico were totally taking advantage of everybody else. Before the BC, companies in the US, Germany and other places set up factories there and paid the Mexicans pitiful wages just to make more profits. They even showed videos of children starving on the streets of Mexico City." Norma said "Well now that you know the truth, aren't you glad we went in to make it a direct democracy just like us?" Tracy said "Uncle Tony told us about this stuff, but I really didn't understand the ruthlessness of the rich in Mexico."

She continued "You know that episode where Mexican police jailed a United States Marine veteran just because he took the wrong turn and ended up in Mexico with loaded guns? And they wouldn't let him go for eight months? That's when the People finally had enough. The only reason they released him was because we were getting ready to take over Tijuana. But those dirty judges taking so long to release him was the straw that broke the camel's back. We went in and took over all of Mexico. It made me happy to see we gathered up the top 100 wealthiest families and put them in jail. Our soldiers also put the top officers of the Mexican army in jail. Then they went to all the major cities and put all the top police and judges in jail. It got so bad that we had to bring in several ocean liners to house them way out at sea so nobody could break them out."

Norma said "I'll bet the two thousand dollars a month the citizens are receiving made a big difference." Bubba said "The cost of living is so low in Mexico that many Mexicans who became US citizens are returning because the buying power is about is so much better in Mexico and they want to be part of the Big Change in their mother country." Larry said "That's true. You know, the country and the people of Mexico are very beautiful. Over the last two years we've sent over 500,000 business people, mostly Hispanic, and 500,000 Hispanic solders over there and now a majority of them want to stay. And, the Mexican people want them to stay. The bond we have with Mexico is even stronger now that we've made them a truly free and democratic nation."

Toby and her assistants brought out the drinks and took everybody's food order. Afterward Norma asked "So what else did you see? Tracy said "After the Mexico thing, a lady talked about the Media. I really wanted to see that one." Bubba said "It was very revealing." Lupe said "Yeah, right after the Big Change we arrested all the top management that worked for the large networks like NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and PBS. They even arrested all the top management at all the movie studios." Norma said "I didn't know we went that far. Why?" Tony said "They were trying to cover everything up and evade all our actions. So like with repatriation of manufacturing, we just threw the bums in jail. Including their families. Then we questioned these people one by one in detail to see exactly what they were up to." Laurie said "Like with the IRS scandal before the BC, it's amazing how most of middle management media worked like mind numbed robots never questioning the propriety or morality of what they were doing. It was only the very top echelon of people who knew what was going on. They would meet with panels of overseers. The panels were part of the Council on Foreign Relations or the CFR. The CFR was an organization run by the wealthiest people on earth, not just the US, the entire earth. With their billions in bribes they were controlling our politicians and the media. The media euphemistically called bribes 'lobbying expenses'." Norma said "I remember that. I saw it on the news a few months after we took over. The people who were trying to control our lives through propaganda were identified and we had a vote whether to execute them or not. So, we decided to put them on prison farms. Hey, the hops in this beer could have been harvested by one of those creeps. Um, this Tecate is delicious. Would you please pass me some limes. Ok, so tell me something I don't know." Connie said "All propaganda in the media was outlawed. They even stopped the use of laugh machines on comedy shows. Norma said "Now that's funny. I remember 'the big bang theory' had constant fake laughter. The show was actually funny. They didn't need to fake it up." Norma continued "But I already knew the media went through a complete transition. Even though we had hundreds of channels, only six companies owned and controlled everything we saw. And five of them were controlled by a tiny ethnic group." Laurie said "So that ended immediately. The media corporations were one of the few exceptions, where we didn't allow the employees to run the businesses. A random cross section of two thousand Americans were chosen to be the overseers because it had been shown and proven that for almost a hundred years a tiny ethnic group of people had been giving themselves preferential treatment. Sixty percent of the people in media including almost 100% of the top level employees were Jewish. It was a clear violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So at least for a while we are limiting employment of Jews to no more than 10%. And, that's fair considering they make up only 2% of our population. So now we have hundreds of channels, each doing their own thing to appeal to as many as possible." Bubba added "And the media doesn't live by ratings anymore. Making money through advertising doesn't matter. What matters is variety and quality. And we have plenty of local and regional shows instead of those national shows that looked like they were spit out of the same machine. We started providing something for everyone." Norma said "Listen, I was really getting sick of almost every show using New York City as their backdrop. And best of all, those little jerks aren't brainwashing us anymore."

Toby and three assistants brought the food out. She asked Norma "I believe your order was cheese nachos with fresh cut jalapenos and little chunks of gallina (chicken) en mole (pronounced moe-le, is a delicious thick brown chile poblano sauce) on top. Is that correct?" "Toby, you're an angel. There's nothing better than beer and nachos when you're starving." Nellie shouted "And pepperoni pizza." After everybody's food was down, Norma asked if she could say a prayer. All held hands. "Whoever or whatever you are, please bless our engagement and our future marriage and thanks for these wonderful friends and our new lives, and for this delicious food. Amen."

Lupe said "There was this other speaker. It was on money and banking. I didn't know the Federal Reserve was the biggest scam ever perpetrated on the American people. Instead of us Americans creating our own money, which actually is only rights to purchase, and then equitably passing these rights out to everybody, the Federal Reserve created the money and then loaned it to us. For over a hundred years we paid interest on money that was really ours to begin with. Can you think of a better scam than that? And instead of having a national People's bank owned by all the citizens of the United States, they made sure our banking system was privately owned." Larry said "These laws opened the door to extreme graft and corruption in our country. An example was Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan Chase who severely hurt millions of home owners in 2008. He and the demons like him in the banking industry had so much money they were able to bribe the President and Congress to stay out of jail! In fact, they bribed our politicians so they could do anything they wanted. I thought it was sad that the Press never told to us about how Iceland dealt with their bad boy bankers and politicians who hurt their country. It was because we would have demanded the same here." Lupe agreed and continued "So, in 1913 some billionaires on a secluded island on the east coast secretly wrote the legislation. Our so called "representatives" in Congress and President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law. And all our representatives and our Presidents since that time had done nothing to stop it." Larry said "That's true. Even after the Fed started loaning trillions of dollars to other banks outside this country, the regular guy on the street still didn't get it. Nobody stopped and asked where all the trillions were coming from. The answer obviously was from thin air. It was all a scam to maintain this bubble of ultra-wealthy people on earth. As we all now know, money is only a right. It's not tangible. It's not a limited quantity. And for god's sake we didn't have to borrow these rights from a group of billionaires called The Federal Reserve." (Note from the authors: We probably need to explain this concept further since this book utilizes it... Money is not a limited quantity. And it's not tangible. It occupies no physical space in this universe. Although it's representations can be paper bills and coins. Money is just a right to purchase. Today if we flood the economy with rights to purchase, then prices will go up. Inflation.(greed) But in the United States with our wonderful government spying on us, like the NSA, they know exactly what has been purchased and sold for years. For example, they have a complete record of all transactions at Walmart, Costco, Amazon, Walgreens, McDonalds, etc. With this information and with our current computer technology we can pass legislation to halt increases in prices and have it work. It's that simple. But then you would have shortages on popular items. That would be solved with stepped up production to handle demand. So.... putting several thousand or more in everybody's bank account would be great. Where would it come from is your next question? It doesn't have to come from anywhere. It's just a right, not a limited quantity of something like green paper bills. ......... So to repeat... the excuse economists mostly give for not flooding the economy with money is it would cause inflation. Which means the value of the dollar would drop. But if we can stop rising prices, which we now can, then the extra money would be just fine. It would end the poverty class. Just require every able bodied person to work. We would consider stay at home parents as working. The other reasons against what we call universal basic income are totally selfish exclusionary ones. And what is this stupid belief that government bodies need to collect taxes to pay bills. This baloney came from the middle ages where the lord required his peasants to give him stuff they made and grew, and in return he would protect them with his small well fed army. Turns out the army was actually a tool to dominate the masses. So why collect taxes when we can just push a button and put several thousand or more in everybody's bank account? This story places $10,000 a month in accounts, but it could be any amount as agreed on by the People of the US. None of this will happen unless we end our totally corrupted representative government and go to a direct democracy. As I write this in April, 2020, during the corona pandemic, we see both democrats and republicans in Congress bailing out super large businesses while the common citizens are receiving squat. This has to stop. Will you please end it, and make our great nation a direct democracy.)

Molly has a photographic memory. She added "It was interesting when the speaker compared and contrasted business accounting to our old national way of handling money. She said she worked as a Certified Public Accountant for several decades. Then she gave us a brief history. Luca Pacioli was the father of modern accounting. He was born in the 1440s near Florence, Italy. He wrote the first mathematical encyclopaedia of Europe, published in Venice in 1494. It explained Hindu-Arabic arithmetic and algebra. It also had a 27 page explanation of Venetian accounting. This double entry method of bookkeeping was a way to keep detailed information of what a business owns, who they owe, and profits earned. (assets = liabilities + ((current income received less current expenses paid) + net equity from previous years) She stressed to us that a modified version of this should never have been applied to a nation. Our old approach of collecting taxes from the people, then tracking the taxes collected and then tracking money spent was ridiculous. And like Lupe just said, money is only an intangible right and making the people of a nation "borrow" money when they spend more than they collect was asinine. She said ending all private banking in the US including the Federal Reserve was the best thing we could have ever done. The owners of banking and financial institutions are gone. We don't need them to be a healthy happy society. Money and profits should have never been our primary focus. All that did was make the rich richer and the poor poorer." Tracy laughed. "That's our Molly, talking to us like she's reading it out of a book. What a memory."

Connie added "The speaker said that after the Big Change the People decided to execute all top level people in the Federal Reserve. So the current and still living past chairmen, and governors of each of the branches were lined up against a wall and summarily shot. And all wealth was taken from their families." Larry said "That was one of the few exceptions the People made. Almost all the rest of the extreme pre-BC perpetrators were sentenced to life on prison farms." Lupe said "The speaker was really upset because they spared the life of a congressman named Paul Ryan. He was sentenced to life hoeing weeds because he supported and was carrying out the demonic philosophy of Ayn Rand." Larry said "I don't know if Ayn was a demon, but she certainly supported the philosophy of allowing the poor and destitute to die in the streets. Paul Ryan was one of her disciples who talked like Jesus but worked behind the scenes like the devil. Then Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House after Paul. She was too old and frail, so the People had her and her husband work all day changing stinky diapers at an orphanage." Tony added "But all that's over with. Now the People are running things and not greedy godless little bastards like those who shipped my job overseas."

Tony asked Norma "Did you guys enjoy San Francisco?" "We were there for less than a day, so we really didn't get to see the sights. Oh, I learned how delicious Alaskan King Crab is." Nellie said "I saw a cooking show about them. They're dropped in boiling water while they're still alive. They squeal after you put them in!" Norma looked at Nellie "But they are really good especially with lemon and butter." Connie said "Well, what else did you do?" "Larry got me this gorgeous engagement ring." She reached into her purse and pulled it out. "Mom, it looks like a piece of rough rounded blue glass in a beautiful setting." Norma replied "Exactly. Isn't it beautiful!" Sophia said "If you like it, then we love it." Connie looked at Larry. "What else did you do on your trip." "Well, some of it is classified, and some of it had to do with law enforcement. Let's just say we had a very good time and helped some people." Norma said to the group "Well, what else did you guys do?" Connie said "Except for Uncle Elon's speech, it was kind of boring. We listened to a few more speakers, ate lunch, then we rode the rollercoaster, then we came back and called you. Then we laid out on the water to catch a few rays. Sophia said "One of the speakers talked about cleaning up our environment and setting aside millions of acres as wildlife preserves. When I grow up I want to be an environmentalist." Larry said "That's good, Sophia. But for it to work all of us need to be involved." Molly said "Uncle Elon gave a very good speech about our future with robots." Elon said "I just talked about the obvious." Mark said "It's obvious to us because in one way or another we work with it every day." Elon said "Yes, that's true. My audience was shocked when I told them in just a few years robots will be making everything. They will be doing all the physical chores of humanity. Then I told them it will be the biggest problem we will have to face. Simply put, with artificial intelligence we are calling out the devil. Larry and Sergey don't agree. But, I feel very uncomfortable about giving computers control because they don't have feelings or a moral compass. We really can't endow them with too much power because they could easily turn against us." Sergey said "Elon may have watched too many terminator, blade runner, and matrix movies." Norma asked Larry "What do you think?" Larry lucidly replied "We should listen to Elon. He's seldom been wrong about anything. We have to be careful about giving computers with artificial intelligence manual dexterity and mobility." Norma said "But, you've already done that with the "Big Dog" and the other robots, haven't you?" Larry said "It comes down to benefit versus risk. If we have a multitude of failsafe controls, then it's ok. Otherwise we will have problems." Elon said "Problem isn't the word. Devastation is more accurate. It would be like Edgar Rice Burroughs War of the Worlds."

Norma sensed a potential quarrel forming so she changed the subject. "Hey everybody, tomorrow I'll be giving a brief talk at the symposium. Larry's been helping me with it. I hope you all will come. It's at 10:00 in the morning." Elon said "I'll be there." Mark said "What's it about?" "I've been thinking about the course of events that occurred in my life during the last year. Even what happened to me yesterday has played an impact on what I'm going to say. It will cover two important topics: 1.) Giving all people more opportunity and a better life by removing ingrained enculturations, and 2.) Making it safer for people on the streets. Laurie said "But it is safe." "Yesterday I saved a seventeen year old girl from being raped and murdered. At the place where I saved her, there were already five dead bodies lying in shallow graves." "Oh my God, Norma, are you ok?" "Of course I'm ok. But it's obvious we are relying too much on our advanced technology instead of simple common sense. We need to constantly be aware of our surroundings and never expose ourselves to unnecessary dangers. In other words we must never become complacent. Anyway I hope you'll come to my talk. I could really use your moral support." The last thing Norma wanted was to see Elon, Mark, Larry, and Sergey argue with each other. Her diversion seemed to work.

Next morning Norma was up early practicing her speech. She was pacing back and forth in her suite's living room delivering it without any notes. She got her girls up at 7:30. Connie was still half asleep "Mom, it's going to be ok. Relax. Just be yourself." Sophia yawned "Let's go get some breakfast." Norma said "Nellie's still dressing. We'll leave when she's ready." Norma called on her cell. "Larry, are you ready? I'm really nervous about the speech. Let's go get some breakfast to calm me down. Make sure I don't drink any coffee. Ok?" Larry was at her door in 10 minutes. She hurried everyone along. She was talking incessantly about everything she could think of. "Mom... Relax. You're driving us nuts." Norma said "Larry taught me a derivative of the word transference. Instead of directing feelings from one person to another it can also mean a transfer or switching of behaviors between people. Like the sane therapist slowly becomes the crazies she's treating while the crazies become sane." Nellie said "Mom, I'm too smart for that. I'd just tune you out." Breakfast was a little rough, but they pulled through. At 9:00 they jumped on the bus bound for the museum. They arrived in thirty minutes. Norma asked Larry if she looked ok, then she kissed him and off she went. "Well girls, now I know how your mom is when she's nervous. I've known her for a year and she's never been like this. Sophia said "Mom never gets this way about anything."

Norma's speech

The back doors of the theater closed and Norma walked out on stage. The entire theater stood up and gave her a roaring welcome. She was very self-conscious but the love she felt from the audience gave her strength. "Thank you everybody... Thank you... Thank you... I appreciate the love. So if you would all please make yourselves comfortable I'll begin. I'd like to thank the overseers of the Peoples Monument and Museum for allowing me to come and speak to you today. They tell me this is being televised nationally. For those who are watching, thank you for allowing me into your home."

"A year ago I was enjoying the benefits of the Big Change. For two years and eight months I was able to give myself and my kids a good happy life. See before the BC, I was struggling just to survive. So almost three years into the Big Change I wanted to show my children the greatness of our People. And what better way to do that than visit this wonderful place. The things we saw that day were incredible. Then by random chance Larry Page joined our group of happy tourists. Larry has done so much to make the Big Change a success. I guess my saving his life that night was a way we could pay him back. You, the People, leveled the playing field so a simple young woman who worked as a stocker at Wal-Mart was given the opportunity to meet and associate with him. And we discovered a symbiosis existed. We liked each other. The whole was greater than the sum of the parts. Through me it was the People who saved Larry that night. And with Larry's programming it was the People who protected our great nation the next day."

"Since I started dating Larry you kind of elevated me as a positive symbol. You embraced me as an example of the common ordinary Person in America who when called upon can do uncommon extraordinary things. Whenever Larry and I were together it seemed the paparazzi were always there taking photos and writing stories. Listen I don't mind. I think it's very sweet of you. But now that you've proudly put me on display, every once in a while I'd like to make special requests that I believe will help us. And that is what this speech is about today."

"First, I want to briefly talk about personal security. Two days ago Larry Page and I were eating dinner at this beautiful restaurant in San Francisco. We didn't like his bodyguards constantly breathing down our necks. So we took off undetected. We left our GPS instruments and did some other things so we couldn't be followed. We made our way to a secluded hilltop near the bay. The view that night was just beautiful. But later I heard faint sounds in the distance further into this secluded area. I went to investigate and discovered a small group of vicious killers who had already raped and hacked up five victims and were working on number six. I quickly neutralized them. These guys shouldn't have been able to rape and murder. It's obvious to me that we don't have adequate security in this country. The police had been working on the case for six weeks with no leads. So how did they go undetected? The same way Larry and I did, which I won't disclose. See, I believe there will always be people who will be able to outsmart the safeguards. So I'm proposing we hire several thousand bright people to constantly attempt to get by these security safeguards. And believe me, some of them will. Then we'll make the necessary changes. See, for safeguards to work we have to understand they have to be ever changing and never static. Larry and I will formalize this request to the People next week." The audience strongly applauded and Norma quickly but diplomatically waved them to quiet.

"Now on to another topic. After I saved Larry's life a year ago, he asked me out on a date." Norma looked across the audience. "That's the least he could do, right? As I was giving him a flirty smile and batting my eyes I said sure I'll go out with you but it better be for my wonderful personality, brains, and beauty, and not for my butt kicking attitude." The audience laughed. "Then he paused for a minute looking at me and said he was completely mesmerized with everything about me. So I pulled out my iphone and looked up the word mesmerize. I read spellbound and enchanted. Humm, that sounded pretty good so I said yes." The audience laughed again. "So for the last year Larry has taught me lots of words to describe concepts and meanings I already knew but had no words for yet. He told me he got the better side of the deal because I taught him about matters of the heart while he taught me about matters of the mind. For a moment I was a little offended by that comment. But he clarified it by saying he taught me things that I hadn't had the opportunity to learn about. And he was right. Here's an example. Two days ago in that restaurant, Larry introduced me to the wonders of Alaskan King Crab. Let me tell you, it's really delicious. He asked me if I've ever eaten it before. I said of course not. I was a poor girl who grew up next to the projects." Norma paused and said "You see that is the problem. I was enculturated to expect less in life. To be less. After all, a poor chicana from East Side High in Newark should simply be happy with whatever comes her way." She paused and looked at her audience. "That's bullshit!"

"In contrast, let's look at my husband to be. His mom and dad expected him to do well in school. And he was able to go to a good school. From the moment he was born he listened to big words and complicated thoughts. His family was constantly encouraging him. They believed he could do extraordinary things and told him so. Larry had family encouragement, peer encouragement, and community encouragement, financial support, and access. And because of that, he felt a duty or a sense of responsibility."

"Having a sense of responsibility is important. See, after knowing my fiancé for a year, in many ways I realize I'm just as smart or smarter than him. I can immediately see things that he would be oblivious to. He taught me words like oblivious and I taught him about people. You see the reason he excelled as a youth and I didn't was because he had the resources available to him mixed with encouragement and peer pressure. So it was natural for him to take on the responsibility to do great things. I believe it's not our ability that makes us who we are, it's our taking on the responsibility to achieve what we are capable of doing. But at the same time a person must to have the tools and connections to make it happen. That just didn't happen where I grew up. Because of our financially and educationally and access to opportunities depressed community, everybody just wanted a steady job and a little fun on the weekends. School was a joke. If I shined in class, my peers didn't like it. The teachers weren't motivated because they actually believed we were subpar. In my neighborhood there weren't well off nepotistic people in large companies who were taking in school graduates and teaching them how to be successful. There weren't crony bankers who gave special treatment to one of their own. I could go on forever with this, but you get the idea. And now with the Big Change most people think that's all taken care of." Norma looked around "But it isn't."

"Listen, I know how to survive in a dangerous environment. There were a few times I had to fight to stay alive or to save someone else's life like my betrothed. I can look at people and size them up in seconds. On the streets I had to distinguish between good and bad people almost instantly. And I had to develop a very thick tough skin. The same was true with all my friends. What we didn't have was the ability to do well in any social setting. And we still aren't educated enough."

"For example, I've looked at the percentage of Hispanic and Black professors at many major universities and it's almost nonexistent. Then I had Larry do a profile of the professors at all the Ivy League schools. Most of them come from families whose mothers and fathers were well educated and financially secure. So it isn't a minority problem, it is an enculturation problem. We were not brought up to push ourselves to excel scholastically. First, we didn't think we could. Second, we didn't have the encouraging mentors or the tools or the money, and thus no confidence. Plus, we didn't understand that there is no shame in failing. The shame is when we didn't try. This was one of the beautiful morsels of wisdom Larry taught me when we first began dating."

"I'd like to see a process to fix this problem. I want to identify all people who had a hard time in life before the BC. Generally, that would be people who used to live in neighborhoods with less than $40,000 in family income. Then I want the children of these adults to have special training to expand their understanding of what they are capable of and how really great it feels to bust out of mediocrity. And I want the adults to have classes to improve their lives. Something like this has to be sold, so I'm recommending the People approve a media campaign to make it happen."

"Here is the scenario now with most of these families. They work from 8 to 5. They come home and make dinner or order out. Then the kids go to their rooms and get on electronic devices. Then the parents sit in front of the boob tube watching Newflix or something else. That isn't a good life. One of the things I'm recommending is to simply have a large calendar. Nail it to the kitchen wall. Have every evening and weekend planned and write it on the calendar. From going to the symphony, to taking a class in photography, to participating with your kids in karate classes, to going bowling, to going to a museum, to karaoke night, and so on. Life is meant to be lived not wasted. And from what I've seen, it hasn't gotten any better in my old neighborhood. The money is nice, but in a way it's made us life lazy."

Norma continued "Here is a  graph of ethnic enrollment in the top universities in the nation. It's from 2007 to 2011. This huge imbalance has continued to this day. As you can see Jews are way off the chart, especially on the eastern side of the United States. Then come Asians. My future husband is Jewish. He told me the Jews are historically known as people of the Book. From supposedly designing the great pyramids to creating Google, Jews have led the way. But if you compare the IQs of Jews against other European, Eurasian, Latin American, Pacific Rim people you'll find there isn't a significant difference to explain the extraordinary imbalance in student attendance. So what's the difference? Like I said before, it's the way a person is brought up. It's your parents, your siblings, your peers, and your community. And I believe there is still a strong mindset of nepotism or cronyism at these schools. This cronyism must stop.

With Larry's help, I looked at the economic and educational background of hundreds of college professors and found that almost none of them came from poor uneducated parents. I only found token ones that are used to display for any questioning authority. The communities that most professors grew up in were upper middle to upper class. These people aren't smarter than we are. As a youth they lived in a setting that gave them the confidence, support, and encouragement to make the grades. That's all. It's not rocket science.

So what do we do about this? Or should we do something about it? When people take on lots of responsibility the stress can go through the roof. Happiness doesn't mean extraordinary achievements. Then I think about people like the girl that invented Blinking. Under horrible circumstances she was ripped away from her father. But on the up side she had two loving and caring foster parents who just happened to be brilliant science professors. They intensively educated her from the time she woke up to when she went to bed. And believe it or not, they made learning lots of fun too. And she never forgot about their acts of genuine kindness. A few months ago she brought them in to work with her doing research on temporal events.

I've known this girl's father for some time now, and I can definitely tell you he is extremely smart and talented. Just look at what his daughter has accomplished. The inability of having his extraordinary DNA shine shows he was denied opportunities because of his economic status but more importantly because of his enculturation. His daughter was given just a little push and look what she's accomplished.

So I want to address this enculturation problem in a multistep fashion. First identify the people where this is prevalent. Establish a media campaign to show these people that they can enjoy life in many more ways. Have special programs to show their children all they can experience in this world around us. Then dovetail it into the blinking girl's program by encouraging all school kids to discover what they love and encourage them to be the best they can be. Then stop the artificial barricades of student enrollment in our colleges and universities. Larry and I are going to recommend all people who work in admission offices be removed and new unbiased people take their place. Then we will bring into our universities a more balanced group of bright students. The balanced criteria will include prospects that come from what used to be the traditional middle and lower economic classes. We are also going to recommend shaking up the human resource departments in all colleges and universities. First we want to remove all top HR employees and replace them with unbiased people. Then institute programs to find competent adults to work as professors. These professors will represent a true cross section of America. We believe all barricades must be taken down to make it fair for all citizens of our great country to first understand what they can be and second to make it happen.

"Oh, and after we get these programs submitted for your vote, Larry and I will be promoting the elimination of gender bigotry in the workplace. For example most science and technology businesses have 70% to 80% male employment. Why is that when most university graduates with A averages in the fields of science and technology are women? And the ones who are hired still make less money than their male counterparts who didn't do as well in school." Norma looked at the TV camera. "America, don't you want the best for our country? Shouldn't we have the most competent and capable people creating our technology? Why are men with C averages given preference over women with A averages? Is a penis that important??? I don't think so. Look at the new Young Pioneers. Four out of the five are girls! And one of them figured out a way to teleport people! So in the next few months, Larry and I are going to design a program to rectify this. The best of our nation must rise to the top no matter who or what we are.

Norma continued for forty minutes laying out details of her programs. When she concluded everyone in the audience stood and cheered as she left the stage.

Attempt on their lives

Larry was waiting for Norma as she exited the stage. "Norma, I need to leave immediately. We're having major technical issues with some transmitting equipment. The Russian government with their technology wizards are causing some big problems. We don't want our Russia transmissions to go down, so we have to jump on it immediately. Sergey, Mark, and Elon are coming with me. Norma said "Well go... make sure we continue to have an internet free Russia. I'll miss you, babe. Come here." She gave him a giant kiss. "Love you and I'll be back hopefully in a few days." "Quédese seguro."(Stay safe.)

After he left, Norma had a feeling. She called Connie. "Mija, all of you need to come over to where I am. And the parents, too. Ok?" "What's wrong mom." "Nothing right now. I just want to keep it that way. So hurry everybody up. If there's any problem have them call me." In a few minutes the group made it to the back of the stage. Norma said "We need to get out of here. My sixth sense has kicked in. Larry, Sergey, Mark, and Elon have all been called away to take care of a problem. They just left. That has never happened since I've known Larry." K'akana looked at the group and said "I feel it too. We need to leave." Norma said "I just called General Steele and expressed my worries about Larry and the guys. And I asked her to get some fully armed choppers here immediately. In a few minutes they'll be outside this door. I also called Hanna and Elon's wife and recommended they and the kids come too." Tony asked "Is there anything going on that you're not telling us?" "Surprise is the greatest weapon the enemy has. I and apparently K'akana are smelling something wrong. So just to be safe let's get out of here. Now." Norma also contacted her head body guard and told him they were leaving. He acknowledged and would tell the others.

By now the group could hear the choppers landing on the asphalt outside. One of the pilots knocked on the metal door. Bubba opened it. The pilot asked "Is everybody ready?" They waited a few minutes longer for Elon's family and for Hanna to arrive, then quickly boarded the armed Blackhawks. Norma made sure the pilots were not of Muslim or Russian decent. She grilled the pilots to get a feel of who they were and if they were unusually nervous. Then she walked around with them checking for any bombs. "Better safe than sorry" remarked Norma as the birds were rising. K'akana said "Only true warriors can see into darkness and know what's waiting. Our sixth sense can be a very powerful weapon."

The group arrived back at the B&B in ten minutes. While they were in flight Norma called Larry. "This just doesn't smell right. You need to immediately land your chopper at a Wal-Mart parking lot and wait for aerial support. Maybe you could use your satellites to comb the ground along your flight path. Larry, you need to land now!" Larry trusted Norma's judgment. He landed the Blackhawk immediately. General Steele was already sending four Apaches. Norma immediately called Larry back and asked if the pilots had left the chopper. Larry said the copilot just left to get a snack. She asked if he did it as soon as they touched down and was he walking fast. Larry replied "Yes, and yes." Norma told him to get the hell out of that chopper. "Run Larry! Get the hell away from that Blackhawk!" They did. In a couple minutes the helicopter exploded. "Good god. We really need to beef up our security!" Larry looked at Elon, Mark, and Sergey, "We're alive because of a young woman who grew up in a bad neighborhood. We think we're so smart. Sometimes we're no smarter than a damn doorknob." Larry turned to his pilot "Your copilot has gone rogue. You need to get General Steele here right now." Larry's phone rang "Norma, your instincts were right on. The chopper exploded." "Larry, is everybody ok?" "Yes, everybody's fine." "Being out in the open you are very vulnerable. Do you guys have any weapons?" "All of us are packing." "Great. I highly recommend you get yourselves into that store. Walk to the back where the loading docks are. As you are going through make sure the copilot doesn't shoot anyone of you. When you're on the docks ask one of the truck drivers to drive you away from there." "Norma, you have a devious mind. I like that. We're walking now." "Great, Larry. Call me when you're rolling on the road. No don't do that. Destroy all of your cell phones now including the pilot's. Have the pilot stay at the store to apprehend the copilot. Use the driver's cell phone to call me. And discard all bags and any other things that could have GPS devices. Then call me after you're rolling. I don't want to lose you, babe. Stay smart. Ok?"

Elon had the dock workers promise they never saw anything. There was only one eighteen wheeler unloading. The driver was kind enough to immediately drive them away. On the driver's cell Larry called General Steele and advised her. "General, as our pilot told you a few minutes ago there is a breech in your air security. Some of your ground crew may have gone rogue too. Don't radio our location to anybody. And your Apache may be bugged. If you would, please land at the nearest public airport. Take a civilian chopper and call me when you get in the air." Larry called Norma. "Norma, I feel like I'm playing a deadly game of chess. Wrongly anticipating the enemy's move can get us killed." "Larry, I don't know about chess, but I damn sure know street. What's your situation?" He brought her up to date with everything. "Larry, those eighteen wheelers have GPS devices to let their home office know where they are at any time. You need to stop that truck immediately and destroy it. Now, Larry." After five minutes they were back on the road. He called her back. "Done. Is there anything else we might have overlooked?" Norma said "Yes. Get your driver on the CB. He needs to spread the word that it's an emergency and he needs to have trucks line up behind and in front of you. And as soon as that happens they need to maintain radio silence. CB signals only travel for up to five miles, but if the truckers chatter about the problem for fifty miles then the enemy may pick up on it." In ten minutes five trucks lined up behind and two in front. Larry called her back. "These drivers are like a big family. They have code words for everything. After the attack last year they created a new one called Mockingjay which means a national emergency." Norma said "Great, now have them spread that code to as many truckers as possible and get yourselves into the next truckstop. Have the trucks form a circle around yours. These guys have all kinds of firepower. Then just stay put until Cindy gets there." Larry said "Sounds like a plan." Thirty miles later they exited the freeway. There was a line of at least fifty trucks parked on the shoulder leading up to the truckstop. In the truckstop they had made a small opening between three rows of five trucks on both sides. After they stopped, the ends were closed in by more eighteen wheelers. Larry, Sergey, Mark, and Elon got out of the truck. Several hundred truckers armed with machine guns and other weapons greeted them. Elon was the first to speak. "I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate this. When everything else fails it's the individual people we can always count on. Thank you, guys. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts." They went into the crowd and began shaking hands. One of the older guys said to Larry "Sir, it's an honor and privilege to meet you. Thanks to you I don't have to work long hours for little pay. I get to spend more time with my family. I'm actually getting to see my grandkids grow up. Don't worry. As long as you are with us nothing will happen to you. Most of us are ex-military. We know what to do." Larry said "I believe our biggest threat right now is from the sky. If you have sniper quality shooters with high powered rifles you might want to station them around the perimeter of this truckstop." "Yes, sir." A retired colonel suggested they pretend to protect the truck they arrived in. But have the four Pioneers go into the restaurant and have a nice lunch while they seal off the perimeter. After the perimeter was established not even truckers were allowed in or out.

The guys were sitting in a booth waiting for the day's special of chicken fried steak with corn on the cob, okra, and mashed potatoes. Larry said "You know what. We're safer here than anywhere else. The waitress told me they even put in a huge bunker a few months ago. Let's put out the word to the truckers that we're staying here until the military ground forces arrive." Larry's phone rang and it was the General on a landline. He gave her his GPS coordinates. She said the airport was sixty clicks out. He asked her to stay back until the ground forces are told it's her and to allow her to land. She complied. After she landed and had joined them in the restaurant she profusely apologized for the breech. Elon said "Don't worry about it. Shit happens. Have you identified the problem people yet?" "Not yet, Sir. But we're working on it." Elon said "If in the next twenty four hours you come up empty, then I'll send a special team from White Sands who will use our Young Pioneer's body reading technology to identify the people. In fact I'll get them on a jet right now."

Larry told Cindy that he felt uncomfortable about flying with her. "The enemy may already know what you're flying and that you're here to fly us out." Mark said "They say the chicken fried steak is delicious. You might as well sit down and relax, General. I have a feeling we're going to be here for a while." Larry said "General, would you call the commander of the ground team that's heading this direction. Please tell him to form a perimeter around the truckers perimeter and only have his vehicle come onto the lot. Ok?" "Yes, Sir." Larry told the truckers to put the word out that only the commander's vehicle will be allowed on the lot.

Norma called. "Babe, how are you doing?" "Getting there. How about you. Are the kids ok?" "Yeah, we're fine. They say we're under lockdown. How about you?" Larry said "I can't really say much except that we're fine and don't wait up for us. It may be a while. And thanks for saving my life." "Sure. Me and the girls send our love. Stay safe, babe. Bye." Norma was very upset but she didn't want Larry to know. She realized he had enough problems without worrying about her.

Mark noticed several of the guys around them were holding their machine guns like a soldier. Mark said "Are you guys combat veterans?" "Yes, sir. We're from the 101st Screaming Eagles. Three guys next to them said "And we're 82nd Airborne." And a couple women on the other side of Mark said they were 3rd Armored Division. "All of us have seen action in Iraq or Afghanistan. And a few of us have carried out covert operations in hostile areas." Larry said "Thank you for serving." A trucker named Jim who was ex-101st said "Sir, it's you we'd like to thank because you made sure our amendment put military decisions directly in the hands of the People. Now it's us who decide if, when, how, and where we go to war. No more greedy shareholders profiting off of war. Off of our deaths. Now the People use extreme force to stop any problems immediately instead of prolonging a war just to continue profits and dying. Elon said "That's what government of, by, and for the People is all about, Jim. Let's just make sure we keep it that way." Sergey said "I remember when Obama and Bush before him wanted to take our guns away. You know the only reason they wanted to do that was to have the military dominate the unarmed masses. All those politicians were nothing but little Napoleons trying to figure out ways to eventually enslave us." Jim smiled and said "That's why some of them are hoeing weeds on a prison farm out in the Mojave desert." Elon said "But now we've got other problems. A faceless enemy with a religious fervor." Jim said "You're right. Looks like we didn't do a very good job vetting the Muslims in this country." Larry said "It's not really that. Some are sneaking into the US from Mexico. They learn Spanish. They look like Mexicans. They go to Catholic Mass every Sunday. Then they quietly group together and plan the next terrorist attack. Frankly, I'd like to identify and get every Muslim out of this country. They've caused too many problems. Why risk it. And we need to improve our method of screening all people entering and leaving our country.

Jim asked Larry how it all came down. How they ended up at the truckstop. After he explained, several of the ex-military truckers said that was what the enemy wanted. Larry asked "What do you mean." Jim replied "Sir, these terrorists are highly proficient with drones now. They were just waiting for you to settle into a place where they can accurately target you. If there is a way you can safely get out of here you should do it right now." Larry said "But this truckstop has a bunker." Jim said "That won't stop nerve gas, sir."

The Bandidas and Connie were sitting next to the pool worrying about their Uncles. Lupe said "I need to go there right now and get them out." Lupe said "You don't know the situation. You could easily get yourself killed." Connie said "You're too valuable, Lupe. If you show me the controls I'll do it. That's my future dad over there and he needs my help!" Molly said to Lupe "At the lab, you've safely moved ten people across the galaxy. All you need to do is make sure the area you appear in is clean of any obstacles like spikes." Tracy broke in the conversation and loudly argued that she wanted to do it. But after some intense yelling they eventually caved and agreed that the Bandidas were too important to lose. America would never forgive them.

Norma heard the loud commotion between the girls outside and walked over to see what was going on. "Girls this is a time when we need to stay calm and level headed. Please stop arguing." Connie stood up, "Mom, Lupe has already shown me the controls for the Blinking device. I need to get my daddy out of there right now." "Mija, we don't even know where he is. And if anybody would go it would be me. Your lives are too precious." She paused and thought. She asked Lupe "Is Blinking safe?" "Yes, Auntie Norma. And you could easily do it." She pulled out the device and started showing Norma the controls. "You're a quick study, Auntie Norma." "Lupe, you say all I need is the exact coordinates and I'll pop over to that spot." "Yes ma'am. Since he's probably no more than a hundred miles away, there would be a horizontal plane margin of error of no more than a few inches in any direction. And there is no vertical margin of error because it will set you just above an area of greater mass and density." Norma pulled her cellphone out "Larry, are you near a parking lot." "Baby, I'm on a parking lot. Why?" "Listen, Larry. I want you to go to a circular spot with a diameter of a hundred feet that is completely clear. Stand in the middle and read me your exact coordinates." "Norma, it's too dangerous to do that." "Lupe said it's completely safe now. So do it. I don't want to lose you, Larry!" "Norma, give me ten minutes and I'll call you back." Larry took Elon aside "Norma wants to teleport us out of here. Is it safe?" "For the last two weeks it's been completely safe. But like with anything this innovative, there is always substantial risk involved. But, I'm game if you are." "Then let's do it." Larry asked Jim and the other truckers to clear a large area just outside the restaurant. They immediately complied. In five minutes Larry walked out to the middle, took a reading and called Norma with the coordinates then he quickly ran out of the cleared area. Elon shouted "Gentlemen, thank you very much for your help. We're afraid that this may be a trap for an aerial assault by a large group of drones. Please don't video record what is about to happen. And please keep this to yourselves. You are about to see a miracle of science discovered by a fourteen year old girl." In the meantime Norma asked Lupe what the probability was to safely move them out of there. Lupe rubbed her chin while deep in thought and said "About 80% because there could be disrupting influences that hadn't been anticipated and adjusting the controls to compensate could get too complicated for you." Norma then asked what the percentage of success would be if she did it. She said "99.99%." In five minutes Lupe appeared. She was about two feet above the pavement and then dropped down on her butt. Larry ran over and helped her up as she adjusted the mask on her face. She grabbed him "Uncle Larry, thank goodness you're alright. Let's get out of here. The other three Pioneers walked over to Lupe and Larry. They all held hands." The crowd was completely silent. Lupe yelled "Thank you very much for your help. I need to Blink my Uncles out of here. You're going to be the first people outside the laboratory to see my invention work. These guys are way too valuable to lose!" As she was taking a moment to check her controls she looked at all the truckers staring at her, then she giggled and yelled out "Before I do this I always say... cross my fingers and poke your eye, bye!" With that she pushed a button and they were instantly gone. The truckers broke out into a roaring cheer. Jim told his buddy next to him "I want to be a trucker on our new planet. By then we won't need roads because we'll have already conquered gravity." They both laughed with pride. The colonel shouted "We need to disperse as quickly and orderly as possible. In fifteen minutes this truckstop needs to be empty. In less than 15 minutes all the truckers and the truckstop employees were gone. When the military vehicles arrived they found the place deserted. Some minutes after their arrival a group of drones began their attack. The restaurant and C store were reduced to rubble. After several drone attack passes the laser guided anti-aircraft weapons eventually took all twenty of them out."

When the Pioneers appeared at the B&B a crowd of family and security agents were there to greet them. Nellie ran up and grabbed Larry around his waist squeezing as hard as she could "I'm not letting you go, Daddy. You stay right here." He laughed and picked her up over his head. "I'm happy to see you too, my little daughter. Don't worry everything's ok now." Norma tightly hugged and kissed Larry. Then he walked over to Tony and Lupe. He hugged Lupe and said "I told Mark you could do great things last year. But I had no idea those great things would save our lives. Thank you." Then he hugged Tony and said "Thanks, man." Elon, Mark, and Sergey went over and hugged and thanked Norma for saving their lives. Sergey gave her an extra long hug. Larry said "Hey, hey, hey man." Sergey smiled "I just wanted to see what it felt like to hug a real woman. You lucky sh-t." Norma said "Calm down boys. I decide who and how long I hug people." She smiled at Larry. "Don't worry, if they outstep their bounds..." And she looked at Sergey... "I'll just seriously wound their tender parts." Sergey quickly moved out of Norma's range.

General Steele stayed to meet the ground forces. She called Larry. "Sir, you were right. There were twenty large drones. We took them out but not before we were able to lock on the signal to their source. We flew out to the coordinates and it was open highway. They used a vehicle as their control center. We are setting up roadblocks within the proximity." "That's good but you're probably just wasting your time. If it were me, I would explode my command center and have my group individually leave in separate cars. But don't worry. We have other ways to find these roaches."

Aside: After a weeklong search utilizing Molly's technology they were able to locate and arrest some of the terrorists. They were taken to a detention center outside DC. Molly insisted she be the one to interrogate the detainees. Each time Molly came in the interrogation room she looked the prisoner straight in the eyes then slowly walked around him. For faster data transmission she placed her hands on their heads. She never said a word during all of the interrogations. The information she picked from their brains eventually led to locating fifty four terrorist cells around the nation. Each time a cell group was arrested, Molly was there pulling the needed information from their minds. Through her actions over a few months she made America a much safer place. But Molly couldn't be given public recognition, otherwise the enemy would find out and start committing suicide to protect the others.

Time to relax and tie up loose ends

Back at the B&B the everyone could finally relax. It was about two in the afternoon. Nellie said "I'm hungry. Let's have a pizza party." Lupe suggested "What do you say we eat pizza then go ride horses. They have a stable out back with twenty." Connie said "I've never ridden a horse." Summer said "It's easy. And if you're thrown off just make sure you land on your butt and not your face." Lupe said "The Tennessee walking horses have a calm disposition. You'll love riding one of those. They have a very cool four beat running walk."

Norma asked "Are we still going to the rodeo next month?" Elon and Mark said they'd be to be too busy at White Sands. Larry said "We'll keep the trip to ourselves. Nobody else will know until the last minute. Then only Cletus and his men will be involved." Norma angrily looked at Larry. "By the way where was Cletus and his men been during all this. Why weren't they flying with you!" Larry said "That was me. It was my fault. It was only supposed to be a fifteen minute flight. I told him to have his men at the destination. I was in a fully armed Blackhawk. What could go wrong?" Norma looked at him, and just shook her head. "Dumbass." "Yeah, I know" admitted Larry in a low voice. "But you're here and safe. Let's keep it that way."

That night Larry and Norma were married. After the fiasco that day, they realized that life was too short and unpredictable. So they decided to marry right away. The ceremony took place on a well-manicured lawn behind the restaurant. Everybody at the B&B was invited. It worked out well because many of their friends were already there. The reception took place in the restaurant. There was music, dancing, drinking, and laughter well into the night. Lupe had another sleepover with all the girls. They spent half the night talking, laughing, getting serious, and throwing pillows before they finally gave in to fatigue and fell asleep. Larry and Norma were so tired they immediately crashed in each other's arms.

The next day most of the B&B crowd left for home. Norma included. But this time she decided to take her family straight to Tony's house. Tony told her about a parcel for sale that abutted their place. He asked her and Larry to come out and stay with them so they could check it and other properties until she was happy with one. Because of the recent attempt on Larry's life, and now that he was her husband, Norma took some further actions to be safe. Her girls are too precious. She had Larry provide 24 hour body guards for herself and her daughters. She enrolled her kids in an intensive martial arts training program. Larry also had military flight instructors develop a program to teach his family how to fly. He wanted Norma and his girls proficiently flying all types of aircraft within a year's time. The training started with a Blackhawk. Plus, he enrolled his family in weapons training classes.

With the relentless urging of the girls, Norma and Larry gave in almost immediately and bought 240 acres next to Tony and Lupe's 660 acres of farmland that the research center helped him acquire. The property was half way between Las Cruces and El Paso. Norma was in love with her home. It was a refurbished one hundred and fifty year old adobe hacienda with a clay tiled roof. Careful attention had been given down to the smallest detail to retain the authenticity and beauty of the building. The interior had rough cut heavy wooden beams in the ceilings. The beams support small caliper mesquite branches fitted tightly together across the entire length of the ceiling. There are bright decorative hand painted porcelain tiles in the kitchen and in the five bathrooms. The exterior thresholds as well as the entrances to the bedrooms and studies in a regular home usually have a rectangular door. This home has the old traditional rounded archways with doors of rustic heavy oak and huge cast iron hinges and doorknobs. The doors are rounded at the top to fit perfectly into the arches. The home's five foot high windows are double glazed and oak framed. They can be opened from the top and the bottom. The walls are three feet thick throughout the entire structure. The family room has a twelve foot high timbered ceiling and a massive rounded fireplace in one corner. Behind the home is another adobe structure with an Indian oven. It was originally built for baking bread, steaming corn, smoking meat, and storing wheat, oats, barley, milo, and corn. And, it's still fully functional. Sophia loves trees. So when she saw the giant shade trees around the house and the fruit tree and pecan orchards out back she immediately fell in love with the property. The previous family had two young boys. To keep them in shape their parents put in a really rad BMX racing course. When Nellie saw the course, she knew her mom had to buy it. The previous owners also built a large guest house five years ago. Norma's parents are very private. Her mother has Alzheimer's. They hadn't even met Larry yet. Norma is trying to have them move there and live in the guest house. She believes her kids need to be around their grandparents. Life is too short and memories are too precious.

An eight foot high security wall is already along the perimeter of Tony's parcel. A laser guided defense system to down any unwanted aircraft, primarily drones is also in place. Larry is now installing the same security wall as Tony's. Tony has an 8,000 foot concrete runway with four large tilt-up concrete hangers. Tony uses one as his workshop. Another hanger is storing a Chinook twin rotor chopper. It can seat up to thirty people or be used to efficiently move heavy objects. Security also made sure three fully armed and ready Blackhawks were stored in the hanger. Both Tony and Lupe are rated to fly Apaches, Blackhawks, and Chinooks. White Sands research facility built the runway and hangers to handle sensitive individuals coming and going to and from the research facility. They built seven nice apartments inside one of the hangers. The energy for the properties comes from a large solar array and several wind turbines. As a backup they can also switch over to the power grid. Irrigation is provided from the Rio Grande. Tony planted jalapenos and sandia long green chiles on two hundred acres. The security guys planted a wide variety of vegetables on five acres. They love to eat beefsteak tomatoes freshly picked from the garden. Twenty acres have pecan and fruit trees. The balance is in pasture. The properties also have deep water wells as their source of drinking water. Last but not least, Larry is constructing a large underground bunker... just in case. Now in the US, where practicable, all roads and structures are made out of concrete because sand, rocks, and cement are one of our most plentiful resources. The same is true with glass for buildings. Glass is nothing but refined sand.

It's now August and in a few days they will be flying out to San Antonio to participate in the rodeo. It was middle morning when Summer and her mom landed on Tony's runway. Summer, beaming a giant smile came off the plane and hugged everyone. When K'akana appeared at the jet door, Tony was the first to greet her. "K'akana, welcome. Our home is your home." "Thank you, Xepe Zep.(Ocean Eagle) And you are always welcome at our humble reservation." Tony said "Here, let me take that for you. We have a beautiful guest house I'm sure you'll enjoy." K'akana continued to greet the others including her brother who had arrived the day before. She went with Tony to drop their luggage off at the guest house. Her brother went back to the stables to tend to the horses. Summer went with Lupe and the other girls to socialize in Lupe's large bedroom. Lupe loved the biosphere at the museum so much she had her dad build a smaller glass pyramid. It has a waterfall, a small pond, plants and trees from South American rainforests. And there are cute little critters everywhere. Tony built a 30' by 30' by 8' high mostly glassed sealed enclosure inside the pyramid as her bedroom. She has a giant screen TV outside in the pyramid proper so she, her dad, and the animals can enjoy watching their favorite movies and cartoon shows.

Tony and K'akana

K'akana was very happy to see Tony again. His truck has a bench seat so K'akana scooted close. While driving to the guest house she put her hand on his leg. She said "I missed holding hands with you." He smiled and thought to himself "God you're beautiful. I hope you like the choice I made for tonight." He said "Me too. I made reservations at eight for our group at the Double Eagle Restaurant for dinner tonight. It's in Old Mesilla. Is that ok? Have you eaten there before?" "Yes I have. That's a nice place. You have very good taste, Tony. I went only one time before the Big Change. Too expensive. And now since money is no problem, it's almost impossible to get a reservation." Tony smiled. "The manager is one of my golfing buddies." They arrived at the guesthouse. Even though he was struggling, he insisted he carry most of the luggage. They were almost to the door when she stopped him. "Set the luggage down." She put her arms around his waist and drew him closer and kissed him. He was stunned for a second. He became numb and paused for a moment evading her beautiful eyes. "Thank you." "That's what you say to a tall beautiful Indian woman when she kisses you?" Tony with a worried look said "I'm sorry. I'm just a little clumsy, K'akana. ......He quietly looked into her eyes and softly said "It's been... five years since I've kissed a woman...... I'm a little damaged... Years ago I lost my job and my home... My beautiful wife left me... Knowing she was gone forever, she still haunted me in my dreams... I became destitute. You... you don't understand what that does to a man who's supposed to be the provider.... I lost everything including my daughter... I had to live on the streets, sometimes having to go through dumpsters for food just to stay alive. Thinking about Lupe was the only thing that kept me going...... Life tore me to pieces, K'akana. I don't know if I'll ever completely heal." She said "When life hits you hard, it's very difficult to get back up. But they say time heals all wounds. It's hard for me to reflect on the genocide of my people. But what can one do? What's done is done. We need to look forward and use our past only as a gentle reminder. She paused... I tell you what. What if we pretend that kiss didn't happen and we go slower? As his eyes were tearing up he took her hand and gently kissed it. She slowly and carefully put her arms around him. "It's ok, Tony." as he softly cried on her shoulder. At six feet K'akana was taller than Tony but much leaner and very strong. She stood still holding him until she was sure he was ready to move again. He was very embarrassed and apologized as he stumbled carrying her luggage through the door. She stopped him in the living room. "You have any food in the refrigerator? He said "Of course. Lupe made sure we got all sorts of goodies for you guys."

K'akana opened the fridge and pulled out some francesitos, butter, asedero cheese, fresh jalapenos, tomatoes, garlic, onions, a couple beers, some eggs, and chorizo. "Sit down and allow me to whip up some eggs and we'll talk about our trip to San Antonio." Seeing that Tony was very fragile hurt her spirit because she really liked this man. As she was heating up the skillet she noticed some beautiful peace roses just outside the kitchen window. She went and cut one off and came back in. "Mmmm, I love the smell of roses. The peace is my favorite, especially this one with the red streaks running through the fragile yellow petals. I have this exact same rose outside my bedroom window. At dawn every morning the sun peeks through the roses making the yellow almost luminescent." She found a narrow glass vase in a cupboard and filled it with water then placed the rose stem inside and sat it on the kitchen table. "It's been many years since a woman has cooked a meal for me. This is nice." She smiled and smelled the rose again as the Spanish omelet was slowly cooking and the francesitos were warming in the oven. "In the early morning on the reservation the children are tasked with feeding the animals. When I wake up I'm not only greeted with the sun and the fragrance of these beautiful roses. But I also enjoy the priceless sounds of children laughing and carrying on like each day is a new experience to be loved and cherished. Then ya'ai, our dog, comes running in and jumps on the bed licking me in the face urging me to get up. Sometimes he'll bring in a dead snake so I'll have something to eat. And they're always half eaten. I guess he's into sharing. What do you think?" Tony laughed. He began to open up to her about his life. For them time stood still as they talked for several hours while he revealed his heart and soul. She continued to tell him about herself and about life on the reservation making sure to insert some very funny stories. Laughter is the best cure for a damaged heart. Tony understood he was very fortunate to have this Zia Medicine Woman as his new dear friend.

Summer opened the guest house door and shouted "Mom, are you in here?" "We're in the kitchen." Summer walked in. "Mom, Lupe has the neatest bedroom. It's inside a cool glass pyramid. It's the biosphere we saw at the museum but smaller. K'akana said "Yes, I saw it as we were driving up." "Mom, there's all kinds of plants and there's a waterfall and a little pond with fish and turtles and frogs. Uncle Tony, you're the best." K'akana looked at Tony. "Last month, you didn't tell me about the pyramid." He quietly said "It would have been boasting." K'akana took out two more Tecates, cleaned the tops off and opened them. Quish.... quish. Then she squeezed some lime wedges over the tops and sprinkled on some salt. "Summer, your suitcase is in the living room. Uncle Standing Bear has his belongings in one room. So take either of the remaining two. Uncle Tony says they're the same. After you get set up, why don't you and the girls go say hi to Happy Feet? Uncle Tony and I are busy talking. Ok?" Summer's eyes lit up as she thought "This is incredibly super. I really want mom and Uncle Tony to be close." "Ok, mom." She quickly grabbed her suitcase and threw it on a bed and ran out of the house.

K'akana's brother, Standing Bear, arrived the day before with Summer's horse and another horse to keep Happy Feet company. Both Summer and Lupe's horse trailers are climate controlled with a small RV area in front. The RV portion has a sofa and several beds, a stove, refrigerator, table, and a full bathroom. It's a nice place to relax between rodeo events.

In her room at home, Lupe has a sofa, several overstuffed recliners, a game table, and a king size bed with a zillion pillows and stuffed animals of all kinds, shapes, colors, and sizes. She was lying on the bed with Connie. Tracy was lying on the couch hugging a big teddy bear. Molly was cooling her heels on a recliner snuggling a panda. Sophia and Nellie were playing NASCAR in the corner with the volume down. Summer walked in, grabbed a large cat in the hat and sat on the other recliner. She looked at Lupe "Guess what. I just left the guest house. My mom kicked me out because Uncle Tony and her are talking." Sophia said "I wonder if they're smooching." Connie said "Sophia! We don't talk about our aunts and uncles like that." Sophia said "It's only natural. I kissed Travis last month and he liked it." Lupe looked at her "TMI, girl. T M I!"

Lupe confided to Summer "My papi is very careful with women. He doesn't want to be hurt again. Or should I say he won't allow himself to be hurt again." Summer said "There's no way my n'aaya (mother. A ' means a sound break and a double vowel is a long sound) would ever hurt Uncle Tony." Lupe responded "I know that. But he's afraid to get involved. Papi was destroyed when Violet left him. It was when he needed her the most, and that spineless bitch left because she thought she would die if she stayed. She didn't care about me or my papi and our welfare. Only about herself. Just thinking about it gets me very angry." Tracy said "But you loved her enough to bring her here to be with you. Right?" "She's a weak person and I'm not going to condemn her for that. Some of us are just born that way. Her blood is coursing through my veins. And she was always good to me. That's why it was so hard when she left. So I kind of understand how my papi feels."

Nellie said "I'll never get married. Too much hurt." Summer responded "Nellie, love is a very special thing. It can be like a rose that's beautiful for a week then withers and dies. Or it can be like a rose bush that if taken care of can give you beautiful roses forever. But sometimes things happen like a drought or lightening that can kill the bush and you can't do anything to save it. So you simply move on and plant another one." Lupe looked at Summer. "It's easier said than done, my great happiness Guru." Summer said "Rationally giving clarity is what keeps us going on this emotional ride we call life." Molly chipped in, "The way I figure it is love is like a pendulum. The pain of loss if you break up will always match the level of ecstasy while you were in love. Uncle Tony must have really loved Violet." Lupe said "No matter what my papi does he goes at it full intensity. He used to tell me he had two speeds, dead stop and full throttle. Just look at this pyramid. Only my papi would have this dedication." Connie said "That's why we love our Uncle Tony so much." All the girls agreed. Lupe said "If there was anybody I would want to be with my papi it's your mom, Summer." Summer had a rascally glint in her eye. "Well, just look at how great a job she did with me!" Lupe jumped up and hit her with a pillow. Yeah, but she (bam) needed to work on your (bam) conceited factor a little more (bam). All the girls picked up pillows had a pillow fight as they were screaming and laughing.

The horses

After the girls thoroughly bludgeoned themselves, they rested for five minutes then went out to see the horses. Lupe has a stable with twenty stalls and a large enclosed arena with giant swamp coolers. This enables her to practice barrel racing even when it's too hot outside. Summer was leading Happy Feet out of his stall and into the arena. She asked "Where's my uncle?" Lupe said "He went to Las Cruces to get some supplies. Standing Bear said Happy Feet is part Appaloosa and part Paint. And you taught him a bunch of tricks but he'll only do them for you. Is that right?" "Happy is a smart but stubborn animal. He either likes you or tolerates you." Lupe walked up to Happy Feet and gently rubbed his neck and whispered something to him. Then she pulled out a cored apple and put it up to his mouth. He loved it and wanted more. And, she just happened to have another one and gave it to him. Summer said "I think he likes you, Lupe." Lupe said "Some of my friends who have horses taught me the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Especially if it's a horse." Connie laughed "You mean there's a difference?" Summer chimed in "Of course there is. Happy Feet is much smarter than any guy I've ever met." Lupe said "Ok, I know I'm walking into it but I'll ask anyway. How so?" Summer said "He keeps his mouth shut. He's a quick study when I train him. He'll take me anywhere I want to go. As long as I brush him and give him something to eat, he's perfectly content and always loyal. Now show me a guy that's like that." They all laughed. Connie said "But boys aren't supposed to be pets." Sophia said "I like it when guys are unpredictable." Nellie said "Boys are too pushy." Tracy said "It's the testosterone." Nellie said "But some boys like Uncle Elon's triplets are really cute and funny too. Right Sophia Fea?" "Whatever you say, smelly Nellie."

After Summer put a halter, bit, and cinched the saddle to Happy Feet she said "So who wants to ride him first?" You could tell Lupe was biting at the bit to get on Summer's horse. "Ok Lupe, jump on. Be easy with him at first so he'll trust you." Lupe grabbed the saddle horn, put her left foot in the stirrup and swung her right leg over. Summer gave Lupe the reigns. She began riding him in a walking gait around the arena. Then she had him trot. "Summer, your horse is almost human. He responds instantly to my reign commands." Summer whistled to Happy Feet. He immediately came to her. Lupe said "Hey, that's not fair. I just started." Summer in her Keres language told Happy Feet to be good to his rider while she was walking him over to the arena door to let him outside. She commanded him to stay. "Lupe, are you ready for the ride of your life? Just remember it's your butt you want to land on. Ok?" "I'm ready." Summer gave him an Indian command that it's ok to run fast. Happy Feet took off like a bullet with Lupe holding on tight. She was trying to slow him down but he didn't listen. He was having too much fun. And besides, his command was to run hard. Summer didn't tell Lupe she trained him this way. He was running with complete abandon. All the rider needed to do was point him in the right direction. Lupe felt the super strength and agility of Happy Feet. He was easily clearing three foot high hedges. She felt the wind in her face as he was running full tilt across a field of soft green grass. His running gait was smooth and effortless. Summer was enjoying watching her horse. She's always the one riding him so she never gets to see her four footed athlete in motion. "Wow, he is one handsome horse." The rest of the girls standing next to Summer were speechless as they gazed at that incredible creature running like the wind. After a few minutes, Summer made a peculiar whistling sound with a sliding inflection. The horse turned around and started trotting back. He walked up and stopped. He was breathing hard but you could tell he was loving it. "Well Lupe, what do you think." "My god, I love this horse. Horses don't do what he just did." "That's because he's full blooded Zia. You should see me ride him full out across the desert." Lupe asked "Have you barrel raced before? Because we gotta get Happy Feet used to quick turns. This horse could easily win." Summer said "We practiced for a few days. I think he's got it down. Would you like to put mom and happy feet on a clock?" "The barrels are already set up in a standard WPRA barrel pattern. Let's get Connie to time us."

As Lupe was leading Mom out of her stall and into the arena, Happy Feet saw her for the first time. Summer said "Happy is acting really weird, Lupe. He's staring at Mom and making stupid noises in his throat." Happy Feet was thinking to himself "Oh Yeah!" Summer said "Look at him! He's all scatterbrained." While Lupe was putting the saddle on, Mom was making soft neighing sounds in the direction of Happy Feet. His ears were perked straight forward as he was staring at her, pawing the ground, and raising his head up and down. Sophia said "I think he's in loooove." Summer said "He's never been like this before", as she tried to draw his attention away from his new heart throb. Lupe said "I guess Mom is one hot babe in the horse world. Look at how goofy your horse is." After Mom was saddled, Lupe walked her over to Summer and Happy Feet. Mom in horse language said "Well hello handsome. Where have you been all my life?" Then she rubbed her face across his neck. Happy Feet said "Did it hurt?" She said "What?" He said "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven. Because only an angel could look as good as you, Baby." Connie said "These two horses are both acting goofy." Lupe cracked up "Let's get them running so they can release some pent up energy, if you know what I mean." Molly said "That's a very good idea you guys. Mom is flirting all over the place and Happy Feet is definitely in love."

The girls walked their horses to the corner of the arena. Connie said she was ready. Lupe yelled go and mom ran the barrels in 15.03 seconds. Summer then got into position. Connie yelled go and Happy Feet became all left footed as he was looking over at mom and not paying any attention to his running. "Ok" said Summer, "That's cheating. Poor Happy Feet doesn't know his right hoof from his left." Lupe agreed and put mom away. Summer ran the course again and turned in a 13.08 second time. "Summer, that's the best time I have ever seen" said Lupe, "When we get to San Antonio, don't tell anybody anything. We'll just stay under the radar. And let's make sure Standing Bear doesn't leave our horses alone." Summer said "Standing Bear insisted he come. My uncle is a little prejudiced. He doesn't trust the Pale Face. He brought his Belgian horse named Tiny. He's the family watch dog. His job is to protect Happy Feet and the rest of us." As Summer was putting Happy Feet back in his stall he began his traditional lament after being separated from a gorgeous horse babe. Next to Happy Feet was Tiny's stall. Nellie walked over to check him out. She said "Wow Summer, Tiny is huge. Can people actually ride him?" "Of course. Tiny is very smart and gentle. Let's bring him out so you can ride him." "Are you sure? He's a giant." Summer explained that Tiny is super protective especially with children. Nellie approach him. He carefully looked her over as she rubbed his face and said hello. Tiny's saddle is so big, it took both Lupe and Summer to get it on. They had to put a step ladder next to Tiny so Nellie get climb on his back. She asked "How do you make him go." Summer said "Normally a rider would very gently kick a horse on his side with her heel. But Tiny doesn't like that. So my uncle taught him several commands. The Keres word for one is isrka. That means stop to Tiny. And the word two in Keres is dyuu. That means go. Just say the commands to him in a normal voice. Do you know how to use the lead on a horse?" "Yes." "Ok. You ready?" Nellie anxiously said "Yes. Dyuu." With that command Tiny turned his head and looked at Nellie to see if she was safely on then he started walking. "Wow, this is great. He's so huge. I feel like I'm on a mountain looking down." She wanted to go faster so she kicked him on the side. He stopped and turned his head looking at her and made a low guttural sound. Summer said "He's telling you to stop doing whatever you're doing." Nellie said "How do you make him go faster?" "The command dyani means to go faster, but he won't do it because he doesn't want to hurt you." After Nellie went around the arena a few times she was ready to get off. When Tiny reached Summer she said "Nellie, check this out. She gave the command kubəni and Tiny slowly went down on his front knees and then he brought his back legs down keeping his back straight. "Now you can jump off Tiny without any trouble. He's a real gentleman." As summer was holding his cheeks she said "Aren't you Tiny, aren't you, you cute little giant." Tiny snorted and shook his head. "When horses shake their heads it's usually a gesture of friendship" added Lupe. The girls took turns riding Tiny. Lupe took him out in the pasture. He ran for a while then stopped for a few minutes to eat some of the delicious coastal Bermuda grass. When Lupe returned she said "Riding Tiny is like driving an M1 tank. I love it." Summer said "That's why Uncle Standing Bear made him our family watch dog. Just last week he killed a huge seven foot sidewinder to keep our dog ya'ai from getting bit. Ya'ai means dirt. He's always wallowing in the dirt, thus the name. And the crazy dog is always trying to find snakes to eat." Lupe scratched her head. "You just let Tiny roam free?" "Of course. How else is he supposed to protect us?" "And he doesn't run away?" "It's all desert, Lupe. Where would he run off to? And besides he thinks he's our brother and family sticks together."

The girls worked with the horses all afternoon. Sophia loves animals. Her favorite part was washing the horses down, drying them off with a huge blow dryer, then brushing them out, especially their manes and tails. Nellie asked Summer "Why don't you braid Happy Feet's mane?" "Happy Feet likes to be free. So why not let his hair be free."

It was a few hours before supper. Norma drove to Tony's to see how her girls were doing.

She knocked on the door. Nobody answered. She walked over to the guest house. Standing Bear was sitting outside drinking an ice tea and enjoying the afternoon in the shade. Norma said "Beautiful day, isn't it." "Yes it is. Enter at your own risk. K'akana kicked me out an hour ago. She's in the kitchen with Tony talking." "Wow, how long have they been in there?" "I was in town so I don't know." "I came over to get the girls. We're all going out to eat in a few hours." "Great. I only had breakfast. What's on the menu?" "We're going to the Double Eagle in Old Mesilla. They age their own meat. It's very good. And they have the best bar I've ever bellied up to." Norma took her cellphone out. "Connie, where are you? ...... I'm at the guest house. Bring all the girls with you. We need to get cleaned up. We're going out to eat. Ok? Bye." Norma looked at Standing Bear, then she looked at the guest house front door. "I'm going in. Wish me luck." He laughed. She rang the doorbell and stuck her head inside. "Is anybody home?" K'akana said "We're in the kitchen. Come on in." "Hey guys, how are you doing?" Tony said "Great. K'akana has been telling me about life on the reservation. Come, sit down." "I can't right now. I'm gathering my kids to get ready for tonight." At that moment all the girls walked into the kitchen. Norma said "Tracy, Molly, your parents called. Security is going to be here any minute to pick you two up so you can get ready for tonight. Wear something nice because we're going to the Double Eagle." She looked at her girls. "You ready girls? Let's go. We'll be back in two hours. Later." With that the group went their own way to prepare for the evening.

It was 7:30pm. Larry had just landed his jet. It has a large wardrobe closet and a full bath. Norma was waiting as he stepped off. He laid a big one on her lips. His girls standing next to Norma went "Yuuuuk, dad. Gross me out." After kissing his wife hello, he hugged his kids. He had been to Houston for a couple days on business. Nellie said "We missed you daddy." Sophia said "You look really nice, dad." Connie said "Turn around dad. I need to put your collar down in the back."

Tony pulled up in his hardened bus. It's a Bluebird RV diesel conversion. It comfortably seats 20. Cletus had a couple suburbans waiting to drive along. The group arrived at Old Mesilla in twenty minutes. They took the back roads. Larry loves driving through the farmland instead of the desert on I-10.

The Double Eagle

When you first walk into the Double Eagle, you walk by a huge antique bar as you approach the hostess. As they were walking in, the bartender was ready with a special drink for Standing Bear. It was their award winning margarita except a ten year old specially aged mezcal was used instead of tequila. And as a special treat the worm was at the bottom. In return Standing Bear gave several bald eagle feathers to the bartender. K'akana said "You must have called ahead, big brother." "I love it when a plan comes together." The barkeep asked if anybody else would like a drink. The others said they would wait.

Molly, her mom Silvia, Tracy, and her parents had already arrived. The entire group was seated at a long table. At another table in the room were Cletus and three of his agents. The hostess passed out the menus and said their waitress would be with them shortly. After being seated Nellie wanted to go over to the ghost room and see the chairs. Norma cautiously asked "Are you sure you want to? You might actually see one of the ghosts. Then what will you do?" "Run." Tony said "I don't know. Ghosts are pretty fast." "Don't worry I've been riding the BMX course since we moved in." Sophia said "But that's a bicycle." Nellie replied like a mafia mobster "Don't worry about it. If a ghost messes with me, I'm gonna mess with him." Everybody laughed. Larry said "Nellie, you'd make a good godfather. Go ahead and check out the room." Cletus followed her. The room was empty and dimly lit. Nellie said "You first, uncle Cletus. As he walked in, the chair at the far end of the room began to move. Cletus's eyes got so huge they were ready to pop out of his head. He thought "Why do I do these things when I know I shouldn't. Feet... don't fail me now!" He picked up Nellie, tucked her under his arm then quickly walked back to the group. Norma smiled. "What's the matter Cletus. You look like you've seen a ghost." As he wiped a few beads of cold sweat from his forehead he said "I don't want to talk about it." Norma cracked up. "I had them put a thin string on one of the legs to make the chair move." He thought "Dammit, she did it again." With a happy face he said "Very funny. Haha. You got me."

K'akana was sitting next to Tony. He said "Did you know the Indigenous People Protection Act was officially signed into law right here at this table?" "So you brought me to this place to impress me. I like that." She flirtatiously looked into his eyes. He held her hand. "That's right. The elder leaders from all indigenous people including Eskimos and Hawaiians gathered right here in this room. The People wanted Elon to sign the bill as well as the indigenous representatives. Elon was living in Las Cruces so he decided there was no better place to do it than historically significant Old Mesilla. Thousands of acres swindled away from the Indians for the last hundred years are now returned. All indigenous groups in Alaska now have their own lands. And the big one, Hawaii, as you know was returned to those who are at least one quarter Hawaiian." K'akana said "I never thought that law would be passed. It's really helped our people. So tell me more, Tony." Tony understood K'akana was being very sweet to him. And he liked it. He continued "Elon liked the ceremonial significance of major events like this so he recommended the Land Repository ceremony. The People spent over a year seizing real estate from those who had wealth in excess of fifty million and all the real estate owned by foreigners. One person from each state came to this room to formally except all reclaimed real estate. Well over seventy percent of America was taken back from the super-rich and foreign investors and placed in state repositories. It all happened right here at the Double Eagle." K'akana said "I think it's wonderful that you're so politically minded. And ceremonies are very important to my people. We have a ceremony for all major life, crop, and earth events." She continued "I also know that Enrique Peña Nieto, the President of Mexico and commander-in-chief of its military, was apprehended and brought here to Old Mesilla last year. And Joaquín Gamboa Pascoe, the secretary general of the Confederation of Mexican Workers came here, too. Elon represented the People of the United States when he decreed Mexico would now be a Direct Democracy. All the papers were signed. Instead of being executed, Enrique was allowed to live in prison. Joaquín went home to work on the mammoth project. And as we all know the People commissioned a half million professionals and a half million soldiers to go to Mexico to make sure it happened." Tony was impressed to see K'akana was knowledgeable about political events. K'akana said "What do you say we give politics a rest and think about what delicious food we will enjoy tonight." Tony agreed.

K'akana opened her menu, looked it over, chuckled and said "Bacon Wrapped Borracho (drunk) Shrimp! Well, if you're going to eat a shrimp you might as well get him drunk first. Right Tony?" Tony laughed and suggested they order the appetizer and share it. She agreed. Summer and Lupe were sitting across from their parents. Summer nudged Lupe and whispered "They're sharing stuff now." Lupe said "Let's see if they sample each other's drinks." Summer said "Sharing spit and not minding each other's fishies is very important in a relationship." Both started giggling. Tony asked "What's the matter girls?" Summer said "Nothing Uncle Tony. Lupe was just telling me a joke." They looked at their parents then they looked at each other as they were pointing to the margaritas on the menu and started giggling again.

Nellie asked "Do they have hamburgers here?" Larry said "They've got the biggest cheeseburger you've ever seen in your life, Nellie. It's almost as big as you are." Nellie twisted her face "Naaaah. You're pulling my leg, daddy." Connie said "No really Nellie, see, look here." She showed her the giant chile cheeseburger on the menu. "Wooow, that is huge. If you cut it like a pizza we could all have a slice. I love pizza. A pizzaburger!"

A waitress walked up. Speaking with a Russian accent, she introduced herself as Natasha and asked if they were ready. Sophia said "You have a cool accent. Are you from Russia?" Natasha said "Thank you. Yes, I'm from Vladivostok. It's the part of Russia people never think about." Larry looked at Sophia. "If you listen to her accent, it sounds a pinch Asian. That's because her home is right next to China, Korea, and Japan. And she is probably fluent those languages too." Norma said "You're a long way from home, Natasha. What brings you here? "This year I completed my Phd in physics at New Mexico State. Believe it or not, NMSU has one of the best engineering programs in the world. A little over a month ago I was recruited by the People to work at White Sands. The pay is good but I work in a room with just a few people and no windows. It's very isolated. So I waitress some of the week nights and on the weekends. God it's nice to talk to people." Lupe giggled "I know exactly what you mean." Tony kicked her leg under the table and shook his head no, meaning to not say anything. Natasha looked at Lupe "That's right, listen to your father. You must always be aware of your surroundings. Never be complacent." Larry stood and motioned Cletus over. The three of them walked to a corner of the room. He asked Natasha what she meant by that statement. She told Larry she was working with the two older professors who used to be Lupe's foster parents. She showed them her top secret clearance badge. "I've seen Lupe at the facility but I haven't met her yet. It's still shocking to see it is a young teenager who made such a major breakthrough. She is just a sweet kid who giggles a lot. Larry was relieved. He and Cletus thanked her for her contributions, then motioned Lupe over. "Lupe, I'd like you to meet Natasha Kabinski. She works with your foster parents at the facility." "Lupe said "I thought you looked familiar. At work you wear a baggy smock and always have your hair up in a tight bun and you wear thick black plastic glasses. Right?" Natasha said "Yes. When I'm working here, I take my hair down and wear contacts. I like to look nice for my customers." Natasha shook Lupe's hand. "It's an honor to meet you. I couldn't say anything earlier for obvious reasons." Natasha closed her eyes and breathed in. "Wow. I'm actually touching the hand of the person who has given us the ability to travel to distant galaxies. Lupe said "Here, give me a hug. If John and Mary want you to work with them then you're an incredible person." Natasha said "Your foster parents are the best people in the world to work for. In less than a month they've taught me so much." Lupe said "Mary's teachings opened a door in my mind that enabled me to see dark energy and temporal events." Lupe apologized "I know you were screened before being hired, but this just makes me feel better. She called Molly over. "Molly, is this lady a threat?" Molly slowly walked around Natasha. "I see intense admiration and a little fear. But the fear comes from her childhood when she was mistreated. She's simply afraid we might hurt her like her foster parents did in Russia." Lupe said to Natasha "Now I understand why you used the term foster parents. I'm glad you've finally found some foster parents that will treat you with dignity and respect and I'm sure a lot of love. John and Mary love me very much. Now I feel uncomfortable with you being my waitress." "Don't worry. I do this to get out and be with people. Who better to take care of than my boss? So make yourself comfortable while I make sure all of you have a very nice evening." Lupe hugged her again before they went and sat down.

Tracy and Summer gave Lupe that what the heck was going on look. Lupe said "Don't worry, she's one of us. She works for me. I just didn't know it yet."

Natasha asked "Is everybody ready to order?" She took their drink orders and passed the order sheet over to Salvador the bartender standing behind to her. Then to the meal orders. Tony started. "We'll take the Chateaubriand Bouquetiere for two. The stuffed tomatoes look very good. And as an appetizer we'd like one order of Bacon Wrapped Borracho Shrimp." Larry and Norma liked the idea of two people sharing something so they ordered the same. Silvia ordered the petite filet mignon. Tracy's parents also ordered the meal for two. Standing Bear got the Blackened Halibut. And the kids ordered two giant cheeseburgers to be cut up into eight pieces. They also ordered baked fries and milkshakes. Cletus and the guys got the Steak Double Eagle, then promised themselves to exercise it off tomorrow. Regular cheeseburgers, fries, and malts were prepared and sent out to the guys guarding outside.

During the meal Norma spoke. "Guess what. After we get back from the rodeo, I'm officially opening my boot business." Tracy's parents Hazel and Bob congratulated her. Silvia said "Way to go, girl. I wish I had your energy. It takes everything I've got just to keep up with Molly." Norma said "There were so many people in El Paso who have boot manufacturing experience it was easy to get rolling. And for brand recognition I'm naming the business Norma Corona Boot and Leather Company." Bob (Tracy's dad) asked "Are they going to be western boots." "I'll make the traditional western boot, and a posh boot with a New York fashion flair, and a steel toed work boot made with thick bull hide that will wear better and last longer." Hazel said "You need to show us your catalog some time." "I'll do better than that." as she waved to Cletus to bring them out. The girls gave us your shoe sizes. An agent wheeled out a cart with boots for each person in the group. "All my boots have a comfortable inner cushion. You're gonna love em." Norma said "A computer driven shear cuts the leather blanks out. But the rest of the manufacturing process is done by hand. There's nothing better than handmade products using real leather and not that fake Asian stuff. I'm also coming out with a line of women's shoes. They'll also be made out of premium quality leather. I'm using calf skin, deer hide, and lizard. The fit and finish will be perfect."

It was later in the evening. Cletus was enjoying his delicious aged to perfection perfectly cooked steak when his cellphone rang. It was a person representing the group of foreign relations overseers. She said a woman named Zìyóu (Sue ee yo) wanted Norma and Larry to immediately come to China.

She was the Chinese lady who Norma briefly talked to at the freedom train restaurant a little over a year ago. She was leading her people to become a direct democracy. All the males in any police or military capacity have been relieved of duty. They were all to become farmers or factory workers. The people of China were sick and tired of the testosterone infused saber rattling going on by the male military in their country. Security across China was now in the hands of women. She wanted Norma and Larry come to insure the e-transition will be smooth and orderly. With her call to Norma she is formally requesting assistance from Google's proven computer technology to allow the People to run their own country. This is a huge moment in human history. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese youth for decades have been attending American colleges and universities. For almost the last few years they have seen firsthand the greatness of self-governance. The word spread throughout the country of China. Now Zìyóu with her three hundred million army of mothers are making it happen.

Cletus walked over to Norma. "I'm sorry to interrupt but you have an important call," as he handed her the phone. "Hello?" The person on the line said "Hello Norma. Do you remember last year at the Freedom Train Restaurant when a small Chinese lady behind you stood up and gave a toast?" Norma yelled " Zìyóu! It's an honor to be speaking with you." She said "No, the honor is mine. Remember when you said the universe has brought me to this place for a reason. Then you said freedom just doesn't happen. And I said I know. I have to make it happen." Norma responded "Yes, of course. But I had no idea." Zìyóu laughed. "Neither did I! Actually it wasn't me. It was our army of mothers. I'm just their spokeswoman." Norma said "This is amazing Zìyóu. How can I help you?" "Come to China as soon as possible and bring Larry and members of his team with you. I need his help. And my people admire you very much, Norma. You are a symbol my People are embracing." Norma said "I don't understand." Zìyóu said "The ruling class of China were rapidly becoming a bloated self-serving bourgeoisie. They had been bellying up to the graft and corruption table way too long for my people to tolerate. Your Larry and people like him are remnants of the past American bourgeoisie. But you are the counter balance that legitimizes it all. When my people saw how a regular woman saved the life of a very important man they realized that you two depended on each other. Separately he represented a previous ruling class that subjugated the masses, and you were a regular blue collar worker. But together there is balance. The Yin and the Yang. My job is to bring all regular workers together and give them the power, then have people like Larry act only as guides. This is the next step in the evolution of my country." Norma said "I'm very flattered that you would say that about me. But I'm really just like anybody else." Zìyóu said "Exactly. Would you please come? The sooner the better." Norma replied "Yes. Of course, Zìyóu. We are leaving right away. I can't wait to see you in person. Take care. I'm going to give the phone back to our security guy. Bye, and stay safe!"

Norma was exploding with enthusiasm as she turned to Larry. He asked "Was that Zìyóu, the leader of the army of Chinese mothers?" Norma's eyes twinkled. "Yes. And I promised we would leave immediately. You need to delegate everything you're doing here and come with me to China. This is way too big. And you need to bring a small army of geeks with you to make sure the transition happens with no problems." Larry was completely confused. "One short phone call between you and the leader of their revolution and it's done. Amazing! Like Lord Tennyson sort of said: Mine is not to make reply or to reason why, mine is but to do and get it done." Norma had a vexed look. "Great. So how fast can your jet get us there?"

Dinner was cut short for Norma and Larry. She left her girls in good hands with Tony. It was decided the trip to San Antonio was still on for the kids. Larry and Norma took off that night bound for Beijing.

On the long flight over, Norma was talking about how hard it was growing up in Newark. She talked about hanging out with her friends at their homes until dinner time hoping they would invite her to stay so she could have a better meal to eat. Her mom would always walk her to the Goodwill store to see if there might be something nice that would fit her. The taxes on cigarettes were high so her dad would stand out on the street corner in the evenings and illegally sell singles with no tax. He would split the profits with his supplier. "Dad said it helped pay the rent." Larry said "You know I never really grasped the concept of being poor until that day when I was 24. I was traveling to New York City for a meeting. The flight to Newark was cheaper so I took it because the train ride from Newark to New York was cheap and it only took an hour to reach my destination. I had to be frugal back then. I took a cab from the Newark airport to the train station which was only a short distance away. Or in my mind it was only five dollars away. As we were driving, out of nowhere came this hail storm and the taxi driver ducked under a bridge. It was a short storm but the hail was as big as golf balls. I got out of the car to stretch. I get claustrophobic. There were several bums standing around a barrel with a warm fire going. I also saw a man and a woman with her daughter pushing a shopping cart containing everything they owned. The man came up to me and in broken English asked if I could spare something because his daughter was sick. He needed to buy medicine. I walked over and put my hand on her forehead. She was burning up and almost passed out. I said this child needs to go to the hospital immediately. The mother gave me a totally helpless look. She kept repeating the same words in Spanish I didn't understand. She said "Por favor ayude a mi hija." She began crying. I put the three of them in the cab and went to the nearest hospital. I ran through the emergency room door carrying the little girl in my arms and asked them to please help her. They wanted a five hundred dollar deposit. Without a thought I immediately paid it. I missed the meeting that day. My parents were all worried. I stayed with Pablo and Magdalena for a couple days at the hospital until I knew their daughter was going to be ok. They were only in their late thirties but they looked tired and worn out. I guess that's what living a hard life does to a person. I left them with fifteen hundred dollars because I knew they had nothing. After being with Pablo I realized he was a good man and all he needed was a break. I hoped that money helped. Anyway that was my first experience with real poverty and Newark, New Jersey.

Norma had a blank expression, just staring out into space in the interior of that jet. "I don't know what to say......... Except, thank you... This is a strange universe, Larry. Pablo and Magdalena are my parents. I remember you now. The nurse said a day longer and I would have died." Larry looked at her. "Norma, I don't scare easy, but..." She interrupted him, and with a tender look in her eyes said "Sometimes things happen that we have no control over. This is our destiny, babe." "You know I love it when you call me babe." She sat next to him on the sofa. Thank you for saving my life. You didn't have to take me to the hospital, but you did. She came close to his face and gently kissed his cheek while looking deeply into his loving eyes. Larry melted as she passionately kissed his lips and held him tightly.

The power of mothers

As Norma and Larry were stepping off the plane in Beijing, Zìyóu and her top regional lieutenants were at the base of the stairs to greet them. When Norma reached the bottom Zìyóu embraced her. She said "Hello my friend. And thank you. It was seeing your spunk that day that convinced me to get up off my butt and give it my all. Please come and let me introduce you to some of the freedom mothers. As Norma was involved in the pomp and pageantry a special foreign dignitary should be accorded, Larry was greeted with a rapid cursory hello then he and his workers were quickly ushered away to begin installing the system.

This was clearly Norma's moment. Norma didn't quite fully grasp it but the Chinese had elevated her as the representative of the American People. After being introduced to Zìyóu's top workers, she stopped for a moment and looked around. The airport outside including as far as you could see was completely filled with people straining to get a glimpse of what was going on. The people were chanting phrases that Norma didn't understand. But she saw their faces. Faces of pure happiness and pride. Zìyóu stopped and asked "Where is your translator?" Norma didn't think to bring one. "Here Norma, take this one," as she gave her the ear bud and credit card sized module. "Now you can understand the wonderful things my people are shouting." Because of Mark's groundbreaking work, everybody in the crowd had his instant voice translator on their cellphone. Zìyóu handed Norma her iphone and asked that she say a few words to the people at the airport who had been waiting for hours to see her and to the people of her country watching on TV. Norma was shocked and numbed by it all. She had to collect herself. She thought "What would my girls tell me?...... Mom, just be yourself." She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She noticed the TV camera on her right. "Hello. Can everybody understand me?" The crowd yelled yes in Mandarin. "Great. Thank you very much for allowing me to come to your country. I've never been out of the United States much less to China. You see I was born to a family with lots of love but no money. Up until the Big Change my entire life took place within five miles of my home. In my early and middle twenties I had a tough time making enough money to feed and house my children. It was a daily struggle and many times I felt I was losing. I used to work at Wal-Mart. The stingy owners didn't pay me enough to have any kind of good life. I had to get financial assistance from the government. And sometimes that wasn't enough. Sometimes I had to sell my blood to get us by to the next payday. And it wasn't just me. It seemed everybody was struggling. In a country of three hundred million people, over fifty million of us were on food stamps. That means without help from the government those fifty million would have gone hungry. Over one million children were homeless. They and their parents had to live in temporary daily shelters, or in cars, or on the streets. I've never disclosed this to anyone except my husband, but for almost a year as a child my mom and dad and I were homeless too. Sometimes we had to forage through trash cans to find food to keep us alive. America was the richest country on earth, yet there I was, not knowing where my next meal was coming from. So I knew since I was very young that the extreme rich had absolutely no social conscience. They didn't care who lived or who died. They didn't care if others achieved a good life or not. All they cared about was making more money for themselves.

I believe that in the end all that matters is love and caring. And, that was impossible as long as these greedy pieces of human excrement were in control of our lives.

I also believe that we are creatures of habit, drawn to the safety and comfort of the familiar. Even if the familiar is holding us down and hurting us. But there comes a moment, a point of clarity when we understand what is happening. It was that moment, that day when we the people of the United States finally woke up and realized there was a better way. That we could have a better life. And the solution was elegantly simple. Just continue manufacturing, growing food, and providing services for ourselves the same as before. In other words continue giving us what we needed to live. The only difference was we paid us enough to have a good life. We no longer relied on a profit oriented employer to pay us! And now you are giving yourselves the same thing." Norma started to clap while she was chanting freedom over and over. She lifted her hands up and shouted "Let me hear you. Sue ee yo, Sue ee yo, Sue ee yo....." The airport went crazy. The chanting was so strong the ground shook. After some minutes of celebratory chanting, she calmed the crowd down and continued "After the Big Change I was able to have my children go to a decent school. I could feed them good healthy food. They had beautiful clothes to wear. There is no charge to see a doctor or go to a hospital. I was able buy a nice home and a nice car." She stopped and looked around and then in the camera she said "How could that be? A large majority of us were struggling before the Big Change. Then afterward everybody was living a good life. But nothing changed! We were still providing ourselves with the stuff we needed same as before."

Norma walked over to a young couple at the temporary barriers and asked them "What do you think the difference was?" The camera turned to the couple and the woman said "You got rid of the middle man who was chocking you to death." Norma smiled, jumped the barrier and said now it's your turn to do that. This is your time! This is your life! She hugged the young couple and their six year old child, then started moving through the crowd saying hello to everyone. Security and the camera crew were going nuts trying to keep up with Norma as she was moving through the crowd shaking hands and hugging people. The TV newscaster was beside himself as he described this woman walking "helter-skelter" through the crowd. Then a light went off in his head. He said "She cares more about congratulating the people than her own welfare. She cares more about the welfare of our People than about herself. Look, she's calling Zìyóu to come join her as she's moving through the crowd." Norma paused until Zìyóu was next to her. Then they continued. On her cellphone, Norma asked that everybody not push because the last thing we wanted was to have Zìyóu get hurt. Amazingly the crowd listened. A greater sense of oneness across the nation was felt as they saw on TV these two amazing mothers walking for several hours through the crowd. Norma kept the iphone on so everybody could hear the conversations that occurred with the people they embraced. Norma continually used the words "my family", "my brother", and "my sister" to address the people she was speaking with. Norma was so filled with emotion she blurted out "God I wished I was Chinese right now. This is such a momentous time in human history. Thank you for allowing me to be here with you." As Zìyóu moved through the crowd with Norma she said "This is why I wanted you here. The expressiveness from your energy and heartfelt emotions are exactly what we need." As they were going through the crowd she said "I appreciate that, Zìyóu, but we're just getting started." She came to a couple in their thirties with a handsome teenage son. She asked their names. Her name was Huan (happiness) and his was Dingbang (protect the country). Their son is named Xue (studious). Norma shook Dingbang's and his son's hands and she hugged Huan. She said "Fate brought me to you. Your people will finally achieve happiness by protecting your country from the inside. You have protected yourselves from a small group of ruthless power hungry greedy Chinese who for years feed off your labors. Dingbang, your very smart and dedicated son will now work to benefit the lives of the People of China." She continued "With my husband's help, every person in this great country will have an account at the People's bank and every month all of you will give yourselves enough money to have a good life. But in return you will continue making things, growing food, and providing needed services to make all of this a success!" There was a thunderous roar of approval from the crowd. She continued "Money will no longer be a problem. Like we are doing right now in America, I can visualize giant desalinization plants all along your coast bringing in billions and billions of gallons of fresh clean water to irrigate the desert lands of your country. Food will be bountiful. No one will go hungry." Again the crowd roared. "The air in our giant cities was polluted before we made the Big Change. Now we are moving to photovoltaic and wind energy." Norma saw the camera guy had a bottle of water. She took it and held it up high with her other hand underneath. As she is pouring it she said "Your air will soon become as pure as this water flowing onto my hand. No more lung disease and other sicknesses because of greed." Again the crowd roared. Norma's statements were infectious. Zìyóu walked up to another couple and got their names and hugged them. She said "Now our Press will be free and open. Our universities will too. People will be free to say what they think without punishment. There will be a posting of job opportunities all across our great country. Soon you will choose the work you desire, not the work you were forced into." The crowd went nuts screaming in approval. Families across China watching this on TV were crying with joy. Both women continued through the crowd greeting and hugging and talking about many of the great things their people will have.

After two hours Zìyóu was completely spent. She and Norma gave their apologies for having to leave. They thanked everybody for coming. Zìyóu closed by saying "Last year I went to America to see what freedom was like. I went to the Peoples Monument and Museum and fate allowed me to meet this great woman in a restaurant. She stood up and in a passionate way she thanked everyone who could hear her. The nearby customers cheered. I saw the look on all their faces. A look of true happiness. Then I stood up and said in a loud and clear voice "I'd like to give a toast. To the people of America who are the shining beacon of freedom for the rest of the world. May my people of China soon become free." She paused and smiled "And now that day has come. And like Norma thanked everybody in that restaurant for her freedom that day, I'd like to thank you." Zìyóu looked all across the crowd with her hands held high. "THANK YOU, my people for making me and the rest of you a free nation." She began to cry tears of joy. "And to my precious fragile mother watching this at home, "Thank you mom for taking me to Tiananmen Square to protest on that fateful day of June 4th, 1989. The light from your fire has shown me the way." She stopped for a moment to collect herself and continued "The most important thing now is enabling us to run our country electronically. Norma has promised me that her husband and his workers along with our own computer experts will soon have the system in place so we can proudly run our own government. We will be talking more about this very soon on television and on the internet. Thank you again and I love you all." (click)

The people at the airport and at home cheered and began chanting her name as they departed in a chopper to the hotel where Norma was staying. While flying Norma said "I'm sorry for the recent deaths of over thirty thousand mothers and their children at Tiananmen Square. Zìyóu said we knew we had to do something big. We chose the fourth of June in respect for the massacre that occurred the same day in 1989. At that time I was a small girl. And as I just told my people, my mother and I were part of the crowd protesting that day. I vividly remember us running to get away as the army was slaughtering those behind us. For almost 28 years these sadistic rulers were able to keep a lid on it by offering jobs in place of freedom. Foolishly, we took it.

But this time on June 4th we marshaled together over a million wives and mothers to occupy the square. We believed the army wouldn't move against us. We thought who would kill mothers holding their children? But they did! Those sorry bastards did!!!" Zìyóu stopped talking to calm herself down and wipe away the tears. "It was this ruthless arrogant slaughter of innocent mothers and their children by the demonic ruling class that woke the sleeping giant. The entire country shut down during the eight weeks that followed. Wives and mothers everywhere turned against their sons and husbands who were in the army or with the police. Any male in any capacity of law enforcement became a persona non grata. Nobody would have anything to do with them. Three hundred million mothers took to the streets in all of China. They were screaming for the deaths of all men in the military. We finally had enough and it ended the 4th of August.

Only women are in the military now. The only police you'll see wearing a uniform will be a woman. And as you probably know, last week we executed every member of our Central Committee including their families. Retribution for the murdering of thirty thousand innocents on June 4th! Now we three hundred million mothers have cleaned house. And, now we need a new start. Now we need your help Norma. We need several television appearances where we explain how the process will work. I want us there to symbolize the People are in control in both my country and in yours. Larry and my country's experts will explain the process. Our presence will assure the People that we are indeed becoming a direct democracy! This has to be done quickly and efficiently. For all this to work it must be done immediately!" Norma held Zìyóu's hand. "Don't worry. Larry and his small army of geeks along with your computer experts can and will do it. We'll first start with depositing money in every account of every Chinese citizen. This will carry them until the rest is completed." Zìyóu clasped Norma's hand and gratefully responded "Thank you."

Zìyóu continued "My family is waiting at the hotel. I want to introduce them to you. My daughters have been following you in the news. They're very anxious to meet you. They still don't understand how you could take down five killers last month in San Francisco." Norma rolled her eyes and in a sweet innocent little voice said "Just don't get me pissed off." Zìyóu laughed and said "I worked for years as a geneticist. You look very much American Indian." Norma responded "I'm kind of embarrassed about it usually don't tell anybody because they were known as ruthless killers, but my parents are Apache from Arizona. They moved north to seek a better life, but with the racial prejudice, it was even harder for them." Zìyóu said "If that's the case then you are ancient Chinese. We have tested the DNA of the Indian tribes in North America and found genetic markers indicating we are from the same people, Norma. It's true especially with the western Indian tribes like the Apache who didn't intermarry with the Europeans." Norma had no idea. But with that revelation they both felt much closer. Norma smiled. "I am Chinese." Zìyóu said "But you're human first. You recognize that all humans are brothers and sisters."

Norma's phone rang. It was Connie. "I just saw you on TV. Mom you never told us about being homeless. Now I understand why you went out of your way to be good to Lupe and Uncle Tony when we first met. Are you ok? You looked tired after doing all that walking around." "Yes baby, I'm just fine. And your dad is too. It looks like I'll be here for at least several weeks. And I don't know how long Larry will be here. Are you going to be ok?" "We'll be fine. In fact we were hoping you would say that because Uncle Tony moved an extra king size bed into Lupe's room. We like watching movies on the giant screen in the pyramid. The turtles come up and we feed them crickets. They have to be alive though, or they won't eat them." Norma said "Sounds like you guys are doing ok." Norma continued talking with her girls. Then she talked to Tony thanking him for everything. She asked about enrolling her girls in school. He said Cletus and his men were taking care of it. They will have invisible body guards at the schools. She gave her love to the girls said she would call every day. She got Cletus on the phone and told him to make sure all the kids stayed safe in San Antonio. He assured her they would be. "And Cletus, please remember to get your response time down as low as possible. See you later big guy. And good luck with the girls!"

End of Volume One...

I'm writing this paragraph in April, 2020. Just finished writing the third and final book of this series. The following two books chronologically covers more of the lives of the young Pioneers and their friends. It's full of adventure with some new very interesting characters.

Postscript

"...whenever any form of government becomes destructive... ...it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government..." Taken from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, July 4, 1776.

Appendix \- the Constitutional Amendment

Below are a few things I'm advocating for, and please understand that if we are going to make an amendment, all of us need to get involved.

Branches of Government

*The legislative branch will now be the voting citizens of the United States. Our computer technology, programming talent, and a secured 'US only' internet grid will assist us.

*The executive branch will now be called the administrative branch and will no longer have a President or a President's Cabinet. Smaller groups of several thousand randomly chosen people (fluidly and randomly adding and removing members over time) from across the US will oversee the operations of each department in the administrative branch. For example, one group of several thousand people will oversee the Justice Department by actual presence at facilities and by communicating online. In addition to the overseers, we will have groups (selected the same way as the overseers) to audit and investigate the departments and the overseers. The investigators goal would be to positively augment the success of the agency. So in effect you have two groups ensuring that a department is functioning properly. The overseers give direction and the auditors and investigators provide legitimate independent feedback to the overseers and to us, the People. Once a month a report will be published online for all the People of the US to scrutinize. The departments will no longer focus on businesses making money and profits. They will direct their attention to helping make our lives safer, better and happier. Whistleblowers will be rewarded instead of punished.

*The judicial branch will continue to exist, but the decisions of the Supreme Court and all appellate courts will be reviewed by several thousand randomly chosen people, some would be educated in law and some would be common everyday people but all of them must have demonstrated caring, compassion, and intelligence. The review will also include the Courts' decisions whether or not to hear a case. Again many auditors and investigators will constantly be looking at what the overseers are doing to determine if they are truly independent, caring, and honest.

Money

*The most important part of the Big Change will be us paying us instead of depending on an employer to do it. A minimum of $10,000 will be deposited monthly into the account of all adult citizens. $1,500 for citizens under 18.

*The US will have one bank called the Peoples Bank which will be owned and run by the People. The only money a person can receive and spend is the money in their account at the Peoples bank. For example, if a person wants to sell a personal asset like a car then the funds will be transferred within the accounts of the buyer and seller. This recorded purchasing activity is necessary because our computers will be able to foresee potential shortages and ramp up production to meet demand. People would still be able to barter (trade) merchandise with "boot".

*All prices will not increase. A special new agency will be formed to review all pricing and to make any price reductions they feel necessary.

*No more taxes of any sort at any level of any government body.

*I recently heard a politician say "we don't have enough money for that". Having enough money will no longer determine whether or not we do something. The only shortage will be not having enough people or resources dedicated to handle a need. And, if we feel it's necessary we can direct more to the effort. But money... Well money will be just a medium of exchange. That's all.

*It will be against the law to have homeless or destitute people.

*We will continually determine the baseline of acceptability to have a good life. In other words we will always monitor how much money a person needs to have a minimum acceptable good lifestyle.

*No more federal reserve and our national debt will immediately be paid off.

*Price of gasoline is capped at 2 dollars a gallon. Unusual extreme usage of gasoline by a person will be investigated. Natural gas, propane, diesel, home heating oil and other petroleum based products will also have low price caps. And in times of need like weather extremes, getting fuel to those affected will be given top priority.

*All existing personal debts would be paid off.

*All future loans would be interest free and loan payments would be directly deducted from the individual's bank account at the Peoples bank the moment their account is deposited each month. The maximum aggregate loan payment amounts would be 40% of the person's monthly deposit. The maximum payout period is ten years for homes and real estate, and three years for everything else. Examples: A new 2,000 sqft home bought for $50,000 (2,000*$25/sqft) will have a minimum payment of $417.00 (50,000/120pmts).

*The maximum price for autos and light trucks is $25,000. Maximum price for piston aircraft is $50,000, turbo-prop is $150,000, and small passenger jet is $300,000. Maximum price for semi-tractor trailer rigs is $75,000. The availability of vehicles will be increased as the public demands. All vehicles purchased must be used on a regular basis.

*Individuals can continue to gamble but only up to the amount that is in their special savings account set aside specifically for gambling. Only 5% of the individual's monthly deposit can be set aside for gambling. Risking real estate or personal property in gambling is not allowed. Money only.

*Corporations in the old sense will cease to exist. No more separation of the owner class from the worker class. All employees will be equal owners. Shares of ownership in a company won't be bought and sold. When an employee leaves a company, they give up their voting share. New employees will gain an ownership interest. The reason for the ownership is to give employees equal decision making rights. Movers and shakers in companies will continue giving positive direction. And the employees of companies can't just give themselves million dollar salaries. By super-majority vote, the People of the US will give salary minimums and maximums for all types of employees in all businesses in all industries. This type of control is important to have salary fairness for all the People across the US.

*The transition to the Big Change must have elegance and harmony with almost nobody being hurt. In this spirit, all stockholders before the Big Change will be able to convert their ownership interest to money before employees take over. The maximum amount redeemed in total stock ownership by an individual is one million dollars. So if a person has one hundred million in his stock portfolio then they will receive no more than one million. Another example would be the owner of a billion dollar sports franchise who would only receive a million dollars. And the players on sports franchises will make a maximum of one million dollars per year.

Except for businesses that rent tangible personal property (like a ditchwitch or a big truck to move personal belongings), or offer rides (like Uber), or motel rooms, or personal residence rooms, individuals cannot invest money to earn interest, or rents, or leases, or dividends. In other words there will be no more "passive income" (as defined by the IRS) of any sort allowed anymore. But people can still sell personal assets like cars, boats, planes, and collections. In other words you can't live off your monetary investments. Unless you are retired or in bad health, you have to work if you want to live in the United States. And, we won't allow cronyism or nepotism at work unless it's a small successful family business or a small farm.

Justice and security

*The defense department will retain its same structure except the commander and chief will be the People of the United States. A random ever changing group of several thousand voting citizens will oversee and manage the activities of the defense department. Then once a month the People of the US will receive a report from the overseers. Like with all government departments, there must be "accountability". So every person working for the department of defense and working for large defense contractors will keep a timesheet of everything they did every day in one hour increments. The records must be maintained contemporaneously (when it happens). Added to that will be a requirement that all phone and computer communications by all government employees be retained by independent sources. (Hillary Clinton made a mockery of this.) All defense contractors with annual sales to the government of $100 million dollars or more will be owned and controlled by the People of the United States. The People will be in control of the purse strings, therefore we will know what every penny is spent on.

*The People will have direct control of the FBI, CIA, department of homeland security, and all other federal law enforcement agencies. Like the defense department, these departments will have overseers and another body of investigators and auditors.

*All military ordnance including our nuclear arsenal will be controlled by the People, with a backup group who must follow a pre-determined set of instructions in case communications are cut off. Extreme care will be taken in deciding who has their hands on the nuclear trigger.

*The Supreme Court cases of  DeShaney v Winnebago Dep't of Social Service (1989) and  Estate of Sinthasomphone v Milwaukee (1992) and  Castle Rock v Gonzales (2005) are now reversed because the "State" absolutely has the obligation to protect its citizens. The Justices of the Supreme Court are now mandated to insure that the health, safety, and wellbeing of the People come first before any rights of those hired by the People to protect us. That includes but not limited to all police, attorneys, judges, and employees of agencies given the responsibility to protect, like child protective services. These hired employees of the People will not abrogate their responsibilities. They must insure we are protected or they will be severely punished.

*All employees of all governmental entities in the US are both criminally and civilly liable for their actions while working as a government employee. No exemptions will be allowed. Example: If it was found that a Food and Drug Administration employee was grossly negligent in carrying out his/her duties then they are fully and completely liable for their actions and will be punished accordingly.

*All robots built must be easily destroyed by small arms fire or flames or water immersion. In other words robots must not be built to be impregnable. And they must be trackable using GPS. Robots must never have the ability to make other robots.

*Any bribes to any public workers will carry severe punishment.

*Our police today are a big problem with brutality, theft, and framing of innocent people. They are also acting as hired help for the powerful to kill the masses if it comes to that. All those militarized police infringing on people's rights while searching for the Boston bomber is a perfect example. One large step to stop this is to have every 19 year old, who hasn't had any problem with the authorities so far in their life go through police training and work for a least a year in law enforcement. Each year, 10% of all people 20 to 35 will also go through police training until we have a society that is mostly trained police. We will maintain our peace officer's license for life. No more police dominating the masses when everyone is a policeman. No more feudalistic approach of having the king using his army to suppress the peasants.

*Our judicial system needs to be fixed. As a direct democracy we will require attorneys to find the truth and not get paid to advocate for their client. Truth instead of money. Comprehensive records of judges and attorneys and police investigators work must be reviewed by independent sources. Polygraph tests and other forms of lie detection must be given periodically to all people in the justice system. A video/sound record must be made and retained for all investigative work and all court proceedings. Except for murder, all jail sentences will be lowered to just a few months. The catch is... eight times a day the convicted person will be tased with a device like a cattle prod. The worse the crime, the stronger and longer the tasing. All people convicted for drug use will be released. A person convicted for illegally selling drugs will go through the tasing process for a month, then released.

*The grand jury system will be completely revamped. Three unbiased attorneys will preside over all grand jury hearings. The prosecutor will continue to present information to a grand jury. But up to ten "friends of the court" may also present evidence and testimony to a grand jury. And as with all court cases that go to trial, the proceedings of all grand jury hearings will be reviewed by an independent body of people randomly chosen out of the population. This body of overseers can change the decision of whether or not a case will go to trial.

*No Ex Post Facto or Double Jeopardy laws of any sort will be permitted anymore. The federal government has this "hate crime" loophole they are using for trying people twice. That is now outlawed. We have scientific methods to discover the truth. The initial court case will be sufficient, and if we screw up it's our fault, not the defendants. But if evidence comes out after the court case is decided that exonerates a defendant, then he/she will be permitted to have an immediate hearing. If during an initial trial, evidence is presented that clearly shows a person is guilty or innocent and the jury decides otherwise, then the jury is prejudiced and they should be prosecuted on a felony charge. If the prosecutor or judge uses this as a device to intimidate a jury into voting a certain way, then they will be charged and imprisoned.

*All drug offenders will receive a hug and a place to live and help from a support group and medical treatment to get them off of addiction. And actually get them off addiction.

*All prisoners will be given a polygraph test to get a better idea if they were really guilty. Those with test results indicating they were probably innocent will be retried in an independent court away from their original venue. The original judge, attorneys, and investigators will all undergo a polygraph exam concerning the case. If wrong doing is discovered, then the perpetrators (the judge and/or the attorneys and/or the investigating policemen) will go to jail for six months and receive nice long shock treatments eight times a day. And they cannot work in the justice system anymore.

*Attorneys will never be used by a business to bully others or to prolong resolving a wrong. Attorneys will never be paid by their clients or any other party. The People will pay attorneys to find the truth, and they'll be paid very well. All attorneys will undergo lie detector testing during and after all cases they work on. If they acted in any other way other than finding the truth, they lose their license and go to jail for a six months with taser treatments 8 times a day.

*Our security forces must be spread evenly among the states. Military bases will exist in every state in the US. No US bases will be outside the US or its territories unless the People of the respective country ask for our assistance, and for only as long as they want us there.

*If there is a defect in a product that could cause injury or death, then the individuals responsible within the company will be criminally charged if they don't immediately report and fix it. The Chevy cobalt ignition switch failure is an example. 13 people died because of the ignition problems that some people at Chevy had been hiding for 10 years. People died because of the defect, yet they didn't do anything to fix the problem. Nobody has been held criminally liable for this! Same thing is true with Toyota's gas pedals sticking. The one billion dollar fine they got hit with was chump change. Then there is Takata with their air bags exploding. People need to go to jail because they knew of the problem for years yet did nothing about it until deaths began occurring. I would want immediate execution of the perpetrators, but a more humane approach would be a year in jail with tasing eight times a day. By the end of their sentence they would wish they were dead.

*Except for a portion of the 5th amendment, all human rights laws on the books, as interpreted by the courts, and in the Constitution will continue. The text of the 5th amendment is: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Regarding this amendment, I believe the part where a person can't testify against himself was put there to avoid torture. We need to know if we are safe and protected by using polygraph tests on employees in our Justice system and on suspected criminals. Torture will be outlawed. But accurate polygraph exams, and they must be accurate, and other similar forms of lie detection are not mental or physical torture. Therefore, I view this as getting to the truth which is much more important than allowing a guilty person to get away with a crime simply because they covered their tracks well.

*All people of the Muslim faith living in the US will undergo questioning by law enforcement using lie detection equipment. All those who are deemed a genuine potential threat must immediately leave the country.

*All US borders will be tightly sealed. That's land, water, and air. All land cargo and ocean shipping containers entering the US will be thoroughly inspected for WMDs and contraband.

*Actively employed Police must periodically be rotated and investigated via polygraph tests.

*Employees of all government agencies will be vetted to see if they have any allegiances to anything other than what's best for the People. If they do they will be immediately terminated. Cronyism and nepotism will not be allowed. Having your buddies and your relatives working with you is totally wrong. An exception will be a small farm and a small business.

*All political appointees to any position in the government will be terminated. The vacated positions will be placed in the national job registry for the public to apply for.

*All police will have several video/sound (videos that also records sound) recorders on their person at all times outside of their homes. There will also be omnidirectional recorders in their vehicles. (Those are spinning video recorders placed on top of police vehicles to take 30 frames per second shots at any one position.) Any police officer involved in violence or killing of another person will use the video/sound recordings as evidence to prove or disprove their innocence. If an officer has the recording devices turned off then they are deemed guilty. (A fat, lazy, stupid college police officer killed an unarmed honor student next to the University of the Incarnate Word campus in San Antonio in 2013. There was no evidence except for sound where you could hear many gun shots over a period of time instead of just one to stop him. The seemingly corrupt district attorney, Nico LaHood, wouldn't prosecute. This college campus pig is walking around a free man today. Cases like this are everywhere in the US.)

*The only law enforcement people allowed in the US will be the city, county, state police, and the Border Patrol. That's all. No social security police, no park police, no school police, no Bureau of Land Management police. Nothing. Besides the Border Patrol, if any other federal entity like the FBI, CIA, BTAF, DHS, NCIS, etc. want to exert force to apprehend anybody, they must have the well trained and physically fit local police do it. Every person on a police force must be in excellent physical condition and be trained how to apprehend a person without killing or injuring them. On rare occasions, the federal agencies can assist but the local police must take the lead and be in total control. And they better not screw it up or they will be severely punished. No more excuses. "Oops, did I do that", and "Gee, I'm sorry" won't work anymore. A police badge will no longer be a license to bully, brutalize, injure, steal, and murder.

*SWAT teams on police forces must be curtailed and only rarely used in extremely dangerous situations. It must be shown and proven to an independent group that attempts were made to mitigate or reduce the danger before it reached a head that would require a militarized police unit.

*The police cannot pour though neighborhoods requiring people to leave their homes and then have the police search them and their homes. A strict interpretation of the 4th amendment must be carried out to protect citizens from the police.

*Children have as much right to be safe as adults. All prospective parents must have training for raising children. Through a battery of testing they must demonstrate compassion, caring, and responsibility before they can obtain a license to have and raise a child. It's better to chop the weeds out before the plants start bearing. Severe punishment must be imposed on parents who hurt and abuse their children. And children must be monitored by healthcare professionals to determine if they are leading healthy happy lives. All of the parameters of "what it takes to be a good parent" and "what observation criteria will be used by which outside sources" will of course be written, approved, and overseen by the People of the US by a super-majority vote. The people working for state agencies and other people in private business who care for the aged and disabled and those going through rehabilitation will come under the same strict rules and punishments as childcare.

*All judges across America that were placed by appointment including the Supreme Court Judges will be fired and replaced by those chosen by the People via a super-majority vote. Local judges will be hired by large randomly chosen teams of unbiased educated individuals who live in the jurisdiction of the court.

Agriculture and food

*In addition to grain crops and pasture land, all farms 100 acres and larger will have a substantial percentage of their crop as vegetables, fruit trees, fruit vines, and a variety of farm animals. Easy access and availability to food from farms everywhere across America is essential for our survival.

*No more harmful pesticides and herbicides. No more harmful GMOs. Companies such as Monsanto will cease to exist and in their place new companies will do research to produce environment friendly products to control weeds and insects.

*Giant feed lots and giant slaughter houses will cease to exist. All animals used for food would be free ranging. Slaughter houses would be smaller co-ops and number at least 1000 and be located in every state. Health inspectors will surprise visit every food processing business at least once every two weeks. Video cameras will function in every square foot in each of these businesses. A humane way of killing animals would be performed.

*All factories that create pink slime for hamburger meat would cease to exist. Meat glue would no longer be allowed.

*At least one locally owned dairy would be near every substantial town (population of 50,000 or more) in the United States.

*Desalinization plants will be constructed along the west coast of the United States and also along the coast of Texas. The combined output must be enough to provide irrigation and drinking water for the arid parts of America during times of drought. Large water lines would crisscross America to divert water from areas of abundance to areas of need. New and innovative water conserving irrigation methods will be employed.

*We need to conserve our agricultural land. New residential and commercial development will not be permitted on farm land, wet land, forest land. Residences would only be permitted on a piece of farm land for the family who owns and farms the property. If you own farm land out of the city, you have to work it to provide goods for consumers. If you are new to farming you will be trained and equipment provided to you along with a probationary period to see if you actually do it otherwise you have to move back to the city. Farming and ranching doesn't have to be your main source of employment, but you must produce farm products commensurate with the size and capacity of the land. Most farms would be 20 acres or more, but can be as small as 2 acres for something like vegetable growing.

*No more bovine hormones or any other hormones would be used on farm animals in the US.

*Millions of acres of prairie land now used to grow corn and wheat would return to grassland and be used to feed cattle, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks and other free ranging animals. Oats and sorghum milo maze and similar crops can also be planted for free ranging animals to forage on.

*The US leases vast amounts of prairie and desert land to ranchers. Those who lease this land are also the caretakers. If they themselves pollute or if they allow others to pollute or harm the soil or water or destroy vegetation or wildlife beyond what's legally permissible they and their families will be severely punished.

*Like leafcutter ants, in every state near every big town we would have underground food growing and storage facilities in case of an above ground catastrophe.

*There is a shortage of grocery stores and other shopping in depressed parts of large cities across America. This shortage would end immediately.

Self-sustainment and jobs

*The US will have at least 100 vehicle manufacturing plants distributed across the country. Included would be small utility vehicles, cars, trucks of all sizes, farm use vehicles, specialty use vehicles, and all types of aircraft and watercraft. Research & development would be encouraged to have fossil fuel free vehicles. Companies that make vehicles with high miles per gallon numbers, or vehicles that incorporate renewable products into their design, or vehicles that have manufacturing processes with zero negative impact on the environment will get special preferences and rewards.

*A national job opportunity register would be on the internet. The US will have near zero unemployment. Foreigners cannot work or have a business in America.

*A comprehensive unbiased annual job performance review would be carried out.

*Unless prevented by climate or natural resource availability or special trade deals approved the People, all manufacturing and services consumed by Americans would be made and performed in the US by Americans.

*You can't have your cake and eat it, too. If you want to live in the US, you must work for a US company. You cannot receive any income from any sources outside of the US.

*Monetary "for-profit" businesses would no longer exist. Instead businesses would exist to meet consumer needs, both immediate and long term. The following must be done for the long-term:

a.) constantly search for new and innovative goods and services, b.) the environment would not be hurt when making, while using, and when disposing of goods, c.) search of the best type of materials for products. Renewable instead of non-renewable, plentiful instead of scarce, reliable instead of non-reliable, long lasting instead of rapidly deteriorating, fixable instead of disposable.

*Homes and vehicles and other significant items would be modularly designed. For example, if a fender of a car is dented, it would be made to easily unplug with a new one snapped into place. House windows would easily be snapped in and out from the inside. Same with toilets and sinks and cabinetry and light fixtures, etc. Diagnostic tools to easily identify auto problems should be perfected and vehicles must be constructed for easy access to items that would break and need replacing.

*No more professional services provided by offshore entities.

*There would no longer be any labor unions of any kind in the US. The US would now be one labor union of, for, and by the People.

*We could care less if the super-rich leave the US. What we do care about is all necessary manufacturing and services must be returned to the US. All people that attempt to stop this process would be apprehended and taken back to the US and punished. If any citizen wishes to renounce their citizenship and leave the country they are welcome to do so. But all real estate and all personal property owned by them in the US reverts to the People of the US. If the People through the courts conclude that any ex-pats are intentionally causing harm to Americans then they would be apprehended and punished here in the US.

*A program would immediately be established to find, utilize, and reward extreme talent to meet our top priority needs in forming our new country. A pool or repository of highly talented and capable people would be maintained for our future needs. Foreigners who could greatly help us with our mission would be invited to become US citizens.

*Private industry, government workers, and contractors would have as much as possible a flat management hierarchy. They would function in a collaborative fashion and not a boss/servant relationship.

*The US being a free and open society, all activity and documents in all companies would be open to the public. We would now be working together. Exceptions would be made concerning national security by a super-majority vote of the People.

*People can retire at age 62. No sooner, unless their poor health causes retirement. And hours per week will vary depending on how much artificial intelligence robotics is performing. In other words the goal is to have AI do as much as possible leaving us humans free to live our lives without the pressures of having to perform at a required job.

*The maximum size a business can be is 1 billion dollars either in net sales or in asset value. Businesses like Walmart would be split up.

*Handcrafted products would be encouraged and rewarded. For example, the People of the US would give bonuses to those who make "hand made to fit" jeans, or boots, or shoes, or shirts and blouses. This applies to all consumables. In other words it's perfectly ok if a person wants to make anything to sell. Even something like a car or a motorcycle, but they must have all critical parts and processes inspected and approved. And the craftsperson must adhere to all standards mandated by the People for safety and environment.

*Sports franchises are a very important part of the American fabric. Every major city in America would have a football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer team that is owned and controlled by the citizens of that city.

*Music is a very important to Americans. A national recording and distribution studio owned and controlled by the People would exist. It would have branches into all genres of music. New talent would constantly be promoted.

Our homes

*The purchase price of a home would be $25 per square foot or less. The price of all items used in making, improving, or repairing a home would be cut by at least 75%. Renewable materials for homes would be used before non-renewable. Like cement block before wood. Our forests in the US would be managed by the People, and wood would be made available only under the management program when tree clearing is utilized to make the forest land more sustainable.

*Ghettos will no longer be allowed in America.

*With few exceptions, the people of the US would be able to live in any neighborhood of the country they want. Exclusive super rich neighborhoods would end. The extreme separation of classes of citizens because of money would end.

*Apartments would cease to exist. They would become condominiums. HMOs can be formed, but can never be harmful to a homeowner, especially a veteran. The owner of a home can rent out some of the space in their home to up to three people. This is because some people want to live on as small a "footprint" as possible without the responsibilities of home care and maintenance. Bed and breakfasts and hotels would continue for tourists. And many large homes may now be turned into B&Bs.

Education

*High schools would have mandatory courses each year in construction crafts like HVAC, electrical, plumbing, refrigeration, roofing, flooring, foundation, walls, rough in, finish out, safety, concrete, stucco, making counters and furniture.

*Schools from kinder through 12th grade would have required courses on maintaining and protecting our healthy environment both indoors and outdoors.

*All education in the US would be free. But anybody who cannot maintain at least a C+ average in college must quit and enter a trade school or go to straight to work. Students must have everything possible at their disposal to enable them to make good grades.

*It's crucial our children in school would be taught about living a good happy life. All schools would teach courses on altruism, and caring for one another, ethics, and food.

*It's been shown by scientists that our cognition processes are extremely enhanced and illuminated when language is introduced to our minds. Words give us a much greater understanding of the world around us. Words codify what we come to know. This gives a young child the needed organization and stimulus in their mind. Can you imagine how much better our kids would be if they knew three languages each with their own separate nuances and idioms? Our school system is so myopic that we teach our young only one language. This vid was interesting because she said they can work out problems quicker and easier in Chinese. Is it only because it's their birth language or also because of the character of the language itself? The Chinese typically have higher IQs than Americans. Does their language have anything to do with it? I would make it mandatory for all children from birth to be taught at least three other languages. Some with completely different roots would be preferable, like Russian and Chinese.

*The education system in the US would be revamped and continually improved upon. Recommendations would be received from all interested parties. All input would be analyzed, correlated, and prioritized according to demand. The results would be available for the citizens to see and vote on. Then further analysis would be performed. Using these results the People would contract groups to assemble workable plans for educating our youth. These plans would be presented to the public and voted on. The formulation process would occur as many times as necessary until it's finally approved with a super-majority vote. I humbly recommend not having a "cookie cutter" or a "standardized" approach to education. Every child has different talents and desires. To put it another way all of our children have many different wonderful things that they are capable of contributing to humankind. Spend a small amount of the day teaching them basic reading, writing, math, art/music, languages, social caring, and science. Then help each kid identify the things they love to do and encourage them to pursue them. Have the necessary tools available. Let them go unfettered as high as they want. Rigid forms of education, including standardization just smothers all of this. Visualize for a moment all the many countless wonderful things we humans have and do in our society today, then multiply them a thousand fold. I'm advocating the type of education that would allow this to happen.

*The current fad today (in 2015) is called "Common Core Curriculum". This is a method to dumb down kids, kill innovation, and to remove parents' voices in educating their children. It must stop now. This cookie cutter approach is completely wrong. We're not eggs in a carton spit out by an egg laying factory. Small, medium, large, caged, free ranging, all labeled and identified. We're supposed teach our kids to be free divergent thinkers and not little voice recorders meant to recite and believe all that society has taught us to parrot. Don't you agree? Then let's put it into our amendment.

Property

*The maximum real estate one person may own would be three square miles. One third must be in diversified agriculture while the other two thirds can be in pasture or a wildlife preserve. Maximum real estate owned by one person in populated city areas is two acres. An exception is if the land is in agricultural production.

*The maximum net worth a person may have would be 50 million dollars.

*The maximum yearly income per person would be 1 million dollars.

*Property can be passed down to younger generations, but it would still be subject to maximum levels of real estate and net worth.

*Exceptions to exceed the limits above can be given by a super majority popular vote by the People of the US.

*The maximum number of homes a person (and per married couple) may own is three, with maximum square footage of 6,000.

*All real estate and items representing the net worth in excess of the limits would be placed in a repository owned by and for the benefit of the People. Laws would later be made and passed by a super majority vote to determine the use and disposition of such property.

*Foreigners cannot own anything in America. Not land, shares of ownership in businesses, commercial buildings, homes, personal property... nothing. All foreigners would give up everything and the property would also be held in the Peoples repository for future disposition.

This mandate is extremely important when you consider that foreigners today have large ownership interests in our largest defense contractors like Lockheed Martin. The largest shareholder is State Street Corporation in Boston with Jay Hooley as CEO. State Street is what I call a worldwide investment club for the mega-rich. They have over 31 trillion dollars of assets under custody and administration (in 2019). The GNP of the US today is around $17 trillion. To give you a better perspective... all the homes in America have a total value of about 30 trillion dollars. Amazing, isn't it? The fact that $31 trillion is under their custody is by itself enough to show we have a runaway rich class that must be ended and there are foreigners who own a significant amount of America. The power must be returned back to the People of the United States. Foreign ownership of our defense contractors and everything else must end. Now!

*No more auto and home insurance because the People would reimburse for losses. If after an investigation it is found the owner intentionally destroyed their property, then they go to jail for 30 days with taser treatments 8 times a day.

Power

*All utility, telephone and cell phone companies would now be owned and controlled by the People, and it's all free.

*Photovoltaic systems would be on every building where possible. Wind energy production would be at every building site where practicable. Except for nuclear power, other forms of non-fossil or renewable energy production would be encouraged. We would mass produce photovoltaic systems and wind electricity generating systems then install them all over our country to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and greatly reduce air pollution.

*All computer chips would be housed in a medium to protect them from electromagnetic pulses.

Transportation

*A complex system of publically owned rail transportation would be constructed in and between all major cities of the US. The rail system would be powered by photovoltaic systems.

*All roads and bridges would be publically owned and maintained in top condition.

Environment

*The environmental protection agency would operate for the sole and exclusive purpose of protecting and preserving the environment from all forms of contamination including nuclear, air, ground, and water. Programs would be put into effect to protect all wildlife. We would have a project to increase the number of national parks in the US by 10 fold. Special effort would be placed in those states that are underrepresented with parks. Parcels of land in the repository would be taken out and turned into national wildlife preserves and national parks for people to visit and enjoy. The ratio of these parks and preserves spread evenly across the US would be no less than 15% of the land in each state. The environmental protection agency would work to protect the air, ground, and water as well as all wildlife. It must not be used as a tool to hamper or curtail the People's enjoyment of our country. We would have many more parks and wilderness areas, but the People must have the right to go there and experience it. In the western part of the US, ranchers may continue to graze their cattle on public property in appropriate numbers as long as they are excellent stewards of the land and protect it from any harm. All factories and plants that dump pollution into the atmosphere and into the water and onto the soil would be required to immediately install devices to completely remove the pollution before it leaves the factory. The captured pollution must be made harmless instead of dumped. If that is impossible then the things that cause pollution must be taken out of the manufacturing process.

*Non-renewable or near non-renewable resources would be held in trust by the People. An example is forest land, land with needed mineral deposits, all oil and natural gas reserves, and land with coal. The People would decide how much to extract each year and where and to whom it is to be sold.

*When a person buys something new, they cannot just walk away and abandon the thing they replaced it with. Homes and other real estate cannot be abandoned. Personal assets such as cars cannot be dumped or abandoned off of the owner's property. If an owner doesn't want their home or car or other assets anymore, they have the responsibility to sell it, give it away, or dispose of it properly according to current law.

The media

*All TV and radio stations would be owned and controlled by the People. No more profit motivation. Now its people motivation.

*Advertising would continue. It must be entertaining and not misleading. The amount of ad time in the media would be restricted to ten minutes per hour. And, the People would decide who and what types of advertising would be placed in the media.

*Freedom of speech would continue to be guaranteed , especially on the airwaves and on the internet. The People would allow the broadest spectrum of opinions possible. Islam is the exception because it puts authority of the Imams and Mullahs over the power of the People.

*The media would undergo a complete overhaul. A substantial amount of radio and television programs would be locally produced. The national news advisory employees would be a cross section of all people across the US. The advisory group would number several thousand. This group would be the overseers of what is on the news and would report monthly to all the People of the US.

*All "Public Relations" firms like Gibralter Associates, LLC would be out of business. The intent of these businesses is to manipulate the minds of the American public into believing what the client wants them to believe, even if it's a lie. Along with other PR firms, Gibralter for years has been an appendage of the Federal Government. Their job has been to deceive you into believing what our government is doing is right.

Entertainment programs would be broad spectrum. Not just comedies with extreme sexual innuendos and cop shows with actors taking people down and firing guns all the time. Entertainment would offer something for everyone. For example, Chicken Soup for the Soul would be brought back to TV. TV and radio would not have to depend on advertising dollars to survive.

Healthcare

*Total number of physicians in the US would be at least one doctor for every 100 people. Enough medical schools would be in operation to achieve this. General practitioners would be at least one half of the doctors in America. The deadline for enough medical schools to be in operation is three years. Qualifications for entrance to med school would be prioritized. First is the desire to help and heal people or compassion, second is grades, third is team work abilities or the ability to get along well with people. The grade point average, and compassion and social skill grades would be on every diploma and copies must be prominently displayed in the waiting rooms. We must have at least one nurse per every 100 people.

*Except concerning matters of national security, all medical research would be done as one in the US. Every researcher would have access to and information sharing with all other medical researchers. An intensive unified coordinated effort would be initiated to cure cancer in all its forms. The People would provide whatever is necessary in resources to achieve this goal.

*No more medical insurance in the US because all medical care would be free.

*I grew up in a dense family oriented Hispanic culture. If a child went to the doctor, it seemed the whole family including aunts and uncles went. You have to live it to understand how nice this is. In this spirit, I recommend all shopping malls and other places where people gather be designed to promote family and friends and the community experience. An example is Plaza Fiesta in Atlanta. It appeals to the Hispanic family culture. But no matter what the ethnicity is, people want a mall to be a gathering place to have fun. Shopping should just be ancillary. San Antonio, with our multi-ethnic culture has fiestas and festivals that promote joyful human experiences. The amusement parks, parades, street festivals, music, dancing, ethnic foods, beer, fun rides for kids, families coming together as one community out to have lots of fun. This is we need all over America. I recommend we use cities like San Antonio, Austin, Miami, San Diego, and Las Vegas as models for fun and entertainment then spread it all over our country. Healthy living is about good experiences and community. It's not about slaving away to make a few people rich.

*It seems a majority of terrorist killings carried out by Americans have been because the assailants were on a cocktail of prescription drugs. Ivan Lopez at Fort Hood and Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook elementary are examples. More research into psychotropic drugs must be carried out. Only safe drugs should be allowed to be sold to the public. Monetary profit motivation has long been a problem here, but that would be end. Then there are people like Elliot Rodger who was clearly mentally ill with his parents asking for him to be admitted into a psychiatric institution, but doctors wouldn't do it. Medical professionals genuinely need to have the tools and ability to determine if a person is a menace to society, and they must not be negligent. Today, front line psychological appraisals are being made by (what I sometimes believe is) our double digit IQ policemen when answering disturbance calls. That must end. Either the policeman would have adequate medical education or they would bring along a medical professional on all calls requiring medical and mental evaluations.

Foreign trade

*We would develop trade relationships with other countries. No money would be used in transacting business. Instead products would be traded. For instance the US cannot grow bananas and coffee very well. So we would import from countries in the tropics. Instead of paying for them in US dollars, we would trade goods. And when we buy things like coffee we would ensure the workers in those countries are paid a living wage and there is no pollution including insecticides and herbicides used on the coffee trees, etc. In other words after the Big Change, US dollars can only be used in the US. Trading with other countries would continue, but it would be in the exchange for commodities.

Foreign relations

*Through our technology we would make direct contact with citizens in all countries. Using our internet grid and advanced language translation engines we would be able to speak person to person. This would open a direct dialogue with the people of other countries, bypassing their rulers with their potential internet censorship. An example would be an email and text and tweet simultaneously sent to all the Russian and Chinese people simply saying "We American citizens would like to say hello to all Russian and Chinese citizens. If you would like to get to know us better, just send us some questions. Our programs will take all your questions and answer them. And, here is also a list of tens of thousands of people from all areas of the US and all walks of life. If you would like to send them an email with a question or have anything to say on Skype, please feel free to do so. We want you to get to know us on a first hand basis. We would like this to be the start of a direct open line of communication between each other. You can also use social sites like Facebook without limitation. We may live on the other side of the world but we hope this ability to freely communicate would bring us much closer together. Thanks."

*All treaties made would be completely in the open. No more bullshit like the so called "Trans Pacific Partnership" agreement that was written in secret by large corporations and paid government shills that was structured to screw people over.

*All contracts existing between anybody or any business in America and anybody or any business outside America would immediately undergo review by a revolving panel of 10,000 citizens who are given guidelines to follow. The contracts may be terminated, amended, or enhanced.

*We would open a dialog with the people in countries where we have military bases. In the dialog we would make sure the people want us there. If they don't, we immediately leave. The countries where we have military bases would pay us to be there, otherwise we would leave. But first we, the People, must decide whether we want to be there or not.

Our legislative process

*A detailed system of initiating and formalizing and voting for legislation would be created.

Here are a few of my thoughts: 1. At any time any citizen age 13 and over may enter a problem they see occurring in our society that they believe should be remedied. 2. A computer program will review, categorize, prioritize and structure it. It will decide if it is a potential local, regional, state, or national problem. It will also determine if it is a problem requiring a supermajority vote.

3. If something is already up and running to handle similar problems, the problem, if identified as legitimate, will go into the process of being remedied by the system in place. 4. If potential problem isn't resolved within an existing system, then it should to go for a vote to decide whether or not to make a law. If the People want resolution, then it will go to a designated group to write a proposed law to solve the problem. The proposed law is then presented to the People. They vote to accept it in its entirety or reject it entirely or accept it but with changes. The requested changes have to have a vote of yes per change otherwise it will fail. And finally after all the wrinkles are out, the proposed legislation becomes law.

Voting on proposed legislation affecting human rights, civil rights, and property rights will require a supermajority vote for passage.

I have a whole lot more details covering the legislative process. But I'll end it here. I might write a short book covering the process.

The "Native Americans" and "Liberating Mexico and Guatemala (actually all of Central America)" below are very personal wants of mine. You may think differently. But I just want to throw it out there:

Native Americans

*All American Indian tribes would be given full control of their reservation land. They are full citizens of the US and would have all the rights and privileges of a citizen. And they need to conform to all US laws. The quality of life on all reservations must be good. The People of the US respect all American indigenous peoples and as such would make every effort to improve their lives in whatever way possible without hurting or diminishing their culture or curtailing their freedoms.

*The Native American Alaskan peoples would be given massive amounts of land as reservation property.

*The indigenous people of Hawaii must receive recompense for having their land stolen from them. All Hawaiian people who are at least 1/4 Hawaiian would have all of Hawaii given back to them. They would have an equal share of ownership. Those living in Hawaii who aren't owners would be allowed to continue to live there but they must pay a reasonable rental fee to the owners for that right. Research the theft of Hawaii on YouTube and Wiki. Those few wicked Americans in the 1800s should not have done this, and our country should not have sponsored the takeover. It was a crime and we need to fix it.

Liberating Mexico and Guatemala

*For decades we have had Mexican citizens enter and illegally live in the US. This has cost the US uncountable sums of money. Mexico would pay us one trillion dollars in reparations for having such a repressive society that their people had to leave their motherland in order to survive. Payment would be made in oil and other commodities. Many second and third generation Mexican Americans would like to free Mexico from its oppressors. Since we are so closely connected to Mexico, they must now change their form of government to be similar to the new People's government of the US. A team of 500,000 American professionals fluent in Spanish would move to Mexico to see it comes about. 500,000 American soldiers fluent in Spanish would also move to Mexico to ensure stability during the transition. The country of Mexico would now belong to its people instead of a few super wealthy. Mexico would pay us for our efforts, but it would be compensation well spent.

*Guatemala is directly below Mexico. Over several decades the US government was responsible for the repression of its people and more than 200,000 deaths of Guatemalan citizens just to keep the American owned United Fruit Company (Chiquita Bananas) in business. Like with Mexico, the US would do the same with Guatemala as a way to make up for our past wrongs. A few rich are still dominating the masses in these Central American countries. It must stop. A friend I had in El Paso named Pilar Charo ran a giant jean manufacturing plant in Guatemala for a million dollar a year salary. It's a barbed wire compound where the people are treated like slaves and paid very low wages. I believe Americans like Pilar use and abuse then retire and return home to live a good life while the locals continue to suffer.

Computer infrastructure

*The US would have an excellent data collection and analysis system in order for us to function to determine our needs and then be able to meet them with minimal rationing.

*Our electronic data collection, retrieval, and analytical systems must be audited constantly for malfeasance and corruption.

The Peoples Monument and Museum

*The People of the United States of America will commission the building of a memorial museum and amusement park to be located in the Washington, DC area. It would be named "The Peoples Monument and Museum." It is to commemorate and celebrate the greatest event in American history. And as such it must be built on a grand scale.

Conclusion

I'm sure there are many more things you would like to have in our Amendment. Write them down. Form local groups to advocate for a direct democracy. Have the movement rise to a national level. Then do it. Simply do it.

Thank you.

