2025

 Life with Dee was different than what had I expected.   I guess I didn't know what to expect.  Someone who communicated with bees? I didn't know what to think of that.  She was nice and I could see right way by her jeans and t-shirt, that she didn't care much for the new rules enforced by our Leader.   Her hair was raven black, and she had her nose pierced, her lip pierced and small gauges in her ears, and a cuff on one her upper ears.  She had a lot of tattoos, and instinctively rubbed at the hated tattoo that my called husband had put on my arm.  I only wore long sleeved button down shirt, so no one ever saw it, but I knew it was there.  Her tattoos were cool.  I wish I could get one to cover it up.   The living space was cozy, and it wasn't too crowded.  She seemed nice, didn't push for information, which I was glad about.  I wondered how she knew from the bees I needed help.  I wondered what else they h...

 On the way to the Beekeeper's house, James explained to me that the Park I'd gone to wasn't public land anymore.  I stared at him in horror as he told me that all the National and State parks had been sold off as private land - mainly to investors looking for oil and timber and coal.   However, some of the land had been bought by Native Americans, and that land was still protected.   He looked sick as he told me that Denali National Park was being drilled for oil, and with environmental laws gone, it was a now a wasteland.   The ancient Redwoods in California had all been chopped down for timber.  I wanted to vomit.   In Yellowstone, the bison, caribou, moose and grizzlies had been hunted by big game hunters to almost near extinction, and the trees were gone.  The Leader had shut down the EPA, and the pollution to the rivers was so bad that the fish population had been drastically depleted.   The bear population that...