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It was a Sunday in East McFarland, which meant Judge Jefferson attended church. A horse and trap picked her up. She greeted her friend, ‘Hello, Officer Norbert.’
‘Good morning, Judge. You haven’t forgotten my official title is Officer Stillman?’
‘I haven’t forgotten, Norbert, but we are long past the old formalities.’
He smiled, ‘Are you comfortable enough for the full Sunday tour first?’
‘Yes. Thank you.’
They set off in the horse and trap, which Officer Norbert had cleaned and polished as usual and set off around the perimeter of East McFarland. Based on the information Brady Mahone had passed on to the late Professor Chu in those first few weeks after the GreenRevs Revolution back in ’84, the Professor was quick to spot the danger of GreenShell™ encroachment - as he had christened it. He carried out experiments using abandoned properties on the town’s outskirts and deduced that if a green area was left unattended for more than precisely seven days, then the GreenShell™ would reclaim the land. Sometimes, he noted, that just a garden would be reclaimed. He began the daily checks to ensure any dead were removed and replaced quickly with the living.
In conjunction with Judge Audre Jefferson, he developed a systematic plan to ensure that the perimeter’s must always be occupied - even if that required the townsfolk to relocate there from the properties in the central areas.
Sixteen years on, the town was populated in a doughnut shape, with the few hundred residents living on the outer edges of their territory, and the central areas deserted.
It was a particularly delightful Californian summer’s day, and although everybody in any of the Trad areas hated to admit it, the climate had undoubtedly improved, markedly. She occasionally stopped to talk to her people if she spotted them in the garden. The youngest person in the town was sixteen, there were no more small children. Most of the population was elderly in appearance, if not in the number of years, as the living conditions they had endured had prematurely aged them. Still, they were grateful that they lived in the sunny climes of California. At church, on Sundays, they always counted their blessings. She often wondered how those who lived in harsher climates might have survived. She reasoned that they didn’t.
Officer Norbert pulled up the horse and trap at regular intervals, to give a people the chance to stroke his horse, Palladino, and also for them to talk to Judge Jefferson, at the same time. She was a beloved and respected figure in the town, but her fading health caused much consternation, as she was the towns talisman, and they felt sure that the town’s fate would be sealed with her demise.
It made her dwell on what had happened in all those other lost areas of the Traditional Cultures, and she guessed that the death knell for such places probably rang out loud and clear, when their chosen leaders died. She didn’t want to think about what happened in the more dystopian and violent places - sometimes ignorance was bliss.
After a couple of hours of travelling around the outskirts of the town, they pulled up in front of the church. Officer Norbert helped Audre out of the carriage and supported her as she struggled into church on her two sticks. She never let her pain become evident to her people, as she loved to sing the hymns loudly, and to the amusement of her fellow townsfolk, she would shout Amen if the priest made a significantly positive statement. This was something he always bore in mind when constructing his Sunday sermon.
After the church service was done for another week. Officer Norbert and Judge Jefferson would ride to the southern edges to the bus stop, to check if there had been any further messages from Brady Mahone. She had given thought about ending his banishment, but even after sixteen years, his brutal violence could not be forgotten or forgiven by her fellow citizens. He scared them, and his return into the heart of East McFarland would be treated as an ill omen by them.
She had read the latest letter he had left, which was written in an unknown hand. It was well-written, and she wondered how Brady had befriended someone with obvious high intelligence. From the description of the events in Encinitas, including Brady’s showing off to a waitress, she feared that his knuckle-headed attempts at showing-off might come back to haunt him - but that was Brady all over.
They used the Sundays to visit the bus stop because the horse and trap could carry anything left there. She was not to be disappointed on this day. Brady had left two boxes of documentation. Officer Norbert Stillman dutifully loaded them next to Judge Jefferson and then started on the return trip to her home.
She opened the lid and examined the index numbers on the folders. They were the numbers she had hoped to find. She was excited. She knew she had the missing piece to her complex puzzle - all she needed to do now was to fit them into the right places. Brady had given her a sense of personal fulfilment to supplement and allow her to conduct her civic duty.
She said, ‘It won’t help us, other than give us the satisfaction of how and why it happened. Brady has done as I had requested.’
Over the sound of the clip-clopping of hooves, Officer Norbert said, ‘I’m pleased for you. I’ve seen a pick-up in your wellbeing since you’ve been working on this project of yours.’
‘When I’m done, I’ll tell you everything I’ve found in here - just in case anything happens to me.’
‘Nothing will happen to you, Judge. You’ll go down with the ship.’
She laughed, ‘I’m not sure that analogy of yours brings me comfort Officer Norbert.’
He laughed, ‘Words have never been a strong suit of mine.’
They pulled up in the driveway of Judge Jefferson’s home. He brought in the boxes and listened carefully as she instructed him precisely where to put each document wallet. He followed her instructions to the number as well as the letter. He helped her into her wheelchair. She didn’t notice him drift away for a few moments as she was engrossed in her latest addition to her greatest investigation.
Officer Norbert, without asking, washed and put away her most recent collection of dirty dishes. He cleaned her kitchen and then made her some lunch with black coffee. He laid it out on a table away from her precious piles of documentation. She looked up, and she had a tear in her eye when she spotted his acts of kindness. Before she could even thank him, he raised his hand and said, ‘It’s the least I can do, after all, you’ve done for us.’ He left quickly, he was old-school, he didn’t want to discuss his emotions.