We published two of Greg’s stories Cat’s Cradle Rosary (BZA1) and Avenger of the Oil (BZA2). Greg is a veteran of the indie publishing industry and and excellent storyteller. This is a great story but didn't quite fit with The Bizarchives tone. We’ve been holding it in our submissions folder for months waiting for the right place. So we decided to publish it here. Make sure you check out Greg’s other work over on Amazon.
WRECKERS
The Journal of Jacob Hawkins
14 April, 1846 ~ It is black and storming: a good night for this work. A Nor’easter is blowing, and it is hard to keep the bonfire going atop the dunes. Still, with the aid of careful tending under an improvised shelter, we have managed it. We sit beneath that same haven as I write this, squinting against the smoke of our false beacon and waiting to see whether we shall profit by our efforts or not.
Would that the darkness could hide us from the all-seeing eye of God as well as the sight of man. My conscience bothers me not a little, but still, a man must live and his children must eat. We have families to think of; we cannot continue to eke out a hand-to-mouth living in our mean hovels as we have done for lo, these many years. The money must be found in order that we all might prosper. That we must do so at the expense of others is simply the way of the world, the way of nature itself, where one thing must die so another may live, and many may profit from the mistake of a few.
That is what I tell myself, at least. Deep inside, though, a part of me remains unconvinced, and horrified at what we are about to do.
I must put my journal aside for the moment; Samuel Johnson believes he has spotted a light offshore. The time is at hand.