A little East of Paris: An Evil and Fallen World

Jana sat in the shade of the wrap-around porch and watched the swirl of people going by.

They had no sooner arrived than “Sonny” had been leaving with the UTV for a nickel-tour of the ranch. Dr von Tersch had frantically gestured to have Gwain join them.

Jana gave Gwain a wave. “I’ll be fine. After all, how long can it take to drive around the property?”

The afternoon had turned warm and Jana was content to sit in the glider and listen to the babble of happy voices.

A young Black man was passing by and noticed that she didn’t have anything to drink and had no food. Taking in her languid movement and her lack of hair, he asked “Can I get you something to eat?”

“No. No need to bother. I’ll be fine” Jana responded.

The Black man rephrased his question “When I bring you some food, is there anything you CAN’T eat.”

Jana sighed. “Since you insist, bring me something light, and just a little bit of it.”

In a few minutes the Black man unloaded a bewildering load of food. Jana’s plate had just a spoonful of this and a spoonful of that. The young man’s plate also had a modest amount of food, mostly high-protein items.

The man wordlessly handed Jana her silverware, rolled up in a napkin and then the plate. After a mumbled "Your welcome" to Jana's "Thank-you", the man sat next to her and started to eat.

Jana's plate held a little bit of smoked meat. Some mac-n-cheese. A dab of beans. Greens cooked with pork (more pork than greens, by the look of it). Salsa fresca. Some slaw with vinegar dressing. A bit of cornbread. He had also brought her a tumbler of lemonade.

“My name is Jana McCampbell, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart” Jana told him.

“Mine is Otis Grant” the man told her and then returned to eating.

Jana tilted her head a bit as he spoke. “I am guessing that you spent some time in New York City” she speculated.

“Let me guess, you read Pygmalion by Shaw” Otis parried.

“Guilty” Jana admitted. “I grew up in Delaware, so I can hear it in the vowels.”

“Clason Point, Bronx” Otis grudgingly shared.

“Funny how you can go to a big party and find somebody you have things in common with” Jana observed. “Here we are, two East-Coasters in Texas and BAM! We found each other.”

“Yep” Otis laconically noted.

"Do you know many of the people here?" Jana asked. Jana was puzzled that nobody stopped and chatted with him.

Otis briefly raised his eyes and did a quick scan, something he had been doing the whole time they had been talking "Yep. I work with most of them" and then returned his attention to his food.

Pulling words from Otis was like pushing a rope. He wasn't much of a talker.

Whether it was a slight shift in the angle of the light or the fact that she looked downward to better spear the food on her plate, Jana’s brain finally registered the fact that many of the men were wearing guns on their belts.

Tension edged Jana’s voice when she said to Otis in a low voice “Otis...did you happen to notice all of the guns.”

Otis said “It's a barbecue. This is Texas. What did you expect?”

“It’s not a big deal to you?” Jana asked.
 

“Nope. In fact, I am wearing one too.”

Jana’s eyes shot to Otis’s waist and sure enough he was carrying one of those boxy-looking guns in an ornate, leather holster with a basket-weave pattern embossed in its surface.

“Isn’t that one of those automatic pistols like the Cartels use?” Jana asked, aghast.

“It is a semi-automatic, not an automatic. All the difference in the world” Otis stated with finality.

“What is the difference?” Jana asked.

“For one thing, I can hit my target with a semi-auto. With a full-auto, maybe your first one or two shots will hit the target but then most of them fly off god-knows-where because the muzzle climbs" Otis said.

“So you are saying that a semi-auto is even more deadly than a full-auto, which makes it even more evil, right?” Jana pointed out, sure she had found a flaw in Otis’s logic.

“A semi-auto is more deadly to my enemies and less deadly to innocent people...at least in MY hands” Otis said.

“I don’t get it. Why would a grown, mature man feel a need to carry a gun?” Jana asked, bewildered.

“We live in an evil and fallen world” Otis said.

Jana shrugged in disbelief and gestured around her. “Look around you. This is a happy place. There is no evil here. There is absolutely no need for anybody to carry guns.”

“Nova Music Festival” was all Otis said.

“What?” Jana said.

“I was in Israel working on my thesis when Hamas attacked the Nova Music Festival. Minutes before it happened, everybody was happy. They were listening to anti-war folk-music and dancing. They saw no evil. Nobody had any guns. That was on October 7, 2023” Otis said.

“But there is nothing like that here” Jana insisted.

“The Israeli were sure that Iran, which was a 1000 miles away, was their biggest enemy. They couldn’t see the enemies right under their noses.” Otis said. “The attack killed over a thousand people.”

“So you are saying that if everybody was carrying a gun that it wouldn’t have happened?” Jana challenged.

“I am saying that if 10% of the men had been carrying a gun that they knew how to use and if each man had two spare magazines, that Hamas would not have dared to carry out the attack” Otis said.

They ate in stony silence, neither conceding their views. Nevertheless, Otis didn't leave, either.

Twenty minutes later, Gwain joined them.

“Well, that was ugly” Gwain said.

“What was ugly?” Jana asked.

“It is calving season and some wild hogs tore apart a day-old calf. Sonny insisted on setting some snares and hauling away what was left of the dead calf” Gwain said. “Messy business.”

“What do you mean, ‘wild hogs’? You mean like Russian boars?” Jana asked.

“Yes. More or less” Gwain agreed. “They live in the woods near the river* and come out in packs to forage when it is dark.”

Jana shivered. “Sounds horrible.”

Otis nodded in agreement and muttered in a soft voice “Another reason to carry a gun.”

(C) 2025 Eaton Rapids Joe, All Rights Reserved 

*The wild hog population in Lamar county is primarily found in the wooded/brushy areas floodplains of the Red River on the north and the Sulphur river that forms the southern boundary of the county. Mature wild sows in Texas produce over 4 female "replacements" per year.