A Future Tale

The day is hot. Very hot. The wind has even gone to find shade. Not much stirring around the truck this afternoon. To damn hot.

The night is a different story. The night is active to what the day is not. It is the sun that has found a place to rest. Night is for the dangers.

The Peterbilt has been parked in this lonely spot since it ran out of diesel. No money to replenish the tanks. Hell, there ain't no diesel to replenish them with anyhow. The refiners moved offshore years ago. Driven away by the loonies. It's a bad thing to use carbon based fuels. I guess. And with them went the gasoline as well. Now the Pete stays hot during the day because the useless Honda generator can't power the window A/C unit. That was bought to conserve the big Cummins motor, which also conserved fuel consumption and helped clean the environment, and, o who cares now.

I remember as a child the stories from my parents and their friends and from the older people in their 70's and 80's about how tough it was to get through life in the Depression Years. No shoes. Hungry most of the time. Working long hours for little money. But there was hope. Hope in the children getting ahead. Making it better over time. People helping each other off the bottom of poverty as best they could. Hope in progress.

That has all been turned upside down. Society is regressing. Seems we are going back to the past even faster than it was to escape it. Just ain't right.

Gotta get ready for the night. Hope is that the lethargic sleep of the afternoon heat will be enough. The Pete really gets pounded at night by the starving waifs looking for food. Not much left now. Hell, it's all gone. With no trucks moving produce and no farms producing it anyway, people are desperate. People of today haven't a clue as to how to grow food and milk cows and churn milk. They were taught how to have self-esteem in school. Really comes in handy now. Have to leave the truck to get to my safe place before it gets to dark.

I have to find something to eat as well. I'm better prepared to get it than most.