Alas, Babylon - Chapter 1

Summary

In Chapter 1 of 'Alas, Babylon,' set in the quaint town of Fort Repose, Florida, readers are introduced to Florence Wechek’s daily routine, her love for pets, and her interaction with neighbor Randy Bragg. A sense of foreboding emerges as tension builds over the Russians launching Sputnik 23, and Middle Eastern crises unfold on the morning news. Randy’s receipt of a mysterious telegram urging a meeting with his brother signals potential disaster. As history, geopolitics, and personal lives intersect, it becomes evident that significant changes are on the horizon.

Highlights

• Florence's morning routine is interrupted by a shocking news broadcast 🔔.
• The launch of Sputnik 23 creates an air of global tension and local unease 🌐.
• Randy Bragg receives a cryptic telegram that changes his day dramatically 📩.
• Florence's suspicions about her neighbor's voyeuristic habits add humor and color 🏡.
• Randy's contemplative thoughts on political defeat reveal his inner turmoil 🤔.
• The secret warning between Randy and his brother Mark adds suspense and intrigue 📢.
• Randy's hurried preparations reflect the urgency and impending doom ⌛.

Key Takeaways

• Florence Wechek’s morning is filled with routine, pets, and a hint of gossip 🐦.
• The ominous news on Sputnik 23 adds tension, reflecting global anxieties 🚀.
• The mysterious telegram received by Randy Bragg hints at serious impending events 📜.
• Florence's interactions depict small-town dynamics and the undercurrent of societal norms 👀.
• Randy’s reflection on political ambitions showcases personal struggles amid broader crises 🌍.
• Mark's secret code, "Alas, Babylon," signals a private warning of disaster 📡.
• Randy's quick logistical planning for an emergency hints at looming chaos ⏰.

Overview

In Fort Repose, Florida, Florence Wechek begins her day punctuated by the mundane yet comforting presence of her pets and a strict morning routine only to be unsettled by troubling international news. As a gossip-fueled but private individual, Florence finds herself part of a larger narrative, connecting local happenings to global developments.

The international tensions, marked by the Soviet's ambitious Sputnik launch and escalating Middle Eastern conflicts, bring an uneasy atmosphere to this small town. Randy Bragg’s receipt of a cryptic telegram from his brother serves as a catalyst, hinting at a possible disaster and prompting an urgent need for preparation.

As Randy contemplates his brother's warning and its implications, he reflects on his career missteps and current responsibilities. His awareness of the geopolitical chess game contrasts with the domestic tranquility and his immediate actions underscore an unspoken urgency, setting the stage for unfolding events.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 65:00: Alas, Babylon - Chapter 1 The chapter is set in Fort Repose, a river town in Central Florida, highlighting the pervasive nature of gossip, which spreads as quickly as a Western Union telegram. Florence Wechek, the manager, is described as a gossipy yet discreet individual who filters the personal information she receives, removing any scandalous or embarrassing details.

Alas, Babylon - Chapter 1 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 chapter one in Fort Repose a river town in Central Florida it was said that sending a message by Western Union was the same as broadcasting it over the combined Networks this was not entirely true it was true that Florence wetchek the manager gossiped yet she judiciously classified the personal intelligence that flowed under her plump fingers and maintained a prudent censorship over her tongue the scandalous and the embarrassing she excised from her
• 00:30 - 01:00 conversation sprightly trivial and harmless items she passed on to friends thus enhancing her status and relieving the tedium of spencerhood if your sister was in trouble and wired for money the secret was safe with Florence wacheck but if your sister bore a legitimate baby its sex and weight would soon be known all over town Florence awoke at 6 30 as always on a Friday in early December heavy stiff and graceless she pushed herself out of bed and patted through
• 01:00 - 01:30 the living room into the kitchen she stumbled onto the back porch opened the screen door a crack and fumbled for the Milk Carton on the stoop not until she straightened did her China blue eyes begin to discern movement and the hushed gray world around her a jerky-tailed squirrel darted out on the longest limb of her grapefruit tree sir Percy her enormous yellow cat Rose from his burlap couch behind the hot water heater arched his back stretched and rubbed his shoulders on her flannel robe the
• 01:30 - 02:00 African lovebirds rhythmically swayed heads pressed together on the swing in their cage she addressed the lovebirds good Morning Anthony good morning Cleo their eyes spectacularly ringed in white as if embedded in meant Lifesavers blinked at her Anthony shook his green and yellow plumage and rafts to greeting Cleo said nothing Anthony was adventurous Cleo timid on occasion Anthony grew raucous and irascible and Florence released him into the Limitless Freedom outside but always
• 02:00 - 02:30 at dusk Anthony waited in the Turks cap or Atop The Frangipani eager to fly home so long as Cleo preferred comfortable and sheltered imprisonment Anthony would remain a domesticated parrot that they told her when she bought the birds in Miami a month before and apparently it was true Florence carried their cage into the kitchen and shook fresh sunflower seeds into the feeder she filled her Percy's bowl with milk crumpled a bit of wafer for the goldfish in the bowl on the counter she returned to the living room
• 02:30 - 03:00 and fed the angelfish mollies Guppies and Vivid Neons in the aquarium she noted that the two miniature catfish useful scavengers were active she was checking the Tank's temperature and its electric filter and heater when the percolator chuckled its call to breakfast at seven exactly Florence switched on the television turned the knob to channel 8 Tampa and set down to her orange juice and eggs her morning routine was unvaried and efficient the
• 03:00 - 03:30 only bad parts of it were cooking for one and eating alone yet breakfast was not her loneliest meal not with Anthony oglin and Gabby the six fat goldfish dancing a dreamy Oriental ballet on diaphanous fins sir Percy rubbing against her legs under the table and her cheery friends on the morning show hired at Great expense to inform and entertain her as soon as she saw Dave's face Florence could sense whether the news was going to be good or bad on this morning Dave
• 03:30 - 04:00 looked troubled and sure enough when he began to give the news it was bad the Russians had sent up another Sputnik number 23 and something sinister was going on in the Middle East Sputnik number 23 was the largest yet according to the Smithsonian institution and was radio in continuous and elaborate coded signals there is reason to believe Frank said that sputniks of this size are equipped to observe the terrain of the earth below
• 04:00 - 04:30 Florence gathered her pink flannel robe closer to her neck she glanced up apprehensively through the kitchen window all she saw were hibiscus leaves dripping in the pre-dawn ground fog and blank gray sky Beyond they had no right to put those sputniks up there to spy on people as if it were on his mind also Frank continued Senator holler of the armed services committee yesterday joined others of a Midwest Block in demanding that the Air Force shoot down sputniks capable of
• 04:30 - 05:00 military Espionage if they violate U.S airspace the Kremlin has already had something to say about this any such action the Kremlin says will be regarded the same as an attack on a Soviet vessel or aircraft the Kremlin pointed out that the United States has traditionally championed the doctrine of Freedom of the Seas the same Freedom says the Soviet statement applies to outer space the newsman pause looked up and half smiled in Rye amusement at this
• 05:00 - 05:30 complexity he turned a page on his clipboard there is a new crisis in the Middle East a report from Beirut via Cairo says that Syrian tanks of the most Russian design have crossed the Jordanian Frontier this is undoubtedly a threat to Israel at the same time Damascus charges that Turkish troops are mobilizing Florence flipped to channel 6 Orlando and Country Music she did not understand and could not become interested in the politics of the Middle East
• 05:30 - 06:00 Sputnik seemed a closer and more personal Menace her best friend Alice Cooksey the librarian claimed to have seen a Sputnik one evening at Twilight if you could see it then it could see you stared up through the window again no Sputnik she rinsed the dishes and returned to her bedroom as she wrestled with her girdle Florence's thought gravitated to the equally Prime behavior of Randy Bragg she adjusted the Venetian blinds until she could peer out he was at it again
• 06:00 - 06:30 there he was brazenly immodest and checked red and black pajamas sitting on his front steps knees akimbo and binoculars pressed to his eyes although he was perhaps 75 yards distance she was certain he stared directly at her and he could see her through the Tilted louvers she ducked back against the bedroom wall hands protecting her breasts almost every evening for the past three weeks and on a number of mornings she had caught him at it sometimes he was on
• 06:30 - 07:00 The Piazza as now sometimes at a second floor window and sometimes high up on a captain's walk sometimes he swept the hole of River Road with his glasses pretending an interest elsewhere but more often he focused on her bungalow Randolph Rousey Bragg a Peeping Tom it was shocking long before Florence's mother moved South and built the brown shingle Bungalow the Braggs had lived in the big house ungainly and monolithic with tall
• 07:00 - 07:30 Victorian windows and bellying bays and Broad brick chimneys once it had been the Showplace of River Road now it appeared shabby and out modeled compared with the long low antiseptic glass citadels of glass metal and tinted block constructed by Rich Northerners who for the last 15 years had been discovering the tamukuan river still the Brag House was planked and paneled with Native Cypress and encased in Pine clapboard hard as iron that
• 07:30 - 08:00 might last another hundred years its Grove at this season like a full green cloak flecked with gold trailed all the way from the backyard to the riverbank a quarter mile and she would say this for Randy his grounds were well kept bright with poinsettias and Bougainvillea hibiscus Camellias gardenias and Flame Vine Florence had known Randolph's mother Gertrude bragwell an Old Judge bragged to speak to she had watched Randolph graduate from bicycle to jalopy vanished for a number
• 08:00 - 08:30 of years in college and law school reappear in a convertible vanish again during the Korean War and finally come home for good when judge Bragg and Mrs Bragg were taken in the same year now here was Randy one of the best known and most eligible young men in tamukuan County even if he did run around with pistolville girls and drink too much uh what was it called that the French called it a voyeur it was disgusting the things that went on in small towns
• 08:30 - 09:00 people wouldn't believe Florence faced the Bureau of mirror wondering how much he had seen many years ago a man had told her she looked something like Clara Beau thereafter Florence wore her hair in bangs and didn't worry too much about her chubby figure the man an imaginative idealist had gone to England in 1940 joined the Commandos and got himself killed she retained only a vague and an exact memory of his caresses but she could never forget how
• 09:00 - 09:30 he compared her to Clara Beau a movie star she could still see a resemblance provided she sucked in her stomach and lifted her chin high enough to erase the fleshy creases in her neck except her hair was no longer like Claris her hair had thinned and Faded to mottled Pink she hurriedly sketched a Clara Bow pout on her lips and finished dressing when she stepped out of the front door Florence didn't know whether she should cut Randy dead or give him a piece of
• 09:30 - 10:00 her mind he was still there on the steps the binoculars in his lap he waved grinned and called across lawn and Road morning Miss Florence his black hair was tousled his teeth white and he looked boyish handsome and inoffensive good morning Randy Florence said because of the distance she had to shout so her voice was not formal and frigid as she had intended you look real pretty in chipper today he yelled she walked to the carport head
• 10:00 - 10:30 averted as if avoiding a bad odor her stiff Carriage of reprimand and did not answer he really was nervy sitting there in those vile pajamas trying to sweet talk her all the way to town she kept thinking of Randy who would ever guess that he was a deviant with a compulsion to watch women dress and undress he ought to be arrested but if she told the sheriff or anybody they would only laugh at her everybody knew that Randy dated lots of girls and not all of them
• 10:30 - 11:00 virgins she herself had seen him take Rita Hernandez that little minorcan tart from pistolville into his house and no doubt up to his bedroom since the lights had gone on upstairs and off downstairs and there have been others recently a tall blonde who drove her own car A new Imperial with Ohio plates into the circular driveway and right up the front steps as if she owned the place and Randy nobody would believe that he had found
• 11:00 - 11:30 it necessary to absorb his sex at long range through optic nerves and binoculars yet it was strange that he had not married it was strange that he lived alone in that wooden mausoleum he had even had his office in there instead of in the professional building like the other lawyers he was a Hermit and a snob and a lover and no better than a pervert God knows what he did with those girls upstairs maybe all he did was make them take off their clothes
• 11:30 - 12:00 and put them on again while he watched she had heard of such things and yet she couldn't really make herself believe there was anything basically wrong with Randy she had voted for him in the primaries and stood up for him at the meetings of the Frangipani Circle when those Garden Club biddies were pecking him to bits after all he was a brag and a neighbor and besides he obviously needed help and guidance Randy's age she knew was 32. Florence was 47. between people in their
• 12:00 - 12:30 30s and 40s there wasn't too wide a gap perhaps all he needed she decided was a little understanding and tenderness from a mature woman Randy watched Florence's 10 year old Chevy diminish and disappear down the tunnel of Live Oaks that arched River Road he liked Florence she might be a gossipy Old Maid but she was probably one of the few people on River Road who had voted for him now she was acting as if he were a stranger trying to cash a money order
• 12:30 - 13:00 without credentials he wondered why maybe she disapproved of live McGovern who had been in and out of the house a good deal in the last few weeks what Florence needed he guessed was the one thing she was unlikely to get a man he rose stretched and glanced up at the bronze weathercock on the garage steeple its beak pointed resolutely Northeast he checked the large reliable Marine barometer and its twin thermometer
• 13:00 - 13:30 alongside the front door pressure 30.17 up 20 points in 12 hours temperature 62. it would be clear and warm and the bass might start hitting off the dock he whistled and shouted Graf hey Graf leaves rustled under the Azalea bed and a long nose came out followed by an interminable length of dachshund Graf his red coat glistening and tail whipping bounded up the steps Supple as a seal come on my short-legged friend
• 13:30 - 14:00 Randy said and went inside binoculars swinging from his neck for his second cup of coffee the cup with the bourbon in it except for the library lined with his father's law books and the game room Randy rarely used the first floor he had converted One Wing at the second floor into an apartment suitable in size to a bachelor and to his own taste his taste meant living with as little exertion and strain as possible his wing
• 14:00 - 14:30 contained an office a living room and a combination Bar and Kitchen Alcove and a bedroom with a bath the decor was half Hazard designed for his ease not a guest's eye thus he slept in an outsized mahogany sleigh bed imported from New England by some remote ancestor but it was equipped with foam rubber mattress and Contour nylon sheets when in boredom he wasted an evening preparing a full meal for himself he ate from stratfordshire bearing the brag
• 14:30 - 15:00 Crest and was silver from Paul store and by candlelight but he laid his place on the formica bar separating living room from efficient kitchen now he's set on a stool at this bar half filled a fat mug with steaming coffee dropped two lumps of sugar into it and laced it with an inch of bourbon he zipped his mixture greedily it warmed him all the way down Randy didn't remember exactly when he had started taking a drink or two before breakfast Dan Gunn his best friend and
• 15:00 - 15:30 probably the best medic north of Miami said it was an unhealthy practice and the Hallmark of an alcoholic not that Dan had reprimanded him Dan had just advised him to be careful and not let it become a habit Randy knew he wasn't an alcoholic because an alcoholic craved liquor he never craved it he just drank for pleasure and the most pleasurable of all drinks was the first one on a crisp winter morning besides when you took it with coffee
• 15:30 - 16:00 that made it a part of breakfast and therefore not so depraved he guessed he had started it during the campaign when he had been forced to load his stomach with fried mullet Hush Puppies barbecued ribs dripping fat chitlins roasted oysters gritty with sand and to wash it all down with warm beer and raw rocket after such nights only mellow bourbon could clear his head and launch him on another day bourbon had buoyed him during his campaign and
• 16:00 - 16:30 now bourbon mercifully clouded its memory he couldn't have he could have beaten Porky Logan certainly except for one small tactical error Randy had been making his first Beach at Pasco Creek a Cow Town in the North End of the county when someone shouted hey Randy where'd you stand on the Supreme Court he had known this question must come but he had not framed the right kind of answer the moderate Southern quasi-liberal semi-segregationalist double talk that would have satisfied
• 16:30 - 17:00 everybody except the Palmetto scrub wool hats and the loudmouth clusters and Courthouse whitlers who would vote for Porky anyway and the Georgia and Alabama riffraff crowded the minorcans for living space in the shanties and three-room Bungalows of pistolville the truth was that Randolph Bragg himself was torn by the question recognizing its dangers and complexities he had certain convictions he had served in Korea and Japan and he knew that the battle for
• 17:00 - 17:30 Asia was being lost in counties like tamikuwan he also knew that Pasco Creek had no interest in Asia he believed integration should start in Florida but it must begin in the nursery schools in kindergartens and would take a generation this was all difficult to explain but he did voice his final conviction inescapable because of his legal Heritage and training and the Oaths he had taken as a voter and a soldier he said I believe in the
• 17:30 - 18:00 Constitution of the United States all of it there have been Snickers and snorts from the rim of the crowd and his listeners except for the reporters from Tampa Orlando and the County Weekly had drifted away in later speeches elsewhere he attempted to explain his position but it was hopeless behind his back he was called a fool and a traitor to his State and race Randolph Rousey Bragg whose great grandfather had been a United States Senator whose grandfather had been chosen by President Wilson to
• 18:00 - 18:30 represent his country as Minister plenty potentiary and Envoy extraordinary in the time of War whose father had been elected without opposition to half a dozen offices Randolph was beaten five to one in the Democratic primaries for nomination to the state legislator it was worse than defeat it was humiliation and Randy knew he could never run for public office again he refilled his mug this time with more bourbon than coffee and Missouri his
• 18:30 - 19:00 maid shuffled in the hallway and knocked he called come in Mizzou Missouri opened the door pushing a vacuum cleaner and carrying a pail filled with cans bottles and Rags Missouri was the wife of two-tone Henry neighbor as well as maid she was six inches shorter than two-tone who was just Randy's height 511 but two-tone claimed she outweighed him by a hundred pounds if this was true Missouri weighed around 240 but on this morning it seemed
• 19:00 - 19:30 to Randy that she had dwindled a bit you died to Mizzou he said no sir I'm not dieting I got nerves nerves Missouri had always seemed nerve-less solid and Placid as a broad deeply rooted tree two-tone been giving you a bad time again no two-tone been behaven he down on the dock fishing right now to tell you the truth Mr Randy it's Mrs McGovern she followed me around with white gloves Missouri worked two hours each morning for Randy and the rest of the day for
• 19:30 - 20:00 the mcgoverns who lived half a mile closer to Town the mcgoverns were the W Foxworth McGovern's the Central Tool and plate McGovern's formerly of Cleveland and the parents of lib McGovern whose proper name was Elizabeth what do you mean Mizzou Randy asked fascinated after I dust she followed me around with white gloves to see has I dusted I know I cleans clean Mr Randy you sure do Mizzou Missouri plugged in the vacuum cleaner started it and then
• 20:00 - 20:30 shut it off she had more on her mind that ain't all you've been in that house Mr Randy you ever seen so many ashtrays what's wrong with ashtrays she don't allow no ashes in them that poor Mr McGovern he has to smoke his cigars outside then there was that roach big roach in the silver drawer Mrs McGovern opened that drawer yesterday and she saw that roach and Screech like she'd been hit by a scorpion she made me go through every drawer in the kitchen and dining
• 20:30 - 21:00 room and put down fresh paper was that roach sent me to Dr Gunn yesterday Mrs McGovern she can't buy Bugs or little green lizards and she won't go outside after dark for fear of snakes I don't think the McGovern is going to be with us much longer Mr Randy because what's Florida except bugs and lizards and snakes I think they leave around May when bug season starts good but miss McGovern she won't want to leave she's stuck on you what makes you think so Missouri smiled
• 21:00 - 21:30 question she asked like what you eat for breakfast Missouri glanced at the decanter on the bar and who cooks for you and does you have other girls Randy changed the subject you say you went to see Dr Gunn what'd he say doctor says I'm a complicated case says I got high blood on account of I'm heavy he says I'm it's good I'm losing weight because that lowers the high blood but fretting about Mrs McGovern white glove in me is the wrong way to do it he says
• 21:30 - 22:00 quit eating grits eat greens quit pork eat fish and he gives me tranquil pills to take one each day before I go to work for Mrs McGovern you do that Mizzou Randy said and carrying his mug walked out onto the screen upstairs porch overlooking the Grove and River he then climbed the narrow ship slider that led to the captain's walk a rectangle 16 by 18 feet stately planked and railed on the slate roof reputedly this was the highest spot
• 22:00 - 22:30 in tumukawan County from it he could see all the riverfront Estates docks and boats and all of the town of Fort repos three miles Downstream held in a crook of sun flecked silver where the tamukuan joined the broader St John's this was his town or had been in 1838 during the seminal Wars a lieutenant Randolph Rousey Payton usn a Virginian had been dispatched to this River Junction with a force of 18 Marines and two small brass Cannon
• 22:30 - 23:00 Lieutenant Payton journeyed south from cows Ford its name patriotically changed to Jacksonville by Longboat his orders came from General clinch were to throttle the Indian Communications on the rivers thus protecting the flank of the troops moving down the East Coast from Saint Augustine Lieutenant Payton built a block House of palm logs on the point his guns covering the channel in two years except during one relief Expedition Overland to New Smyrna he fought no battles or
• 23:00 - 23:30 skirmishes but he shot game and caught fish for the Garrison pot and studied botany and the culture of citrus the balmy weather and idyllic life described in a log now in a teak chest in Randy Bragg's office inspired the lieutenant to name his Outpost for repose When The War subsided the fort was decommissioned and Lieutenant Payton was assigned to Sea Duty four years later he returned to Fort Repose with a wife a daughter and a grant from the government for 100 acres he had picked this precise
• 23:30 - 24:00 spot for his Homestead because it was the highest ground in the area with a steep radiant to the river ideal for planting the oranges just imported from Spain and the Far East Peyton's original house had burned the present house had been built by his son-in-law the first Marcus Bragg a native of Philadelphia and a lawyer eventually sent to the Senate the captain's walk had been added for the Aging Lieutenant Payton so that with his brass Spyglass he could observe what happened at the junction of the rivers
• 24:00 - 24:30 now the brag Holdings had dwindled to 36 Acres but 30 were planted in Prime Citrus navals mandarins valencias and temples all attended and sold in season by the County cooperative each year Randy received checks totaling eight to ten thousand dollars from The Cooperative half went to his older brother Mark an Air Force Colonel stationed at off of field headquarters of the Strategic Air Command near Omaha with his share plus dividends from a
• 24:30 - 25:00 trust established by his father and an occasional fees as an attorney Randy lived comfortably since he drove a new car and paid his bills promptly the trades people of Fort Repose thought him well to do the rich newcomers classed him with the Gentile poor Randy heard music below and knew that Missouri had started his record player and therefore was waxing the floor Missouri's method was to spread the wax kick off her shoes wrap her feet in rags and then polish by dancing
• 25:00 - 25:30 this was probably as efficient and certainly more fun than using the electric waxer he dropped into a deck chair and focused his binoculars on preacher Henry's place looking for that damn bird in the hammock of Pines Palmettos and scrub Oak the Henrys had lived here as long as the brags for the original Henry had come as a slave and man servant to Lieutenant Payton now the Henry's owned a Four Acre Enclave at the East boundary of the braggroves preacher Henry's father had bought it from Randolph's grandfather
• 25:30 - 26:00 for fifty dollars an acre long before the first boom when land was valued only for what it grew preacher was hitching his mule Balaam the last meal in tamukuan County as far as anyone knew to the disc and this month preacher harrowed his yam and corn for planting while his wife Hannah picked and sold tomatoes and put up kumquat preserves he ought to go down and talk to preacher about that damn bird Randy thought if anyone was likely to observe and recognize a Carolina Parakeet floating
• 26:00 - 26:30 around it was preacher because preacher knew all the birds and their calls and habits he shifted his glasses to focus at the end of the Henry's rickety dock two-tone had five bamboo poles out two-tone himself reclined on his side head resting on his hand so he could watch the corks without effort preacher's younger son Malachi who was Randy's yardman was as reliable as two-tone was no account was not about Randy heard the phone ringing in his office the music stopped and he knew
• 26:30 - 27:00 Missouri was answering presently she called from The Piazza Mr Randy it's for you it's Western Union tell her I'll be right down Randy said and lift himself out of the deck chair and backed down the ladder wondering who would be sending him a telegram it wasn't his birthday if something important happened people phoned unless he remembered that the Air Force sent telegrams when a man was hurt or killed but it couldn't be mark because for two years Mark had been flying a desk still mark would get in
• 27:00 - 27:30 his flying time each month if possible for the extra pay he took the phone from Missouri's hand and braced himself yes he said I have a telegram Randy it's really a cable from San Juan Puerto Rico it's signed by Mark it's really very peculiar Randy let out his breath relieved if Mark had sent the message then Mark was all right a man can't pick his relatives only his friends but Mark had always been Randy's
• 27:30 - 28:00 friend as well as his brother what's the message say well I'll read it to you Florence said and then if you want me to read it again I'll be glad to it says urgent you meet me at base Ops McCoy noon today Helen and children fly into Orlando tonight alas Babylon Florence paused that's what it says alas Babylon do you want me to repeat the whole thing for you Randy no thanks I wonder what alas Babylon means isn't it out of the Bible I don't
• 28:00 - 28:30 know I guess so he knew very well what it meant he felt sick inside there's something else Randy yes oh it's nothing I'll tell you about it next time I see you and I hope it's not in those loud pajamas Goodbye Randy you're sure you have the message I'm sure he said hung up and dropped into the swivel chair alas Babylon was a private family signal when they were boys he and Mark used to sneak up to the back of the First afro-repose Baptist
• 28:30 - 29:00 church on Sunday nights to hear preacher Henry calling down Hellfire and Damnation on the sinners in the big cities preacher Henry always took his text out of the revelation of Saint John it seemed that he ended every lurid verse with alas Babylon in a voice so resonant you could feel it if you rested your fingertips gently on the Warped Pine Boards of the church Randy and Mark would Crouch under the rear window behind the pulpit fascinated and wide-eyed while preacher Henry described the Babylonian Rebels including
• 29:00 - 29:30 fornication sometimes preacher Henry made Babylon sound like Miami and sometimes like Tampa for he condemned not only fornication he read the word right out of the Bible but also horse racing and the dog tracks Randy could hear him yet and I'm telling you right now all wife swappers whiskey Drinkers and crap Shooters are going to get it and all them who come out of those sin palaces on the beach whether they be called hotels or motels wearing minks and
• 29:30 - 30:00 jewels and not much else they is going to get it and then fast steppers and Cadillacs and y'all are roadsters they is going to get it and just like it says here in the good book that great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple and Scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and Pearls that great city was burned off the face of the Earth in an hour just one hour alas Babylon either preacher Henry was too old or the afro-roposed congregation had tired of
• 30:00 - 30:30 his scolding and awful prophecies for he no longer preached except on those Sundays when apha reposes new Minister a light-skinned college graduate was out of town Randy and Mark never forgot preacher Henry's thundering and from it they borrowed their private synonym for disaster real or comic past or future if one fell off the dock or lost all his cash at poker or failed to make time with a promising pistolville piece or announced that hurricane or freeze is on the way the other commiserated with alas
• 30:30 - 31:00 Babylon but in this telegram it had a very special and exact meaning Mark had secured leave at Christmas last season and flown down with Helen and the two children Ben Franklin and Peyton for a week on their last evening at Fort Repose after the others were in bed mark and Randy had set here in his office peering into the Bourbon decanter and the Deep anxieties of their hearts trying to Divine the future Christmas had been a time of troubles a
• 31:00 - 31:30 time of confusions at home and tensions abroad but in his whole life Randy could not recall no other sort of time there had always been depression or war or threat of War Mark who was in Sac intelligence had rolled the old-fashioned Globe three feet through from its place in the window Bay so that the desk lamp shown on it it was a globe purchased by their grandfather the Diplomat before the first World War so the countries some with unfamiliar
• 31:30 - 32:00 names seemed oddly scrambled the continents and seas were the same which was all that mattered as Mark talked his face became grave almost gaunt and his index finger traced great circle Roots across the cracking surface missile and bomber trajectories he then drew a rough chart with two lines that intersected the line that continued upward after the intersection belonged to the Soviet Union and the time of the intersection was right then how did it happen Randy had asked where
• 32:00 - 32:30 did we slip it wasn't a lack of money Mark had replied it was a state of mind Chevrolet mentalities shying away from a spaceship World nations are like people when they grow old and Rich and fat they get conservative they exhaust their energy trying to keep things the way they are and that's against nature oh the services were to blame too maybe even Sac we designed the most beautiful bombers in the world and built them by the thousands we improved and modified
• 32:30 - 33:00 them each year like new model cars we couldn't bear the thought that jet bombers themselves might be out of style right now we're in the position of the Federal Navy with its wooden Steam for gates up against the Confederate Ironclad a state of mind that money alone won't cure what will Randy asked men men like John Erickson to invent a monitor to face the Merrimack bold men audacious men tenacious men impatient Oddball men
• 33:00 - 33:30 like rickover pounding desks for his Atomic sub ruthless men who will fire the deadheads and the ass kissers rude men who will tell the unimaginative business as usual seven carbon sons of should go take a jump at a Galloping Goose young men because we've got to be a young country again if we get that kind of men we may hack it if the other side gives us time will they Mark could spend the globe and Shrugged I don't know if I think the balloon is about to go up
• 33:30 - 34:00 I'm going to send Helen and the kids down here when a man dies and his children die with him then he is dead entirely leaving nothing to show do you think they'd be safer here than in Omaha after all we've got Jack's Naval Air complex to the north of us and Homestead of Miami to the South and Eglin to the Northwest and MacDill in Tampa to the southwest and the missile test center at Cape Canaveral to the East and McCoy in Orlando right at the front door only 40 miles off what about
• 34:00 - 34:30 Fallout there isn't any place that'll be absolutely safe with Fallout and radiation it'll be luck the size and configuration of the weapons altitude of the fireball direction of the wind but I do know Helen and the children won't have much of a chance in Omaha Sac headquarters has got to be the enemy's number one target I'll bet they've programmed three five Megaton ICS per offit and since our house is eight miles from the base any kind of near-miss does it Mark snapped his fingers like that
• 34:30 - 35:00 not that I think it'll do the enemy any good command automatically shifts to other combat control centers and anyway all our crews know their targets but they'll hit Sac headquarters hoping for temporary paralysis a little delay is all they'll need I'll have to be there at offit in the hole but the least a man can do is give his children a chance to grow up and I think they'd have a better chance here in Fort Repose than Omaha so if I see it's coming and there is time I'll send Helen and the kids down here and I'll try to give you a warning so
• 35:00 - 35:30 you can get set for it how Mark smiled I won't call up and say hey Randy the Russians are about to attack us phones aren't secure and I don't think my CNC or the air staff would approve but if you hear alas Babylon you'll know that's it Randy had forgotten none of this talk a week or so later thinking about Mark's words Randy had decided to go into politics he would start in the state legislature and in a few years be ready to run for Congress he'd be the kind of leader Mark
• 35:30 - 36:00 wanted it hadn't worked out that way he couldn't even beat Porky Logan a gross man whose vote could be bought for 50 bucks who bragged that he had not got beyond the seventh grade but that he could get more New Roads and state money for tamukwon County than any half-baked radical undoubtedly backed by the Burr heads in the NAACP who didn't even know that the Supreme Court was controlled by Moscow so Randy's Fiasco had been inspired by that night and now the night bore something worse he wondered what
• 36:00 - 36:30 Mark was doing in Puerto Rico and why his warning had come from there it should have come from Washington or London or Omaha or Colorado Springs rather than San Juan it was true that Sac had a big base raymie in Puerto Rico but it was no use guessing he'd know at noon of one thing he was certain if Mark expected it to come it would probably come his brother was no alarmist Randy sometimes allowed emotions to distort logic but Mark never did Mark was
• 36:30 - 37:00 capable of calculating odds in war or poker to the final decibel which was why he was a deputy chief of intelligence at sac and would soon have his star Randy knew that there were a thousand things he should be doing but he couldn't think of any of them he became aware of a Roomba rhythm in the living room and presently Missouri skated into view feet bundled with waxing cloths shoulders moving and hips bouncing with elephantine Elegance intent on her polishing he yelled Missouri
• 37:00 - 37:30 yes sir her foreign motions stopped but her hips continued to wobble and feet Shuffle quit that strutting and make up the three bedrooms on the front Colonel Bragg's family will be here tomorrow oh ain't that nice just like last year no not like last year the Colonel's not coming with him just Mrs Bragg and Ben Franklin and Peyton Missouri peered through the door at him Mr Randy you don't look good them telegrams are yellow death you get bad news or something ain't nothing happened
• 37:30 - 38:00 to Colonel Mark no I'm driving over to McCoy to meet him at noon oh that's good how come the children up north get out of school so quick I don't know I'll dust good and make up the beds and put towels and soaps in the bathrooms just like last year thanks Mizzou that's fine Caleb is going to be happy to see Ben Franklin Missouri said Caleb was Missouri's son and just Ben's age 13. last year Randy had let them take the boat out on the River fishing just as Randy as a boy had fished with Caleb's Uncle Malachi except that 20
• 38:00 - 38:30 years ago the boat was a skiff powered by muscle and oars instead of a Sleek fiberglass job with a 30 horse kicker Missouri gathered up her cleaning materials and left Randy alone with his nightmare he shook his head but he didn't wake up the nightmare was real slowly he forced his mind to function slowly he forced himself to imagine the unimaginable he must make a list of things Helen and the children would need he recalled that there was nothing stocked in the big kitchen downstairs
• 38:30 - 39:00 and the little utility room except some steaks in the freezer and a few canned Staples my God if there was going to be a war they'd need stocks of everything he looked at his watch he had yet to shave and dress and he must allow an hour and a half for the drive to McCoy 10 miles south of Orlando when you considered the main highways clogged with tourists and Orlando's infuriating and hopeless traffic tangle on a sunny payday less than three weeks before Christmas and there might be some delay at the
• 39:00 - 39:30 McCoy gate he decided to give himself two hours on the road still he could start the list and there was one thing he should do right away Ben Franklin drank a quart of milk a day and Peyton his 11 year old sister even more he telephoned golden Dew Dairy and revised his delivery order drastically upward this was Randy's First Act to meet the emergency and it was to prove the least useful