Big Top

In point three miles turn right

The sun was setting and Jeff was trying to find his way through the Texas panhandle. He'd received a letter that, Donnie, an old friend from his childhood days had passed away in Singapore on an archeology mission and that they were having the funeral in his hometown. Unfortunately, Jeff had lost touch with Donnie years ago and was amazed he even was invited but felt obliged to go.

Turn right now

Jeff pulled off the state highway onto a dirt road. The plains were so expansive you could see all the way to the horizon in every direction and there was nothing to be seen but dirt. The sky was beautiful though as the sun was setting off to his left and a storm cloud was ahead of him. It was one of those storm clouds you that you could see the lightening inside the cloud popping away, like some fireworks show that had created so much smoke only the flashes of light could be seen.

Recalculating...

"What, why are you recalculating now, I didn't do anything wrong."

Recalculating...

"Give me a break."

Doble a la dereche y corre por su vida
Recalculating...

"What'd you say, I don't speak Spanish, good Lord, I'm turning you off."

Jeff turned off his GPS and reached around behind the passenger seat to find the map of Texas. Surey it was back here, socks, an umbrella...toilet paper?

"Where's that stupid map?"

The road was straight and he turned behind looked behind the seat to see if the map was there.

CRACK!

"Holy ... Jeff slammed the breaks."

CRACK TING CRACK CRACK

Hail started to fall from the storm and put a massive spiderweb crack in his windshield.

"Ah man, you gotta be kidding me."

Drive point three miles and arrive at destination

"I thought I turned you off", he opened his glove box and his GPS clearly thought he was there.

Jeff pulled back onto the road and looked ahead through the hail. It was difficult to see though and he could make out something large on the side of the road up ahead. It looked like a huge house. Suddenly as he got closer the hail stopped completely and he saw what it was. It was an old circus tent. One of the styles you only see in movies about the 1930's. Circular with red and yellow stripes going up to a point.

Pulling his car up to the tent he wondered first where the heck everyone was. Maybe he had the time wrong. Secondly why on Earth would anyone have a funeral in a circus tent out here in quite clearly the middle of nowwhere. He got out of the car and walked around the tent looking for the entrance. As he walked around he felt somewhat calmed as there was an old 1980's Cadillac parked around the other side.

He walked around the tent for 5 minutes, three times he passed by his car and he didn't see an entrance. Finally he stopped and walked back to his car, this must be a mistake. He opened the door sat down and straight in front of him he saw the flap to open the door.

"How did I miss that?"

He got out walked to the tent, opened it and walked in. There were some lights on, with bleacher seats all sitting around a center ring. There wasn't anyone there but in the center right was what looked like a manhole, with a ladder coming out. He could here mumbling coming from the manhole and wondered if the Cadillac man went down there.

"Hello!? Is anyone here?"

He looked at the manhole and he saw many foot prints walking through the sand around the hole and he could see words written with someone's finger in the sand but it was obstucted by the foot prints.

don H pe All Ye W nter ere

He yelled down the manhole,

"Hello!"

He thought this must be crazy but what harm could going down do. He needed to find the Cadillac man and get directions and clearly he had to be down there.

Remember The Alamo

Mid-morning had broken and it was finally getting warm after the long winter. Jeff walked out onto his porch and he could feel the beads of sweat beginning to form on the top of his forehead; the first in months, due to weather. The wind was blowing but it was a cold, very humid wind.

He sat down on the stairs leading up to his front doorway. He had his boots in his hands and as he shoved his feet into them he looked over his land. The sky had a few clouds, but there probably wouldn't be any rain today. There hadn't been rain in a couple weeks, but somehow his little ranch in the middle of the hill country felt as humid as ever.

The 1500 acres were acquired in a cattle deal in Fort Worth shortly after the Mexican land deal in 1824. He used to be quite the savvy business man but as he stood up from the steps and felt the aches in his knees and back, he wondered if he really got the better end of that deal.

He traversed the fence line to the barn where he kept his horses. He wasn't a cowboy in the typical sense, but despite his city upbringing he was quite the designer when it came to fence-work. The land had a small tributary of the Colorado river flowing through it. Mesquite ran rampant along the creek and in the early years of the ranch became quite a burden. Learning the ideal way to turn a gnarly weed like the mesquite tree into fence line was difficult but he enjoyed the task and now had fence line that could stand up to anything the brutal Texas weather could muster.

As he opened the barn door he caught eye on a rider coming up the road very quickly. Swinging open the barn door, Jeff grabbed his rifle from the wall mount and jumped on his paint Anita. They hustled out to meet the rider.

The rider was a large cowboy and from the look of the dried mud on the back legs of his horse, he had been riding for quite some time.

"Woh there rider, what's your name? What's your business in these parts?"

"Name's, Jack McKinney, I come to rally the Texans in the Hill Country. Santa Ana has massacred over 300 in San Antonio at the Alamo. We held him for days but we lost Travis, Bowie and Crockett. Word is that neither Fannin nor Houston would come to Travis' aid but that Houston is planning a massive assault against the Mexicans. We need all soldiers we can to stand up for our independence."