“Love and Family During the Great Death”
Chapter 04:
Note: This story is being posted biweekly (once every two weeks).
This is necessary to ensure there's enough time to do it properly.
David awoke the next morning bright and early, as he
normally did, to find himself cuddling both Alice and Ellen Parker. Alice was
wrapped around his upper body, and Ellen was clutching his side. He suddenly
noticed someone was holding his morning erection and he had a horrible vision
of his daughter grasping him, but he quickly assured himself that she had both
hands wrapped around him.
“You ready to get up?” she whispered.
“Yeah, keep it quiet, though. I don’t want to wake our
guest.”
“Can we have blueberry pancakes this morning? I’m sure Ellen
would like them.”
“I think we can arrange that, hopefully we still have some
blueberry bushes. Then we’ll have to check the house and property for damage.”
“Thanks for letting me stay here last night,” Alice said,
giving her father a quick kiss and a longer hug. “I appreciate it.”
“Now let’s get up before we wake Ellen,” David suggested.
They both got up, trying to move gently so they wouldn’t
disturb their new guest. When they exited the room, they both looked out the
large windows overlooking the valley and observed the local devastation for the
first time. While the recent rains prevented any forest fires, there were large
swatches of the tree cover which were missing or shattered. David noticed several
trees were lying on their sides.
“I guess there was more damage than we guessed, huh?” Alice
prompted him, as they both looked over the damaged landscape.
“Well, we knew there was going to be damage, and there’s
likely to be a lot more once we get out and look at it. As you saw last night,
most of the meteorites were small, so there’s likely to be more small damage
than major strikes. But the first order of business is breakfast. That way
we’ll be able to think about what we need to do. Besides, we don’t want our
guest going hungry if we’re going to put her to work.”
“The two of you really got along last night, huh?” Alice
said as she trailed her father downstairs to the kitchen.
“Yeah, we did. She’s really nice,” he replied, smiling at
the memory.
“I’m sorry I spoiled your night,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it,” he told her. “Last night was hardly
a typical night, and I think we all needed some extra TLC.”
“Yeah, but thanks for putting up with me. You could simply
have told me to go back to bed. I wouldn’t have, of course, but I wouldn’t have
disturbed you.”
“Come here, you,” he said, grabbing her and giving her another
big hug. After letting her go he continued. “Go grab us some blueberries and
see how much damage we’ve suffered. We’ll do a full inspection later, so don’t
get too distracted. I’ll start the batter.”
Alice hurried happily outside, anxious to see the damage to
the house and property as much as she was excited about impressing Ellen with
her father’s fresh blueberry pancakes. He made it with a special batter made
from organic flour he added herbs and nuts too, and she always loved it when
he’d fix it for her.
Outside Alice briefly took in the view of the yard. She
could see several small craters, and even some stones that had fallen from the cliff
above, but by and large it looked like they’d missed much of the damage that
had struck the nearby countryside. She’d lost a few of her favorite trees, but
that was about it. She checked out the buildings as she headed over to the
nearby blueberry bushes, they seemed pretty unharmed as well. She was sure
there’d be some damage, but she couldn’t see any from here.
She picked the blueberries quickly, took a quick tour of the
outbuildings, the front of the house, the garage and the shed, but didn’t see any
more, then headed inside.
“Not too bad,” she told her father as she handed him the
blueberries, “looks like we missed most of it.”
“Well that was just dumb luck. Guess the house was facing
the right direction. Did you check the cliff?”
“Uh, no, I didn’t think of that. You don’t think it’s
damaged do you?”
“We won’t know until we get a look, but I’d doubt it. It’s
overhanging with a gentler slope above it, so it was unlikely to have gotten
any direct hits, so aside from a few rocks rolling over the side I wouldn’t
expect much.”
“Expect much what?” Ellen asked, walking into the room in
her underwear and one of David’s spare shirts. David smiled. She was sending a
clear signal, and he didn’t mind what it said. It might be a bit presumptuous,
but he hoped that meant she was planning on sticking around for a little while.
“Alice was checking out the front of the house. She said it
looks relatively undamaged. We were lucky,” he said as he approached her and
gave her a kiss good morning.
“Ooooh, not in front of the kids, please,” Alice teased.
“Good morning, Ellen, we were just getting ready to make some homemade
blueberry pancakes. You’ll love them.”
“I’m not likely to love much unless someone finds me a cup
of coffee,” she complained. “What the hell are you two doing awake at this God
forsaken hour?”
David and Alice both chuckled. “Sorry, but this is the time
we normally get up around here. But I’ll get that coffee for you, because we’ve
got a lot to do today,” David said.
“Oh, yeah? What are you planning on doing? I still need to
contact my sister and maybe travel back into the city to check on my
apartment.”
“Don’t worry about the apartment,” David advised her. “The
rental company is responsible for any damage, so hopefully they’ll do a quick
assessment before you can even get there. Speaking of which, the roads are
going to be shot to hell. You’ll have a hard time getting anywhere today.”
“We did last night,” she argued.
“Yeah, but you saw how much trouble we had, and how much
destruction there was. Chances are the towns are going to be clogged with
rescue vehicles, and the streets won’t be cleared for several days. I think
you’re going to be stuck with us for a few days.”
“Hmm, I don’t suppose there’s any chance of renting a
vehicle, is there?” she asked, just to be sure.
“Nope, although I’ve got a pickup out in the garage that I
use to carry building supplies. You’re welcome to use either it or the SUV,
but I’m hoping you can wait for a few days. It’d make things much easier, and
you’ll have an easier time of getting back.”
“You aren’t going to leave yet, are you?” Alice asked,
sounding worried.
“Nah, I think I’ll stick around for another day at least.
But I do have a life, and I’ll need to find out what’s going on.”
“That’s the first thing I have planned today. As we saw last
night, there isn’t much news getting out any more, so I’m planning on finding
out just what’s going on.”
“That sounds great,” Ellen responded as she looked over his
shoulder to see what he was doing, picking up a spare blueberry and popping it
into her mouth. “Damn, those are good,” she told them, despite the fact he and
Alice both knew just how good they were. “So how are you going to get the
information the news stations don’t have?”
“Watch the language, please,” David reminded her. “There’s
an impressionable minor nearby.”
“Hey, this ‘impressable miner’ can watch out for herself,”
Alice replied. “Besides, you say worse all the time,” she reminded her father.
David ignored her, knowing it was true, and continued making
the pancakes, occasionally swatting Ellen’s hands away from the blueberries.
“You’ll find out soon. I figured we’d all go, so we can evaluate how widespread
the damage in town is. But let’s focus on breakfast first. Alice, you know how
I like my coffee so how about you get it started.”
“Yeah, Alice, make that coffee real quick. Otherwise I’ll be
a bitch all morning and mess up my chances with your father,” Ellen told her
with a laugh. But Alice didn’t worry about that too much. For as much as she
complained, Ellen hadn’t stopped smiling since she came downstairs, and her
father wasn’t much better.
When Ellen commented how ravenous she felt, David suggested
that Alice take her out berry picking so they could make more pancakes, though
he doubted she could eat as many as she thought she could. She didn’t know just
how filling his pancakes were, but he figured she’d appreciate picking berries
along the forest line. “And take a couple pans of water with you,” he called
after them. “I’m sure the animals have been as disturbed as we were. They’re
probably afraid to venture very far this morning, so let them know they’re
welcome here. I’ll put some corn seed out for them when we leave. I don’t think
it will reach any hurt animals, but at least it will help those that survived.”
David didn’t really think either girl heard his entire tale, but he assumed
Alice had heard the water suggestion at least.
Ellen was fascinated to be picking berries. They grew abundantly
among the base of the cliff and along the edge of the forest where they got a
mixture of sun and shade. There were berries everywhere, but Alice had to tell
her how it was worth the time to pick the very ripest berries, since they’d
only spoil if left, and their unripe cousins needed time to ripen so they’d
have more later in the week.
“So, Alice,” Ellen hesitantly began, “just how much did
you hear last night?”
“Oh, I heard enough,” she laughed uneasily. “It wasn’t hard
to imagine what you were up to. Especially when you started giving him detailed
instructions.”
Ellen blushed, but tried to hide it. “Sorry about that. I
never would have—”
“Don’t worry. There was no reason to expect someone to be eavesdropping
outside your door,” Alice reassured her.
“I guess I’m not used to having kids around,” Ellen replied.
She hesitated a moment then continued. “Listen, I’m sorry if you think I’m
infringing on your mother’s role or something.”
Alice stopped her picking and regarded Ellen. The sunlight
highlighted her blond hair, giving her an apparent halo that made her look even
more beautiful than she normally was.
“Actually it doesn’t bother me. I’ve known that Dad’s been
alone for a long time, and I have no illusions of my parents getting back
together. My mom has gone through too many boyfriends for me to ever expect
she’d stop now.”
“Sorry if I said the wrong thing,” Ellen apologized.
“Hey, didn’t I hear something about not apologizing so much
last night?” Alice asked. Ellen grinned, feeling a bit more relaxed.
“So tell me, just between us, did you just sit out there
quietly or did you … uh …”
“Or did I, uh, what?” Alice asked, knowing exactly what she
meant but wanting to force Ellen to say it out loud. She knew that adults liked
to pretend that kids didn’t know anything about sex, despite the fact it was on
the television and the radio all the time.
“Look, I know it’s awkward, but a lot of girls have
fantasies about their fathers. I’m not going to give you a hard time about
fantasies, but I’m just curious.”
Alice sighed, figuring there was no easy way of avoiding
this conversation.
“I didn’t initially. I mean, I know Dad is good looking and
all, but it’s just a bit too uncomfortable to think of,” Alice carefully
explained. Ellen simply nodded her head, choosing to remain quiet while Alice
said whatever she needed to say. “But while I sat there listening to the two of
you I started to think of it more and more. I tried to think of boys from
school, or famous movie stars or something, but when you kept repeating his
name I couldn’t keep denying who it was I was hearing.”
Ellen found herself about to apologize again but stopped
herself. When Alice didn’t continue Ellen pushed her a little.
“So that’s a yes or a no?”
“Yeah, it’s a yes,” Alice admitted while she blushed. Ellen
loved the way Alice’s face lit up when she blushed. Her face was clear and
blemish free, showing the freshness of youth while displaying an array of
emotions when she smiled. Ellen admired that, and told herself once again she
hoped she’d never fall victim to the desire to ever use Botox to deaden her
facial muscles just to look pretty for a few more years.
“So am I terrible for thinking of my father that way?” Alice
asked nervously.
“No, I don’t think so. As I said, it’s a fairly common
thing. A girl’s father is the one person they feel safe experimenting with. You
can flirt with him and hopefully he won’t try to take advantage of it. I know
sometimes fathers do try things you don’t want, but most fathers are
perfect foils for us to practice flirting with. They love us unconditionally,
they like to be flirted with, and it’s wonderful to watch their
reactions. I did it myself,” Ellen admitted.
“Wait. You flirted with your father or you fantasized abut
him?” Alice asked.
“Both actually,” Ellen replied, fighting the temptation to
blush. She wanted to be as open and as honest as she could, while still not
exposing David’s daughter to anything she wasn’t ready for yet. “I was like
you. My father was both my ideal, and ‘way too old’ for me to consider.
Whenever I’d think of the ideal guy in my mind, I’d always see the very traits
that my father had. So whenever I’d start thinking of sexy guys, my mind would
inevitably flick over to him. It would freak me out, but after a while I’d just
go with it. And just between us girls, and I’ll kill you if you ever tell your
father this, when I did play with myself imagining my father, it was always
much more exciting than it was with anyone else.”
“Really?” Alice asked, astounded that an adult would admit
this kind of thing to her.
“Well, there’s a big difference between fantasy and reality,”
Ellen hurried to explain. “I’d have freaked out if my father had ever tried
anything with me. Again, it’s a trust thing. It’s one thing to imagine it. After
all, you really can’t control whom you fantasize about, but if you can’t trust
your own father your whole world would fall in on itself. Women who have
problems with their fathers often end up having all kinds of problems
throughout their lives, all from no fault of their own.”
Alice considered that, both the thought that Ellen had masturbated
to images of her own father, and to her warnings of what would happen if it
ever went beyond that. She was too busy thinking about the topic to say
anything farther.
“Well, I think that’s enough for now,” Ellen said, thinking
she’d already said way too much and afraid if they stayed out here she may say
even more. She didn’t think she’d crossed any lines, but she didn’t want to
chance it. It’s one thing to bond with a new boyfriend’s daughter, but it’s
another to actively corrupt her. David would never forgive her if Alice ever
said anything about this discussion to her father. “Let’s go inside and see
what your father’s pancakes are like. I’ve never known many men who could cook
as well as they think they can.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Alice said, as they both picked up their
buckets and headed in, “my father’s pancakes are the best. Best of all, he has
so much fun making them for us … I mean me. He always plays with them, making
cute faces. I’m sure he could make a blushing one of you talking to me if I give
him some of the raspberries I found.” Ellen took off after Alice as she ran
away laughing. This was a really nice way to start the day, especially since it
was so far removed from the previous day.
“So what else did you hear last night?” David asked Bobby as
they drove back, still hoping to figure out what was happening in the outside
world.
“Everyone is pretty messed up,” he told them. They’d helped
Bobby and Ma put their car in the garage because David didn’t think it would
make it to his house. They’d also helped him patch the roof and the walls as
well as they could in their limited time. Bobby had been hoping to catch the
Sherriff, but David knew it was too far away. They’d try another time, but
right now he was anxious to get Bobby and Ma squared away before he ventured
out again. Maybe he could try to reach the Sheriff when he took Ellen back, he
thought to himself.
“Most cities have declared states of emergency, and have
ordered everyone off the streets except emergency crews and maintenance people.
Some towns have started house to house searches for anyone hurt, but the vast
number of people involved makes that fairly unrealistic. But they’ve warned
everyone to stay away from work, and that they’d announce when it was safe to
travel again. Unfortunately, they have no way of getting the message out to
people, and no way to contact the very maintenance people they’re expecting to
clean up the roads for them.”
“Sounds like a problem,” David tersely responded.
“Were there any major strikes?” Ellen asked. “From what we
could see it looked like a bunch of little stuff, but I figured there must have
been some big meteorites as well.”
“You mean were there any cities flattened?” Bobby asked, and
Ellen cringed hearing the question, even though that was exactly what she was
asking. “No, you’re right. The fragments all seemed to be uniformly small. All
the reports were of small fragments, although they had to be big enough to not
burn up during reentry.”
“Well, there were a lot that weren’t big enough,”
Alice told them. “We were lying in a field most of yesterday, and the whole sky
above us was lit afire with meteorites, yet there weren’t really that many
striking the earth.”
“That’s what everyone was saying this morning,” Bobby said.
“The fragments seem to be fairly consistently sized. There were reports of a
couple of larger fragments, but nothing that hit any cities at least. The real
problem was the multiple forest fires they set off. There are whole fragments
of the West Coast, the Mid-West and Texas that are on fire at the moment, as
well as similar reports over the rest of the world.”
“What about world-wide?” David asked, as he tried to get
around a fallen tree bordering yet another meteorite induced crater.
“Specifically, should we be worried about any countries who escaped the
onslaught thinking they can take advantage of the rest of the world being
caught with their pants down, or will there be anyone who can help those that
were hurt?”
“As I said before, it seems to have struck across the
spectrum, all the way from Australia to Russia and all the countries in
between. I think much of Canada and bits of South America escaped it, but I
don’t really know how much territory wasn’t affected. So far I’ve been
listening to responses talking about the disaster, and I’ve only been talking
to people who speak languages that I’m familiar with. But I think the fear of
anyone attacking or helping anyone else is pretty slim, seeing as how much
damage was done to the ships already out to sea. It seems most of the seaboard
vessels have been lost.”
“OK, I was just wondering. You never know when some despot
is going to feel like he’s too big for his britches,” David responded.
“Dad, you’re sounding positively reactionary. I’m surprised
to hear you talking like that. Normally you tell me to always expect the best
from people.”
“Well, it doesn’t hurt to be careful, Alice. Always remember
that. For every helpful person you meet, there are several who’d cut you as
soon as they’d look at you. I like to look for the positives in life, but it
doesn’t pay to keep your head in the sand, either,” David advised his daughter.
“Uh, Dad, I hate to say this, but is that what I think it
is?” Alice asked, pointing over his shoulder at a streak across the clear sky.
David and everyone else looked up and yes, it was another meteorite. David
didn’t respond right away, wanting to be sure, but he was pretty sure given
what Bobby had been saying that they weren’t in the clear yet. They’d just been
on the far side of the planet, and they were about to get hit with it again.
His suspicions were confirmed when first Ellen and then Ma
pointed out other new meteorites. It was just like it was the previous day;
they appeared in the Eastern sky, and slowly grew in number as new ones
appeared moving westward. The talk in the car grew anxious, but David knew he
couldn’t speed up much since the road still wasn’t clear, but he tried to hurry
as much as he could.
“How’s this car hold up to meteorite impact?” Ma asked
anxiously.
“Not well from what I felt when I got in,” Bobby responded
to his wife. “It felt like it took a beating yesterday.”
“Yeah, but it’s still running, and that says a lot,” Ellen
said, trying to defend David. She knew it was silly, but she didn’t like anyone
saying he wasn’t prepared, even if it looked like he hadn’t been anticipating
this.
“So how much farther is your house?” Ma asked, since she’d
never been there before. She’d heard of the almost mythical house many times,
but it had never been easy to reach, and David guarded his privacy like a troll
guards his bridge against intruders.
“We’re almost there. This is the last turn off. We should be
there before much longer,” David advised them.
“Yeah, right,” Alice responded. “We’ve got like the longest
driveway in the world. It goes on forever.”
They anxiously watched the windows as the number of comet
trails increased, but so far they didn’t see anything coming down around them,
but then again they weren’t likely to, since they were driving through forested
growth which hid anything happening nearby. The road they were on now was a
narrow two lane private affair that soon turned into a narrow unpaved track in
the road. It was covered with limestone rock to support the many heavy delivery
trucks David had needed to help build the house, but it was still rough going.
Many a truck driver had cursed him out after they pulled up to the house site,
complaining about his ‘damn road’.
They started to see the occasional steak flash by overhead
when they pulled up to the chain protecting their property. David was surprised
to see a car pulled up behind it, blocking their path.
“Damn, who could that be?” he swore. “It’s a damn stupid
place to be sitting, and I don’t look forward to being responsible for some
damn fool government worker or hiker.”
He pulled to a stop and turned to Ellen sitting in the back
seat. “Let’s check the other car. Hopefully the owner didn’t go far, but I
can’t see them. We can’t get home if the way is blocked.”
He got out, not paying attention to who followed him, but he
heard two car doors slam behind him, so he had to assume someone else had
gotten out as well. When he looked back Alice responded.
“I’m unlocking the gate like I normally do, Dad. Who do you
think it is?”
“I don’t know, but if I have to I’ll push his car off the
road if it means the difference between us being safe at home and our being
exposed like we were yesterday.”
“The doors unlocked,” Ellen announced as she opened the door
and looked in. “They left the keys here as well.”
“Good. That will save their car. You drive Alice to the
house in the car and I’ll follow you. Whoever it is, they likely walked to the
house. They’ll probably appreciate that I saved their vehicle after they finish
cussing me out for stealing it.”
“You’re not the one they’ll accuse of stealing it,” Ellen
reminded him with a smile. She still trusted him to rescue her enough to not
worry about things going wrong yet. That would likely happen in time.
Ellen got the car moving fairly quickly, and stopped so
Alice could jump in once both cars had moved just beyond the gate. Alice had
been tempted to simply leave it open, not bothering to lock it because of the
potential risk to everyone by leaving them exposed. But she knew her father
liked things done properly, and she knew she’d hear about it if she ever left a
job unfinished, so she’d done it this time, despite the risk of standing out in
the open during the initial stages of another meteorite storm. Once she was in
they headed off.
It was still a bit of a drive further, as David’s driveway really
was long. When they pulled up someone stood up from his front door steps and waved
to them. He couldn’t identify them until they got closer, but when they did he
saw it was Maggie Sinclair, the wife of Peter Sinclair, the druggist whose
store he defended the previous night. David groaned when he saw her, imagining
she was here either to tell him not to ever set foot in the store again, or to
warn him the sheriff was coming for him. He couldn’t tell what her demeanor or
intent was from this distance.
“When we stop, get Bobby inside as quickly as you can. Alice
will open the front door. I’ll take care of protecting the cars. Feel free to
help yourself to anything you need, but we’ll leave your things in the car. I
don’t think it’s wise to be unpacking them while the sky is falling,” he
teased.
Everyone started moving as soon as the car stopped and David
jumped out to show Ellen where to move the car, but Maggie caught him before he
got there.
“I’ll move the car,” she told him. “I figured you must have
gone out and I was afraid to stay out on the street when I saw the meteorites
start falling again, so I hiked to the house. Sorry if I messed you up, but I
didn’t know what else to do.”
“Let’s just concentrate on getting everything and everyone
secured. We’re moving the cars to the garage, which is around the side. It’s
built against the face of the cliff so it should be sheltered from the storm,
so hopefully the cars won’t get much more damage, but I’m not going to promise
anything.”
Maggie hurried to her car to drive it where David directed
her. After Alice unlocked the front door she ran back to direct Maggie where to
go. Ellen, instead of doing the intelligent thing and heading into the house,
ran back and got into the passenger seat of David’s SUV.
“Why didn’t you seek shelter?” David growled at her.
“What, and leave you out here on your own? You didn’t leave
me alone, and I’m not going to leave you alone, either. I figure it’ll go
faster if there are more hands available,” she replied.
“Not if those hands don’t know where anything is,” he
snarled, but then smiled at her, “but thanks. I appreciate it.” He reached
across to squeeze her hand, but by then they were already pulling into the
garage. Luckily it had enough room for several cars. David had it built to
protect the various work vehicles he needed in building and maintaining the house,
as well as anticipating Linda bringing friends and acquaintances when he’d
first drawn up the plans for it. He was glad for that little feature now,
although he’d complained about it over the past several years when the only two
cars in it were his SUV and his pickup.
He parked the SUV close beside Maggie’s mini-SUV, the type
of thing he always called a ‘girlie SUV’, but at least she was smart enough to
drive a vehicle that could get around the countryside she lived in.
Since they had so many hands, David put them to work passing
out boxes of the Lind’s stuff for them to take inside. Each grabbed as much as
they could carry and ran for the shelter of the house. David had called them
back, telling them of the connection to the house from the garage, saving their
having to venture outside.
As they set their things down for Bobby and Ma to figure out,
David made introductions, although Maggie already knew both Ma and Bobby.
“Again, I’m sorry to show up on your front door unexpected,
but I wasn’t expecting … well, that’s not really true.” Maggie explained.
“Reggie sent me to thank you for saving the store. He got the message you left
for him, and he managed to talk the policeman who showed up out of taking your
note, so you should be OK. However, he also sent a little thank you gift with a
couple of stipulations,” she concluded.
David regarded her as he tried to get everyone organized.
Maggie was a tough old bird, though she was still young enough to look like a
young thing. She’d married an older man, who’d inherited the pharmacy from his
father who’d passed on several years ago. She’d grown up in the foothills, and
knew her way around the countryside and the back roads, and David knew she
wasn’t afraid of some good honest hard work.
“What are the stipulations?” he asked with some trepidation.
Maggie pulled up a box she’d carried in that didn’t belong
to the Linds. She opened it and showed David a bunch of IV bags.
“These and other drugs were left unrefrigerated for too long
for us to legally store or sell, so Reggie declared they’d been stolen before
you stopped the thieves. He included these antibiotics, but he also included a
bunch of things in my car which he figured would likely be handy if things get
as bad as he expects they will.
“He figures with the damage inflicted by flying debris that
there will be a rush on antibiotics, so he figures we should save some for the
locals in case the national supply runs out. He figures the pharmaceutical
companies will pull any future shipments so they can send everything to the
cities, and he wants to keep some of it for those of us who live here, but he
can’t keep it in the pharmacy since the power is still out.
“He wants you to have it, with the understanding that you’ll
share it with whoever asks you for it. He also wanted me to tell you he talked
to the Sheriff, and he knows it’s here, and he’ll cut you some slack with the
understanding you can work together if they need the stuff.”
“And is there any cost to me besides being the normal stand
up guy I am?” David asked, trying to figure out just what Maggie wasn’t saying.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “He wants you to take me in. He’ll still
leave the stuff with you if you can’t, but he wants me to be sheltered if your
place is safe, because he knows our house and the Pharmacy aren’t.”
David considered that, and Alice and Ellen stood around them
listening to this exchange, while Ma and Bobby stood a little ways away,
pretending to be sorting their supplies while they listened as well.
“You really don’t need to bribe me, Maggie. You and Reggie
are old friends, and you’re welcome anytime you want to come by. As you can
see, we have a couple of other people staying here at the moment, but when I
built the place I was expecting more company than I’ve had, so there should be
room. But I’ll expect you to chip in.”
“Oh, of course. Anything you need me to do, I’ll do. As you
know, I’m an old country girl, so I can do a lot of stuff, although I’m better
at organizing and doing work outside than I am at cooking and cleaning, just so
you’re warned ahead of time,” she told him.
“Yeah, I saw you at the county fair earlier in the year, I’m
aware of how good you are at working, so I’m not worried, but I just want you
to be aware that this isn’t a typical vacation for you, or for any of us.”
“Believe me, I’m well aware of that. People have been
pouring into the pharmacy looking for supplies all morning. Reggie can’t
legally sell a lot of it, and most of them haven’t even seen the doctor yet,
but he managed to slip a few bottles of pills to those he knows with visible
wounds. He’s been directing the others to the local doctors, but he knows they
are going to be overwhelmed. Right now he’s got a couple of the local kids and
their ex-marine father guarding the pharmacy for him, and he’s gotten a
portable generator hooked up as well, but he doesn’t think he’ll have enough
gasoline for it. Some of the stuff I brought is still good, so he wants you to
store that as well. If people need it, I’ll drive a few bottles at a time to
the pharmacy. He knows you have those big refrigerators and freezers here, so
he figures you can keep enough supplies for much of the county.”
“Yeah, just don’t let anyone know that,” David warned her.
“That’s all I need is a bunch of low lifes trying to break into my house to
steal some outdated medications.”
“Don’t worry, Reggie knows how to keep his mouth shut, and
he told me to give you this if you agreed to his conditions,” Maggie replied as
she leaned over and gave him a big hug and a big kiss that, while closed
mouthed, lasted long enough to make Ellen nervous.
“Whew, tell him thanks, but I don’t plan on returning the
greeting to him any time soon,” David replied, as she pulled back with a big
smile on her lips.
“Hey, if you need to kiss Reggie any time soon, I’ll hand
that off just like I passed off this one,” she assured him, still smiling.
David simply shook his head.
“OK, it looks like we have a lot of stuff to organize;
especially now that it turns out we have boxes of stuff to load into the big
refrigerator in back. Alice, you stay here and direct people where to go,
Ellen, you and Maggie can help me unload and unpack the stuff. Bobby and Ma,
just get settled and set your stuff up. I’m sure everyone would appreciate a
sandwich if you can manage, otherwise I know we’ll all appreciate hearing
what’s happening around the country. All right, let’s go people. We’ve got
things to do and no one’s going outside for some time to come,” he told them.
They were sitting around David’s grand Living room, enjoying
the quiet ambiance while watching the beautiful pyrotechnic display unfolding
before them in the night sky through the high vaulted window that overlooked
the valley in front of David’s home. David was nursing the one beer he was
allowing himself for the night, while the others were nursing some more serious
drinks. David wouldn’t have minded drinking a little more heavily, since he
felt he needed it to unwind after what he’d been through, but he didn’t think
he could afford to.
Despite the fact they couldn’t venture outside, and the fact
that the marvelous display before them was afforded by a recessed wall of high
density industrial glass, protected by the overhang of the cliff above them,
David still worried about his responsibilities to everyone gathered around him.
He imagined what would occur if something unexpected happened, and how he’d
respond, and he didn’t think he could afford to relax his concentration, even
if those events were highly unlikely. They’d all come close enough to death
once, and they’d placed their safety in his hands as a result. He wasn’t about
to betray that trust and force them to face the same risk again unaided. If
something happened, it would happen. But if he could do anything at all to
help, he would, and he’d be here for whoever needed him. However, memories of
the woman they had watched walking off down the highway continued to haunt him,
even as he considered these thoughts.
“So did you learn anything new today?” David asked Bobby,
who’d spent quite a while speaking to several far flung people about what was
happening in their own little worlds.
“Quite a bit, actually. No one has any death tolls yet,
since there’s no communication and no way to reach everyone to count them, but
the major cities are having a very hard time of it. The high rises they use in
the hearts of the different downtowns weren’t built for this type of thing.
Every glass front apartment exposes its inhabitants to danger, and also
provides further ammunition for those below. All it takes is a random strike of
a small pebble against the side of a tall building, and you have a shower of
high velocity bullets traveling in all directions, accelerating even faster as
they fall to the street below.”
Bobby paused in his story as he took another sip of his
whiskey.
“Man, I’m worried about Mom,” Alice said.
“And I’m worried about my sister and friends. Maybe we
shouldn’t be talking about this?” Ellen proposed.
“It’s going to happen whether we discuss it or not,” David
reminded them. “We decided we wanted to know what was happening. We felt worse
when we had no idea of what was happening. If you want, we can discuss it in
another room, but—”
“No, that won’t be necessary. I was just afraid Alice might
be getting upset,” Ellen suggested, projecting her own fears on her newly accepted
charge.
“Ha, she’s got the resilience of youth,” Ma said with a
dismissive wave of her hand. “She’ll be fine. At least she’s in here, away from
the real horror and views of the destruction. Letting her hear about the
details will help her deal with it when she eventually has to face the
repercussions of what happened.”
Ellen couldn’t think of a rebuttal to that argument.
“Actually I think Ma has a good point,” Alice said in her
own defense. “I hate to imagine what might be happening to everyone, but facing
them after it’s all over and done with when I’ve been pretending everything is
fine would be worse.”
“What else have you heard?” David prompted his friend. Bobby
sat up, relishing his role as the provider of important information.
“There’s been no word from either the President or Congress.
No one knows if their mountain retreat collapsed, if they’re in hiding, or if
they’re afraid of causing a bigger panic than is already occurring.”
“Shit, that’s messed up,” Ma stated.
“Watch the language, please,” David reminded her.
“Yeah, there are impressionable youngsters hearing about all
the death and destruction in the world,” Alice chimed in. “You wouldn’t want
them to miss any of the details, would you?” Ma simply harrumphed and turned
her attention to the view out the window once again.
“There have been repeated calls for the mobilization of the
Army and the National Guard, but they’ve got no way to issue the order, or to
get the people together, so the response has been spotty at best. So far
they’ve been focusing on rescue and on watching over infrastructure, warning
people when bridges and bypasses are unsafe to use anymore.”
Everyone nodded that that made a lot of sense, allowing him
to continue on.
“The aviation industry has been pretty well wiped out. They
grounded all the planes relatively early, but many of the planes are simply
left out on runways at night in many locations. Those that aren’t are stored in
hangers, but those are large structures not set up to handle machine gun fire
from multiple directions at the same time, so there aren’t many aircraft left
functional. And the helicopters are even worse,” he explained. “They are
smaller, but they’re more delicate and more easily damaged by stray debris.
It’ll be months before anyone can examine them to determine which, if any of
them, are safe to use.”
Once again everyone stopped to consider that, while Bobby
soaked up the feeling of importance in being the sole source of information for
everyone. He provided them with earth shattering news, but also with a view of
the wider world and a bit of hope in dark times.
“Most of the cities were trying to organize maintenance
efforts for their roads and—” he began.
“Wait, is that a car I see?” Ma asked, interrupting her
husband. Everyone stopped to focus on the window again, this time concentrating
on the dark woods below them rather than on the bright sky overhead.
“Damn, you’re right,” David said, before he could catch his
tongue. Ma simply quietly laughed at his slip up.
“What the hell is a car doing driving up to your hidey hole
at night?” Bobby asked. Despite never having been here before, he knew how much
David guarded his privacy, and David had described how far off the beaten track
his home was.
“It can’t be anything good,” David told him. “What’s more,
they didn’t stop at the gate.”
“It’s locked, isn’t it?” Bobby asked.
“Yeah, it is. I locked it when we came through,” Alice told
everyone. “I remember, because I wasn’t going to bother but changed my mind.”
“Well, maybe it’s the Sheriff?” Maggie suggested.
“If it’s the Sherriff, he would have had to have cut the
chain to get through, and I doubt he’d have done that. It’s got to be someone
looking to break in,” David said with a warning tone. “Besides, there’s still a
sign that this is private property by the gate. And if anyone was coming to
talk to me about something important, they’d stop at the gate to use the call
box there to make sure I was here first.”
“Are you sure the lines to the call box weren’t damaged?”
Bobby asked. “Maybe they were coming here, found the phone broken and used
their car to break through the gate?”
“Yes, the lines were buried under the driveway when I had it
laid in, just like the power lines are. I don’t use much electricity, but I had
the lines run figuring I could charge the electric company for my excesses. I’m
not exactly the electric company’s favorite customer since they pay me more
than I ever use. I only need their services in the dead of winter when there’s
no sun, and I have to shut the wind generator down.”
“Still, it could have been damaged,” Ellen suggested.
“Maybe, or more likely it’s someone coming in meaning some
ill intent,” David offered.
“Or someone needing a safe place to stay,” Ellen offered.
“Unlikely. We’re too far off the regular roads. Anyone
needing help would have turned back before they reached us. I’m guessing
someone knows I’m out here, and figures now would be a terrific time to try to
rob me.”
“Now I’m getting nervous,” Alice said.
“Should we be doing something?” Bobby asked.
“I’ve got a handgun and a rifle I keep just for situations
like these. I’ll get them,” David told them, which didn’t reassure anyone.
“I’ll help. You get the handgun. I’m pretty good with a
rifle and I can back you up,” Maggie suggested as she got up to follow him.
“Wait. That looks like Mom’s car,” Alice said as the car drew
closer.
“Your mother? That’s crazy,” David said. “She’s never been
here. She’d have no idea where I was.”
“Still, do you know anyone else who has that kind of car?”
“Still, there are two cars,” David pointed out. One could
have intercepted her and gotten her to say where she was heading and what she
thinks is here. Besides, it might just be a similar car. I’m getting my gun.”
“Hey, Dad, I know you’re pissed at Mom for leaving you, but
please don’t shoot her for it,” Alice teased, showing that she was sure enough
of the car to assume they weren’t in any immediate danger.
David was standing beside the garage door as Alice opened
it. He had his pistol ready, and Maggie was standing by the front door with the
rifle to back him up. They didn’t want to expose whoever was coming to the
elements, figuring if they were friendly they could enter the house directly
through the garage, so Alice would wave whoever it was in while David watched
for any signs of trouble.
The front door had a better view than he had, since the long
winding road leading in gave Maggie plenty of time to view whoever was
approaching, so David didn’t have much time to prepare. As the door began
rising, he crouched down to peer under it.
Yeah, it looked like Linda’s car all right. He wasn’t
familiar with her purchases any more, but that was the one she had the last
couple of times he’d picked Alice up. Although it was heavily battered now, he
recognized the housing association sticker on the corner of the front
windshield. That was about all that was left of it, though. The front
windshield was riddled with holes, but it was still in place, making it hard to
see through.
He could see a couple of people in the car, but he couldn’t
make out any details. The people all seemed small, though, so it didn’t look
like there were any men hiding in the back seat. If Linda had been commandeered
by someone in the van behind them she could just accelerate away from them. But
he still couldn’t see the van behind her, so he remained cautious.
As the door rose higher and David could stand again, he
could see Linda’s car turn towards them, so it was clear they’d seen Alice
waving them over, but he concentrated on the van behind her. Looking over the
lead car, he could now see the van’s windshield was clearer. Unlike the
commercial vans that someone with criminal intent would likely employ, this one
had plenty of windows, clearly marking it as one of the popular family vans. He
could also make out several young girls besides the female driver, but he
didn’t recognize a single person, and he couldn’t see them well enough to
figure out whom they might be. However he relaxed his defenses enough to move
into the open, shoving the pistol back in his jeans, waving the two vehicles in.
David’s ex-wife waved at him as she pulled into the garage,
happiness and relief washing over her, even though happiness wasn’t the
reaction he normally associated with seeing on Linda’s face when they’d met in
the past. He also noted several girls his daughter’s age, who each turned to
gawk at him.
He watched the other vehicle pull in, the driver waving at
him as well. Almost all the windows had been broken out or were pit marked,
much as the sides of the van were. David was surprised everyone in the car
wasn’t injured.
As the two cars cleared the doorway, Alice closed the garage
door and ran to the van, shouting hello to her friends. It was clear that Alice
recognized the people, so David was reassured, but he was still worried about
why his ex-wife would be coming to see him now of all times.
Linda opened the door and called out to Alice, who went
running to her mother. The other doors opened and several young girls climbed
out and looked shyly around.
“Mom, you brought my friends! Thank you so much,” Alice
cried, and she gave her mother a big hug.
“I thought you’d appreciate seeing them,” Linda replied
before looking around. “But where’s your father? We need to get inside. We had
a hell of a trip and we need to get cleaned up.” David walked up behind her and
she turned to him. “David, we need some bandages and some medical supplies for
the girls,” she called out.
David called inside for Ma to come down, and hurried to help
the girls. Maggie came out as well to help organize everyone, but Alice was
busy running from one young girl to the next checking to see if her friends
were OK.
“It’s mostly cuts and scrapes,” the other driver, a woman
David didn’t recognize, called out, “but Amy might have broken her arm, and
Erica has a nasty gash in her side.”
David hurried to the directed girl, and making a quick
decision, he lifted the girl holding her side and carried her in, while Maggie
helped the girl nursing her arm. Luckily the girl David picked up was smaller
than the other girls, so he had no trouble carrying her.
“What the hell made you travel all the way out here in the
middle of the worst disaster to strike the region in the last hundred years?”
David snapped at his ex.
“Sorry. We left as soon as we could this morning,” she
explained. “All of us mothers got together and tried to figure out what to do
as soon as the storm ended,” she said as they all navigated through the house.
David bypassed the kitchen counter and continued into the small dining room,
laying the wounded girl gently down on the dining table. “We figured the
husbands would have a better chance of fixing the damage if they knew their
daughters were safe.”
Looking back while addressing his ex, David saw his normally
quiet well maintained house was now overrun with people moving around, talking
excitedly. He didn’t mind assisting people in need, but he literally didn’t
even know half of these people.
“My brother stayed with the other boys to help do the
repairs,” said the slight girl holding her side, even as she winced from the
pain. The bleeding was largely staunched, but it was still a mess. Alice and
Maggie proceeded to check the girls out as Ma approached the girl on the table
with some medical supplies.
“What’s wrong, honey,” she asked, but David turned his
attention to his wife as she continued her explanation, figuring the girl was
in more capable hands than his. Ellen and Maggie concentrated on the girl with
the broken arm, while Alice took charge of striping torn clothing off of each
girl and washing their wounds. She’d had enough encounters with either hurting
herself or being there when a workman was injured, to know what to do in a case
like this. David was relieved to see she could take charge when she needed to.
“There was no place anyone could think of that was safe.
That was when I thought of this place,” Linda continued.
“But you’ve never been here before. You always refused to
even come out and see the property. How’d you know where to come?” David asked
her. “And how the hell did you get through the gate?” he asked, more out of frustration
than actually needing to know at the time.
“Uh,” Alice hesitantly spoke up by the kitchen counter in
the other room. “I think I’m at fault there, Dad. Way back when you first
separated and I started coming out here, I made several detailed maps so Mom
could find it if she ever decided to come pick me up. I think Mom managed to
find one of those in my room.”
“Alice is right. That’s exactly what I did. Once I told the
other mothers how far away and how secure it was, they all agreed it was better
that I take their girls with me when I came here. You don’t have to worry, we
brought plenty of sleeping bags and everyone is prepared to sleep on the floor.
As for the gate, Alice had some keys in a dish by her bed. One of them was
labeled ‘Dad’s gate’.”
“Yeah, I can see everyone sleeping in holey damaged sleeping
bags with broken arms, but how did you even know how ‘secure’ the house
was?” David asked, unable to figure out how his ex was suddenly so interested
in his little ‘rat trap’, as she’d repeatedly called it during their arguments
years before.
“Silly, Alice is always going on and on about how wonderful
it was. I always figured she was just trying to talk me into visiting, but when
we were trying to think of someplace safe we could find, I started to remember
everything she told me about the place.
“By the way,” she said, turning to face Ellen, who was
listening intently to the whole conversation, “we haven’t met. I’m Linda,
David’s ex-wife. I noticed you glaring at me with a warning look. Am I to
assume you’re the new girlfriend?” she asked, to which Ellen replied by
blushing and looking down.
“Well, I …” she hesitantly started, not sure she should be
making any assumptions yet.
“Linda, this is Ellen Parker. We recued her when her car was
damaged by a meteorite. And yes, she’s the new girlfriend,” David said,
confirming her new status much to Ellen’s great pleasure to hear herself
referred to that way to David’s ex-wife.
“Well, I’m glad to meet you, Ellen. I didn’t mean to—”
“Do you really have a windmill that creates all your own
power?” another girl David had never seen before interrupted.
“It’s a wind turbine,” Alice carefully explained to her
friend as she continued washing the cuts on her face. “I think we’ve got some
aloe vera we can use to keep these cuts from leaving permanent marks,” she
added.
“You mean like scars?” the girl asked in alarm, as if
everything she’d encountered on the drive up was nothing compared to the idea
she might have a permanent miniscule scar on her face.
“Not if we use the Aloe, but we need to do it before the
scab sets in,” Alice continued, trying to placate her friend.
“Look, let’s try to focus on one thing and one speaker at a
time,” David said, beginning to feel like he’d lost control of his house, the
situation, and much of his life.
“Please, Dad, don’t get upset. It would really help me deal
with everything if my friends were here, and I know being safe here would help
them as well,” Alice pleaded with her father. David sighed before turning.
“OK, before we get to that. Who the hell is everyone? I’m
suddenly inundated by a bunch of people I’ve never met before who are asking me
to take them in. Can we at least tell me who everyone is so I don’t feel like a
stranger in my own house?”
“Holy shit, take a look at this view!” one of the girls
who’d wandered into the other room exclaimed.
This of course prompted everyone to get up and wander into
the living room, including those being treated for their injuries. David,
sighing heavily, followed them in as well.
“Frankly, I’m not as impressed with it,” Bobby quietly
joked, although everyone else was amazed at it, especially since the
pyrotechnics of the meteorite shower made it so much more fascinating.
“Wow, David, I never knew this was such a big deal. I’d
always pictured a little shack in the woods,” Linda said.
“Well, it started out that way,” he replied, “but I’ve had a
while to work on it.”
“You should have seen it when we started,” Alice told her
friends. “It was just an empty cliff, some woods, and a big clearing where
falling rocks had cleared the trees below.”
“Falling rocks? Are we … uh?” asked the other woman who had
accompanied Linda.
“Look, I don’t mind if you enjoy the view, but could you at
least announce your name whenever you say something so I know who the hell you
are?” David insisted in frustration. A couple of the girls giggled at the adult
using improper language, but David ignored them.
“Oh, sorry, I’m Betty Bennett, but everyone calls me ‘Betts’.
I’m the mother of Sara, the brunette wearing the bloody yellow blouse,” she
said, indicating a girl standing in front of the big glass window. Sara turned
and waved shyly before turning and looking out the window again.
David was glad someone had finally introduced
themselves. He knew he was going to have trouble remembering everyone, so he
made sure to study each of them. Betts was a beautiful blond with long curly
hair falling down her back and framing her face. She was also a fairly buxom
woman, something David struggled to ignore at the moment. He didn’t think it
would help to have all these kids watching him leer at one of their mothers.
Sara looked much like her mother, but without the curly
blond hair, making David wonder whether it was natural, or whether Sara had
inherited her father’s hair. However both mother and daughter shared the same
nose, pouty lips and blue-green eyes. Sara’s hair was mostly straight, but it
curled around her shoulders.
“The other girls are Amy Holmes, Caitlyn Harrison, Erica
Dixon and Julie Chi,” she explained, pointing out the various girls, who were
now starting to investigate everything they could find in the house.
Amy was a brooding girl with dark, somewhat reddish, hair
wearing a ‘Dark Knight’ Batman t-shirt, of all things. Caitlin was a pretty
young thing that David could immediately tell liked to be in charge. She was
surrounded by the other girls who seemed to cluster around her. He guessed she
was the most popular, and she clearly knew it. He’d have to watch out for that
one. She had long blondish hair, thick lips and a superior smile. She also had
a flat chest typical of her age, but that also made her look like the super
model so popular with the young girls.
Erica, the girl with the gash in her side, was a tiny thing,
much smaller and shorter than the other girls. In fact she looked like a little
pixy with a really cute smile and curly brunette hair. She also wore what was
once a pretty outfit David was sure her mother picked out for her, but it was
pretty wrecked now, with gaping holes and scattered blood stains. David hoped
the girls had some clothes left that were still undamaged. He didn’t think
Alice had that many spare clothes in enough sizes for everyone.
Julie Chi was clearly of Asian extraction, though David
couldn’t figure out if she was Japanese, Chinese or from somewhere else, not
that it really mattered anyway. Like many Asians, she seemed demure, and
carried herself more carefully than the others. She had flowing dark hair that
curled around her face, framing her cute somewhat chubby cheeks. Her cheeks
were chubby, but David didn’t see any fat on the rest of her. She had a shy but
honest smile, a slightly thicker nose, and a penetrating stare, as if she was
trying to evaluate and study everything she looked at.
David made these observations quickly, as each one was
pointed out to him as he tried to remember each one, though he knew it was an
impossible task.
“OK, I’m sorry, but that’s just too many names. For right
now, you’re ‘Thing One’ and ‘Thing Two’,” he announced, pointing at Sara and
Caitlin, the two he figured would be less hurt with such names. You others are
officially ‘broken arm slash Batgirl’, ‘gash girl’ and Julie, just because
Julie is such an unusual name, OK?”
The girls all giggled, which David was relieved at, and he
turned back to Betts.
“Thanks, it’s much easier dealing with everyone when I can
pretend I know their names. Now, can either of you tell me why it took you so
long to get here if you left early this morning?”
Linda started to say something, but hesitated before doing
so, so Betts spoke for her.
“Well, it took a while to organize everyone and get
everything packed and loaded, but mainly it was the condition of the roads.”
“You should have seen it,” Erica said. “The roads were a
mess. We drove at a crawl the entire way.”
“Not quite, but the roads were in terrible shape, and they
got worse the farther we traveled, once the meteorites started falling again,”
Linda explained. “Our cars weren’t made for rough conditions, so we’d
frequently slow down to 5 to 15 mph, plus we got lost a couple of times, or the
roads were blocked. It took forever to find you, despite Alice’s directions.”
“We were stuck out in a field during the entire storm the
first day,” David told them. “We drove up after it quieted down, meeting Ellen
on the road so she had to lie in the field with us, but the roads were bad
then, so I can imagine what they’re like now.”
“You should have seen Dad,” Alice said excitedly, causing
the other girls to listen to the conversation again. “He rescued Ellen,
carrying her over his shoulder to escape the rocks that were flying around—”
“Debris,” David helped her.
“Yeah, the debris was flying all over. We saw this guy get
his head blown off by a flying rock. But Dad got us through it, knowing just
what to do to keep us safe. Then, when we got near home, he stopped and beat up
some bad guys. He—”
“I’m not sure they need to hear all the boring details,”
Ellen said, hoping to prevent her from saying too much about a delicate
situation.
“Still, it was amazing. He stopped four bad guys and saved
the store, and then we stopped and rescued several people in houses that had
collapsed.”
“I was terrified when your call ended,” Linda told her. “I
was sure David had had an accident and I was scared you were hurt. It took a
long time to figure out what was going on. Betty came over and asked if my
phone was working, then told me there were things falling from the sky outside.
We both checked the radio, but they weren’t reporting anything. That was when I
figured there was something bigger going on and that the phones were out. I
hoped you were both OK.”
“She used her home phone to call around and arrange a
meeting at her house,” Betts explained. “The storm hadn’t gotten too bad yet,
so we ventured out in it, but we stayed in once we got there, huddling in the
bathroom because it was the farthest from any windows. Once it got to that
point, we knew we had to find some way of protecting the kids but no one knew
what to do. It was then that Linda suggested your house, but we didn’t know how
to get here.”
“But when the storm ended that night,” Linda continued, “we
agreed finding a shelter for the kids was the best thing we could do, while the
adults helped make necessary repairs. My house wasn’t badly damaged, so I
volunteered to drive up, figuring I wouldn’t be much good at construction. The
others went home to talk to their spouses. They all agreed with our plans, so
they gathered the kids and came in one at a time. We were expecting one more,
Susan Fredricks, but she never showed up. I don’t know what happened to her,
but we couldn’t wait any longer.”
“Well, we’d better get everyone situated for the night. I’m
not sure what I’m going to do with everyone, but we’d better figure it out
now.”
“But this place is HUGE?” Erica said. “I don’t think I’ve
seen a bigger place.”
“Actually it isn’t that large,” David explained. “It looks
big because of the two-story window, but it’s actually fairly small. After all,
it’s hard to blast out enough space out of solid rock.”
“Don’t you have your own freezer and refrigeration units in
a separate section of the house, build into the mountain,” Betts asked,
apparently having heard quite a bit about the house.
“It’s only part of a natural cavern that’s much colder than
outside that I insulated and put coolers into.”
“Oh, I was thinking you had the big industrial units,” she
explained.
“Actually the house is only two stories, if you don’t count
the entrance, which is really separate. The living spaces are downstairs, while
there are bedrooms upstairs. I made it big enough for guests, thinking Linda
and I would entertain someday, but that never quite panned out.”
Everyone ‘Ahhed’ at the same time, which generated a laugh
among the people who knew David well enough to know he wasn’t overly concerned
anymore. Linda and her friends made a point of not laughing.
“Anyway, I’ve got a couple of spare bedrooms upstairs, but
not enough for everyone,” David argued.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Linda replied, going on to
explain away his objections. “The girls are fine with sleeping on the floor
down here or sharing Alice’s room. Erica and Amy can take the couch if they
can’t handle the floor, but I think they’ll be OK. The rest of us can sleep
anywhere, bunking up together if necessary. We know we’re imposing and we
apologize, but this is really a crisis, and if there’s one thing I know about
you, I could always count on you in an emergency.”
David sighed. He knew he couldn’t argue with that, and he
definitely couldn’t throw any of them out of the house. They’d work something
out; he’d just have to learn to live with it.
To Be Continued
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