Chapter 23 – Sharks have teeth too…
“There is nothing like happy, laughing kids,” Jan said smiling at her mother-in-law and Dr. P. The three of them watched as the kids ran around the main hall of the Field Museum.
When they had first come in, Jan had wished that there was a camera to record their faces as they looked at the T-Rex named Sue. The older ones had been awed and talked about excavation and extraction techniques. The little ones had been scared by the enormous jaw and teeth, and The Three Amigos had instantly become roaring dinosaurs, chasing around with all the other small boys who were visiting. They were egged on by John and David, who decided that as much fun as it looked, they were too old and cool to participate. But, all were having a good time.
They also saw the whale and elephants in the same hall, and the display of the mummified baby wooly mammoth. Sama had sketched the totem pole. They visited the vast collection of Native American artifacts.
“There are twelve tribal groups in Montana,” said Jan telling the kids about the new state they were moving too. The three Amigos were already shooting off imaginary bows and arrows as they hunted the little girls. The girls squealed and hid behind the adults, peeking out only enough to keep the game going.
One of the docents helped find the artifacts relating to the Native peoples of the Rexford area. They were the Ksunka people – the People of the Standing Arrow, now called the Kootenai. They learned that the Blackfoot and Flathead tries had reservations within a day’s drive.
“These were the original peoples of the area we are going to live in,” Jan told the children. “It would behoove us to remember that the Kootenai now mostly live in Idaho because the terms of their treaty were ignored. Just to the east of us is where the Blackfoot live. They were the traditional enemies of the Kootenai. To the south are the Flathead, Pend d’Oreille and the Salish, who were related by language, culture and intermarriage.”
They continued through the Mineralogy section and looked at the different types of rocks and minerals and how they were formed. They then took the 20-minute organized Nature Walk. The kids learned all about ecosystems and the sights and sounds of nature. The staff was very good at directing the details of the walk to a Rocky Mountain ecosystem.
With the walk over, it was lunch time for them all. They took their lunch out to the park between the museum and the aquarium. It was a gorgeous sunny November day and thankfully the breeze of Lake Michigan was not too cool. Jan pulled out a soccer ball, and Matt and Jamie organized the kids into two teams and they had a wonderful time racing about. She couldn’t believe how much energy they all had. As she basked in the warmish sunlight, Jan realized that this was the first day in which she was not operating on a panic level and the slower pace was good for her too.
The Shedd Aquarium was possibly even a greater highlight then Sue. The kids loved the Polar Play Zone with is beluga submarine and penguin costumes. One of the museum staff had a camera. Kindly, she took pictures for Jan and printed them for her while the kids played.
*****
John paused for a moment and took a sip of water. “Here is the original photo,” he said. “It’s a bit faded, but next to my family, it is my greatest treasure. I’m in the middle row... on the left… at the end.”
The page took the photo and passed it up to the Committee Members. It passed down the line and they all got a look for the first time at the people in the story. Dr. P. and Mrs. Jones, Jan McConnell and the scrawny twelve-year old John McConnell… The gaggle of children smiling, happy and mugging slightly for the camera…
*****
In the Polar Play Zone, the children watched the otters and penguins play and slide in their enclosure. The staff were kind and went out of their way to answer questions. They even let John and David lend a hand feeding fish to the penguins. The boys were thrilled. They then went and saw the One World Show with is dolphins, sea lions and beluga whales.
It was a full day and everyone was brain-dead from the amount they had seen. They were all dragging and grumbling verging into irritable, as the put their coats on and gathered their items for the bus ride back to the rail yard. Before they left the building, they all split up and went and used the bathrooms. They met-up by the front door. As she was coming out of the bathroom, Mrs. Jones was met by an officer in full swat gear.
“Mrs. Jones?” He inquired.
Allison Jones looked at him. “Yes, I am Mrs. Jones.”
“Would you come with me, please.” He stated. Although polite, his tone brooked no argument.
“Why officer?” She asked, not moving.
“There is an outstanding international warrant out for your arrest. Please come quietly. If you do not make a scene, you will not be cuffed at this time.” He said.
‘Ah!’ she though. ‘This is the good cop.’
“Officer, can you advise me of the charges?” she asked.
“I believe that it has to do with the illegal removal of a child, your son, from Canada,” said the officer.
“Officer, are you aware that we did not leave voluntarily but rather were removed from our farm by the US Army?” Mrs Jones asked him.
“So I have been told you would say,” said the officer, clearly not impressed with her. “But Canadian authorities have personally confirmed to me that there are no US military personal operating within Canadian territorial boundaries.”
Jan, worried about the delay had started to come forward when she saw her mother-in-law speaking with the police officer. Dr. P. though held her back.
“Take the children out to the bus Jan. Do it right now. No arguments,” ordered Dr. P. “Get the driver to radio Donaldson. I will keep watch.”
Jan eased back. She wanted to argue but knew that it could escalate things and they currently had no back-up. She eased the kids out the door and around the corner and onto the bus.
“Sit. NOW. No talking,” she ordered. “Driver get us back to the rail yard immediately. Get on the horn to Donaldson and tell him that the Chicago PD is arresting my mother-in-law.”
“Yes Mam” said the young soldier. He closed the door and eased them out of the bus parking lot as he radioed in.
The response was fast. “On it. Return to base stat. Who is still there?”
“Dr. P. and the mother-in-law” replied the Private.
“Will extract. Prepare for immediate departure,” squawked the radio.
The five minute drive took eight with the traffic, but they had seen the army trucks arriving and the soldiers getting out as they left. The bus pulled up right beside the rail car and everyone ran up the stairs.
“Mary and Sarah, please put the babies down for a nap. Heather and Sally could you please wrangle the little onto their bed for a nap. Matt, Jamie, Eric and Eggie – please go check on the livestock. Sama and Andrea could you and John and David please go and get the milking started. I know it’s a bit early, but we are going to be underway soon.
“Now children… I don’t have a lot of information, but the Chicago PD have just tried to arrest Grandma. I don’t know the details, but it seems likely that they actually want me. The Sergeant has gone to get it sorted out and we will be pulling out as soon as they are back.
“Now Heather, could you and Lydie and Gail please help me get dinner started. If I haven’t given you a job, please go and play quietly.”
Jan was attempting not to show how incredibly panicked she was. She tried to think about how Jones would feel and decided that in the end he’d be relieved that John was safe.
Twenty minutes later the train began to move. Mrs. Jones, Dr. P and the Sergeant walked into the car. The children cheered and were shooed to finish tasks before dinner.
*****
Later after dinner, with the children settled and playing, the adults sat quietly with cups of coffee.
“I have to say Mrs. McConnell, that your mother-in-law was brilliant,” said Sergeant Donaldson. “I felt rather sorry for the police officer by the time she was done. By the time I got there, with my men in place, she was…”
“That is quite enough,” said Mrs. Jones. “I just pointed out to him that as a mature woman in my early sixties, I was scarcely in a position to have a child young enough to fall under the draconian Canadian law that prevented the removal of a child from Canada. I advised that my son was in his thirties and that since he had left with the US army, I did not know his whereabouts.”
“By the time she was through with him,” said Dr. P. “The man was apologizing for having bothered her. But she did walk out the door under her own power. We then got into a truck driven by a soldier and came right back here.
“Sergeant, there are two things that concern me. The biggest one is how did they know where we were. Not that we were in Chicago. That could, I suppose, be determined by available routes. But the Aquarium… it was a very small circle of people who knew what was planned. I don’t know what else is going on but you need to take a good look at your staff. Someone is talking…”
“Sadly, I would concur,” agreed Donaldson. “There are a couple of developments underway that impact us and part of why we are screaming out of town as fast as this train will go. Trains are great for large scale mass transport, like we are doing with the families from your area, and areas across the Province. The problem is that they can easily be stopped, and we need to be clear Minnesota within 15 hours. It should not take us longer than 13-hrs 30-min to get to Fargo. It’s another hour and a quarter to Grand Forks but we are still along the state border. The next station is another hour and a quarter west in Devils Lake, ND. I hope that will put us far enough west.
“Mrs. McConnell… initially this train was supposed to go through Windsor and your husband was to meet us in Detroit. Due to the increased insurgency in the south western part of Ontario, we went through Buffalo. When the train did not arrive, your husband was supposed to be brought to Chicago to meet up with us. Half way through Michigan, he and the soldiers guarding him were removed from the train. We believe they are now being held by the Michigan National Guard.”
“He’s okay then?” Asked Jan.
“We don’t know,” said the Sergeant bluntly. “Our orders to go into Canada came through the correct channels and with the full support of both houses and the President. However not all the states are in agreement. Do you understand the Blue/Red divide amongst our states? Well, Michigan is a blue state. And they have decided that the US Federal government has overstepped its bounds in going into Canada. So, Michigan is mobilizing their National Guard to go in and assist Canada, and Ontario in particular. Where one Blue State goes, we presume that the others will follow. So we need to get through Wisconsin and Minnesota before tomorrow morning. We should be safe once we reach North Dakota. It being a Red State.
“The issue that you brought up Dr. P. is a big one. When you join the US Army you are not asked your political affiliations and military units are not comprised of only one or the other, so it is possible that a Blue in our unit is talking to someone. That will be dealt with.”
*****
“So the race was on again,” John told the attentive audience. “Once it was us praying that the US Army would save us. Now the US Army was praying that they could do the same. You know in this world, we are never given guarantees. In Jerimiah 29, it says only that the Lord has great plans for us, plans that will prosper us and that He will not harm us. There is no guarantees that we will not face hard times. You can only pray that in the end.
“Our engineer, a fine man we were pleased to meet many years later, ran that train flat out. Men and women we would never meet kept the lines clear, and the switches in the right order, and really, we almost made it. Or rather I should say that we did make it to Fargo, but as dawn came, we still had to get through Grand Falls.”
