Sept. 4 2026

For the flash fiction half a grand contest. Hosted by Charlie Finch on his substack page.

'Watch for smoke and the wind.'

You wrote these words in careful cursive.

I'm sitting on the porch by the cistern. Your chair is still here. It's shady and cool, almost dusk. Cat, the dog, lies next to my boot. You named her that. Old slinky cowdog.

Cistern went dry, Pop. Shows what's underneath, hard stone and gentle sand. There is dead grass by her, and struggling knotweed.

I'm watching the smoke pile up, rolling dark, North, above Hawk Mountain,

lightning strike. Storm rolled through two days ago without rain. Wind came up this morning.

I've done everything I can. Moved the rig to bare patch of ground. Cat's pups are in a box in the truck cab sleeping in trust.

Big bolt cutters are beside me. Wire cutters, the small ones, are in my jeans pocket. I plan on cutting fences when level two is about to flip to level three. If I get the notice. If not I'll just watch the wind and when it crests Hawk Mountain, I'll go to the rig and bare ground to take my stand.

Saved a few things. What would you take?

Essentials and some paperwork. Recurve bow, arrows with broadheads.

Your binoculars. Horsehair rope.

A book. Large print unabridged Moby Dick.

I got a 50 dollar bill in my front pocket.

You were right, I will write the last page.

You said a person can do anything they put their mind to. But it might be hard.

Truth.

You told me to think and to have compassion.

I have tried.

Bombers flying overhead, Pop, and one big helicopter. Low humming roar and oscillating chop, chop, chop. They are trying. Dropping water scooped from the Columbia River, where we went fishing and you sang your old songs I couldn't understand. I sang the sounds of the words.

I stand, step off the porch and wave at the bombers.

It's a hungry fire, and swift.

The science says, next year will be worse.

Dang Pop, you've been dead now over 50 years. I'm 70. I miss you.

I saw your x-ray. Remember the doc's office?

I stepped back with the doc when you were getting dressed. Your skinny old legs and worn jeans and flannel shirt. You looked in the mirror. Saw me and smiled then smoothed your hair above your braids and put on your hat. Hard round stones and gentle sand, no water.

You had laughed at the old photo framed on the waiting room wall.

Three young gals with their x-rays. That was ages past - when science was a wonder.

Fire has almost reached the damn crest of the ridge. I can see the glow of trees torching in front of the bruised sky. Throwing lit embers. They fly swiftly up then float downslope.

Wind switching, Pop.

We gotta go. You and me.

I will put the notebook here.

On the cistern. Might make it.

We fight in place.

Thank you.

See you soon.

Love you.

It helps by allowing me to pay a young person to stack wood or fix fences while listening to an elder ramble about the wild.

Thank you!

My young friend came over and helped tarp the leaking roof of my old farm house.

And his wife, a friend as well, in cows and gardens, new baby in arms, gave him tomatos to give me.

Big red ones.

The next morning i needed to climb up on the roof. ( old gos is not scared of heights just ladders and put more ties on the tarp)

My friend came from nearby to help.

In the end the tarp was tied as securely as we could. i gave him three of the tomatos.

And so

This is community

Friendship

It starts

It builds

But the fringe on my leggings makes me happy

I am not my house

But thank her for the kind shelter and memory of many cookies baking

I am not my big black flatbed truck

But swear she has a soul as she has carried me and horses and dogs through many adventures. Her dust is medallions of tiny gold medals.

I am a master falconer.

Falconry that ancient technique of hunting with a bird of prey. That brought back the peregrine and bald eagle and california condor. I used it it rehabbing raptors when i was a rehabber.

Now i moniter raptors in the national forest. Save a few hunt them and release.

But my roof is old and my world tho filled with beauty and meaning and the laughing Divine does not hold much money.

We were done by 9.

The night sounds were loud crickets a few frogs.

The question of wild geese flew over head close.... calling.

I have two days now to concentrate on my land.

Two more months of range work.

Rain is coming.

Then snow and quiet.

I was asked to move cows.

I was on laddie and first used dogs to move cows down the big hay field they got into because the entrance was way up there and i could not get laddie into the field without riding up to the entrance and back to the cows.

This would take a while. So dogs were scooted under the fence. We Moved the cows.

After that we moved them softly down the road.

There were then cars coming, each direction.

I had to turn the cows to go the right way home. A gentle left. One ole bitch wanted to go straight.

It was then laddie started spooking.

Laddie doesnt really spook.

Im waving at cars to slow.

Trying to reach the lead cow to turn with laddie and dogs.

Trying to figure out why laddie is spooking...

The cars slow.

Over our heads the wind sock of the tiny landing strip fills out and ripples laddie is looking at it.

And a deer carcass remnants are caught around laddie's hind feet.

I managed to get the lead cow turned.

Laddie kicked off the carcass.

And the Divine laughs and smiles.

This philosophy you can only hold from a position of extreme advantage. With insulation from reality to believe that the most important thing happening right now is preparing for humans living in 10,000 years.

What these folks need is to be charged by a sow grizzly with cubs in the mountains in early spring. This shrinks the world down to right now.

Epistemic arrogance means that you not only have the right answer and that others don't need to be consulted or allowed in on the discussion.

The tech bros were not voted into office.

Iris Murdoch argued that true moral seriousness requires attention. Seeing other people as real, with their own lives, values, and visions of the good.

This includes grizzlies and the oceans, trees and rivers.

Tech bros.... you need to be set down in the mountains in early spring.

i know just the spot.

Including

Agriculture

AI

And How You, yourself, live.

I try to raise my own food.

And i do have hens, for eggs and meat, which roam where they please.

And goats for milk

Cattle and sheep.

A garden, and bees.

I live in country where farming is limited due to arid conditions.

I live in a world where things die.

And where folks barter.

But my footprint is my own. I buy little. Dont travel because i love where i am.

Watching Star fall

--

Jo Rios was trailed back to camp. The bay mare Daisy picked her way over rocks and scrub brush.

Cattle were settled and bedded down in an open area on the allotment. Jo was hungry. She Looked into the evening sky a few stars shone like ice pricking through the deep blue.

one star was very bright and moving rapidly.

Jo thought.

'Meteorite got to be.'

It came on fast and trailed behind a plume of bright fire.

Then as Jo watched in astonishment it got larger and closer. Weaved a bit the flaring plume went out.

Parachutes sprung out of it and it slowed it's speed and tumbled into the Valley of Foxes below.

Jo thought

'What the holy hell.'

But turned Daisy to ride down.

Was it a crash? Were there occupents? Could it start a fire.

These rocky mountains were dry as bone.

Daisy picked her way down.

---

Yu's hands moved over the controls.

As the capsule plummets towards earth, she takes inventories and plans her priorities.

' I'm Far off course.' She thought.

She sends her last coordinates to control.

The comm only has static.

Her landing will be hard.

she sees a high mountain valley. She aims for that.

Then She Prepares Herself to crash tightens all the straps that hold her in. Slaps her visor down, tucks her chin.

The capsule is a fast flaming torch

The glow trails the capsule.

'A dragon's breath.' she thinks

Then the air clears

The parachutes deploy. The capsule jerks. The retrorockets fire. The ground comes up, fast.

The capsule hits, bounces, hits again, and rolls.

She holds on

-----

Jo watched the capsule hit and bounce and roll and come to a silent stop. Her horse made her way down the rocky slope to the meadow.

The capsule is flared on one end and tapered on the other. The parachutes lay deflated on the ground and flutter softly in the gentle evening breeze.

Daisy her mare looks at this with a bit of concern but walks forward.

When Jo is close she dismounts drops a split rein so Daisy knows to stand there.

Then she approaches the capsule.

It is warm. She can feel this as she walks up. Jo looks into the sky where the capsule had been a torch falling.

She hears gentle knocking or tapping coming from inside.

"Hello?"

She crouches by the capsule by what appears to be the hatch has a broken and bent frame.

The knocking stops for a moment.

Jo then raps three times slowly on the hatch.

Silence.

Then three raps answer her. Tapped from inside.

Then a single knock follows close to where the hatch appears to have an opening mechanism.

There is a lever which Jo tries.

Stuck by bent metal at the lip.

One knock again. Questioning.

Jo gets up and walks back to Daisy who waits ears pricked at this strange scene.

Jo rumages in her pommel bag for a tool. Fencing pliers.

She returns to the capsule and takes the hooked end of the pliers and wedges it under the bent metal and prys the frame loose.

Damaged in the crash it yeilds and she then takes the lever pushes down and the capsule hatch opens with a hiss.

Jo peers inside.

-----

Yu Changfeng looks up

A cowboy hat. Calm and serious dark eyes stare down at her and blink once in the woman's weathered face.

Not Chinese. Not a rescue team. Not military

The older woman has a revolver on her hip. But her hand isn't on it. She is crouching down with a tool in her hand peering with gentle serious surprize at Yu.

Yu can see a horse. Standing back behind her.

A horse!

Yu thinks, This is not an organized response. This person was passing by.

Yu sighs slightly. Letting her breath out.

The older woman smiles.

"You are kinda in a fix." The older woman states softly.

Yu notes, American.

The horse shook her mane. Crickets chirp in the grass. The wind sighed through pine.

She looked into the old dark eyes and said,

"Help, please."

The old woman then reaches out and took her by the arms.

"Ok, yep, I can see you need help. What the holy hell were you doing up there?"

She gently lifted Yu out and Yu can't get her legs to function, she leaned on the old woman.

Yu says to Jo

" I was in space, Astronaut. "

Jo gets her clear of the capsule. And gently lowered her to a comfortable position on the ground.

Yu's breath is ragged and short.

Jo muttered to her,

"Well I can see that. Why? You fell like a big firework."

Jo then notices something and Yu caught that.

Jo stared seriously at the red flag on the orange space suit.

Jo then looked at Yu's face. Back at the capsule. Then seriously back at Yu.

A cold stone drops in the old woman's chest.

Things she was told by relatives long ago when she was a child. 'They will make us all slaves....' her grandpa said quietly in her memory.

She looked at the red flag patch on the space suit.

Red with stars.

"You are a commie. I have never met one." The old woman's expression is serious.

Yu looked down at the patch with her country's insignia.

Then she looked up at Jo's hat and over to Daisy her horse.

"You are American cowboy. I have never seen."

Jo wryly smiled.

"What is your name? If you are a bad person a spy or something i am not going to be happy with you."

" I am no spy." Yu said firmly.

" I am scientists. My spacecraft it breaks, it broke."

Then she added,

"Yu. My name."

Jo answered. " my name is Jo, Josephine Rios. What Is Your Name?"

"Yu changfeng."

Jo said. "I dont know what a changfeng is. I am Jo. What are you called?"

Yu points to her chest. The opposite side of her insignia and said with a soft laugh."

"Yu, my name is Yu."

Jo pushed back her hat with one old finger.

" Yu is You? Your name is Yu. Well that is handy."

Yu smiled.

"Yes handy."

Jo then offered her hand to help Yu stand.

"We need to get to my camp. It isn't far.

You are ok. You will be ok."

Yu looked towards the capsule.

Jo followed the glance, at the capsule then she stared at Yu.

She helped her stagger to the capsule and bend down and get through the mangled hatch.

Yu looks over her shoulder at the old woman. Her face pale with nausea and grief.

"Stand back? Off? Ok?"

Jo frowned slightly. But she complies and stood outside watching. Daisy shifts her weight and the crickets chirp.

Then there is a sound from inside the capsule a deep hiss and a bright flash of light that leaks around the damaged hatch seal.

Yu appeared at the hatch.

She looked up at the relieved face of Jo.

This touched Yu in a strange kind way.

Jo stepped forward and helped her out.

" Can you ride?"

Yu stared at the horse. Her face is a bit fearful.

Jo helped her get on and she led the horse. Yu stared directly between the horse's ears while pulling leather.

They walk in silence for a ways.

Then Jo takes a deep breath and asks,

"Why are you a communist? "

The directness of the question surprises Yu.

She then softly asked with a wry smile,

" why are you a capitalist?"

Jo looked up at her.

"Im not. I dont think i am. anyway. I was taught to give things away."

Yu thought about this.

" I am a communist because my country believes in safety and fairness and equality. "

Jo keeps walking she stepped over dead branches and holes.

"And how do you do that? what about freedom?"

Yu then stated, "is your freedom more important than these?"

Jo stopped.

In the distance they can hear helicopters.

She glanced up at Yu

" mine or yours?"

Yu said, "yours....please...hide."

Jo turned, placed her boot in the stirrup and swung up behind Yu and then rode towards the treeline where there is cover.

Once they reach the trees. Jo dismounted.

Yu studied the old woman. Holes in her coat. Her hat brim bent and faded with age.

"Freedom. You value freedom more than safety."

Jo shrugged.

" yep, thats why i just hid us."

Yu grows serious. " you risk for me? Why? They have technology they will find us. "

Jo pondered this as she heard the helicoptors circle off in the distance.

"Because i value your freedom too. And you are brave going up into space. I admire courage."

She remounted behind Yu.

They go on.

Yu is weak and nausea flashes through her. She said to Jo.

"I must get down please."

Jo stopped daisy and helped her down.

Yu goes to her knees in the dust of the game trail and vomits.

Jo patted her shoulder then goes and gets her canteen. Took off her neck kercheif and dampened it and handed it to Yu.

Yu looked down at the trail.

"They find us. Not good for you. You should just leave me here. They will not hurt me."

Jo shrugged "you are more optimistic than me. What was on your space ship."

Yu laughed very softly.

"It was secrets....."

Jo smiled, "Dang ... a real spy story. What kind of secrets?"

Yu then looked up at the stars. Her expression sad. Yu thinks of her mission. She sees the innocent old woman before her.

"You were taught to give away. "

They hear the sounds of a couple of 4 wheelers.

Jo then raised her eyebrows.

" your call Yu. I will see this through if you want. "

Yu stands and they remount.

Jo steered daisy towards the roughest country no 4 wheeler could travel.

They rode daisy to the remote cow camp. A shack with a wood stove and bunk beds. A creek runs swift and cold beside it.

Yu collasped into the grass stuffed mattress.

Jo made a fire, soaked dry meat to make broth. Made pan bisquits from her stash of flour and lard and made strong coffee in the blue coffee pot.

She unsaddled Daisy and let her graze.

Then just watched as Yu slept.

In the distance she could hear more helicoptors.

Yu woke to the smell of rich elk meat broth. Warm biscuits and hot coffee.

She actually felt hungry.

She sat up and Jo served her food on a deep cracked plate.

Yu ate with her fingers

Jo asked her.

"You must know alot of math."

Yu looked up from her plate at the old woman who was staring at her with deep sincerity. Jo added.

"I flunked math class. I never finished high school.

You must have gone to school a long time."

Yu smiled. " yes very long time. I know math. But not horses. Not wild country."

Yu thought of the secrets she had destroyed.

Then Yu and Jo talked about falling like a star and bluff charging grizzily, horses, math and growing up.

After Yu had finished eating she said to Jo.

"They will come. Both sides. My country will be angry with me. Yours will want answers. You in the middle of 2 powers. You who gives away. Not a good place."

Jo took a deep sip of coffee.

" you will lose and so will i.

Safety and freedom."

Yu smiled.

"there is a path in mountains. "

Outside there was the sound of a helicoptors landing in a nearby meadow.

Men shouted something from a loud speaker.

Jo stood up.

Yu pointed at her 44 revolver on her hip and shook her head.

Jo unfastened her gunbelt and left the 44 on the straw stuffed mattress.

She walked to the door

Yu stood shakily up and smoothed her short hair with both hands and dusted off her space suit.

They both walked out together into helicopter dust blown up by great powers that could see everything but the path.

---

Rachel woke to the steady pong.... pong of the 1980's computer on the desk.

The screen saver was the old pong game and the ball floated back and forth berween the single lines that represented paddles.

She thought, 'i fell asleep.' She raised her head and pushed her thick glasses back up her nose. She was in her little office. Books lined the shelves. Moby dick was pulled slightly out from the shelf. Her old print of Archimedes squatting studying his lines in the dust, guards behind him, hung on the wall.

She sat up.

The pong game stopped and vanished on the old computer screen.

Her mind seemed fuzzy.

'My name is Rachel Mcinnes. This is my office. Im 67 years old. My husband.... oh! He has been dead for 6 years.'

She looked down at a worn spot on the throw rug. Dusty the rescue greyhound was not there.

She glanced around the room.

The curtains moved in a breeze the window was open looking out on the little stand of birch trees and the forest and then mountains.

But the moving air smelled strange. Like antisepic and filtered cold.

She glanced again at her computer screen. Pressed power on, refresh, then stared at her blog post. Her latest one.

It said.

August 5th 2026

"Everything in balance dances its life."

There was a musical chime. And a soft voice stated.

"Good morning Rachel."

Rachel looked around herself.

"Im sorry if this is confusing. I will explain in a moment. How are you feeling?"

....continued

Small and furry and lithe with a long elegant tail.

He... raised himself up and looked the young wolf in the eye and did something very brave.

But first i should say i watched this unfold while doing my job in the selkirks.

I was sitting my horse, wyatt, Laddie's droll son. Out of the Dragon lady a paint mare. I was in deep cover and still.

The wolf had found the nest, a bunch of thick leaves and grasses placed densely in a log. The wolf reached in and pulled the pack rat out by the tail.

Now a pack rat's tail is deceit and the skin sloughed off and mr rat was free. The wolf looked surprized but swallowed the furry gift and looked down to finish her meal with the rest of the rat.

The pack rat did something incredibly brave.

He chittered in rage or fear or both. I was too far away to hear but in my binoculars could see the tremble and long teeth gnashing.

Then he jumped at the wolf's face.

Right for her eyes front legs splayed out mouth open, little black eyes fierce.

The wolf jumped backwards in shock and that gave the pack rat time to make his escape.

The wolf sat down. Then trotted off.

My world is full of life and death.

I am part of it. I risk being here and have embraced that because of the great beauty i see.

I often witness struggles and my sympathies lie with each side.

The moose calf's desperate run and the wolf's cubs waiting hungry.

The gos who often plucks his prey before they are quite dead.

And the falcon who makes sure the are.

I have been charged by grizz and stalked by cougar and triangulated by a wolf pack.

Each had their own reasons and i had to negotiate my way out.

Me, my horse and dogs. The old partnership.

There is a swinging balance here and i am glad to be part of it.

The relationship.

Myth is the sea i which I swim.

In the 60's a myth was created for TV

By a visionary.

Gene Roddenberry

The character Khan in the old star trek show was created by eugenics.

kahn believed that intelligence, gives you the right to rule others. This is the philosophy behind the tech bros.

They dont need to be King because they stand behind the king.

Captain Kirk, I believe thought that freedom of self-determination is a right. And you can be intelligent but not wise. That's a very unpopular idea in tech bro land right now.

At the end Kirk lets kahn go. And later in the movie wrath of kahn we find out what that space seed grew into.

Kirk demonstrated that a superior person does not choose power over others.

Spock says," Superior ability breeds superior ambition."

Kirk quoted Milton's Lucifer to describe Khan, "It is better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven." This is what the tech bros may get. But we will be there with them.

Gene showed us right now.

Roddenberry served in WWII. He saw fascism.

What the show never really imagined was AI. But The next generation star trek had Data.

But Data was everything AI now is not.

The AI we have

influences and manipulates. And who controls it? This is a coup. I said this last year.

Their goal is you can't figure anything out without going through them.

One thing we have is our ability to say no.

They cannot fire their customers.

Their weakness is their speed and their brittleness is they are fewer than us.

Folks... i am telling you better get active

A civilization that develops slowly based on compassion and the rights of humanity makes fewer errors that can end that civilization.

All of us need to consider what our actions in this world do to our neighbors.

In my area where wildfire caused by lightning is bad enough we have the added burden of risk of fire caused by human beings.

This is you and me.

And when a person is careless and thoughtless ( lack of imagination on what Could happen.) this puts everyone around you at risk of death and loss. And the stress and cost of watching or evacuating a close fire is considerable.

So dont park in tall grass.

When you camp consider not having a fire even IF it is still allowed. Look for conditions. Dry and hot and breezy.

Dont throw out glass into a field or wood.

Dont let your kids drive a dirt bike or 4 wheeler where a fire could start. Narrow trails and tall grass.

Consider doing whatever you must with a tractor either earlier in the season or wait till weather is safer.

Weed control... and vehicles. All it takes is one spark to destroy lives.

We are in this together and humanity must figure this out. And we here in this beautiful area have a chance to be a good example.

Think of others before yourself.

Think of consequences

Have forethought.

The fire yesterday may well have started by a careless action. That forced risk to firefighters, and deputies who went door to door and evacuations which are a hardship.

And one old woman who spent the night along with neighbors watching for ashfall.

And the letters and paragraghs and periods and commas, the structure of writing is calming under the eyes and piecing it together -the mind is slowed. Read it aloud and the words of dust come alive like song.

I prefer writing by hand. And keep a notebook that perhaps someone will find in my house after my travels in these mountains looking for the wild cattle have ceased.

Though the notebook may burn in the great fires that are more common now and those letters and shapes of words will be gone; read by the element of heat to never be seen again.

But they served me.

And i like to think of that notebook where it lays on my table, pencil, not pen beside it.

Pencil and cursive -the swimming of letters that calm my soul and explain my life to a dizzying future that may never read it.

While the smoke hangs in these mountains I love it I read about new data centers being built.

And the smoke hangs here.

Here is this phone is in my hand.

Frankly I dont know if this is a good trade?

Or the worse hypocrisy.

Huesos, boney, the android swept out one hand in a dramatic gesture.

" the view is breathtaking! And their sensors are scrambled up here due to the miner's perimeter fields."

Jed looked down, brushed his black curls back with one hand " i dont like the view. I thought this was going to be more of a valley operation."

"We did manage to take that mineral scanner, worth alot in town." Boney reassured Jed.

Jed said

"Yep i know but we gotta git down the other side and back to the horses. I hope the Blues didnt confiscate them horses, dam Blues are always doing that and then letting them go free back to nature."

Huesos said in the best soft breathless conspiracy voice,

" wish they'd catch me... and do an over haul then let me go back to nature."

Jed shrugged, "at least you got that. It would be years of analog rehab for me."

An energy beam hit above their heads scorching the cliff face.

Jed looked at Huesos sagely and asked

"Think they are still out there?"

"Hum." Said the android taking a broken branch about two feet long and held it up.

The beam vaporized it just above the construct's hand.

"Yep i think they are still out there. And my guess is not happy with us."

" no one is ever happy with us "

"What about that little gal in "Citycity? She liked us."

Jed rolled his eyes. " she was in love with YOU she wanted to take a house by the sea with you."

"Well the sea is much closer now than it was." Said Huesos.

Jed looked down. How are do think we get out of this?

Huesos smiled slightly.

"I will jump down and then you jump and ill catch you."

Jed exclaimed, "Jump? Down? Its 100 feet!"

Huesos peered over the edge.

An energy beam sorched the ground next to the android's hand

"51 meters... dang there is no river?"

" no river?" Questioned Jed.

"You could say.... i cant swim. And i could say hell the fall will kill you."

Jed frowned, " hell the fall will kill you. Or me landing on you."

Again an energy beam burned a hole near jed's black curls.

Huesos shrugged and jumped.

"OH HELL." Jed stated.

He climbed to the edge and looked down.

Huesos was standing down there.

He gestured and called up.

"Jump jed!"

"Nuh uh i dont want to."

Huesos danced in a tiny circled stopped held up his arms.

"Jump! Bruckbruckbruck..." the android made a sound like a chicken.

"I hate that when.... i hate... Boney! I hate that!"

"I know! Jump!"

Jed closed his eyes swore and stood quickly and jumped.

And Huesos caught him.

--

Jo Rios was trailed back to camp. The bay mare Daisy picked her way over rocks and scrub brush.

Cattle were settled and bedded down in an open area on the allotment. Jo was hungry. She Looked into the evening sky a few stars shone like ice pricking through the deep blue.

one star was very bright and moving rapidly.

Jo thought.

'Meteorite got to be.'

It came on fast and trailed behind a plume of bright fire.

Then as Jo watched in astonishment it got larger and closer. Weaved a bit the flaring plume went out.

Parachutes sprung out of it and it slowed it's speed and tumbled into the Valley of Foxes below.

Jo thought

'What the holy hell.'

But turned Daisy to ride down.

Was it a crash? Were there occupents? Could it start a fire.

These rocky mountains were dry as bone.

Daisy picked her way down.

---

Yu's hands moved over the controls.

As the capsule plummets towards earth, she takes inventories and plans her priorities.

' I'm Far off course.' She thought.

She sends her last coordinates to control.

The comm only has static.

Her landing will be hard.

she sees a high mountain valley. She aims for that.

Then She Prepares Herself to crash tightens all the straps that hold her in. Slaps her visor down, tucks her chin.

The capsule is a fast flaming torch

The glow trails the capsule.

'A dragon's breath.' she thinks

Then the air clears

The parachutes deploy. The capsule jerks. The retrorockets fire. The ground comes up, fast.

The capsule hits, bounces, hits again, and rolls.

She holds on

-----

Jo watched the capsule hit and bounce and roll and come to a silent stop. Her horse made her way down the rocky slope to the meadow.

The capsule is flared on one end and tapered on the other. The parachutes lay deflated on the ground and flutter softly in the gentle evening breeze.

Daisy her mare looks at this with a bit of concern but walks forward.

When Jo is close she dismounts drops a split rein so Daisy knows to stand there.

Then she approaches the capsule.

It is warm. She can feel this as she walks up. Jo looks into the sky where the capsule had been a torch falling.

She hears gentle knocking or tapping coming from inside.

"Hello?"

She crouches by the capsule by what appears to be the hatch has a broken and bent frame.

The knocking stops for a moment.

Jo then raps three times slowly on the hatch.

Silence.

Then three raps answer her. Tapped from inside.

Then a single knock follows close to where the hatch appears to have an opening mechanism.

There is a lever which Jo tries.

Stuck by bent metal at the lip.

One knock again. Questioning.

Jo gets up and walks back to Daisy who waits ears pricked at this strange scene.

Jo rumages in her pommel bag for a tool. Fencing pliers.

She returns to the capsule and takes the hooked end of the pliers and wedges it under the bent metal and prys the frame loose.

Damaged in the crash it yeilds and she then takes the lever pushes down and the capsule hatch opens with a hiss.

Jo peers inside.

-----

Yu Changfeng looks up

A cowboy hat. Calm and serious dark eyes stare down at her and blink once in the woman's weathered face.

Not Chinese. Not a rescue team. Not military

The older woman has a revolver on her hip. But her hand isn't on it. She is crouching down with a tool in her hand peering with gentle serious surprize at Yu.

Yu can see a horse. Standing back behind her.

A horse!

Yu thinks, This is not an organized response. This person was passing by.

Yu sighs slightly. Letting her breath out.

The older woman smiles.

"You are kinda in a fix." The older woman states softly.

Yu notes, American.

The horse shook her mane. Crickets chirp in the grass. The wind sighed through pine.

She looked into the old dark eyes and said,

"Help, please."

The old woman then reaches out and took her by the arms.

"Ok, yep, I can see you need help. What the holy hell were you doing up there?"

She gently lifted Yu out and Yu can't get her legs to function, she leaned on the old woman.

Yu says to Jo

" I was in space, Astronaut. "

Jo gets her clear of the capsule. And gently lowered her to a comfortable position on the ground.

Yu's breath is ragged and short.

Jo muttered to her,

"Well I can see that. Why? You fell like a big firework."

Jo then notices something and Yu caught that.

Jo stared seriously at the red flag on the orange space suit.

Jo then looked at Yu's face. Back at the capsule. Then seriously back at Yu.

A cold stone drops in the old woman's chest.

Things she was told by relatives long ago when she was a child. 'They will make us all slaves....' her grandpa said quietly in her memory.

She looked at the red flag patch on the space suit.

Red with stars.

"You are a commie. I have never met one." The old woman's expression is serious.

Yu looked down at the patch with her country's insignia.

Then she looked up at Jo's hat and over to Daisy her horse.

"You are American cowboy. I have never seen."

Jo wryly smiled.

"What is your name? If you are a bad person a spy or something i am not going to be happy with you."

" I am no spy." Yu said firmly.

" I am scientists. My spacecraft it breaks, it broke."

Then she added,

"Yu. My name."

Jo answered. " my name is Jo, Josephine Rios. What Is Your Name?"

"Yu changfeng."

Jo said. "I dont know what a changfeng is. I am Jo. What are you called?"

Yu points to her chest. The opposite side of her insignia and said with a soft laugh."

"Yu, my name is Yu."

Jo pushed back her hat with one old finger.

" Yu is You? Your name is Yu. Well that is handy."

Yu smiled.

"Yes handy."

Jo then offered her hand to help Yu stand.

"We need to get to my camp. It isn't far.

You are ok. You will be ok."

Yu looked towards the capsule.

Jo followed the glance, at the capsule then she stared at Yu.

She helped her stagger to the capsule and bend down and get through the mangled hatch.

Yu looks over her shoulder at the old woman. Her face pale with nausea and grief.

"Stand back? Off? Ok?"

Jo frowned slightly. But she complies and stood outside watching. Daisy shifts her weight and the crickets chirp.

Then there is a sound from inside the capsule a deep hiss and a bright flash of light that leaks around the damaged hatch seal.

Yu appeared at the hatch.

She looked up at the relieved face of Jo.

This touched Yu in a strange kind way.

Jo stepped forward and helped her out.

" Can you ride?"

Yu stared at the horse. Her face is a bit fearful.

Jo helped her get on and she led the horse. Yu stared directly between the horse's ears while pulling leather.

They walk in silence for a ways.

Then Jo takes a deep breath and asks,

"Why are you a communist? "

The directness of the question surprises Yu.

She then softly asked with a wry smile,

" why are you a capitalist?"

Jo looked up at her.

"Im not. I dont think i am. anyway. I was taught to give things away."

Yu thought about this.

" I am a communist because my country believes in safety and fairness and equality. "

Jo keeps walking she stepped over dead branches and holes.

"And how do you do that? what about freedom?"

Yu then stated, "is your freedom more important than these?"

Jo stopped.

In the distance they can hear helicopters.

She glanced up at Yu

" mine or yours?"

Yu said, "yours....please...hide."

Jo turned, placed her boot in the stirrup and swung up behind Yu and then rode towards the treeline where there is cover.

Once they reach the trees. Jo dismounted.

Yu studied the old woman. Holes in her coat. Her hat brim bent and faded with age.

"Freedom. You value freedom more than safety."

Jo shrugged.

" yep, thats why i just hid us."

Yu grows serious. " you risk for me? Why? They have technology they will find us. "

Jo pondered this as she heard the helicoptors circle off in the distance.

"Because i value your freedom too. And you are brave going up into space. I admire courage."

She remounted behind Yu.

They go on.

Yu is weak and nausea flashes through her. She said to Jo.

"I must get down please."

Jo stopped daisy and helped her down.

Yu goes to her knees in the dust of the game trail and vomits.

Jo patted her shoulder then goes and gets her canteen. Took off her neck kercheif and dampened it and handed it to Yu.

Yu looked down at the trail.

"They find us. Not good for you. You should just leave me here. They will not hurt me."

Jo shrugged "you are more optimistic than me. What was on your space ship."

Yu laughed very softly.

"It was secrets....."

Jo smiled, "Dang ... a real spy story. What kind of secrets?"

Yu then looked up at the stars. Her expression sad. Yu thinks of her mission. She sees the innocent old woman before her.

"You were taught to give away. "

They hear the sounds of a couple of 4 wheelers.

Jo then raised her eyebrows.

" your call Yu. I will see this through if you want. "

Yu stands and they remount.

Jo steered daisy towards the roughest country no 4 wheeler could travel.

They rode daisy to the remote cow camp. A shack with a wood stove and bunk beds. A creek runs swift and cold beside it.

Yu collasped into the grass stuffed mattress.

Jo made a fire, soaked dry meat to make broth. Made pan bisquits from her stash of flour and lard and made strong coffee in the blue coffee pot.

She unsaddled Daisy and let her graze.

Then just watched as Yu slept.

In the distance she could hear more helicoptors.

Yu woke to the smell of rich elk meat broth. Warm biscuits and hot coffee.

She actually felt hungry.

She sat up and Jo served her food on a deep cracked plate.

Yu ate with her fingers

Jo asked her.

"You must know alot of math."

Yu looked up from her plate at the old woman who was staring at her with deep sincerity. Jo added.

"I flunked math class. I never finished high school.

You must have gone to school a long time."

Yu smiled. " yes very long time. I know math. But not horses. Not wild country."

Yu thought of the secrets she had destroyed.

Then Yu and Jo talked about falling like a star and bluff charging grizzily, horses, math and growing up.

After Yu had finished eating she said to Jo.

"They will come. Both sides. My country will be angry with me. Yours will want answers. You in the middle of 2 powers. You who gives away. Not a good place."

Jo took a deep sip of coffee.

" you will lose and so will i.

Safety and freedom."

Yu smiled.

"there is a path in mountains. "

Outside there was the sound of a helicoptors landing in a nearby meadow.

Men shouted something from a loud speaker.

Jo stood up.

Yu pointed at her 44 revolver on her hip and shook her head.

Jo unfastened her gunbelt and left the 44 on the straw stuffed mattress.

She walked to the door

Yu stood shakily up and smoothed her short hair with both hands and dusted off her space suit.

They both walked out together into helicopter dust blown up by great powers that could see everything but the path.

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