Jim was eating lunch at the kitchen and talking with Sara. He often would come home for lunch as he traveled between the different job sites he had going. The phone rang and Sara answered it.
“Well, what kind of problem is it?” asked Sara, as the phone conversation went on. “Yes, we can be there in about fifteen minutes,” answered Sara. and then hung up the phone.
“What’s up?” asked Jim.
“I don’t know,” answered Sara. “That was Sam’s school, the principal said that there was some kind of problem, and they would like one of us to come over there to help straighten it out. He did say that Sam was fine, but he didn’t want to tell me what kind of problem it was over the phone.”
“Let’s go then,” said Jim. I’ll call my foreman on the way and let him know what they need to be doing while I’m gone.”
Jim and Sara hurried out of the house and headed for the school. Samantha was half way through the first grade, and was an excellent student. It came as quite a surprise to Jim and Sara that Samantha could have gotten into a serious enough of a problem to cause this kind of a call from the principal. As they walked up to the school building Jim noticed that there were armed security guards on the school property.
“Since when do we need armed guards at an elementary school?” asked Jim. “We had them at high school when I was growing up, but isn’t this a little bit of overkill?”
“I was surprised too, when I first saw them last year,” answered Sara. “The secretary told me it was to help discourage any drug activity.”
Samantha was sitting outside the principal’s office crying as they came into the building. Sara went over to comfort her. The principal came out and motioned Jim into his office before he got a chance to find out what had happened.
“I’m sorry to call you in like this,” stated the principal, as the door closed behind them. “But we’d like to nip this kind of thing in the bud, before it starts causing a real problem.”
“What kind of problem are you talking about?” asked Jim. “Sam’s always been a good student, and well behaved too.”
“Well, ah, today she was very confrontational with her teacher,” said the principal. “And she would not follow the instructions that she was given.”
“I find that very hard to believe,” said Jim. “Samantha just doesn’t act that way”.
“That’s why we called you,” said the principal. “We wanted to get your help to get her back on the right track, before she starts to get into some real trouble.”
“Sam knows better than to be disobedient,” said Jim. “We’ll straighten this out right away. What was it that she didn’t want to do?”
“The teacher was having the class recite some poems,” said the principal. “Just some little phrases that the National Education Bureau came out with to help the kids become more familiar with the Graze. It’s an attempt to cut off some of the discrimination and fear that gets started when something is new and, well, maybe a little strange to us. But Samantha got real angry, and started spouting that the Graze were evil, and that they had come from the Devil. Now obviously we can’t have that kind of thing going on in the class room. I’m glad you came right over to help straighten her out.”
“Now wait just a minute,” said Jim. “Our religious beliefs are our business. And since when is it part of the school curriculum to preach a bunch of nonsense about aliens to our kids.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” said the principal. “But we are following the national directives, and you will need to get Samantha to drop all of this, and follow the program. Besides, the aliens as you call them, have shown that these myths you hang onto as religion, are just stories that your great great grandfathers made up to explain what they couldn’t understand.”
“I don’t think so,” answered Jim. “I’ll just take my daughter and leave. We’ll put her in a private school. You don’t have to worry about her any more.”
“It doesn’t work that way Mr. Handford.” said the principal. “The national directives, under the Village Concept issued by Washington, do not allow for that. The directives clearly state that parents unwilling or unable to comply, or who knowingly prevent their children from complying, shall have custody of that child removed and turned over to the State until such time as the parent can prove that they are fit and capable of following the laws of the land.”
Jim suddenly felt like the room was closing in on him. He now realized that the security he saw was to help enforce government control of the children, and to control the parents. He had already made a stand. Was it too late to walk out of here with Sam, or could he agree to play along? Jim decided it wasn’t worth the risk. He was not going to turn his daughter over to be brainwashed.
The principal was moving toward his phone. Jim decided it was now or never, and reached up across the desk and grabbed the principal’s arm. Jim leaned over the desk and with his other hand spun the principal around and twisted his right arm up behind his back.
“Don’t fight me or I’ll break it,” said Jim. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m not about to let you, or any one else decide what is best for Samantha.”
“Now just calm down, Mr. Handford,” said the principal. “You won’t get out of here like this. The guards will stop you.”
“We’ll see about that,” answered Jim, as he maneuvered the principal over by the door. Jim pinned him up against the wall and told him to be quiet. Jim carefully opened the door and peaked out. Sara was sitting across the hall with Sam in her lap. The secretary was on the phone a few yards away.
“You and Sam head on home,” Jim said to Sara. “I’m going to stay here and discuss things for a little while.”
“YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.” said Jim very slowly, looking directly into Sara’s eyes. “I love you.” Then Jim allowed the door to close.
“You’re in a lot of trouble already, Mr. Handford,” said the principal. “You had better give up now, and let me go, before you get into real trouble.”
“I will gladly do whatever I need to, to stop you from attempting to brainwash my daughter with that kind of garbage,” answered Jim.
In the mean time, out in the hallway, Sara sat stunned, staring at the door. She knew exactly what Jim wanted her to do. They had discussed many times what they needed to do in different types of emergencies. That had always been in the future, at some vague place and time that she had hoped down deep would never come. Now, here it was, it was time to act.
Sara got up from the chair, took Sam’s hand and started walking toward the exit. She felt like there were a thousand eyes watching her every move and someone would jump out and grab her at any second. Sara tried to keep from shaking as she pushed open the front door and walked past the guard.
Samantha was dragging behind, and asked when Daddy was going to come. Sara squeezed her hand a little harder and told Sam to just come along, that Daddy would come soon.
By the time Sara got into the truck, she felt like she was going to pass out . Her spine was tingling and her stomach was tied in a knot. Sara started the truck and drove on out of the parking lot. As she turned on to the street she ran over the curb, and was just sure that someone would stop her. She continued down the street and finally regained a little sense of control and started to think.
Sara knew not to go home. That was clear from what Jim had said. Wherever this was leading, he was afraid that they would be arrested or separated. Sara executed the plan by the numbers. First she went to their bank, and withdrew all that was in the savings account. The teller got the manager, but when Sara explained that she was headed to Big Bear to buy a cabin. That they didn’t have the name of the owner, and needed cash. The manager looked the form over and authorized the withdrawal. The bank didn’t usually allow seventy thousand dollars to be withdrawn all at once, but with the story, and the amount of money Jim’s business ran through the bank, they didn’t ask any more questions.
After leaving the bank, Sara went into a mall parking lot and got out of the truck. She then took Sam and went to a pay phone and called for a cab. Once in the cab she told the driver to take them to the waterfront down town. From there they walked several blocks, and then called another cab. Sara had the cabdriver take them to a self storage place and drop them off.
They went in and got Sara and Sam’s suitcases out. At this point she didn’t know whether they would need the camping stuff but decided to take it. She left Jim’s suitcase and backpack in the storage room. She then called for another cab and had it take them to a small motel in La Jolla. Once she had checked in, using an assumed name and paying in cash, she pulled the blinds and tried to calm herself. At this point, she did not know how long she would have to wait.
Back at the school, Jim had the principal remove his tie and used it to secure his hands. Jim then took the principal’s handkerchief and stuffed it in his mouth. Jim threatened to do severe bodily harm him if he didn’t keep quiet. Then locking the door, Jim sat back to wait. The phone rang several times, for long periods and there was knocking at the door. Jim just maintained his silence and glared at the principal whenever he would move or start to make a sound.
After about two hours, one of the guards was called and pounded on the door. Soon they got the janitor to come and open the door. Jim just sat calmly in the chair and slowly raised his arms, as the security guard came into the room, assessed the situation, and pulled out his gun. It took another forty five minutes for the police to arrive.
The police questioned him and also tried to find out where Sara had gone. During the questioning they dispatched a car to check Jim and Sara’s home. Jim would only say that he would not allow them to try and brainwash his daughter and turn her away from God.
Another hour passed and they took Jim down town and booked him for assault. There would be federal charges to follow once the National Education Bureau officers arrived. Jim asked to make a phone call, but was told he would have to wait until the Feds had questioned him.
They kept him in a small room and different people would come and go, mostly trying to find out where Sara and Sam had gone. Jim would occasionally cat nap between sessions, but had no sense of time in this room with artificial light and no windows. They fed him a few times and would let him use a small bathroom off of the room he was in when he really pressed.
Finally they let him go down the hall and use a phone. Jim could see a desk calender through an opening in the door, and realized that he had been there for two days. He had no doubt that they would trace the call so he made no pretense as to what he was doing. Jim dialed his home phone, and when the voice mail picked up, he said, “I love you baby, You KNOW WHAT TO DO, good bye, and then hung up the phone.
They kept Jim there for about one more day, and then moved him in a closed van to a federal facility. They continued to question him, and were still trying to find out where Sara went. This gave him some hope that Sara and Sam had been able to execute the plan. After two weeks went by, W. E. B. officers showed up and took custody of Jim. They ignored his questions, and Jim wasn’t even sure they spoke English.
The W. E. B. took Jim in another closed van to a hanger. They transferred him to a small jet inside of the hanger so he had no idea where they were. Inside the plane he was cuffed to the seat and all of the windows were covered. The plane was in the air about two hours, and then landed. He was then transferred by closed van to another prison. Jim had not been able to see outside the entire time.
Jim was placed inside a cell that was about eight feet deep, and about six feet wide. Three walls were concrete with no windows, and the fourth faced the hallway and was closed in with one inch steel bars with a small door, and a slot to pass food through. There were about ten other prisoners in this wing, or whatever it was. Any noise was immediately met by threats from the guards.
After several hours Jim could barely hear whispering coming from his left. He got as close to the corner as he could and strained to make it out.
“What are you in for,” said the voice.
After about a minute, Jim answered, “The school was trying to take my daughter.”
“They grabbed me cause I wouldn’t give them my guns,” said the voice.
Jim asked, “Where are we, do you know? Last time I was sure, I was in San Diego. But I don’t know if they took me east or north.
“Try south,” said the voice. “you're in Mexico now, pal. My name’s Fred, what’s your’s?”
“I’m Jim,” answered Jim. “Mexico, how can they do that? What about extradition, or something?”
“This fancy new World Government doesn’t have to worry about that kind of stuff,” answered Fred. “World laws and regulations supersede national laws, and the constitution for that matter, or so they tell me.”
What about a trial?” asked Jim.
“That I don’t know about,” answered Fred. “All I know is that they keep ya’ here about two weeks. Then they take ya’ out the door at the other end, and you don’t come back.”
Just then a guard came down the hall, beating his billy club along the bars of the cells, and yelling for everyone to shut up. Jim crawled into his bunk, and tried to go to sleep. This was the first time he had been able to lay down since this all began back at the school. He didn’t know what time it was, or what would happen next. He would just have to trust the Lord.
Several hours later, loud music came blaring out of the speakers at either end of the hallway. After about fifteen minutes the guards came down the hall, got two prisoners out of their cells, and escorted them out the back door. Then a man came down the hall pushing a cart with bowls of what looked like oatmeal. Jim took the bowl that was handed to him, along with a glass of water, and ate it quickly. It tasted terrible, but he was hungry, and ate all that they gave him.
As he laid back onto his cot, Jim wondered what they were doing with the prisoners that were taken out. With all of the noise from the music, they could be doing almost anything to them and he wouldn’t be able to hear it. He went back to the Lord in prayer. Jim knew that the only way he would make it through this, was to stay on his knees before the Lord.
This scene replayed itself three times a day. The only difference was that at lunch and dinner time they would bring the prisoners a plate of beans, and a piece of bread. They took prisoners out in the morning, and brought new ones in in the afternoon, or, like in Jim’s case, in the late evening. Jim learned little else about this place, because the guards were constantly monitoring them and would beat the prisoners with clubs if they figured out who had been talking.
Jim had been there ten days when they came for him. Fred had been taken four days earlier. They escorted Jim out the back door and into a courtyard. It was the first time he had seen sunlight in 12 days and it felt very good just to soak it in. As Jim looked around he noticed a group of six men with rifles over at one side of the courtyard talking. Then, as he looked across to the other side of the courtyard he saw a post about six feet high stuck in the ground with a steel ring about five inches in diameter attached to the post about three feet above the ground.
As the guards moved Jim toward the post, he realized that he was about to meet the Lord and was filled with a sense of peace like he had never known. They fastened his arms behind his back to the post with some handcuffs. Jim prayed that even though he didn’t understand how, that the Lord would use this situation to help other people to come to a deeper understanding of God.
They offered Jim a blindfold, but he declined. The presence of the Lord was filling his very being and he could almost see where he was going. Jim felt like he was in another place looking down into someone else as the guards moved away, and the men lined up across the courtyard. He felt a sensation of the wind rushing past him as they raised the rifles to their shoulders and heard the voice say, “Ready-----, Aim-----,
Fire.”
