The Dreams of Greer’s Poet

Lost in the wilderness of a future dark age, Roper had put the Eastern Republic far behind him by the time he wandered into Antler, Wyoming. This place, like so many others, came with the hope of escape from the psychic power of Those That Be. However, the townspeople were not interested in some homeless stranger and believed that he would clean horse stalls and recite poems for quarter pennies on the town square for less than a season before drifting to the next town. Then the unexpected happened. Roper eloped with Ophelia, Sheriff Greer’s youngest daughter. Unlike the illiterate masses,and although only decent in his command Territorial dialect, Poet Roper could speak and read English, which was the only written language in North America. Poet Roper is accused of Un-Christian Acts when he delivers a short speech at a public gathering. Various claims are made against his delivery by a minority of the audience. Sheriff Greer and Mayor Bait save Roper from the Council of Elders by getting him enrolled in Bible School, which carries with it potential membership in the Destined Church. Barren Juliette had grown up in Saint Louis and married the Destine minister while he was attending Seminary there. Aside from Roper, both she and her husband are the only other literate people in Antler. Over time, she reveals to him in English that she is a follower of Those That BE and that her allegiance is with the Destructive wing, which believes life is out of balance because the Creatives are generating too many people. Creatives place the blame on Destructives for initiating the demise of so many relatively young people. She has been ordered to bring Roper back into the cult.Creatives send their own agent to entice Poet Roper over to their side. They pick Ariadne, who is the ghost of a woman who claimed she and Roper had been married in some distant past life. Rarely seen by the villagers, they become aware of her presence enough to match Roper with this supernatural entity.An off-and-on struggle with the nearby Miners flairs distracts Antler from its problems with Roper. He wins a temporary reprieve when he holds his mace aloft and the sunlit orb clutched into the top stymies an attack by their enemies. Of course, everyone recognizes that it has psychic implications, but they are too desperate over the growing menace to interfere with its use. Although the orb proved it can stall an attack,it could not prevent a siege. Soon Antler’s population faced hunger and disease.Fed up with Poet Roper, the people start blaming him and his orb for the siege. Attacked while crying out his defense from on top of the town walls, Roper disappears in the dark. The next morning the people awakened to discover that the hordes of Miners surrounding Antler had vanished. Roper could not be found.An aging Roper, now tagged with the moniker English Scribe, has been hiding in the monastery on Dream’s Knoll for decades. Because it maintains a hospice for elderly men, the monastery receives contributions from both Antler and the Miners. It is also free from attack. Roper is called before the Abbot to read off the quantities promised in English records versus the quantity delivered. When the town’s representative identifies himself and family to the Abbot, Roper realizes this is his son! Shaken and aware of what has happened since his flight, he is found praying in the monastery chapel and gently admonished to return to his work. Once seated at his desk, he places his finger on the last line that he copied from an ancient text and read it aloud in modern English.'To recognize the light of God for the first time, it helps to have been left standing in the Dark.'Certain of his place, and comforted by those words, he began to write.