Crystal Beach (Crow Hill Book 1)

by Tom Larcombe

  “I didn't see the accident happen, I just pulled off when I saw what was going on. The other guy was still standing in the middle of the road and people were just driving around him. What's up with that?”

  “People are scared. I don't know what's going on. We've had several other incidents today also, which is why it took so long for us to get here. It's a good thing for her that you were here and knew what to do.”

  From the sound of the paramedic's voice Michael thought that some of the other victims might not have been as lucky.

  “Do you have something I can use to clean up?” Michael asked. “Her blood's all over my arm.”

  “Come with me, we'll take care of that.”

  The paramedic got Michael a handful of disinfectant wipes containing bleach before his partner called him over, asking him to bring the gurney. Michael cleaned the blood off himself and returned to his Jeep. As he started the engine, the first tow truck showed up. Before he managed to get back on the road, a police car arrived and started directing traffic.

  It took him another twenty minutes to get home. When he pulled into his driveway he unloaded the bikes and trailer then immediately crawled into the shower and scrubbed himself as hard as he could bear.

  I can't believe no-one else stopped. She had to be sitting there, bleeding, for at least five minutes before I got to her. Everyone just continued on their way as though nothing were happening. Are people really so dependent on emergency services that they won't even stop to see if everyone's okay after an accident? They think someone whose job it is will be along to take care of things so why bother? I can't believe that. I think the paramedic was right and everyone's scared. They want a normal routine to comfort them and trying to help someone with an emergency doesn't fit into that. And what was that about a bank holiday? I'll check online when I get out, good thing I generate my own electricity or I wouldn't be able to use my computer.

  When Michael was dressed again, he turned on his computer. If the power outage was only local, he'd still have a net connection. He had a wireless ISP that used a radio tower on top of the hill the mine was located in as part of their network. It didn't run off the town's electricity. They'd never run power lines up there, so the tower ran on a self-contained solar system.

  He turned on some classical music first, hoping to remain calm. When he opened his browser he was rewarded with a net connection that was noticeably slower than normal, but still functional.

  * * *

  'President Declares Seven Day Bank Holiday!

  More Information to be Released Later.'

  was the headline that greeted him on his favorite news site.

  That was all there were for facts in the article. The rest was speculation and the mention that the last presidential bank holiday occurred when Franklin Roosevelt declared one in the midst of the Great Depression. The article speculated that the current action was necessary due to people withdrawing unprecedented amounts of cash when they found their credit cards non-functional, thereby creating a run on the banks.

  Michael's attention was attracted by a link marked 'you may also like'. It's title was:

  'Trouble finding groceries or gas? The Just In Time system is to blame.'

  He clicked it and started reading.

  I knew all this, I just never really thought about it. Truckers use their company credit cards to gas up. With all the stores ordering just what they need for the next few days and getting daily deliveries, when those cards stopped working the truckers couldn't get their loads to their destinations. Ironically, even the ones carrying gasoline ran out of fuel. So, someplace there's days worth of food and fuel just sitting by the side of the road. Wish I knew where, I'd go see if they were interested in doing some bartering.

  He glanced at the time and quickly shut his system down.

  I'm going to be late picking up Jeff unless I hustle, he thought.

  Michael arrived at the school a few minutes late. There was no-one visible anywhere.

  I can't believe I forgot. They probably let the kids go home when the power went out. I'll go check Jeff's house and then drive the route to mine.

  Michael knocked at Jeff's door and a woman answered it. She looked thin almost to the point of being gaunt and much too young to be Jeff's mother. She looked at him curiously.

  “Is Jeff home?” he asked.

  “Oh, you must be Michael?”

  He nodded.

  “I'm Jeff's mom, Anne. He just left to start walking to your place a few minutes ago.”

  She must have given birth to him when she was young, her late teens maybe, Michael thought.

  “I forgot that school was probably out due to the power outage and showed up there first,” Michael admitted.

  “I thought it was probably something like that. That's what I told Jeff anyway. Would you like to come in for a moment? I was kind of worried about Jeff working for you and you teaching him to garden until I asked around. When I found out you taught a gardening class and your former students said you approached teaching gardening like a zealot spreading religion, it made a lot more sense.”

  “That's part of it, but when I caught him trying to steal from my garden he was honest with me about it. I figured if I taught him to grow his own, he'd be less likely to get in trouble trying it somewhere else.”

  “You caught him trying to steal from your garden?” Anne asked.

  “Did he not mention that?”

  She shook her head.

  “Well, he was honest with me about it at least. As for the job, there are a lot of things I don't get to as often as I should. Just clean-up work mainly. I thought that giving him some sort of routine would help him settle down, plus it would lighten my own workload.”

  “I think I'm going to need to talk to that boy. Did you really give him an advance on his first week's pay or did he make that up also?”

  “Oh no, I did. I saw all kinds of people having problems with their credit cards at the grocery store and thought that since I had some cash on hand, I could prevent that problem for your family.”

  “Thank you for that. Because of that trip to the store I have a new job.”

  “Jeff mentioned that this morning, he was very excited about it.”

  “Can I get you something to drink?” Anne asked.

  “No thank you,” Michael said. “I should really get going and pick him up. I did promise him a ride to work.”

  “A little exercise won't hurt the boy. Maybe it'll work out some of his energy, he's always bouncing off the walls or up to something.”

  Time to be a bit creative, I won't lie to her, I'll mislead her a bit.

  “Well, he'll get more exercise starting soon. I have an old bike that's about his size that I set up in the driveway. It looks to be in good shape still so I thought I'd offer it to him. It'll save me quite a bit of money with the price of gas now. I told him I'd give him a ride to and from work. I think that ought to qualify.”

  “He might not say it, but thank you. If he's any good with it, I can send him on errands and not have to walk quite so much.”

  “You're welcome. I really do need to go now.”

  “I feel better about Jeff working for you now that we've met. It was a pleasure to meet you Michael.”

  “Likewise Anne,” Michael said.

  He left and caught up to Jeff at the base of the hill.

  “Sorry Jeff, I went to the school. I didn't even think about it probably being closed.”

  “My mom said you probably did something like that.”

  “I know, I stopped at your house to see if you were there.”

  Jeff swallowed nervously.

  “Did you two talk?”

  Michael nodded.

  “Everything okay?” Jeff asked.

  “Well, you might want to confess to her how we really met. Aside from that things went fine.”

  Jeff blushed.

  “I didn't want to tell her. She's so proud that she keeps managing to feed me and Li
z. I didn't want to tell her that I knew she wasn't eating, it'd hurt her.”

  “I still think you should. That's up to you and her though.”

  Michael pulled up to the house, carefully avoiding the bikes. Even after Jeff noticed them, Michael didn't say anything.

  “Michael, do you have someone visiting?” Jeff asked.

  “No, why do you ask?”

  “Well, why are there a couple of bikes in the driveway then?”

  “Oh, well I promised you transportation to and from work, but the price of gas is skyrocketing. I thought one of these might work for transportation for you. The other one is mine, for the same reason, so I can save on gas.”

  “Really, one of them's for me?” Jeff asked.

  Michael smiled and nodded slowly.

  “You can try it out on the way home. It should be in good shape, but it might need a coat of paint.”

  “Nah, primer gray works for me.”

  “It's your call since it's your bike.”

  After Jeff admired his new bike for a few minutes he got to work. Michael himself went up to the mine buildings. There were a few things he wanted to check on.

  I have enough petty cash on hand that I can pay the workers for two weeks in cash if they want. With a bank holiday they wouldn't be able to cash their checks, so I'm guessing most will take cash.

  It was Friday, which was payday, so Michael set up pay envelopes for the workers like they would've gotten decades earlier. If any of them didn't want cash, he'd just put it back in the safe. He needed to remember to be up here when they got off at five and make sure they got paid.

  He headed back down to the house. Jeff was stopped midway on the path between the house and the mine buildings. It looked like he was trying to convince Calvin to come down to him. The crow was having nothing to do with it.

  Michael whistled gently. Calvin swung his head around and flew towards Michael. When Jeff saw where Calvin was heading he got a guilty look on his face. Calvin landed on Michael's arm.

  “Come on Jeff, you can pet him. He's a one man bird though,” Michael said.

  He knelt down so Jeff could stroke the top of Calvin's head. Then he gestured out to the field he had planted with wild grains for the local crows.

  “I found Calvin out in the field there with a broken wing. I caught him and let me tell you, his beak can do some damage. My hand was a month healing. Anyhow I caught him and brought him into the house. I splinted his wing and used a little extra, as Joshua would say, to make sure it healed well. I let him convalesce in the house and he decided he liked it there. I think he also decided that I must be his personal servant since I made sure he had food and water. Cleaned up after him too. Once his wing was healed, he didn't want to leave. He's been hanging around ever since, keeping an eye on things for me.”

  “That's cool, I'd love to have a pet crow.”

  Calvin bristled, his feathers puffed out making him look twice his normal size. Michael stood back up.

  “He isn't my pet,” Michael said, softly stroking the crow's head. “He's a friend. Very independent, but he likes me. Now, you need to get back to work.”

  Jeff continued to the mine buildings while Michael returned to the house.

  He headed back up to the mine just before five. After he explained about the bank holiday, the miners were happy to take their pay in cash.

  “We'll sort out the tax stuff later on, that should keep you going for a while with the bank closed,” Michael said.

  When Jeff left on his bike a little bit later, Michael went into the house. Calvin was sitting on the back of one of the kitchen chairs.

  “What, you want dinner today too?” Michael asked.

  Calvin cawed in response.

  “Well, let's see what we've got.”

  Michael cooked himself a small steak and a baked potato for dinner, with a side of greens from the garden. Calvin got the fat that was trimmed from the steak, with a little bit of meat as well since Michael trimmed heavily when he shared with Calvin. He also got a few walnuts, minus their shell.

  Calvin hung around for a while after dinner. Michael was reading a book and Calvin loved to sit on his shoulder and watch whenever he read. When Calvin left, Michael shut the book.

  I got hardly any sleep last night. I think I'll try to make up for that tonight. I ought to be tired enough to fall asleep by now.

  Michael slept soundly through the night, only waking once. He glanced around to determine what woke him up and noticed that the lights of the town were back on. When he fell asleep again, he stayed that way until after dawn.

  * * *

  Chapter 9

  Rynn held the metal canteen from her emergency kit in her hand. The water they'd found was from a flowing stream, not stagnant, but she still didn't trust it to be safe to drink. She'd already separated a portion of her consciousness, sent it into the water to check for chemical contamination, and found none. She concentrated on using her Fire magic to heat the canteen until the water inside was boiling. After keeping it at a boil for two minutes she was sure it was safe to drink, any micro-organisms that were in it should be dead. She repeated the process six times so they could all fill their water bottles. A seventh run-through, and some time to let the water cool, gave them all a drink right away. Then it was time to start moving again.

  This was the day her fears about traffic were realized. Even before she finished purifying the water, she heard two cars go by at high speed. Fortunately she could hear them a long way off and, even if it slowed their trip some, she promised herself to get everyone all the way off the road anytime she heard a car approaching at those speeds.

  The morning went by and the road stayed entirely clear.

  Maybe those two cars were an anomaly, she thought. No-one else has passed us since them.

  As though her thinking about it had caused the universe to pay more attention, a few minutes later she heard the sound of a car screaming down the highway out of Denver. She pulled everyone off the side of the road and kept them well back as it passed.

  They must have been doing ninety miles an hour, she thought. They're going to kill themselves if they don't kill someone else first. This road isn't safe at those speeds.

  Twenty minutes later Rynn heard another car. She stopped, surprised at the sound.

  That one isn't speeding like the others. In fact, it sound like it's crawling.

  She kept an eye out behind them to make sure she was right. A few minutes later a lightweight, older model pickup truck came into view, going slower than the posted speed limit. It looked like the windshield had some strange tinting on it since the interior of the cab appeared gray. She pulled the kids off the side of the road, just in case, and watched the truck pass by.

  She clapped her hand to her mouth and broke into laughter when she realized what was going on.

  My god, how can he see with all that smoke in there? That looked like a pot pipe in his mouth too. I'm amazed he can stay on the road.

  The driver surprised her by pulling off the side of the road about a hundred feet past them. The door opened and a cloud of smoke billowed out of the cab to dissipate into the sky.

  “Hey!” the driver called, “You folks need a lift? I'm going 'bout thirty miles down the road. I can take you that far if you like.”

  Cindy looked at Rynn.

  “Can we? I think I'm getting blisters on my feet already,” she said.

  “You realize he's stoned out of his mind, right? All that smoke that came out of the truck? That was marijuana smoke,” Rynn said.

  “So, he was driving pretty straight until he pulled off the road. He can't be that bad off,” Cindy replied.

  Rynn sighed.

  Thirty miles is two days travel at the rate we're moving. But can I risk the kids like this?

  Eugene was scribbling in his notebook.

  'Maybe he'd let Andi drive? Can't hurt to ask,' he wrote.

  “I'll go talk to him,” Rynn said.

  She walked
up to the driver who was staring back at them. He looked to be in his late thirties or early forties with a hint of gray in his brown hair. The hideously loud tie-dye t-shirt he was wearing made him stand out more than he would have with his otherwise ordinary features.

  “Thanks for the offer, are you sure you're okay to be driving?” Rynn asked, blunt as ever.

  “You're kidding right?” he asked.

  “Sorry, I worry about the kids.”

  “So not needed. I haven't had an accident in twenty years. The last one I was in, I was stone cold sober too. I drive a lot slower and more careful now.”

  Rynn was sure he was telling the truth. She could normally tell when someone was trying to lie to her.

  Damn it, she thought. He's the only person that's stopped despite a lot of people going by yesterday and a few today. What are the odds of getting another offer? Next to nothing. I can always keep an eye on things and shield the kids if it looks like we're going to hit something. He was telling the truth about driving slowly too, so...

  She could feel her resolve wavering. She really wanted to get to the mine and, hopefully, safety.

  “Okay, sorry to doubt you. Let me get the kids loaded into the truck.”

  “Hey, they're all underage, aren't they?”

  At Rynn's nod he continued.

  “Then put 'em in the back, would you man? It's legal for me to smoke and you look old enough. They're too young though, so they go in the bed.”

  “I'll do that,” Rynn said.

  She walked back to the children.

  “I want all of you to climb into the back of the truck. Cindy, Andi, Eugene... You three are responsible for making sure Sean and Randall stay sitting down. I'll ride up front.”

  “Are you sure he's okay to drive?” Andi asked.

  “Let me put it this way. If there's a problem, I'll shield all of you and make sure you stay unharmed. But I can't pass up the chance to gain thirty miles that we don't have to walk. He told me he hasn't had an accident in twenty years and he was telling the truth so...”

  “Yes please,” Cindy said. “Let's get going so he doesn't leave without us. I'm tired of walking already.”

  Rynn led the kids to the truck and helped the little ones into the back. Then she walked around and slid into the cab. Her nose immediately started itching. Her sense of smell was more sensitive than most and the lingering smoke smelled like burnt herbs. It was almost reminiscent of some of her father's failed experiments and, despite the slight itch in her nose, she felt comforted at the memories it evoked.