Tyranny Among Us [Updated Sundays]

Chapter 1

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CHAPTER 1 

Moore Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania 

November 2013

"Is this the place?" Cassie asked as she unbuckled her safety belt with one hand, the finger of her other pressed up against the glass. The smudge she left on the passenger-side window only slightly obscured the farmhouse that crested the top of a small hill, the cloud of dust that engulfed the car from the dirt road below them did not make it any easier to identify.  

Jim squinted at his GPS, "Yes, this is it." The brakes of the dark blue sedan whined slightly as the weighty vehicle's momentum went into a slow crawl along the side of the road, onto an area dotted with patches of high grass. The excitement in Cassie's voice made him smile. This day had been marked in their calendar for at least two months, but weather and the normalcy of life did not permit them to make the trip any sooner. Had it not been for the fluke in Jim's schedule, it might have been even longer.  

Turning up the heat in his car, Jim pulled a piece of folded paper from a compartment to his right. He opened it slowly and tried to memorize some of the names. A few were faded due to the fact that Jim's printer had run short of ink-a casualty of the many term papers he had to print-but he knew many of them well enough. A couple of the names seemed foreign to him, but by the day's end he hoped that would change. The wave of anticipation he felt mixed with other emotions, like the crushing sensation of uncertainty, but also fear. 

Up until a few months ago, neither he nor his family had known about their own history. Most of Jim's relatives were contemporary immigrants who had come over at the turn of the century from Italy, or during the Second World War from Ukraine. But one section of his family tree had been blank, distorted by tradition and rumors, by family folklore and mythology. For some time it had been presumed that his great-grandfather was the son of an immigrant, arriving perhaps after the American Civil War, but no details about such a history were obvious. The only living relative of his that would have had any information to offer was his grandfather, but he was slow to speak about his childhood and Jim was fairly certain he knew little about his lineage.  

The dozen or so family dinners that he'd had through his adult life without so much of a word about the past had troubled him a great deal. It had been that deafening silence that forced Jim's hand. About six months ago he purchased a plan with a family tree building website which allowed him to track down documents and fill in the blanks, or at least some of them. It became clear to him, as he began to identify relatives, that his grandfather's heritage had been a rich one-certainly a lineage worth remembering. Still, the fear that he would discover something embarrassing, or worse, made him uneasy.  

"It's a good day to do this." Jim opened his door slowly, not yet turning off the car. The brisk winter air filled his lungs and contrasted sharply with the warmth of the heat filtering through the vehicle's air vents.  

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" Cassie asked as she got out from the car, smiling slyly.  

Jim squeezed the wheel, "I guess both of us?"  

"Interesting answer." Cassie folded her arms on top of the car and rested her chin on them. "Are you ready?" 

Jim snorted. Part of him wasn't sure what exactly he would find when he stepped onto the property, but he had come too far to let his emotions keep him strapped inside. Slowly Jim leaned over and turned off the car. The heat dissipated quickly, leaving the interior just as chilly as the outside. He slowly unbelted and stepped out onto the road. Jim took a moment to breathe in the air before shutting the sedan door behind him, pressing the locking button on his key fob.