Abe Henderson was a bit surprised at the memo that ended up in his inbox. It instructed him to look into an issue at DEP (Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection). It seems some of their reported numbers on toxic waste disposal weren’t matching up. He was ordered to coordinate with a Frank Hastings at the FBI. Agent Hastings was investigating a bribery report at a semiconductor plant that developed silicon chips for the military. Both agents were only a year from retiring so getting pulled into an inter-agency investigation was unusual. Abe thought about getting a confirmation from the division head but the boss had just left on Alaskan fishing trip and was out of reach for the week.. Frank also thought about it but his boss was wrapped up in an internal investigation and made it abundantly clear he didn’t want to be bothered unless it was an emergency. Both decided go ahead and work the investigation. Six months later and with a dozen federal agents involved the investigation was finally ending. With multiple arrests across four states Abe and Frank both got commendations. Normally a major inter-agency investigation would have taken longer and somebody higher up the totem pole would weasel in to get all the credit. This time a leaked video of toxic dumping occurring right offshore of a popular beach pushed it to a quick close. Henderson and Hastings were in a final meeting to review and signoff the casework. Oddly enough the memos each initially got that started the investigation seemed to be missing. Nowhere in all the boxes of paperwork from the case could they be found.
* * * * *
A few days later I was relaxing in the now freshly clean cabin. Surrounded by a few boxes supplies and with a tentative plan on how to proceed I was ready to try and change the world. Looking around I realized that first I needed to do something about the food, water and electricity issues. For electrical power I could try to get the old generator working. Sammy showed me it in a hut behind the cabin. She said it hadn’t been run in a few years but grandpa would lug in a can of gas up here for it and when the gas ran out he knew it was time to head back home. Sounded like a very relaxing way to tell time I thought. The generator was old and a bit rusty but did turn over when I tried to start it. I didn’t know much about mechanics but a YouTube video on my phone showed how to prime and start a generator. So I gave it a shot and after a couple of tries it started.
Listening to it chug away with an occasional puff of smoke I decided I would need to invest in a replacement of some sort. It would probably be better for the environment if I went with solar but the panels and a battery bank would take up most of my savings. I would also have to get the hardware up here and installed. I thought about the problem of transportation before I realized Hawk could probably just portal it here. That would be easier to explain then if I was seen trucking them up here myself. I was starting to realize that people in the country were a lot nosier when they see something then people in the city and suburb.
Right now the only source of water in the cabin was bottled or using what came from the cistern behind the cabin. The cistern was rain fed and mainly seemed to be used for the bathroom. Theoretically I guess it could be used for drinking with a lot of filtering but looking at that old tank I decided I needed a better source. Mom and Dad use to complain incisively about bottled water and even reusing the water jugs I wasn’t too happy about using it. A spring source would be better but finding one around here and piping it in did not seem practical. With Hawk’s help I could just connect directly. If so I could pick a source so clean filtering wouldn’t even be needed, maybe that fancy Icelandic Glacial water.
That left internet access, a necessity for what I needed to do. There were no phone lines up here and when I looked at my phone no bars either. A satellite dish based internet option was possible but slow and out of my price range. This would normally be a major problem but somehow I thought Hawk could be able to handle that too. I would first have to see if a wireless signal could travel through a portal. Thinking about it if that worked it would be perfect. I could keep shifting the portal source from one free hotspot to another making my internet activity next to impossible.
Enough thinking about this I decided to take a break and do something else. Thinking about Sammy and her grandmother I decided it was important to keep an eye on them in case anyone came around asking those questions about me or the cabin or at least that’s my excuse. I quickly setup the laptop and camera and asked Hawk if he could focus the portal on their kitchen. I had thought about asking Hawk to just open a portal big enough for me to look through but keeping that from being noticed by people on the other side would have been an issue. The small pinhole size portal worked just fine as long as I used a camera fed to a monitor to show it larger. Another advantage of using such a small size is it helped block any noise from my side making it through to the other.
Looked at the monitor I could see Grandma was preparing dinner while Sammy peeled potatoes and chattered about something to her. Increasing the audio I shamelessly listened in as I heard my name being mentioned.
“Grandma, how long should I wait before going over for a visit? He might need something or want to know where something is right?”
“Hush child”, grandma said, “he came here for peace and quiet and to do that writing of his, You going over there every day is not going to give him any of that peace or quiet”.
“But grandma what else am I going to do all day? School doesn’t start for two months and no one else lives near us, let alone a cute guy.”
“Sammy girl you need to be careful around that boy. He’s got himself secrets and a troubled past. I’ve seen his type before and they usually bring a lot of heartache to people around them.”
“What do you mean Grandma he seems pretty nice and you didn’t mind letting him rent Grandpa’s cabin?”
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“Of course I did child, he’s probably is a nice boy and we do need the money but that doesn’t mean I want my granddaughter to hook up with him. I don’t know what’s in his future but I know it’s something I don’t want my own flesh and blood to get wrapped in. So you just keep your distance and let him get settled. I’ll go up to the cabin myself bye and bye to see if he needs anything.”
“Ok grandma but you could at least ask if he needs us to bring him anything from town. I can ride to town and get it; it will give me a chance to spend time with Becky and Angeline.”
“Ok honey, but you just remember what I said and don’t go getting attached to him.’
Well that was interesting I decided and a bit unexpected. I don’t know what it was I did that got her Grandma suspicious of me but it looked like another pretty girl was off bounds to me. Feeling a bit depressed over this I thought it was probably better this way anyway, What I was going to be spending the next few years on could very easily backfire on me and anyone close to me. With that thought I decided to give them their privacy and went back to my planning.
The solar energy system was a real pain to install. I went with a 5000W Off-Grid Solar Kit that supposedly had everything included. The company had a smaller one specifically advertised for small cabins but I expected that my power consumption would be high with what I planned to be doing. The kit came with the Output module, battery, 6 Solar Panels and 50 feet of cables with an inverter. It seemed a straight forward install until I realized that with all the trees around the cabin the solar panels wouldn’t be getting enough solar light on the roof. I ended up having to mount them on the ground in a small clearing about 100 feet away.
With the solar panels so visible now in the clearing it wasn’t long before Sammy came knocking on my door. I should have expected it; I was a teenager myself and knew how little we listen to our elders. Grandma telling her to stay away was an invitation to hang around instead. With less than a day from my putting up the panels to her knocking on the door it was obvious that she had ignored her grandma’s orders and was keeping a close eye on me. I was only surprised it took her so long to find a reason to visit.
Seeing her in her ripped jeans and faded t-shirt I couldn’t help smiling and feeling very happy to see her.
“Hey Daniel, was riding by and thought I would stop and see if you needed anything or had trouble finding things.”
“Hey yourself Sammy, its nice to see you. So far, so good, just getting things organized. Do you want to come in”?
She looked a little nervous at the come in invite; probably thinking about what he grandma said but after a second or two said sure and stepped in. I quickly waved at the main room in the cabin with the boxes and laptop on the desk. After a few minutes of chit chat she asked me bout the panels she saw in the clearing. I told her they were solar panels and explained how they would provide power. She was shocked that I could get electricity without paying the power company. She asked about their cost and got a sad look when I told her. She then actually let slip that they didn’t have power last fall when the power company wasn’t paid. I suddenly realized that Sammy’s clothes style wasn’t a fashion statement or comfort choice but because of a lack of money. I felt bad about that since I had talked them down on the rent. I decided then that if possible I would find a way to help secretly with their money problem. She quickly got over it and started to ask me more questions.
“So”, she said “Now that you got the place fixed up when are you going to start writing?”
I was at a bit of a loss since I never actually planned to write anything. It was just an excuse for renting a place in the middle of nowhere. Thinking of an answer I glanced around and over at my laptop.
“Right now I’m researching, collecting information on environment efforts and current changes that are impacting it that are being made around the world” I said. “Once I have all that I’ll start putting together an outline”.
With a curious look she asked “How are you doing that up here in the hills? I guess maybe you could try the library; they have lots of books and newspapers from the big cities”.
It’s all done with online research now” I said with a smile pointing to my laptop.
Looking at the computer with a puzzled look she asked “How are you going to get to the internet? There’s no phones up here”.
She then offered a suggestion “The school has computers with internet you might could use but it’s pretty slow”.
“Mr. Ryland, our librarian says it’s because the cable access is slow. The school only pays for low speed”.
She then added “Grandma says we can’t afford dial up now but maybe later”
“I’m putting in satellite access” I lied.
Looking up at the sky she asked “Satellite, how can that work” .
Not sure how much she understood about computers and how they accessed the internet I started to explain about access being delivered through a wireless connection created by sending signals between a satellite and an antenna at the cabin. I then explained how it was used by ships and even trains to provide internet to their passengers. From there our conversation drifted to travel and how much she wanted to do that. She mentioned about some of the places she had read about like Africa and Australia for the animals and how much she wanted to someday see the ocean. Before I knew it it started getting dark outside and she said she had to hurry home for dinner. She did invite me to come with her and have dinner. Tempted and as hungry as I was I still remembered what I heard her Grandma say about me. I gently turned her down saying some other time.
I hadn’t planned to get satellite internet but with what I had told her I knew I was going to need to at least put up a small dish to pretend that I was getting it. The offer of using her school internet was sweet. I was a bit surprised by the limited access she mentioned my high school so much of the curriculum was based online that there was even talk of having the school fund tablets for each student. Thinking back on it now I started to realize how spoiled I was with the quality of education there. Maybe I should be paying attention to how things are in poorer areas. Thinking back to the local town I stopped at to get supplies all I could remember is a small café and lack of fast food restaurants. I did notice my cell phone had full bars in town so they weren’t entirely cut-off but modern things like widespread high speed internet access.
Thinking of fast food my stomach started to grumble reminding me of dinner. My food supplies were a bit limited and with only a small propane camping stove to cook on I wasn’t going to be making anything gourmet tonight. Looking at the selection of cans on the cabinet shelf I decided on a can of beef stew. Not the healthiest to eat but it did include some vegetables. After heating it up I sat at my desk with the bowl thinking of Sammy’s dinner invite. After a moment I asked Hawk to open a portal to their living room. I just sat and watched them eat and talk as my stew slowly cooled in the bowl.