HD novella

[Jimbo]

That evening Benny and Jimbo were sittin around the fire pit at Jimbos ranch. There wasnt a lot of talk, just a quiet crackling of the fire. Even the sound of the draw on JImbo's cigar sounded loud to him. They lived through hell on earth that war is, up close and personal, friends blown to morbid chunks of meat and entrails in front of them. After that experience there's really nothing more to be said about it, but it does afford 2 people that went through it together a kinship that cant be described in words, or needin words.

As the 3rd or 4th whiskey went down smoothly Benny broke the silence. "There's a damn nice still and set of mash tanks still tucked up in them hills."

'tsss' went the crackle of Jimbo's cigar as he took a long draw and considered that thought. "Ever think of taking your drink commerical Jimbo, its a damn fine whiskey" Jimbo said nothing. "Truth be told', Benny said, "Im fed up with skirtin around in the shadows, lookin for a skim or some bullshit way to take someone". "If you have any interest at all Ill move that still down here to Pagosa proper, on main street, and submit for license. As much as you can turn out I promise you there is market for back in Chicago, and probably beyond if you have any interest in growin an enterprise. 100% above board. Consider the still 'my' long due thank you. I can easily convince my father it will be put to profitable use and he'll enjoy the benefits, both liquid and financial." "Doesnt sound 100% above board" said Jimbo. "Im an honest man, and really have no interest in underworld customers for any enterprise I pursue"

They sat silent again as Benny thought through several business arrangements and scenarios. Jimbo got up to fetch another bottle from the shed and a few more logs for the fire.

While Benny was thinking through scenarios, so was Jimbo, who finally spoke up. "Benny" JImbo said. Benny turned to look at him intently, "If you want to start a legit business, and offer your time,hard work and stillin equipment to help get this off the ground these are my terms." Benny said "Ok, whatcha got" Jimbo went on, "We will launch this without any involvment from Chicago, at any time. That means I will not sell through them either. We will start off by selling locally, building an honest base of happy customers the old fashioned way, honestly, through hard work. If all goes well, maybe we'll expand to Denver and the ski resort towns throughout Colorado." Benny sat silent. Jimbo continued, "you really gonna be able to up and leave the family Benny? I dont suppose pops is gonna be too thrilled about that. You are making him money, and bringing legit franchises to the family for them to launder their filthy money through. He's not going to let you drop that ball and move to the mountains, and Im not gonna let him launder that grimy money through this enterprise, I dont give a rats ass who he is."

Benny sat silent with a troubled look on his face. "I need out of that lifestyle" he said. "Its not my life, but youre right, this is my dilemma, not yours or that of the people of this town. While I think through this is there an empty warehouse in town we can store teh still in, I dont want it untended up in the hills." "Sure" Jimbo said, tomorrow we'll go for a walk and I'll show you where. Then we'll get some folks together to go round it up and bring it down."

[Bigbob]

THE PAGOSA SPRING
WISHING ALL OUR READERS A BLESSED EASTER

[rnw349]

Happy Easter to you all. May you be well blessed today.

[Jimbo]

Thanks buddy, same to you and yours.

[corene1]

Yes happy Easter to all, and don't shoot the Easter Bunny , I am needing some chocolate!

[Jimbo]

Lars says Happy Easter too....

[Truckinbutch]

That was a great ending Cack. But I think everyone has got the writing bug!

Thanks, but it need not hold up as an ending. Would be good to see several different ones to choose from. This story's been all over the place with a lot of dead ends and conflicting story lines. But, I think there's a good story to be pulled out of it by someone with some decent editing skills. Would be nice to see it published some way or other with any sales proceeds going to the site. One of those online publishers might be a good way to get it out there. Most of them you can order printed copies - would be an awesome keepsake for the writers and an awesome read for anyone else.

Everyone involved has done a great job. When it's all wrapped up, maybe we can all gather at the bench and chew on it for a while. Maybe even brainstorm the next one. Hell, Flatwood's already got the impetus for a zombie Apocalypse story line goin' - Janitor zombie and the redneck monsters. Maybe he could trick the monkey into drinkin' some of that blow fish juice. Look out Pagosa Springs - your troubles only just begun.

You all been busy while I was back on the mountain tending my still
>I do think we need someone to edit this into some semblance of order and direct each of us to write filler pieces or rewrite previous sections .
>As suggested ; the sequel could be started after the first is completed . I've seen much worse stories sell . And , I am in total agreement that any proceeds should go to HD to support this website .

[Truckinbutch]

So the idea here, in case you missed the lead in off the liars bench is a three paragraph story. kind of like a long 3 word story. feel free to contribute a chapter, paragraph, line or idea. and maybe the mods will keep it cleaned up and organized into something resembling a serial novel. add characters, new story lines or locales, timelines or whatever you want. let your imagination run. if you got some mad art skills throw out an illustration or a photo if something comes up that brings about an image.
i'm counting on goose eye for a forward and mods to post it to the top.
enjoy!


The ravine cut under the CN railway tracks a couple mile out of town. It was the perfect setup on Crown land that the government held title to so if the revenuers ever did stumble onto the site they could lose the equipment but there was no way for the Feds to take the farm. The steep walls held all the light in from the small fire powering the still and the rich black soil that had blown in and washed down from the fields held a little moisture that fell from the skies these days. It was easy to dig the worm into the hillside and the ground did all the cooling they needed, saving toting buckets up from the small creek below that had carved the ravine and fed the huge evergreens. The big Conifers offered further protection, holding the heat down from the small fire at night and gave some shade from the hot summer sun for most of the morning.
The old man had bought the adjacent farm on a judicial sale about ten year ago. The place had belonged to a family with four boys. They were known around these parts as the 'ol boys. Hardworking salt of the earth men, they had stayed on at the farm to help out the old man Jesse when he had got too old to clear the stumps and keep the field up. Ol Jesse was a God fearin' man and he had brought his boys up with a firm hand and the occasional thump of a bible on the head to keep their attention, but even with all the prayer sent heavenward, mother nature had not seen fit to bless their farm with any rain for the whole of the great depression. The creek had turned to little puddles by May when the little bit of snow had melted off and when the well finally gave out in the tenth year of drought, there was not even drinking water for the last horse and last hog. The 'ol boys had no choice but to throw in and move on.
The weather was fickle out here on the prairies, the drought that had driven Jesse's boys off the land had turned right around the very next year. Rain had fallen where and when the farms needed it. This year, was the 11th post drought and after a solid month of gentle rains from May into June the sun came out long and hot and held for a perfect two weeks, enough time to cut the hay fields, dry them to a perfect green and get everything baled up and shedded. The skies opened up again and warm summer rain had fallen every night for two and a half weeks of July. The Hay fields greened up again and there was no question they would produce two cuts again this year.
Donny was the youngest and the biggest of the three boys. "Moose" had earned his nickname on the high school football team where he anchored the defensive line. Of course being the biggest and the youngest it seemed that whenever it was his turn to mind the still, it was also time to take another sack of corn up to the ravine for the fermenters.
Donny didn't mind the lifting and carrying so much, it helped keep his legs strong for football. Not really sure if he had his eye on a college education, but he was keen on being a football star in the eyes of the college girls that filled his dreams. The long nights wore him down and with only the company of the his Black Lab, Guinness, there was not much to do or think about after the wash was set. Just sit there and listen to the music of a broken stream of distillate trickling into the jar, and scratch the dog's ass. Man, that damn dog went to someplace special when he got a good scratchin.
The tinkling of the spout was kind of a spellbinding sound and Donny was for the most part hypnotized by it and almost asleep when Ole man Flatwoods came running over the edge of the ravine with one of the suspender of his overalls flailing out behind him and his cheeks puffed out and a whole bunch ruddier than usual from the exertion.
"Moose, Moose!!" he huffed "douse that fire, them revenuers are a comin' up fast from town!"
Flatwoods owned the farm on the opposite side of the creek (the one he had named), and was part of the Secret Stillers Society. He had got a call from the chemist who lived on the outskirts of town when Federal police cars had gone blazing by just minutes ago.

who's up next?

HDNB , you started this project , so I vote that we elect you Editor In Chief to do the rewrites and suggest changes from contributing writers . I also suggest that you light a fire under that newspaper man's ass . He could be giving us a lot better coverage than he has so far because you haven't used your political clout to influence him .
>What say ye all ? YEA or NAY ?

[Jimbo]

Sounds like TB and Cack want to wrap this up. We done here?

[HDNB]

i got a couple more ideas, y'all were on such a roll i didn't want to mess around.

the editing may be damn near impossible in this format, i'd have to cut and paste every entry into a word processor to edit it....is there a way to do that on a higher level (like from the admin/mods) that can copy and past the entire thread to something like a word document?

wife's been outta town, doin a reno, plus work ( for me) and such i haven't really had a lot of writing time...but watch for the changes, i think you'll like the new direction.

[Jimbo]

So do we keep writing or take a pause here? I finally caught up with the story and stayed up on the reading so been able to contribute a little. I was busy and lost the story a while ago so everytime I came to read I had no idea what was going on and couldnt seem to catch up.

[S-Cackalacky]

Could be that there are some loose ends to tie up and some blanks to fill in. Seems like the Bonderants should maybe have been a little more involved with the culmination of things around the horse race seein' as how their kin got murdered by Hazel and her asshole buddies. Jed was around, but must have got lost out in the skodies. There wasn't a lot of closure to the goins on in Chicago - maybe because you (HDNB) weren't around when most here got some kind of adrenaline rush of inspiration. I would say that whoever (HDNB?) edits this thing should have a lot of creative license. You got situations like Jed's personality ambiguity that will be a challenge to deal with. Some things could purposely be left hanging - if for no other reason than the springboard for a sequel (e.g., the Janitor zombie).

Sometimes stories don't need a whole lot of detailed closure. Some things should be left to be written by the minds of the readers.

[Truckinbutch]

i'm with Cack . We need a fill edit and then let the editor tell us what gaps need to be filled to provide continuity . I've had fun being part of this one and once it is finished wouldd not mind being part of a sequel .

[ga flatwoods]

Truckinbutch finally got back to his homestead and was glad to be there. He noticed his dogs were not around for some reason. Oh well probably off hunting rabbits or such he thought. He sent the wife on in while he went to the barn with the horses. As he threw the first saddle onto the stall rails, he saw something hanging in the rafters. It was one of his dogs, skinned out. He ran to the ladder and climbed to the loft to release the animal. As he haunched over to untie the poor animal, he was bumrushed and snatched backwards into the jaws of a beast! Truckinbutch responded by a well placed arm throw thatsent the assilant over the loft edge and onto the barn floor below. As he cast he eyes over the edge, he noticed that the pperson had landed on the hay stack and rolled off feet first and fled the barn with a limping gait. Truckinbutch had just lost an ear lobe. He was Janitor47's first known attack victim.

[S-Cackalacky]

Well there you go Butch - been bit by a zombie, so that means you liable to turn into one. What hell has Flatwoods wrought now - first that damned ne'er-do-well monkey and now the Janitor47 zombie.

[Bigbob]

OMG walking dead pagosa springs? I quit..... Just kidding!

[HDNB]

News reached Wooteck, Phil and 'baked in Chicago when Jed finally showed up. The group was in the lounge of the Palmer house when Jed announced it was time to get the buy underway. He made his way over to Il Forza as another round of drinks landed on the table.
"wow," that didn't take long Eck nodded down towards the street. Jed was making his way back to the hotel after being gone only a few minutes.
"Goddammit!" Jed exclaimed as he reached the table. "They are all gone! They went to Pagosa for that goddamn horse race. I hung around for weeks waiting for that damn race to come together and when i finally think it's being put off indefinitely..." he trailed off.
Phil piped up "Are you trying to say we drove like hell, just about got run off the road by Larry and that crazy bastard Uncle Mo and you're telling us they are not even in town??"
Eck was starting to boil "Jed, fer Chrissakes. I can't be hangin' around here indefinitely. I got some business to attend to."
"She'll keep." Jed said flatly. "Let me go upstairs and make some calls. I figure a plan and get back with you in an hour or so. The drinks are on me, so hang out for a while and let me find out whats going on."
Halfbaked rose from his chair and replied "I'll make a few calls of my own. I made a few contacts back in Pagosa while i was holed up there."
The meeting broke as the waiter brought in a round of Van Winkle on ice. "Don't mind if i do!" 'baked scooped up a tumbler and headed for the door.

[Truckinbutch]

Well there you go Butch - been bit by a zombie, so that means you liable to turn into one. What hell has Flatwoods wrought now - first that damned ne'er-do-well monkey and now the Janitor47 zombie.

Now I got to study on this for a while . I rekin I got little enough blood in my alcohol stream to carry a zombie virus and my likker that I drink would fight that off . Fact remains that he kilt at least one of my dogs . I never met a man whose life I valued above a good dog's . Rekin I'll have to go kill him for that if someone else don't get him first . Right now I got to go check on my wife .
>Cack , you suppose Flatwoods has been gettin too liberal with his cuts ? Mebbie dumpin in too many heads into his blends ..............
>I got to tend to something else right now . I'll check back in the morning .

[HDNB]

"My fucking editor is going to have my head! Wooteck exclaimed.
Phil was just sitting there with his head in his hands, rocking back in his chair he added " My career is over. Shit. Fuck. I don't even want to call in."
Halfbaked just related all the information he learned from Pagosa. "I can't believe we wound up here in Chicago where all the action was to be, and our story got up and vacated to Pagosa."
"And they are all dead?" Phil asked, still incredulous with his luck.
"Well they found a couple bodies. A couple of thugs were taken out by a deputized sniper at the race, and one of Enrico's bodyguards showed up in pieces. The animals spread him around pretty good. Enrico and the other guy are just gone...but the local word is pretty confident they aren't coming back."
Eck had been rolling this around in his mind. "The local rag may have scooped us on the daily events, and that longshot win by the local dunce is a nice twist....but i think we still got the back story. I think if we get on it and get to writing we will be able to get the real news story out on the wire to national sydicates. 'Baked, you got the inside skinnny on the locals. let me and Phil write the back story on the mob and we may get our biscuits out of the fire yet."

"What's the angle?" Phil asked.

"Same as always." Eck replied. "we came into this to expose the corrupt FBI agents and their connections to the mob. We gotta show the world that the greed in illicit liquor is with the government and criminals, and the average farmer out there is just makin for his own needs."
"Damn straight!" Halfbaked added "All them folks in Pagosa were just minding their own business until the FBI came in trying to put the squeeze on them to help flush out Enrico and his mob." "And let 's not forget about the woman, Hazel Williams and Agent Adams... they were working for the man, but cashing cheques from the mob and stealing from everybody- big or small- to line their own pockets and using their badges to keep 'em all at bay!"

Phil added in his own bit, recalling the story Jed had told him about the Secret Stiller's Society meeting he had crashed in on after his encounter with the mountain lion. "Jed told me them ole boys didn't want nothing to do with helpin him or Uncle Sam trying to bust them mobsters...until he offered them special stillin' permits that would allow them to come out of the shadows and share their craft."
"Yeah that's right." 'Baked agreed. "they was just keepin to themselves until them perdition permits got waved under their noses."

"Well let's write it then!" Eck declared. "We have all the facts. We have all the sources and let's face it...no shortage of first hand experience. When Jed gets back to the table, I say we tell him who is doing what... and when. I think it's time we expected a little co-operation from him, after all he did promise us the inside scoop on the FBI's angle.

"Write on! Brother!" Three fists met in a bump in the centre of table and they clinked glasses and drained the bourbon, Jed showed up with a dour look on his face.

[goinbroke2]

Zombies huh?...well, didn't see that comin'.

I was thinking whenever we do decide to end this, the sequel could be called "Return to Pagosa Springs" ?


Anyway...zombies....zombies...You guys to free roll with this or set arc's of fire, define the borders a bit? If this is actually going to be a book, we'd have to decide what we're going for, fiction set in the 50's, science fiction in the 50's or science fiction in the 50's with a complete out to lunch storyline. (which is what might happen if we don't set our arc's now)

I'd say let's finish this up the way it started, a good moonshing yarn set in the 50's. If we continue on and go zombies, (which is a relatively recent phenomenom) it ruins the 50's vibe. Perhaps part 2 can carry on and go zombies?
Dunno, just spitballin here, throwing out idea's/concerns.


Janitor scratched the dirt by the gravestone and kept scratching until he saw his mentor. Sinking his teeth deep into the neck he felt the energy surge from him to GB. Suddenly GB sat up with a vacant stare.....

Meh, that could get weird

GB and janitor began digging up bodies and biting until they had an army assembled. As they moved in unison across the field a car stops just up the road from the cemetary and a short, thin, almost albino man starts to sing a hauntingly refrain;
"It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark,
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart,
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it,
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You're paralyzed
'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight"

OH, C'MON! Who didn't see that coming??

[ga flatwoods]

Janitor's zombiism was chemically induced and is not viral.

[goinbroke2]

Janitor's zombiism was chemically induced and is not viral.

So, no choreagraphed dancing scenes? DAMN IT MAN, YOU'RE STIFLING MY CREATIVITY!

And here I had a vision all planned out of them stealing some shine. Imagine drunkin zombies stealing a car and doing donuts in the centre of town, but being zombies they were doing it reeaall sloooowww. It would look like a frat party at halloween but in slow motion.

Ah, this could get really silly, really fast...

[ga flatwoods]

Consummatum est

[S-Cackalacky]

Consummatum est

Must agree. Hope ya'll aren't somehow taking my tongue-in-cheek zombie apocalypse storyline idea seriously. I think it's already been done to death (excuse the pun).

[HDNB]

SC showed me how to extract the information for editing. i'll get on it, but don't expect miracles time-wise, there is a lot to straighten out, order up and edit. hell, spell checking my entries alone will probably damage the first hard drive.

Thanks for all the participation, i actually believe we paved some new ground in creative communications on the interwebbies.

[Jimbo]

Unfortunately, as is too often the case, I was a day late and a dollar short. About the time I hit my stride, TB and Cack threw the towel in.

So if we do another, Ill pay closer attention and keep up with the story.

Got a whole story line takin off in my head. Maybe I'll just write for the sake of writing on my own account here on my PC and see what the hell falls out. Always wanted to write a book, but never thought I had the right poetic wax. This was fun here with you guys once I ditched any apprehensions and just started typin.

[ranger_ric]

At several points I wanted to jump in however, by the time I caught up my reading with real time the story was over. I also noticed that some folks trying to jump in got killed off purdy quick. Like being a red shirt guy in Star Trek. (although 1 guy asked to be killed off). This was a fun story and I looked forward to the nights I wasnt stillin to sit down and read a few pages. (I tried readin AND stillin but that didn't work out...) I Loved the Line: "You KILLED Kenny" and S Cack's ending was moving !!

Nice Work

[rnw349]

I must admit, I jumped in and hadn't read enough and then had to back track. It was a fun story to read. It's my 1st attempt at anything like this. It's amazing how a character takes you places you didn't even see coming. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and thanks for letting me in, and not being to hard on me. It was great. Thanks again.

rnw

[Truckinbutch]

Thank all of you folks for jumping in . You are just now starting to understand the music and how to dance to it . Cack and I have not thrown in the towel . We just need to get some editing done . That will make it easier to fill out the gaps . Nothing here is chiseled in stone . All is subject to rewrite or deletion .
>Put this in perspective . We are newly acquainted and started contributing our thoughts into a novel with no defined story line and have all been running blind trying to keep up . There have been no bad contributors here . We just need editorial direction .
>Look ! Bill Butterworth (W E B Griffin) has done this for years and makes $millions . He knows where the bodies are buried and directs his staff writers to start digging . Even brought his son in to run things when he is gone . Betcha he's shared enough dirt with him that no one will dare kill him , either .
>My point here is that there are lots of good real stories to follow to develop a decent novel . Buford Pusser was real . There was a group of War 2 vets that retook their own county in TN or KY in a courthouse siege in the time frame we are talking about . Enhancing basic facts and transposing some of them to our area of operations will fit well and make a marketable product .
>Spirit women and witch women got places in the high mountains in the early '50's .
>Zombies ; not so much .
>
> I'm too tired to add much more tonight . Think this over and I'll check in at a later time .

[HDNB]

"Hey Loki, c'mon over here and check this out!" Brosephus called out. Bro liked to thumb through an old scrap book his Uncle Jesse kept of "the good ole days" When him and his brother (the boy's father) Danny were coming up in Pagosa springs.
Danny was big and athletic and had earned the nickname "Moose" in high school when he dominated the football sqauds from every town that dared come to play. Jesse had documented all the highlights of his talented brother's career, carefully cutting out newspaper articles to compliment all the photos he had collected throught the years. Moose had gone off to college on a full scholarship in 1953, the year of the big moonshine war in Pagosa, when so many mobsters and crooked FBI agents had decended on the town looking to make it their own.
His college career was cut short when he and Denise, the squad's head cheerleader had got together the night of their first big win. Moose had earned three sacks against the other team's QB and ran 2 T/O's over 100 yards total for two touchdowns. It was a brief turning point for the school's team who hadn't won a game in the last two seasons.
By the end of the term Denise was huge with Bro's big brother Loki, and Moose had to hang up his undefeated championship jersey to get a job and raise his new family.
Brosephus had come along the following year, two weeks before Danny and Denise were killed in a tragic car crash on the interstate on their way back from visiting the family back, home town. Bro was found in the wreckage of the 55 chevy somehow miraculously untouched.

Loki carefully smoothed out the yellowed news article and started to read

The Moonshine Wars

August 16 1953

Syndicated Press

By Wooteck MacLeod, Phill Mystill and Jimmy "Halfbaked" Jacobs

Pressed into service by the FBI, we, the three above noted reporters were embedded into a criminal investigation headed by the FBI's foremost undercover agent, for reason of secrecy we are compelled to only identify as "Jed".
Please stay with us through the series of five articles to be published simulataneously, in series, each and every Sunday edition of the estimeed newspapers, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Scotland's legendary The Daily Record.

This story of intrigue begins in a sleepy little town in Colorado, called Pagosa Springs, named such for the American Utes "Pah gosah" for the healing properties of the local hot springs.

FBI sources tell us a team of veteran officers headed by SSA Hazel Williams decended on the town to arrest local moonshiners. What we learned though our through our investigations was the real plan was to arrest and then to coerce the locals into cooperation with the FBI to produce untaxed illicit liquor that could be used, in turn, to entrap Mobsters engaged in conterfeiting, gambling and prostitution in various speakeasies located in Chicago and elsewhere.

SSA Williams' team was implicated in various criminal activities including the sexual interference of farm animals while drunk in direct derelicition of their duties. The local Judge Rad commented "This was the saddest state of affairs with law enforcement I have ever had the displeasure of entertaining in my courtroom"
These reporters were on site to see an entire town enflamed by hatred, in near riot when the courthouse was almost burned to the ground. The town's women had heated a barrel of tar to go with the feather pillows they had brought, when the whole conflagration erupted with an effigy being burned in a large elm tree adjacent to the building.

Uncle Jesse yelled in the front door "you boys get tham damn car out the middle of the way!! I can't get the goddam tractor into the shed!"
Disa (named for the honor of the boy's mother) yelled from the kitchen. "there's no need to be cussin' Pa!"
Loki jumped up from the table while Bro was tucking the article neatly into the back cover of the scrap album, where he found it.
"I'll move it." He said and made for the door.
Bro smiled when he heard the rumble of the '68 Camaro light up. He and his brother had rebuilt it from scrap, they found it at the local wreckers after the original owner had lost control and driven it up sideways over a guard rail and written her off.
They transplanted a big block that Uncle Jesse had helped them rebuild out in the shed beside the still house. They had to rework the suspension to accomodate the heavier engine and tied the front sub to the rear frame rails to reinforce the damage caused in the accident.
She didn't haul much cargo, but could jack rabbit away from any LEO who saw fit to turn on the red and blues. Bro had a connection with all cars, it was like he was invincible within... and even more so with the Chevy, who he fondly called Betty.
Betty had lost the bolts on her starter once and just to prove his point to Loki, he petted her dashboard gently and said "please baby, please start." and turned the key. Betty roared to life and they made the drive home.
Loki had stuck his head under the hood when they got home to see her starter laying on top of the header and shook his head in amazement. "no way" he muttered, and walked off to the still shed.





see what you can do with that guys....