CODA

.....Some months later...

.....Doc Taylor snapped his fingers and the magic was back.
.....Finally.
.....He dipped his smoke into the blue flame that danced on his thumb and the cherry crackled a welcome, the straight dope.
.....The V-10 rumbled under the hood of his new RV, the Fleetwood Tioga idling but impatient to hit the road.
.....Doc had gone and went and sold off his sister's house, traded in the Lexus. Over the weekend he had held a yard sale for road money. What crap didn't sell, he left on the yard overnight. Most of what was left was gone in the morning, and he paid to have the rest taken to the dump.
.....The Fleetwood had run him dear over at the dealership out by the Mall, damn near what he had got out of the house, but Doc had been in no mood to barter. He was getting the hell out of Dodge himself. Crawford had had the right idea, a man smart enough to see what was coming up on the road ahead.
.....Doc didn't much like what was going down. He was running out of future fast, and didn't want to waste what was left waiting around for something worse to happen.
.....He exhaled a burst of sweet-smelling smoke, turned his gaze to consider the officer manning the entry control gate of the new and improved high school.
.....The officer looked back at him with atavistic slits for eyes, an M4A1 cradled in his arms.
.....Doc didn't like the look.
.....He'd been around Dave McShane's entire life, and now here the boy was eyeballing him like something that had just crawled out from under a rock with sticks of dynamite strapped around his middle. Or worse. He'd been used to that look a long time ago, and wasn't in all that much of a hurry to get used to it again.

.....A nine-foot high line of reinforced cinderblock runs about Harding High School, rimmed with sullen-looking wrought iron spikes. The arch of the entry gate is embraced by the unadorned gray walls that surround the fortress.
.....Motion detectors monitor the off-limits green. The grass is perfect, untouched by anyone but the maintenance crew.
.....The former bell tower is now a guard tower. Bell removed and put into storage to wait until more secure times, the tower now houses a two-man team.
.....Kyle has finally found his calling, and he is very proficient at handling the tower's Barrett M107 .50 Caliber sniper rifle. His only abiding frustration is that he isn't allowed to take the armament out into the boonies to blow shit up.
.....He'd heard that the Barrett M107 blows shit up real good.

.....Doc wondered what ol' Roy Crawford was up to these days. Last he'd talked to Julia, she mentioned that she had received an e-mail from the former sheriff, and that he'd finally settled down on a isolated stretch of Mexican beach.
.....Maybe there had been more than a few e-mails exchanged, because Julia had just up and disappeared on Harding a few months back. Not so much as a good-bye or heads up to anyone.
.....Not that anyone but him had seemed to noticed.
.....It was getting to the point that there was no one left to talk to these days.

.....Inside the school more armed guards patrol the halls.
.....German Shepherds sniff at lockers, and students pass through a metal detector locked down in the main lobby.
.....For the students, it is the only entrance permitted. The only exit. They punch in when they enter, punch out when they leave. A GPS chip implanted in their student ID's track their whereabouts at any given time, their paths traced by a bank of monitors installed in a special office on the second floor.
.....It is an arrestable offense to not carry the ID at all times, or to tamper with same. Despite that, first offenses are usually only cited, the transgression noted on the offender's permanent record. A first offense citation carries a $1700 price tag for the parents of the offender, and the ubiquitous school permanent record is no longer something to be laughed about.
.....A second offense is exceedingly rare.

.....He didn't see much of Tanya these days. After she'd come down pregnant, she'd handed the Teacup over to Lolita to manage. Doc thought that Lolita was a swell kid, but he didn't feel comfortable talking to her the way he did Tanya.
.....Tanya still might have been only half his age, but Lolita was barely a scratch on the calendar. He liked the kid, but could never read what was going on in her head. Couldn't read any of the kids the way he used to. The new crop made him uneasy, with gazes as odd as blue eyes on a pitbull.
.....They seemed soft, like shaved puppies and just as goofy looking, but with a biting on tinfoil taste. These were the kids who were eleven and younger when the Twin Towers fell, the first ones finally on the verge of being set loose on their own after being hardwired in the aftermath.
.....Going from shellshocked preteen on the day of the world changed and getting buffeted with the sensory overload of propaganda over the next several years must make for some seriously stirred brain soup.
.....He would have liked to talk about it some more with Wolfe, now that he was spending every weekday down in the lion's den. But then, these days Wolfe didn't seem to have much to say. And even if he did, he wasn't saying it.

.....The in-house security detail is courtesy of a sweetheart deal set up through one of the local beneficiaries of the Homeland Security Department. The representative for Natrona County is now doing more than very well.
.....The company that handles security for the high school is now the largest employer in the county, with officers and technicians also driving in from Lumbeck to report for work. More often than not, at any given time there can be found more security employees than students in the cafeteria, now referred to as the Dining Hall. On the plus side, the food served is now noticeably better.
.....At lunchtime, the students are issued with their meals a red or blue half-pint milk container, the colors denoting Prozac or Ritalin. The daily requirement to be dispensed according to matching badge color, issued according to temperament. A Texas-based pharmaceutical company now handles the dispensing. As a side-benefit, studies are ran.
.....May we introduce Generation Big Pharma. Nothing matters and so what if it did.

.....Dan had taken on a teaching position at the school. But as the days following the shooting had led to months, Doc had found that their conversations had gradually become less than satisfying. And now that Dan and Tanya had a second one on the way, even more less.
.....Not that they didn't talk as much, but that what they talked about was less important. Big matters had been taken over by sports talk, television shows.
.....And he seriously didn't like the new look in Wolfe's eyes...

.....Occasionally, Chief of Security Clyde Kehoe makes an appearance in the hallways. More often than not, it is to make his way to his office, where he puts in his day surrounded by a bank of flickering monitors. Anything and everything that he needs to know about what's going on and down in the hallways and classrooms, even the bathroom stalls, is right there in front of him.
.....Sometimes, he even glances at them.
.....He's put the crystal meth habit long behind him, after seeing what the stuff had done to his buddy. Who would have thought that the shit would addle the man's mind like that, driving him on into becoming some suicide bomber?
.....Sometimes he wonders if the man had still been paid off in virgins in the afterlife, despite failing his mission.
.....To get them through the day, he and his big-titted Chief of Staff crack capsules of Ritalin and snort the rails off of a mirror. Just for old times sake. He likes the burn.
.....His medical covers all the Ritalin he and his friend can handle. On those rare occasions that they run dry, he has the master key to the dispensary.
.....The American flag still flies proudly from the pole standing tall on the green.

.....Now that he thought about it, he really didn't have all that much to say to Dan Wolfe, either. Didn't know why he'd even bothered to stop by the school before putting the town in his rearview mirror. The effort of navigating the security gauntlet didn't seem all that worth it for what would probably be a "Goodbye" and "Good luck" exchange.
.....He dropped the RV into gear and rolled for wherever the road led.
.....Maybe north. He'd always sort of felt like he was a Canadian trapped in a Yankee's body.

.....Officer Dave McShane watches the RV pull from the curb across the street and rumble off towards the town limits. He relaxes a little, but keeps the assault rifle cradled. The M4A1 is always to be held ready, never slung over the shoulder. It rests in his arms like a lethal baby.
.....The RV finally out of his line of sight, McShane turns his steely gaze back to the world in front of him.

.....Down the hallway of the school, a hand paused just above the green surface of the chalkboard, then continued to write:
.....THE ORIGIN OF LIFE.
.....Wolfe turned to face his class. Clean-shaven, hair neatly trimmed. Nicely pressed light blue shirt, sleeves rolled up to mid-forearm, tie. The beginnings of a paunch. A mustache.
.....Tamed.
.....Dometicus Americanus.
.....A framed portrait of Pierce looks down on the classroom:
.....HE DIED, THAT YOU MAY LIVE.
.....Debbie still in black, although the outfit was nicely accessorized. She caught sight of the binder of a young man a few seats down, the glossy cover featuring a ramrod stiff plank-faced man/boy in Marine dress uniform, at attention. Ceremonial M-1 rifle over shoulder. Your tax dollars at work, providing a doodling pad for bored teens.
.....The Gold Stars began to gleam in her eyes again.
.....“Welcome back, everyone,” Wolfe addressed his new class. “As I’m sure you all should have assumed by now, I am your new science teacher, Mr. Wolfe...”
.....He paused, glanced out the window.
.....On the pathway running below the classroom window, Tanya was strolling by in a maternity sundress. She met his eye and waved. He waved back, gold wedding band glinting from a spare ray of Wyoming sun that streamed into the classroom.
.....She looked away to continue her conversation with Mrs. Prescott, and Wolfe turned back to his class.
.....“Please open your textbooks to Chapter One...”
.....Lolita caught his eye. After a moment, she offered her Mona Lisa smile.
.....Her thighs separated slightly beneath her desk.
.....“...Verse One.”
.....His eyes burn with a newly kindled flame.
.....He is finally back home.
.....For good.

THE END