Thanks for coming back and reading!
7-27-10: Many thanks to bajan-martini for beta-ing this chapter and making a better experience for the readers. BM - you're the best!
Chapter 2: Settling In
I asked Bubba to detour into Bon Temps so I could get a look at the good folks that I would be serving. However, when got into town, I was a little disappointed because there weren't a lot of folks out and about, probably due to the rain. I was slightly amazed that I didn't see any hate graffiti around town or "Fang Bangers Repent" signs in front of churches. I was fully expecting it.
When we finally arrived at the rancher-style house that I had rented, I was almost giddy with relief. Spending all of that time with the excessively chatty Bubba had nearly plucked my last nerve. I did tip him well, though. I always tip well, and he did deserve it - despite the fact that I wanted to permanently mute him.
Before entering the house, I stopped and took a moment to absorb my new home, taking in the sight of the long and narrow, gingerbread-accented house and its sloping backyard that had simple but lovely tiered-landscaping. The house had a large, well-built deck that started at one end of the house, which was actually the front entrance of the house, and wrapped around the back. The only other entrance to the house was at the other end of the house and it lead to the backyard.
There was no other house near mine; the closest house was a quarter of a mile away. It was a little farm house that sat at the entrance of the private road that lead to my house.
I spent the rest of the day and evening unpacking, cleaning, moving furniture and turning the house into my home. Thankfully, all the utilities were up and running and the rental office had stocked some food in refrigerator. I'll have to send them a nice thank you note for the food. I slept well that night, no nightmares.
My first week on the job was a whirlwind. I was up and into the office early each day. When I wasn't dealing with personnel issues and reorganizing the police station, I drove around town and met business owners, dignitaries, and the general populace of Bon Temp. I was exhausted at the end of each day, but very happy. Bon Temps felt like a good fit for me, I liked the people and the feel of the area.
I'd been hired to replace the Bon Temps' sheriff, who had retired abruptly about a month earlier. The man who hired me, Mr. Roman Jeffers, was the Deputy Chief of Police of the entire Bernard
Parish in which Bon Temps resided. I knew Roman, personally – but not that personally. I mean, we never bumped 'uglies.' Roman served with me in Iraq; he was actually my division leader. He was also was my best male friend, and at times a surrogate brother and father. I had a lot of conflicting feelings about Roman – he was the love of my life that I wasn't in love with.
When the sheriff's position became available in Bon Temps, Louisiana, Roman called me. He explained to me that the sheriff's position would report directly to him, and the sheriff would have their own station and staff. His call was quite serendipitous, I desperately needed a job and a place to go to, because I was released from a military hospice care house in Bethesda, Maryland, and was being honorably discharged from the military. I no longer had a place that I called home. Both my parents were dead and my brother had moved to Colorado to live with his lover. I applied and Roman hired me immediately. I was able to leave the hospice house and go straight to my new position as sheriff. Yep, it's nice to have connections.
Roman's station was in Monroe, which was a town on the east side of the Parish. He wasn't able to meet me for a while after I arrived, but he did brief me on my jurisdiction, current issues, and our position in a joint taskforce with Homeland Security, FBI, and several other law enforcement federal agencies.
Louisiana had become a Mecca for the supernaturals. The federal government, already with a nationwide full scale task force in procession, decided to focus extra energies and resources on the state. All of Louisiana's law enforcement departments' top priority, next to keeping the peace, was to aid in the investigation of these creatures.
Little Bon Temps was apparently teeming with supernaturals; from vampires to shape shifters and all in between - of which we were still finding out about. Roman said our main focus would be on the vampire community, since most of the questionable activities were occurring with them.
When I was in Iraq, the vampires came out of their coffins, so to speak, and the whole world tilted on its axis. We, in military uniform stationed over in a foreign land, thought it was a big joke. Really, we did.
We thought the news bulletins coming out about vampires were like that Orson Welles radio hoax back in the 1930's. People listening to the radio heard a breaking news bulletin that aliens were landing in Grover's Mills, New Jersey and they believed it. The radio studio definitely made a bad judgment call when they didn't announce at the beginning of the show that it was a play being performed, not an actual news bulletin. People all over the country went crazy – people even had heart attacks out of fear. So, when Katie Couric stated on the national news that vampires existed and where coming out AND they wanted equal rights…ohhhhh yeah, right, very funny – actually how stupid do you think we are, people!
I'll never forget our commanding officer's speech and the dead (no pun intended), broad silence that followed. It just was too incredible – too surreal – how do you wrap your brain around that? Vampires! Real vampires! Too fucking weird! Actually, I think we were all secretly terrified and felt horribly vulnerable. Not a good combination for being in a war zone.
Lordy - forget 'the whole gays in the military issue; we now had 'citizens with special nutritional needs' to worry about. And yeah, knowing that we were fighting for the rights of the living dead REALLY made us all soooo…weird. I guess I should say 'proud.' Hoo-yah!'
Up until today, and to my knowledge, I had not met a supernatural of any kind. I was about to meet my first, a shape shifter.