Author's Notes:
Walking An Endless Path: Part 1 is the beginning of a prequel trilogy for the Jack Danner Universe. Think hundreds of years before Jack finds his way into the Altarian Trade Commission waiting room.
But without this, he'd never get the chance.
********
Walking An Endless Path: Part 1
********
Chapter 1
Karl Neumann just wanted to be a farmer like his father. He had no greater aspiration than to work his family's land and live peacefully with his wife. He stood quietly, soaking in the last rays of sunlight on the steps of the wide veranda that wrapped around three sides of his home. The mid-May evening air had a slight chill, but his worn jacket kept him warm enough.
Spring had come early this year, and the trees had taken advantage of this to grow their canopy of leaves, filtering the sun's long rays to cast dappled orange light across the lawn.
Disturbing the tranquility of the image was the shotgun tucked in the crook of his arm, unloaded, as he waited for the sheriff's arrival.
He looked back toward the living room window and saw the fireplace's warm glow. On evenings like this, he should be settling into his chair to catch up on his reading with his wife Clara at his side.
Not tonight, though.
When they emigrated from Germany to America, Karl's parents built their homestead at the top of a small rise surrounded by a thick aspen grove. They must have intended to have a large family as they'd designed the home to accommodate future children and perhaps even grandchildren. The large farmhouse had six bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, a huge kitchen supported by a deep pantry and cold cellar in the basement next to a large games room, a large living room with a fireplace, and a spacious dining and family room. A large deck was at the back of the house, off the family room. At the base of the hill behind the house and hidden by more aspens sat the barn, silos, and equipment sheds for the farm. Beyond this and on two sides of the aspen grove were their fields. The property his parents bought had six hundred acres of good, fertile land situated just five miles west of the small farming town of Glennville, North Dakota.
Karl turned his gaze back to the long straight lane leading away from his home through the aspen grove towards the county road. There was still no sight or sound of the sheriff's SUV, but considering their distance to town, that wasn't too surprising. His hand once more went to his jacket pocket to confirm he had sufficient shells. He was a decent shot with the old gun, but it wasn't his favorite skill his father had passed along to him.
Everything he knew about farming had come from his father. His love for the land had naturally come along with those skills.
He could hear his wife Clara through the screen door as she worked in the kitchen. He smiled as he recalled how they met so long ago when he attended Glennville's small school. He'd known Clara since grade one, and they'd been inseparable friends through those early years. When they'd reached their teens, and such things took on a sudden significance, Clara's beauty had taken his breath away, and her gentle spirit touched his soul. She was everything he desired in a petite, lovely body. He was damn lucky she fancied him too. Once they graduated, they immediately got married and moved into the family home with his parents.
With their daughter moving on with her own life, Clara's parents chose to move into assisted living housing as they'd had Clara very late in their lives, and both had health issues. Within a year, both passed peacefully in their sleep within days of each other. The family had gotten smaller.
Karl and Clara tried to start their own family, but she had difficulty with childbirth. After two miscarriages, they decided to stop trying, at least for a while. It had just been the four of them in this big house, but they'd been happy.
A few winters later, a deadly influenza outbreak swept through the country, suddenly taking Karl's parents from him. As their only child, Karl inherited everything. After reading the will, the lawyer gave Karl a letter his father wrote, including a thick, sealed dossier. Karl and Clara returned home and read the letter together. They were surprised to discover that his father had been a wealthy industrialist back in Germany. His father and mother had been members of high society, wined and dined with the elite, and rubbed elbows with celebrities and political movers and shakers.
Then came the event that took their lives in a new direction.
There'd been an ambitious project to convert a remote mountain village into a new resort town that would, of course, be a playground for the rich. While their friends and colleagues had invested in the project, Karl's parents discovered it required diverting a river and building a dam for the resort town's increased power requirements. Doing this would wipe out five farms downriver. As both sets of Karl's grandparents had been farmers, his parents tried everything in their considerable power to change the project and save the farms, but they were ignored, then shunned by the very people who claimed to be their friends.
Sickened by the greed, his parents liquidated assets, created trusts for the families whose farms would be destroyed, and moved to America to take up the more modest and down-to-earth life of farming themselves.
The dossier contained documents for their investments and holdings. Karl and Clara discovered they were now rich. Extremely rich. Karl knew his parents weren't poor, as the house and farm were clear evidence of this, but they'd never led an extravagant lifestyle and lived within a modest budget with him. Karl learned the value of hard work and earning his way in life and was grateful for this.
Clara agreed that this discovery didn't mean they needed to change how they were living. Both were content with their lives, though a child would have been welcome.
Included in the dossier was a letter from Karl's mother explaining how they had chosen Glennville after very careful and thorough research. They wanted to be almost off the grid but close to a community with growth potential. There also had to be a suitably large tract of farmland to purchase. Once they'd bought their property, they began to invest in their new community through anonymous donations. There were instructions on how they did it and how Karl could continue this if he chose to do so. His parents had upgraded and expanded the local hospital, schools, airport, emergency services (fire and police), infrastructure (road works, water treatment, electrical, telecom, and others), and built community centers. They'd helped rejuvenate the shrinking village into a town that drew people and business. They were members of the community and invested their time as well. She explained that the only one who'd discovered the extent of their involvement was Sheriff Jeff Monroe. He was a good friend of his father, godfather to Karl, and understood they had their reasons for being discreet.
Seven years had passed since that day, and now Karl was standing on his veranda waiting for Sheriff Monroe to arrive as the sun slipped below the horizon.
A few minutes later, he finally saw the headlights of the sheriff's SUV coming through the trees up the long laneway. He walked down the steps and over to the driveway. The truck came to a stop just as he got to the end of the walkway. The window rolled down, and they exchanged greetings.
"Hey, Karl. You ready?" Jeff said.
Karl nodded, walked over to the passenger side, and got in.
They continued down the farm laneway and through the woods to reach a ninety-acre field at the furthest edge of his property.
The sheriff glanced over at Karl. "We got a report from the local glider club of some strange lights flashing and strobing in the field at the north-eastern edge of your property. Probably just kids doing a rave or some such nonsense, but remote cornfields are often used for illegal drug operations, so it pays to be cautious," Jeff sighed.
