Read Online Aquifer: A Novel by Gary Barnes - Free Book Online

fear of infection from cuts, open wounds and other bodily fluids.
    In addition to Zeek and a customer sitting in the barber chair receiving his monthly trim, there were four other men sitting around discussing the events of the day. There were days when men would lounge around the barbershop all day discussing trivialities with such ardor that one would think the fate of the universe hung upon the outcome of the trivialities they discussion.
    A seventh man, Bill Jackson, a scruffy, bearded, tobacco chewing, backwoods redneck in his late fifties, was sitting in the corner silently reading The Current Wave , the local weekly newspaper.
    Bill’s full name was General William Jackson . Generations earlier, during the Civil War, his ancestors had been staunch Southern supporters. Southern pride still ran strong in Bill’s family traditions, and even though Stonewall Jackson was not directly related to any of Bill’s progenitors, the first name of General had been given to several generations of Jacksons in order to pay due homage to their venerable military hero.
    Bill had even spent a few years in the military himself. During the Vietnam conflict he had been an infantryman. All Ozark men took great pride in serving their country when needed. When Bill’s draft notice arrived he gladly accepted and eagerly looked forward to his time of service. Though he served his country with pride and was honorably discharged with the rank of staff Sergeant, he had gotten into minor trouble on more than one occasion for impersonating an officer.
    On one such occasion he had called the motor pool requesting a jeep to be delivered for General Jackson. None of the charges ever stuck, however, because he never claimed to be a General; he merely stated his legal name, General Jackson. Nevertheless, to avoid further confusion he was ordered to go by his middle name, William, or Bill; and he had continued doing so ever since.
    Since his military discharge thirty-five years earlier, Bill had become a self-appointed political antagonist. Though deeply patriotic, his bitter distrust of anything to do with the government made him a constant thorn in the side of local politicians, regardless of their party affiliation.
    Suddenly Bill stopped reading to himself, angrily pointed to the paper as he shook it with his other hand and blurted out to everyone, “It says here in the paper that a couple of professors from St. Louie U. are gonna be down here all summer studyin’ frogs so they can shut down our logging operations!” He began to read quite dramatically out loud, or more accurately, paraphrase out loud, from the article before him.
    “That don’t make no lick o’ sense. What’s frogs got to do with loggin?” asked Zeek.
    From the corner where two men were playing checkers on a card table a voice answered, “Nothin’! My sawmill cuts logs, not frogs. They ain’t shuttin’ me down!”
    “Wait,” interrupted Bill. “I stand corrected. It says the frog guys don’t want to shut us down. The idiots just want us to go back to horse and mule teams to cut and haul out selected trees. Sounds like a couple of self-righteous, pompous college professors,” he added sarcastically.
    “May as well shut us down. Ya can’t make any money that way,” opined the checker player as if his was the definitive opinion.
    “And many a good man’s been killed loggin’ that old-fashioned way,” added Zeek.
    “Yeah, well that’s just like the government. First they take away all our best farm land to make national parks so the city slickers can destroy our way of life, and now they want to take away our timber industry too! Ya just can’t trust ‘em,” stated the checker player.
    =/\=
    C HAPTER S IX
    Two Rivers
    Two Rivers Ranch was a tourist retreat featuring a motel, restaurant, gift shop, and two dozen rentable cabins. Additionally, the Park Service operated a small campground just beyond the commercialized tourist area. Canoes could be rented for