Rusty's Armory

Here We Go A Vamping

Posted on January 9, 2018

So how does one take a jilted ex-hippie who left unrequited love on the commune up in the Sangre de Christo mountains of New Mexico to becoming a mercenary, and later the spiritual leader and husband to a Middle Eastern convent that he and his merry band of mercs rescued and moved to Texas?

At this stage of the tale, the hero made his goodbyes, and flew off in his little sport plane with Fido, a stray mongrel with strong herding instincts.  Fido will be left at a pet sanctuary for older dogs since Joe wasn’t sure that he would be well taken care of at the commune, and the plane will be sold at an auction in San Antonio to provide Joe with airfare to the Middle East, where he will join his war buddy mercenary in protecting petroleum interests in Northern Iran.

I wrote a little piece to help me get Joe on his way, Are you going away with no word of farewell? and to flesh out Joe a little clearer in my mind.  Joe is a warrior who becomes a peacenik who returns to being a warrior.  In the course of his warring, he ends up rescuing the nuns of a convent that had been raided by terrorists.  Joe and his buddy enlisted the help of some very wealthy Canadians and Americans, and got the convent moved to safety in the US.

The nuns were very angry with the Church that abandoned them, and rejected its authority.  They felt that Joe was a warrior monk who was sent by God to rescue them, and so he was rightly the spiritual intermediary of their convent.  A type of priest to them, if you will.

The only problem was that they didn’t tell Joe of his elevation. At least right away.

And why am I telling you all this? Because this tale will never make it out of the first edit, and will never be submitted to a publisher, and I want to complete one tale in my lifetime. So I am vamping you, dear reader. I’ll apologize in advance for the subterfuge.