Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:08:21 +0000 (GMT)
From: Jonas Henley <jonas_henley@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: The Mackey Chronicles, Chapter 01-c

Kids of Indian Spring -- The Mackeys
By Jonas Henley


Chapter 01-c
A Brief History of the Mackeys of Indian Spring in America
Modern Times


Hester again became a recluse through her pregnancy. She gave birth in 1961
to a girl she named Tabitha. She put the girl up for adoption almost
immediately. Angus went by a couple of days later, though they did not have
any sexual encounter. They sat at her table in her cabin, and he held her
hand. He could sense that he was only holding a part of her, and there was
something else there -- something sad, something colder and distant.

She said little, and Angus finally got up to leave, saying he would be back
in the morning. He came by the next morning about 10 am, and she was not
there, probably out for a walk. He returned in the afternoon, and she was
still not there, and no sign that anything in the cabin had been moved. It
was the same when he visited in the evening, although this time he fell
asleep on her cot. She did not return in the night.

Angus continued visiting daily for another two weeks, but Hester did not
return, nor was there any sign that she had. For another two months he
would visit once or twice a week, but it soon became apparent that Hester
had left for good. Angus was deeply saddened and mourned the loss of
someone who he could not completely call friend or lover, though she was
the best he had had of either. In time, Angus was able to move on. Within
five years he had met and then married another woman, though they had no
children.

The rape of Hester had a dampening effect on the Choosings and sparked
among the Mackey a re-evaluation of the sexual mores of their
young. Several families turned to a more conservative Christian view that
was sweeping the States, including Clarence and some of his children,
especially Randall and Harrison. It made a huge impact in 1961 after the
disappearance of Hester, and in 1962 the community was becoming bitterly
divided on social change. In 1963, with tensions high within the Deep
Mackey and Very Deep Mackey areas, 12 year old Hollis Mackey got together
with five of his cousins to make a deal.

Hollis had grown up with his single mother, who increasingly resisted the
attempts of Theo and Dylan to be surrogate father roles, and kept her son
more isolated than was healthy. She just couldn't move on from losing
Jacob, and thought Hollis' grandfather Cleveland was a vile man, though he
kept control financially of her ability to get out. Still she sheltered
Hollis as best she could from all family influences. As a result, Hollis
took whatever influence he could see and tied it together in his mind to
define himself.

Because if the loss of his father and the violence toward Hester, the loss
of which he could see in the eyes of `Uncle' Theo and `Uncle' Angus, he
became a pacifist. He learned the value of sacrifice through Dylan, the
importance of clear community boundaries from his Grandfather, the
destruction of greed and selfishness from his cousin Elijah, and the
innocence and lack of malice in willing boy-boy sex relationships that he
heard in tales of his father and Garrett. The latter he got one day when he
was 11 and sorely pressed his `Uncle' Garrett for stories, after getting
him to sample several swallows of his first batch of moonshine (Hollis and
Will, Michael's oldest son, began learning this trade in secret when they
were 10, using Hester's old land and greenhouse as their base).

It was all of these influences combined that made Hollis realize what he
could do. He had already started fooling around with Will one year
earlier. It started off after they had gotten drunk off their first batch
that they felt safe enough to try when they were 11 (Garrett's stories
having provided the fuel). Then they began to experiment sober. Eventually
they tried fucking when they were 12, Hollis was still hairless, though his
balls were dropping, and Will barely had his first hairs. They decided it
was all right, somewhat fun in its own right, but not ball busters
fun. They didn't do it all the time, but every now and then, they would get
horny enough to rut.

In the summer of 1963, Hollis presented his idea of self-sacrifice to
Will. At first, Will balked; however, it only involved embarrassment on
Will's part, if everything went according to plan, and he eventually agreed
to help Hollis enlist some others. They next got their cousin Camden, also
12, but turning 13 in two months, to reluctantly agree. Camden was the
oldest son of Tyler, who was Clarence's oldest son. His mother was a
fundamental Baptist and kept her boys on a relatively short lease. Camden
would only agree to the plan if he was guaranteed not to be picked, and he
wanted to try something. Will and Hollis figured out what the `something'
was that he wanted to try, and both agreed to let the boy sink his 4 inches
of newly cum laden dick in their asses several times before he said he
would go along with the idea. He opened up both boys' asses more than
either had done for the other, and it was Will's first time to feel actual
cum
 shoot in his ass.

They had made sure that Camden wouldn't claim either ass as his right
before they started, and he kept up his end of the deal -- keeping the end
up was the operative phrase, unfortunately. Next on the list was Gary
Sanders, only a month away from 13. There was no way he would do it, but
capitulated when Hollis agreed that Gary could have access to his ass
whenever he wanted, regardless of the outcome. Lastly came the identical
twins Trent and Terry Mackey. They were only 11 and a half and still
hairless with 3 inch dicks at their hardest, but both already had dropped
balls with testicles large enough to let their pediatrician tell their mom
that they would be going through a growth spurt and rapid changes any day
now. The twins agreed after being presented with the facts of `do it now
while you'll be protected' or `risk it later when you might get chosen.'

The biggest downside for Hollis was knowing that his cousin Elijah would be
one of the first to hear the plan. Surprisingly, Elijah treated him with
more respect afterward. The plan was therefore presented to the almost
defunct committee, who were all amazed at the boys and unable to figure out
why they would do this. It was Hollis that answered.

"Because it should be done. The whole point of this came out of fun and
sharing and bonding, not revenge or punishment or anything like that. And
our community's falling apart, just like the rest of the country seems to
be. We're saying we'll do it cause we should. So get the word out and let
everybody watch."

It was at this point that several of the boys pulled Hollis aside. The deal
wasn't that everyone would get to watch, just the committee. Hollis finally
calmed then, sort of, and appealed to them to man-up and show some courage
in sacrifice for their community. He then went back to the committee and
presented his whole plan, including the caveat that the committee should
choose this year, and then at the next Choosing, they could go back to the
boys picking. Elijah decided that his brother, 12 year old Amos, should be
included also, knowing that with that many boys presenting their asses,
tradition stated they could choose two bottoms, and Elijah planned on his
little brother being the second one. However, that whole plan was quickly
nixed after Jeb found out about it.

And so it was, that Hollis restarted the Choosing, albeit with some new
protocols that protected the bottom. Hollis, Will, Camden, Gary, Trent, and
Terry nervously stripped off their clothes in front of the 37 boys that had
shown up from among the Near, Deep, and Very Deep Mackey clan (including
some Sanders, Corbin, and other related), as well as 11 boys from outside
Indian Spring, part of the Mackey Tenth Kinset. All six boys were acutely
embarrassed as they stepped up to the Choosing logs and bent over, reached
back and spread their cheeks, willing exposing their cleaned and proffered
holes to the cheering crowd.

Elijah stood up and addressed the boys, saying that since this restart was
an act of sacrifice, they would honor the boys' request that the Council
choose. Many of the boys booed, but Elijah reassured them that next year
they would return to the traditional method of choosing. With that being
said, he loudly announced that he chose his little cousin, Hollis, and
back-smacked the boy's ass hard as he made his declaration. A cheer went up
with the crowd at the start of the actual choosing. Elijah kept his hand on
Hollis' ass, giving it a good feel and squeeze, while he waited for the
cheers to die down.

"As the first to place my vote on him, if Hollis is chosen, I will choose
the first boy to go up his bottom and fill his ass with cum."

Another cheer went up from the audience. Elijah was working them to a
frenzy to ensure some momentum for continuing this next year.

"Now, let's let the rest of the council members vote. The boy with the most
smacks will be our bottom. If there is a tie, then we'll have a run-off."

The next older boy walked up behind Gary Sanders and smacked his ass
hard. The boy's eyes lit up first in surprise and later in terror. What if
they actually chose him? They could do whatever they wanted now, no matter
what he had agreed to with Hollis. Getting to use Hollis' ass was certainly
not worth having his own used by every boy in Indian Spring. Camden was the
next to be surprised when he felt his ass get slapped. He turned beet red
from the incredible rush of fear and embarrassment running through him,
driving out the existing humiliation, though that was sure to drift back in
after the initial sting went away. He gave a malevolent look to both Will
and Hollis, bent over next to him on his left. The two boys returned an
apologetic look with a slight shrug.

The fourth slap also landed on Camden's ass, putting the boy in the lead
and only serving to make him angrier. But he kept it bottled in. Camden
closed his eyes when heard the fifth and final Council member walk up. He
jumped when he heard the sound of the slap -- but where did it land? If
that slap landed on a boy that had not yet been smacked, then he, Camden,
would still have the highest smacks and therefore be the Chosen bottom. He
looked in panic at Will on his left, but breathed a huge sigh of relief
when Will informed him that Hollis got smacked.

"He thinks they're just putting on a show," Will said, hoping to ease
Camden's worries.

"Thinks?"

Elijah walked up and excused the twins and Will, telling them that they
could get dressed and join the others. The boys didn't waste any time doing
so.

"What about me?"  Gary asked, "I only got one slap, they both got two."

"Yes, Hollis and Camden are tied and have more than you, but tradition
allows us to demand a blowjob for every smack you received." Elijah spoke
loud enough so that all the boys could hear, and he received a huge round
of applause in return.

Gary and Camden both went pale and were unable to speak, thinking of the
horror of 1) putting their mouth on another boy's dick -- and probably be
made to eat their cum as well -- and 2) having to do it in front of all
these boys.

"However," Elijah went on loudly, after allowing the terror to sink in, "We
have decided to forgo that option this year, but not next year. Gary, you
can get up. But since you received a slap, you may not dress until after
the ceremony. If you have a complaint about it, then you can stay bent
over."

Gary decided he didn't want to complain; he was just happy it was almost
over and he didn't have to blow anybody. It would have been fun to see; but
Elijah knew he couldn't push his luck here, so he had reluctantly agreed to
let that go. Then he quietly said, so that only Hollis and Camden could
hear.

"Don't worry, Hollis, We plan on keeping our deal with you; we just wanted
a bit more of a show to kick-off the restart of the Choosings. I'm proud of
you and what you and your friends did."

"But?"  Hollis was surprised to hear this from Elijah. He was expecting
something dastardly from him. He had actually been nervous from the start
when he saw that the Council was going to let him run the show.

"We have a deal. You will be a bottom for the community. The Council will
choose, not the rest of the boys, and we will otherwise follow the dictates
of the principal traditions, one of which states that for you - since you
aren't a virgin and there was no choosing last year -- you will be a bottom
for the whole three years allowed. Now both of you remain where you are and
when I come back we will finish things up."

Hollis had pretty much expected that he would get the whole three years, as
he hadn't made any bargain on that end. So that wasn't bad for the other
shoe dropping. Camden breathed a huge sigh of relief; and, though he was
still embarrassed and back to feeling somewhat degraded and humiliated, he
felt better and had some color returning to his cheeks. His anger was also
dissipating.

"Sorry," Hollis whispered for his friend's discomfort.

"Just as long as it is over with soon, and I can just forget I ever agreed
to help you and Will."

But it wasn't over too soon. The Council let the boys sit there a good
while, five or ten minutes, which is an eternity when all you are doing is
just exposing your backside to the chance of having your hole invaded in
front of forty other boys. The rest of the boys were eager to see the end
as well, with some placing bets on the outcome, and others trying to get
their names on a list to be the first to fuck the loser.

"Are you ready for this Hollis?"  Camden asked.

"Yeah. I think so. I mean, what does it really matter what a boy does back
there? It's not like it's going to hurt me. No one outside the Mackey clan
will ever find out. So, it's not as bad, I think, as everybody makes out."

Camden just shook his head. The boy was fucking nuts.

Finally Elijah came back and set the jar of Vaseline on the log between the
two boys, something that made both of them very nervous, despite already
knowing what was about to go down. Elijah put a hand on each boys' ass,
grasping the nearest cheek and squeezing firmly. Both boys could feel the
tips of his fingers in their cracks, and they knew everyone could see it,
as well, especially as they heard the cheers and the crowd egging Elijah on
to finger them both. They felt the fingers slip in further and brush their
puckered anal tissue.

"You both have really nice holes. They look nice, just like your plump
asses, and they feel real nice, too."

At this point Elijah's fingers were dipping into the well of the muscle and
tugging at its edges. The boys could tell something else, too. Elijah had
already dipped his fingers into the Vaseline.

"So, Hollis, I'll be picking the boys that get to fuck you today, and then
after we'll go through the rules so you don't have 10 or 20 lining up
everyday for your ass. How many boys do you think you can take today?
Remember, we need a good show to make sure this gets accepted by the
community at large as a good restart."

Hollis thought about it, though he kept getting distracted by the finger
now digging into his hole and making him squirm. He guessed that he could
take three or four, if they weren't too big,"

"How about four then?"  Elijah asked as he was now dipping his finger in
and out just past the first knuckle.

"Oungh . . . O . .OK."

"Excellent; and you Camden, you have got one nice tight asshole! Damn, that
is going to feel good on some boy's dick."

Elijah was now moving his finger in and out of the holes up to the second
knuckle. And it was the most consistent warm, smooth, tightness he had
every felt. He sure wished he was eligible to fuck the two boys, though he
wasn't above working on amending that. Camden was surprised by the
statement, not really sure what it meant, though he was having a lot of
difficulty vocalizing that as he felt the finger moving in and out of his
hole. Part of it was humiliating, but part of it felt inexplicably
good. Both aspects put him at a loss for words and kept his mind confused.

"Are you still a virgin back here, Camden?"

"Wha-? Uh . . . yeah."

"Excellent! As you boys know, we agreed to only follow normal, regular
tradition, nothing too obscure or way out there. Well, tradition states
that with five boys, a second boy CAN be chosen, though isn't
always. Whenever there have been six boys, Council records show that there
has always been a second chosen, in one form or another. I know; I checked
the records yesterday. Bet you didn't know that there were written records,
huh?"

Elijah wasn't really supposed to tell them that there were written records;
it was a Council secret. He just couldn't help rubbing it in and making
them know that his authority would not be challenged. And rubbing it in was
exactly what he was doing as he pushed his middle finger in all the way up
both boys' asses, grinding the base of his hand into the base of the ass,
getting his finger in as deep as it would possibly go and twisting it,
before pulling out and repeating the same. Camden was half-processing what
Elijah had just hinted at, and it couldn't be true! However at the moment
he was having difficulty responding as he couldn't even seem to stop his
own ass from pushing back and grinding against the malicious finger. He was
even acutely more embarrassed when he inadvertently let out a groan, not
once -- but twice!!

"Oh yeah! You're gonna be ready for it!"  Elijah teased the boy, the same
as he kept teasing the hole.  "So the official word is, both of you boys
get to be bottoms, though in your case Camden it's just for one year,
renewable to two, depending on how next year's Choosing goes."

Camden's anger returned, but just as he was about to curse Elijah, Hollis
and everyone else, Elijah slipped a second finger in beside the first one
and made the boy yelp with surprise and the sudden pain he felt in the
stretch. Elijah just told him unsympathetically that he better get used to
it, because a real boy's dick was going to open him up even more. As he did
start to get used to it, the resistance within began to die. He was still
angry, but he knew his fate. No boy there was going to let him out of it.

"How many boys do you think you could take, Camden?"

The boy gave another grunt as the fingers bottomed out and yelled, "Three!"

His tone showed he was still angry, even though Elijah thanked him for
being a good sport and doing this for his community. For that Elijah was
going to let him pick which dick fucked him first, but it had to be an
older boy that could cum, and big enough to put on a nice show for
everyone. Camden had no idea.

"Maybe, I can make a suggestion? Bart Corbin. His dick is a nice size for
13, but not huge. Also, he's not too much older than you."

Bartholomew Corbin was Titus Corbin's younger brother. Camden would have
hoped for a nicer brother, like John or Matthew Corbin, since Bart was a
little more like Titus, though not quite as bad. He agreed though, and
Elijah made the announcement.

Just for the sake of the show, they made Camden go first, and he got
cheered as he moaned out when Bart's dick slid in and opened his pussy up,
slowly taking that cherry. No longer a virgin, all Camden could concentrate
on was not crying as he had his shame on display as another boy plunged all
the way up to his sparse pubic hairs, and then Camden just had to stay bent
over and take it as Bart picked up the tempo and fucked him in
earnest. Then he felt a new wash of shame as finally Bart's cum filled his
ass. The older boy announced it to all the closely gathered onlookers as
they cheered, with many patting Camden on the back for a job well done.

Though he felt ashamed and angry, everyone was treating him like a good
sport and a great stand-up guy, even though all he felt like at that moment
was a bent-over boy. It got even worse when Caleb Mackey (descendant of
Thom) got up and took his turn on Camden's backside. He was 13, as well,
and with a dick just slightly smaller than Bart's so that it was almost the
perfect second fuck. What made it worse was that it started to feel pretty
good, especially since Camden didn't jack off the last two days because he
was too nervous about today, and he was therefore charged-up and ready for
a cum. He unintentionally started fucking back, humiliated enough by his
own actions, but more so when a couple of boys noticed it and yelled out
that now he was really starting to like it.

The humiliation reached a peak when Caleb's brainy cousin Chase was given
next spot. Chase didn't want to do anything in front of all those boys, and
probably not even in private, as the barely 13 year old boy only had a stub
dick. It wasn't even 3 inches fully hard, but he could cum, and the dick
was surprisingly thick. He opened up Camden's hole even wider than Bart
had, except that because of his size, most of his action was right around
the very sensitive rim of muscle making up the asshole, coming out
frequently and punching a way back in, so that Camden's heretofore unknown
erogenous zone was getting quite the work out.

Camden felt a build-up coming and started desperately praying no, no, no,
no, no - even as he felt it coming. Not here, not in front of everyone, not
while this was going on!!!!!!!!

But his body wasn't listening to him; it was only paying attention to the
signals it was getting from his dick, balls, and ass, and right when Chase
managed some dexterity in fully entering the slightly younger boy and
keeping himself fully implanted while doing short stroke pounding, Camden
couldn't hold back the dam. His vision was blurry and he clamped his eyes
down tight as he yelled out "FUUUCCCKK" and shot a powerful load out from
his dick to beyond his own body, part of the end of the spray hitting his
own face, and equally unable to stop the next four strong spurts, he had to
let them go to the applause of everyone watching. They just made it worse
by congratulating him and patting him on the back and shoulders. The
Council had definitely chosen well, they all thought.

Chase just gripped the boy tighter in those last spurts that clenched down
on his fat stubby dick, as he made his last thrusts and added his smaller
load of sperm to the ones left by the prior two boys.

Hollis' adventure was almost a let down after the excitement of watching
Camden get fucked the first time, only to see the boy get so horrifyingly
excited he came just from being fucked -- well, unfortunately for Camden,
that was the story that came out of it. He did not, on the whole, enjoy the
experience. But his ass, since it was virgin, was pledged to Bart for three
years, Camden himself made to make the pledge, and to the community for one
year. Elijah put on the boy the blue band that Hollis had made and brought
for himself.

Bart enjoyed Camden's ass regularly the first six months or so, loading him
with cum up to four or five times a week, sometimes more, being the only
person that could ignore the limits. But then he backed off to only 2-3
times a week for the next couple of years. Camden's little brother, Nathan,
the same one that Camden use to tell to bugger off whenever he had his
friends around, was very excited when nine months later he had a few hairs
and could cum. He showed this to the Council and they ordered Camden to
bend over and let his little brother have his fun, making a special
allowance of one-a-day for Nathan, regardless of whether the limit for the
day or week had been reached.

Nathan spent every night the last three months of Camden's sentence fucking
his brother in their shared room, in every position imaginable, and getting
his nut up that ass every single night. At the end of Camden's sentence,
the Council was happy with the Choosing for that year, as they made Trent
and Terry repeat the process, since they were now officially 12 and had
really been in no danger of being picked the previous year (or so Elijah
argued in his last month on the Council), and then got both Twins turned
for one-on-one ownership. They made Matthew Corbin the official bottom,
much to Bart's delight. So that meant Camden could be let go of his
community obligations.

However, Nathan practically begged them to sentence the boy to another
year. Camden almost killed his little brother, but the Council agreed with
Nathan and told Camden if he tried anything, then they would raise the
daily and weekly limits and sentence him a third year. Camden made a lunge
for Nathan anyway, so they amended his sentence so that he would have to
thank Nathan after every time the younger boy fucked him.

It was months before Camden would speak to Hollis again, but eventually he
agreed to come down to the still with Hollis and Will. The three boys made
up and Will even let himself be bottomed at will with the other two as they
made the sexplay more of what it should have been in Indian Spring, at
least until they all grew older and grew out of it. They still met at the
still regularly, helping Hollis; but by the time they were 16, none had
interest or active participation in boy-on-boy sex. They were just old
friends having fun talking about sports, girls or cars while sitting around
sipping on Mason jars of shine.

Hollis' self-sacrifice, and the unintended sacrifice of his friend Camden,
worked. It made quite an impression on all the boys and most of the
families. A lot of tension in this area began to ease, and the Choosings
were started up again. They would run another 30 years before they started
to get questioned again amongst the families of Indian Spring.

For the next few years after this, the Council, buoyed by new support,
tried to extend its influence over rules and traditions into the Near
portion of Indian Spring. These attempts at extending the hegemony of power
were met with resistance on some levels and some developing power of the
non-Mackey Near side. For instance there was an influx of Irish families
after the Second World War, each resistant to being controlled by a
principally Scottish/English clan.

The Cormack family was one. They moved into the Spring and set up a
compound of sorts on the outer edge against the Northeastern-most line of
the proposed Village of Sweetwater development. The Lanham's, a Black Irish
family, settled up near the front of Indian Spring, by the Tuckers and the
O'Shaunessy's. The sons of each of these families greatly enjoyed some of
the traditions that Indian Spring had developed; with reservations against
some of the secondary issues. They enjoyed the White Parties of the Near
side that came from taking ideas originally injected into local Scouting
troops and refining them for the peculiar Indian Spring pastime, though
they rejected actual `ownership'. Each boy was willing to top other boys
for fun, but none of the Cormack, Lanham, or O'Shaunessy boys would go so
far as to `own' another boy. The Tucker and Allen families held similar
beliefs. They also liked the communal nature and strong sense of Outside
 vs Inside that the Mackeys had for Indian Spring, though they disagreed
with its strictness and definitely with the control of Mackeydom over the
whole of Indian Spring. Still as the newcomers, they bowed somewhat to the
predominance of influence the Mackeys had in defining what was and was not
Indian Spring..

Two other Black Irish families passed through Indian Spring during this
time. One family in the 1920's lived across the Near Mackeys and between
two Corbin households. The Byrne's had two sons and a daughter named
Alana. Alana eventually married Kyle O'Shaunessy after discovering the
delights of his well-trained big dick in secret from her family. She bore
him three children, Patrick in 1949, a pregnancy that had actually prompted
the marrying of the two 17 year olds, Elizabeth in 1953, and Katherine in
1955. While Patrick had inherited all the Black Irish features of his
mother, Elizabeth took after her father's mother, Hannah. Katherine was
more of a mix. When Patrick was 17, he also began a sexual relationship,
this one with the only daughter of the Black Irish Duffy family, distant
relatives of the Byrnes, but who only stayed in Indian Spring for 20 years
versus the 40 years of the Byrnes.

Another event that occurred in 1966, when Patrick was 17, was the second
push by the Mackey Council to extend their rules of ownership of deflowered
virgin boys and of community Choosings for bottoms. While the first idea
caught on somewhat, the idea of community Choosings met more opposition,
mainly from Patrick and a couple of older boys from the Radcliffe and Ford
families. The first round picks included two Irish boys, Seamus Lanham and
Michael Cormack, who weren't bending over without a fight, and two other
boys. A fifth boy who was also 12 and was best friends with Seamus and
Michael, was not picked because his father, Calvin Tucker, was busy helping
the Mackeys fight the re-emergence of timber interests in the Conservation
area and fight the newly-formed Village of Sweetwater's attempted use of
imminent domain in extending into traditional Indian Spring areas not
covered by the Conservation agreement.

Patrick won this fight, and then the next year as well when his little
cousin Jack Byrne and his best friend Jeremy Atkins were part of the second
and last aborted attempt at establishing the Choosing in Near Spring. This
second attempt also involved 12 year olds Steven Harris and Jonathan
Parker, though Patrick's nullification didn't exactly cover them. Two years
later, in 1968, Jack Byrne's little brother Connor (Connor Cormack's
namesake) was caught fooling around with the youngest Tucker boy Phillip,
and both were bent over side by side by some older boys and each filled
with cum twice in a row. Connor got no help avoiding the aftermath from
Patrick, though, as at this time Patrick was already fighting a different
fight, this one unwinnable, in Viet Nam. He fortunately returned unharmed
in 1971, when he married Eileen Duffy and left Indian Spring.

Still, in 1967, Jonathan Parker and Steven Harris were unfortunately left
as the only two for the second attempted Near Choosing after Jack and
Jeremy were protected by Patrick, and the Council decided to pick both of
them, even though they already had a Very Deep Mackey boy that had been
penetrated just yesterday. The Parker boys, Jonathan and his little brother
Elliot, were always adamantly against boy-boy sex and never wanted anything
to do with any of it. So the position he was in was especially humiliating,
and Jonathan nearly freaked out as he felt the 4 1/2 inches of teenage dick
slide into him. Steven Harris was already on his second dick, a much larger
5 incher belonging to 14 year old Jason Mackey (descendant of James III)
who was giving the plumper boy a really good fucking, going right through
the layer of cum just recently deposited by his 13 year old brother Ryan.

Before Wayne, who had just impaled poor Jonathan, could pull back and start
to fuck, 10 or 12 non-Mackey Indian Spring kids showed up and put a stop to
it. Wayne pulled out of Jonathan, but it was already too late for Steven as
the older Jason pulled him rough and hard onto his bigger dick and fired a
large load of semen into his rectum. Steven could feel the boy's balls
pressed up against him and could almost imagine feeling them pumping out
sperm into his butt. He stepped gingerly off to the side after being
`rescued' but couldn't look anybody in the face.

The problem was that though tensions among the Mackey were easing, they
were building up between the Mackey and the non-Mackey Springers. The
community was reflecting the beginning strife seen everywhere in the
country at that time. Several of the boys had brothers who had already been
called up to the war in Viet Nam; Jeremy Atkins' brother had already been
killed earlier that year, as had two of Beatrice Mackey's
great-grandchildren (Tenth Kinset Mackeys).

Barely into his 13th year, Hal Tucker stepped up between the two groups of
boys to negotiate a peaceful solution. It was the first of many
negotiations he would make to increase stability and peace in Indian
Spring. He wasn't as self-sacrificing as Hollis, but he did see the where
the conflict could be resolved.

More boys form both sides gathered as the arguments on both sides were
presented, or shouted, or otherwise put out there. Poor Steven Harris and
Jonathan Parker were made to stand there naked until agreements could be
reached. Eventually all the boys agreed, some more reluctantly than others,
to the peace negotiated by the dark-ruffled hair boy with the commanding
presence.

Hal allowed that any Near Spring boy that willingly took sperm up his
backside would owe favors to the boy that did it and to that boy alone, but
if an agreement to experiment together was reached, both boys would be
expected to follow through and neither would owe the other anything,
regardless if one boy could cum and the other not. If one of those boys
should get fucked by a different boy who could cum and did not have a prior
agreement for reciprocation, then the second boy to cum in his ass could
petition the Council for more limited rights to the ass.

They agreed that the Council would decide the above matter for either
Mackey or non-Mackey. Also, no non-Mackeys, that is no boy not directly
represented in a Kinset, could be held or coerced into a Choosing and could
not be bound by it even if he chose to participate. As well, no Choosing
ceremonies could be held in the Near Spring. Only Mackey boys from the
Choosing could be made to wear the blue bands; no insignia or anything else
could be forced on other bottom boys -- outside of White Parties. Finally,
no non-Mackey would interfere with the Choosings.

As for the White Parties, all activities would have to be held separate
from similar activities with the County Scouts. No County Scouts could
participate in an Indian Spring White Party without approval of the
Council. Nothing that happened in the White Parties could be discussed by
any participant outside of the actual party. The specific designations for
Blue, White, and Grey were given, and it was decided that instead of bands,
different colored underwear would be used. Also, the rules for writing
names on the Bottom, or Blue, boy's back was established, and the rules
involving oral at the Parties were discussed. They further made an
agreement that no bottom was allowed to wear White underwear at any time --
it was one of two points on which one of the older Mackeys with a secret
fetish for underwear had insisted, along with penalties for violating said
rule. The other point involved having to surrender and write your name on
the underwear, if the
 first boy that topped you at the party demanded it.

No bottom had to submit to any one more than three years older or anyone
over 16, if it was his first time with the bottom. No adults could be
involved. No one could make the bottom accept sex in front of anyone that
had not previously seen him bottom and never in front of an outsider unless
at a White Party allowed by the Council or specifically requested by the
bottom. No bottom could be put at risk of being seen by an adult unless
prior authorization of parents was given. No Mackey from the Tenth Kinset
was allowed any rights of access to a non-Mackey bottom, even at White
Parties or similar Scout events. Any non-Mackey could go as a Grey to
Scouts, unless their parents said otherwise, but only one Grey per family
was allowed at the local White Parties.

Next came rules about oral sex in the community, and the idea of ownership
there was banished outside of certain specially outlined obligations. And
then an adjustment in the make-up of the Council was agreed to; it would
consist of 4 -5 members all 16-20 years old and no more than 1 member from
any Kinset and at least two designations had to be met (they couldn't all
be from the Very Deep). In addition there had to be one non-Mackey Springer
on the Council who could be present at any meeting, including Mackey
affairs, but HAD to be present when any action against or for a Non-Mackey
was being taken. No written records could be kept on any non-Mackey boy,
and any bottom had right of redress to the Council at anytime to discuss
treatment or use of said Bottom.

Finally the boys came to agreements on territory, creek and swimming
rights, and the passage or banishment of non-Spring boys -- none being
allowed down at the creek. Also, outside of Indian Spring, any attack on a
Springer was an attack on the whole. If the Springer was at fault, it would
be handled by the Council. Bringing in outsiders anywhere was discouraged
by the Mackeys, and forbidden on Mackey lands by non-Mackey
Springers. Lastly, what happened in Indian Spring stayed in Indian
Spring. No exceptions.

After all the boys were in agreement hours later, 17 year old Bart Corbin,
who was running the Council, shook hands with Hal and asked if he were
truly willing to give his word and stand by the negotiations. He said he
was, and Bart exacted an agreement that the negotiations covered everything
from that point onward. Hal had an idea what that would mean -- it would
involve sacrificing Steven and Jonathan. However, he believed he could
still argue for them as a separate case, and he was unwilling to sacrifice
everything they had just spent so many hours trying to agree upon.

"Deal," said Hal while continuing to shake hands.

"What about me?"  Steven said meekly. He was covering his crotch with his
hands, ashamed for anybody to see his small hairless penis and balls. He
was doing all he could not to pee on himself or cry.

"He and the other kid belong to us, now," Bart said.  "You agreed that none
of our talks would cover what has already happened."

"Hold on," Hal said, "That's true, but we still should talk about it."

"What's there to talk about?"

"Well, for one, maybe you have a claim on their ass, but in the future, you
still can't use them as community bottoms."

Bart shook his head and was about to disagree, when one of the other
Mackeys on the Council spoke up, "He may be right, Bart. But we still
should be able to finish the ceremony; we started it before these
agreements."

Several of the other Mackeys voiced their support of this, and the
non-Mackeys began to rally against it. Hal raised his hands and silenced
them all.

"All right, first of all, you can't claim either one if you haven't fucked
them already, right?"

"They've both been fucked," Bart said with finality.

Hal looked at Steven who looked at the ground; everyone knew that that boy
had had at least one load of cum shot up his ass, most of the boys here
having seen Jason hit his orgasm while buried inside the boy. He looked
over at Jonathan who looked just as nervous, though angry as well, but he
was shaking his head slightly no.

"Jonathan," Hal asked, though he really felt weird asking things like this,
and never got comfortable using the language like other boys, "Did you get
fucked?"

"Yeah, I fucked him," Wayne Mackey said while looking smug and getting a
"Right on" or some other jive confirmation seen off a movie.

Jonathan shook his head again and said, "No. He, uh . . . he went up my
. . . . . "  He looked around nervously, not wanting to say this in front
of so many Mackeys and all the other non-Mackeys that he grew up with.  "He
went inside me, but he didn't . . . . uh . . . move in and out . . . any."

Bart didn't look happy, but just stood there shaking his head slightly.
"Is that true, Wayne? Did you not go in and out?"

"Well . . . I went in . . . . I mean, I was all the way up there, Bart."

"But not actually in and out?"

"Well . . . . I was going to, but all those guys stopped me. So . . . . uh
. . .  I should get to go back in."

Bart thought about it, though he still didn't look happy. Hal didn't say
anything. He didn't need to. Both the boys were going to have to be honest
and trust each other. It didn't mean they couldn't do some fancy
negotiations with or against each other, but there was going to have to be
some basis on rules.

"No, Wayne, you had your shot, and apparently you didn't shoot."  Bart got
some laughs, but then said, "Jonathan, get dressed. You're done."

Jonathan snatched up his clothes and asked angrily, "Can I just go?"

Hal nodded and Jonathan ran off, blushing and trying to ignore the laughs
behind him.

"All right," Hal said, "Now, what about Steven?"

"Oh, Steven's definitely been fucked. He belongs to the Mackeys," Bart
said.

"How about just to the first person that shot inside him?"  Kelley said.

"No, not good enough," Bart said.

"Both of us, then," Jason said.  "Me and my brother, Ryan."

Hal wasn't so certain of this, but apparently it also wasn't enough for
Bart. Hal could hear the dissent growing on his own side.

"You cannot take one single kid that isn't a Mackey and make him be the
only one of us that bottoms over there; and you've already agreed that no
one will unless fully and completely of their own will."

"But both Ryan and Jason are the first to cum in his ass, and we weren't
finished before you came up."

"How many more were you really going to have fuck him? How many does a
virgin on your side take?"

"Three to five, depends."

"Sometimes two?"

"Maybe."

"Then I think three times is fair."  Hal said, feeling a bit nauseous about
bargaining for another boy like this, but it was better than the
alternatives, and finally there was some peace accord amongst all the boys.

"Hal . . . " Steven started in slightly whining, mostly scared,
protest. But Hal waved him off and kept his concentration on Bart.

"And what's more," Hal said, "since we are in the spirit of these
negotiations together, I propose the third boy be one of ours."

There were boos and other negative declarations coming from some of the
Mackey boys, though not all. Too many knew what Hal's dad was doing even at
that moment against the Timber interests. Bart held up his hand to silence
them and disagreed, slightly.

"Fine. Three boys, but we'll let Wayne get his nut since he didn't get the
chance with Jonathan. Then Wayne, Jason, and Ryan will own him."

"No," Hal countered, "Jason and Ryan can, and one of our own. Wayne can
have one free fuck at a later date."

Bart thought about this and reluctantly agreed.

"I think the rest of the Council will back Bart," one of the boys said as
he stood up, "but we want to know just how much you believe in what you
say, Hal. You'll be the third boy."

"No . . I'm not --" Hal started to object, saying he had no interest, but
Bart stepped forward and warned him in a very low voice.

"I know you do things with other boys, so don't tell me you can't. If you
don't fuck Steven in front of all these boys, I'll find a Mackey who will,
and he WILL be ours."

"Fine," Hal said out loud.  "I'll do it. But if three boys get to own his
ass, I want limits put on how many times a week. "

"We don't put limits on one-on-one ownership, even for community bottoms."

"But this isn't one-on-one, and he's not a community bottom. How about
twice a week per top."

"No, not acceptable."  Bart said.

"Three times a week," Jason offered. His little brother tried to protest
it, but Jason quietly reminded Ryan that BOTH their hunting cabin and their
main still were in the woods that the Timber companies wanted to cut down,
and Hal's dad was their best chance at stopping them. So the boys agreed to
the limit and the caveat that they had to come up to Near Spring and find
Steven for at least two of those each week; in other words, they could only
expect Steven to go all the way to their house once per week.

That done, Hal nodded a signal to his friends to clear out.

"Where are they going?"  Bart asked of the large number of non-Mackeys
leaving.

"They don't need to see this," Hal said.

"Well, we insist they stay," Bart said.

"You can ask, but you can't make them," Hal replied.  "That wasn't part of
our deal."

A few of the non-Mackey Springers hung around briefly as the others left,
but as Hal just stared at them, they also eventually left.

"Well, I see you're going to be as tough as your dad in negotiations. But
. . . since we don't have all day, if you don't mind . . . . "  Bart made a
sweeping gesture with his hand to indicate the path toward where Steven
stood, still pink and red in splotches of embarrassment, trying to cover
himself as modestly as possible, and still trying not to cry.

Hal walked over to him, already undoing his belt as he walked.  "Bend over
that table, Steven."

Steven started to protest weakly, but Hal didn't brook any arguments. He
was surprised at how easily he got hard, and a bit dismayed with his
personal honor and valor that he could get hard in this circumstance. But
he followed through, none the less, with his duty to the negotiations. He
really was a strapping lad, lean, goodlooking, and with a nice dick for his
age. Those boys that could admit that they liked getting fucked never would
turn down an opportunity to have Hal Tucker enter them. Under another
circumstance, Steven might not have minded much; he looked up to Hal.

Hal hated it in many ways, but his dick was only physical and it soon added
the contents of his nuts to the deposits already made by the Mackey
boys. He almost felt ashamed to talk to or look at Steven afterward. He
pulled out on the last shot, just to prove to the Mackey boys that he had
indeed ejaculated within Steven. Before he left Steven's side, he leaned
down and whispered, "I'm very sorry, Steven."

Hal then stood back straight and told Steven loudly that he could get
redressed and go. Bart handed him the cloth that Jason and Ryan had cleaned
off with after fucking Steven. Both Steven and Hal saw it was Steven's
T-shirt. Hal used it and tossed it to the table. He tucked himself away and
zipped up and rebuckled. By that time, Steven was puling both pants and
underwear up at the same time, looking sad and forlorn at his dirtied
T-shirt.

"Here, Steven," Halford Tucker said, pulling off his own T-shirt.  "This
should fit you. May be a little tight, but . . . it's yours if you want
it."

Hal wore a size up, so it fit fine. Steven said thank-you meekly and walked
home, a bit bow-legged. There was a laugh from one of the Mackeys, but a
sharp and very angry look from Hal brought a quick condemnation from Bart,
as well.

"The show is over. If anyone wants to laugh or comment now, then we'll bend
you over the same table. I mean it."

A couple more of the older boys, and Jason as well, stood by Bart to show
that they would help carry out the threat, and no one else laughed at
Steven.

"Are we good, then?"  Hal asked.

"Yeah, Hal. We're good. You won't see this again in the Near Spring."







Later, Steven's older brother found Hal. George Harris was two years older
and very angry with the 13 year old at what had happened with his little
brother. But Hal disregarded his threats and his tone.

"If you feel you can do a better job, then go negotiate with the Mackeys
yourself. If you want to protect Steven from anything else happening, then
make sure you're around when the Mackeys come by. You are free to take it
up with them. But nothing says I have to put anything on the line for you."

George didn't have an answer, he was just angry. He was reminded further by
Hal that he himself had enjoyed the offered ass on occasion. It was no
secret what George did quite regularly to one of the Hudson boys. Hal told
him that he couldn't have it both ways -- want the rules that protected the
sexual fun he enjoyed in the community and then want to buck them when it
was too close to home. And without some ground rules, boys like his brother
Steven could get hurt a lot worse. Hal then finally told him that what he
did had lessened what was going to be expected of Steven, and that he
didn't enjoy his part in it.

"You didn't enjoy it? You shot off in his butt, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. That's just what happens when you fuck somebody; but just
because you do, doesn't mean you always enjoy it. I'm going to follow those
rules like anyone else. Now is a bad time to go around causing trouble."

"Fine. You follow the rules, Hal. You show me how much you really care
about Indian Spring, and you stick to the rules, and one day, there gonna
bite you in the ass, and I'm gonna expect you to shut up and keep following
them. You got that?"

George stormed off. Eventually he was able to forgive Hal, though he never
really completely got over it. Steven grew up OK and survived
everything. Hal still remained a hero to him; and that, perhaps, may be why
George just could never completely let it go.

The sixties rolled on by, the community of Indian Spring largely at peace
internally, a surprisingly large reason for that was the peace between the
boys of Mackeydom and non-Mackey, a peace that had been precipitated by
Hal's negotiations. The Village of Sweetwater was pushed back to the
ridgeline and the Imminent Domain attempt defeated. The Timber companies
were forced to abide by the Conservation designation, though the State
eventually showed some new tricks up its sleeve.

Hollis took advantage of the times to grow some specialty crops. Starting
at the age of 16 and for a period of ten years he had the best weed in the
state before he gave it up. And he quit production just in time, as State
Police raided his farm in 1977. He had just taken down his stills for a
total redesign, and all the State agents found was some soybean crops. Even
the greenhouse had been scrubbed of all its experimental mushrooms, peyote,
and pot. They did find a couple of small stills, in the surrounding area,
which they smashed up, but it was an otherwise uneventful trip.

Many boys headed off to Vietnam in the late 60's, with several not
returning, and several more returning broken. Of the four boys that had
raped Hester, three went off to Vietnam, and two returned. Jeremy Mackey
was in his element with the violence and bloodshed, enough that it got him
a psych evaluation, pending a disciplinary hearing when it was determined
that he might not only be a little too blood thirsty, but also may have
raped a couple of villagers. On his way back to the base, the car in which
he was being transported was ambushed. The driver, Jeremy, and one of the
MP's were all killed.

Colton had gone to enlist, though he seemed to be of two minds about
it. There was something about him, however, that made the recruiter uneasy,
and he was denied service. He stayed at home and made his plans with Elijah
on how to start using the money they made off the still and later how to
cash in the Reconstruction Gold after it was finally made legal to own in
1974. Hollis had used his funds from his marijuana and mushroom production
to buy out several of the jars of gold from the Prohibition era, and the
boys relocated the rest of the Moonshine gold Mason jars, at least all the
ones that Cleveland could remember and that Hester hadn't already
found. They made several improvements to the still and even had a more
permanent structure to house supplies, stored product and even a few
elements of production. The goal was to disguise it as a smokehouse and put
in a cellar for extra storage.  Hollis meanwhile buried his new gold which
left the State
 agents even less to find to prove he was a drug supplier. There was no
money trail.

Titus Mackey returned from Vietnam to California, but after a depressing
year headed home again to stay with his parents while he built a house in
Near Spring. Ethan Sanders returned to his parents' land and set himself up
a trailer on the back lot. He was having trouble readjusting to life back
home. The same could be said for many of the veterans that returned. By the
end of the 70's, life was becoming more tolerable, and they were generally
back into the swing of things.

In 1978, Jane fell ill from a pneumonia and did not recover fully. She
continued to have problems for several months after that. A protracted
relapse followed and after several weeks of fighting, Jane died. Between
the two hospitalizations, at the end of her life, Jane received a visitor
back in Indian Spring. A young woman came into deeper parts of Indian
Spring asking questions and looking for an older woman, age unknown, only
that she would be past her child-bearing years, likely to be an outcast
that lived among them, and have a shameful secret that she could not share,
but was probably well known among the gossipers.

Several descriptions were given of the young woman, who may have been as
young as still a girl, maybe older. She was described as both pensive and
fierce. She had brown hair, with what one person described as a golden red
tint just as the low afternoon sun caught it. However, no one knew for sure
who the woman was, where she came from, or where she went after leaving
Jane's house. It was uncertain how many people actually saw her, but none
could remember exactly how she had come into the Very Deep, or by what
means she left. Carol was the only one of two that anybody knew for sure
had seen the woman, but she couldn't give a clear description as she was
very soon afterward distracted by the birth of Jebediah Mackey's first
child. Many times Carol had been with Seth in this very hospital, in joyous
and sorrowful times, and she was happy to be seeing only better times at
this age in her life and very happy to be among the ones welcoming Seth's
 grandson into the world..

Later that year, Seth's daughter Esther Mackey left her biker
boyfriend. She had grown up with something of an affinity for bikes and hot
rods and had fallen for a few bad apples. She came back home with her baby
girl, Dot, and almost immediately fell in with Austin Mackey, Scotty's
middle son, and about 3 years her younger. She first saw him bending over
his souped-up Gran Torino in grease smeared jeans and T-shirt and thought
he was perhaps the hottest thing she had ever seen -- both him and the
car. She had only been out for a stroll to clear her head as she got over
the final last bits of the boyfriend she had dumped, but she already knew
she wanted to see more of that ass that he presented after he smiled at her
and leaned back in over the engine.

She didn't know that he had followed in Daddy's footsteps for a year and
that that ass had played host to a number of boys when he was 12. He was
the Mackey bottom when the Council had tried to add Jonathan Parker and
Steven Harris. When Esther did find out at a later date, she only thought
that it made him seem even hotter.

The two were perfect for each other, and in 1979 they eloped against the
wishes of both their families' wishes. Austin adopted Dot as his own and by
spring the next year, Esther told him she was pregnant again.  Everyone
around was happy for the two. Now that the deed was done, they wanted the
family to thrive. And the late 70's, including the current year 1980,
seemed to be a time for birthing, as a great number of Mackeys were giving
birth. Austin and Dot's news was an occasion for a Party that night at Beth
Ann's.

The joy of the night was dulled partially by the news that Ethan Sanders
had put his service revolver to his head and shot himself. The boy had
always been trouble before Nam, and had been troubled after it. It was a
sad waste of life, but not much of a shocker to anyone.

Ruth and Peter Redd joining in the birthing phenomenon and had their first
and only child in 1979. Ruth had been excited to have more, but a
complication in Sheldon's birth rendered her unable to do so. However, she
poured her love into that one child, and rejoiced in that she had at least
had one. Sheldon took his first steps out at a public park in the
city. Ruth had gone on a picnic with Paul and Duane's wives and their own
toddlers, Hiram and Darrell. The two toddlers were just as ecstatic as the
adults, mainly only because the adults were ecstatic, as Sheldon pushed
himself up uncertainly, wavered a bit and took two or three steps, looking
around at the astonished women. All the women started clapping and yelling
encouragement, and Sheldon began to cry and plopped back to the ground.

Ruth laughed and picked her boy up to hold him. As she patted him on the
back telling him it was all right, mommy was so proud of him, and so on,
she glanced out in the park and stared out along one of the trails.

"Ruth, what's wrong?"

"What? Oh, nothing. It's just . . . .I . . . .thought I saw someone."

"Who?"

"Oh, I'm sure I was mistaken."

One month later, still another baby was born, this time among the Near
Mackey clan. Bart Corbin was pacing the halls of the hospital, while his
mother was entertaining his four year old son Andrew. He looked around for
his father Ben who was nowhere to be seen. He stepped out into the hall and
saw his dad down at the end, talking with the deputy sheriff. It was a
scene eerily similar to a year and a half ago when his Uncle Joshua was
brought in from a hunting accident. He wa unconscious and had lost too much
blood. He didn't survive.

When Ben looked up, Bart could see he was distraught. Nothing about this
could be good, He started down the hall to see what was going on, but was
intercepted by a nurse carrying his brand new beautiful baby girl. He
beamed with pride, but when he looked up saw only pain in his dad's
eyes. Bart found out later that his older brother Titus was killed in a car
accident just a few moments before.

While April was bittersweet for the Corbins, May brought much joy for
several Deep and Very Deep families. Amos Mackey's first child was
born. For Carol Mackey, the birth of Hayden Mackey was every bit as
beautiful as the birth of any one of her own children. It was as though her
own Amos had reached out beyond the infancy in which he was immortally
trapped and said, here, a last loved one from me for you to hold. And Carol
was the third person, after Amos and Wendy, to hold little Hayden. She only
wished Abner could have been alive to see Amos father a child.

On her way home that night, she could have sworn she saw something, just
off the road. She knew she was wrong. It wasn't something; it was
someone. Must be getting old. And it's dark out, anyway. But something
about that form.

Once she arrived home she hurried over to Beth Ann's house.

"Are you sure Carol?"

"She's a little older, and it was dark out . . . .  but I am sure, Beth
Ann."

"I don't know what to make of this. May be bad tidings; may just be what
was meant to come back."

"You don't mean that, Beth Ann!"

"You best be heading back, Carol, you know that Grandson of your's. Will's
a good boy, been worrying a good deal about you of late."

"Pshaw! There's nothing wrong with me to worry about. I don't know what you
are thinking, Beth Ann, but best you be careful."

Carol left back home, and Beth Ann went into her bedroom. Her husband was
still watching TV in the living room. She opened her jewelry box that was
her 30th wedding anniversary present. The box had two secret
compartments. She opened one of them and stared at the brilliance
within. After all these years . . . . . . it was time.

Beth Ann walked slowly down the road that would eventually lead to the Near
Spring, and the City after that. It was dark, though the late May moon was
waxing past it's first quarter, and it was silent, if you count the
background frogs and cicadas as a part of country silence. Beth Ann paused
as she heard the other person approach behind her.

"I failed Jane," Beth Ann said, with some sorrow in her voice.  "I failed
her and your mother both."

"You were too young to help Jane. And from I've gathered, Hester would
never have let you help.  None of what happened was your fault."

Beth Ann turned around and faced the young woman.  "I knew it was you,
Tabitha. I knew you had returned."

"I'm not Tabitha, anymore."

"Yes, I know. I know who you are. It was I that helped Hester arrange the
adoption. The alternative was . . . . unthinkable."

"I harbor no ill will toward you."

"I don't know where Hester is, Tab- I mean .. . . "

"No. Don't say it. You're right. For this moment in time I am Tabitha. And
I'm not looking for Hester."

Beth Ann did not want to think about why the girl was here. If she had to
guess, she could probably be more certain of that answer than why the girl
had been here two years ago.

"You've long known the truth, haven't you?"

"Yes."  The young woman was like ice, or like a cold blade, forged for a
purpose and only partially at rest.

Beth Ann looked around in the night, "I've known for a while you were
coming back. My nephew Angus told me."

"How so?"

"Oh. He's an odd one, that boy. But never wrong, though it often doesn't
make sense, the things he says, until they have come to pass, that is. I
told him last year that I didn't have much time left in me, and I
don't. But he said, `Aunt B, you will live long enough to place your trust
in the open hand of Fate."

She got a small laugh from Tabitha.  "What does that mean?"

"I think it means this."  Beth Ann said as she reached into her pocket and
pulled out an object and placed it into Tabitha's hand. Your
great-grandfather placed this in my trust many years ago. It is time it
came to light."

Tabitha raised the gold coin to the moonlight and looked at the eagle in
flight on the glint of the mint surface.  "Tell me the story behind this
piece."







Two nights later, Elijah Mackey was hurrying back to his house for some
private time in his home bathroom. He had been helping Colton take down the
old shed. They had started planning two months ago to dig up the gold and
cash it in. Gold prices had hit an all time high, over 800$ per oz. They
were sitting on over 2 million dollars, if their Grandfather's reports were
true. They certainly had not included him with their plan; they couldn't
take a risk on his saying no.

So last night they gathered up their tools at the site and made sure they
slept in late during the day so they could work all night. They told their
wives that they would be doing an overhaul on the still that night and
would be at it all night; and their wives dutifully packed them some food
and beverage for sustenance through the night, especially since Elijah did
not believe in drinking from his own still. His beverage of choice,
therefore, was his coffee.

The men began working, assuming that they were alone and that no one would
see them transfer the gold out of the hole under the shed and into the
cloth bags they had brought. They had already taken down the walls and
pulled-up the floorboards, when Elijah started in on the coffee, unaware
that Tabitha had been able to slip in a laxative. They had just removed the
rock layer and started digging when Elijah could no longer ignore his
bowels.

"Take a break, Colton. Just stop for about half an hour. I'll be back."

In his absence, Colton kept digging. Tabitha let him go at it for another
10 minutes, but he wasn't going fast enough. She stepped up and hit him
over the back of the head with another shovel. She pulled him out of the
way and began digging quicker. It took her another 10 minutes to fully
clear the area, but then she had to load 2800 coins, about 175 pounds, into
the bags. She moved very quickly, but it nearly wiped out her energy, and
it took a little over 20 more minutes. She didn't have long before Elijah
came back.

Colton was starting to stir, but before he became fully aware, Tabitha
moved several gallons of moonshine into the hole and covered it with
several planks of wood.

"Wha-? Who are you? Aggh, my head hurts."

"Some men came up and hit you. They started loading some bags out of the
shed and into that barrow. Hurry, let me help you before they come back."
Tabitha said, pretending she was there to help.

Colton was confused and didn't question that he didn't know this woman, but
let her help him up and over to the structure holding the still.

"I . .  I have a gun . . . I'll get it."

Colton walked farther into the main building and got the gun out and
flipped it open to take out the rock salt and put in real cartridges,
whereupon he was hit over the back of the head again. Tabitha quickly left
the area and down a side path, hoping that the dirt bike she had hidden
there earlier in the day would still be there. She rolled it back down the
path and loaded the saddle bags with the gold. Elijah was 20 minutes
overdue from when she expected him back, and she guessed he could come up
the path any second. She hadn't guessed there would be this much gold; it
wasn't why she had originally come.

It wasn't that she was greedy and wanted all the gold; she was angry and
wanted none of the gold left for Elijah. She went back into the building
and saw that Colton was stirring and looking around for his gun.

"You . . . you did this."  Colton said, trying to pull himself up.  "Who
are you, what do you want?"

"My name is Tabitha," the woman said, lighting what Colton saw in fear was
a Molotov cocktail.  "My mother was Hester. As for what I want, well, I
didn't come here for the gold. I came here for you."

"Me? Heh . . . . I . . . I. . . I didn't do anything. I didn't even know --
"

"Oh, spare me your lies. It's a shame that Jeremy had to die in Viet Nam;
but you should know, Colton, that Ethan didn't really kill himself. And
though Titus did die in his car, it wasn't really an accident."

"What? How - ?"  Colton was looking around frantically for a way out of the
situation.

"Oh, well, times up. Got somewhere to be?  Where you gonna run to, Colton?
For you, there's nowhere to hide."

Tabitha threw the Molotov at the ground at Colton's feet and watched for an
instant as the flames engulfed Colton and then fled out of the
building. The first explosion hid the sound of the motorbike starting up
and heading out down the path back toward the creek and then down toward
Hester's old greenhouse. From there she cut across to the path that she had
learned about from Jane years ago. It was a hidden path that had no
entrance and exit, but required the traveler to know how to get on and how
to get off the trail.

The exit point for Tabitha was through some forest overgrowth at the edge
of the conservation area and into a nearby Forest Reserve. From there she
rode to her car parked on a gravel timber feeder, wiped down the dirt bike,
and set it on fire. Joshua, Ethan, Titus, Colton, the revenge for three
generations had taken its toll on her. She might as well include Jeremy,
for though she didn't kill him, she had wished that she could have. She had
thought that maybe she would feel better after this, somehow feel whole,
maybe see that Justice had been done.

Maybe Justice had been done. But she didn't feel any better about it. This
wasn't who she wanted to become in life. It was almost like those men could
reach out from the grave and twist and corrupt her soul, so that in the end
they still won; only now they weren't around for a second round of revenge.

There was an almost vicious spiral of torture that she had brought on
herself, instead of the relief or rejoicing that she had imagined that she
would be able to take. Still, somewhere in there was a kernel of relief in
that she had accomplished so daunting a task over the last two years. And
the only people who could truly identify her were a few women. Would they?

She laid back in a hotel bed that night and tried to build on that kernel,
but she was only able to get so far with that. The next day she heard the
terrible news that made her sink lower. At first it wasn't so bad. The
explosion was reported as an accident, so no one would be looking for
her. Elijah's own special torture would be knowing that he had lost all of
that gold, and yet would be unable to report it. Or was there another
reason he was distracted?

Tabitha listened in horror to the full afternoon news report. It was saying
that one of Elijah's son's, 14 year old Derek, use to go out to the still
some nights and sleep in the back room, sometimes after working there,
sometimes to be alone. It was said in the community that he was generally
nothing like his father, being more interested in reading, of a quieter
disposition, and a lover of animals. He had been sleeping in the back room
that night, was disoriented by the first explosion, and killed by the
second.

Tabitha sank to the floor shaking her head and began crying morosely. She
was as bad as them. She didn't want to be Tabitha anymore. Tabitha had
arisen to serve a horrible purpose, and now she had to die again, just as
she had the first time, after she was adopted. She would never be
Tabitha. Tabitha was dead.

The woman who used to be Tabitha made the gold disappear. Granted she did
sell it, but at a loss to cover any paper trails. By the time she had
everything set up, only 1.6 million dollars remained, but it was completely
untraceable.

In the interim period, Beth Ann Mackey Hardin died and was mourned by
many. She was said to be very sad in her last few months, talking to
herself about whether one really did have to answer Fate. Carol Mackey
moved to Florida to move in with her little sister at one of the fancy
assisted living places, her six sons insisting she live well while down
there. And the woman who would be Tabitha no more, found she was related
(by adoption) to the Anderson's of the Near side of Indian Spring, and she
moved in with her husband and newborn son into one of the Anderson homes
being vacated by the oldest boy. She didn't live there long, but had
honestly hoped that the comfortable family-like standards, albeit removed
from the Mackeys, may help give her closure, or at the least offer her son
a chance to have a happy life. But in the end, it didn't work.

The nightmares of what she had become followed her. Her depressive bouts,
though well concealed from her husband and son, became harder to
control. She wondered if it was simply guilt that had caused her to move so
close. She wasn't sorry that Ethan, Colton, and the other rapists were all
dead. She was never sorry for that; only sorry at what it had cost her
soul, and afraid she might pass that along to her precious son. He would
never know how much she loved him.

The attack on his offspring, his treasure, and his livelihood was too much
for Cleveland. He was betrayed first by his Firstborn grandsons, and then
by an unknown assailant who had come from outside and into their midst,
attacking the heart and soul of all he held dear. Cleveland lost the fight
after that and died early the next year, only a week or two after his
little sister Beth Ann. He had never reconciled himself back to her, and in
his last few weeks, this also hung heavily on him.

Elijah, as well, never really recovered, but the loss of his son only
distanced himself further from his brothers, especially as they were just
now bringing life into the world. Elijah's wife left him in 1982, and he
stayed in-house for nearly a year after that, being swallowed by his
despair. His oldest son would visit some weekends from college, but he
found it hard to be the dutiful son when he blamed his dad, at least in
part, for Derek's death.

One day Elijah had an epiphany. One day, he was sitting in his tattered
cloth bound easy chair, his son had begged him the weekend before to get
out of the house, if only to get himself a new chair, but he sat there
drinking his coffee, specially blended with the remnants of the last of the
shine from the old still, sat there, letting the mixture eat away his
stomach, and brooding on the nothingness of nothing, when it came to
him. The gold was gone, so he never suspected it was an accident. Yes,
there was always that possibility that nagged at his mind that Colton had
kept digging and moved the gold to hide it elsewhere and then just claim it
was gone when he dug under the shed. But then why would he kill himself?

It wouldn't have been an accident, at least. Colton was too careful at the
still. He didn't drink either when he was out there. That's not to say that
he didn't drink, as he certainly drank sometimes at home. During those
times he would be increasingly antagonistic, even beat his wife a few
times, once beating her until his kids begged him to stop, his oldest Ralph
going so far as to get his baseball bat and threaten him. That was last
year. It was followed by long periods of depression, forgiveness would flow
after that, and the cycle would begin again.

But he never drank at the still, hadn't since that day he had left with
Jeremy. Ethan, and Titus, left to go see that whore out in the woods. That
whore, what was her name -- Hester. Her mother was the same, leading on
Joshua Corbin and then claiming the younger boy had raped her. They were
always leading on and teasing the boys, at least from he had heard. They
deserved what they got, and the boys deserved some fun, and really, what
did it really hurt anybody? But since that day Colton never so more than
gave the barest taste of product at the still. He was still twisted, but in
his last days he seemed to be slowly twisting inward. Much the same way as
Elijah was now.

And that's when it hit him. Joshua, Colton, Jeremy, Ethan, Titus, all the
boys that the whores claimed had taken their fun against the bitches' own
interests. Made Elijah want to spit, but he drank another sip. All dead, he
thought, all, with the exception of Jeremy, all dead within two years. And
the three that did Hester, the ones that was still alive, all dead within
three months -- February, April, May. All in the same year his still was
blown up, and his gold disappeared. He was a fool, Elijah thought to
himself, he was a fool not to see it before. Accidents weren't that
convenient.

Didn't that bitch have a child? A daughter? How old would that girl be now?
But she would have to know about what had happened. There was that one girl
who had come back a few years ago before Jane died, and Elijah was
remembering correctly, it was Jane that the girl was looking for. That was
also about the time that Joshua had his hunting accident. All damn
peculiar, too well-timed together. What if that bastarded bitch came back?
What if she came back and killed those men -- and his boy Derek.

Elijah wasn't going to go to the police; he was going to find the little
bitch. He wanted to kill her. And he wanted his gold back.

For the next three years Elijah tried to figure out who the girl was. The
problem was every known person who knew anything for certain about her, or
could identify her, was dead. Or wouldn't talk to him - the last of whom
was Carol. He went down to see her in Florida even, but she would have
nothing to do with him. He went so far as to threaten her, but was escorted
out by security, and it was suggested by the local sheriff that he leave
that county forthwith. When he arrived back home he found all 6 of Carol's
sons waiting for him. Talking with Carol again was never going to be an
option. He found out that much, at least.

But he didn't stop searching. He had no interest in the goings on of the
Near Side non-Mackeys, and as such could not care less about the newcomers,
the man, the woman, and their two month old boy. If he had seen her, at
first at least, he wouldn't have given the woman a second thought. But he
did see her. He saw her several times in the Deep and the Very Deep. One
time, in 1986 he had to see his brother Jeb, reluctantly, about a matter of
their Dad's estate, as Seth was ill and Jeb was the executor. When he was
leaving he saw the new woman out on the lawn of Ruth Redd; they argued
briefly about something, then he saw the woman cry. Ruth shook her head but
still did not seem happy about something. He then saw Ruth relax her
posture somewhat and bring the woman in for a hug.

It was odd behaviour, considering that she was not a Mackey like Ruth. Why
would Ruth be arguing or comforting (and certainly not both?) this woman
from among the non-Mackey Springers? He thought about it only briefly
before he decided he did not care. Later in the year, Elijah had, after six
years now, decided he may have to give up his so far fruitless
search. After asking around, the only thing he had found out was that he
couldn't claim the gold outright, as he would have to admit that it was
stolen from the US government originally, and then deliberately not turned
in for the forty years that it was illegal to horde gold bullion or
coin. He could only claim it as found Gold, but to do that he would first
have to prove the gold existed, or at least had existed. All the other
eyewitnesses were dead. And he only had seven years from the date it was
dug up to do it. Seven years and then the statute of limitations would
allow the thief to keep the
 treasure. That meant he now had less than a year left.

There was one caveat. If he could identify the person who took it and
launched an official investigation, he could extend the Statute to 21 years
from the time the gold was taken, and longer if he actually located the
funds. They could then be seized indefinitely until the matter was
resolved. But that meant two things: 1) he needed an actual guilty person
-- living and breathing, not just a name, an apparition, or a memory; and
2) he needed the gold or its subsequent monetary wealth. He didn't have
either.

It was late autumn, and Elijah had decided to rebuild himself a still. He
couldn't go back to the same place and decided to put one out on land that
Cleveland had owned, but was still in contention between Elijah and
Jebediah. It was located not far from Hollis' own rebuilt still; Hollis had
restarted his and was instructing his almost four year old son, named Seth
after his Great-uncle, on just how to build a proper one. One day Elijah,
in need of some copper tubing, went to see if Hollis had extra, but
happened to first see the same woman from Ruth's house talking with
Hollis. He couldn't see what they were discussing, but Hollis started to
write something down, but stopped when the woman shook her head. Maybe
Hollis was back to growing pot.

`Damn hippie," Elijah thought to himself, disgusted, leaving off to
scavenge some tubing from elsewhere. Months later, in the spring of 87, as
he was back in his zone, running through the lines and checking the still,
his subconscious mind was in playback on the day he saw that strange woman
out at Ruth's. He remembered she had a fierce look about her, but seemed to
be a pensive woman. She had a nice face, and beautiful brown hair. Why was
he thinking of her? Wasn't she married? Still, it had been awhile since he
had been with a woman. Elijah smiled to himself and continued checking the
lines. When he had seen her out at Hollis', the sun was low in the sky, and
it hit that hair just right, giving it a golden red glint, that rippled
throughout as it tossed when she shook her head.

Elijah stopped, hand frozen on a line, as a chill went through him. How was
it that people had described the mysterious girl that visited Jane? Why was
it that he remembered that?

He knew who she was. And all this time . . . . . she was here.

Elijah had only a couple more months to start an investigation and delay
the limitations statute; she had almost gotten away with it. Now that he
had her new name, he made another attempt to find the gold first, or some
money that could be attributed to it, but there still was not a trace. He
needed a real investigator on it. He was going to contact one in the
morning, but meantime, while there was still light, he was going to
confront the bitch that killed his son.

She met him out on her porch even as Elijah walked up the drive.

"We have no business to discuss."

"I say different, you bitch."

"Ah, the poster child for everything wrong with the Mackeys."

"I came to tell you, Tabitha, - "

"I am NOT Tabitha."

"Well, I thought it a nicer word than what I would like to use. I came here
to tell you I know what you are; I know what you did. I want my Gold back,
bitch."

"Gold?"  she looked surprised. She was faking it, but she was good at it.
"What gold?  I thought you came here about something else."

Elijah was thrown off by her surprise. He looked at her curiously,
wondering what the truth or angle was in that surprise, but he tried to
recover himself.  "Well . . .  I am. . . . . you killed my . . . . . you
. . . . . you killed my son."

This was the thing that bothered her the most, especially the more she
looked at her own son. Lately she felt her psyche in chaos, her depressive
periods getting longer and starting to spin out of control. It felt good to
finally say it, to admit it.  "Yes, I did. I killed your son."

Elijah was stunned. He wasn't expecting an admission, not really.

"I went there looking for Colton; he raped my mother. I put him down, dog
that he was. Who knows, it may have even been his seed that spawned me. I
don't know. I do know that it felt good; felt . . . .  complete. However, I
didn't know your son was there, I . . . . . . my heart broke when I heard
that."

"Spare me any apologies, bitch, you think that makes me feel better?"

"You misunderstand me, Elijah. I don't want you to feel better. My heart
broke, and it still pains me, knowing your son suffered and knowing how it
changed me; but you, you self-righteous, arrogant bastard, I want you to
feel pain. I want you to suffer the rest of your life. It's a sign of what
you really are, and what I have unfortunately become. But I do not feel
sorry for you."

Once again, Elijah had a mental setback.  "Well . . . . I don't care what
you feel or don't feel. But I do want my Gold back."

"What gold? What the hell are you talking about?"

"The gold you stole that night. It's gone, and I want it back."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"I'm sure you don't."

"I went to find Colton, so I could kill him. When I arrived, he wasn't
alone. There was a man with him. I had to wait for the man to leave, then I
went in, killed your cousin, set fire to the building, and left. And that's
all I did."

The anger in Elijah was welling up. It was so simple before she started
speaking and confusing things. Could there be another man? Could someone
else have the Gold, and that's why he was never able to find it? It would
make sense. But she must have taken it. She could be lying, except she
didn't look like it. And how did she get the gold out of there?

Elijah held up a finger accusingly while his mind sought a rebuttal. There
was a flash of curtain movement in the front window that distracted him.

"Hold that thought, Elijah, while I put my son to bed. I'll be back in just
a few minutes."

She did put her son to bed, but she also did two other things before coming
back out to the porch to find Elijah sitting in a rocker.

"So what did this man you saw look like."  Elijah asked, smug and looking
like a god had deigned to grace her locker.

"Oh no . . . . no, no, no, no, no. You find the man all on your own. Fuck
off, Elijah. I think we're done."

"You think I'll just leave it at that? You killed my son, and you should
know," Elijah said, "I know you went after more than just Colton. I know
about Ethan and Titus, and about Joshua, also."

"Does anybody else know?"

"Probably not."

She pulled a gun out and pointed it straight at Elijah.  "I guess that
makes you a liability."

Elijah just laughed.  "Oops, I guess I forgot to tell you -- I also called
the Sherriff."

"I suppose that's the siren I am hearing."

"I'm going to look forward to seeing you rot in prison. Seven long years I
have been looking for you, and now I get to see you rot in jail. And to
think, in a couple of months, the statute of limitations will have passed
that would have prevented me from seeking my Gold. But now, I can file for
an investigation of stolen property which will give me 14 more years. And
once you are in Jail, I can use a lot more resources and legal permits to
search for any money that you may have. I've got you now, and I can fuck
you over, just like your whores of a mother and grandmother were."

"You don't have me, and you can go fuck yourself."  She put the gun to her
head, it wasn't the first time in the last months, except this time she
pulled the trigger.

"SHIT!!"  Elijah yelled. And was still in shock when the Sherriff's deputy
showed up. He answered their questions and went home, but still first thing
in the morning he filed for the investigation into the money. Immediately
after doing so, the Deputy picked him up.

"It was interesting you filed for this, Mr. Mackey, given the letter we
found."

Elijah looked surprised, even more so when he heard the contents of the
letter. It was a suicide letter detailing sexual abuse by Elijah when she
was still under 18, how he was obsessed with her, stalked her, and
threatened to never let her go, even to the point of going after her
son. Given the letter, an investigation was actually launched against
Elijah, for the sexual assault of the girl/woman and for the murders of his
son and Colton. Disgraced and angered, Elijah withdrew from the rest of his
family during the five years of the investigation. He also had a court
order to keep away from her family.

Her husband and the boy moved shortly afterward, and Elijah's only chance
for a trail went completely cold. In the meantime he sought to recover his
lost funds by making overtures to the State and private interests on the
development of a water park in Very Deep Indian Spring. The only thorn in
his side on that matter was the meddling Halford Tucker; the man was fresh
off his series of victories against the State and private interests,
shoring up continued Mackey and non-Mackey rights to homes and land, saving
several dozen families from great inconvenience to outright eviction.

Several years after that, Elijah thought he had found a trail when a clerk
at a State oversight office for trusts informed him that he had found some
documents on the boy's name, and his mother's as well. He called in a favor
from a county judge he knew and drove himself up to the State office to get
the file.

"Mr. Mackey, my name is Benjamin Freeman, Chief Clerk in this office. I
understand you were having trouble locating a certain file. I see you have
a judicial order for its release, perhaps you can tell me how you know of
the file, and then we can proceed as to where it is located."

Elijah was reluctant to inform on his informant, but he wanted that file.

"Mr. Jamison."

"Well, then, we will have Mr. Jamison assist you. I'll wait until after he
has helped you to have a word with him."

Jamison helped him, but when they located the file, it was empty save a
single copy of the title deed to the old property in Indian Spring. It
seemed to have been sold to the Upshaws, though the sale currently was
being contested by some outside Andersons. At any rate, it was purely a
matter between the Upshaws and the Andersons now, and a dead end. The rest
of the file had been purged, and no trace could be found of its contents;
it didn't even have information on where the boy and his dad had moved,
much less anything concerning any funds at all. Jamison, as well, could
remember nothing very specific from the file.

Elijah went home defeated, and Mr. Freeman sent Jamison home on suspension
pending review.

It was the summer of 1994, and Elijah had no leads on the mysterious man or
the dead woman. It was as though there had been no gold at all. It was then
that Elijah felt triply duped. He had never actually seen the gold, but
judging from the size of the hole in the explosion, it looked as though
someone had switched the gold with jars of moonshine. Who knows when that
could have been done, or by whom. Maybe there had never even been any gold,
after all, he only had Cleveland's word on it, though there were rumor's
through all three sides of the family that the Reconstruction Gold had
never been spent and was really buried in this place or that.

Had his Grandfather just been playing him and Colton? This whole time? If
that were so, then he had wasted his whole life, and had lost everything
worthwhile, all for an old fool's lie. Tabitha had her revenge; Elijah
wished he had never even been born.

The rest of the Mackey areas, meanwhile, were preparing for the next
Choosing. Hinton and Kevin were both up for it, as well as Eli Corbin,
Bobby Mackey, and Corey Mackey's grandson Kyle. Somehow, Daniel Mackey
never made it on to the list, though he wasn't going to complain
any. Actually he would have never known about it if Bobby Mackey hadn't
been complaining about it quietly in school the following Monday. The
Choosing had taken place on a Friday that year, July 15th, as had become
the custom, and Bobby was still shook up a bit through the weekend. He and
Daniel both went to Edgecity Baptist School together. Bobby was more of
your regular country boy and was fairly shook up over the ordeal, and
Daniel was more of a studious kid, his family more religious, and was
fairly oblivious to the ordeal.

Eli's brother was on his last year on the Council and was insistent that
his brother follow the dictates of tradition, even if Bart was going to
protect him from being chosen. So after spouting off to other cousins that
he was not going to be bent over and shown off like some 4-H project, in
the end, he was almost best in show. Several boys wrote their name on Eli
to see him taken down a peg -- and no better way to do that than get
pegged. Some just did it because he had a nice muscular ass, though they
certainly wouldn't admit that to anybody.

Hinton also bent over, though he felt more affronted than humiliated. It
was still fairly embarrassing for him, but he knew Hayden would see to it
that he wasn't chosen. Most boys were afraid to write their names on Hinton
because he was so handsome, so magnetic, and it was rumored he had already
been ridden by a girl in reverse cowboy. It wasn't true, though he
certainly fantasized about it being true. Still, he was only 12 and had had
his fingers up two pussies -- and those were REAL pussies.

In the end Kevin was chosen. Jason had let his guard down and had been
focused on chasing a girl; and it didn't help that Kevin had a thing for
dick. No one talked about it, and he wasn't `out', but he didn't turn down
the brothers of three of Tolley's Scout friends when his went to visit the
Tolley at Scout Camp in June.

Two of the Council members, Darrell and Hiram Mackey, were persuaded to
ease up on the traditional line-up of boys as a few more parents became
resistant. It was decided that every boy next year would be put on a list,
and each may be eligible to come off the list via some means or another
(meaning a brother or friend argued strong enough for them to come off the
list). The list would cover every boy who would be 12 on July 15th, and
only the boys left on the list by July 4th would be presenting their asses.

When 1995 rolled around, another big change took place for the Springers,
as the Near Side kids and most Deep Mackey's transferred out of the County
schools halfway through the school year and into the Sweetwater school
system. It was a big change and few of them meshed very well with their new
schoolmates. It was definitely a School of Contrast. Some boys, however,
like Jake Finney, Connor Cormack, Hinton Mackey, and a couple others, had a
natural sway and easy manner to fitting-in, while others just didn't try.
Two boys, Kelley Tucker, son of Hal, and Nathan Carlin, actually managed to
not only fit-in better than most, but acquired two solid best friends
amongst the host of the relatively well-to-do. Still, after so many years
of distrusting outsiders, they were under no delusions about the fact that
they, now, were the outsiders.

And so the winds of change began flowing through Indian Spring. Many
questions were once again being raised about old traditions, and once
again, as well, the stalwarts were rallying to the defense. The biggest
change had yet to be decided, as Hal Tucker and a few others took on the
State and corporate monster that had grown out of Elijah's greed and anger.