Mr. Thomas Stepforth was 66 years old. He had heard this pattern so many times before.
“Hurricane Mneme is beginning to deteriorate in strength as it drifts toward South Carolina's coast; local officials in Lofton County are considering canceling emergency preparations.”
“Lofton County's leadership has lived in a kind of delusion since 1974,” he said to his 18-year-old granddaughter Vanna Trent. “Holding off civil rights for an extra nine years actually was truly harmful, because it let an extra generation of young men of the good old boy type think they could do whatever they wanted almost a decade longer – so it shattered two generations instead of one when reality swept their whole world away. They have been trying to walk back reality ever since, and this is what keeps Lofton County backwards – but the second of two hurricanes is about to wash the old guard out, for real.”
““So this is why they think Hurricane Mneme weakening from a Category 5 this far north to a Category 4 is actually enough to cancel emergency preparations,” Vanna said.
“They are trying to project superiority to those who believe on them, and command of the situation – it's a performance they are wedded to even though the disasters of the past year and a half have been showing everyone they are in charge of nothing.”
“It's like they are stuck doing their own humiliation ritual,” Vanna said.
“They are, granddaughter, and let me hasten to say: this isn't just a racial thing. I used to be a proud man, and God forced me right down. This can happen to anyone … it's just that this crew is finding out that delayed is not denied. They have been busier trying to roll things back to 1974 than getting ready to meet conditions in a changing world and climate. Meanwhile, Isaiah Hamilton lived in Tinyville here and watched over it for good, and his son Major Ironwood Hamilton started from here in 2019 and cleaned up a lot, and still watches for good as the chief law enforcement officer and chief public safety officer. Why do you think that in all of Lofton County, I only buy investment properties in Tinyville?”
“So, Isaiah Hamilton broke the impasse on civil rights, and his continuing family legacy is that this is the only non-backwards town in Lofton County?” Vanna said, and started laughing. “That's deep, Pop-Pop!”
“Life is deep,” Mr. Stepforth said. “Sow righteous seed; get a righteous crop. Sow the wind, and you might just reap a whirlwind that is a Category 4 hurricane that can reach southern Virginia – twice in one summer after suffering the vengeance of fire in the previous summer. I've lived 66 years. The books of Isaiah and James in the Bible have never been contradicted.”