Her Name Is Peace

Farmer Petty from Minnesota recently lost his wife of thirty-five years.  His five children are grown and have left the farm; having started their own families and careers.  He thought he would love the peace and quiet, and while Betty was alive, he did.  Only now, it was strangely and eerily silent for too many days.

The children would visit from time to time over the last nine months since her passing.  The most visits he's had from them.  Carla, the eldest had gone on to be an astronaut; spending several weeks working on new engines for SpaceCommand's Deep Space Cruzer Cruzer on the International Space Station.  The three boys, David, Asher, and Troy Jr went off to vocational schools and have started working in their respective fields.  David's kids loved coming over.

His youngest daughter was different than all.  She was unruly and strange to the others, especially with a twelve-year gap between her and the rest.  A black sheep, so to speak, but with wavy blonde hair.  She was confusing to everyone because they had named her "Peace," but her life has been very tumultuous of her own doing.  Strangely enough, she was the one that stayed close to home.  So close that she made her residence the old barn about a mile up the road.  Ever since she moved into it, it's like every week she's a totally different person.  It was beginning to be thought she had a multiple personality disorder.  When she would come over, it was often awkward and filled with uncomfortable silences even when Betty was alive, but sometimes she seemed like the most wonderful human being.  But three brand new cars wrecked, trips with strangers to the farthest corners of the country without saying a word or asking permission, and a kockdown-dragout fight with local sheriff's deputies over not producing her identification left him always wondering, "What no-good is she up to now?"  Luckily, Farmer Petty and the Sheriff are old school buddies and he cut her a break; this time.

Now, Farmer Petty's only two public outings of any kind as of late are visiting the supermarket for a few things once every two weeks, and a monthly visit to the local Masonic lodge.  He hadn't gone in a couple of years, with him taking care of Betty and all.  He figured he'd go today.  But along the way, he felt he should pay a visit to his daughter at the old barn.

The barn was dug eight feet down into the ground.  Some lore behind it suggested it once belonged to the vikings, and someone simply converted it.  A builder told him it's a haven for rats, snakes, and all kinds of critters, and that eventually it would flood.  He had planned to fill it and build a real barn, but Betty got sick and the bills became a savings-sucking burden.  Peace got mad one year and moved out at 17 into the barn.  He had never visited her there.  Water under or over the bridge, it matters no more, he thought.

He left on horseback rather than the pick-up, hoping a calm trot would lift his soul.  Upon arriving at the barn, he saw a strange man dash out, bleeding from his arm, and holding a gun in his hand.  He had never seen him before.  Before he could say anything the man had jumped in an old El Camino and donut peeled out.  He tied his horse in a hurry and ran in, fearing the worse.  As soon as he went inside, he felt something strange.  He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he quickly realized his daughter had spent so much on this thing, that the initial 24x36 dugout now looked like a cave palace entry hall with 30 foot vaulted ceilings and Greek pillars along the sides.  A treasure hunters paradise, it seemed.  He couldn't quite believe she could do allthis working for a local antique shop owned by another old school buddy that granted her the opportunity.  Torches of fire along the pillars, and the plain dirt wall was now adobe or stucco.  There seems to be an additional and deeper dugout and a lengthy, descending, red marbled brick stairway with an orange-lit waterfall stream to each side.

"Peace," he said slowly walking down? There is a whole 10x20 bottom orange-lit pool at center and his motion activated the ceiling lights, 20 feet above it. So many questions in his mind about it all. There seemed to be more living space, but it's darkened back there.  "Peace, are you down here?"  "Yes, daddy," she answers back coming out from around the corner in a beautiful silky red-orange evening gown with a sky blue under-glow, and finishing putting her left-side earring on made of crystal with a moving flame seemingly encased in it.  He was open-mouth astonished.  After some silence she asks, "Can I help you, Dad?"  "I... I... I," he's not sure which way to go with this.  Working through his confusion, he asked, "Are you ok?  I saw a bleeding man run out of here with a gun."  Peace puts her hand to her mouth with a bit of fear, "Well, I've been here all day alone, daddy, and I'm ok.  Are you ok?"  He looks back up the stairs, and with a single side knod and a deep sigh, he answers, "I think so."  "Ok, so, how do I look," she asks as she twirls in it and smiles?  "Beautiful, sweetheart."  "Aww, thank you," she says walking up and kissing his cheek and then passed him to get a small purse from a nearby glass table.  "It's for the gala tonight."  "Gala-," he mumbles, but what he is looking at is more pressing in his mind, "Honey, what happened to your hair?"  She quickly turns to him with complete disbelief. "What do you mean what happened to my hair," she says, seeming to suddenly be distraught about it, "why would you ask me that after all I've been through?"  Tears swell in her eyes.  His confusion caused him to not be able to respond, and just as he was going to ask, she cuts him off.  "Never mind, Dad, I don't want to talk about it.  Now I have to redo my mascara."  She briskly walks passed him into the room she came out of around the corner and slams the door shut.  He starts to walk towards it and hears her whimpering.

With that, he figures he will not make matters worse and decides to let it beand heads to the lodge.  When he steps out his horse is gone, but his pick-up is there.  "Now, how the heck," he exclaims out loud! He really feels strange.  Maybe he just imagined horse riding.  'I am 72,' he thought.  Sure enough, his truck keys are in his pocket.  He goes ahead and drives to the lodge.  When he entered in, he could feel the questioning stares of all the familiar faces he'd known for years.

He smiled at them, but they seemed rather afraid.  He wondered if perhaps his fly was open, but he was not going to check it till he sat down. When he felt clear to check, everything was normal.  The stares, and now whispers, were growing, however.  Normally, everyone greeted the Gulf War hero, but not this time.  With all the uneasiness, he figured he'd leave before the rest of the members showed up.  Walking out to his truck, a man calls his name, "Troy?"  He stops.  "Troy, is that you?  Is that really you?"  "It's really me, Ted," he says turning around.

Ted never really liked Troy, but today he talks to him when normally he would completely ignore him.  "Oh, my God, it is you," Ted suddenly hugs him and chuckles, "you're alive!"  The farmer has no clue how to react.  Ted lets him go, realizing something was off, and he looks at him in his eyes, "But how?"  "What do you mean, how," scoffed Farmer Petty.  Ted's wife also comes along with mouth dropped.  Troy took one look at her, "Betty?"  He wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her and started to cry.  But suddenly this little weasel, Ted, is trying to pry her away and she is frozen still, as if she doesn't know him.  He quickly lets her go when she begins to scream.  "Control yourself, Troy," yells Ted in anger, "I know you guys dated in high school, but you left her, Troy."  "What?  What's going on here," blasted Troy in anger and utter confusion  "They told us you were dead," Ted spatted!  A pause incurred as others were gathering around.  "And she moved on, ok?  She's my wife, for God sakes!"  "Betty, I watched you die," said Troy in tears as he tries to come close to her.  "Sheriff," says Ted.  "Alright, buddy, I'm placing you under arrest," said the Sheriff who quickly cuffs him.  "Boyd, why are you arresting me," he asks.  "Sir, I don't know who you are and I think you're on some sort of hallucinogen.  I'm talking you in til it wears off."

In the squad car, he is feeling so uncomfortable with those cuffs getting tighter with every bump.  He realizes the way to the county jail goes right by the barn.  He knows the sheriff isn't going to allow him a stop, so he does the only thing he can.  He knows something happened in that barn and now he is in some sort of twighlight zone.  With all his strength he kicks the rear windshield out.  It completely falls off.  As the squad car burns brake pads, Farmer Petty dives out the rear opening and painfully falls side first onto the street.  The stopping momentum and his jump-speed helped to cushion the fall, leaving him with only scrapes.  And somehow, the cuffs came loose.  The Sheriff lost control while skidding and flipped the car over into the ditch.  He could see he was trying to get out.  This was his opportunity.  He was doing something that goes against everything he believed.  He ran for the barn with a limp from the pain.

It's dark now, but as he arrives, he notices yellow caution tape across the barn door.   He remembers the man running out.  He quickly rips off the tape and goes inside.  It's pitch black.  But the pillars are gone.  He feels water dripping from his arm.  He feels it with his other hand and smells it, and realizes he's bleeding.  And he remembers he carries a pocket-knife lighter.  He flicks it on, and immediately falls to his knees at what he sees.  It's Peace.  She is dead right there off to the leftside.  And a gun next to her.  He picks it up.  She has taken her own life.  "No," he cries, swooping down to hold her dead corpse.  He remembers they are now looking for him, and he is holding the gun.  He sees a dresser and opens it to see a few shirts.  He changes.  She has wigs.  He puts one on.  He rushes out with the gun and doesn't realize it's daylight suddenly, and his arm is still bleeding.  He sees an El Camino car and runs toward it.  He turns it on and peels out, making a donut, and heads up to the house in a hurry.

When he runs in through the door, he is caught by a familiar smell of pineapple upsidedown cake.  His favorite, and only Betty knows he likes it with a little nutmeg.  He turns slowly towards the kitchen to see who is baking this.  When he walks in, to his everlasting surprise there Betty is.  All dolled up like he liked it.  She sees him and jumps, "Oh! Don't scare me like that!"  She catches her breath and realizes he has a wig on and is bleeding.  "What on earth happened to you!?  And what are you wearing?"  She is stopped short of fully coming to him because a blood-curdling cry came from the other side of the kitchen.  "Mom, don't!"  He looks.  It's Peace.  "Peace..."  "Dad, put down the gun," she said as she slowly walks toward him, "I'm not Peace, Dad, I'm Carla.  Peace is dead, remember?"  Farmer Petty starts to cry.  He thinks he is going insane.  In a rash of sudden madness, he tries to lift the gun to his head, but he is rushed.  And he doesn't understand why he fought them, but he did.  He was trying to end it.  All he wanted to do was come home, and now he is home, and everything is crazy, and... BANG!

Carla, who he sees as Peace, drops to the floor grabbing her leg.  "NO," he screams!  Betty is crying.  Three boys rush in and take the gun and pin him to the wall.  He doesn't recognize two of them.  Only Troy Jr.  "Dad, you have to calm down," one says.  "Who are you," a reeling Troy asked?  "Dad, I'm your son.  I'm Paul."  "No!"  Farmer Petty escapes them and runs back to the El Camino, rushing back to the barn.  Along the way, the ambulance and the Sheriff are on their way to the house.  But the Sheriff sees him andmakes a sliding u-turn to follow him.

He makes it back to the old barn.  "I know it's you," he yells at it!  "I know!"  The Sheriff skids to a stop and loses control of the squad car, flipping twice sideways.

But the farmer sees a few more cops coming.  He is afraid to go in again. Afraid it may get worse, but he has to try.  Five deputies have him in their sights, warning him to get on the ground.  He hears them coming toward him. He decides to go for it and speedily walks toward the barn doors and kicks them open.

Suddenly, everything slows down as he sees bullets splattering through his torso. His momentum helps him fall forward into the barn.  Everything is fastly quiet laying on the ground of the old barn.  He sheds a tear for the shear horror of his experience and closes his eyes, thinking it's over.

But sunlight hits his eye lids, and he no longer feels the breathlessness and stingy pain.  "Dad."  He immediately opens his eyes and sees Peace.  He starts crying like he has never cried before and pulls her down, hugging her tight.  She hugs him back.  "I thought I lost you," he cried.  "I thought I lost everything."

She let him get his tears out, and When he calmed down, she said, "That's because you entered with a mixed mind."  He looked at her in her bright beautiful blue eyes.  Her hair wasn't shaven any more. For some reason, that seemed to bring him comfort  She didn't have tattoos of bats around her neck either.  "And you did lose me.  You did lose it all."  He didn't understand.  She could see it in his eyes.  "In another reality, all those things happened, but come with me.  It doesn't have to be like that.  It's all about the frame of your mind.  You don't have to feel half lost or half hanging on, Dad.  You gave me the name, Peace."  She stands and extends her hand to help him stand.

"Now, let me show you what this old barn can do.