Danita drove up the driveway to her parents’ house, parked behind the influencer’s van, and went inside. She found her father in his big chair in the living room with his feet up and his eyes closed. She took the opportunity to study him. When did he start looking so old and tired? He’d always been the rock in her life, getting up before the sun seven days a week, working hard all day, and still having the energy to help her with her homework or talk with her about her life.
His eyes slowly came open, and he smiled.
“Hey, my girl,” he said.
“Hi, Dad,” she said. “Where are the influencers?”
“Out taking pictures of themselves watching the sunset.”
“I’m sorry they have to be here.”
“They’re not so bad. Even if they don’t know the first thing about farm life. I had to step in several times today to keep them from doing something stupid. Like taking a selfie with a bull.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Absolute truth.”
Danita’s mother stepped into the room, wiping her hands on her well-worn apron.
“Good, we’re all here,” said Danita. “I can show you this funny flower I saw growing out front.”
They gave her a confused look. She put a finger to her lips. They nodded.
“Mom, Dad,” said Danita when they were all outside. “I need you both to listen to me carefully. I don’t know if you’ve seen the traffic coming into town.”
“Those pickups and campers and whatnot?” said her father. “They’d be hard to miss.”
“Especially the ones blasting that awful music,” added her mother.
“They’re really bad people, and they’re here to take over the town. Jackery’s plan is to put one at each house to watch and control everything we do.”
“Like an occupying army,” said her father.
“Exactly. And here’s the important thing. No matter what they do or say, we need to be careful not to antagonize them. They’re armed and extremely dangerous.”
“We rolled over for the sheriff, and where did that get us?” said her father. “Now we’re supposed to roll over for this scum, too?”
“My friend Ellie—and the powerful person behind her—have a plan to fight back, and for now we have to trust them.”
Danita felt funny repeating the lie about Barb’s identity to her parents, but keeping them in the dark not only protected Barb, it protected them. They couldn’t be forced to give away knowledge they didn’t possess.
“Ellie says bringing in these assholes—pardon my language—is a desperate move on Jackery’s part. She thinks Barb will be able to use it against him. In the meantime, we need to lay low.”
“I can go along with that for a little while,” said Danita’s father. “As long as they don’t do anything to hurt you or your mother. But sooner or later we’ve got to fight back.”
“We will. But we need to fight smart. And right now trusting Ellie is our best bet.”
#
During dinner, the doorbell rang. They froze. Stacy and Willem usually walked right in, so this had to be someone else.
“Stay calm,” mouthed Danita.
She stood along with her parents and followed them to the door. Her father opened it to find a polite young man standing on the porch. Clean-cut and unassuming, he might have been the poster boy for American values if it weren’t for the automatic pistol on his belt—and the “White” tattooed on the back of one hand and “Power” on the other. Uninvited, he took a step into the house, forcing Danita’s father to take a step back himself.
“Sorry to interrupt your evening,” he said. “My name’s Carl, and I’m going to be camping in your front yard.”
Danita was afraid her father was going to say something despite his earlier promise, but he only nodded. Her mother simply glared at Carl, saying nothing. It was the rudest Danita could ever remember her mother being, and she was deeply proud of her.
“Well, I’ll leave you be,” said Carl. “You have a good night now.”
He turned and walked out. Danita’s father shut the door and locked it behind him, sliding the deadbolt home with an unmistakable thud.
#
Dinner was unusually quiet. Whenever any of them attempted to start a conversation, it was immediately smothered under the weight of the fresh horror outside. Afterwards, Danita helped her mother clear the dirty dishes from the table, but when she reached for the platter of meatloaf, her mother stopped her.
“I promised Stacy and Willem that I’d keep dinner out for them,” she said.
“Don’t tell me you’re cooking for them,” said Danita.
“They’re our guests,” said her mother.
“They’re being paid to be here,” said Danita. “And making plenty of money off their stupid posts on top of that.”
“They’re still company.”
Danita knew better than to argue with her mother. She was a proud woman with a strong sense of propriety. She’d work herself to death before she let anyone feel like they were being an imposition—especially if they were. To be honest, it was one thing she most respected about her—even as she felt the targets of that hospitality were utterly undeserving of it. At the thought, she chided herself. It wasn’t like her to hate on people—especially ones who were helping to protect her family.
And yet, there was something about the influencers that got under her skin. Was it the phoniness of the image they presented to the world? Their lack of intellectual curiosity about the world? The bland shallowness of their personalities? To Danita’s surprise, she decided that what actually irritated her was Stacy and Willem’s innocence. It was too close to the way she herself had seen the world before she’d left home. Her upbringing had left her unprepared for the evil that Dave represented. What would Stacy and Willem do when they were confronted with evil—such as Nazi Carl?
Danita had a sudden, hopeful thought. Barb had installed the two of them here because of their huge follower count. Well, what would those followers do when Stacy and Willem reported on Carl and his kind? The resulting outrage should put a quick end to Jackery and his scheme.
Shouldn’t it?
#
Danita excused herself and went up to her room. Her window overlooked the porch where Stacy and Willem would soon run into Nazi Carl. She slid open her window and positioned herself beside it with her back against the wall where she could hear every word that came from below.
She didn’t have to wait long.
“Hello, there, friend,” came William’s voice.
“Hello to you. The name’s Carl. And who might you fine folks be?”
“I’m Stacy and this is Willem.”
“Why do I feel like I’ve seen you before?”
“Our Insta is really popular,” said Stacy.
“I don’t do Instagram,” said Carl. “Their algorithms are totally biased.”
“We’ve also done some TikToks.”
“That’s Chinese propaganda. No, I feel like I’ve seen you in person.”
“We don’t do a lot of personal appearances. That’s not our business model.”
“We did speak at that big demonstration a few months ago,” said Willem.
“Right,” said Stacy. “The anti-vax one.”
“In Washington?”
“Were you there?” said Stacy.
“Absolutely. That whole conspiracy is the first step to mind control.”
“And it’s killing people with side effects.”
“Don’t forget Bill Gates and the microchips.”
“The Chinese virus.”
“Big Pharma.”
Finally, Danita couldn’t take anymore. She eased the window shut and collapsed on her bed, feeling like the entire world had gone mad.
Her phone buzzed in her jeans pocket. She pulled it out and found a text from an unknown number.
its toby can I call u?
yes, she texted back.
Her cell rang. She answered the call. The voice that came on the line took her back to high school. For a moment, she felt the excitement again of having a boyfriend, someone who had chosen her out of all the other girls, someone who made her feel pretty and special.
“Hey, Danita,” came the voice that used to thrill her.
“Hi, Toby.”
“I can’t talk long. I’m manning the call monitoring center, and the guy with me stepped out for a smoke.”
“You’re monitoring calls?”
“Yeah. So watch what you say on the landline or your cell.”
“Thanks for the heads-up.”
“The real reason I called is to warn you about a guy named Carl,” he said.
“We’ve met.”
“They sent him to your place because he can be charming, and they’re worried about the van couple posting negative shit. But don’t be fooled by his smile. He’s bad news.”
“I figured.”
“I mean really bad news. I’ve seen his record. He’s a stone-cold killer. He’ll cut your throat as soon as look at you.”
A chill ran through Danita. She sent up a desperate prayer that her father could continue to resist challenging the Nazi on their porch.
“Also, you shouldn’t be trying to help those Mexicans. The sheriff told us they have relatives across the border who work for the cartels. The farm is just a front for bringing in illegals and fentanyl and all kinds of other shit.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“It makes sense.”
“Not if you spend any time with Maria and Ramon.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
Danita bit her tongue. This wasn’t going anywhere. More importantly, it was keeping her from getting information she could pass on to Barb.
“Anyway, one of the other deputies overheard the sheriff talking to that Jackery guy. He said they’re not stopping at the Mexicans. They’re coming for the good, normal people, too.”
No shit, thought Danita.
“I’m so disgusted I’m thinking of quitting the department,” said Toby.
“Don’t,” said Danita. “You’re in the perfect position to help us fight back.”
“You mean with that Barb guy.”
Danita’s heart lurched at the unexpected mention. Toby said he’d called to warn her, but what if that was just a pretext? What if his true purpose was getting her to give up what she knew? She needed to proceed carefully, watching every word she said to him.
“I’ve never met him myself,” she said as casually as she could manage. “I only know he’s here to help us save our farms.”
“The sheriff says he’s just another Silicon Valley asshole with plans of his own.”
“Maybe so. Right now he’s our only chance.”
“Someone’s coming,” said Toby, breaking off the call.
Danita relaxed. It didn’t look like he’d called to probe her after all. Still, the call had shown a side of him she hadn’t seen before. As she slid her phone back into her jeans pocket, she felt a wave of disgust at both Toby’s casual prejudice and Stacy and Willem’s inability to recognize a literal Nazi standing right in front of them. With allies like that, how in hell could they hope to beat Jackery?