The Griffin and The Church Clock Cavemortem
By Steve Wardrip
She couldn’t make sense of her blessings, the very things that were meant for her to be happy, but she was attracted to the light, and when she silently looked inside, she felt terrified of her world, but in serious awe of it’s complexity. — steve wardrip
Rose was a fragile girl. Milo was a mean drunk. Together they smelled dangerous and they were a toxic combination. Dangerous, did I say dangerous? It’s so much more than that! Danger, the word, is not enough. There needs to be a more descriptive word. something that denotes imminent peril. Danger is just a warning. More than a warning is an awakening of what is happening, not just what if, or just in case. More than “danger” would be a word like “cavemortem” Latin for Sure Death.
Stabbing comes the innkeeper. He’s had enough of what he perceives, though it’s nothing more than the village garbageman about his tasks of removing rubbish from the roadside, and he is killed by the village idiot who is delusional beyond sanity. The man is crazy who killed the sane garbage man. He had a family that loved him and he them. Gone now. Idiot one, village zero. Idiot goes to prison, family of garbageman, go to cemetery. Village goes to crime as a way of dealing with pain of losing. Village becomes more of a battlefield than a friendly city. Soon, there are planes and helicopters buzzing the city and the bombing begins. Slow, methodical, conducting surgical strikes in blow by blow action, the bombs explode send blocks and bricks flying in every direction. Residents and terrorist soldiers are sent scurrying amongst the rubble seeking shelter from the attacks. Gunshots ring out through the canyons of destroyed buildings, piles of rocks send the bullets ricocheting in all different directions. Death and destruction comes in waves. People suffer. People die. Cities die. Life ends.
A ray of hope is a weed growing up through the cracks in the sidewalk. A massive vine brings down the cell tower. A huge root grows up through an Uber car. A massive white Oak tree hundreds of years old grows up next to the statue in Rockefeller Plaza in New York, eventually knocking the statue sideways, to the ground where it is engulfed in green moss and ivy. The weeds are thick with ticks where the ice skating rink used to be hundreds of years ago. The rivers that used to run through here are all dried up now. Gone for good I suppose. Wildlife has reestablished itself and man tries to.
Before the blast we were a friendly nation. We thought we were a superpower… and then came the blast. Just like no one thought Trump could win the election, no one thought North Korea could launch a nuclear attack on the United States. Just ask them now if it’s possible. Ask them in L.A., ask them in Little Rock, Chicago, New York, Miami, Houston, Washington, D.C. and Roswell, New Mexico’s Area 51. Gone due to nuclear explosions at ground zero, killing millions and millions in one fell swoop. North Korea killed the United States, except for a hearty few who have not succumbed to the terror and have survived. The fact is, a small country we doubted had access to nuclear weapons which they secretly used to obliterate us. Now, what is left is a hostile nation, fearing for it’s life, now killing in the streets among drugs and bandits, the country lives on in tiny fragments of what democracy once was. Now it’s wild west time again and the cowboys and cowgirls are at it again. People talk like pirates, dress like terrorists and fight like ex-cons. They are unsanitary and they have a bad attitude. The refugee life of a thug is dominant. You must be a stealthy thug to survive. It’s the unwritten code of survival. Be on top of the situation, be aware each person is important, be aware some persons want to and will kill you, be enlightened by the ones who inspire you to do the right thing. Be a light in the dark. Be in a dark place when the light shines, so as to avoid exposure to murderous cavemortem death.
Rose and Milo survive. They reproduce and multiply. They live in an old factory by the river and they fish, drink, and bathe in the river. The water and fish sustain life. The water has somewhat purified itself and the fish. We boil everything before we eat or drink. We fry and bake and boil the fish. We get nuts from trees and we harvest berries and fruit we dry and store. We salt fish down for winter months and store water and wood for heat. We start a fire in the middle of the factory warehouse, that way the smoke is dissolved and diverted before it ever leaves the building. It is hardly detectable by the North Koreans airplanes and g-boats patrolling the rivers. They are the owners of North America now. They want us to surrender to them but we are underground rebels and we would rather die than be held hostage in our own country. God Bless America and to hell with North Korea.
North Korea is the “Griffin” and America is the “Church Clock”
“Cavemortem” is the time that we live in. This is a time not of our own.
