Ryan Postma
Journal Entry--2/22/96
4:15 am
Gary, Indiana

It’s warm for February. Gary is a magnificent city at night, though it looks more like it was welded together than actually constructed. Sodium lights reflect off the oil tanks and sand-blasted wrecks of factories, a thin haze fills the sky, spreading the moon out through a wax paper-like gauze. I’m sitting in the drivers seat of a ‘78 Cadillac that Bates picked up somewhere in Ohio. I didn’t ask how he got it. I really don’t care. I don’t seem to care about anything right now. Jhasen is dead. They needed a driver. That’s it.

Plakke is the only one here. He arrived by plane at about 3am and was waiting at the Denny's we’d picked the evening before. He looks tired. I suppose we all do. Chris and Rob and the rest should be here within an hour and then we can decide what we have to do. It’s at least a two day drive to Idaho. At least a half day hike once we get there. That’s without any problems. There are always problems.

I don’t know how far they’re willing to go. Scott has that look in his eyes that he gets before he takes a dare. I think he’s ready. I don’t know about Bates. He’s just a kid, really, and hasn’t been through anything like this before. Plakke looks tired. I’m glad he’s coming though, we’ll probably need him. I just hope he’s up for it. I'm as ready as I can be. I tied things up before I left, all that really amounted to was to make a few phone calls. I don't expect to be coming back.

I told Chris to bring what he had over the phone. I’m sure he would have anyway but wanted to play it safe. I think we’re going to need the firepower, though I hate to admit it. Things aren’t going to go smooth, we’ve already attracted too much attention with the stolen car. I don’t think we’ll all be there to finish this, but that doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that we do finish it.

"I wanted a mission ... and for my sins they gave me one. And when it was over I’d never want another."

--Apocalypse Now--






-dem bones-
--Letters from a Savior; Offer for a few--





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Gary, Indiana is an industrial city that spawned the Jackson family (yes, Michael, LaToya, etc. are from Gary, not Detroit). Gary is also featured and honored with a song in the musical "The Music Man". Gary is an inevitable drive through city on the way from Detroit to Chicago. The sky seems a little less blue in Gary, it is concrete, smokestacks, and sulfur smells. I have never stopped in Gary, though I've been through it on I-94 more times than I remember. The bathroom and/or hunger pangs can always wait.

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