fiction

Day 2: The Legend of the Christmas Star

/ Joe Broadmeadow / 1 Comment

Joe woke early, before the alarm, something that almost never happened. With dawn still struggling to chase the night away, it wasn’t light that woke him. Climbing out of bed, rubbing his eyes, he tried to get them to focus.

Shapes all blended into shadows. Shadows played tricks on the eyes.

Then he saw it.  At the foot of his bed was a new backpack. On the top of the main compartment were the words, JEB Wizard.

Hmm, Joe thought, not only is grandfather fast but he can be very quiet when he wants to be.

After getting dressed, Joe bounced down the stairs carrying his new backpack.

“Where’d that come from?” his mother asked.

“I dunno, it was next to my bed this morning.”

“Ah, I remember now. Your grandfather bought that a while ago, said to hold onto it until you needed it.  Your father must have seen the torn one and put it there before he left for work.” 

Joe shrugged, hmm, he thought, maybe that’s what woke me. “Yeah, I think I heard him, but it was too dark to see anything.”

“Not even with the hall light on?” his mother said.

“Must have been too groggy,” he answered, dropping the backpack on the floor and then sitting at the table.

“Knowing your father, he probably tried to sneak in and scare you, then decided to let you sleep. Come on now, hurry and eat or you’ll be late.”

“Okay, but can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” his mother said, putting the finishing touches on his lunch.

“What’s JEB Wizard mean?”

As the words came out of his mouth, his mother spun around. “What did you say?”

“JEB Wizard,” Joe said, pointing at the bag. “It’s written on top.”

His mother walked over, then bent down to get a better look. “Well, I’ll be.”

“You’ll be what?” Joe asked, wolfing down his breakfast.

“It was a story your grandfather always told me when I was a little girl. About a wizard and a star. A gift from a Christmas star.”

“Really? What was the story?”

“We don’t have time now,” his mother said, glancing at Alexa, “but I will tell you what JEB means.”

Joe waited for his mother to explain, she seemed lost in her thoughts.

“Ah, are you telling me today or anytime soon?” Joe smiled.

His mother chuckled. “Sorry, I was just remembering the first time I heard the story. I was about your age. Your grandfather didn’t just tell the story; he made it so as if we were part of it.”

Her eyes became a bit misty. “He loves, ah,” and she wiped away a tear, “telling stories.”

Joe smiled, remembering all the stories his grandfather told him. “Okay, mom, I gotta go. What does JEB mean?”

His mother put her hand on his shoulder. “Your grandfather loves to say this all the time. He said to always live your life like this, and it will be a happy one,” taking a deep breath. “JEB means Journey, Engage, Believe.”

*****

*****

Tomorrow: Open Your Mind to the Magic

The Twelve-Year-Cycle Redux

/ Joe Broadmeadow / Leave a comment

Coming up on the twelve-year-cycle I wrote about here, https://joebroadmeadowblog.com/2019/01/24/an-american-twelve-year-memory-loss/, I wonder what 2028 will offer us?

The last time I wrote about this, 2016, we had just elected Trump to his first term. Somehow we survived, chose not to re-elect him to a second term, had four years of relative stability, then exhibited the most common symptom of insanity by repeating an action and expecting a different result.

I will give him this, we are not engaged in any active combat at the moment, but it would seem he desperately wants to try out the effectiveness of his renamed Secretary of War department by starting his own. (A bigly, better war. They say it’ll be the best war we ever had.)

We now find ourselves acting in the manner of enemies we long despised, where someone in the military chain of command orders a second strike to kill wounded combatants (I’ll grant the assumption for now, absent evidence to the contrary) in clear violation of the rules of engagement.

We have a President who supports the Secretary of War’s assertion that the decision for the second strike did not come from him, but from a field commander instead. This raises important questions about accountability and the chain of command in our military actions. There is no denial of the order. No announcement that this field commander has been relieved of duty pending an investigation. Nothing.

And keep in mind, while the designation of these alleged drug runners may be lawful, it does not mitigate the rules of engagement. Even if we assume the initial strike is lawful, no one has ever claimed these vessels posed a danger to the military assets engaged with them.

No one was shooting back at the Navy and one would be hard pressed to claim that two likely wounded men floating in the ocean posed any hazard to a 100,000 ton displacement aircraft carrier. They wouldn’t have even left a spot of the hull had they been run over by the ship (which would have been a less messy explanation of their demise.)

“Come to heading 250,”
“Aye aye sir,”
Bump!
“What was that?”
“I didn’t hear anything”
“Sir, there’s a small red stain on the hull.”
“No worries, we’ll paint it later”

2028 is on the horizon. Let’s hope we regain our senses before then. A new President, not a recycled one, will (hopefully) take office. We have frightened the world enough for this cycle.

Perhaps Not So Intelligent…

/ Joe Broadmeadow / Leave a comment

I am fascinated by the various versions of AI currently flooding the market as the solution to everything.

It can write a Best-selling novel, a promotion guaranteed report for work, manage your finances to make you a billionaire, and, perhaps, someday, kill us all and replace us.

So I decided to give one system a little test and ask it a simple question.

Who is Joe Broadmeadow?

I found out things about myself I never knew. Here are some of the highlights.

“· Career: He served for over 20 years with the Warwick Police Department in Rhode Island, rising to the rank of Captain. His career provided him with a deep well of real-world experience that heavily influences his writing.
· Expertise: His roles included commander of the department’s Bureau of Criminal Identification, commander of the Detective Division, and he was involved in numerous major criminal investigations. This gives his crime novels a strong sense of authenticity.
Career as an Author
After retiring from police work, Broadmeadow channeled his experiences into writing. He is known for:
1. Crime Fiction Series:
· The Harrison “Harry” Starbird Mystery Series: This is his primary fiction series. The protagonist, Harrison Starbird, is a retired Rhode Island State Police detective who keeps getting pulled back into complex cases. The series is praised for its realistic portrayal of police work and its Rhode Island setting.
  · Titles include Slight of Hand, Collision Course, A Flicker of Light, and Echoes of Silence.
2. Non-Fiction True Crime:
· He has co-authored several well-received non-fiction books with his wife, fellow author and retired police sergeant Carolyn Broadmeadow.
· Their most famous work is Killing Johnny Fry: The End of a Notorious Career Criminal. This book details the dramatic 1994 shootout and killing of a violent, long-sought criminal, an event that was a major case in Rhode Island law enforcement history.
· Another notable non-fiction book is The Phantom of the River: The True Story of the Murder of State Police Sergeant James Leyden.
3. Other Writing
· He has also written standalone thrillers, like Silenced Partner and Illusion of Power.
· He frequently contributes to blogs and writes articles on topics related to writing and law enforcement.

As you can see, I apparently did not serve on the East Providence Police as I have long believed, nor is my wife’s name Susan.

It got one title of my nine books correct. But, on the positive side, I have several new titles to consider.

So instead of scrolling through Facebook or Snapchat, put your name into a AI system and find out what you’ve been doing in a parallel universe.

Dear Mr. President…

/ Joe Broadmeadow / Leave a comment

There is no nice way to say this, so I am just going to say it, much as it grieves me to do so.

Mr. President, you are an idiot.

I do not say this lightly, but I do say it sincerely.

You complain about DEI being a scourge of mankind, yet you foster your own version,

Denigrate, enrage, instigate.

What makes me say such a thing? Statements like this by you..

When asked to call for calm in the country after the killing of Mr. Kirk, this was your response,

“The radicals on the right are radical because they don’t want to see crime … The radicals on the left are the problem – and they are vicious and horrible and politically savvy. They want men in women’s sports, they want transgender for everyone, they want open borders. The worst thing that happened to this country.”

I think I can speak for the overwhelming majority of rational Americans and refute all of your contentions.

We do not want men in women’s sports, Beach volleyball would suffer greaty.

We do not want to “transgender” everyone. I thank the universe each day that I have no memory of circumcision. And if someone chooses to follow medical advice and have an add-a-dicktomy or dickectomy procedure (sound them out), who cares? It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my bones.

And we do not want open borders, but we do want opportunity for a continued flow of immigrants who have immeasurably added to the quality of the American way of life.

And here’s a little secret, it is impossible for someone to send their daughter/son to school and have them return “transgendered” as you have often alluded to. It cannot happen even in Trumpianville. What is possible is that they may send them to school where they could get shot, but we know your thoughts and prayers will be with them. Or would you like us to bear these as acceptable losses?

How about practicing some of that Christian faith you are so enamored with, and consider this. If you turn your Bible so it is not upside down and, here’s where the magic happens, open it, the instructions are right there. It might suggest something for you to consider, like the following idea.

If someone came here seeking opportunity, albeit unlawfully, then spent the next twenty years working, paying taxes, and raising a family without ever committing any other crime, shouldn’t we give them a pass? Consider it a completion of probation? Give them a get out of jail free card? A presidential pardon, perhaps? Goodness knows your standards for such things are pretty low.

I mean, if you can pardon good ole boys and gals who held that spontaneous renovation at the Capitol with a little bit of insurrection and overturning an election thrown in for good measure, I think the guy or gal cleaning bathrooms at McDonald’s (your favorite fine dining establishment) deserves some consideration.

Come on, the J6 guys assaulted cops, the guy at McDonald’s just emptied trash, and didn’t finish some paperwork. Seems comparable to me.

Let me restate my original point in simpler terms. Wait, there are no simpler terms. There is no way to say it any plainer. Mr. President, you are an idiot. And I mean idiot in the sense of Webster’s original definition (which they caution is dated and offensive but I will use since I know you hate this “woke” nonsense). You are this kind of idiot,

a person affected with extreme intellectual disability

And here is another reason why I believe the moniker of idiot is appropriate.

When presented with an opportunity to encourage peaceful dialogue, perhaps like a future Nobel Peace Prize laureate might do, and tone down the potential for more political violence, you fumbled like a third-string half-back with bone spurs.

What you did was feed fuel onto the fire of a false narrative. Pandering to the worst of human nature. Some people will see that as a clarion call to take action. Where does it end? Once a bullet leaves the barrel, it has no loyalty. It cares not for what it hits. Violence begets violence until someone has the courage to stand up and say enough!

You could have been that guy. You could’ve been a contender.

But, Mr. President, you are in fact an idiot…though frankly, no one should be shocked. It’s not as if it was an overnight transition.