Miracles

by Thomas A. Watson

  “Ellie, I don’t think your mother was born when I held my last baby,” Skannish told her.

  Chuckling at the three, “So where were you crossing the Mississippi River?” she asked.

  “St. Louis,” Sarah answered.

  The chuckle died on Ellie’s lips. “Ah, no,” she said. “Those bridges are still manned by troops. We need to go further south.”

  Beginning to think they had done nothing right, “Should we keep traveling at night?” Sutton asked.

  Nodding vigorously, “Oh yes, and that was very smart,” Ellie answered and that made all three proud. “Kids, half in each,” Ellie called out, then looked at the three. “Um, if you don’t mind, let me drive the MRAP in the lead and leave Shanna in the other on the remote platform. We really need to teach you guys the rules to this new world. The kids and I really don’t want to see you get shot trying to be nice to bad guys.”

  “Skannish, you’re riding with Sutton,” Sarah announced and Skannish gave a startled gasp.

  “Let’s make room and button up on the rides,” Ellie said walking off. Watching the kids divide up, the three shrugged after glancing down at their shirts and pants wondering what to button up.

  Ellie and the kids would teach the three very valuable lessons as they headed south. More than once, Ellie slowed down to show gruesome scenes of death next to the road to drive the point home. The very next night they had to shoot through a roadblock set up by bandits and an ambush just before the Mississippi River. It was once they’d crossed the Mississippi River when they heard on the radio for the first time about the ‘Caravan Man’.

  Chapter Nine

  Miracles do Happen

  Driving the excavator over to a stump, Wendy stopped and looked ahead at all the heavy machinery. Three other excavators were ahead of her, but hers was the only one with a bucket. One had a huge clamp and blade that chopped down trees like they were flowers. Then the operator, Arthur, of course, could stack it neatly to the side. True to form, Arthur taught every kid who could reach the controls and pedals how to operate the tree harvester excavator, but it was the most dangerous to operate. That was why he was the one who drove it.

  Shawn would pull up in another excavator that had a sixty-foot-long beam mounted on it instead of an arm. The end of the beam would pick up the cut tree and shove it down the beam, shearing all the limbs off in the blink of an eye.

  After Shawn would drop the log, Andrea would move over with an excavator that had a huge claw. She would grab the log and stack it with others in neat piles.

  Then, there was an army of track steers driven by kids and moving around. Most had clamps over the buckets. Two track steers driven by Kirk and Pat had shredders and they drove just ahead of Arthur, clearing the underbrush away. Then the scooper track steers would scoop up the branches and brush, carrying them over to a huge chipper that could take entire trees. Jo Ann and Sally were in two small excavators with claws and would grab the branches, dropping them into a wood chipper that was the size of a truck.

  Pulling out a water bottle, Wendy turned to look behind her at the one-hundred-yard-wide path they had cleared. They were south of the house and had started the fence a mile from where Arthur had hidden the road. She had to admit, Arthur was right. Once everyone had started, they’d become much better with the equipment.

  After the dorm, moat, and chain-link fence had been completed weeks ago, Arthur had gotten everyone on ATVs, grabbed his surveying equipment and for the next two days, had marked out the path of the fence. Wendy smiled, remembering Arthur making changes when he’d seen his fence would cut through a group of large pecan trees. Many of the kids were shocked to see Arthur bring the fence out because he wasn’t cutting down those pecan trees. When he made changes to the path, Arthur moved to the next ridge or slope. No area inside the fence was lower than the area outside. Arthur explained if something tried to get in it had to go up hill then climb the fence.

  Like the pecan trees, Arthur had made changes if his fence would run into a large oak or hickory tree. The land around them hadn’t been logged in decades, so there were some large ones. Shawn had wanted to protest when Arthur cut right through a group of massive southern pine. They were so large, he couldn’t use the harvester excavator. Those had to be cut down by chainsaw.

  The forest provided all the lumber that was needed to make the fence and Wendy knew there was going to be a lot left over.

  At the base of the valley near the edge of the creek, they had started the fence after cutting a swath a hundred yards wide for two miles across the valley and up the hill. The first day, they’d barely made it half a mile but the next, they had done a mile and a half. Then Arthur had stopped the group and pulled them to the valley floor.

  Then more equipment had been brought up, including a sawmill on a semi-trailer bed, two more excavators, scissor lifts, and cherry pickers. A log was dropped on and a motor, with big spinning blades that could be moved to cut different sized boards, ran down the log to cut out a board. When Arthur had grabbed the ‘older kids’ to run the mill, twelve and thirteen, the kids had gotten to see the first argument between Arthur and Wendy.

  All Wendy could see were fingers, hands, and arms being chopped off. It had taken an hour, but she’d finally relented when Arthur had showed the kids where to stand and how to operate the mill. Soon, boards were dropping off and the track steers moved over, grabbing them and moving them to a stack where Shawn waited with a chainsaw. He would cut the larger logs into ten-foot sections before they were dropped on the mill.

  With the lumber mill running, Arthur had Wendy drive the next excavator. This one had a huge auger bit. The kids would follow a line, making an X every ten feet, and Arthur had Wendy put a ten-foot deep hole at the X.

  When Wendy moved to the next X, Todd drove the other excavator that had a huge claw and would pick up the logs the other kids had measured. Each of these logs could’ve been used for a telephone pole. Holding the log horizontal, Todd would wait while plastic was wrapped around the end, then drop the plastic-wrapped end into the hole.

  When Todd moved off, Jo Ann and Sally would move over with small excavators, pushing the dirt back in around the pole. Then Jo Ann would pack the dirt down after Pat came over with a level to check if the pole was straight. Sally would drive to the next pole while digging a one-foot deep trench between them.

  Jim and the other kids under seven were at the lumber area going crazy with screw guns and driving three-inch screws through one-inch thick boards. Only a small number of the ten-foot-long boards were an inch thick, the rest were two inches thick.

  Waiting until ten poles were up, Arthur then had Andrea and Tony get on the two scissor lifts. Starting at the trench dug between the poles, Arthur showed the kids how to be very careful with the rows of screws facing out and screwed it to the bottoms of the poles in the trench. True to form, none of the kids ever asked Arthur ‘why’ about anything, they just did it.

  Then putting a scissor lift at each pole, Jim pulled over between the poles in a track steer with forks and lumber stacked on. Andrea and Tony only had to scoot the board over, holding it flat to the poles and screw it up. The boards varied in width from four inches wide up to sixteen inches wide. It just depended on the tree they’d been cut from. When all the boards were up on a section, forming a fifteen-foot-tall fence, another group came in riding a trailer pulled by an ATV. With paint guns connected to a huge vat, they spray-painted the board with screws in the trench and two feet up the fence. The bottom of the fence was now a light black.

  Coming back the next day, one of the seven-year-olds would drive what Wendy thought was the cutest thing she had ever seen. It was a tiny bulldozer no bigger than a riding lawnmower. They would drive along the fence shoving the dirt Sally had dug out to bury the board with screws in the trench.

  That first section of two hundred yards had taken the longest and it turned out, Andrea’s team had to wait the most. They’d had to wait on posts to be put in, pa
cked, and lumber to be cut. But when everyone got used to their job, everything started moving faster and that was what terrified Wendy, because that’s when accidents happened.

  Turning back around to stare at the stump in front of her, “The world better be glad Arthur wasn’t a crime lord,” she mumbled, putting the lid on her water bottle. “To put screws in the bottom board and bury it, so when animals try to dig under and get stuck is just being a smart ass.”

  “You gonna bury that stump or what?” Arthur called over the radio.

  Grabbing the microphone, “Back off, I’m keeping an eye out for anyone not paying attention,” Wendy popped off.

  “Look over to the MRAP where Vicki’s babysitting,” Arthur laughed, and Wendy turned to see Little Momma standing out of the hatch with binoculars and a radio clipped to her belt, scanning the workforce. Not only was she babysitting the little kids and babies, Vicki was watching over the others.

  “Thank you, God, for Little Momma,” Wendy sighed, and hung the microphone back up. Grabbing the arm joysticks, she went to work digging the stump up. When it was out, she dug down more and then grabbed the stump, turning it upside down and put it into the hole, then covered it up.

  Driving over to the next stump, Wendy glanced behind her again at the hundred yard path behind them. “How does he come up with this?” she wondered in awe, then went back to work.

  “Pops,” Jim called over the radio. “There are more big pine trees ahead.”

  “Yeah, we’ll stop for lunch and I’ll take them down with the chainsaw after we eat,” Arthur answered.

  “Can I do one?” Shawn called out.

  Rotating the cab of the excavator so he could see the pine trees, Arthur sucked in a breath while he thought. “Wonder how pissed off at my ass Wendy will get if he helps?”

  Like she could hear him, “Shawn can, if and only if, you are beside him,” Wendy called over the radio. “Those are bigger than the last ones.”

  “You heard her, Shawn,” Arthur replied. “We’ll start on them after we eat.”

  “Yes!” Shawn shouted out, not realizing he’d pressed the microphone key.

  “Now’s a good enough time to eat. Everyone, shut down,” Arthur called over the radio and saw Wendy covering up a stump she’d buried.

  Climbing out of the cab of the MRAP, Vicki called over the radio. “Pops, you need to hurry up because Nicole is ready to eat and keeps pushing the bottle away.”

  Jumping off the tracks, Arthur broke into a sprint and all the dogs charged out of the trees, seeing him running and all the machines turned off. “Kit, Kat, don’t run in front of me!” Arthur shouted at the labs who were bouncing more than running, thinking it was playtime.

  Wendy smiled, watching Arthur run toward the MRAP. “I’m glad we got more kids, but not like this,” she said, dropping to the ground. Jo Ann and Sally ran over with huge grins.

  “This is the best ever,” Jo Ann informed Wendy.

  “Screw playing with dolls when you can drive big machines and chop stuff up,” Sally nodded.

  Rolling her eyes, “Oh, his language is rubbing off much faster on them than it did on Joseph,” Wendy mumbled, then felt a pang of sorrow thinking of Joseph. “Think about that later.”

  “Think about what?” Jo Ann asked when each twin got on either side of Wendy.

  “Nothing. How’s your fuel?” Wendy asked.

  “Almost half,” Sally answered, and Jo Ann nodded.

  The only engine running was a small generator beside the MRAP. Arthur had cut part of one of the back windows out and had put a window air-conditioner unit in. Every time Wendy saw it, all she could think of was ‘Redneck’. But Arthur had informed everyone, they would sweat in the heat, but the little ones wouldn’t. Wendy had to agree. June inside a metal box would really suck.

  “Have the kids been good?” Wendy asked Vicki when she opened the back of the MRAP, and they all felt the blast of cool air.

  Rolling her eyes, “Robin finally got her clothes off,” Vicki groaned.

  “How?” Wendy asked, leaning over and saw Robin only wearing her pink cowboy boots, sitting beside Arthur while he fed Nicole. This morning, Arthur had wrapped duct tape around Robin’s waist, taping her shirt and pants together. They had learned if they could keep clothes on Robin, Noah kept clothes on.

  Shrugging, “I don’t know,” Vicki replied. “I was changing Lucas and when I was done, she was undressed.”

  Pulling out a cooler, Shawn opened it and started passing out sandwiches. “I think Robin just hates clothes,” he offered.

  “Why is Noah only wearing his underwear?” Jo Ann asked.

  “He spilled juice on his clothes,” Vicki answered, passing Lucas to Wendy.

  Taking Lucas, Wendy felt relief after thinking Noah had learned to strip himself and the hate of clothes might be catching. They hadn’t witnessed it, but Arthur and Wendy were sure Robin had stripped Noah after she’d gotten her clothes off. “Vicki, have you noticed anyone not paying attention?” Wendy asked.

  All the kids, even Andrea, Todd and Shawn held their breath. Because Vicki’s word was law, as far as Wendy and Arthur were concerned. They always tried to do their best when Arthur or Wendy were looking, which was easy because they were working and didn’t keep a constant watch. The only time Little Momma wasn’t watching you, was when she was watching someone else.

  Shaking her head, “Not really, Momma,” Vicki said, and the group gave a sigh. “I know I shouldn’t say, but Pat needs to speed up his driving. I’m noticing others have to drive around him more.”

  Everyone turned to Pat who was taking a bite of his sandwich. “Pops said to drive at the speed I feel safe at,” he mumbled around the sandwich.

  “Pat,” Vicki huffed, grabbing a bottle and started feeding the baby in her arms. “I saw a turtle back there cross your path when you were headed to the chipper, and you never got close to him.”

  The others snickered, and Vicki looked around and the others stopped snickering. Vicki might be ten, but she was Little Momma. “I’m not joking, I have pictures because Robin wanted to catch the turtle,” Vicki told them, and the group smiled at her.

  “Wen,” Noah called out of the doorway, holding out his arms to Wendy.

  “Hold on, Noah,” Wendy said, rocking Lucas in her arms.

  Jo Ann moved over to pick Noah up, setting him on her hip while she ate with the other hand. Watching that, it was only then that Wendy realized she’d never noticed all the kids had their rifles across their backs. Everyone stayed armed, but it had now become the norm, and that wasn’t the first thing she checked on each kid. Any kid that could hold a baby that needed to be fed was doing it.

  A reverberating burp sounded in the back of the MRAP and the group laughed out at Nicole. “I can’t even burp that loud,” Todd chuckled.

  The others ate while Arthur rocked Nicole in his arms, then laid her down in one of the playpens in the back of the MRAP. “The A/C keeping it nice for the little ones?” he asked Vicki before he climbed out.

  “Yes. I had to turn it down because the babies were getting cold. I was trying to get it so cold, Robin would put her clothes on,” Vicki told him, and Arthur gave a nod, thinking that was a good idea.

  He grabbed a sandwich and moved around the group, giving weapons a casual glance. The kids knew what he was doing, but they checked safeties too often now to even worry when Arthur did the check anymore. Punishment for them was double chores. You did chores Arthur or Wendy made for you, twice. Like sweep the floors, fold laundry. Then put the clothes back in the dryer for a few minutes and refold them. Brush the horses and move to the next, then return to the first, and other monotonous chores. It served no purpose other than to let you know, you’d screwed up.

  So far only a few had to do it, and nobody had done double duty twice.

  “Robin!” Arthur barked, scaring the shit out of everyone. “Get your ass back in the truck!”

  Everyone turned to see the naked toddler take off run
ning through the dirt with her pink cowboy boots. “You get dirt in places it was never meant to be!” Arthur shouted, taking off after her. He scooped up Robin with his right arm and shoved the last of his sandwich in his mouth. “You wear clothes, I’ll let you play in the dirt,” he mumbled, and Robin just squealed with a smile.

  “Lay down,” Arthur told Robin when he put her in the back of the MRAP.

  When Robin stomped her foot and scowled at Arthur, Vicki turned around while she patted the baby’s back she had fed. Seeing Robin getting ready to unleash, “Robin, I will hold you down and sit on you,” Vicki warned. “Wake up the babies, I dare you,” Vicki said, narrowing her eyes.

  Poking out her bottom lip, Robin turned around and shuffled over to one of the bench seats that had a blanket spread over it. Climbing up, Robin laid down. Stepping over, Arthur hugged Vicki.

  “Little Momma, she minds you better than me,” he chuckled.

  “You quit giving in and letting Robin do what she wants, and that’ll stop,” Vicki huffed, and Wendy snorted but then nodded in agreement.

  “If I can get her naked ass from crawling all over me, I’ll kill an elephant for her,” Arthur informed everyone. “With a spoon,” he added.

  “Want me to get the chainsaws?” Shawn asked with a huge grin.

  Pulling his fedora off and wiping the sweat from his brow, Arthur leaned his head back before giving a long sigh. Wendy knew that was a sign, Arthur was tired and was about to speak when everyone froze. “What’s that sound?” Sally asked, taking Noah from Jo Ann.

  “Airplane,” Arthur mumbled, shading his eyes and looking up at the sky. Everyone tilted their heads back and started looking around when the sound got louder.

  Wendy was about to ask Arthur if they should be worried when a plane roared over them, not much higher than the treetops. Several of the kids let out yelps but Arthur’s heart stopped, recognizing the KC-130. He slowly turned to Wendy and found her gaping at him. “That was a Navy plane like Joseph flies,” she said trembling, and they heard the plane turning over the valley behind them where the house overlooked.