Post by Elise Diefenbaker on May 3, 2016 4:46:57 GMT -5
...across the way from Belle Isle and the Motor City....
What would Gramps do? Elise kept asking herself as she stood behind a parapet on the roof of the Windsor Student Union building; off to one side, she could see the vast expanse of the Ambassador Bridge, now over three years closed to traffic between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario...off to the east, she could see several large fires beginning to build and grow, each sending plumes of smoke into the sky. "Gramps" was a reference to her great-grandfather, former Canadian PM John Diefenbaker; though she never knew him - he was long passed by the time she was born - everyone who knew Elise would tell her they could see a good bit of the man's spirit and fire in her....and God, she whispered, I could use some of that spirit now.
"Edie!" Stepping back from the parapet, she looked over at one of the other survivors in their compound, a fellow former Windsor student. "What is it, Pierre?" she yelled.
"Looks like those bandits putains are out there once more, Elise," he said, using some choice Quebecois language to describe the people outside the compound, adding in a loud voice as he turned and yelled at the distant fires, "Sauvages anglophones maudits!" Elise looked over at him in shock and mock horror; besides being one of the younger students there, Pierre Laval-Magustin was also the compound's resident Quebecois separatist.
"Easy, Pierre, easy," Elise whispered, stepping back to the parapet and looking out in the distance with her binolculars; though she couldn't see any of the bandits - a violent mix of Hell's Angels, criminals and other neer'do'wells, she could feel their presence in the distance...out there, circling them like a wolf circles her prey, waiting to strike.
Stepping back away once more, she quickly walked over to the stairs and headed down to join the others, her sword - a Scottish claymore - bouncing in its' scabbard off of her leg. Walking into the compound's radio room, she walked up to the operator, taking a long, deep breath before speaking. "Send a message to our neighbors across the river requesting help," Elise said. After a moment, she added sternly, "Send it, Marcy."
Without waiting, she brusquely turned and walked back out, right past Pierre who'd joined her downstairs. "What is it, Edie?" he asked.
"Ever hear of Scylla & Charybdis?" she asked. When he shook his head no, she continued. "In Greek mythology, there were these two mythical sea monsters - Scylla, a rock shoal; Charbydis, a raging whirlpool. It restricted movement through the Strait of Messina.....what I'm saying, Pierre, is that we're in the same position Odysseus was in all those millenia ago. We stay here, we all die; we ask Belle Isle for assistance...," putting a hand on the younger man's shoulder, she added in a calm but firm voice, "as much as I don't like asking the elephant to the south for help, here...I have no choice. We can either stay and die, Pierre...or we can leave to fight another day."
Her mind made up, she said, "Tell everyone to start packing...and stay on Marcy in the radio room; I want to be certain Belle Isle heard our request for assistance."
What would Gramps do? Elise kept asking herself as she stood behind a parapet on the roof of the Windsor Student Union building; off to one side, she could see the vast expanse of the Ambassador Bridge, now over three years closed to traffic between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario...off to the east, she could see several large fires beginning to build and grow, each sending plumes of smoke into the sky. "Gramps" was a reference to her great-grandfather, former Canadian PM John Diefenbaker; though she never knew him - he was long passed by the time she was born - everyone who knew Elise would tell her they could see a good bit of the man's spirit and fire in her....and God, she whispered, I could use some of that spirit now.
"Edie!" Stepping back from the parapet, she looked over at one of the other survivors in their compound, a fellow former Windsor student. "What is it, Pierre?" she yelled.
"Looks like those bandits putains are out there once more, Elise," he said, using some choice Quebecois language to describe the people outside the compound, adding in a loud voice as he turned and yelled at the distant fires, "Sauvages anglophones maudits!" Elise looked over at him in shock and mock horror; besides being one of the younger students there, Pierre Laval-Magustin was also the compound's resident Quebecois separatist.
"Easy, Pierre, easy," Elise whispered, stepping back to the parapet and looking out in the distance with her binolculars; though she couldn't see any of the bandits - a violent mix of Hell's Angels, criminals and other neer'do'wells, she could feel their presence in the distance...out there, circling them like a wolf circles her prey, waiting to strike.
Stepping back away once more, she quickly walked over to the stairs and headed down to join the others, her sword - a Scottish claymore - bouncing in its' scabbard off of her leg. Walking into the compound's radio room, she walked up to the operator, taking a long, deep breath before speaking. "Send a message to our neighbors across the river requesting help," Elise said. After a moment, she added sternly, "Send it, Marcy."
Without waiting, she brusquely turned and walked back out, right past Pierre who'd joined her downstairs. "What is it, Edie?" he asked.
"Ever hear of Scylla & Charybdis?" she asked. When he shook his head no, she continued. "In Greek mythology, there were these two mythical sea monsters - Scylla, a rock shoal; Charbydis, a raging whirlpool. It restricted movement through the Strait of Messina.....what I'm saying, Pierre, is that we're in the same position Odysseus was in all those millenia ago. We stay here, we all die; we ask Belle Isle for assistance...," putting a hand on the younger man's shoulder, she added in a calm but firm voice, "as much as I don't like asking the elephant to the south for help, here...I have no choice. We can either stay and die, Pierre...or we can leave to fight another day."
Her mind made up, she said, "Tell everyone to start packing...and stay on Marcy in the radio room; I want to be certain Belle Isle heard our request for assistance."