Hope On The Rocks/Issue 27

This is Issue 27 of Hope On The Rocks, entitled "Half the Truth".

This issue is Ridley-centric.

307, Half the Truth
Nobody has seen Al since yesterday. He went to get some lamp oil, and then he disappeared. That happaned for my cousin, Jed, once too; we visited Loch Innis Mo Cholmaig, us two alone. I guess we were in the late teens there. 19 or something. Next morning was Jed gone. Nobody saw him again. I guess he sleep walked and drowned. I don’t know. But I guess same thing happened to Al. He’s probably dead, how sad it might be. Right now, is the whole town standing at the marketplace, listening to Sylvest. He is talking again. Seems like the only thing he ever does. If it stood to me, he wouldn’t be the leader. No, I’d take someone like Chad or Odin; experienced, smart. Sylvest is neither. “We need power, people. We have to focus on that right now.” Sylvest yells, to make sure everyone can hear him. “Yea, water and food is overrated.” Someone close to me says. I chuckle. Next to me are Texas and Odin standing. Esther stayed at home. Nobody but her and me knows, but she is pregnant. It’s amazing. I don’t know where the rest from our house are. “We have a few people working on a windmill, but that’s not enough.” Sylvest says, looking over the crowd. “Should we volunteer?” Texas mutters. I look at him, so does Odin. “Why would we do that?” I ask. “I dunno... I just mean, we’ve nothing better to do. Might as well help out where we can...” Texas says, looking from Odin to me. I look at Odin, who just shrugs. I sigh and say: “I suppose we could help out.” Texas nods. “Is there anybody who wants to help?” Sylvest asks. He is standing on the roof of a car, the town’s deputy, Stanley next to him. Someone in the car. I can’t see who it is, as they both have some kind of bag over their heads. It’s probably nothing. “Yea.” I say loud enough for Sylvest to hear it. “We can help.” Sylvest looks at us and nods. “Good.”

For about ten minutes, Sylvest keeps talking about importance. Not really inspiring. “Has any of you seen Al?” I suddenly hear someone ask from behind. I turn around and see Ellis, drowned in tears. Odin goes over to hear and gives her a hug. “No, sorry.” Odin says, hugging her. “Did he just leave?” Ellis sobs. “Was he taken?” Taken? I look at the car again. What if Sylvest took Al for some reason? What if Al stole the lamp oil and Sylvest now wants to make sure people listen to him, by killing Al? I shake my head, getting rid of the thought. Of course it’s not Al in the car. Why would it be? “Everyone!” Sylvest yells, probably starting a new topic. “Yesterday something terrible happened. We had a crime in Rogersville.” I look up. So do most of the people. “We all know how Lillian works to keep her buisness alive. Yesterday, two men attempted to steal food from her.” Sylvest continues. I look at the car, and now I know what he is going to do; he is going to kill these two men. “We need justice, people. We can’t just look the other way.” Sylvest says and look at Stanley, who with a sceptical look, goes down from the car, opens the door and takes out two men. He gets both of them up on the roof of the car. Then he leaves again. I have a bad feeling. “I am going to show these two men, that crime is never the answer.” Sylvest says and takes up a revolver from a hulster in his pants. He loads two rounds in it. “Stop it!” I hear people yelling. Chanting, cheering, yelling, people try to stop Sylvest from killing these two men. “I am going to show everyone here, that crime isn’t the answer!” Sylvest yells, now very loud. He takes off the bag of the first of the men and yells: “Today, two deaths will occur. The deaths of John Sheen...” He takes off the other bag of the other man. I close my eyes as he yell: “And Ailim Halib!”