The Guardians (20 page)

The next morning on the Homefront, everyone was busy with the preparations for the move of Mildred's livestock.  Griff had volunteered to stand watch at the Homefront, as well as to begin construction of a temporary holding pen for the cattle.  They had decided on an area where the cattle could graze until they got adequate fencing up for a larger more permanent area, and Griff wanted to have it done before the cattle arrived.  Once they got everything settled in, they would gather the necessary materials, some of which would have to be sourced from the Thomas Farm's existing fence, and begin construction of an area more suited for free grazing.

Going on the run to the Thomas Farm from the Homefront was Evan, Jason, Mildred, and Judith.  Being her closest peer, and having been there when tragedy struck, Judith had become Mildred's close friend.  She knew that Mildred might have a tough time going through her and Ollie's things, and she wanted to be with her to lend her support.  For security reasons, it was decided that the others should stay on the Homefront, as well as to help Griff get the livestock area ready for the arrival of the animals.

They said their goodbyes and good lucks as Evan fired up the old Ford tractor and Jason attached the hitch.  Jason helped Mildred and Judith aboard the trailer and then Jason climbed up himself.  Sarah walked over to the trailer as Jason leaned down and gave him a kiss.  She handed him his rifle and pack and wished him luck.  Molly and Evan said their goodbyes, and she lifted each of the girls up to Evan, who was sitting up in the driver's seat, and they each gave him a hug and kiss.  He slid his rifle into the homemade scabbard that he had recently made and mounted to the inside of the tractor's rear fender.  Molly and the girls stepped back, and everyone at the Homefront waved and wished them all good luck with the cattle, and for a safe trip.  Evan let out on the clutch, and with a jerk, away they went.

The trip to the Thomas Farm was uneventful.  It was a beautiful fall morning without a cloud in the sky.  It was cool, but comfortable.  The perfect day to drive the cattle Evan thought as he scanned the area for threats.  Mildred and Judith gazed at the changing color of the leaves and the beautiful rays of light that shined down through the branches.  Mildred thought that perhaps God was showing them favor after all they had already gone through.

Upon arrival at the Thomas Farm, Evan stopped just short of rounding the corner to the driveway, keeping the tractor behind the visual cover of the surrounding foliage.

He shut the engine off to listen, as Jason hopped off of the trailer and darted off into the woods to get an assessment of the situation before exposing themselves on the open driveway.  After a few moments, they heard the bushes rustle and Jason popped out, gave Evan a thumbs up, and climbed back up on the flatbed trailer. 

"A few of the others are already here," Jason said.

With that, Evan fired up the tractor, popped it in gear, and proceeded to the driveway.  Upon reaching the house, they saw several horses tied up to the deck railing, and one ATV parked next to the house.  Linda Cox and Charlie Blanchard walked out to the trailer to say good morning.  Jason hopped down from the trailer and gave Judith a hand climbing down as Charlie helped Mildred.

Linda walked up to Mildred and gave her a big hug.  "It's wonderful to see you again," she said.  "I only wish it was under different circumstances."

"Thank you Linda," Mildred said as she reached out and took her hand.  "My life will never be the same without Ollie, but at least he had the good sense to befriend this wonderful group of people, or I would be all alone and helpless.  They have been a God send."

The two women exchanged a hug and then Mildred introduced Judith and Linda who had never met in person.  "So I finally get to meet the woman behind the voice on the CB radio.  Thank you so much for all of the daily updates from your HAM radio.  I look forward to hearing your updates every morning as I have my tea."

"What kind of tea do you have?" asked Judith.  "We ran out of tea a few months ago, but we still have some bulk coffee stores."

"Oh it's an herbal tea that I make myself, and then sweeten and thicken it up with honey from my bees."

Mildred, Judith, and Linda began to walk up to the porch as they discussed Linda's tea recipe.

Charlie looked at Evan and Jason and pointed down the driveway and said, "There comes Daryl Moses.  That makes all four horses.  I gave Will Bailey a ride and Lloyd brought Billy Skidmore.  That makes everyone but Jimmy Lewis on the other ATV."

"Where are the others?" asked Jason.

"Oh, they're around back gathering the herd.  We got here kind of early," Charlie said.

"I guess that's the storekeeper in you," said Evan with a laugh.

"Yea, that and were excited to finally be involved with a community again," he replied.  "I probably speak for more than myself to say I was going nuts never leaving my own property.  Not to mention the fact that I know if I ever need help, I know you will all be there for me."

"You got that right," said Jason.

"Well Gentlemen.  Let's gather the men, we've got an important job to do before we get started," said Evan.

"What's that?" asked Charlie.

"We've got to bury Ollie," Evan replied.  "I talked to Mildred about it last night, and she has a place all picked out.  She wants him buried here, as she plans to return here some day when things settle down.  We will get the grave prepared and then gather the women and have a small ceremony.  I would have preferred to get everyone together for a real service, but we can't risk getting everyone out and leave our homes empty with all things considered."

Charlie and Jason nodded in agreement, and just as they started to turn and walk around to the back of the property to get the others, Charlie stopped and said, "Well I'll be damned."

Evan and Jason turned to see what Charlie was staring at and saw Jimmie Lewis walking up the driveway on foot. 

"What the heck is he doing on foot, I thought he was bringing an ATV?" said Jason.

"Well let's go see," said Evan.

The three men walked down the driveway and met Jimmy half way, as Charlie said, "Jimmy are you OK?  Where's you're quad?"

"Ah guys I'm so sorry.  When I agreed to bring my quad, I didn't realize I was down to my last bit of gas.  I didn't want to back out and let you all down, so I assumed I had enough to get here.  I was hoping to borrow enough to get the job done and get home.  I ran out about a mile and a half away.  I'm sorry guys."

"Oh that's OK Jimmy, don't sweat it," Evan said. "You're here and that's what matters.  Charlie, Ollie has a few gas cans in his shop out back.  Why don't you grab one and give Jimmy
a ride to go rescue his quad before it grows legs and walks off.  We will get everything else done.  We won't start without you."

"Will do," said Charlie.  "Let's get on it," he said to Jimmy as the two men walked towards Ollie's shop. 

Evan and Jason met up with the rest of the men out in the back pasture and went over the plan.  "Hey Jason," Evan said.

"Yea Boss," Jason replied.

"Can you run and see if there is any fuel in that old excavator Ollie has in the barn?  If so, see if you can get it up and running.  We can use that to dig the grave if it runs."

"Roger Roger," Jason said as he headed off to the barn.

"Will, since you're our resident wood worker," Evan said as he turned to Will Bailey.  "Do you think you can look around in Ollie's shop and find some hand tools, screws, and nails to maybe put together a coffin?  He has tons of wood laying around.  Don't sweat the hinges, we can just nail it shut.  It will be a proper burial that way."

"Sure thing, that won't take me long at all," Will replied as he headed off to complete his task.

"I'll give you a hand Will," Daryl said as he followed along behind.

Jason returned from the barn after a few minutes and said, "There is fuel in the excavator, but the battery is dead.  I found some jumper cables, if you wanna bring the tractor over we'll try to get it going."

"Sure thing," Evan said as he began to walk towards the tractor.

In the home, Judith, Linda, and Mildred were going through the important things that Mildred wanted to take to the Homefront for safekeeping.  She planned to return to her home someday, but did not want to risk losing her prize possession's while it sat uninhabited and mostly unguarded.  Mildred sifted through her photos and scrapbooks detailing her and Ollie's wonderful lives together.  Even though their worldly lives together had been cut short by this tragedy, she still considered herself the luckiest woman in the world to have been married to a man of Ollie's caliber.  To her, no matter what society used to measure a man, whether it be his career, his level of education, his finances, or his social status, Ollie set the standard for her.  No level of achievement in a man-made society could ever measure the worth of Oliver Thomas.

Meanwhile, Evan and Jason had gotten the excavator running and had started digging Ollie's final resting place.  They were burying him exactly where Mildred said he would want to be, underneath a majestic magnolia tree, up on a hill that he and Mildred had shared many a summers evening.  The view of their property was breathtaking from there, and she knew that is where he would want to spend eternity.

As they completed the grave, Will Bailey came up the hill and said, "I've got the coffin ready.  It's rough around the edges, but it's made from planks from Ollie's own barn so I'm sure he'd approve"

"Knowing Ollie, he wouldn't have wanted it any other way," said Evan.

"It's down by the cellar," Will added.  "I assumed you would want to get him all squared away there."

"That's perfect," Evan replied.  "Let's go get everything ready, then let's give him one last ride on that old Massey Ferguson.  We can hook his trailer to his tractor to get him up here.  Then we'll go and get Mildred and Judith when everything is in place."

As Jason took the excavator back to the barn, the other men went on down to the cellar, got Ollie positioned in the coffin, and loaded it onto the trailer.  Evan then drove the tractor, pulling
Ollie along on the trailer, up to the magnolia tree on the hill.  As he shut the tractor down and climbed off, he saw Charlie and Jimmy round the corner of the house on their ATV's.  They saw him up on the hill and rode up to him.  Evan caught the two men up on what they had accomplished while they were retrieving Jimmy's ATV.  He then said, "Why don't you two gentlemen go down to the house and ask the ladies if they would like a ride up here, and tell them that we are about ready."

"Of course," replied Charlie.  "C'mon Jimmy," he said as the two began to ride down towards the house.

Jason made it back up the hill from the barn and joined Evan as he stood there admiring the view.  "I can see why they loved this spot," Jason said. 

"Yep, it's understandable why this was their special place," replied Evan.  "I guess we should get Lloyd, Billy and Robert to take a break from the herd if they can, to be a part of this.  If you'll go get them, I'll ask Mildred how she wants to handle everything."

With a nod, Jason began his walk to the back pasture.  While he was off rounding up the men, Charlie and Jimmy came from the house with Mildred, Linda, and Judith.  Judith rode on the back of Charlie's seat, Mildred on Jimmy's, and Linda sat on the front of Jimmy's cargo rack with her feet dangling off.  She was dressed to herd cattle so it was not an inconvenience to her at all.

As they arrived at the top of the hill, all of the men present took off their hats and placed them over their hearts as Mildred slowly walked over to the casket.  She gently rubbed her hand down the full length of the casket as she walked.  She seemed to be lost in her own memories for a moment.  It was then that Jason returned with the other men. 

"Well, it looks like we are all here," Evan said.

Then men surrounded the casket and lifted it off of the trailer.  Mildred laid a beautiful handpicked bouquet of flowers from her and Ollie's own flower garden on top of the casket and nodded for the men to proceed.  They lowered him into the ground with straps from the trailer, and then took a couple of paces back. 

"Would anyone like to say a few words?" Evan asked.

"You do it," said Mildred to Evan.  "You and Jason have spent more time with Ollie, other than myself, than anyone lately.  I know he, or rather we, look upon you two as sons and not merely neighbors."

"I would be honored Ma'am," he said.  Evan took a step forward and then said, "I know I speak for all of us when I say that the value of a man is not defined by what he does for himself, but rather what he gives of himself to others.  Ollie was a veteran of Korea.  He was a combat veteran that has survived things of which most of us, even in the current state of things, will never have to endure.  You could see the strength he must have had during those times in his daily life here.  Not only was he an extremely loyal and devoted husband and father, but he was a protector, a guardian of others.  It was Ollie that insisted we check on Isaac Murphy, even when the danger was staring us in the face.  He pushed forward through a hail of bullets to rescue me from a pinned down position, putting himself at great risk.  If not for Ollie's insistence to put ourselves in that position to help a friend, we would not have found young Haley.  He then showed another side of his strength when he took in young Haley, who had been through a hell on earth, and gave her a wonderful home and a family.  No, the value of a man, a real man, cannot be measured in things; but is instead measured in the lasting impression he has made as a role model for other men to follow, and as an example to the women in his life, what should be expected of a man if he is to be worthy of her.  No pile of gold left behind to heirs will ever equal what a Ollie has left behind in hearts.  I just hope that someday, Molly will look at me with the love and admiration that Mildred has for Ollie, and that other men will use the strength of my character as a goal to live up to, as I do of Ollie's.  We are all blessed to have known him."