“Was all this on the news?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, they just ran the story this morning,” she responded, pressing a few more buttons to slow the treadmill even further.
“What about Scarborough?” he pressed.
“Nothing. Just Portland and Falmouth. The governor’s office is looking into statewide school closures, but they will probably wait for the feds to make the recommendation. It has something to do with emergency funding, but it sounds like it has more to do with politics.”
“It always does,” he said and hopped up on the bar for a set of ten pull-ups.
“I still can’t believe you haven’t heard from Ted,” she remarked, stepping off the treadmill and onto a mat to stretch.
Alex finished, hopped down, and raised his arms above his head for a stretch. “I just hope I didn’t kill the guy. I did hear from HR. They left a voicemail on my cell phone letting me know that I am checked out, and should expect a final package shortly. God knows what’s in that package. Probably a non-disclosure agreement for me to sign, or something equally as asinine.”
“Nothing like a formal apology for the home invasion and pepper spray attack?” she asked incredulously.
“Not a mention. I really don’t care, either. I’m just glad to be done with them,” he said, hopping back up on the pull-up bar.
“I’ll be done soon, too, if I don’t come up with something better than diarrhea to keep me out of the office. I’ve cancelled several appointments already, and Jim left me a message yesterday asking when I could reschedule them. I’ll need to call him today. Monday at the latest.”
Alex finished several pull-ups and dropped back down to the floor. He started to cough again, which forced him to bow toward the ground. “Damn it! I can’t get rid of this,” he said, exasperated.
“Maybe you need to take it easy,” Kate said, wiping her face with a white towel.
“Probably. Anyway, you just need to buy a little more time at work. The way things are looking, you won’t have to hide much longer. They’re starting to shut down the schools, and other steps will be taken by the state and the feds within the upcoming week. I’d just keep stalling them. Tell Jim you still have a fever, but you might be able to meet with clients. Trust me, they won’t want to see you any time soon. Speaking of calls, I still need to call my parents.” He paused. “I haven’t heard anything from them about bringing my brother’s kids out.”
Kate turned her head toward Alex and gave him a perplexed look. “What do you mean?”
“What do you mean, what do I mean?” he replied, buying himself a few more seconds.
“I don’t remember you mentioning anything about your parents bringing Ethan and Kevin out,” she said sternly.
“Well, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. I was talking to Daniel a few nights ago, and getting nowhere with him, as usual. My parents are stuck there babysitting and raising his kids, that’s why they won’t leave. They can’t. My brother won’t let them go ‘without some advance notice.’ Unbelievable if you ask me. ‘Karla can’t come home at three in the afternoon to babysit.’ And of course, God forbid they actually have to dig into their own pockets to pay for babysitting. I thought that if my parents brought Kevin and Ethan, then there would be no babysitting issue for Daniel.”
Kate waited patiently for his tirade to end. “First of all, Karla would never go for it, and neither would your brother. Second, your parents will never make the trip. For the same reason you just ranted about and many more. Same story with my parents. But that’s not why I’m a little pissed…”
“Can I get a drink of water before we get into this?”
I just need a few more seconds.
“You look like you’ll live. So, I’m a little pissed because we’ve talked about all of this before. Your brother and my sister are off the list and have been off the list for quite a while. Things would not work out with them here for any duration of time. Pandemic, long weekend, short weekend, Super Bowl party. It doesn’t matter. It never worked before, and I can’t figure out why you continue to press the issue with them,” she said.
“I felt safe making the offer because they’ll never make the trip. I just feel that I have to at least make the offer.” That’s a weak excuse.
“I know. I have the same guilt with Claire, but her husband can be an intolerable ass and so can she.”
“They’re not that bad. Not as bad as Daniel and Karla.”
“I think they’re worse. They try to take control of everything, and if you’re not on the same page, well, I don’t need to describe the scene any further. Bottom line? We can’t have them here in a quarantine situation. Plus, they think it’s all a joke anyway,” she said, shaking her head.
“If they were on board with the whole idea from the beginning, I might have reconsidered and invited them, but they weren’t, so I have never mentioned it to them. I don’t know why you would even consider it for Daniel and Karla. They openly mock all of this,” she said, waving her hands around.
“You’re right, sorry,” he apologized.
“I can’t count the number of times you’ve lectured me about how important it will be to stick to our plan. ‘In a quarantine situation, there is no room for error. We have to stick to the plan. No variations.’”
“All right, you don’t have to mock me. I’m sorry. They’re not coming out anyway, so we don’t have to worry.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. I’m worried that you didn’t think about the dangerous situation you might have created. If your brother took you up on the offer and sent the kids out with your parents, then what happens when your brother and Karla finally come to their senses about the pandemic all around them? Where do you think they’ll be headed? Here to join their kids. How would we deal with that? Tell them it’s too late, sorry? Head on back to Colorado, here’s some TerraFlu, we’ll take care of the kids? Not likely they’d leave. Do we let them in and try to quarantine them for ten days in the mudroom area and hope they’re not harboring the flu? Would they leave if they showed symptoms? If they won’t leave without their kids, do we send the kids out onto the streets with their parents and some supplies?”
She continued to look softly into his eyes. Alex had a hard time meeting them.
“You’re right. It could lead to a disastrous confrontation. I really never thought of it this way,” he said and leaned over to kiss her forehead.
“Do you think we should just forget about trying to convince our parents to come out here?” he asked. “I don’t feel like giving up on them, but you’re right. At a certain point…” his voice trailed off.
“I don’t know. I hate to give up on them, too. I’m still trying to get my brother out here. He’s only a few hours away, but I’m certain that he’ll head to Princeton when things get bad. He’s really tight with them. He always heads down there when they have something going on. If my parents won’t come to him, he’ll go to them. He still drags the family to Princeton for every holiday. They haven’t celebrated Christmas or Thanksgiving in Concord since they moved in.”
“He’s a momma’s boy. First child is always a momma’s boy,” he teased.
“You’re not,” Kate said. “I wouldn’t have married you if you were.”
He tightened his hug for a moment and kissed her neck. “They should all be going up to New Hampshire. Your parents included. They could easily ride out the storm up north. It kills me to think that your brother would abandon the perfect mountain hideout for New Jersey.”
“My parents have the same problem as yours. They’re stuck. I guarantee my sister will head up there when the flu racks the Baltimore area. She’s probably on the way already with the kids. They’ll all flock to Princeton. Trust me.”
“Well, at least the mountain camp will be empty. If the situation gets out of control here, we could always pack up as much stuff as possible and head up into the White Mountains. Does Robbie keep the place stocked in the winter?” he asked her.<
br />
“Not really. They have everything you’d find in a camp, but no food or stuff like that. I know he has enough firewood to keep the stove going forever, and a well, but that wouldn’t work if the electricity died. He does have a propane tank for hot water and the stove.”
“We can keep it in mind. We can definitely get there on a single tank of gas.”
“Probably,” Kate said.
“Well, anyway, I won’t push the issue with my parents. God knows I’ve pushed it enough.”
Kate squeezed his hand, and he hugged her tightly.
“I think we made all of the offers we needed to make. I don’t feel guilty at all about it. If they come, we’ll have to deal with it. Within a few weeks, we’re going to have all the guilt we can handle around here,” she said, and they both headed down the stairs.
Chapter Seventeen
Friday, November 8, 2013
Ryan and Alex sat side by side on the edge of a dark brown couch, several feet in front of a large LCD screen TV. Alex was perched forward, intensely studying the screen. Both of them held Xbox controllers.
“Don’t do it, Dad. Use the remote optics on the rifle,” his son warned him.
“I got it. I…shit! There’s no way they could hit me,” he yelled, flying back into the couch.
“I told you to quit peeking around corners. Use the gun camera. If you lose your rifle, you can pick up another one, or use your secondary,” Ryan explained.
“But I was quick peeking,” he complained, demonstrating with his head, moving it back and forth quickly.
“Everyone knows that trick,” Ryan quipped.
“Can we reset to right before I got my head splattered? I don’t feel like fighting through the entire shopping mall again,” Alex pled.
The smartphone on the table next to the couch began to ring.
“Hold on, Ryan,” he said, grabbing for the phone and answering the call. “Hey, Mike, did they pepper spray you yet?”
“Go ahead without me, Ryan,” he told his son, and Ryan nodded his head affirmatively.
Alex got up and walked down the stairs from the third floor to his home office as Mike responded.
“No, not yet, but probably soon. I just resigned about twenty minutes ago. I’m headed back up the turnpike.”
“What happened, man? You don’t sound good,” Alex said.
“I’m fine. I just can’t believe I quit my job. Still in shock, I guess. Anyway, it was unbelievable down there. So get this. I wake up this morning and head down to breakfast at the Courtyard Marriot, and I run into one of the reps from Vermont, who’s also temp assigned to the area, and she’s hacking up a lung all over the fruit station. I made sure not to go anywhere near her. She sits down at a table with three other reps, and one of the guys looks like they just dug him out of his grave to work.”
“Which could very likely be a new official Biosphere policy,” Alex joked, causing Mike to burst out laughing.
“No shit, man. So I really start to rethink this whole thing. These people were fine at the beginning of the week. I remember seeing them at the orientation meeting. Now they look like extras from Night of the Living Dead. So I head out to my assigned area and start to make some office calls. Every office is like a scene from a zombie flick. I went into an internal med office in Methuen and walked right the fuck out. Three people in the waiting room were hacking and groaning. I’m not kidding, it was unreal. I sat in my car for a while thinking this over, after nearly taking a bath in hand sanitizer. I hope Biosphere didn’t cheap out on that stuff like they do everything else.”
“Have you been wearing a mask and gloves?” Alex asked.
“At first, but you feel like a complete douche bag walking into an office with a mask on your face. The gloves aren’t so bad, but what’s the point? If you touch your eyes or mouth with the gloves on, it doesn’t matter. The gloves only work if you throw them away after each office and don’t touch your face while you’re still in the office. I quit using them after day one. My hands are so dry from washing and using sanitizer that I could use them as sandpaper.”
“Dude, I’m glad you’re on your way home. Load up your cars, and caravan out to Colleen’s parents in North Conway. The number of cases is exploding. Did you talk to Michelle?”
“No, I talked to Ted. He didn’t take it very well. He wanted me to get in touch with the district manager down here and transfer my samples to her. I told him that I was already halfway home and would drop the stuff off at my storage locker for him to inventory.”
“You better recon the parking lot at the storage locker. He might be there waiting for you. And tell your wife to keep the door locked. Did you tell her what happened to Kate?”
“Yeah, she couldn’t believe it. Shit, how am I going to caravan out to North Conway if Ted repo’s my car?”
“Just pack up a load today and drive it out there tonight. It’s only a few hours away. Even if you only had one car, you could make multiple trips. Gas is still available everywhere for the moment. I’d make as many trips as you can with the company car and charge the gas to Biosphere,” Alex suggested.
“Yeah, that’s true. I keep thinking in terms of just making one final trip.”
“A few weeks from now, it might be a different story. One trip might be all you get,” Alex said.
“From what I saw down in Boston, that version of the story isn’t too far away. We were briefed by a Biosphere exec during a working breakfast yesterday. He proudly announced that Boston has one of the fastest growing numbers of cases. Almost three thousand confirmed cases so far, and the number of cases is expected to reach fifteen thousand by early next week. And that only takes into account the cases confirmed by a hospital lab. I saw at least twenty potential cases this morning alone and that’s just in a few offices. Not even big offices. I think this thing is about to break wide open.”
“How’s Colleen doing? Today’s Falmouth’s last day, right?” Alex asked.
“She’s relieved to get out of there. She didn’t want to call in sick or make up a story, but with the cases floating around the Falmouth schools, she was starting to get hysterical. She’s been off since Wednesday with the kids.”
“Good, good. Where are you now?” Alex asked.
“I’m coming up on the New Hampshire toll. I should be home in about an hour or so. Do you think I should skip the storage unit?”
“Do a drive-by and see. If he’s not there, I’d get the samples out of your possession. You don’t want him coming to your house looking for them. And make sure to tell him to stay clear of your house. You can tell him I’ll be over there showing you my favorite shotgun,” Alex said, laughing.
“I’m gonna buy him some pepper spray as a farewell present,” Mike said, laughing as well.
“I already took care of that,” Alex choked, barely able to get the words out through his own laughter.
“Hey, I gotta let you go. I’m gonna call Colleen and set this plan in motion.”
“All right, man, good luck and take good care. Okay?”
“You got it, man, same to you. Say hi to Kate and the kids for me. Salud.”
He put the phone in the front pocket of his jeans and returned to the attic to rejoin Ryan.
Chapter Eighteen
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Someone shook Alex’s right shoulder, and he involuntarily catapulted back into consciousness, hoping everything was all right. His eyelids felt heavy, and he was disoriented as he slowly opened his eyes. The room was dark, but not pitch black like the middle of the night. He heard the wind buffet the front of the bedroom, rattling the screens, as furious gusts of wind and rain blew in from the north. He turned his head to face Kate, the likely source of his premature awakening.
“You awake?” she asked as his eyes adjusted to her face.
“I am now. What’s up?”
For a moment, he perked up at the idea that she might have woken him up for sex.
“I think the power’s o
ut,” she said. “I was going to get up and do the treadmill, but I don’t think the batteries are giving the house any power. Don’t you need to switch over the power?”
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that. I thought you wanted to do me,” he grumbled and rolled over to grab his wristwatch off the nightstand. It read 6:42 a.m. He rolled back onto his stomach.
“You’re going to switch the power over. Right?”
Alex didn’t move. “You’re serious?”
“Uh, yeah. I committed to working out every day, and…I’d like to work out today. This morning,” she said.
“Right now?”
“Within the next fifteen minutes or so. I don’t want to have to worry about it later.”
“Because we have so much planned?” he said, laughing.
“I just like to exercise in the morning. Will you please go down and switch over the power? I’ll make it worth your while later tonight,” she promised, caressing his thigh under the sheets.
He flung off the covers and stood up out of bed, stretching his arms and yawning. “You better make this worthwhile,” he said. “I’m thinking one-way massage and another one-way activity.”
“Can’t I get a little massage, too?” she begged.
“We’ll see. It’ll be based on your performance.” He grinned devilishly and walked over to the closet.
“Hey, that’s sexual harassment.”
“Take it up with management,” he quipped.
“Great,” she said, throwing him a sarcastic smile.
**
Alex hung up the phone and yelled up the stairs to Kate.
“Honey, the Murrays are on their way over. They’re headed out to New York.”
The Jakarta Pandemic Page 16
