Waves of Scented Cordiality.........a Short Story.....property of Diane Ogden

Waves of Scented Cordiality   

It was late evening when I departed Missouri headed for deeper southern parts of this country with its so called freedom of everything.  Somehow lately that was becoming a trend of the past. The Freedom thing that is.  Government seemed to be taking over in an undercover manner that reminded me of the MAFIA days in the sixties.  Same deal, different year.  No there wasn’t the public gunshots and bloodshed at the bars of brotherly love in Chicago and New York like in the 40’s.  No this takeover of the masses was smooth as it was hidden behind congressional doors.  I paid as little attention to it as I could considering my inability to stop it although I did wonder on occasion, should I store up some water jugs and cans of tuna just in case.  In case of what?  I was never sure of what.  I heard tell of secret concentration camps for the poor and those who didn't agree with the new world leaders and their antics.  Conspiracy theorist?  No I was never one of those.  But hey, come on, I wasn’t blind either.  Most people with any sense knew change was on the horizon. But then it always is in one fashion or another.  The country was being run by old fogies hiding in the underworld of what we used to call democracy.  My goal was to move as far away from my home country as finances would allow. I no longer considered it land of the free.  I did consider it home of the brave for anyone who had no choice but to stay.

I had not traveled even midway toward my destination when my car broke down.  I was in a small town in Oklahoma. 

Being a very structured person I had all my papers in order for the border crossing into Mexico as well as I had purchased a beautiful villa on the coast, from a friend.  That friend had made his way to Australia, one of the few less ruled countries in the world. Nevertheless, there I was in little "timbuck40” Okmulgee, Oklahoma calling for a wrecker and feeling very alone on the side of the road in the middle of no where'sville.

The wrecker arrived within a half hour.  To my pleasant surprise a tiny little woman leaped down from the cab with ease greeting me with the standard, "Howdie do!" Almost Minnie Pearl like.  Why she looked to be the size of a twelve year old. I had to giggle to myself. 

After all the necessary vehicle security hook ups we climbed into the cab and headed back for Okmulgee, population 12,331 give or take a few.  I know, it sounds like the name of an old army stew.  Rather it means bubbling water.  This from Wikipedia: Okmulgee, city, seat (1907) of Okmulgee county, east-central Oklahoma, U.S. It lies near the Deep Fork of the North Canadian River, south of Tulsa. Its name (meaning “bubbling water”) comes from a Creek Indian town in Alabama. It was the capital of the Creek Nation from 1868 until Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907. Settled by whites about 1889, Okmulgee boomed after the discovery of oil in 1904 and is now a commercial and industrial centre for oil and gas production and agriculture (pecans, cotton, wheat, corn [maize], cattle).

On our ride back to the city the woman told me all about herself.  She had seven children.  She owned the local tire store with an attached vehicle repair center. Her husband had run off a few years back and instead of wallowing in the self-pity of it all, she started her own business.  She then listed one by one each of her children’s ages and duties.  She had some dandy stories to tell me during our forty minute trek back. Oddly she also shared with me how she was born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit. She asked me if I was interested and before I could say yes or no or ask any further questions I was being laid hands on and talking goobly goo. I couldn’t have said no anyway as it was hard to get a word in edgewise. There was much laughter in the cab of that shiny yellow tow truck that day as well as a miracle that now I realize was orchestrated by someone outside this world.  Sometimes it’s best we do not know what the future holds.

Upon arrival at the repair shop she offered me a loaner vehicle, at a price of course.

It was wheat harvesting time in that area.  I had taken a drive out and about the countryside while my car was being repaired.  There really wasn't much to see besides wheat fields in that part of the country.  The continuing yellow fields all appeared normal until I came to pass a field appearing to have been partially flooded with something besides rainwater.  It looked like milk.  A huge field of mashed down wheat soaking in milk.  Oddest thing I had ever seen.  I slowed down to the point I was creeping along about ten mph.  There was a curve in the road and as I rounded that bend there stood two white animals.  They were actually two of the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen.  I knew I shouldn't stop and get out but I had to.  Some force other than anything I had ever known was pulling me toward those animals. Was it a hallucination? The thick milky substance in the field, and the odd looking animals, should have totally creeped me out and I should have driven away as fast as humanly possible, but I did not.  As I walked toward them I again noticed something odd.  Their eyes were shining like tiny stars. Were they real or mystical openings of light from somewhere other.  They were not what I knew an apparition to look like. Was I dreaming?  No.  I reached out to the smaller one what appeared to be a cow.  The other was a large dog.  Both very similar in size.  I know, weird right?  Each time I touched one of the animals it felt like I was in another world.  A peace came over me that I had never experienced on this earth. Waves of scented cordiality. I was being invited but to what?  It was then I began to feel frightened.  I backed away, got into my vehicle and drove on still in fear yet in some sort of yearning for more manifestations from another dimension and or my own sanity to return.  Searching for other white covered fields and or animals but there were no more. 

That is when I saw a ranch house off the road to my left. The sight brought me back to feeling somewhat safer or maybe it called me back to a sense of normalcy even though it was out in the middle of nowhere.  I pulled in the driveway.  I was in need of sharing my findings.  There were several vehicles parked around the house and outer buildings leading me to feel rather protected or maybe free from danger.  I am not sure why because at that point I should have been calling the authorities. The next thought was why?  What would I tell them?  Maybe something like: 

"Hi, my name is, and I just passed a wheat field soaking in a thick white milky substance and two very peace filled white animals with sparkling stars for eyes." Ya right.  The authorities would have called the padded wagon people for sure.

So what did I tell the people who lived in this ranch house?  Same deal?  I knocked at the front entrance.  I stood there for what seemed too long when a man finally answered the door.  I recited my name as though that would be all I would need to do and he would understand the entire story.  Of course not.  Funny what our minds do to us when we are nervous and wish to escape.  I proceeded to ask him what the milky substance in the wheat field adjacent to his residence was.  And I thought possibly he had misplaced a couple of animals.  He looked at me strangely, not saying a word.  I pressed my lips thin and raised my eyebrows in an expression as to say, "Well?" 

He answered with, "Maam, I don't know what you are talking about, while his eyes blazed coldly through me." 

I carefully and slowly reiterated what I had seen in the fields regarding the thick white milky substance and the animals, at which time he hollered very loudly for his brother Chetley.  Yes Chetley.  Who names their kid Chetley?  But then who tells a story like I had just told to Chetley, wiener’s brother!  Yes that was either my humorous side regarding the weiner brother or fear.  Maybe both as I am seeing something strange in the eyes of the brothers and it "aint" stars.  They are thinking there may be a crazy lady at their door, yet her story needed to be checked out.  They invited me inside and introduced me to the rest of the family.  Said they were going to go investigate my story and I was welcome to stay until their return.  I accepted.  Sometimes in life it would be helpful to be able to see ahead just a few hours!  If I could have done that my decision to stay would have been a very different one had it been in my control.

About thirty minutes had passed when Chetley and wiener hustled back into the ranch house with such intensity I felt twinges of anxiety rushing through my veins.  They instructed the family to gather all necessary belongings along with family photos and load the vehicles. 

I said, "Wait, why, what did you find out, out there?"

Chetley told me to stay in the living room and they would come and get me when the cars were loaded and it was time to leave. His face seemed to be convulsing with fear. And then they systematically moved about the house and yard readying themselves for what appeared to be a long vacation.  Inside I knew different.  Something big was happening and I was smack dab in the middle of it. But what?  I paced for a bit, sat for a bit, even turned on the television trying to disengage my brain and find that peace I had back near the "Milk Field." Only to gather my thoughts and realize I might be losing my mind. Wheat slumped in Milk, white cow and dog. I needed a doctor. And then…

As the TV came on saying "SPECIAL BULLETIN FROM NBC NEWS,"   Chetly and Weiner brother’s cars pulled out of the driveway without me!  And before I could run outside to join them, a helicopter was over the ranch house with a loud speaker saying anyone left inside was not to leave the area.  The area was now under quarantine.  I whirled around toward the TV and there was my loaner car and the ranch house in grand HD 55 inch view.  Who would ever need a 55 inch TV anyway? 

Gathering my wits about me had not worked.  I opened the front door only to see men in huge white suits covered from head to toe.  Oxygen tanks in tow.  Oh my dear God what is happening?  The men told me I was under quarantine orders from the United States department of defense. 

“Defense?”  I asked why please. 

They said they weren't able to give me any information at this time but that the quarantine was indefinite.  They would be in contact with me if I needed anything in the meantime.

“Meantime?  Indefinite?  Are you fricking serious?” 

I started running through the house out of shear fear and panic.  Then to the kitchen to see what food was available for indefinite which to me meant the same as infinity.  When I was a child I could never understand eternity.  Nor could I then, as I stood peering into the refrigator contemplating the connection of timelessness and food.  Neither was computing in any way.

I had my cell phone but the charger was in the car.  Was I allowed to go to my car?  I opened the front door again only to see the tanks arriving.  Yes army tanks outside on the County Road such and such.  It was obvious this woman, me, was going nowhere.  Who would I call anyway.

The TV was now giving me more information than the authorities.  It showed the field of thick milky substances and the two white peace-filled animals as well as the ranch house and my vehicle.  I wanted to go to the front door and wave at the camera's to help me but thought I had best not do that.  I was a foreigner in these parts.  I only said "howdie do" a couple times and that was just a mere attempt to fit in.  Well I had found a way to never fit in, hadn't I?

The night’s darkness came swiftly.  Something I hadn't thought about in all the ruckus of helicopters, news crews, police, fire trucks, and a HASMAT team....  and then they all disappeared.  NBC Bulletin said the foreign white substance could be deadly and the only human being that touched it was in quarantine inside the ranch house on County Road such and such.  Why I was terrified.  Not of death from the substance, but of human beings coming to get rid of the only person to have touched the goo.  I knew the goo wasn't bad.  It was white and peaceful.  Nothing like I had ever felt or touched had given me such peace on this earth.

Weariness had settled upon me. I fell into a deep sleep in Chetley’s big old brown leather recliner. I left the television running as it helped the loneliness of the situation.  Did the government think it was a disease? Who put it there?  How did the two animals get there and why? 

Just then a beautiful man in a white mist appeared before me.  I believed I was dreaming.  Or was I?  He told me "they" were from Another World and not to be afraid.  The milky substance was their creation given to us, the U.S. as an antidote to the latest killing virus Ebola.  The government would never know where it came from or why.  Only I had been allowed that information and to know the Ebola virus was no more. 

I asked why me?  The kind loving man told me because it was my time to have that special peace everlasting.  I had been chosen because I was the closest human being to the area when it was sprayed.   And by touching the animals I had received a dosage of anti-viral medicine beyond the level any human could endure....   I would be leaving with the men in white and the two animals for everlasting life elsewhere.  I had no fear.  The peace I felt from the other world didn't exist anywhere I had ever lived or traveled.  I asked what about the people left here.  Shouldn't we tell them about the healing from Ebola?  

He smiled and said, "No my dear, they wouldn't believe.  Each of them will come to a time in their lives such as you have this day.  Each in a different set of circumstances where it will be their time to go to the other World and have everlasting peace.” 

“Are you ready to go now?" 

I nodded and smiled an affirmative. I knew then I had died of the earth.

We rose in peace and ascended to a place where all the animals and people were pure amidst peace and perfect love.  It was then I also realized the little woman from the tire store in Okmulgee had been chosen by God to lead me gently through the miracle transition from earth to the Promised Land and my new everlasting life in the next room.