It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

 

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

The pounding on the doors, the words, “Open up in the name of the law.”

Juan Johnson who had been lying in the dark, in his little bed at the back of the house, half asleep, retained only a sense of explosions, a smell of something burning, papa up front saying he didn’t know anything of these Usaians and besides, he was a honest carpenter and what could they—

And mama! Mama, who had never left dad alone in any difficulty, Mama who rarely left the house without him and never at night, had gotten Juan and Angelita out of their beds, in the dark, wrapping the baby and putting her in a sling, and dressing Juan, fast, so fast that she’d put a sock of each color on his feet.

This still bothered him, as they ran down the alley in the night, and then up another alley, all staying away from the police.

Juan could hear other pounding and “Open up—”

And fragments of other sentences, too, “Forbidden,” and “Dangerous elements” and “Seditious ideology.”

Juan knew what “dangerous elements” were. He was only ten, but Mama and Papa had taught him home and he’d been allowed to read a lot of dad’s old books, the sort of thing they no longer taught in the school. Dangerous elements were things like Uranium and other things that gave off radiation that could kill you. Why the police would be looking for it, he didn’t know.

He did not however have any idea what Seditious ideology meant.

He repeated the words to himself as mama stopped in a dark alley, by a flyer. It wasn’t their flyer, but then Mama rarely drove their flyer, and she certainly never burned its genlock clean off, reaching in before it could do more than emit a bzzzt and burning something else, murmuring to herself as though to remember a list, “Alarm off,” Then went in, leaving Juan alone at the entrance for a moment. She came back and threw something to the floor. Juan didn’t know what it was – pieces of something electronic. “Tracker,” Mama said.

She pulled Juan in with one hand, and closed the door, then sat him in a seat, and – strangely – put the sling with Angelita around him. The baby was only three months old, but Juan was a slim boy and the sling – and the baby – very big and very heavy. He thought of protesting, but Mama looked as though she would start to cry, so he said nothing. He let Mama put the harness over both of them, and saw her consult a paper in Papa’s handwriting as she sat the coordinates.

Moments later they were in the air, and Juan might have dozed, but he woke with the flare of explosions, and the shaking as Mama sent the flyer careening side to side.

“Mama!” he said.

“Say it, Juan, say it, my little Juanito.”

“I pledge allegian—”

Mama made a sound. It wasn’t quite laugh and not quite a cry. “Not that one. The other one. The human events one.”

Juan blinked. He’d learned all these from as soon as he could speak. The only time dad was really strict was in making sure he remembered everything, every single word. And the meaning. All the meaning. “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God—”

An explosion came very close, making them shake and showing Mama’s face, very pale and marked with trails as if she’d cried a lot. He hadn’t heard her cry. How could she cry so silently.

“Nature’s God?” Mama prompted.

“Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness—”

Mama sobbed then, but didn’t say anything but “Go on,” so Juan did, as explosions rocked the small flyer, and Mama, finally, just took them really low, and did something, and pulled Juan out after her, but never took the baby sling of him, and she pushed him against a wall and put her hand over his mouth, while the flyer lifted off again and flew a programmed course.

“It was only a second,” Mama said. “Only a second. Maybe they won’t notice.”

But then she was pulling Juan, and running down an alley, and then another.

Juan heard heavy boots after them, and was surprised when Mama pulled out a burner and shot a man down. Juan didn’t have a very clear idea of what happened then, save the man fell, and mama pulled Juan after her again.

…….. Story to continue as soon as the author has slept a couple more hours and can see the screen. Maybe now it will let her sleep. MAYBE.

UPDATE: I still had to fight to sleep, but I couldn’t write with my eyes crossing. I am going to get some coffee, and then I finish it.  I’m thinking of opening this to the fandom with the future history and “Usaians” anthologies.  The stories of those keeping the faith in dark times.  Okay, coffee now.

53 thoughts on “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”

  4. “…that among these are…”

    That “among” is important. We tend to cite the list of three without noting there are others not present that we are to understand exist.

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  5. Juan knew what “dangerous elements” were. He was only ten, but Mama and Papa had taught him home and he’d been allowed to read a lot of dad’s old books, the sort of thing they no longer taught in the school. Dangerous elements were things like Uranium and other things that gave off radiation that could kill you.

    Nice capture if child think.

    Great hook, excellent cliff hanger.

    Rest well, and write some more. Your demanding audience wants to know more.

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      4. As I was standing in the street,
        As quiet as could be,
        A great big ugly man came up
        And tied his horse to me.

        ;-)

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  16. It’ll just take a couple more like this to make it happen in some places.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/two-nypd-officers-shot-in-patrol-car-1419112127?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

    Absent the flying car, we could see that story next year in the USA in cities like New York, Chicago etc.

    Cars already have “trackers” in them. They’re called Sirius Radio, SYNC, OnStar, LoJack, TomTom, and a few more things. Also called “iPhone” etc.

    Learning how to disable such things with a pair of side-cutters might be the subject of some google searches this holiday season. Advance warning, its going to take more than a hot minute to find and clip those wires on most cars. According to my research it can be done, but it takes an afternoon.

    I get around the whole issue by keeping an old 1960’s car. Throw your phones etc. in a Faraday cage and you are off the grid. When they start trying to ban the use of pre-2008 cars on the road, you’ll know its serious. Be looking for that move in the next ten years. It’ll be some eco-BS, it’ll be “for the children”, but it will be so they can watch-and-tax you.

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    1. If they’re still baking it into the radio, like my 06 GMs onstar, you can shut it down by yanking a fuse; for a lot less effort in an emergency than ripping your dash apart. The longer term paranoid option would just be to replace it with an aftermarket radio and not connect the onstar bit when you do so.

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      1. In a 2006 that would likely do it. In a 2010, maybe.

        But maybe not. The radio is a lot more integrated with the rest of the systems these days. I’ve been seeing hacks on the web that use the SIRIUS/XM sat link to apply the brakes, throttle etc.

        Plus, do you want to bet that the cell technology to “phone home” isn’t baked into aftermarket radios too? I kinda think it might be part of the basic chipsets all radios are made from these days. The whole radio is the size of a dime including the antenna, the chip for it is the size of kosher salt. 16gb of data storage can be inserted into the cut-off end of a USB cable, by a guy in his basement. Try Hack-A-Day for elucidation.

        If they want it in there, and they do, you’re not going to find it easily. That’s not paranoia, that’s an assessment of the technology available and the clearly stated intent of the current government.

        They also want self driving cars, and they want ’em bad. Just think JohnnyCab. JohnnyCab isn’t going to be your friend.

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  17. Excellent story!

    Not to be a pain, but you have one typo where it’s important, and you’ve cut and pasted it several times now — “as she SAT the coordinates.” Should be “set,” but obviously your fingers carried over the correct “sat him in a seat” earlier in the paragraph.

    Of course, if she satellited the coordinates, my proofreading is invalid. ;)

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          1. My honored father came up with the stuff. It was purported to be decaf Earl Gray. Whatever it was, I had to get a cola on the way to early service or I’d have fallen asleep during the processional!

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            1. Nod, there are some teas that have been de-caffeinated. I use some de-caf tea to brew ice-tea. I have problems if I drink caffeinated stuff in the evenings.

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            2. My mother once slipped me decaf tea instead of my regular, in order to beat me at cards. Took me several games to figure it out.

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                2. Probably doesn’t have that much effect on “normal” people, but I have a pretty serious caffeine habit.

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                  2. No, they just calm me enough to exist around civilization. On the day in question, I hadn’t slept well, and the caffeine was actually contributing to awareness.

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                  3. It happens to me when I hit the caffeine wall of ‘too much, not working any more, brain shutting down no matter what you do.’

                    I had to slowly come off of the crazy tolerance level I had so caffeine would actually become effective again.

                    I was starting to do the same thing my dad did, which was shake the instant coffee into the mug, about a cm worth.

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                4. Wayne, I notice if I haven’t had caff, in part because I get a nasty headache. I quit caffeine cold turkey when I go to Europe (since my access will be limited), and the headaches plus jet lag make for a lovely first day on the ground.

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                  1. Robert loved Portugal because of the caffeine. EVERY store in Porto (I swear) including shoe stores and bookstores ALSO sells espresso. getting my son to go a block is… interesting. “No, no. I need to check THIS store’s espresso, too.” Head>desk.

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                    1. The first time I ever had espresso was our first stopover in Dubai. I picked it because someone needed to be coherent and awake while flying with (thankfully easy to care for) then infant daughter. It was thick and delicious and very Arabian.

                      I also did not sleep for the next 72 hours. By the time I DID go down again, I did not wake for a solid 15 hours. Fortunately, all my mom had to do when it was time to feed the little one was to tuck her against my boob and my arm around her. I’m told I did not move at all in that 15 hours of …sleep.

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                  2. Lord, yes. When I was in the hospital, they kept wondering why I was in such bad shape the first week. Cold turkey off caffeine does that.

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                  3. “Caffeine alone or combined with other drugs can relieve tension-type and migraine headaches in some people, by blocking adenosine receptors and blood vessels which result in the release of excitatory [brain chemicals called] neurotransmitters, and constriction of blood vessels in the brain.

                    “People are generally aware that caffeine is found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate, but may not know that caffeine is also contained in a variety of over the counter medications such as Excedrin and Anacin, and prescription drugs as butalbital combinations (such as Fiorinal and Esgic) contain caffeine.

                    “As an example, an eight ounce cup of brewed coffee contains 135 mg caffeine, eight ounces of Lipton tea has 35-40 mg, 12 ounces of Coca-Cola has 45 mg, and Excedrin (and Excedrin migraine, which have the same ingredients) contains 65 mg.

                    “About 50 percent of people who consume more than 200 mg of caffeine daily may develop caffeine withdrawal headaches when they suddenly stop caffeine, which can also be associated with nausea, depression and flu-like symptoms. Some people are quite sensitive, and can have withdrawal even after regular consumption of 100 mg daily.”
                    http://www.livescience.com/35949-caffeine-causes-cures-headaches.html

                    Like any addiction, withdrawal — especially cold turkey — is painful.

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            3. Tried decaf Earl Gray once. No caffine might have been tollerable, but the tea itself was just plain disgusting. It was so bad I don’t care what anyone says about their brew I’ll never try another.

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